Author: Editorial Staff

GHANA’S President Nana Akufo-Addo says his government is currently mobilising about $2bn to support the implementation of ongoing rail projects in Ghana. In his State of the Nation address on Tuesday, the president recalled that a contract of $597 million was signed for the construction of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between Manso and Huni Valley in the western region of the country. This contract includes the conversion of the existing line between Takoradi and Sekondi from narrow gauge to standard gauge, as well as the development of an SGR freight line from Takoradi station to Takoradi port. The latter is meant…

THE Opec Fund for International Development has signed a $20 million public sector loan agreement with Rwanda to increase access to energy for around 270,000 people in the Muhanga, Kamonyi and Gakenke districts. Despite significant poverty reduction rates over the past decade, rural poverty in Rwanda is pervasive, owing to low access to public services, particularly power. The loan is expected to help nearly double the electrification rates in the three target districts. The electricity access rate in rural areas is about 15 percent, compared with about 76 percent in urban areas. The government of Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation…

ALTHOUGH Africa currently trails other regions in terms of digital adoption and maturity, the pace of adoption and infrastructure buildout is happening faster on the continent than any other region in the world. This creates the opportunity to unlock enormous economic potential, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in partnership with Casablanca Finance City. ‘The Covid-19 crisis has also focused minds, accelerating digital adoption among consumers and digital transformation among companies,’ says Jan Gildemeister, Managing Director at BCG. ‘For success going forward, we believe that companies and governments need to coordinate on three fronts: creating scale,…

ON the final day of her three-day visit to Nigeria, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Okonjo-Iweala met with women entrepreneurs and representatives of small businesses to discuss the challenges facing these groups and the role the WTO can play to help them benefit from trade. Earlier in the week, she met with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Vice President, senior members of the government including the Honourable Minister and Minister of State on Trade, Industry and Investment, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Minister of Finance, the Minister of Women Affairs, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,…

THE African Development Bank’s latest Fashionomics Africa webinar attracted well-known designers and industry experts to discuss the potential of the newly launched African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to support the growth of the African fashion industry, regionally and globally. Among the established designers were Laduma Ngxokolo (pictured), the founder of MaXhosa Africa, whose designs are the main wardrobe feature of the movie Coming 2 America, the much-anticipated sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 classic, and Mahlet Afework, the creative mind behind the Ethiopian brand, Mafi. ‘I believe the African Continental Free Trade Area will help us a lot because duty…

THE African Union said on Thursday that it considers that the benefits of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the risks and recommended that vaccinations continue across the continent. The announcement came a day after the World Health Organisation backed the vaccine and as more than a dozen European countries have suspended the use of it amid concerns over the risk of blood clots. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference that the ‘benefits still outweigh the risks’ and that countries should ‘move forward’ with the vaccination. AstraZeneca said on Sunday a review…

ENI, Royal Dutch Shell and several of their current and former executives were acquitted of corruption charges related to a Nigerian oil deal by a court in Milan. The verdict ends a three-year legal saga that loomed large over the tenure of Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, who was among those found not guilty on Wednesday. Italian prosecutors had sought an eight-year jail term for him. Several former executives of the companies were also cleared of wrongdoing, including Malcolm Brinded, who ran Shell’s exploration and production division at the time, and Paolo Scaroni, who was Eni CEO before Descalzi. The ruling…

THE Kenya High Court on Wednesday refused to allow female circumcision for consenting adults, saying unlike the male cut it does not have health benefits and reduces the wellbeing of the woman it is performed on and in some cases can lead to death. The ruling by three High Court justices against the petition filed by Tatu Kamau said evidence presented showed women in the communities that practise female circumcision – widely referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM) because of its adverse effects – do not have a choice. Kamau argued many women want to undergo circumcision, but the…

A SCHOOL headmaster in South Africa has been charged with child abuse after lowering an 11-year-old student into a pit latrine to search for the official’s cellphone, according to local news reports. The headmaster of Luthuthu Junior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape province, Lubeko Mgandela, appeared in court and was released on bail Wednesday. He has been suspended from his job while officials investigate the incident before taking him to a disciplinary hearing. There are also calls for his educator’s license to be withdrawn. The incident happened early this month after Mgandela accidentally dropped his cell phone into a…

TANZANIAN President John Magufuli has died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam hospital. Annoucing the sad event on state television on Wednesday night, the Vice-President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said Magufuli died of heart failure at 6 pm local time at the Mzena Hospital. He was 61. Africa Briefing understands that Magufuli, who had been using a pacemaker for some time, also contracted Covid-19, which might have caused complications with his heart condition. Magufuli was last seen in public at an event on February 27 and his absence caused widespread speculation about the state of his health, with some Tanzanians…