BUSINESS - The African Mirror

Jan

28

2021

Ramaphosa urges businesses to contribute financially to vaccine Africa’s rollout

BUSINESS

AFRICAN Union (AU) Chair Cyril Ramaphosa has called on African companies and foreign companies that do business in Africa to contribute financially to the continent's efforts to roll out COVID-19 vaccines. Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, added during an AU webinar that telecoms firm MTN had offered to donate $25 million to the vaccine programme of the AU's disease control body to immunise healthcare workers.

Jan

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya to cut fiscal deficit in 2021/22 to 7.5% of GDP

BUSINESS

KENYA will reduce its budget deficit to 7.5% of GDP in the 2021/22 (July-June) financial year, from 9.0% this fiscal year, the National Treasury said in a draft budget policy statement. Like other economies around the world, the East African nation has been battered by the impact of the coronavirus crisis, with prolonged lockdown measures curbing economic output and hitting government revenue. Economic growth is expected to rebound from the virus-induced slump, expanding by 6.4% in 2021 from an estimated 0.6% last year, Treasury said in the document seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Government’s revenue collection was now expected to…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Rwanda’s Kagame backs proposed global social protection fund

BUSINESS

DUNCAN MIRIRI RWANDA’S President Paul Kagame welcomed the proposed establishment of a global social protection fund, saying it will build resilience among societies to help them navigate the economic impact of future pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed glaring inequalities among the world's workers. Nearly half of the globe's 3.3 billion workforce has been thrust into the risk of losing their livelihoods by the crisis, the World Economic Forum said. It has particularly hit many of Africa's workers, who toil in informal sectors without any rights such as a minimum wage, creating the need for universal social protection, Kagame told…

Sep

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Russian diamond miner Alrosa boosts cooperation with Congo after Angola leak

BUSINESS

RUSSIA’S Alrosa, the world's largest diamond producer, will build up its cooperation with state-controlled diamond company Bakwanga, known as MIBA, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alrosa has announced. Alrosa and MIBA signed a memorandum of understanding after Congo said it would seek compensation in line with the "polluter pays" principle for a leak in July from tailings dam at a diamond mine in Angola which turned a tributary of the Congo River red. Congo has yet to complete the laboratory analysis but has said the leak polluted drinking water, causing 12 deaths and making thousands of people ill. The…

Sep

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Chad working to ensure Exxon project employees keep their jobs

BUSINESS

MAHAMAT RAMADANE CHAD’S government is working to ensure employees of Exxon Mobil's Doba oilfield keep their jobs if a mooted sale of the company's 40% stake to Savannah Energy goes through, Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke said on Thursday. Workers at Doba staged a two-week strike in late June and early July, claiming Exxon had refused to guarantee they would be paid severance benefits if the concession is sold to another company and they are laid off. Tensions flared again in late August when approximately 50 workers occupied the Doba airstrip in the hope of preventing a delegation from Savannah…

Sep

09

2021

By The African Mirror

South African state insurer in talks over larger bailout

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's state-owned insurance company Sasria is in talks with the National Treasury for a larger bailout than the 3.9 billion rand ($272 million) already promised, its managing director has told a parliamentary committee. Sasria, the only insurer covering political violence in Africa's most advanced economy, has suffered a sudden deterioration in its financial position after some of the worst violence in the post-apartheid era erupted in July soon after the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma. More than 300 people died and around 3,000 shops were looted in the immediate aftermath of Zuma's arrest, with anger over entrenched poverty…

Sep

09

2021

By The African Mirror

IMF approves $567 mln in emergency support for Tanzania

BUSINESS

ANDREA SHALAL THE International Monetary Fund's executive board has approved $567 million in emergency support for Tanzania to help it finance a COVID-19 vaccination campaign and meet the health and social costs of the pandemic, the IMF said in a statement. The IMF board approved a disbursement of $189 million to Tanzania under its Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), as well as $378 million under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), the global lender said. The COVID-19 outbreak and associated travel restrictions have led to the collapse of the tourism sector in the East African country, which had denied the existence of…

Jan

24

2021

By The African Mirror

IMF urges deficit control in Tunisia even as protesters demand jobs

BUSINESS

TAREK AMARA THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Tunisia's fiscal deficit could exceed 9% of GDP and urged the country to control energy subsides, transfers to state companies and wages, even as protesters have been demanding jobs and economic development. Violent protests have hit Tunisia at a time of unprecedented economic hardship in the North Africa country that ran a fiscal deficit of 11.5% of GDP in 2020, the highest in nearly four decades. The 2021 budget aims to cut the fiscal deficit to 6.6 pct but the IMF, following a mission in Tunisia, issued a statement calling…

Jan

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast cocoa exporters curb exposure and inventories amid glut

BUSINESS

ANGE ABOA COCAO exporters in the world’s top grower Ivory Coast are switching to cheaper contracts for later delivery and buying less to cut inventories amid a glut, blaming a scheme to charge a $400-per-tonne cocoa premium to curb farmer poverty. Exporters said that the introduction this season of the Living Income Differential (LID) premium - paid by exporters to the government to support farmers - together with a bumper crop while global demand is falling, had left them with tonnes of unsold stocks and forced them to limit risks. “You have to adapt or lose a lot of money…

Jan

23

2021

By The African Mirror

UK to extend £330 million bridge loan to clear Sudan’s debt to ADB

BUSINESS

BRITAIN will provide a £330 million bridge loan to help Sudan clear its more than $400 million in arrears to the African Development Bank, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday. London, United Kingdom. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab reviews new Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime Designations, in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street. Sudan’s removal from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terror late last year has paved the way for Sudan to start the process of clearing its approximately $60 billion in foreign debt, a necessary step toward seeking…