First Independent Mena Newspaper
Zimbabwe eyes the membership of BRICS grouping, hoping this would enhance the country’s opportunities for free trade with other member states, with experts saying that the African continent would benefit from the BRICS expansion to include five new countries from Africa and the Middle East. Speaking at a recent BRICS international forum in Vladivostok, Zimbabwe’s […]
African governments need to develop robust strategies for the critical minerals sector amid global rush for the continent’s lithium and other strategically important rare metals, a recent research has found. Demand for lithium, for example, tripled from 2017 to 2022, while the critical minerals market doubled in five years, reaching US$320 billion in 2022, according […]
The unprecedented drought that has enveloped large parts of southern Africa since late last year has impacted more than 6 million people in Zambia, 3 million of them children, nearly half of Malawi’s population and 30% of Zambia’s, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned. The drought in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi has now reached […]
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, […]
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 […]
South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, three of the largest maize producing countries on the continent, expect their output to slash this year due to a shortage of rainfall. Heatwaves and drought heavily compromised the maize harvest of the three countries as well as smaller producers such as Lesotho and Botswana, according to recent official reports. […]
Egypt and Zimbabwe signed Thursday December 21 a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of low- and medium-cost housing and efficient housing at reasonable prices, using modern construction technology. Under the deal between the Egyptian and Zimbabwean Housing Ministries, the two sides will exchange expertise, information, and technical capacities to provide housing, regulatory framework, […]
South Korea’s recent announcement of the opening of new diplomatic missions in several African nations signals that Seoul aims to commit more resources to a continent that is widely seen as home to some of the world’s fastest-growing markets, according to experts. When the South Korean government on 7 November announced plans to open 10 […]
The new rush for lithium — sometimes referred to as ‘white gold’ — in Africa risks fueling corruption and harming local communities and the environment, according to a latest study by UK-based nonprofit Global Witness that investigated three emerging lithium mines in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The study has found that […]