Markets in Africa’s cities are central to the food chain. But many had to close because of COVID-19 measures. In countries across Africa, the public health restrictions imposed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic have thrown many people out of work. Cities face the risk of widespread hunger, with the...
The onset of a coronavirus-induced global recession has affected both labour markets and financial flows across the world. At the confluence of these two are remittances, which have increasingly been among the top contributors to GDP in many emerging markets over recent decades. The issue is particularly pertinent for those...
Nigeria’s oil and gas exports are expected to decline by at least $26.5 billion as the novel coronavirus batters international prices and cuts fuel demand, the International Monetary Fund said late last week Wednesday. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter, told the IMF in a letter requesting emergency financial assistance that...
Since South Africa went into lockdown four weeks ago to slow the spread of the coronavirus, hairdresser Nasreen Pillay has had no income. Without a job contract, she cannot apply for government aid either. “If my mother and father-in-law did not help me, I would be going hungry,” Pillay, a...
The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic poses a fundamental question: Is this one of those historic moments when the world changes permanently, when the balance of political and economic power shifts decisively, and when, for most people, in most countries, life is never quite the same again? Put...
The second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2020) initially scheduled for September 1 – 7 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda has been put off to  September 2021. The organisers of the biannual trade event African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union (AU), and the host of this year’s event the Government of Rwanda...
I am a student of life, I am a member of the African diaspora and I am a Pan-Africanist – that means I love Africa and my African heritage and it does not mean that I hate people or anything of non-African heritage. As a matter of fact, I...
Stuck at home because of the lockdown, 25-year-old Ugandan Richard Kabanda is worried about feeding his family. The motorbike taxi driver, who used to earn about $2 (£1.60) a day, has had no work since the government banned public transport last month as part of measures to slow the spread...
African countries have fewer coronavirus cases than much of the world, but weaker healthcare systems do put the continent at risk. Lockdown measures can help prevent the virus spreading, yet governments have taken very different approaches to imposing restrictions on their populations. Are any countries lifting restrictions? Some, like Ghana, are now...
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli called on international creditors last week Wednesday to cancel debts owed by African nations to enable them use the savings to battle the coronavirus. Tanzania has so far reported 284 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Authorities have been urging people...