Prioritizing the digital space will help shift the development focus for Africa’s agribusiness sector and overcome its many hurdles, participants at an official side event, organized Wednesday during the 7th Tokyo International Conference, heard.  The seminar headlined “The Digital Africa 2020 and Japanese investment Panel: Creating markets to digitize Africa”, was jointly organized...

Science, technology and innovation as well as human resource development are critical in Africa, a continent, which has the biggest potential on earth, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum held in Yokohama, on Wednesday, as part of TICAD 7. The Science and Technology in Society forum (STS forum) is one of the largest and most influential nonprofit...

Angola needs about $300 million to complete, by 2025, its program of clearing landmines in areas mined during the civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 2002. This was announced yesterday August 27 by Adriano Gonçalves, the head of the office of Exchange and Cooperation of the National Inter-sectoral Commission on Demining and Humanitarian Assistance (CNIDAH). According to the...

The Sasakawa Association will work with the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), to help double rice production to 50 million tonnes by 2030.  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the announcement at the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) symposium held on Wednesday during TICAD7. “Japanese technology can play a key role in innovation which is key to agriculture,” Prime...

Kaizen, the business philosophy which means continuous improvement in Japanese, was at the heart of discussions at a seminar held on Tuesday, and co-organised by JICA and NEPAD on the sidelines of the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD7. The seminar, under the theme: “Africa’s Socio-economic Transformation through innovation,” discussed the role of Kaizen, in...

The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio (pictured), inaugurated last week, Africa's first-ever national digital identification system based on blockchain technology. This system developed by the National Civil Registry Authority (NCRA) guarantees every Sierra Leonean a forgery-proof identity. It is the result of a partnership signed last year between the country, the...

Nigeria’s Dangote Cement announced a $322 million deal in Niger. The project concerns the construction of a clinker production unit, a gas-fired power plant and cement plant which is expected to deliver 4,500 tons per day. Through this complex, scheduled to be completed by 2021, Dangote wants to close the cement production gap in this emerging country. Indeed, Niger is betting on the...

Mutuelle Agricole Marocaine d’Asssurance launches (MAMDA) is considering setting up an investment fund of MAD500 million ($52.2 million) for agriculture and agribusiness development. The mutual group, which offers agricultural insurance coverage, plans to provide capital support to mid-cap companies through investments the amount of which are not yet specified. MAMDA does not provide...

Mozambique and Indonesia signed a new preferential trade agreement (PTA) to lower their tariff barriers, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade announced this week. They want to boost their trade relations by reducing tariffs on many products traded between the two economies. For example, Mozambique is expected to lower import tariffs on 217 Indonesian products including palm oil, margarine, rubber...

Egypt’s investment bank and assets manager HC Securities said, following decision by the Central Bank to further cut interest rates approaching level in November 2017, the net interest margins realized by banks will drop. HC Securities “expects the CBE to accelerate its planned rate cuts, with a possible 100–200 bps cut in the second half (H2) of 2019, before another 200–300 cut bps in...