Category: Market

NAIROBI, It has been a week of crises in East Africa, characterized by shortages of fuel and rising prices of consumer goods, as the region continued to shake off COVID-19 blues to revive state economies.I

Many areas have recently experienced biting fuel shortages and, where the commodity is available, the price has risen to prohibitive levels.

The cost of living is rising. Inflation is at 6.29 percent in Kenya, 3.2 percent in Uganda, 4.2 percent in Rwanda, 3.8 percent in Tanzania, 13.3 percent in Burundi, 25 percent in South Sudan, and five percent in DR Congo.

In Uganda, where fuel supply has been disrupted since January, there are places where a liter of petrol costs $3.

Kenya was hit by a shortage this past week, crippling public transport services. Traders claimed the shortage had led to an increase in prices of fast-moving goods.

In Kenya, the fuel shortage was blamed on the failure of the government to pay oil marketers their subsidy. Even after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a supplementary budget for the payment of Ksh34 billion ($298 million) to the Petroleum Development Levy Fund (PDLF), the shortage continued on account of a dispute over the amount that the government owes the oil companies. Officials said it was Ksh13 billion ($112 million), but the companies claim they are owed more than Ksh20 billion ($173 million).

Source: Nam News Network

U.S. government officials warn that many African countries will continue to face shortages and high food prices as long as Russia continues to wage war against Ukraine, from which Africa gets much of its wheat and cooking oil.

Speaking to journalists online Tuesday, the U.S. representative to U.N. agencies in Rome, Cindy McCain, said Ukraine is the world’s breadbasket, and the attack on its land and people is raising hunger around the globe.

“The Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that as many as 13 million more people worldwide will be pushed into food insecurity as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The truth of the matter is Putin’s war forces us to take from the hungry to feed the starving. As long as Russia continues its brutal campaign, innocent people are going to pay the price,” she said.

Ukraine annually exports 40% of its wheat and corn to Africa. The World Food Program feeds 138 million people in 80 countries, including Ethiopia and Nigeria, with the grain it gets from the European country.

With Ukrainian supplies cut off, food prices are on the rise across Africa. Meanwhile, increasing energy costs have driven up prices for fertilizers such as phosphate used in food production.

Jim Barnhart, assistant to the administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, says the high cost of living will make life difficult for more families in Africa.

“Reduced food supplies and subsequent price increases in these commodities make it harder for farmers in Zambia to access inputs they need to plant their crops, for families in Malawi to buy nutritious food for their children. So, if that is not mitigated, these price increases could result in significant increases in global poverty, hunger and malnutrition, particularly in regions like sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

The International Committee for the Red Cross says more than 346 million Africans face a food security crisis, making families skip meals every day.

The ICRC says it will ramp up its operations in 10 countries to combat the food shortages.

The head of ICRC’s global operations, Dominik Stillhart, says the war in Ukraine has impacted their humanitarian work.

“The other impact, which is more indirect, is that the rise in food and fuel prices, as well as supply chains that are seriously affected by the situation in Ukraine, they have an effect on our own capacity to scale up. Lead times are going to be longer, for instance, (and) food imports, and that’s also why we are increasingly resorting to cash transfers to support people in various countries in which we are operating,” he said.

Persistent drought, poor rains in some parts of Africa and conflicts have also exacerbated Africa’s food situation.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2022—Over 16 million people living in at-risk communities in northern Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo will benefit from a new regional project to proactively prevent the spread of conflict from the Sahel, reduce vulnerability to climate change, and strengthen local institutions, economic opportunities, and public trust. The Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project, approved today by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors for $450 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing, seeks to “think regionally and act locally” to boost regional collaboration, socioeconomic and climate resilience in vulnerable northern regions of these four Gulf of Guinea countries.

Needs are surging across this subregion where multiple crises converge. External pressures of conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 are compounded by longstanding challenges of poverty, exclusion, and weak governance—all of which may breed marginalization and inequality. The lack of opportunities for youth, inter-community tensions and structural fragilities poses an increasing security challenge for the Gulf of Guinea countries who face serious threats of southward transmission of the rapidly escalating Sahel conflict.

“This project responds to the complexity of the crisis by supporting interlinked and regionally coordinated solutions, security efforts, climate and disaster risk management, and state capacity building,” stated Coralie Gevers, World Bank Country Director for Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Togo.

“By working together, the participating countries can save lives and focus on untapped regional potential to boost economic opportunities in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner”, added Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Over the course of five years, the project is expected to reach 4,600 border-zone communities across the northern Gulf of Guinea subregion. It will focus on strengthening local institutions who will play a central role in prioritizing local development investments and promoting social cohesion and trust, while offering the flexibility to engage and enhance the voice and influence of the most vulnerable (particularly youth and women), to develop customized solutions and maximize regional impact to common challenges.

The Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project comes in response to governments’ demands and reinforce their efforts to strengthen community-driven development, agriculture, youth inclusion, and digital development. The project puts a specific focus on vulnerable village clusters in border areas exposed to conflict and climate risks and introduces a regional lens to local investment by harmonizing approaches for community development to maximize cross-border impacts. This includes developing a Regional Collaboration Platform to facilitate trans-boundary flows of information and policy dialogue.

“Regionality is essential to promote dialogue and coordination on conflict prevention, climate and disaster risk management, and cross-border opportunities,” stated Boutheina Guermazi, World Bank Director for Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Northern Africa. “We are combining this with a bottom-up, tailored approach in selecting investments that can promote a sense of inclusion and cohesion among local populations.”

The project is linked to an integrated approach and platform for recovery and stabilization for West Africa’s most vulnerable conflict-affected regions. In this sense, it complements two projects previously approved by the World Bank in 2021, the $170 million Lake Chad Recovery and Development Project and the $350 million Community Based Recovery and Stabilization Project for the Sahel. Collectively, the three projects represent a $970 million engagement in regionally coordinated and community-centered development, allowing African countries, donors, and communities to take transboundary approaches to counter the deteriorating fragility in the region.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 77 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.5 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 percent going to Africa.

Source: World Bank

The CEO of Algeria’s state-owned energy giant, Sonatrach, said yesterday, the company plans to invest 40 billion U.S. dollars in oil and gas exploration, and production between 2022 and 2026.

The year 2022 “bears promising prospect for Sonatrach’s oil exploration and production,” Toufik Hakkar was quoted as saying.

The company discovered three new oil fields in the first three months of this year, including a large discovery in the south-eastern region of Touggourt, with estimated reserves of one billion barrels of oil.

Although gas and oil prices soared after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Algeria decided to maintain “relatively appropriate” contractual prices, with all of its customers, Hakkar said.

However, Hakkar did not rule out “recalculating the gas price” destined to Spain, without providing further details. Through the offshore Medgaz pipeline, Algeria delivers about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Spain each year.

Regarding Algeria’s potential to meet Europe’s gas needs, in the midst of the Ukraine crisis, Hakkar said, the company has billions of cubic metres of gas in surplus, but they are insufficient to replace Russian gas deliveries to Europe.

According to him, Algeria’s production capacity will double in four years, owing to its current pace of exploration, which will herald promising cooperation prospects with European customers.

Algeria produces 130 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year, and 1.01 million barrels of oil per day.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK