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issue 370 | 20 Sep 2020

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

A non-exhaustive list of recent measures aimed at curbing the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Kenya: Kenya has ended amnesty for foreign citizens who were stranded in the country due to the worldwide travel disruption caused by THE COVID-19 pandemic. The Kenyan immigration department had allowed foreigners with expired visas to extend their stay without legal consequences. Immigration Services director-general, Alexander Muteshi said the affected foreigners now have two weeks to either leave the country or regularise their stay in line with local immigration laws. Those who do not comply face a fine of at least KES5-million or a five-year jail term.

Source: Business Daily

Namibia: The Namibian government said on Thursday, 17 September it will open up the country for international travel from 18 September as it ends a six-month long state of emergency with the average number of daily COVID-19 cases trending downwards. President Hage Geingob, during a media briefing, said the government had considered the economic implications of continuing the restrictions and the state of preparedness of its hospitals. Travelling in and out of restricted areas including the capital Windhoek and the surrounding towns of Okahandja and Rehoboth will be permitted as a countrywide curfew is lifted, the president said. Gatherings will be allowed up to either 50% of a venue's capacity or a maximum of 50 people, according to attorney-general Festus Mbandeka during the media briefing.

Source: Reuters

Nigeria: The Federal Government has said all airports in the country are to open for domestic commercial flights. The minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this on Monday, 14 September at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja. Sirika also said that private airports and airstrips were also to reopen for domestic flights and private charter flight operations would no longer require the approval of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to operate domestic flights in all government owned airports.

Source: This Day

Tanzania: Tanzania's civil aviation watchdog on Wednesday, 16 September announced the lifting of a ban it had imposed on Kenyan airline operators to fly into the country. Hamza Johari, the director-general of the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), said in a terse statement that Kenyan airline operators were now free to operate in Tanzania, including Kenya Airways, Fly 540 Limited, Safarilink Aviation and AirKenya Express Limited. The statement said the lifting of the ban on Kenya airline operators followed the Kenyan government's removal of 14 days mandatory quarantine for all passengers arriving from Tanzania. Tanzania nullified its approval for Kenyan airline operators into the country after Kenya had excluded Tanzania on the list of countries whose passengers were allowed to enter Kenya without being quarantined for 14 days amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Source: Xinhua

Zambia: The Zambian government has acquired a new drug for the treatment of COVID-19 patients who are severely ill, a health official said on Thursday, 17 September. Lloyd Mulenga, director of the Infectious Disease Center, said the drug, Remdesivir, was effective for the treatment of severely ill patients. He said, during a COVID-19 update briefing, that it was hoped that the new drug will give better outcomes in treating COVID-19 as it reduces the recovery rate. Meanwhile, Ministry of Health permanent secretary for Technical Services, Kennedy Malama said the country will not hesitate to acquire any medicine for the treatment of COVID-19 as long as its efficacy was proved.

Source: Xinhua

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's government on Monday, 14 September further extended operating hours for businesses as it gradually reopens the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Zimbabwe's minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa said that the operating hours for retail, wholesale and service businesses that had been set at 08:00 to 16:30 had been extended to start at 06:30 and close at 18:30 with immediate effect. "As we gradually open the economy, we need to remember that we are doing this while taking all necessary precautions to fight the invisible enemy, COVID-19," Mutsvangwa said.

Source: Xinhua

World

Financial institutions presented with climate metrics platform

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has updated its first-of-a-kind online climate impact measurement platform to make it easier for financial institutions to assess the climate eligibility of their investments and estimate the development impact of their climate-related activities. Version 2.1 of the Climate Assessment for Financial Institutions (CAFI) platform provides users with new insights through rich graphics, enhanced climate metrics, and improved key performance indicators. Users in low-bandwidth countries will benefit from a new “CAFI Lite” feature. The platform incorporates feedback from IFC’s industry experts and the broader community of financial institutions. Today, 120 financial institutions have access to CAFI, with USD5.8-billion of climate disbursed loans reported through the platform, according to IFC. “Impact investing can grow when investors seek companies that apply best-practice impact measurement platforms like CAFI,” said Paulo de Bolle, global director of IFC’s Financial Institutions Group. CAFI is available beyond IFC’s client base. Anyone who invests at scale in climate friendly projects – multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, banks and fund managers – may access the platform.

Source: ESI Africa

Africa

Facility to bridge energy access financing gap

International policy and financial advisory firm focused on the clean energy sector, GreenMax Capital Advisors, has released a briefing report on the market assessment conducted for the launch of the Green4Access (G4A) first loss facility aimed at bridging energy access financing gap. The assessment covers 83 companies and 37 Financial Institutions (FIs) across 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The G4A first loss facility, developed in partnership with the United Kingdom non-government organisation, Energy4Impact, will be primarily focused on supporting FIs to accelerate local currency lending to energy access enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa via its cash deposit product. The facility is planned to be launched in 2021 with an initial capitalisation of USD50-million. The design and development of the G4A facility is being supported by seed funding from the multi-donor platform – Partnerships for Green Growth (P4G).

Source: ESI Africa

Africa

Supporting Public Private Partnerships in Africa: African Development Bank ready to scale up

Representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB), governments, development finance institutions, the private sector and professional associations joined a workshop on 8 September 2020 to discuss how the AfDB can strengthen support for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and channel greater investment toward economic and social infrastructure. The event, titled Designing the African Development Bank’s PPP Framework, was hosted virtually by the AfDB. Five African countries accounted for more than 50% of all successful PPP activity from 2008 to 2018: South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana. Several other countries have multiple PPPs in the pipeline – Burkina Faso has 20 and Botswana has eight. The AfDB estimates Africa’s infrastructure financing needs at up to USD170-billion a year by 2025, with an estimated financing gap of up to USD68-billion to USD108-billion a year. PPPs are seen as a key element in narrowing this gap by crowding in private sector investment in infrastructure and the AfDB is playing a critical role in scaling up that effort.

Source: AfDB

Africa

World Bank sets ambitious targets for green and resilient economic growth in Africa

On 15 September 2020, the World Bank released the Next Generation Africa Climate Business Plan (NG-ACBP), which sets out a blueprint to help sub-Saharan African economies achieve low carbon and climate-resilient outcomes. The Plan calls for countries to seize the opportunity to scale-up climate resilience to grow their economies and reduce poverty, redouble efforts to increase energy access across the region, and take advantage of sustainable and innovative approaches to leapfrog into greener development pathways. As the largest financier of climate action in Africa, the World Bank will use this new Climate Plan to build on a strong track record under the original plan in which the Bank supported 346 projects with more than USD33-billion in World Bank financing over the past six years. Over the next six years (2021–26), the World Bank will focus on five key areas in Africa – food security, clean energy, green and resilient cities, environmental stability and climate shocks – that emphasise the interrelatedness of climate risks and opportunities. The Plan sets ambitious goals that push the boundaries of sustainable development in Africa.

Source: The World Bank

East / Southern Africa

COMESA launches mobile App to facilitate operations of the Regional Customs Transit Scheme

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG-CARNET) Scheme has launched a mobile Application to provide access to real-time information to clearing and forwarding agents in the region. The Application is accessible on Google Play Store and Apple Store and provides a one-stop shop for the agents in member countries to view current bond balance and active Carnets, get notifications on Carnet acquittals and expiry of RCTG Bonds. The scheme is a guarantee used for goods in transit as an undertaking to comply with customs obligations within each transit country. Its objective is to ensure that governments of transit countries can recover duties and taxes from the guarantors should the goods be illegally disposed of in the local market. The RCTG-CARNET offers customs administrations a secure regional system of control, replacing the nationally executed practices and procedures. COMESA member states introduced the Scheme in 2012 to address difficulties experienced by transport operators, freight forwarders and clearing agents. The COMESA RCTG-CARNET is the second of its kind in the world after the European Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) Carnet and the only one in the region and the African continent. It is recognised by the World Customs Organization. The RCTG Scheme has 13 members, namely: Burundi, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Currently, the Scheme is operational in five countries, namely: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Source: COMESA

West Africa

CIGRE-West Africa National Committee inaugurated in Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on behalf of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) has announced that the West African arm of the global community for the collaborative development and sharing of power system expertise known as the Congrés International des Grands Réseaux Electriques, West Africa National Committee (CIGRE-WANC) has been inaugurated. The acting managing director and CEO of TCN Sule A. Abdulaziz has been appointed the acting chairman of the West African National Committee of CIGRE. TCN highlighted that with this announcement, CIGRE-WANC joins 60 other National Committees with highly resourceful and professional bodies that make up the global CIGRE with headquarters in France. The global CIGRE has members from all over the world, comprising thousands of individual professionals from over 90 countries and about 1,250 corporate organisations, including some of the world’s leading experts. The West African National Committee, CIGRE-WANC with office within the WAPP Secretariat, Cotonou, shall be in charge of the management, development and implementation of all CIGRE activities within the 15 countries of West Africa.

Source: ESI Africa

Ethiopia

Innovation and Technology Ministry to develop digital platform for coffee

The Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a digital platform that promotes Ethiopian coffee globally. The digital platform will be launched at the end of this Ethiopian year, it was learned. The MoU was signed by Innovation and Technology minister, Abraham Belay and Agriculture minister, Umer Hussein. According to Belay, the digital platform to be developed by his ministry will be managed by the Coffee and Tea Authority. Agriculture minister, Umer Hussein said despite the delay, digitisation can enhance the country’s competitiveness at the global arena. The application shows the full description of coffee from harvest to production and allows the customer to identify the types of coffee, thereby creating trust and transparency. Despite the lack of digitisation, Ethiopia has earned over USD854-million from coffee export during the past Ethiopian budget year that ended on 8 July 2020.

Source: ENA

The Gambia

WAPP calls for tenders for the construction of a 150 MW solar power plant in The Gambia

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) is looking for consultants to carry out impact studies and an advisor for the construction of the Soma solar power plant in The Gambia. The WAPP of the Economic Community of West African States has launched two separate tenders for the construction of a 150 MW solar power plant in The Gambia. The first procedure will allow the selection of consultants to carry out an environmental and social impact study of the infrastructure. Interested entities have until 21 September 2020 to send in their files. The second procedure will allow the selection of a transaction advisor for the design of an auction and the selection of the independent energy producer(s) who will be responsible for the financing, construction and operation of the plant. The deadline for expressions of interest is 5 October 2020.

Source: Energy Mix Report

Kenya

Developers set to adopt new energy saving standards

Kenyan developers will be required to adopt a building code that ensures new buildings cut on electricity costs and are run largely on renewable energy. This is in line with a new private sector-backed government policy on energy that seeks to rally the country to save on energy costs and cut climate changing emissions. Under the proposed guidelines, new buildings will be compelled to become much more energy efficient, in turn helping to cut electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions. "There should be a 10% share of newly built floor area compliant with energy efficiency requirements in the total building stock from the current baseline of zero," proposes the Kenya National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. "Secondly, 2% of the buildings should have adopted American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standards for energy efficiency of buildings, or equivalent." Energy cabinet secretary, Charles Keter said the new policy is long overdue and challenged Kenyans to adopt alternative ways to save and use power.

Source: Business Daily

Kenya

KenGen seeks advisory for sale of certified emissions reduction

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has participated in the reduction of emissions from the atmosphere through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under Kyoto Protocol. KenGen has six registered CDM projects under the mechanism with potential emission reduction of 1.5 million tCO2e annually. KenGen intends to engage a transaction advisor for the sale of certified emission reductions (CERs) from the CDM projects comprising of hydropower, wind and geothermal sources that have been implemented and verified in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) guidelines. The objective of this Expression of Interest is to contract a transaction advisor with extensive experience in the trade of CERs, verified emissions reductions (VERs) and/or voluntary carbon units (VCUs) with the purpose of undertaking market sounding and advising KenGen on the best sale strategy, marketing techniques, appropriate sale duration, the most viable quantities of sale and map out potential markets internationally. The deadline for submissions is 29 September 2020 at 10:00 East African time.

Source: ESI Africa

Kenya

Kenyan government partners with private sector, development partners to outline roadmap to achieve energy efficiency goals

The Kenyan government through the Ministry of Energy launched the Kenya National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (KNEECS or the Strategy), placing Kenya firmly on track toward sustainable consumption and production including renewable energy generation. The Strategy, developed in collaboration with key stakeholders including the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) with support from the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), seeks to guide the country further towards achieving its established Energy Efficiency (EE) goals within a defined timeframe. Through the adoption of the Strategy, the country is expected to use less energy to produce goods and services without compromising on quality and quantity. Further, the Strategy will promote the use of technology that requires minimum energy to perform the same function. The Strategy sets targets for five key sectors to achieve its objectives, all of which are to be accomplished within a five-year timeline up to 2025: households, power utilities, transport, buildings, and industry and agriculture.

Source: Africa Business Communities

Nigeria

Federal Government releases guidelines for solar power operations

The Federal Government has released a new set of guidelines for operators within the country’s solar mini-grid system to ensure strict compliance with local and international standards as well as ensure safety in the sub-sector. The new rules came as the European Union (EU), said it had in recent times devoted at least EUR150-million to assist in the country’s search for stable and reliable power supply. The minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, who unveiled the manual containing the guidelines in Abuja, noted that the move was to sanitise the industry and ensure that standards are met by the operators within the industry. “The importance of this programme cannot be over-emphasised. It aims to address the proliferation of substandard renewable energy materials and equipment, poor designs and construction practices. “It also tackles the lack of standardisation and uniformity in renewable energy projects and schemes put in place for electricity generation and its sustainability in line with requirements for the existing standards, technical standards and codes. “It will also serve as a guide to renewable energy installation, contracting and practices. The guidelines will strengthen the enforcement of technical standards and requirements in renewable energy installation especially solar mini-grid installation,” the minister said.

Source: This Day

Sudan

Unlocking renewable energy to expand energy access

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released a roadmap to unlock the potential of Sudan’s renewable energy and expand energy access. The roadmap, entitled ‘Empowering Sudan: Renewable energy addressing poverty and development’, was developed through a series of consultations organised by the UNDP. This was in response to a request by the government of the Republic of Sudan for technical support to identify and fast-track sustainable energy initiatives and investments. The roadmap report was launched digitally by Sudan’s acting Minister of Energy and Mining, Khairy Abdelrahman Ahmed, alongside youth climate activist and journalist Lina Yassin, Sudan general director of Renewable and Alternative Energy Yasir Saeed Abdalla and sector leaders. A policy suggestion made in the report is the development of a National Solar Fund to serve as a mechanism to pool funds from national banks, federal and state-level government, the UNDP and international donors to ensure low-cost solar technology loans are commercially available. Another suggestion is to improve energy-related data held by government agencies to allow for better decision-making about energy resources.

Source: ESI Africa

Tanzania

Tanzania launches financial sector development master plan

The government of Tanzania on Thursday, 17 September launched a 10-year financial sector development master plan aimed at enabling the sector to contribute significantly in resource mobilisation for economic growth of the east African nation. Mary Maganga, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, who launched the 2020-2030 financial sector master plan in the capital Dodoma, said the plan was also aimed at creating a stable, sound, efficient and inclusive financial sector. Maganga said despite the achievements made by previous financial sector reforms, the sector was still facing challenges and limitations including inadequate access to financial services for urban and rural populations. She said other challenges facing the financial sector were an inadequate legal regime and supervisory framework for financial consumer protection; limited supply of long-term development finance; and financial system vulnerability and risk associated with money laundering.

Source: Xinhua

Tanzania / Uganda

Magufuli, Museveni give green light to USD3.5-billion pipeline project

Tanzanian President John Magufuli and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni gave the green light for the construction of the oil pipeline. The two leaders, who met at Chato airport, signed the intention to start implementing the USD3.5-billion project. “This is an important step towards the implementation of the project. We, the presidents, have signed and I will see who will delay it,” said President Magufuli during his speech. He also revealed that Tanzania will get a 60% share of the profits to be accrued from the pipeline project because about 80% of it will sit on Tanzania’s land. President Museveni said he was ready to give Tanzania 80% of the profits due to the fact that the largest part of the pipeline was in the country but, according to him, President Magufuli settled on 60%. “Uganda gave up about USD800-million that would have been generated in the course of 25 years just to make this project kick-off,” he said as he stressed the need for the project to start. Uganda discovered some 6.5 billion barrels of oil since 2006 and Total and partners were developing the project. The two countries were still discussing crosscutting issues on how the two sides would benefit from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. Other remaining agreements which they said should immediately be worked on include those on port business, shareholding, as well as financing.

Source: The Citizen

Uganda

Parliament of Uganda halts decision on NSSF mid-term access to benefits

The Parliament of Uganda has halted its decision on the proposed mid-term access to benefits by contributors to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) after legislators failed to agree on the group of people and percentage that should be availed. This followed a debate on a Joint Committee report comprising members from the Finance and Gender Committees in Parliament who recommended that members aged above 45 years and have saved for at least 10 years should be allowed to access their benefits. This main report noted that the purpose of mid-term access was to provide for additional benefits and relief to members of the Fund before they reach the age prescribed by the law. Savings can only be accessed when a saver reaches the age of 55 years, according to the current law. First presented before Parliament in August 2019, the NSSF Amendment Bill, 2019 has generated controversy on issues regarding the mid-term access of funds, direct lending to government and whether the fund should revert to the Ministry of Gender. But legislators also failed to agree with the Joint-Committee recommendation that the Fund should be supervised by both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development as advised by President Yoweri Museveni. The Fund is currently managed by the Ministry of Finance despite its relation to the Labour Ministry. Meanwhile, Parliament agreed and rejected the proposed direct lending by the NSSF to the government.

Source: Kampala Dispatch