All Posts in "Banking & Finance"

Africa spends $75bn yearly to import over 100m metric tonnes of cereal 

Africa spends &75bn yearly to import over 100m metric tonnes of cereal
By Favour Nnabugwu
Africa is said to spend a whopping $75billion yearly to import over 100 million metric tons of cereals alone
President of the Africa Development Bank, Mr Akinwunmi Adesina revealed this at the just concluded Dakar Summit, Senegal
Adesina said the continent does not produce enough food to feed its people and is overly dependent on food imports, which are themselves subject to volatile world prices and inflationary pressures.
Although, agriculture he admitted, is one of the main economic sectors and sources of employment in Africa, current production practices are too often outdated, small scale and unsuited to the demands of markets and a fast-growing population.
Food production continues to rely heavily on small-scale and near subsistence producers; whereas as Adesina has said, agriculture should be viewed as a business.
To improve farmers’ productivity and incomes, reduce post-harvest losses and increase agricultural output, and strengthen agro-food value chains,  he said the AfDB is focusing on providing modern technologies, quality seeds and inputs, modernizing agricultural tools, setting up standard processing infrastructures and adding value.
The aim is to move from traditional subsistence agriculture to a modern and competitive African agro-industrial sector that can feed the entire African continent and even compete on international markets.
Speaking on the rising food prices in the world, noted that said impact on households in Africa is serious exacerbating poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, households spend up to 40 percent of their budget on food compared to 17 percent in developed economies.
According to him, “65 percent of the world’s remaining arable land is in Africa, which also has the most youthful and dynamic population of any continent”
All these, he said are some of the reasons the African Development Bank believes Africa is capable of feeding not only itself but the world’s 9 billion people by 2050.
“The African Development Bank views agriculture and agribusiness as a strategic priority for several reasons.
Securing food sovereignty the right of states to determine their own agricultural and food policies is critical to African countries overall economic and social development.”
“Recent external shocks, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, further demonstrated that Africa remains over-reliant on imports of food staples and agricultural inputs”
“Agriculture is also the mainstay of most African economies and a major employer of Africans”
Patoma Admin by — February 2, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
Africa food, agricultural market to hit $1trn by 2030

By Favour Nnabugwu
 
The African Development Bank, AfDB has projected a market $1 trillion  increase yearly for Africa’s food and agriculture market by 2030.
The market is presently running at $280 billion per year but in achieving this ambitious target will require significant new investments and the removal of barriers to agricultural development.
President of the AfDB, Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina disclose this in Dakar Summit that much of the new investment in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, climate smart agricultural systems and other improvements all along the food value chain will come from the private sector.
The African Development Bank offers support to all actors in the sector, regardless of their size: small farmers, traders, producers and distributors of inputs, commercial banks and industrialists.
 In addition to providing the necessary tools and know-how, the aim is to provide capital to all players in the agro-industrial value chains, enabling them to invest and develop with best practices.
In as much as the sector has its growth advantages so are obstacles to the development of it.
“The obstacles to the development of the private agro-industrial sector are both structural small size of the majority of farms, lack of infrastructure and financing and cyclical price volatility, disruption of supply chains, climate shocks”
Adesina said that a major obstacle to the development of private actors is the lack of credit financing, on the order of $27 billion to $65 billion per year, according to several studies.
“This is largely due to the perceived risk of investing in agriculture. To address this and attract private investors, the Bank is designing and deploying risk reduction tools.
Patoma Admin by — February 2, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
UBA appoints Ghanaian, Abiola Bawuah as first female CEO for Africa

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

United Bank for Africa Plc has appointed Ghanaian national, Abiola Bawuah, as its Africa new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Bawuah will oversee the bank’s operations across Africa, excluding Nigeria, according to the bank’s statement.

She is the first female CEO of the UBA Africa and her appointment demonstrates the bank’s commitment to diversity.

Before her appointment as the bank’s Africa CEO, Bawuah was UBA’s Regional CEO for West Africa, managing operations in nine subsidiaries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. She had also served as the CEO of UBA Ghana.

Commenting on Bawuah’s appointment, the UBA Group’s Board Chairman, Tony Elumelu, said, “Abiola has contributed significantly to the growth of UBA Africa for close to a decade. She brings a wealth of experience in commercial banking, and stakeholder engagement. It also gives me great pleasure that with her appointment, the UBA Group Board has now become a majority female board.”

The bank also announced other key executive appointments across the group.

The appointments include: Regional CEO of UBA West Africa, Chris Ofikulu; Deputy Managing Director of UBA Ghana, Uzoechina Molokwu; Managing Director/CEO UBA Liberia, Ayokunle Olajubu; CEO of UBA UK, Theresa Henshaw; Deputy CEO in UBA America, Usman Isiaka; and Group Treasurer, Adeyemi Adeleke, all appointments subject to their various local regulatory approvals

Patoma Admin by — January 30, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
AfDB engages over 40m farmers to produce 120m tonnes of food by 2025

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The African Development Bank (AfDB) says that it has engaged more than 40 million farmers across the continent to produce 120 million tonnes of food by 2025.

The Bank’s Chief Economist, Prof. Kevin Chika Urama, discloes this in a chat with Nigerian journalists.

Prof. Kevin, decries the continent’s annual imports of over 100 million metric tonness of cereals alone at the cost of $75 billion.

He notes that recent external shocks, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, further demonstrated that Africa remains over-reliant on imports of food staples and agricultural inputs.

” Rising world food prices have a serious impact on households in Africa, exacerbating poverty.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, households spend up to 40% of their budget on food (compared to 17% in developed economies),” he said

He confidently says that the bank is on the move to change this narrative of overdependence on food imports from outside the continent.

“To improve farmers’ productivity and incomes, reduce post-harvest losses and increase agricultural output, and strengthen agro-food value chains, the Bank is focusing on providing modern technologies, quality seeds and inputs, modernizing agricultural tools, setting up standard processing infrastructures and adding value,” he said.

He says that the aim is to move from traditional subsistence agriculture to a modern and competitive African agro-industrial sector that can feed the entire African continent and even compete on international markets.

His words:” A vital element of the African Development Bank’s efforts to boost food production and agriculture in a climate-smart manner is its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) platform.

TAAT has delivered heat-tolerant wheat varieties, drought-tolerant maize varieties, high-yield rice varieties and other climate-smart certified seeds to millions of Africa’s smallholder farmers

Ethiopia in particular has notched significant benefits as a result of TAAT.

Following the successful rollout of heat-tolerant wheat varieties in Ethiopia, average wheat yields increased from 2 tonnes per hectare to 4 tonnes.

As a result, Ethiopia did not import wheat in 2022 and expects to export wheat to its neighbors in 2023.

TAAT has mobilized investments of more than $800 million in the agricultural value chains of 21 African countries since its inception in 2018.

It has also mobilized $500 million in co-financing from the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and other organizations.

In July 2022, the Bank Board approved an additional $27.41 million for ‘TAAT II,’ which will increase the productivity and incomes of farming households by giving them access to climate-resilient technologies in 36 low-income African countries by 2025.

TAAT-II will rely on a market-based model in partnership with the private sector to spread technologies and services (seeds, fertilizers, extension) on a larger scale.
To take advantage of the savannah, which covers 400 million hectares in Africa, a specific subprogram, ‘TAAT-S’.

The aim is to take advantage of these vast expanses by growing maize and soya competitively for the poultry industry – demand is high throughout the continent.

After a pilot project launched in Ghana in 2018, TAAT-S has been deployed in Côte d’Ivoire since 2021, followed by Congo-Brazzaville, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia by 2025. “

Patoma Admin by — January 29, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
AfDB to invest &10bn to boost agriculture in Africa

CAPTION:
R – President of Africa Development Bank Group, Mr. Akinwunmi Adeisina and two participants at the Dakar Sumit
By Favour Nnabugwu
African Development Bank Group AfDB plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food provider for itself and the rest of the world,
Bank Group President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, made announced at the Dakar 2 Africa Food Summit in Diamniadio, east of the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
Adesina called on more than 34 heads of state, 70 government ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners, and corporate executives to work out compacts that would deliver food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa.
He encouraged them to take collective action to unlock the continent’s agricultural potential to become a global breadbasket.
The Dakar 2 summit—under the theme Feed Africa: food sovereignty and resilience—takes place amid supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More than a thousand delegates and dignitaries attended, including the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins.
The Government of Senegal and the African Development Bank Group are co-hosting the summit, eight years after the inaugural Dakar 1 summit where the newly elected Adesina announced the Bank’s Feed Africa strategy.
Opening the summit, President Sall who is also the African Union chairperson, said the time had come for the continent to feed itself by adding value and stepping up the use of technology.
“We must raise the bar. We must raise our ambition. We must arise and say to ourselves: it is time to feed Africa. The timing is right, and the moment is now. Feed Africa; we must,” said Adesina.
The bank head urged the leaders to turn political will into decisive actions to deliver food security for Africa,
“We must strongly support farmers, especially smallholder farmers, majority of whom are women, and get more young people into agriculture. And we must take agriculture as a business, not a development activity, and boost support to the private sector.”
development of the agriculture sectors. They will help us generate wealth, develop integrated infrastructure around special agro-processing zones, and add value.”
During the three-day summit, private sector players are expected to commit to national food and agriculture delivery compacts, to drive policies, create structural reforms, and attract private sector investment.
Central bank governors and finance ministers are expected to develop financing arrangements to implement the food and agriculture delivery compacts, in conjunction with agriculture ministers, private sector players, commercial banks, financial institutions, and multilateral partners and organisations
Patoma Admin by — January 26, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
Regular diagnosis, targeted policy actions for African economies critical.- AfDB Chief Economist

The African Development Bank Group’s Acting Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, Professor Kevin Chika Urama, shares his thoughts on the inaugural Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report, released last Thursday.

Excerpts

The new biannual publication aims to provide African policymakers, global investors, researchers, and other development partners with an incisive, timely, evidence-based evaluation of the continent’s recent macroeconomic performance and short-to-medium-term outlook amid dynamic global economic developments.

Why is Africa’s Macro-Economic Performance and Outlook report important?

Like other world regions, Africa continues to face overlapping shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-related impacts, rising geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions and the tightening global financial conditions impacting key macroeconomic indicators.

The macroeconomic indicators include economic growth, financial sector development, interest and exchange rates, fiscal positions, current account positions, financial flows and debt dynamics that are making policymaking and investment decisions very challenging.

The Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report covers all African countries and aims to provide regular analysis on the recent evolution and short to medium-term outlook of these key macroeconomic indicators at the continental, regional and country levels. It also proposes policies to aid policymaking and investment decisions on the continent.
The report will be released twice a year – in the first and third quarters – to provide policymakers, investors and all stakeholders with real-time and evidence-based information on the factors shaping Africa’s development.

Prof. Kevin Chika Urama

 

Why did the bank find it necessary to produce the report? What were the key objectives?

Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook Report responds to a critical need for timely information to help decision-making in a context of heightened global and regional uncertainties.

Global macroeconomic conditions have recently become uncertain, with persistent multiple shocks that make policymaking and investment decisions challenging. With these global shocks and their interaction with prevailing pockets of domestic and regional risks, the need for regular diagnosis and targeted policy actions to address their impacts on African economies is critical.

With the publication of Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook Report, The Bank –Africa’s premier knowledge broker — is reaffirming to African policymakers that it has a mandate to shape the African narrative on key issues of relevance to the continent’s development.

The report, therefore, serves as a compass for African countries on their economic situation, providing interested parties and stakeholders with an up-to-date evidence-based assessment of the continent’s recent macroeconomic performance and short-to-medium term outlook amid dynamic global economic developments.
2023 and 2024, higher than the projected global averages of 2.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.

The stable outlook projected for 2023-2024 reflects continuing policy support in Africa, global efforts to mitigate the impact of external shocks and rising uncertainty in the global economy, the expected growth in demand for Africa’s commodities and green minerals as countries seek alternative sources of food and energy to counter the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and green minerals to support global green transitions. globally.

Climate change could increase losses and damages due to extreme weather events and exacerbate fiscal risks for countries. The high dependence on exports of primary commodities with limited value addition exposes countries to commodity price volatility and could delay the structural transformation presented by the green transition.

With the low rates of COVID-19 vaccination across Africa, currently 26%, there is a moderate risk of new variants emerging, which could be amplified by a full reopening of the global economy.

We also have regional conflicts in key hotspots such as Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, and Mozambique that could exert further pressures on the fiscal position of countries through increased security expenditure and reverse investment flows.

In addition, political risks could rise in 30 African countries. Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe are scheduled to hold national elections in 2023 or 2024
Managing foreign exchange reserves to reduce exchange-rate volatility and enhance export competitiveness could be part of effective risk-reducing agents.

Countries also need to implement local-content development and franchising policies to develop value chains and get more value from natural resources, especially in countries with minerals for green development.

African countries should boost regional trade to enhance resilience to spillovers from the global economic slowdown and reduce persistent trade deficits. Carrying out structural reform to boost regional trade can lead to a more vibrant regional market in the medium to long term.

Prof Kevin Chika Urama

 

What would you say are the key takeaways from the report?

The report offers fundamental insights that African policymakers, global investors, researchers, and other development partners will find handy and utilize as an essential reference tool. It gives hope for continued economic resilience amid the heightened risk of global recession. Importantly, the economic growth was positive across all five African regions and that 53 of 54 African countries in 2022 with a stable outlook in the medium term against multiple shocks.

What would you say are the key takeaways from the report?

The report offers fundamental insights that African policymakers, global investors, researchers, and other development partners will find handy and utilize as an essential reference tool. It gives hope for continued economic resilience amid the heightened risk of global recession. Importantly, the economic growth was positive across all five African regions and that 53 of 54 African countries in 2022 with a stable outlook in the medium term against multiple shocks.

But the recovery and the economic resilience of African countries in the short-to-medium term come with cautious optimism given the considerable global uncertainty. Therefore, bold policy actions outlined above should be implemented to address the effects of rising inflation and sustain growth to a higher trajectory needed to reduce poverty. To meet the significant financing gaps in Africa, it is imperative to enact policies that can mobilize and leverage private financing for development in Africa

Patoma Admin by — January 26, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
We can transform our cities- AfDB President tells Mayors from 15 African countries

CAPTION:
From left: Luísa Diogo, former Prime Minister of Mozambique, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, Jamie Cooper, Founder and President of Big Win Philanthropy and Co-Chair of AMALI, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape.
By Favour Nnabugwu
Mayors from 15 African cities gathered for the inaugural forum of the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative (AMALI) where African Development Bank Group President, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina told them that they must work together to transform the cities in the continent
AMALI is a partnership between the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town and Big Win Philanthropy.
According to Dr Adesina: “There is need to provide greater autonomy and fiscal responsibility to cities and towns and for national governments to allow them to raise financing to meet the huge needs of development. Instead of simply depending more on transfers from national governments, cities and towns should build their institutional capacity to raise their own financing.”
The Bank’s support includes the establishment of an Urban and Municipal Development Fund to provide technical assistance and capacity building for integrated urban planning, governance, project preparation, and broader urban management, including municipal fiscal management. The Fund provides support in more than 15 cities—to help improve the lives of millions of urban residents.
In a clear call to action to Africa’s city leaders, Dr Adesina said,“The Africa we want must be one where our cities are well planned to become drivers of greater economic growth and prosperity for Africa. This cannot happen by chance. The future is not created by a roll of the dice. So let us act to transform Africa’s cities,” Dr Adesina said.
By 2050, the number of people living in African cities is expected to double from about 600 million to 1.2 billion, representing the most rapid rate of urbanisation in the world. This poses significant development challenges, which will require innovative, African-led solutions.
Speaking at the event, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, exhorted African city leaders to always put people first. To reduce urban migration, she urged African countries to invest in rural areas and small towns.
The Minister also encouraged African countries to prioritise the skills revolution, citing the African continent’s skills gap as a barrier to development.
Speaking at the event, Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape, highlighted strategic ways in which regional and national governments can support mayors to transform their cities—creating impact that extends well beyond the city limits.
“I believe in decentralisation. I believe, where possible, it gives local authorities the power to dream big, to have visions, and to move forward into the future,” he said. According to Premier Winde, decentralisation “lets us, at national levels and provincial levels, empower and enable local authorities and cities, because it’s cities that are going to be growing out of proportion over the next 50 and 100 years.”
In a clear call to action to Africa’s city leaders, Dr Adesina said,“The Africa we want must be one where our cities are well planned to become drivers of greater economic growth and prosperity for Africa. This cannot happen by chance. The future is not created by a roll of the dice. So let us act to transform Africa’s cities,” Dr Adesina said.
Speaking at the event, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, exhorted African city leaders to always put people first. To reduce urban migration, she urged African countries to invest in rural areas and small towns. The Minister also encouraged African countries to prioritise the skills revolution, citing the African continent’s skills gap as a barrier to development.
Speaking at the event, Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape, highlighted strategic ways in which regional and national governments can support mayors to transform their cities—creating impact that extends well beyond the city limits.
“I believe in decentralisation. I believe, where possible, it gives local authorities the power to dream big, to have visions, and to move forward into the future,” he said. According to Premier Winde, decentralisation “lets us, at national levels and provincial levels, empower and enable local authorities and cities, because it’s cities that are going to be growing out of proportion over the next 50 and 100 years.”
The event also included remarks from Prof. Edgar Pieterse, Founding Director of the African Centre for Cities and Co-Chair of AMALI, Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, and Jamie Cooper, Founder and President of Big Win Philanthropy and Co-Chair of AMALI.
Patoma Admin by — January 26, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
CBN launches Nigerian Domestic Card, AfriGo

…Bans dollar charges on domestic              transactions

 

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hasp/,/,,ll, launched the Nigerian National Domestic Card Scheme, AfriGo.

The AfrGo is aimed at creating a more robust payments system that would drive financial inclusion in the country.

Launching the card virtually, this morning, the Governor of the central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said that transaction charges on all cards, would henceforth be paid in Naira, except for international transactions.

According to him, “AfriGo would be cheaper and would be a matter of national pride, with potential to boost financial inclusion.

“The National Domestic Card avails us the sovereignty of our data. Secondly, it comes at lower costs and thirdly, the issue of foreign exchange.

“At this time when foreign exchange challenges persist globally, it is important for me to say that we have come up with this card to ensure that all card online transactions will now effective immediately, begin to go on the Nigerian National Domestic System.

The VN Governor said, “At some point in the next few weeks, I am sure that the CBN will come up with the cut-off. All domestic card transactions that will be conducted in Nigeria will have to be through the Nigerian Domestic Cards.

“Your existing cards are fine. You can continue using them but given that charges by foreign cards are in dollars, we will no longer pay dollars for the charges on those cards.

“We will only pay dollars for charges on transactions that are done outside Nigeria. NIBSS, the CBN and Nigerian banks will work together to see how to segregate those transactions. To ensure that we pay fees or charges for international transactions that are conducted on both domestic cards, Visa or Master Cards, as they are known today.”

“We will bar domestic charges from the Nigerian foreign exchange market at some point in the very near future.”

The governor said that the introduction of AfriGo was not an attempt to discourage international investors’ operations in the Nigerian payments space but that it had become necessary owing to its obvious advantages.

He said, “This effort is not an attempt to prevent international service providers from continuing to provide services in Nigeria. Rather, it aimed at providing more options for domestic consumers, while also promoting the delivery of services in a more cost-effective and competitive manner.

“The CBN is committed to a robust and safe payment system and welcomes innovations from domestic and foreign investors.

“The Nigerian market is vast and the current participants have done so in the last 12 years to transform the ecosystem. Yet there is much ground to cover as millions of Nigerians are still without cards to consummate transactions.

“I am convinced that the National Domestic Card scheme will make this a reality in the coming months. We can no longer neglect the vast majority of Nigerians, he added.

Patoma Admin by — January 26, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
Africa growth to increase by 4% in 2023, 2024

By Favour Nnabugwu
Africa is set to outperform the rest of the world in economic growth over the next two years, with real gross domestic product (GDP) averaging around 4% in 2023 and 2024.
This is higher than projected global averages of 2.7% and 3.2%, the African Development Bank Group said in Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report for the region, released in Abidjan on Thursday.
With a comprehensive regional growth analysis, the report shows that all the continent’s five regions remain resilient with a steady outlook for the medium-term, despite facing significant headwinds due to global socio-economic shocks. It also identified potential risks and called for robust monetary and fiscal measures, backed by structural policies, to address them.
The Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report will be released in the first and third quarters of each year. It complements the bank’s existing annual African Economic Outlook report, which focuses on key emerging policy themes relevant to the continent’s development.
The report shows that estimated average growth of real GDP in Africa slowed to 3.8% in 2022, from 4.8% in 2021 amid significant challenges following the Covid-19 shock and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the economic slowdown, 53 of Africa’s 54 countries posted positive growth. All the five regions of the continent remain resilient with a steady outlook for the medium-term.
However, the report sends a cautionary note on the outlook following current global and regional risks. These risks including soaring food and energy prices, tightening global financial conditions, and the associated increase in domestic debt service costs. Climate change—with its damaging impact on domestic food supply and the potential risk of policy reversal in countries holding elections in 2023—pose equally challenging threats.
The report advocates bold policy actions at national, regional, and global scales to help African economies mitigate the compounding risks.
In remarks during the launch, African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said the release of the new report came at a time when African economies, faced with significant headwinds, were proving their resilience.
“With 54 countries at different stages of growth, different economic structures, and diverse resource endowments, the pass-through effects of global shocks always differ by region and by country. Slowing global demand, tighter financial conditions, and disrupted supply chains therefore had differentiated impacts on African economies,” he said.
 “Despite the confluence of multiple shocks, growth across all five African regions was positive in 2022—and the outlook for 2023–24 is projected to be stable.”
Niale Kaba, Minister of Planning and Development of Côte d’Ivoire, said: “The release of this report by our bank, the African Development Bank Group, at this time of the year is an excellent opportunity for Africa and its global partners.
We need these regular updates to assess our countries’ macroeconomic performance and prospects. This reliable information will help decision-making and risk management for potential investors in Africa.”
Africa’s pre-Covid-19 top five performing economies are projected to grow by more than 5.5% on average in 2023-2024 and to reclaim their position among the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies. These countries are Rwanda (7.9%), Côte d’Ivoire (7.1%), Benin (6.4%), Ethiopia (6.0%), and Tanzania (5.6%).
Other African countries are projected to grow by more than 5.5% in the 2023-24 period. They are the Democratic Republic of Congo (6.8%), The Gambia (6.4%), Mozambique (6.5%), Niger (9.6%), Senegal (9.4%), and Togo (6.3%).
At the launch, economist Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University commended the report which he said showed that African economies are growing and growing consistently.
Sachs, who is also United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals, said: “Africa can and will rise to growth of 7 percent or more per year consistently in the coming decades.  What we’ll see, building on the resiliency we see in this report, is a real acceleration of Africa’s sustainable development so that Africa will be the fast-growing part of the world economy. Africa is the place to invest.”
Patoma Admin by — January 24, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
CBN sets up Cash Swap Centres in 774 LGAs

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) has established Cash Swap Centres across the 774 Local Government Ares of the federation.

This was contained in a circular issued by the apex bank at the weekend. signedby Haruna Mustafa an Musa Jimoh, Directors of Banking Supervision and Payments Systems , respectively and dated January 20, 2023, the circular indicated that the Cash Centres would commence operations tomorrow..

Addressed to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Mobile Money Operators , Super Agents and Agents, the circular said that the exercise would enable rural dwellers to seamlessly change their old Naira Notes for the redesigned ones.

It reads in part::I “n furtherance of its Naira Redesign policy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sustained its nationwide awareness/sensitization programmes, enforced speedy collection of the new notes at CBN branches by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and mandated issuance of the new notes through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to ensure distribution is fair, transparent and evenly spread across the country.

“In addition to these measures and in recognition of the need to maximise the channels through which underserved and rural communities can exchange their Naira, the Bank is launching a cash swap programme in partnership with Super Agents & DMBs. The programme enables citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old Naira notes for redesigned notes.

“The initiative takes effect from Monday, January 23, 2023 as follows: “The old N1000, N500, N200 notes can be exchanged for the newly redesigned notes and/or the existing lower denominations (N100, N50 and N20, etc) which remain legal tender.

*The agent shall exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person. Amounts above N10,000 may be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy. BVN, NIN, or Voter’s card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible.

*To promote financial inclusion, this service is also available to anybody without a bank account. Agents may, on request instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. This will ensure that this category of the populace are able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost.

*Agents shall sensitize customers on opening wallets/ bank accounts and the various channels for conducting electronic transactions.

*Designated agents are eligible to collect the redesigned notes from DMBs in line with the Revised Cash Withdrawal Limit policy. Agents are also permitted to charge cash- out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service.

*Agents shall render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions. DMBs shall in turn render same to the CBN on a weekly basis.

*Principals (Super Agents, MMOs, DMBs) shall be held accountable for their agents’ adherence to the above guidelines.

*Cash Swap agents will be readily identifiable in all local governments, particularly those in the rural areas.

*The CBN will continue to monitor implementation of the programme and provide further guidance as may be necessary.

Patoma Admin by — January 22, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0