First Independent Mena Newspaper
Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Mauritius, and Tunisia are Africa’s most industrialized economies but it is the other countries, which have improved the most over the past 10 years, that have made the greatest efforts to move away from economic dependence on extractives toward value-adding sectors. The countries that showed the greatest progress over the past […]
Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF) told the Confederation of African Football that the national team could boycott the Africa U23 Cup of Nations if the national team is not allowed to have a direct flight to Algeria. Algeria has closed its airspace to all Moroccan flights adding to borders which it has kept closed since […]
Dutch King Willem-Alexander welcomed the government’s apology for the Netherlands’ role in 250 years of slavery in his Christmas address on Sunday (25 December), saying it was the “start of a long journey.” The official apology was made Monday Dec. 19 by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte who responded to recommendations from a panel of […]
Africa accounts for only 2.4% of global Gross Domestic Products (GDP), although the continent has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) revealed last week. Despite Africa’s disproportionately low share of the global GDP, the continent has the largest reserves of precious metals with over 40% of […]
The West and China should seek deeper cooperation over Africa’s debt conundrum in 2023, without which many countries on the continent will face debt distress and defaults, a new research paper by Chatham House warns. The report warns that although China’s lending to Africa did not cause the current African debt distress in most cases […]
Immigration restrictions between citizens of East African Community (EAC) member states could derail the efforts by the bloc to align with the continental free trade policies, according to new data prepared by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The report released by the AfDB and African Union Commission on Sunday shows that while the EAC is […]
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo cannot call on African leaders to stop begging from the West while he is doing the same, said former Nigerian senator, Shehu Sani, in response to Akufo-Addo’s recent advice to African leaders against “begging” from the West. “If we stop being beggars and spend African money inside the continent, Africa will […]
UK-based finance institution British International Investment (BII) and the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) have signed a $75 million re-guarantee agreement for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Africa, Zawya reports. The fund, according to BII, will provide credit guarantees to partner financial institutions for up to 75% of the risk on SME loans, thus increasing […]
At the heart of the Africa’s crypto boom was FTX, an international exchange run by US crypto guru Sam Bankman-Fried, whose collapse in November has sent shockwaves across the continent, along with calls for more regulation. An unknown number of African customers held funds on the Bahamas-based platform, as did numerous African startups. On Tuesday […]
While some of the ports, bridges and other coastal projects constructed as part of Beijing’s so-called Maritime Silk Road help developing economies increase their capacity for trade, there are environmental downsides to China’s coastal infrastructure, according to a new academic study that has just been published in the journal One Earth. The study, by researchers […]