First Independent Mena Newspaper
A group of US senators introduced a bill to renew AGOA trade program with 40 nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, to help them maintain duty-free access to the US market ahead of the deal’s expiration next year. The legislation, first enacted in 2000, is expected to be extended until 2041, news agencies reported. Biden’s administration has […]
As the world marked World Health Day on 7 April, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted air pollution — most notably in fast-growing cities in Africa — as a top danger that the governments on the continent need to resolve. Experts and organizations working for cleaner air in Africa have recently met in Cameroon’s […]
With Sudan’s war about to enter its second year next week, the country has been embroiled in a fierce conflict with two rival military factions led by powerful generals at loggerheads, with Sudanese civilians suffering the consequences of a one-year bloody conflict with no end in sight. Fighting in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces […]
African economy is expected to grow by 3.4% this year and 3.8 in 2025, said the World Bank, noting that the rate was not enough to curb poverty. The continent needs higher growth rates to help at least 462 million people in sub-Sahara who were still living in extreme poverty by 2023, the World Bank […]
As Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region prepare to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr — the Feast of Breaking the Ramadan Fast — starting from Wednesday (11 April), people in many parts of Africa are bracing for low-key festivities due to the tough economic and security challenges that their countries are going through. […]
The number of Chinese workers across Africa has plummeted to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, with experts saying the continent is unlikely to see the high numbers of the past even though postponed China-run projects are now being restarted. After decades when Africa […]
Africa will play a “huge role” in America’s critical mineral strategy, says US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo who used his five-day trip to South Africa to express his country’s ambitions of securing metals needed for the global energy transition. Africa’s natural richness, which includes many so-called critical minerals, such as chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, […]
African countries are watching closely France’s attempt to impose an EU-wide ban on the export of second-hand clothes, popularly known as mitumba, millions of tonnes of which are exported to the continent each year. France’s lower house of parliament has recently approved a new bill that would gradually impose fines of up to €10-per-item of […]
Amid growing global competition for strategic minerals, the US is relying on Africa to reduce the dominance of China over resources used for electric batteries, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said. “We don’t want to be overly reliant on any one country or any one company for global supply chains for critical minerals,” Adeyemo […]
European and other Western companies face losing out on sub-Saharan African lithium supply to Chinese companies whose grip on the critical mineral got even tighter last year when African exports of lithium, which mostly go to China, rose sharply between August and November. Already dominant in the cobalt and copper sectors in Africa, China is […]