African countries - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Africa’s debt crisis needs a bold new approach: expert outlines a way forward

IT hasn’t been easy for African states to finance their developmental and environmental policy objectives over the past few years. Recent events suggest that the situation may be improving. For the first time in two years, three African states have been able to access international financial markets, albeit at high-interest rates. Kenya, for example, is now paying over 10% compared to about 7% in 2014. Many African countries continue to face challenging sovereign debt situations. DANNY BRADLOW, Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria Total external debts as a share of Africa’s export earnings increased from…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Russia says it shipped 200,000 tonnes of free grain to six African countries

NEWS

RUSSIA'S agriculture minister said that Moscow had completed its initiative of shipping 200,000 metric tonnes of free grain to six African countries, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July. Russia shipped 50,000 tonnes each to Somalia and the Central African Republic and 25,000 tonnes each to Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev told Putin during a meeting, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website. Putin had promised to deliver free grain to the six countries at a summit with African leaders in July, soon after Moscow withdrew from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

African countries are struggling with high debt, demands to spend more and collapsing currencies: the policy fixes that could help

BUSINESS

HIGHLY indebted African countries are facing stark trade-offs between servicing expensive debt, supporting high and growing development needs, and stabilising domestic currencies. Government debt has risen in at least 40 African countries over the past decade. As a result, some are experiencing a bad combination of high debt, and elevated development spending needs amid budget shortfalls and unfavourable exchange rate pressures. JONATHAN MUNEMO, Professor of Economics, Salisbury University These issues have become more pressing since 2022, when persistently high inflation prompted major central banks around the world to embark on the most aggressive monetary tightening campaign in decades. Monetary policy…

Jan

2024

By ANGE ADIHE KASONGO and BENOIT NYEMBA

Hundreds dead as Congo River basin submerged by generational floods

NEWS

THE Congo River has risen to its highest level in more than 60 years, causing flooding throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo Republic that has killed more than 300 people over the past months, according to authorities. Poor urban planning and weak infrastructure have made some African countries vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change. Ferry Mowa, a hydrology specialist at the DRC riverways authority, part of the transport ministry, said his office had flagged the high water level in late December, warning that almost the entire flood…

Jan

2024

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Visa-free regimes to bolster African tourism growth in 2024

NEWS

AFRICAN countries are set to record an increase in tourism numbers in 2024, as more countries continue to open their borders to other African countries by abolishing visa requirements. In 2023, most African countries made significant strides to liberalize their visa regimes, with Rwanda and Kenya being the latest to completely remove visa requirements for all African travellers, joining Gambia, Benin, and Seychelles. Kenya's transition towards a visa-free regime saw the country’s Immigration Department receive almost ten thousand applications for the new Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) allowing foreign nationals to visit or transit through the country by air, in the…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

African countries at COP28: several big wins and a united voice

NEWS

AFRICAN countries entered the recent COP28 negotiations on climate change in high spirits. Before this conference, in September, African government leaders, policymakers, activists and other groups from the continent met at the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The African position and expectations for COP28 were shaped at this summit by the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration. BAMIDELE OLAJIDE, Lecturer, University of Lagos Africa’s main agenda at COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, was to convince global players that they must show more altruism in financially supporting targets to reduce global emissions. For African countries, COP27, hosted by Egypt,…

Nov

2023

By SARAH MARSH and ANDREAS RINKE

G20-led summit for Africa highlights renewed interest in fast-growing continent

NEWS

LEADERS from more than a dozen African countries are heading to Germany for the G20 Compact with Africa conference, which aims to help bolster private investment in the world's poorest, but fast-growing, continent. Underscoring renewed interest in Africa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will be among those attending the summit in Berlin, hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to German government officials. Scholz, who has visited Africa several times since taking office in late 2021, will hold bilateral talks with several African countries on Sunday, before hosting a German-African investment summit…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Climate hazards aren’t restricted by borders – African countries have taken a big step to address this

ENVIRONMENT

CLIMATE risks can be complex to deal with because they don’t respect country borders. Hazards in one region can have negative repercussions in another. These are known as transboundary climate risks, and they’re a growing concern. They require coordinated, multinational responses, which can be a challenge given the different priorities and capabilities of each country. A transboundary climate risk could be due to a shared ecosystem, such as a river basin. For instance, the Nile River, which flows through 11 countries, can experience variations in water availability due to changes in the weather. This will affect the millions who depend…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Russian grain deliveries to Africa to start within a month, Interfax reports

NEWS

RUSSIA will start delivering its grain to African countries within a month to six weeks, the Interfax news agency cited Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev as saying. "We are now finalising all the documents. I think that within a month - or a month and a half - they will start," Interfax quoted Patrushev as saying. President Vladimir Putin told African leaders in July he would gift them tens of thousands of tons of grain despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilisers. "We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia,…

Sep

2023

By RODRIGO CAMPOS

Food insecurity in Africa should be overcome in 5 years -AfDB head

NEWS

PROGRAMS supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in over 30 African countries have helped produce some $12 billion worth of food, and the bank’s $25 billion objective is "well on track," AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina said on Friday. "As far as I'm concerned, we shouldn't be talking about food security in Africa more than five years from now. There's no reason for it," he told Reuters. "We have the technology and the financing to do it at scale." Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's top grain exporters, sent tremors through global grain markets, threatening food…