Despite apocalyptic predictions, Africa may be better positioned than many think to weather the combined shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, collapsing commodity prices, and global economic recession, assuming its leaders act wisely. While African economies’ performance has varied, overall progress during the last two decades has made the continent...
Rwanda is renowned as a pioneer for gender equality
In 2020, it was the only African country ranked in the top 10 of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report.
It ranked in the top four in the Report’s political empowerment category, in recognition of the high proportion of Rwandese...
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS is backing Nigeria's candidate to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) and calls on other African countries to follow, a document showed on Monday, in a possible step towards uniting Africa behind her.
"The ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government...calls on other...
African leaders have been cautioned to be circumspect with debt forgiveness calls, as they have a great tendency to not only disturb the bond market but also make it difficult for a successful future bond issuance by African countries.
Calls are rife that with the havoc caused to African countries...
Across sub-Saharan Africa, digital technologies are driving change—from kids learning to code outside Niger’s capital, to drones delivering medicines to remote communities in Sierra Leone. This is all helping to build resilience.
In the latest analytical chapter for the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa,the IMF’s African department* examines how...
Across Africa the news that a former colonial power, the UK, is to take a more strategic, political, hard-nosed approach to the way it spends its overseas aid budget, has been greeted with a mixture of frustration and cynicism.
In announcing a merger between the Foreign Office (FCO) and the...
When COVID-19 broke out in Africa, two non-African billionaires were among the first to donate masks, PPE’s, and other resources to support the fight against the pandemic across the African continent. Whilst their generosity and magnanimous actions were celebrated by African leaders, the same left us reflecting on the...
As African oil and gas countries struggle with Covid-19’s devastating impact on demand, two international groups seem to be celebrating it.
Earlier this month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) described the low oil prices caused by the pandemic as a “golden opportunity”...
The World Trade Organization is in the news mostly for the wrong reasons nowadays. Many people regard it as an ineffective policeman of an outdated rulebook that is unsuited for the challenges of the twenty-first-century global economy. And WTO members generally agree that the organization urgently needs reforming in...