Day: March 18, 2022

NAIROBI– The World Bank approved 85.77 billion shillings (about 750 million U.S. dollars), to help accelerate Kenya’s ongoing inclusive and resilient recovery, from the COVID-19 crisis.

The World Bank said in a statement released yesterday that, the Development Policy Operation (DPO), will help Kenya strengthen fiscal sustainability, through reforms that contribute to greater transparency and the fight against corruption.

Keith Hansen, the World Bank country director for Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, said, the government maintained the momentum to make critical reforms progress, despite the disruption caused by the pandemic.

“The World Bank, through the DPO instrument, is pleased to support these efforts, which are positioning Kenya to sustain its strong economic growth performance, and steering it towards inclusive and green development,” said Hansen.

The DPO is the second in a two-part series of development operations initiated in 2020, that provides low-cost budget financing along with support to key policy and institutional reforms.

It organises the multi-sector reforms into three pillars – fiscal and debt reforms, to make spending more transparent and efficient, and enhance domestic debt market performance; electricity sector and public-private partnership (PPP) reforms, to place Kenya on an efficient, green energy path, and boost private infrastructure investment; and strengthening the governance framework of Kenya’s natural and human capital, including the environment, land, water and healthcare.

The Bank said, its DPO also supports Kenya’s capacity to handle future pandemics through the establishment of the Kenya National Public Health Institute (NPHI), which will coordinate public health functions and programmes to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats, including infectious and non-infectious diseases, and other health events.

“By the end of 2023, the programme aims to have five strategically selected ministries, departments, and agencies, procuring all goods and services through the electronic procurement platform,” it said.

Alex Sienaert, senior economist for the World Bank in Kenya, said, the government’s reforms supported by the DPO help reduce fiscal pressures by making public spending more efficient and transparent, and by reducing the fiscal costs and risks from key state-owned entities.

“The package includes measures to spur more private investment and growth, whilst strengthening the management of Kenya’s natural and human capital, which underpin its economy,” Sienaert added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Authorities in Mali have taken Radio France Internationale and France 24 television off the air, accusing the media outlets of broadcasting false allegations against the Malian army.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says the suspension, which followed months of rising tensions between Mali and France, has serious implications for foreign and Malian journalists alike.

RFI and France 24 went off the air Thursday evening in Mali, on orders from Mail’s military government.

In a press release, the government said the outlets broadcast false allegations about the Malian army that were aimed at “destabilizing” the government.

Earlier this week, RFI aired a report on alleged executions of civilians and other alleged human rights abuses committed by Mali’s army.

VOA also reported on the accusations, speaking to a man in central Mali who witnessed several acquaintances taken away by the army and never seen again.

CPJ in February reported on the suspension of the accreditation process for foreign journalists in Mali, which has not been reinstated.

Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program director, speaking from New York, said that the suspension of RFI and France 24 is “censorship, pure and simple.”

“What CPJ has asked and what we will call for, obviously, is that the Malian authorities should really halt their efforts to control journalism in the country, because that’s what it’s all about. And that they should reverse the suspension of RFI and France 24 immediately,” Quintal said.

Bandiougou Dante, president of Mali’s Maison de la Presse (Press House), spoke to journalists from his office in Bamako.

He referenced both the European Union’s decision to suspend Russian media and the Malian government’s suspension of French broadcasts in saying that there is a worldwide “worrying turn” away from democracy and free expression.

He said that in his view there was a possibility to find the ways and means by which to respond to certain criticisms or accusations in the media. Suspension, he thinks, is an extreme measure.

Corinne Dufka, Sahel director at Human Rights Watch, which published its own report this week on alleged abuses committed by Mali’s army, speaking from Washington, said the suspension of the French broadcasts sends a message about human rights reporting and investigating.

“We are concerned that it will lead to self-censorship within the Malian press, as well as a dampening of the national human rights community to fulfil their important mandate of investigating abuses by all sides,” Dufka said.

Dante says this is the first time to his knowledge that foreign media have been suspended in Mali.

France Medias Monde, the parent company of RFI and France 24, says the two media outlets are followed by a third of Mali’s population each week.

Source: Voice of America

Africans are feeling the pinch caused by soaring global energy prices, say analysts, even in countries like Nigeria and Angola that are major exporters of crude oil.

While that handful of oil producers is seeing an increase in revenue – especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 – much of the continent lacks refining capability, forcing countries to pay high prices to import gasoline and other petroleum products from Asia and Europe.

The continent is further affected by increasing costs for natural gas, a key component of nitrogen-based fertilizers used in food production.

With salaries largely stagnant, more than two-thirds of Africans feel pressured by the rising prices, said Franklin Cudjoe, founding president of the Ghana-based Imani Center for Policy and Education.

“The continent is affected simply because we depend largely on global oil suppliers, since not many African countries have [their own] oil products,” Cudjoe told VOA.

Prices spiked on the global oil market after the invasion of Ukraine triggered a wave of international sanctions against Russia, one of the world’s leading exporters of crude. The price briefly climbed to over $120 per barrel this month before settling down to $103 per barrel on Friday.

The surge in energy prices is helping to fuel inflation across Africa. In Ghana, for example, overall consumer price inflation was pegged at 15.7% year-on-year in February compared with 13.9% in January, the country’s Statistical Service said last week.

In Zimbabwe, prices are climbing sharply – even overnight. At a TM supermarket in the capital of Harare, a crate of 30 eggs cost the $6.70 on Tuesday and about $7.81 on Wednesday. The price of a loaf of bread went from $1.49 to $1.84; for a kilo of beef, the price jumped from $3.35 to $5.22.

Gasoline costs climbed, too. In Harare, the per-liter price climbed from $1.41 to $1.69 from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The surge in food prices was the biggest driver behind consumer inflation in Egypt, it rose by 8.8% in February – the sharpest increase in nearly three years, according to the state statistics agency, CAPMAS.

Cudjoe said it was crucial for governments and regional bodies such as the African Union to build defenses to cushion consumers in times of economic uncertainty.

“Even if it means building defenses in terms of the provision of food,” said Cudjoe, adding, “I could imagine Nigeria, if it had had its way, it could be selling foodstuff to most countries at reduced rates by now.”

“There must be that urgency of building for themselves defenses, funds that would make us sustain ourselves — at least to prevent us from being completely annihilated by these uncertainties in the world.”

Chibamba Kanyama, an economist in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, said suspending fuel taxes would be “the most ideal thing to do now under the circumstances” to cushion consumers and industries.

“African governments must find a way of responding,” he said. ‘It is a choice of whether to reduce taxes to lower the prices or to maintain the price levels and use the revenues to subsidize the most vulnerable in society.”

But Kanyama also suggested that the geopolitical crisis involving Russia and Ukraine – both big grain exporters to Africa – may create opportunities for African producers.

“Supply countries like South Africa, with robust and highly mechanized systems, may find a window of exporting [commodities] like wheat and other products to fill the gaps left by Russia and Ukraine,” Kanyama said.

Kanyama also said support by the international community – for instance, in the form of debt relief for some African nations – is welcome.

He noted that the Group of 20 – which encompasses seven industrialized nations, some countries with strong or fast-growing economies, and the European Union – “is trying to offer some debt relief.”

“Some other countries, such as Zambia, [are] undergoing debt restructuring processes and an IMF program, and to me, this is the only way out of the crisis,” Kanyama added.

This story originated in VOA’s English-to-Africa service, with contributions from the Zimbabwe service.

Source: Voice of America