First Independent Mena Newspaper
Japan has recently announced an ambitious multibillion-dollar program of economic assistance to Africa — pledging to spend $30 billion on the continent and stressing a focus on training African professionals, food production and green growth — in a bid to provide the continent with an alternative to Chinese lending and investment. The recent flurry of […]
Kenya has started exporting its fresh avocados — dubbed as “green gold” — to China, which is seen as a step in Beijing’s elaborate plan to increase imports from Africa to help balance the trade between China and the continent. The first batch of fresh avocados grown in Kenya and destined for the Chinese market […]
The demand for Chinese 5G smartphones across Africa continues to rise, as more countries on the continent keep testing 5G networks and their citizens are upgrading from 4G smartphones to 5G-enabled ones. Despite the slow pace of 5G network infrastructure development in Africa, the enthusiasm among people across the continent to be part of the […]
Hundreds of truckers have stopped working on Cameroon’s border with Chad to protest a ban on heavy trucking into Chad, which depends on Cameroon for 80% of its imported goods. Drivers transporting food and humanitarian assistance slammed what they call Cameroon’s refusal to repair the highly dilapidated road linking northern Cameroon and Chad. The strategically […]
E-mobility start-up Roam recently partnered with M-Kopa, a Nairobi-based clean energy financier, to provide thousands of e-motorcycles to riders in Kenya, after becoming the first startup in the country to convert petrol-powered motorbikes to electric last year, starting with a fleet of 100. “This is one of the biggest leaps for electric mobility in Africa,“ […]
China has announced plans to waive 23 interest-free loans to 17 African countries that were due in 2021 amid a growing rivalry with the West and accusations that it is creating “debt traps” on the continent. The relief was announced on 18 August in an address to Chinese and African diplomats at a follow-up meeting […]
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia — the second largest international exporter after China — the prices of fertilizers in West Africa have skyrocketed, severely aggravating the ongoing food crisis in countries such as Burkina Faso. In the last few months, the Sahel region has been hit by the worst drought in over a […]
Cameroon has sealed at least 30 gold mines, including some owned by Chinese companies, after more than 33 young miners died in landslides this month and scores more were declared missing. On Monday (22 August), the local government deployed several hundred troops to seal at least 30 gold mines in Kambele, a village in Batouri […]
Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group has taken another step forward in its hopes of developing an iron ore mine in Gabon after it signed a majority-owned joint venture agreement with the country’s government. The world’s fourth largest iron ore miner announced Friday (19 August) it had struck an agreement with the government of the West African […]
A spike in tensions between the United States and China over Taiwan has not gone unnoticed in Africa and has prompted responses that underscore the continent’s tilt toward Beijing. Washington announced trade talks with Taiwan on Thursday (18 August) following a US congressional delegation’s visit earlier this week that came on the heels of a […]