Author: Editorial Staff

SUB-SAHARAN Africa is expected to post economic growth of 2.3 percent-3.4 percent in 2021, the World Bank said in a new report on Wednesday, bouncing back from a pandemic-induced 2.0 percent contraction in 2020. Like other economies around the world, the region was forced to adopt strict lockdown measures in the first quarter of 2020 to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus, hitting key economic activities like tourism and trade. ‘For most countries in the region, activity will remain well below the pre-Covid-19 projections at the end of 2021, increasing the risk of long-lasting damage from the pandemic…

FIVE African presidents are among 24 global leaders who have called for a new treaty to provide a united front for “preparedness and response” to future pandemics. Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Macky Sall of Senegal, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Kais Saied of Tunisia, and the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Trinidad and Tobago, among others, plus the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, expressed their views in a joint opinion piece published in newspapers around the world this week. They acknowledged that the Covd-19 pandemic was the…

NIGERIA hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine this year through the African Union (AU), its primary healthcare chief told Reuters, amid concerns about delayed deliveries of AstraZeneca shots. Rolling out vaccines in developing nations such as Nigeria, whose 200 million-strong population is Africa’s biggest, is seen as key to stemming the global spread of the new coronavirus. Nigeria, which has recorded 2,049 deaths from Covid-19 and began vaccinations this month, plans to inoculate 40 percent of its people this year and another 30 percent in 2022. Last week, India – the…

THE International Criminal Court on Wednesday upheld the 2019 acquittal of former Coted d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo (pictured) and ordered all conditions of his release removed. ‘The appeals chamber, by majority, has found no error that could have materially affected the decision of the Trial chamber,’ said Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, reading the panel’s ruling. Prosecutors had argued that grave errors were made by war crimes judges who found they had failed to prove their case against Gbagbo and co-accused Charles Ble Goude. Trial judges acquitted both on charges of crimes against humanity for their alleged role in post-election violence…

CONSTRUCTION of Kenya’s Nairobi expressway by the Chinese contractor is on track, with the project set to be completed on time, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said on Wednesday. The expressway is being financed and constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). ‘We expect the elevated highway, which is progressing at 60 meters per day from both ends to be completed by early 2022,’ Macharia said in a statement issued in Nairobi after touring the project on Wednesday. The project being done links the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Nairobi-Nakuru highway. The progress of the whole project…

GLOBAL payment processor Mastercard Inc will invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations, valuing the business at $2.65bn, the London-listed company said on Thursday. Airtel Africa is targeting a public listing of Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) within the next four years. Earlier this month, private equity firm TPG’s The Rise Fund invested $200 million in AMC BV. Mastercard will hold a minority stake in AMC BV, in line with Airtel Africa’s plan to monetise the mobile money business by selling up to a 25 percent stake in the unit, the company said. The unit, operating under…

THE words ‘facemask’ and ‘hand sanitiser’ are now familiar the world over, but for isiZulu speakers in South Africa those terms did not exist a year ago, until a group of volunteers took to the internet to create them. From Wikipedia posts in indigenous tongues to digital word libraries, African language lovers are going online to preserve and create words and content for future generations – an effort that has been given added urgency by the coronavirus pandemic. ‘Language is very important, it’s the tool we use to communicate our understanding of the world,’ said Perrymason Adams, 39, an accountant…

AFRICA’S e-commerce platform Jumia has announced the launch of its Food Festival Campaign. The campaign, which will run until April 11 2021, is organised in partnership with local restaurants and supermarkets, as well as blue-chip international restaurant chains such as KFC, Pizza Inn and Burger King. The objective of the campaign is to promote the adoption of meal and food ordering among consumers, which has become increasingly popular in the last few years in Ghana. The food festival is also aimed at supporting restaurant businesses and the overall food ecosystem, as these have been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,…

Whilst money can’t buy you happiness, it can certainly get you out of Lockdown. Leisure colonisation at best,! says Agnes Gitau MIDDLE classes, celebrities and wealthy foreigners are leaving their countries where lockdown measures supported with medical infrastructure and digital technology are being developed rapidly, to parts of the world like Kenya, where they believe enforcement is lax or non-existent  and they can do whatever they are not able to do in their own countries . This is a form of leisure colonisation exacerbated by desperation for revenue for economies like Kenya.  Despite international travel restrictions from the UK and other…

EGYPT president said Tuesday his country’s share of the Nile River’s waters are ‘untouchable’ in a stark warning apparently to Ethiopia, which is building a giant dam on the Nile’s main tributary. The comment from President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi comes amid a deadlock in the yearslong talks over the dam between the Nile Basin countries, which also includes Sudan. In a news conference, el-Sissi warned of ‘instability that no one can imagine’ in the region if the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is filled and operated without a legally binding agreement. ‘No one can take a single drop of water from…