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issue 397 | 25 Apr 2021

Africa

African Telecommunications Union, Ericsson to expand Africa’s ICT space

African countries and telecommunications stakeholders have launched the first set of African Telecommunications Union (ATU) spectrum recommendations that focus on transforming Africa into a knowledge economy through the development of technologies that boost connectivity and innovation. The spectrum recommendations are as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and the ATU to help fast-track the roll out of technology across the continent. The launched spectrum recommendations outline the importance of awarding the radio spectrum in countries across Africa in a timely, predictable and cost-effective fashion so as to support affordable, high-quality delivery of information and communications technology (ICT) services and spur smart technology initiatives. The recommendations also establish the idea that licensing should be technology-neutral and allow for service innovations. The recommendations come at a time when Africa is looking to harness ICT-driven innovation, with a rapid rise in the usage of technology and smartphones. The November 2020 Ericsson Mobility Report projects that by 2026, mobile broadband subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa will increase to up to 76%.

Source: New Business Ethiopia

Africa

African trade finance sees USD5-billion in portfolio outflows in Q1 2020 due to COVID-19, but opportunities exist – report

Constrained global financial conditions caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19) have led to massive portfolio outflows from Africa, exceeding USD5-billion in the first quarter of 2020, a new continent-wide survey on trade finance has shown. About USD3.1-billion left the South African market alone, the report found. Launched on 15 April 2021, the African Trade Finance Survey Report examines how trade finance has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the role it can play in overcoming the social and economic fallout of the disease. The survey covers the first four months of 2020, including April, when global trade recorded its largest contraction on record. It aims to inform the design of interventions to address market challenges and effectively engage African financial institutions, trade finance intermediaries, regulatory authorities, and national authorities to accelerate efforts to bridge the region’s trade finance gap. The report made numerous recommendations, including greater engagement between central banks and the industry, a push for increased digitalisation and uptake of new technologies, and better data.

Source: African Development Bank

Africa

African Union set to boost intra-African agricultural trade

The African Union (AU) has set out plans to construct industrial parks that will improve the manufacturing of agricultural products as well as the supply chain. The AU Commission (AUC) made this known during a forum it organised with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Fund (FAO) recently where it launched the framework to boost intra-African trade in agricultural products and services. The AU noted that Africa’s demand for food exceeds the domestic supply by 20% and urged the continent to take advantage of the fast-growing intra-African market opportunities. It noted that the agriculture sector in Africa needs a structural transformation that implies a shift from production systems focused on the subsistence market into others that guarantee benefits for the most vulnerable segments of the population and the establishment of a linkage between farmers and the supply chains of regional and global value. The AU further stated that it was also supporting the implementation of the African Common Agricultural Parks (CAAPs), the cross-border initiative focused on agro-processing through small-scale factories.

Source: Africa Business Communities

Africa

New report by the African Circular Economy Alliance shines light on ‘Five Big Bets’ for circular economy

The African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA) has launched a report that identifies five sectors that have the greatest potential to drive the circular economy, a model that promotes better resource management. The sectors are: food systems, the built environment, fashion and textile, electronics and packaging. The report, “Five Big Bets for the Circular Economy,” was launched on Thursday, 15 April 2021 as the ACEA wrapped up its Annual Meeting. As a strategic partner and host of its secretariat, the African Development Bank (AfDB) organised the event in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, acting director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the AfDB said “Making ‘big bets’ for the circular economy can lead to a range of benefits for Africa, such as the creation of higher value supply chains and newfound resilience, enabled by self-sufficiency and localisation.” The roles of markets and consumers, education, trade, partnerships and innovation are key to driving the circular economy transition, speakers said. In the private sector, circular enterprises are contributing to improving the environment while sustaining livelihoods in Africa.

Source: AfDB

Africa

Vodacom, AUDA-NEPAD launch mVacciNation digital toolbox

Telecommunications giant Vodacom Group and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) have joined forces to deploy a mobile technology platform that manages vaccination appointments and stock availability. Developed by Vodacom Group member Mezzanine, the mVacciNation digital toolbox will be offered to African Union member states to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. This is the first project within the public-private partnership formed between Vodacom Group and AUDA-NEPAD to boost Africa’s digital transformation and build resilience for the post-COVID-19 world. South Africa is the first country that has started to invest in and use mVacciNation for COVID-19. MVacciNation has also been successfully deployed in Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria to manage infant inoculations. AUDA-NEPAD CEO Dr Ibrahim Mayaki commented that the response to the COVID-19 crisis had significantly accelerated the adoption of frontier technologies. “Africa's booming digital sector offers great opportunities for public-private partnerships to help build resilience in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and respond to critical continental priorities.”

Source: Engineering News

East / Southern Africa

COMESA calls for fair trade

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission (CCC) has called for the enforcement of laws that advocate fair trade within regional markets. The call was made on in Lilongwe during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the commission and the Competition Commission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (COMCO). CCC acting director Willard Mwemba said the MoU was a cooperation framework on enforcement of competition and consumer protection laws. Interim coordinator of COMCO Trudon Kalala Nzembela said the MoU has provided for the sharing of information, collaborations on merger assessments, consultations on enforcement activities, which could affect each authority’s important interests, and assistance for capacity building and training. The CCC has already signed eight MoUs with other national competition authorities in the common market.

Source: The Times

Ghana

COVID-19 levy, new taxes on fuel to take effect on 1 May

The new taxes on fuel announced in the 2021 budget are set to take effect from 1 May 2021. These new taxes are as a result of the imposition of an Energy Sector Recovery Levy of GHS20 pesewas per litre of petrol/diesel and GHS18 pesewas per kilogram on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In addition, the imposition of a Sanitation and Pollution Levy of GHS10 pesewas per litre of petrol and diesel respectively will contribute to the new tax. Also taking effect on 1 May will be the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy Act, 2021 (Act 1068) and the Energy Sector Levy (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Act 1064). This Act imposes a 1% levy on the supply of goods and services made in the country other than exempt goods or services and the import of goods and services other than exempt imports. The levy also applies to the supply of goods subject to the VAT Flat Rate but is not allowable as an input tax deduction. In a statement signed by the commissioner-general of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Rev. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, the authority said that Parliament has passed the three new tax laws and amended two existing laws to be implemented in 2021.

Source: ModernGhana

Kenya

Insurers review clauses as COVID-19 reality sinks in

Insurers are reviewing clauses in their contracts to reduce potential conflict with customers after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed them to unforeseen claims. The onset of the pandemic in Kenya early last year saw many underwriters reject COVID-19-related claims, only for them to realise that the contracts they had with customers had no exclusions. The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) said insurers are responding by rewording clauses in contracts signed with customers to clear the air on what is not included in the policies. “Insurers are now more careful on how they word their contracts and including clauses on pandemics and epidemics to avoid disappointing customers,” Mr Godfrey Kiptum, the authority’s chief executive, said. By June last year, insurance companies had paid KES108.2-million in COVID-19 death claims, just two months after the disease was reported in Kenya in mid-March. Medical insurers will from next month also be forced to foot COVID-19 vaccination bills for policyholders after the regulator directed them to update their policies.

Source: Business Daily

Kenya

KRA fights minimum tax suspension order

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will appeal a court order that temporarily barred it from collecting minimum tax from businesses. Mr Paul Matuku, the commissioner for Legal Services at KRA, said that the taxman has sought an early date for hearing of the case on 19 May 2021, before the second instalment of the minimum tax falls due. The taxman added that businesses that had paid the minimum tax will retain the money in their iTax ledger pending the outcome of the petitions. Additionally, the KRA is putting in an appeal and an application for stay to the Court of Appeal” Mr Matuku said. The KRA started collecting the minimum tax at the rate of 1% of the gross turnover in January following changes to the Income Tax Act (ITA). But the High Court has barred it from collecting the tax after three officials of the Kitengela Bar Owners Association challenged it, arguing that the enforcement of the tax is unconstitutional and would harm their businesses. The appeal marks the KRA’s bid to enforce collection of some KES21-billion from businesses in the year ending June in an effort to plug its revenue shortfalls.

Source: Business Daily

Kenya

Trade deficit widens on fuel, manufactured goods imports

Kenya’s trade deficit widened by 13.49% in the first two months of the year, largely on increased expenditure on manufactured materials and fuel imports. The trade deficit increased to KES198.64-billion from KES175.03-billion a year ago amid reduced disruptions in global supply chains and increased cost of shipping in fuel. Kenya has struggled to diversify its exports away from traditional tea, horticulture and coffee, which are largely sold raw, exposing its farmers to price shocks in international commodity markets. The trade data, collated by the CBK, shows imports were largely lifted by increased expenditure on shipping in manufactured materials and chemicals, while earnings from exports were driven by horticultural sales. Earnings from horticultural exports – cut flowers, vegetables and fruits – expanded by 18.90% to KES25.86-billion in the two months, making up a fifth of total exports compared with 19.04% in the previous year.

Source: Business Daily

Kenya / Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kenya, DRC sign deals on security, trade and transport

Kenya has signed crucial agreements on transport, security and trade with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), signalling a push to improve low figures of business between them. After a bilateral meeting between Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and his host Felix Tshisekedi, the two sides on Wednesday, 21 April signed a new deal to handle cargo from the port of Mombasa that grants the DRC certain privileges for using Kenyan facilities. Kenya also offered to open diplomatic outposts in Goma and Lubumbashi in eastern DRC in what President Kenyatta said would ease consular services for traders. The Agreement on Maritime Freight Management, revised from earlier arrangements, will be the basic legal framework for handling all freight cargo coming through Mombasa and destined for the DRC.

Source: The EastAfrican

Kenya / Uganda

Uganda nets 43% of Kenya’s sugar imports in deal

Ugandan sugar will now account for 43% of the total imports by Kenya from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) after Nairobi and Kampala ironed out their trade dispute. Kenya’s Trade cabinet secretary, Betty Maina, and her Ugandan counterpart agreed that the neighbouring state will be allowed to export 90,000 tonnes of the sweetener to Kenya as soon as the verification mission on country of origin is completed. Kenya entered into a deal with Uganda to allow Kampala to export surplus sugar into the country three years ago, but Nairobi delayed the implementation until late last year when the neighbouring state was allowed to ship in 20,000 tonnes of the 90,000 tonnes surplus that it had requested. “Regarding Kenya’s restriction of Uganda’s sugar exports, Uganda shall export 90,000 tonnes of wholly originating sugar per annum. The findings of the ongoing sugar sector verification mission shall inform implementation of this decision,” the two governments said in a joint communiqué.

Source: Business Daily

Lesotho

Lesotho firm first in Africa to be granted EU licence for medical cannabis

A company in Lesotho has become the first in Africa to receive a licence to sell medical cannabis to the European Union (EU). The country’s top medical cannabis producer, MG Health, announced it had met the EU’s good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, allowing it to export cannabis flower, oil and extracts as an active pharmaceutical ingredient. It will export its first batch to Germany later this year. The GMP guidelines are the minimum requirements a manufacturer or producer must meet to ensure that products are safe and of a consistent high quality. They are used to control the licensing of the sale of food and pharmaceutical and medical products. The company is optimistic that accreditation will open doors to business with more EU countries and other international markets. It has already received inquiries from France, the United Kingdom and Australia. A report in August last year forecasts that the European cannabis market will be worth USD37-million (GBP26-million) by 2027.

Source: The Guardian

Malawi

USD1-billion special eco zones on the cards

Minister of Industry Roy Kachale has said plans are at an advanced stage to establish special economic zones in the country’s major cities, pegged at USD1.4-billion (about MWK1.09-trillion). In an interview, Kachale said implementation of the plans awaits the passing of the Special Economic Zones Bill. “There are several projects that we are going to undertake. The biggest one is the establishment of the special economic zones which will be very huge industrial parks in Lilongwe at Area 55, in Blantyre at Matindi and in Mzuzu,” Kachale said. He said once the Bill is passed, government will engage financiers and construction companies to set up the parks, stressing that feasibility studies, master plans and business plans are in place. This follows revelations that the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) is advocating the establishment of small and medium industry shells in the outskirts of the country’s major cities. NASME national chairperson William Mwale said they have identified Kasiya in Lilongwe as a starting point and have since engaged chiefs in the area to provide land for the development.

Source: The Times

Malawi

Policy to focus on taming prices – RBM

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) says the monetary policy stance in the first half of 2021 will focus on maintaining the inflation rate in single digit and anchoring inflation expectations to cement the economy’s recovery from COVID-19. In its bi-annual Monetary Policy Report, the central bank said monetary policy will aim at supporting the accumulation of international reserves to at least three months of import cover and providing room for sufficient credit to the private sector. In order to achieve these objectives, the RBM said it will continue to pursue a forward-looking monetary policy framework, with the short-term nominal interest rate, particularly the interbank rate (IBR), as an operational target. The report reads in part: “The IBR is currently set to be within +0.2 and -4.0 percentage points around the policy rate [at 12 percent].” The policy rate has been maintained at 12% since last year.

Source: The Nation

Nigeria

‘Nigerian ports undermining trade, industrialisation’

Stakeholders have decried the state of Nigerian seaports, saying they are largely underdeveloped, poorly ranked among their peers in the West Africa sub-region, and undermining the ease of doing business. Speaking at the virtual inauguration of the maritime group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the president of the Chamber, Toki Mabogunje, stated that no economy can be competitive in the international trade circle without an efficient maritime sector. She said that several challenges include delays in import and export processes, heavy human and vehicular congestion around the ports, policy and regulatory inconsistencies, infrastructure and logistic constraints, security concerns, and incidents of corruption and infractions among regulatory agencies at the ports. Others, she listed, are a complication in the ease of doing business at the port, with gross implications for investment promotion, and difficulty in accessing the ports. The former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Adebayo Sarumi, urged increased advocacy to ensure that the government listens more to the private sector and ensures that port reforms contain contributions of the private sector.

Source: The Guardian

Nigeria

Senate seeks policies to encourage local investors in cement production

The Senate has called on the federal government to provide more industrial incentives and protections, such as concessionary loans and larger tax incentives for new entrants into the local cement production, with a view to boost production, reduce prices and encourage more valuable producers in the country. The Senate passed a resolution at a plenary, following the adoption of a motion entitled, ‘Need for Liberalisation of Cement Policy in Nigeria,’ sponsored by Senator Ashiru Yisa (Kwara South) and five others. Moving the motion, Yisa said cement was of strategic importance to the country’s infrastructure such as roads, bridges, drainages as well as in the construction of residential and public buildings. He said unfavourable government policies such as the imposition of multiple taxes, erratic power supply, government ban on importation in violation of the Economic Community of West African States Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and subsequent lifting of importation in favour of a few producers had negative implications on the growth in infrastructure.

Source: This Day

Rwanda

Rusumo power plant could start operations by end of 2021

By the end of this year, one unit of the 80 MW Regional Rusumo Hydroelectric Power Project will be operational, an engineer at Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP) has disclosed. NELSAP is one of the investment programs under the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) with a mandate to facilitate jointly agreed transformative regional trans-boundary cooperative projects or in-country projects with regional impact related to the common use of the Nile Basin water resources. It focuses on hydro-power investment projects and regional power transmission interconnections as well as water resources management and development projects. The project will benefit Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania which are part of the NBI, an intergovernmental partnership that brings together 10 countries linked to the River Nile, namely: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. “We envisage that by the end of this year, at least one unit will be on,” said Alloyce Oduor, the Power Engineer at NELSAP.

Source: The New Times

Senegal

Country Strategy Document 2021-2025 sets out its objectives on regional integration, agricultural transformation, infrastructure and industrial development

For the period 2021-2025, the African Development Bank (AfDB) will support Senegal in strengthening its infrastructure and regional integration as well as the resilience of its economy through agricultural transformation and industrial development. The Country Strategy Document (DSP 2021-2025), validated and released by the Bank on 19 April, aims to support Senegal's inclusive, robust and stable growth and contribute to strengthening the country's resilience. This will contribute to the strengthening of regional integration infrastructure in order to boost exchanges with key partners. Above all, it will ensure a better connection between Senegal and its neighbours, notably the Gambia, Mauritania and Mali, but also the development of transport activities along the Tangier-Lagos and Algiers-Dakar trans-African corridors on the one hand and between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa on the other. The second priority area of the DSP 2021-2025 aims to increase the resilience of Senegal's economy through agricultural transformation and industrial development, including the establishment of agropoles.

Source: AfDB

Senegal

Shifting Senegal’s electricity generation from heavy fuel to gas

The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) has provided USD60-million funding to fuel Senegal’s national electrification and gas use ambitions. The project finance facility is enabling Karpowership to operate its 235 MW powership alongside the shores of Dakar since August 2019. The MCB’s contribution is part of a larger USD140-million syndicated project finance facility to keep the powership running. The powership contributes around 15% of Senegal’s electricity supply. According to the International Energy Agency’s African Energy Outlook 2019, Senegal’s rate of electrification was 69% in 2018, with a 92% rate in urban areas, but 42% in rural areas. The country’s national roadmap for electrification, Plan Sénégal Emergent, states the government’s ambition to increase its electrification rate to 100% by 2025. At the same time it wants to focus on lowering electricity generation costs by reducing its dependence on imported liquid fuels and increasing electricity access to rural areas.

Source: ESI Africa

Tanzania

BRELA registers 7,148 new companies

The Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) has reached three quarters of its target of registering 9,528 new companies for the current financial year, thanks to the new online registration system. The Agency’s chief executive officer Godfrey Nyaisa told a press conference that so far, some 7,148 companies have been registered, representing 75.02% of the target. “With the online registration system and given that all applicants’ documents are intact, it takes only a single day for the registration to be completed,” said Mr Nyaisa. He was speaking during a tour by the Industry and Trade minister, Prof Kitila Mkumbo, who visited BRELA for the first time since he was appointed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to head the ministry. Prof Mkumbo directed the agency to work on traders’ challenges so that they do not decide to close their businesses, saying that BRELA has a responsibility to assist businesses and not to act as an impediment.

Source: The Citizen

Tanzania

President outlines stimulus plan

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has outlined a raft of measures that her government will take to stimulate economic growth, which has been adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. President Hassan spent almost a third of her 90-minute maiden speech to Parliament articulating what the government would do to regain investor confidence. She also explained how economic diplomacy, provision of incentives to strategic projects, fighting corruption and getting rid of bureaucracy in issuance of work permits and approval of investment projects, among others, would boost investment to spur economic growth to at least 8% annually. “Due to COVID-19, economic growth dropped from an average of 6.6% to 4.7% last year. We need massive investment to spur economic growth,” she told a packed House. President Hassan said her government would oversee changes to policies, laws and regulations governing investment with a view to making them more attractive to investors.

Source: The Citizen

Tanzania

Tanzania Banking Sector Report – 2021 update

The Tanzanian banking sector recorded strong growth in 2019, with profits before tax reaching TZS590-billion, 88% more than TZS313-billion in 2018. In 2020, there were 47 licensed banks in Tanzania. Their total assets reached TZS33-trillion in 2019, representing a growth of 9% from TZS30-trillion in 2018. With so many banks, and a population largely unbanked, Tanzania has recorded significant growth in the level of financial inclusion over the last decade. Meanwhile, according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), overall, the banking sector remained sound and stable in terms of profitability, capital adequacy, liquidity, and asset quality. According to the latest Financial Sector Supervision Annual Report of the BoT, in 2019 the Tanzanian banking sector grew in terms of assets, loans, deposits and profits compared to 2018. In its latest Monetary Policy Statement of February 2021, BoT indicates that the Tanzanian economy performed satisfactorily amid the negative impact of COVID-19 on some sectors of the economy. Growth averaged 4.7% in the first three quarters of 2020, compared to 7.3% in the corresponding period of 2019 and 6.9% in 2018, mostly driven by construction, agriculture, transport, and mining and quarrying.

Source: TanzaniaInvest

Uganda

Cipla gets go-ahead to export drugs to 30 African countries

Ugandan drug maker – Cipla Quality Chemicals – has been granted permission to export medicine to about 30 African countries. This will be in addition to the 11 countries in which Cipla has been exporting drugs in the last five years. The new countries are mainly in West Africa (Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)) and Southern Africa (Zazibona), which gives Cipla export access to at least 74% of the African market. “For the first time, a manufacturer from East Africa has received approval to supply drugs to ECOWAS. The approval not only bestows a vote of confidence in Cipla but also in Uganda’s pharmaceutical industry,” Mr Nervin Bradford, the Cipla chief executive officer said, noting that this will give Cipla an opportunity to enter new markets such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Liberia. The company will also have an opportunity to export drugs to Namibia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and South Africa under Zazibona.

Source: Daily Monitor

Zimbabwe

Government plans to produce 100 MW from wind

Government is mobilising additional funds to undertake an assessment on possible sites for wind farms after initial bids for the project markedly exceeded the budget earmarked for the project, according to Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda. In 2017, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) invited bids from interested contractors to carry out a feasibility study on potential sites where wind power stations could be established. “There were issues of inadequate funds from the previous budget and we are now looking for additional funds to carry out a viable feasibility study which investors can bank on,” said Minister Soda in an interview. “This will help us to meet our target of producing 100 megawatts from wind farms by 2025.” The areas where ZERA intends to conduct the wind resource measurement include the middle veld from the south to the north-eastern part of the country. The zones were identified after taking into consideration access to roads, terrain, proximity to load centres and land use (protected areas and other productive purposes).

Source: The Sunday Mail