Year: 2024

Tanzania’s Foreign Ministry Launches the Construction of the Twin Towers in Kenya: Set to Redefine Nairobi’s Skyline

Mr Mohammed

The government of Tanzania has launched the construction of the Twin Towers in Kenya’s capital city,  Nairobi. This adds to Tanzania’s list of  real estate investment properties worldwide, as noted by the country’s foreign affairs minister, January Makamba. The monumental  real estate venture is expected between the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Kenya and Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project, once completed, is set to redefine  Nairobi’s skyline while consolidating Tanzania’s diplomatic presence in Kenya. Currently, Tanzania has no on-site embassy, hence the launch of the ambitious project. Furthermore, Tanzania’s government hopes that the project will be a…

‘Nigeria spends $600m annually on palm oil importation’

Mr Mohammed

The National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) has revealed that Nigeria spends $600 million annually on  palm oil oil importation. This was stated by Mr Alphonsus Inyang, the National President of the association, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja. Inyang criticised these expenses as detrimental to national development, suggesting that the funds could be better utilised within the economy if the  palm oil oil sub-sector received adequate attention from successive governments He highlighted Nigeria’s historical self-sufficiency in palm oil production, contrasting it with the current situation where…

Entrepreneur Mahmoud Bartawi on cooking up a startup success

Mr Mohammed

Mahmoud Bartawi founded Under500, a brand that was ultimately acquired by dark kitchen outfit Kitopi after raising $700m from investors Emirati serial entrepreneur Mahmoud Bartawi knows a thing or two about starting and exiting a business. In 2016, Bartawi founded Under500, a brand that pioneered selling healthy meals consisting of less than 500 calories. Fast forward to 2021 and Under500 was acquired by dark kitchen outfit Kitopi after raising $700m through investors, including SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. In a recent interview with Gulf Business, Bartawi gives some tips to budding…

Mercy Ships Welcomes Presidential Visit on board, in Toamasina Harbor

Mr Mohammed

TOAMASINA, Madagascar, June 20, 2024/ — Malagasy president His Excellency Andry Nirina Rajoelina visited patients and volunteers on board Mercy Ships’ hospital vessel (www.MercyShips.org) to see for himself the lives being transformed. On Saturday June 15, the president along with Minister of Health Professor Randriamanantany Zely Arivelo, accompanied by a delegation with His Excellency, visited the Africa Mercy ® hospital ship in Toamasina. This marked the first time the Malagasy president has visited the ship during its current mission. Nathan Jansen, Managing Director of the Africa Mercy, said: “We were honored to welcome His…

Afreximbank and Africa CDC pledge US$2 billion facility in support of Africa Health and Pharmaceutical Products Manufacturing

Mr Mohammed

PARIS, London, June 20, 2024/ — African Export-Import Bank (“Afreximbank” or “the Bank”) (www.Afreximbank.com) and the Africa Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) have renewed their partnership with a new cooperation agreement announced today on the sidelines of the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation in Paris, France. Through this collaboration, Afreximbank has committed a US$ 2 billion facility to the “Africa Health Security Investment Plan” to support the health product manufacturing ambition of the continent. This initiative will focus on the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM) and…

Energy for Growth in Africa Initiative Unveiled

Mr Mohammed

By.Mohammed A.Abu The decades long delay in fulfilment of pledges made by the Global South towards  climate change impact funding  in the Global North hasn’t helped the course of the global transition from fossil fuels derived energy to renewable energy as global warming and climate change impact bites deeper. Indeed, lack of external affordable funding for renewable energy projects in both the public and private sectors of countries in the Global South with particular reference to Africa, the world’s most energy poor continent, has since given rise to the legitimate…

G7 Pledges to Accelerate SDGs, Transition from Fossil Fuels This Decade

Mr Mohammed

The Group of 7 (G7) leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, with the EU, have wrapped up a three-day summit, united in their “steadfast commitment” to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They pledged to redouble their efforts to accelerate progress towards the SDGs, including by transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in this decade. The G7 Leaders’ Summit took place in Apulia, Italy, from 13-15 June 2024. The 36-page Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué reiterates the Group’s “enduring unity and determination…

Following First Oil Production, Senegal’s Minister of Energy, Petroleum and Mining Joins African Energy Week (AEW) 2024

Mr Mohammed

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 19, 2024/ — Senegal’s Minister of Energy, Petroleum and Mining Birame Soulèye Diop will participate at the African Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energy 2024 conference – Africa’s premier event for the energy sector taking place from 4–8 November in Cape Town. Minister Diop is expected to unpack the critical role oil and gas plays across the MSGBC region, providing insight into project developments and future investment opportunities. Minister Diop’s participation comes as the country celebrates a new milestone in its oil and gas…

Transformational companies recognised during Afreximbank’s Annual Meetings 2024 in Nassau, The Bahamas

Mr Mohammed

The second edition of the awards ceremony comes as African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is promoting stronger ties between Africa and the Diaspora, in a push for a Global Africa ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP), received the Pan African Business of the Year award for advancing industrialisation, export development, and economic transformation in Africa. Notably, ARISE IIP has successfully developed world-class sustainable industrial parks in Gabon, Benin, Chad, and Togo. KCB Group won the Pan-African financial institution of the year award. Rawbank, from the DRC, clinched the same prize, but in…

World’s oldest termite mounds discovered in South Africa – and they’ve been storing precious carbon for thousands of years

Mr Mohammed

First Published June,16,The Conversation The landscape along the Buffels River in South Africa’s Namaqualand region is dotted with thousands of sandy mounds that occupy about 20% of the surface area. These heuweltjies, as the locals call them (the word means “little hills” in Afrikaans), are termite mounds, inhabited by an underground network of tunnels and nests of the southern harvester termite, Microhodotermes viator. I’m part of a group of earth scientists who, in 2021, set out to study why the groundwater in the area, around 530km from Cape Town, is saline. The groundwater salinity seemed…