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African Economies Projected to Grow by 3.4 % in 2024, But Faster and More Equitable Growth Needed to Reduce Poverty
April 8, 2024--Increased private consumption and declining inflation are supporting an economic rebound in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the recovery remains fragile due to uncertain global economic conditions, growing debt service obligations, frequent natural disasters, and escalating conflict and violence, according to the World Bank's latest Africa's Pulse report.
Transformative policies are needed to address deep-rooted inequality to sustain long-term growth and effectively reduce poverty.
The report projects that growth will rebound in 2024, rising from a low of 2.6 percent in 2023 to 3.4 percent in 2024, and 3.8 percent in 2025. However, this recovery remains tenuous. While inflation is cooling across most economies, falling from a median of 7.1 to 5.1 percent in 2024, it remains high compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Additionally, while growth of public debt is slowing, more than half of African governments grapple with external liquidity problems, and face unsustainable debt burdens.
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Source: worldbank.org
Nigeria banks: Likely winners and losers from the central bank's new capital rules
April 8, 2024-- Excluding retained earnings from the new capital threshold puts Nigerian bank shareholders at the sharp end.
New capital requirements for Nigerian banks are likely to trigger a process of industry consolidation, experts say.
Commercial banks in Nigeria with international authorisation will need capital of N500bn ($380m), or 10 times the current requirement, according to new rules issued by the central bank at the end of March. Domestically authorized banks will need N200bn, an eightfold increase.
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Source: theafricareport.com
Nigeria: Interest rate hikes and naira weakness threaten manufacturing
April 2, 2024--While distressed companies are cutting costs, they will still face difficulties accessing finance in the current environment.
Many businesses in Nigeria are being whipsawed by the simultaneous blow of interest-rate hikes and the devaluation of the naira by the central bank, but those in manufacturing-an industry that relies heavily on imports and fluctuations in the exchange rate- face a real risk of shutting down.
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Source: theafricareport.com
African Countries to Dominate the World's Top 10 Growing Economies, ECA Report
April 1, 2024--AFRICAN countries are predicted to dominate the world's top 10 highest growing economies in 2024, according to a report on Recent Economic and Social Developments in Africa by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The most notable growth drivers in Africa in 2024 will be Niger, Senegal, Ivory Coast, DRC and Rwanda.
Adam Elhiraika, Director, Macroeconomics and Governance Division at ECA said Africa was the fastest growing region after East and South Asia in the developing world in 2023, and Africa will continue this trend in 2024 and 2025.
The report says that Niger and Senegal are expected to experience significant economic growth due to the increase in hydrocarbon production and exports.
Growth in Niger will be fuelled by the revival of agricultural production-although it is vulnerable to unfavourable weather conditions-and a rise in crude oil production, which will have a beneficial impact on the transportation sector. However, recent military coups in, together with sanctions from regional blocs, have disrupted economic activity and incurred significant social costs.
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Source: allafrica.com
Africa: 76% of Africa's Energy Could Come From Renewable Sources By 2040-Here's How
March 18, 2024--Over half of Africa's people -about 600 million- lack access to even the bare minimum of electricity. The tough question to answer is how access can be extended without adding to global warming by relying on fossil fuels.
We -a team from Rwanda and Germany who work in the field of renewable energy scientific modelling - set out to find the answer by building the Renewable Power Plant Database Africa, the first on the continent. I's a database of available open access data on hydro, wind and solar energy sources that we've analysed.
The database shows that some countries, such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe, have enough projects in the pipeline to potentially transition away from fossil fuels by 2050.
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Source: allafrica.com
Nigeria detains global executives in war on crypto
March 14, 2024--Nigeria has declared war on leading global cryptocurrency exchanges. On 26 February it detained two top international executives of Binance after they flew in for discussions with Nigerian authorities and is still holding them against their will. Binance has since switched off access to trading naira against cryptocurrencies on its platform.
On 12 March, the Financial Times newspaper, reported that that "one person briefed on the situation" said the two men are being held "simply as hostages" but are being well treated. The Nigerian Government is demanding information on the top 100 users in Nigeria and all transaction history for the past six months.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
Paying Africa's Climate Bill
March 7, 2024-A global approach to climate change requires private sector financial firepower
The world's poorest countries, especially those in Africa, are struggling to pay for a climate crisis they cannot afford.
More public debt is not the answer: climate investment needs exceed the lending capacity of multilateral finance institutions, and many African countries are already in a funding squeeze. What's needed are novel solutions-chiefly stepped-up private sector investment for climate action in poor countries. And these efforts cannot be simply country-based. They must be geared to achieve global goals for net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The stakes in Africa are heightened because the continent will contribute the most to human population growth in coming decades. This will increase the need for funds to mitigate climate-warming emissions. At the same time, a greater share of the region's agriculture will be exposed to climate-linked productivity losses.
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Source: imf.org
Africa's Share of Global Trade Remains Under 3 Percent Despite AfCFTA-Report
March 4, 2024--A report by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Africa's has stated that contribution to global trade remains at less than 3%.
The report on assessment of progress on regional integration in Africa shows Africa's regional integration agenda is progressing, but slowly.
It added that the programme for infrastructure development in Africa has seen mixed results in its efforts to enhance infrastructure.
While progress has been made in the areas of roads and ICT, advancements in rail transport and energy infrastructure have been minimal with financing posing a significant hurdle.
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Source: allafrica.com
Africa: Paving the Way for Digitizing Africa's Economy
February 23, 2024--Africa is the continent with more than 1.2 billion people, endowed with rich natural resources among others, vast arable land, livestock, mines, rivers, oceans and lakes with their marine life. However, though it is rich with such resources, the continent is unable to exploit the resources fully due to lack of technology, finance and well trained man power.
As the result, it has remained one of the pauperized in the world.
Africa has only three percent share on the world trade. It mainly exports mines, crude oil and livestock in their raw form to the foreign market and obtains small amount of hard currency which doesn't cover its imports' bill which again leaves it in negative trade balance.
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Source: allafrica.com
African Development Bank-High Cost of Living in Africa Could Cause Unrest
February 20, 2024--The African Development Bank is warning that the rising cost of energy, food and other commodities in several African countries, including Angola, Ethiopia and Kenya, could trigger social unrest. Already, people in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, have been marching to protest the high cost of living, prompting the government to release grain from the national reserves.
The African Development Bank's notice was contained in its biannual Africa Macroeconomic Performance outlook publication released last week.
The bank said in its 2024 forecast that energy and food price increases-along with a currency depreciation in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria-could spark internal conflict, despite Africa showing overall economic growth.
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Source: allafrica.com
