Children who have no birth certificate cannot prove their age, parentage, or identity, or get official papers COMMENT | Dominique Nouvian Ouattara | A name, an official identity, and a nationality recognised by everyone: most of us take these things for granted. Yet, for nearly a quarter-billion children around the …
Read More »Fallacy of better democracy
The claim that democracy fares better in the West than in Africa is a mistake | STEVEN FRIEDMAN | One day, if they follow instructions, Africa’s new democracies will grow up to be “real” like those of Western Europe and North America. This assumption makes little sense – but it …
Read More »Africa’s leaders gather to launch new health financing initiative.
Addis Ababa | THE INDEPENDENT | African Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Health and Finance, business leaders and global partners gathered yesterday ahead of the 32nd Summit of the African Union (AU), to launch a new initiative aimed at increasing commitments for health, improving the impact of spending and …
Read More »Afreximbank’s new fund to catalyse FDI flows in Africa
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the equity investment fund created recently by the African Export-Import Bank will catalyse foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into Africa’s trade and export sectors. Prof. Benedict Oramah, the bank’s president, said during the opening of the Financing …
Read More »COMMENT: Selling Africa’s good news stories
How to stop negative Africa stereotypes that feed western hunger for one-dimensional narratives COMMENT | SHAYERA DARK | Project Syndicate | Anywhere in the world, freelance journalism is an extreme career choice. The job requires withstanding pitch rejections, ignored queries, stolen story ideas, and delayed payments. It means reconciling oneself …
Read More »33 YRS LATER: ‘NRM is a power relation-enjoyment of power’
‘Independence is about Africans rediscovering themselves’ NRM programme point No.4: Defending and consolidating National Independence James Magode Ikuya is a political activist who has worked with UPC, FRONASA and NRM. He spoke to Ian Katusiime about consolidating national independence, one of the ten point programmes outlined by NRM when it …
Read More »African arms market to grow by 50 percent over five years: analyst
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Africa’s arms market is likely to grow by 50 percent over the next five years, analyst Stephane Konan said at a four-day trade show in Ivory Coast. “The African market in defence represents only a drop of water in relation to the world market: 42.6 …
Read More »ATI doubles its portfolio to US$5bn
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Pan African insurer, African Trade Insurance Agency, is now supporting trade and investments equivalent to 1 – 2 % of the annual Gross Domestic Product flowing into its African member countries, and 2018 also saw a doubling of the company’s exposure from US$2.4 billion in …
Read More »African growth strong but unemployment high: AfDB
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Africa’s strong growth will accelerate in 2019 but fail to roll back high unemployment and poverty, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said Thursday. The continent’s gross domestic product expanded by 3.5 percent in 2018 after 3.6 percent in 2017 and should reach 4.0 percent …
Read More »Total lunar eclipse on Jan 20-21 will be last until 2022
Washington, United States | AFP | People in North and South America, a large part of Europe and Africa may get a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse overnight from January 20 to 21, the last such event until 2022. For those in Europe and Africa, the total eclipse will …
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