BUSINESS - The African Mirror

May

12

2021

Global economic growth to mask widening inequality in 2021, U.N. says

BUSINESS

MATTHEW LAVIETES THE world economy will fare better this year than previous projections indicated, but a slow roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in many developing countries will hamper their economic recoveries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Global economic growth is expected to reach 5.4% this year, bouncing back from 2020's contraction of 3.6% and picking up from forecasts issued in January, according to the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects report. However, the growth outlook in some nations in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America remains "fragile and uncertain", due to slow vaccination progress, said the report by the U.N.…

May

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Why Nigerian small businesses aren’t using the full power of social media

BUSINESS

AROUND the world, the use of social media continues to grow and to influence commerce. It offers great benefits for marketing businesses. BABATUNDE J. OMOTOSHO, Professor of Sociology, Federal University, Oye Ekiti African businesses, too, could gain from the features and popularity of these platforms, though social media use varies widely between regions of the continent. The estimates for 2021 are that 45% of the population in northern Africa use social media, 8% in central Africa, 10% in eastern Africa, 16% in western Africa and 41% in southern Africa. Facebook is the most popular platform in Africa, with 58.74% of…

Apr

28

2021

By The African Mirror

MultiChoice’s Showmax invests in African content for growth

BUSINESS

OMAR MOHAMMED MULTICHOICE'S online streaming platform Showmax is investing in producing its own local content for African audiences as it competes for their attention against Netflix on the continent, a senior executive told Reuters. MultiChoice is Africa's largest pay-TV group, available in 50 African countries. Its streaming service Showmax, launched in 2015, is available in 46 African countries and also in several Western countries, including Britain and France, which have sizeable African diaspora populations. The company is focusing on developing movies and shows set in its biggest markets of Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, senior executive Yolisa Phahle said in…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

ILO chief says pandemic’s impact on work is “cataclysmic”

BUSINESS

THE head of the International Labour Organization on Monday described the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of work as "cataclysmic" and much worse than that of the 2008 financial crisis. Speaking at the opening of the ILO's two-week ministerial conference, director-general Guy Ryder also warned of an uneven economic recovery after the pandemic, partly fed by inequities in vaccine distribution. "The impact has been devastating, cataclysmic," he said. "Taken as a whole this represents a world of work crisis four times as severe as the one triggered by the financial crisis of 2008-2009." The United Nations agency…

Apr

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast to boost local firms’ share in cocoa exports

BUSINESS

ANGE ABOA IVORY Coast will soon require 20% of cocoa purchases by multinational companies to be fulfilled by local firms in order to reduce foreign influence on the world's largest cocoa-exporting economy, four sources have told Reuters. President Alassane Ouattara is today expected to sign an order to enforce a 2012 law under which Ivorian cocoa exporters are meant to handle at least 20% of national cocoa output. The policy has gone largely unenforced until now. Every year the six major international players have used their greater financial muscle to buy and export all of the cocoa available, while local…

Apr

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Mozambique battles to save $20-billion gas project

BUSINESS

SUDIP KAR-GUPTA FRENCH energy group Total will resume construction at its liquefied natural gas project in northern Mozambique when the security situation is guaranteed, the chairman of Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute has said. Carlos Zacarias was speaking after Total declared force majeure on the $20 billion project, following an insurgent attack on the nearby coastal town of Palma. He added that Mozambican authorities were working to restore "normal security conditions" so activities at the Total site could resume very soon and that Total had not completely abandoned the project. Total declared force majeure on its $20 billion liquefied natural gas…

Jun

06

2021

By The African Mirror

World Bank pauses Mali payments

BUSINESS

THE World Bank has announced that it had temporarily paused payments to operations in Mali following a military coup, while the man expected to become the new prime minister warned sanctions would only complicate the country's crisis. The Bank's actions add to pressure on Mali's military leadership after chief security ally France announced on Thursday it was suspending joint operations with Malian troops in order to press for a return to civilian rule. The military's overthrow of Mali's transitional president last week, its second coup in nine months, has drawn international condemnation and raised fears the political crisis will weaken…

May

29

2021

By The African Mirror

IMF agrees three-year $1.5 billion extended credit facility for Congo

BUSINESS

THE International Monetary Fund has made a staff-level agreement for a three-year $1.5 billion extended credit facility with the Democratic Republic of Congo to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The agreement requires approval from IMF management and by the IMF Executive Board. Despite an almost 10% expansion of Congo's extractive sector last year, the economy is estimated to have grown by only 1.7%, and is projected to expand by 4.9 percent in 2021, the IMF said in a statement. Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt. Congo's battle with COVID-19 badly dented public finances, with inflation…

Jun

02

2021

By The African Mirror

World Bank chief says $12 bln in vaccine funds available, need to speed supplies

BUSINESS

THE World Bank now has $12 billion in COVID-19 vaccine financing available and will have approved vaccination financing operations in over 50 countries by the end of June, the development lender's president, David Malpass, said on Tuesday. Malpass told a joint news conference with the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization that it was "vital that we speed up the supply chain for vaccine distribution," including shortening the manufacturing time, approvals and allocations of doses that have already been produced.

May

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Congo earthquake disrupts tin ore exports

BUSINESS

PRATIMA DESAI and HELEN REID AN earthquake in Goma, a city in Democratic Republic of Congo near the border with Rwanda, is delaying exports of tin ore from mineral-rich North Kivu province, two sources with direct knowledge have told Reuters. This is likely to exacerbate shortages of the soldering metal, prices of which last week touched 10-year highs at $30,650 a tonne. The sources said tin ore producers have been unable to obtain the permits they need to export the material because government offices in Goma, North Kivu's capital city, are shut due to the earthquake, which destroyed several buildings…