South African Breweries (SAB) has cancelled $165 million of investment earmarked for 2021 after the government imposed a third local ban on alcohol sales in the country. SAB’s cancelled investments in South Africa now total $330 million as the firm in August cancelled $165 million of planned expenditure following a second alcohol van. South Africa’s…
African countries are in line to receive the first batches of coronavirus vaccines in the first quarter of the year, a scientist at the World Health Organization said in a virtual briefing in Geneva. “In the second and third quarters of this year is when we are really going to start seeing volumes,” Soumya Swaminathan…
Central African Republic will receive $34.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the Washington-based lender completed the first and second reviews of its $115 million loan program. The funds are much needed as the country is battling the coronavirus pandemic effects on its economy as well as increased violence launched in opposition to…
Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli has requested China to forgive some of his country’s debts, including one incurred 50 years ago for the construction of the railway that runs from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam to neighboring Zambia. The Head of State has made similar requests to other creditors in the past. In April…
The global economy is projected to grow by 4% in 2021 if the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues throughout the year and is effective, the World Bank said. In their annual January release of Global Economic Prospects, the Washington-based lender noted that the worst case scenario occasioned by delays to rollout the vaccine or an increase…
The World Bank has announced that it will invest over $5 billion in 11 African countries over the next five years in a variety of climate change, environmental protection, agricultural sustainability, and human development programs. The Washington-based lender targets that these initiatives will improve livelihoods and provide a crucial lifeline at a time these nations…
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday the government has secured 20 million more doses of coronavirus vaccines as he extended a ban on alcohol sales and curbed cross-border travel to slow the spread of COVID-19. Africa’s most industrialized nation will remain on virus alert level 3 with land border posts closed to most…
Two Chinese farms have won the contract to construct a $1.32 billion modern rail in Tanzania, the foreign minister announced, in a deal that will extend more than a decade of Chinese involvement in the East African nation. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Construction Limited will build the 341 kilometer link to…
Zambia’s government has put itself between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” after it announced that it will further subsidize fuel prices risking the ire of the International Monetary Fund with whom they have been discussing a financial bailout before the upcoming August’s elections. The finance ministry removed a 16% value-added tax on gasoline…
Democratic Republic of Congo has received debt relief from China to aid it overcome growing economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign ministry announced. Under the terms of the agreement, Congo will no longer be mandated to repay its interest-free loans from China that matured at the end of 2020. At a joint press…