Five Big Bets for the Circular Economy in Africa: African Circular Economy Alliance
April 15, 2021--Circular solutions can be used by African countries to attain vital climate action targets and sustainable development goals. With this in mind, the African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA) was launched to spur the continent's transition to a circular economy that delivers economic growth, jobs and positive environmental outcomes.
Putting in place the right circular economy initiatives and policies will also support the post-COVID-19 recovery and trigger new market opportunities. This report uses four criteria to prioritize areas for further research: circularity potential, economic significance, transformative impact potential and momentum. It goes on to highlight five opportunity areas- food systems, packaging, built environment, fashion and textiles, and electronics- and identifies crucial enablers that will support the transition to a circular economy across all five themes.
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Source: World Economic Forum
Nigeria's SEC Moves Against Investment Platforms Trading Foreign Securities
April 9, 2021--The regulator warns operators to stop trading "unregistered" securities that are based in other countries.
Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned capital market operators to stop giving support to online investment trading platforms providing access to foreign securities in Nigeria.
In a statement Thursday, the regulator said those securities were not registered in Nigeria, and platforms providing access to them were acting against the law. It warned capital market operators in partnership with the platforms to desist from providing brokerage services for foreign securities.
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Source: allafrica.com
AfCFTA: Free trade bloc can be a game changer for African people and business
March 26, 2021--Exploring strategies to deepen private sector participation in the implementation African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was the highlight of a panel session during the 2021 WTO Aid-for-Trade Stocktaking meeting.
The African Development Bank, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and International Trade Centre (ITC) organized the session held on Wednesday 24 March.
"The success of the AfCFTA hinges on the ability of African firms to understand and capitalize on the trade related opportunities offered by the AfCFTA," said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, International Trade Centre (ITC) Executive Director.
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Source: African Development Bank
African Economic Outlook 2021: Africa's growth prospects bullish despite COVID-19 constraints and debt burden
March 12, 2021--The economic impact of the pandemic varies across economic characteristics and regions, but the projected recovery is broad-based
the average debt-to-GDP ratio for Africa is expected to climb by 10 to 15 percentage points in the short to medium term
the time for one last debt relief for Africa is now-President Akinwumi A. Adesina
Despite the challenging backdrop of a global pandemic and external economic shocks, Africa is expected to recover from its worst recession in half a century and reach 3.4 percent growth in 2021, the African Development Bank said in its 2021 African Economic Outlook report, launched on Friday.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in December 2019 has taken a massive toll on Africa, hitting tourism-dependent economies, oil-exporting economies and other-resource intensive economies the hardest, as well as deepening inequality.
view the African Economic Outlook 2021 From Debt resolution to Growth: The Road Ahead For Africa
South Africa: GDP Shrinks By 7%
However, Maluleke said, the positive growth recorded in the third and fourth quarters was not enough to offset the devastating impact of COVID-19 in the second quarter, when lockdown restrictions were at their most stringent.
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Nigeria: Nigerian Stocks Make Shaky Recovery After One Week in Red
CBN, NSIA set to diversify economy with comodity exchange
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As Nigeria Exits Recession
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NSE engages issuers to deepen activity in ETF market view more
IMF-West African Economic and Monetary Union : Selected Issues view more
Source: African Development Bank Group
March 9, 2021--The South African economy contracted by 7% in 2020, Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke, has revealed.
Maluleke on Tuesday briefed media on the results of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2020.
The decrease was despite the economy growing by 1.5% in the last three months of the year, giving an annualised growth rate of 6.3%.
Source: allafrica.com
March 9, 2021--The all-share index inched up to 39,396.57 points, racking up 64.96 index points.
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Source: allafrica.com
March 3, 2021--The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA plan to invest N50 billion into the comatose Nigeria Commodity Exchange, NCX, is part of the government's effort to diversify the economy and boost foreign exchange earnings.
Commodity exchange presents a major opportunity for Nigeria to boost agricultural productivity, enhance economic diversification and thus rid itself of the perennial over-dependence on crude oil as a major source of forex earnings.
Source: vanguardngr.com
March 3, 2021--The latest figures released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that Nigeria has exited recession as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.11% in the fourth quarter of 2020.
It was the first positive quarterly growth for the entire year as the three preceding quarters all recorded negative growth figures.
Source: allafrica.com
March 3, 2021--The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, March 3 engaged with Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) Issuers' in the Nigerian capital market in line with its commitment to deepen activities in the segment.
The virtual session highlighted key development areas for the market specifically in terms of product issuances, market liquidity, regulatory landscape and capacity building...
Source: businessday.ng/
March 2, 2021--WAEMU-INITIAL POLICY RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS11.
During the eight years preceding the global Covid-19 pandemic, WAEMU countries recorded strong economic growth supported by broadly sound policies. Real GDP growth exceeded 6 percent (much above the 3.7 percent SSA average) during 2012-19 on the back of robust domestic demand, while inflation remained subdued.
This performance was supported by expansionary fiscal and monetary policies until 2016, followed by some monetary tightening and fiscal consolidation, which allowed the aggregate fiscal deficit to decline below the regional convergence criterion of 3 percent of GDP in 2019.
Source: IMF