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Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta to convene climate talks at UN conference

Thursday October 28 2021

President Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO | PSCU

Summary

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.
Mr Kenyatta is a member of the Giants Club alongside the presidents of Botswana, Gabon, Uganda, Mozambique and Rwanda.

By BRIAN NGUGI

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Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta will lead talks on Africa’s crucial role in tackling the climate crisis at the United Nations climate conference (COP26) starting in Glasgow, Scotland, next week.

President Kenyatta and Evgeny Lebedev, the British-Russian tycoon owner of the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers, will convene a side event to discuss the importance of protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

The event staged by Kenya, and The Independent and the international conservation NGO Space for Giants will also discuss how private and public sector investment can help preserve crucial carbon sinks.

The sideline meeting will be held at the African Development Bank’s COP26 pavilion on November 3 from 1 pm - 2.30 pm local time.

“It will draw attention to the value of Africa’s carbon sinks and launch a focused initiative to fast-track the development of their carbon offset sectors across the continent through the launch of national investment processes,” said the organisers.

Giants Club

Representatives from nearly 200 countries meet in Glasgow, from October 31 to November 12 to flesh out the rules of a new global climate pact.

Mr Kenyatta is a member of the Giants Club alongside the presidents of Botswana, Gabon, Uganda, Mozambique and Rwanda. Lord Lebedev, a shareholder of The Independent, is the Giants Club’s patron.

The forum brings together political and private sector leaders to support nature conservation in Africa.

Next week’s COP26 event will feature contributions from the heads of state, or their senior representatives, from all the Giants Club countries.

“COP26 must focus on an African solution to our global climate problem,” Mr Lebedev said in a statement.

“We need to preserve Africa’s carbon sinks if we are to stand a chance of saving our planet. Together, African governments, the private sector and the global community can help to sustain Africa’s natural habitat – and combat climate change.”

In the headlines

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How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

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Kenya's ex-Chief Justice Willy Mutunga asks judges to strike over Executive defiance of orders

Thursday October 28 2021

Kenya's former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Summary

The former CJ made the remarks during an event at the United Green Movement party's headquarters in Nairobi.
During Thursday's event, the former CJ said though they understand that bringing Mr Miguna back home will be difficult, they will still do all they can to bring him back to Kenya.
The retired CJ also accused the state of abducting and torturing Mr Miguna at his home in Nairobi before deportation in 2018.

By STEVE OTIENO

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Kenya's former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga on Thursday urged judges to down their tools to compel the Executive to obey court orders and rule of law.

The former CJ made the remarks during an event at the United Green Movement party's headquarters in Nairobi.

Last week, Dr Mutunga said that he would be travelling to Canada to accompany lawyer Miguna Miguna back into the country.

Dr Miguna Miguna, a firebrand opposition lawyer, was ejected from Kenya in February 2018. He had earlier been arrested for his role in the mock inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga as the "people's president", despite the High Court's ruling that barred the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Inspector General (IG) of the police from preferring any criminal charges against him and ordered that he be set free. His subsequent attempts to return to the country from Canada, where he's also a citizen, have been futile.

During Thursday's event, the former CJ said though they understand that bringing Mr Miguna back home will be difficult, they will still do all they can to bring him back to Kenya.

Mr Augustine Neto, the co-party chair of the UGM, confirmed that Mr Miguna has already bought an air ticket and is scheduled to land in Kenya on November 16 early in the morning.

Dr Mutunga, who has previously accused the government of disobeying court orders, last Wednesday said that his decision was a protest move against the government which he accused of infringing on Mr Miguna’s rights as a citizen of the country.

The retired CJ also accused the state of abducting and torturing Mr Miguna at his home in Nairobi before deportation in 2018. He added that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime had ignored several court orders to bring the lawyer back.

“I have taken this extraordinary step for two fundamental reasons. The first is because of the continued, flagrant and reprehensible defiance of the Government of Kenya, its agencies, and senior officials, against the numerous valid court orders in favour of Mr Miguna,” said Dr Mutunga in a statement released during Mashujaa Day celebrations.

“The second reason why I have decided to undertake this journey is to support and defend the independence of our Judiciary, its authority, and the people’s confidence in it,” he added.

In the headlines

British banks exit Africa over ‘risky’ investments

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent.

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

Turkey's Erdogan pivots to Africa for trade

Thursday October 28 2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His assertive foreign policy has been a source of rising tension with the West, with critics accusing the Turkish leader lacking a strategy. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Summary

From mining to health, energy to infrastructure, Turkish businesses are popping up across the resource-rich continent and signing deals hailed as a "win-win".
One of the most strategic and controversial areas of this cooperation is defence, where Turkey has been flaunting the game-changing successes of its military drones on the battlefields of countries such as Libya.
Turkish firms have already built a mosque in Ghana, an indoor stadium in Rwanda, an Olympic swimming pool in Senegal, and are working on an airport in Sudan.

By AFP

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan enters this weekend's G20 summit in Rome fresh off an African tour aimed at cementing lucrative partnerships during another spell of tensions with the West.

From mining to health, energy to infrastructure, Turkish businesses are popping up across the resource-rich continent and signing deals hailed as a "win-win".

This pivot away from traditional European markets has already seen Turkey's trade with Africa balloon from $5.4 billion when Erdogan came to power in 2003 to $25.4 billion last year.

Back from a visit to Angola, Togo and Nigeria -- and in the middle of another diplomatic spat with the West -- Erdogan told an African business forum last week that Turkey wanted to see trade triple in the coming years.

One of the most strategic and controversial areas of this cooperation is defence, where Turkey has been flaunting the game-changing successes of its military drones on the battlefields of countries such as Libya.

"Defence industry products offer a new opportunity," said associate professor Mursel Bayram of Ankara's Social Sciences University.

'Afro-Eurasian' nation

Erdogan once described Turkey as an "Afro-Eurasian" nation and has visited the most African countries -- 30 out of 54 -- of any non-African head of state.

The number of Turkish embassies in Africa has grown from 12 to 43 since 2002 while the national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, flies to over 60 African destinations.

"The main reason for our increased interest in Africa is that we saw the potential there," Foreign Economic Relations Board chief Nail Olpak told AFP.

"Maybe we saw it a little late, but we did."

Olpak pointed to the young, fast-growing continent's huge need for infrastructure, from electricity to bridges, drinking water to waste disposal, where Turkish companies excel.

Turkish firms have already built a mosque in Ghana, an indoor stadium in Rwanda, an Olympic swimming pool in Senegal, and are working on an airport in Sudan.

Algeria, meanwhile, is one of Turkey's main suppliers of liquefied petroleum gas, offering Ankara a chance to "reduce our dependence on Russia and Iran", said Bayram.

'Like a soaring arrow'

For African officials, Turkish companies offer jobs and reasonably priced goods the quality of which often compares favourably to those from China -- one of the continent's most aggressive investors.

"We see Turkey as a serious friend who wants to invest in Africa," Tanzania Industry and Trade Minister Kitila Mkumbo told the Africa business forum in Istanbul, attended by more than 40 African and Turkish ministers.

"Africa is no longer interested in aid, Africa is interested in investment," Mkumbo said in a speech which received rapturous applause.

Uganda Investment Authority board chairman Morrison Rwakakamba was among those drumming up trade, expressing hope for Turkish interest in agriculture and agro-processing in his east African country.

"With Turkey, the relationship is very much based on mutuality and win-win, and that is a very good starting point," Rwakakamba told AFP.

The bid to expand African trade comes with the Turkish lira steadily sinking to new lows, which makes exports even more competitive.

"It is like a soaring arrow," said Muzaffer Suat Utku, executive vice president in charge of international banking at Turkey's Aktif Bank, which brands itself as the "bank of the African foreign trade".

"Our exporters and investors are constantly having meetings in Africa. I believe relations will reach a much more substantial level," Utku said.

Different from China

Some analysts believe Ankara has developed more goodwill in Africa than has Beijing, whose projects have been known to put developing countries into heavy debt.

"If we compare Turkey with China, we can see that on the ground there are different outcomes for the local people," said Federico Donelli, international relations researcher at the University of Genoa.

"There is more involvement of local peoples and in some cases, there is also an exchange of know-how between Turkey and the local population," Donelli told AFP.

Erdogan's assertive foreign policy has been a source of rising tension with the West, with critics accusing the Turkish leader lacking a strategy.

But in Africa, experts say Turkey is following a more considered approach.

"There is a long-term plan, it's not a short-term plan," Bayram said, pointing to investments in healthcare, education, training, and the role of women.

In the headlines

British banks exit Africa over ‘risky’ investments

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent.

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

Uganda imposes $30 mandatory Covid test for air travellers

Thursday October 28 2021

Newly acquired Uganda Airlines Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft stand on the runway at Entebbe Airport on the outskirts of Kampala on April 23, 2019. PHOTO | AFP

Summary

This is a departure from the previous norm where Kampala only tested citizens arriving from high-risk countries.
The new directive comes as a blow to the airlines that are already struggling with the effects of Covid-19.

By GERALD ANDAE

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Passengers travelling to Uganda will now have to pay $30 for a mandatory Covid-19 test as the landlocked country tightens containment measures to curb a possible third wave.

Uganda’s authorities say a Notice to Airmen (Notam) communicating the details of the mandatory testing requirements to all airlines is to be immediately processed and issued.

This is a departure from the previous norm where Kampala only tested citizens arriving from high-risk countries.

The move will come as a blow to regional carriers including Kenya Airways, which has previously said the containment measures issued by some of the countries have a negative impact on demand.

“The measure is intended to curb further importation of the deadly variants of the coronavirus into the country. It is also to abet further spread of the disease and guard against the third wave,” said a statement from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.

The Ministry of Health in Uganda has set up the testing laboratories at the airport and trained laboratory technicians, data entrants and all the other port-health staff to manage the process.

“The turnaround time for the mandatory Covid-19 test results will be reduced from four hours to two hours and fifteen minutes. Five PCR test machines with a capacity to test 300 samples per hour are in place at Entebbe. The facility has the capacity to test 3,600 passengers in 12 hours and 7,200 passengers in 24 hours,” said the agency.

The passengers will also be required to present a negative PCR test done not more than 72 hours prior to travel.

The new directive comes as a blow to the airlines that are already struggling with the effects of Covid-19, which has seen carriers such as Kenya Airways cut their frequencies to Uganda.

KQ in July cut the number of flights to Uganda from 12 a week to nine citing low loads on the route as passengers kept off.

Uganda is one of the key routes for Kenya Airways with the most frequencies within the region with low demand on the destination set to impact the carrier’s earnings.

In the headlines

British banks exit Africa over ‘risky’ investments

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent.

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

Kenya upset over stalled talks on jab IP rights

Thursday October 28 2021

Kenya, Eswatini, and Tanzania are among countries co-sponsoring the WTO IP waiver, supported by more than 100 countries, including the US, saying it will save lives by allowing developing countries to produce Covid vaccines. PHOTO | FILE | NMG

Summary

The waiver was first proposed in October 2020 by India and South Africa, and is expected to cover several aspects of the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Kenya, Eswatini, and Tanzania are among countries co-sponsoring the WTO IP waiver, supported by more than 100 countries, including the US, saying it will save lives by allowing developing countries to produce Covid vaccines.
Although many low- and middle-income countries are still struggling to reach WHO recommended vaccination quotas, access to vaccines remains low.

By LUKE ANAMI

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As countries prepare for the November 30 to December 3, 2021 World Trade Organisation ministerial conference, Kenya has joined other members in expressing disappointment over stalled discussions to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines and drugs.

The waiver was first proposed in October 2020 by India and South Africa, and is expected to cover several aspects of the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

The latest WTO meeting of the Council for TRIPS on October 13 and 14 failed to unlock the impasse, and a second one is expected to be held on November 22 and 23 before the ministerial conference.

Only a handful of WTO members including the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland are still opposed to the waiver.

“We are still negotiating. The discussions are done in groups. And these groups have difficulties having meetings. It is disappointing that we have not made that progress,” said Johnson Weru, Kenya’s principal secretary at the State Department for Trade and Enterprise, Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development.

Mr Weru faulted rich countries, saying that they are under obligation to ensure vaccines are supplied to all.

“The challenge is not the pharmaceutical companies of those countries still opposed to the waiver, but the value chains. Producing is one thing, and taking the vaccines to the population is another,” he said.

Although many low- and middle-income countries are still struggling to reach WHO recommended vaccination quotas, access to vaccines remains low. The proposed TRIPS waiver, if adopted, will provide countries with a way to remove legal risks and allow additional manufacturers to scale-up supply of Covid-19 vaccines, medicines, diagnostics, and other health technologies all over the world.

The chair of the TRIPS Council, Dagfinn Sørli of Norway, said he is engaging members to arrive at a consensus before the conference.

“The TRIPS Council is not yet in a position to agree on a concrete conclusion,” he said.

In the headlines

British banks exit Africa over ‘risky’ investments

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent.

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

How Uganda’s thriving tobacco withered and went up in smoke

Thursday October 28 2021

One of the few remaining tobacco farmers in Busangwa village in Hoima prepares the tobacco leaves for drying. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG

Summary

At the peak of production in 2013, tobacco leaf was one of Uganda’s biggest foreign exchange earners.
However, with campaigns against tobacco growing and consumption and Uganda’s 2015 passing of strong control laws the industry went through a downward spiral.

By GILBERT MWIJUKE

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At the peak of production in 2013, tobacco leaf was one of Uganda’s biggest foreign exchange earners, raking in $120 million in exports revenue and employing over 75,000 farmers who were producing about 18,000 tonnes per year.

Started in the 1920s by British American Tobacco (BAT), tobacco farming and the entire industry was so vibrant that in 2012, British American Tobacco Uganda (Batu) — the biggest exporter of Ugandan leaf at the time — invested about $1 million in its central purchasing point in Hoima, Bunyoro sub-region, an area that had 15,000 of Batu’s 30,000 contracted farmers.

In the same year, BAT Group also relocated its regional headquarters for leaf operations for eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from South Africa to Uganda.

A BAT Uganda worker at the tobacco processing plant in Kampala in 2012. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG

Following this move, in 2013 Batu earned about $60 million from exporting tobacco leaf and paid $21.7 million to the Ugandan government in taxes, which made the company one of the top 10 taxpayers in Uganda.

Downward spiral

However, with campaigns against tobacco growing and consumption and Uganda’s 2015 passing of strong control laws — such as banning of direct advertising and an increase in taxation — the industry went through a downward spiral.

In 2014, Batu ceded its tobacco leaf operations in the country to Alliance One International and decided to concentrate on its cigarette business arm.

Between 2017 and 2019, NIMA Tobacco Company, Continental Tobacco and Tropical Leaf Company failed to pay a total of $3 million for the tobacco leaf they got from farmers in the Bunyoro sub-region, one of the areas where many farmers grew tobacco.

The farmers subsequently took the tobacco companies to court. The government has since denied the three companies’ licences to contract farmers for tobacco growing in the area.

A lone tobacco crop within a maize and beans farm in Hoima. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG

However, other new players, such as Alliance One Uganda, Global Leaf Holdings, Meridian Tobacco and Uganda Tobacco Services, have operations in the area, but output has since dropped to an all-time low.

By 2020, less than 10,000 tonnes of tobacco leaf were produced across the country, and annual revenue from exports had fallen from $120 million in 2013 to $49.7 million.

In mid-western Uganda, where 7,000 tonnes of tobacco used to be produced per year, King Solomon Gafabusa Iguru of Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom was at the forefront of persuading farmers in Bunyoro’s Hoima, Masindi and Kiryandongo districts — the biggest producers in the country at the time — to switch to alternative cash crops because, among other reasons, he said the tobacco companies were exploiting them.

“The discouragement of tobacco growing started from the kingdom,” said Apollo Rwamparo, the second deputy prime minister of Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom.

“In 2011, the king told his subjects that he no longer wanted them to grow tobacco because it’s a full-year occupation and yet it has many disadvantages.

“Tobacco growing was also the biggest child labour employer and yet the entire process is toxic, which put the children at the risk of getting health complications such as heart and lung diseases.

After going through all this, the farmers were paid little.

Mr Rwamparo said that the kingdom also discouraged tobacco-growing because, by keeping farmers busy with one commodity all-year-round, food crop production was negatively impacted and the region faced food insecurity.

Simon Abindu, a tobacco farmer in Hoima checks out on his dry tobacco leaves. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG.

Geoffrey Ozuma, a crop scientist at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) in Hoima and a former tobacco farmer himself, said that many farmers were also discouraged by the declining prices.

“When companies such as Continental Tobacco and Link Tobacco Company came in, prices dropped because they started giving farmers inputs on loan and then set low prices for tobacco leaf. That uncertainty, coupled with rising costs of production due to increasing scarcity of essential inputs such as firewood, forced many farmers to give up,” he said.

Simon Abindu, who has been a tobacco farmer in Hoima for several years, says that in 2013 he used to earn up to $5,000 (Ush20 million) from his four-acre tobacco plantation. However, last year he was only able to earn about half of that.

“In the previous years a kilogramme of good quality tobacco leaf used to sell at no less than $2 (Ush7,000) but now traders pay $1.2 (Ush4,500) per kg,” he said.

His eight years of tobacco farming don’t seem to have paid off as he still lives in a grass-thatched house.

The Bulindi tobacco collection centre in Hoima is currently a shadow of itself. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG

High production costs

Mr Ozuma said the cost of production of tobacco is so high that a farmer has to spend 50 percent of their total earnings.

“You spend at least Ush1,000,000 ($278) to earn Ush2,000,000 ($556), which is not so profitable considering that a season is one full year,” he said.

Falling prices aside, Mr Ozuma said he stopped growing tobacco because it was too labour-intensive, requiring him to work on only one crop before he could sell.

“The entire process — from making the nursery bed, transplanting, tending to the garden and fire-curing the tobacco after harvest — takes 11 months and a lot of resources. For instance, fire-curing alone requires about 20 cubic metres of firewood per acre,” Mr Ozuma said.

The 50-year-old said that he felt relieved when he started growing food crops such as beans, groundnuts and vegetables because they take only about two months to mature and they are not as labour-intensive as tobacco.

In the Bunyoro sub-region, tobacco has been grown for centuries.

An antitobacco activist demonstrates in Kampala. FILE PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG

“Some farmers came to me after they stopped growing tobacco asking me to find them buyers for their land, but I encouraged them to keep it and instead grow organic food crops such as avocado and also venture into bee-keeping.

“With an international airport now being constructed in Hoima, it will be easy for farmers here to export their food and earn more,” Mr Rwamparo said.

Some farmers started growing sugarcane, which seemed lucrative at the time. However, sugarcane has since become less profitable due to oversupply.

Henry Bihemaiso is a sugarcane farmer in Masindi district. He is one of those who are struggling to sell the crop.

“My three-acre plantation is now three years old, but the factory we sell to (Kinyara Sugar Works) is not buying,” he said.

“Sugarcane matures in 15 months and I would have cut it twice by now and earned at least $7,000 (Ush25 million).”

For a number of years, outgrowers have complained about the low prices offered by Kinyara Sugar Works. In March 2018, the company reduced the price of sugarcane from $39 (Ush141,000) to $22 (Ush82,000) per tonne.

Farmers suspended supply to Kinyara, but they did not have a ready alternative. The price later went up to $36 before it was dropped again in a notice issued on July 1, 2020, to $25 per tonne.

“The forces of demand and supply will chase them from sugarcane growing,” Mr Rwamparo says.

“The big sugarcane factories are now growing their own, so farmers will learn the hard way and give up. We don’t want to go out there again and discourage the growing of sugarcane because we could be viewed as an institution that is against government programmes.”

In the headlines

British banks exit Africa over ‘risky’ investments

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent.

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

British banks exit Africa as unstable currencies and ‘risks’ raise costs of operations

Thursday October 28 2021

A BPR-Atlas Mara banking hall in Kigali Rwanda. Atlas Mara Ltd is at the tail end of exiting Africa. FILE PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NMG

Summary

UK’s financial conglomerate Atlas Mara Ltd (Atma), which had acquired banks in seven African countries, is at the tail end of exiting the continent.
The bank's holding company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, says currency volatility and drying up of liquidity in African markets adversely impacted its operations.
The World Bank says the region faces worsening impact of climate change in addition to mounting fiscal pressures and rising debt levels.

By JAMES ANYANZWA

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Britain's top banks are pulling out of Africa and casting doubt on the economic growth prospects of a continent that has been riding on the narrative of ‘‘Africa Rising’’ for more than a decade.

UK’s financial conglomerate Atlas Mara Ltd (Atma), which had acquired banks in seven African countries, is at the tail end of exiting the continent. It has termed its African investments “risky” and the sub-Saharan African macroeconomic environment as “challenging”.

The bank's holding company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, says currency volatility and drying up of liquidity in African markets adversely impacted its operations prompting the board to reconsider divestiture and new funding options to shore up the Group’s balance sheet.

Low liquidity support

According to Atma’s annual financial statements for the 14 months to February 28 this year, the difficult operating environment on the continent has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic with many African central banks struggling to provide liquidity support for local banks impacted by the crisis.

“At the same time political pressures led to the imposition of regulatory restrictions on interest rate increases, imposition of fees and other actions that would ordinarily be available to defend liquidity and capital, if not profitability,” the company says.

According to the report the equity market decline in Africa last year was 60 percent worse than in other emerging markets, reflecting a particular “riskoff” view of Africa investment.

“With already constrained fiscal environments and relatively limited assistance from central banks, African markets have been unable to mount eco - nomic responses as impactful as those in the US or the EU, and local currencies, debt and capital markets remain under considerable pressure,” said Michael Wilkerson, the Group’s chairman.

From September 2020 to date, Atma has completed divestment in Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana, and discussions are ongoing for the sale of its Zambian subsidiary.

The company, which was formed in 2013, had planned to acquire banks and sustain its operations in 15 African countries.

According to the report, major currency depreciations across the African markets in which the company operates resulted in a more than $145 million reduction in the dollar value of the company's assets, and a decrease in the company's debt capacity.

“Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment in Africa.

"I am also pleased to report resilient operating performance from our underlying banks during the financial year,” said Mr Wilkerson.

Barclays Plc, whose operations on the continent span more than 100 years, marked its complete exit from the region in December 2017 by reducing its shareholding in South Africa’s Barclays Africa Group from 62.3 percent to a non-controlling stake of 14.9 percent.

In 2016, the lender announced its plans to exit the African market by selling off its entire 62.3 percent shareholding in Barclays Africa Group, the holding company of its African subsidiaries, or reducing it to a non-controlling interest over a two-three-year period.

Barclays Plc sold off business units it did not consider core operations and shifted attention to consumer, corporate and investment banking in Europe and the US.

Following the exit of Barclays Plc, Barclays Africa group, which is currently 40 percent majority owned by South African investors, rebranded all African operations to Absa Barclays Africa Group, now Absa Group Ltd, is listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange and owns stakes in 14 countries across the continent including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Seychelles, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank Plc said in April this year that it plans to close half its branches and reduce global office space by a third, as it seeks to save costs by permanently adopting changes to working practices and retail banking that were adopted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the UK’s business publication Financial Times, the emerging markets-focused lender would take a provision of $500 million this year to cut its network to 400 from 776 branches after they experienced reduced usage during worldwide lockdowns in 2020.

The lender’s physical footprint has been declining over the past five years.

It operated 1,068 branches across Asia, the Middle East and Africa in 2016, but coronavirus has led to an increase in online and mobile banking.

In 2014, Standard Chartered also hinted at plans to close up to 100 bank branches in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in an attempt to improve its profitability by cutting about eight percent of its global network of the then more than 1,200 branches, to save $400 million a year.

External funding needs

According to the International Monetary Fund, sub-Saharan countries face additional external funding needs of $425 billion up to 2025 to help strengthen the Covid-19 pandemic response spending and accelerate income convergence.

The region’s low-income countries require $245 billion in external funding in the same period.

According to the IMF’ s Regional Eco - nomic Outlook Report (2021), Africa will be the world’s slowest growing region this year despite a more buoyant external environment largely due to the unprecedented health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic The continent’s economic growth contracted by –1.9 percent in 2020.

According to IMF, 17 African countries were either in debt distress or at high risk of distress in 2020, one more than before the Covid-19 crisis Outflows from emerging and frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa totalled $5 billion between February and June last year.

According to the World Bank, the projected growth for Africa in 2022 and 2023 remains just below four percent, continuing to lag behind the recovery in advanced economies and emerging markets, and reflecting subdued investment in sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Bank says the region faces worsening impact of climate change in addition to mounting fiscal pressures and rising debt levels, as countries implement measures for a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery.

In the headlines

Kenya's Uhuru to convene climate talks at UN conference

President Kenyatta will convene a side event alongside British-Russian tycoon Evgeny Lebedev, on protecting Africa’s carbon-rich natural landscapes.

How Uganda’s tobacco withered, went up in smoke

Climate change’s unfolding danger to Africans

KQ accused of monopolistic alliances

Cambridge returns looted bronze to Nigeria

World Bank suspends aid to Sudan

ATB pushing for regional tourism blocs

Thursday October 28 2021

The Materuni Waterfall. The African Tourism Board partnered with several African countries to organise tourism exhibitions targeting domestic and regional tourism. PHOTO | COURTESY | TANZANIA TOURIST BOARD (TTB).

Summary

African Tourism Board is currently working with International Tourism Investment Conference (ITIC) for a continental investment drive in promoting tourism development in Africa.
Tanzania is the first beneficial of ITIC investments that will take over from January next year (2022).
African Tourism Board is also giving smaller destinations and stakeholders a directly cost-effective and efficient way to reach out to trade, media and travellers in potential tourist markets for Africa.

By APOLINARI TAIRO

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The EAC held its first Regional Tourism Expo in Arusha between October 9 and 16. The event will now be annual, every July 15.

The chair of the African Tourism Board Cuthbert Neube spoke to Apolinari Tairo on the state of African tourism.

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What is the African Tourism Board (ATB) doing to help tourism in sub-Saharan Africa reach the levels of South Africa and North Africa?

We have partnered with several African countries to organise tourism exhibitions targeting domestic and regional tourism. We have last year (2020), such an exhibition in Tanzania, the UWANDAE Expo.

A team of ATB representatives from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia and Egypt have participated the EARTE in Arusha.

African Tourism Board is currently working with International Tourism Investment Conference (ITIC) for a continental investment drive in promoting tourism development in Africa.

Through ITIC, investors from Bulgaria in partnerships with other investors, are going to establish the $72 million investment in four hotels project in Northern Tanzania, within Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro wildlife parks.

Tanzania is the first beneficial of ITIC investments that will take over from January next year (2022).

The board is also working with the government of the Kingdom of Eswatini and had set up a strategy would promote our African cultures.

How is this board helping to improve this?

African Tourism Board is also giving smaller destinations and stakeholders a directly cost-effective and efficient way to reach out to trade, media and travellers in potential tourist markets for Africa. The aim is to achieve local tourism capacity, domestic and intra-African tourism base to minimise dependence of European and American tourists.

The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic had taught a lesson that Africa should be self-dependent in tourism. Lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed in Europe, United States, Asia and other potential tourist markets had greatly affected African tourism Africa receives about 62 million tourists out of over a billion global tourists recorded each year.

Europe receives nearly 600 million global tourists.

ATB is now pushing for regional tourism blocs.

It is a right step towards the objectivity of the African agenda to see EAC as bloc joining hands in an inclusive and well-coordinated approach.

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Karamoja turns to new sorghum variety to fight food insecurity

Thursday October 28 2021

John Emanio presents the NaroSorg 1 variety on World Food Day. PHOTO | GILBERT MWIJUKE

Summary

The Global Assessment Report (GAR): Special Report on Drought 2021 by the UN states that prolonged droughts are likely to be “the next pandemic” in Africa as the continent faces “exponential collateral damage”.
As climate change takes a toll on food production in Uganda’s Karamoja region, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has developed new varieties of sorghum that can tolerate drought, pests and disease.
Karamoja, like the rest of Uganda, is heavily dependent on agriculture.

By GILBERT MWIJUKE

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A recent study by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation indicated that 30 percent of people living in Karamoja are either in the crisis or emergency phase of acute food insecurity due to poor harvests in 2021 — a result of prolonged droughts and the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, the Global Assessment Report (GAR): Special Report on Drought 2021 by the UN states that prolonged droughts are likely to be “the next pandemic” in Africa as the continent faces “exponential collateral damage”.

As climate change takes a toll on food production in Uganda’s Karamoja region, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has developed new varieties of sorghum that can tolerate drought, pests and disease.

Hardy crops

“With the current climate change crisis, Karamoja will have to depend more on cereal grains like sorghum and millet because these crops perform well in drier areas,” John Emanio, a research technician at the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Research Organisation, told The EastAfrican during the World Food Day celebrations held on October 16.

This year’s World Food Day ran under the theme “Our actions are our future. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life”.

Uganda is promoting the growing of cereals because of their potential for nutritional and economic security.

Cereal grains are also favoured because of their tolerance to drought and heat, and the ability to easily adapt to different soil conditions.

Sorghum is rich in vitamins, magnesium, proteins and antioxidants. It can also be used for making bread, cakes, porridge and fermented beverages.

“We have now developed an improved sorghum variety for the Karamoja region called NaroSorg-2. It is high-yielding, drought-resistant, pest and disease-resistant and also matures early,” said Emanio, who was part of the team of crop scientists at the National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute in Soroti who developed the new variety.

NaroSorg-2 matures in 100 days and has an average grain yield of 2,700 to 3,000 kilogrammes per hectare — compared with the indigenous varieties that mature in 120 days and have an average grain yield of 700 to 800 kg/ha, according to Emanio.

The crop scientists also developed the NaroSorg-1 and Seso-3 variety, which aim to improve people’s economic welfare.

“NaroSorg-1 is good for making beer,” Emanio said. “Seso-3 is basically for export because it’s good for making products such as biscuits and bread. In fact, a lot of it is already being exported to Ethiopia, South Sudan and some Middle East countries.”

To ensure that farmers adopt the new varieties faster, Emanio said they have had to develop sorghum genotypes with desirable attributes. His team works directly with the farmers.

Karamoja, like the rest of Uganda, is heavily dependent on agriculture. Many people engage in subsistence farming.

Resilient

By focusing on resilient varieties of sorghum, Emanio, and his team are hoping to improve nutrition for the people of Karamoja while boosting the resiliency of their small farms.

"With these varieties, we are optimistic that food insecurity in Karamoja will be no more," he said.