BUSINESS - The African Mirror

Mar

04

2021

World Bank readies COVID-19 vaccine funds for around 30 African countries

BUSINESS

ALEXANDER WINNING THE World Bank is preparing emergency financing to help about 30 African countries access COVID-19 vaccines, the global lender told Reuters, as the continent scrambles to secure doses and start immunising vulnerable groups. Only a handful of African governments have launched mass vaccination campaigns, whereas some countries in wealthier parts of the world have already administered millions of doses. Many rely on the World Health Organization's vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, which delivered its first doses last week with a shipment to Ghana. The World Bank said financing projects were being prepared in African countries including the Democratic Republic of…

Mar

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Vast Brazil lawsuit in UK against BHP over 2015 dam failure hits buffers

BUSINESS

KIRSTIN RIDLEY A 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group yesterday had failed to resurrect a 5.0 billion pound ($6.9 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP over a devastating 2015 dam failure. The Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court that the vast group action was an abuse of process, that claimants were already able to seek redress in Brazil and that the case would be "irredeemably unmanageable" if allowed to proceed. Tom Goodhead, the PGMBM lawyer representing the claimants, said it was "a sad day for the English justice system" after senior judges agreed that the claim, relating to…

Mar

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya Airways bets on cargo as pandemic wipes out travel

BUSINESS

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYA Airways is doubling down on cargo as it does not expect its passenger business to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic until 2024, according to its chief executive. The airline, whose joint venture with Air France KLM will expire this September, said its peak summer travel season was almost wiped out after Kenya closed its airspace and losses tripled last year to $333 million. "We expect the passenger business to normalise by 2024. It is a volatile situation dependent on very many things," Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka told Reuters after an investor briefing. To blunt…

Mar

31

2021

By The African Mirror

IMF approves $312.4 mln credit facility for Madagascar

BUSINESS

THE International Monetary Fund's executive board has approved a $312.4 million extended credit facility arrangement for Madagascar to help it cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-related shocks, the fund said. "The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a severe human and economic toll on Madagascar, reversing recent social and economic progress, and creating fiscal and external financing needs," Antoinette Sayeh, IMF's deputy managing director, said. "Given that Madagascar remains at a moderate risk of debt distress, the authorities plan to follow a prudent debt management strategy that relies on concessional financing ..." The fund said following its board's…

Mar

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Top three take-away lessons from the Suez Canal blockage

BUSINESS

FOR a week the world was gripped by the extraordinary sight of a massive container ship that had run aground in the Suez Canal in Egypt. The Ever Given is 400m long (1,312ft) and weighs 200,000 tonnes, with a maximum capacity of 20,000 containers. It was carrying 18,300 containers when it became wedged in the canal, blocking all shipping traffic. Efforts to free it finally paid off when it was partially dislodged in the early hours of Monday 29 March. Adejuwon Soyinka asked maritime security expert Dirk Siebels to unpack lessons learnt from the incident. DIRK SIEBELS, PhD (Maritime Security),…

Mar

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Suez Canal container ship accident is a worst-case scenario for global trade

BUSINESS

IT'S estimated that 90% of the world’s trade is transported by sea. As consumers, we rarely give much thought to how the things we buy make their way across the planet and into our homes. That is, until an incident like the recent grounding of a huge container ship, the Ever Given, in the Suez Canal exposes the weaknesses in this global system. RORY HOPCRAFT, Industrial Researcher, University of Plymouth KEVIN JONES, Executive Dean, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Plymouth KIMBERLY TAM, Lecturer in Cyber Security, University of Plymouth High winds have been blamed for the container ship…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Beached whale’ ship could block Suez Canal for weeks

BUSINESS

YUSRI MOHAMED, GAVIN MAGUIRE and FLORENCE TAN A container ship blocking the Suez Canal like a "beached whale" may take weeks to free, the salvage company said, as officials stopped all ships entering the channel on Thursday in a new setback for global trade. The 400 m (430 yards) Ever Given, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, is blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for oil and grain and other trade linking Asia and Europe. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said eight tugs were working to move the vessel,…

Jul

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe economy to shrink by 4.5%

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE's economy is expected to shrink by 4.5% this year owing to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and a brutal climate change-related drought, the finance minister said on Thursday. The crucial mining sector will contract by 4%, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube added in a mid-term budget speech, although he projected that GDP would rebound to 7.4% growth in 2021. Ncube added that inflation was expected to gradually decline to 300% by December, compared with 737.36% currently. Zimbabwe's economy was in a mess even before COVID-19 struck, with rampant inflation, chronic shortages of food, foreign currency and medicines, all worsened…

Jul

16

2020

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s Distell plays chess to beat lockdown wine glut

BUSINESS

WENDELL ROELF and EMMA RUMNEY AT a centuries-old vineyard overlooked by South Africa's Drakenstein mountain, the country's biggest single wine exporter Distell is battling a problem of plenty. Prestigious wines, such as Nederburg, are bottled at the vineyard in Paarl, just outside Cape Town, and shipped locally and worldwide. But the shipping can't keep pace with the combined impact of an abundant harvest and lockdown disruption that has led to a glut that sits maturing in French oak barrels or stored in metal vats at wine estates. South Africa, one of the top 10 wine producers, has around 240 million…

Jul

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Morocco’s job market shrinks

BUSINESS

AHMED ELJECHTIMI THE coronavirus crisis is expected to expand Morocco's informal economy of people who work for cash, reducing tax revenue and leaving many without social protection, the head of the state planning agency and economists said. More than a third of Moroccan workers are already in the informal economy, doing manual or domestic labour, driving taxis or selling in the streets, accounting for 14% of gross domestic product, according to the agency. However, the crisis is expected to expand this informal economy as people lose their jobs in companies and consumers seek the cheaper goods and services provided by…