How Egypt’s private sector is playing a key role in post-pandemic recovery
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How Egypt’s private sector is playing a key role in post-pandemic recovery

Egypt has remained one of the few countries that has maintained positive growth during and after the COVID-19 crisis. In October 2021, Egypt instituted structural reform policies that were deemed integral to its efforts to accomplish a sustainable and resilient economic recovery. Egyptian GDP remains at an all-time high and is expected to continue increasing…

AfCFTA could ignite Africa’s post-COVID economic recovery, says UNCTAD
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AfCFTA could ignite Africa’s post-COVID economic recovery, says UNCTAD

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could help drive economic growth and reduce inequalities widened by the pandemic, a newly released report by UNCTAD indicates. The AfCFTA came into operation on January 1st, and all countries except Eritrea have signed up. It consists of 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion….

DR Congo and the East African Community: Too soon or a match made in heaven?
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DR Congo and the East African Community: Too soon or a match made in heaven?

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s bid to join the East African Community (EAC) has been approved, marking a successful end to years of efforts to integrate with its eastern neighbors. The approval to join the regional bloc was granted by the EAC Council of Ministers, after a thorough verification process conducted in line with the…

Tanzania’s record-high foreign reserves signal improving economic outlook
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Tanzania’s record-high foreign reserves signal improving economic outlook

The record rise of Tanzania’s forex reserves has sparked optimism among local economists over the country’s economic prospects. In the latest monthly economic review, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) says that its foreign reserves have jumped to $6.7 billion up from $4.9 billion in September, marking a historic high for the East African country sailing…

COVID responses killed macroeconomics. Here’s how we can reverse this trend.
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COVID responses killed macroeconomics. Here’s how we can reverse this trend.

The pandemic has plunged economies around the world into an emerging recession of somewhat great and unknown depth, resulting from significant disruptions to international trade and commerce.  Most countries went into partial or total lockdown, and travel bans were instituted which had an overall negative effects in shrinking the labor market. The economic fallout has…

Can DR Congo benefit from the global cobalt rush?
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Can DR Congo benefit from the global cobalt rush?

Peugeot, Renault, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo share two conspicuous things in common. One, is they are car manufacturers who command a large share of the global market. And the second, which may be little unknown to the common driver, is their reliance on cobalt to manufacture the vehicles that have made their brands household names….

Investment flows to Ghana jumped 32%, defying the pandemic
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Investment flows to Ghana jumped 32%, defying the pandemic

Ghana defied the pandemic to record $829.29 million worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2021, a clear signal of the West African country’s attractiveness to investors. The FDI amount of $829.29 million was a remarkable increase of 32.15 percent in inbound FDI compared to the FDI value of $627.52 million…

What can Africa gain from China’s growing investments?

What can Africa gain from China’s growing investments?

Over the last twenty years, China has strengthened its relationship with Africa by providing low-interest loans, constructing mega infrastructure projects, buying more oil, bauxite, and natural gas, and of course, exporting cheap manufactured products. It’s now almost impossible to separate China from Africa. And some African countries like Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of Congo…

Africa must rethink debt accumulation
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Africa must rethink debt accumulation

Even before the coronavirus pandemic swept through the continent, African countries were rapidly raising their debt ceilings. Heads of State flocked to China, as the world’s second largest economy granted loans at will, with little, if any, preconditions. Faced with a first recession in 30 years, the continent’s appetite for debt hasn’t receded. In fact…

This is how Malawi’s economy defied the pandemic
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This is how Malawi’s economy defied the pandemic

Last year was a difficult one for economies across the world due to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one landlocked African country did remarkably defy the trend through a combination of prudent leadership and trade with a neighbor that also recorded positive growths. Malawi’s economy grew by 0.9% in 2020. Only one…

How mobile money made Kenya the top e-commerce market in Africa
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How mobile money made Kenya the top e-commerce market in Africa

Mpesa is a word ingrained in every Kenyan’s lingua franca. The mobile money service that was founded in 2007, and run by telecommunication giants Safaricom, is a force of nature that has led the country to top the world in this sector. It is this dominance that has in turn fuelled the rise of another…

This new form of investment was worth $3.3 Trillion in 2020. Here’s why it is growing.
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This new form of investment was worth $3.3 Trillion in 2020. Here’s why it is growing.

As economies worldwide were struck down by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, a new form of investment, fuelled by climate change and social activism, gained ground. The term impact investing has been around for a decade now, but its crescendo only arrived in 2020, according to a report released by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)….

As Toyota launches assembly plant in Ghana, what is the future for Africa’s automobile industry?
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As Toyota launches assembly plant in Ghana, what is the future for Africa’s automobile industry?

 (This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, July 26th 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://open.spotify.com/episode/763m3ERbbWqL8htciEi7qI?si=nh0QyguqSeezi9WVFVIdrg&dl_branch=1&nd=1) ARNOLD SEGAWA: A very warm welcome to this edition of Mansa’s The Weekly Beat I’m Arnold Sagawa, joining you from Johannesburg in a very, very cold winter snow in the…

Will a government onslaught push Africa’s largest pay TV operator out of Nigeria?
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Will a government onslaught push Africa’s largest pay TV operator out of Nigeria?

 (This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, July 19th 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://mansamedia.africa/the-weekly-beat-july-19-2021/) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…

Ghana’s inflation rate climbs to 7.8%, World Bank grants additional $200 million for COVID-19 financing
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Ghana’s inflation rate climbs to 7.8%, World Bank grants additional $200 million for COVID-19 financing

Ghana’s inflation rate rose to 7.8% in June, the Government Statistician Samuel Kobina announced on Wednesday, driven by transport and food items. Food contributed 41.8% to overall inflation while transport contribution increased from 16.5% last month to 18.1%. “Inflation for June 2021 indicates that the six-month continuous decline in food inflation has been reversed by…

As Ethiopia opens its telecom market, what lessons can foreign investors learn?
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As Ethiopia opens its telecom market, what lessons can foreign investors learn?

 (This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, July 12th 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://mansamedia.africa/the-weekly-beat-july-12-2021/) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…

Why Ghana is launching Africa’s first social bonds
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Why Ghana is launching Africa’s first social bonds

Plans are underway for Ghana to launch social bonds, a first in Africa, capitalizing on an instrument that has boomed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The government plans to borrow up to $5 billion on international markets this year, and use the proceeds from these sustainable bonds to forge ahead with a free secondary-school initiative…

Covid behind drop in foreign direct investments to Africa in 2020
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Covid behind drop in foreign direct investments to Africa in 2020

Foreign direct investments into Africa plunged by $7 billion in 2020, a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) indicates, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The investment flowing into the continent dipped to $40 billion in 2020, compared to $47 billion in 2019. However, the Asian continent was able to…

South Africa was preparing to formally embrace crypto. Then two brothers vanished with $3.6 billion.
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South Africa was preparing to formally embrace crypto. Then two brothers vanished with $3.6 billion.

Just as South African authorities were gearing for a new approach to the trading of bitcoins and other virtual assets in Africa’s most industrialized country, two brothers have been accused of disappearing with $3.6 billion from a top bitcoin site. If confirmed, Africrypt’s, the platform ran by the Ameer and Raees Cajee, losses would rank…

East Africa’s richest man expects businesses to grow under new president
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East Africa’s richest man expects businesses to grow under new president

Tanzania’s private sector is in line for steady growths as President Samia Hassan Suluhu undertakes various reforms to improve the country’s business environment, billionaire Mohammed Dewji says. Dewji also expects the industrial conglomerate he owns, MeTL, to ramp up sisal production as it targets becoming the world’s largest producer of sisal, a plant whose fiber…