Saturday, November 23African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: Economic growth

Energy, Green Energy

IFC and Norway’s Scatec Solar to Develop Solar Power in West and Central Africa

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Scatec Solar, a Norwegian company specializing in photovoltaic solar systems, have signed an agreement to develop solar power projects that will supply renewable energy to address electricity needs in parts of West and Central Africa. IFC InfraVentures, the Global Infrastructure Project Development Fund, and Scatec Solar will develop, design, finance, construct and operate solar photovoltaic plants generating at least 10 megawatts of power. They plan to build a portfolio of projects in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, and Togo. This is the first time a multilateral financial institution is partnering with a private company to develop solar power energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ag...
Tanzania News, Zambia News

Africa Loses Billions in Potential Trade Earnings, Falls Short of Vast Promise in Cross-Border Business―New World Bank Report

Washington, February 7, 2012 – With African leaders now calling for a continental free trade area by 2017 to boost trade within the continent, a new World Bank report shows how African countries are losing out on billions of dollars in potential trade earnings every year because of high trade barriers with neighboring countries, and that it is easier for Africa to trade with the rest of the world than with itself. According to the new report―De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services―regional fragmentation could become even more costly for the continent with new World Bank forecasts suggesting that economic slowdown in the Eurozone could shave Africa’s growth by up to 1.3 percentage points this year. As the authors write, “while uncertainty surrounds ...