Algeria’s black market for foreign currency underlines economic woes of the North African nation
From Lebanon to Nigeria, experts warn that having two parallel exchange rates can distort a country’s economy, discourage investment and encourage corruption. Algeria has historically been reluctant to lower the official value of the dinar, worried that devaluation will spike prices and anger the population.
Kenya targets lower budget deficit in next fiscal year after decade of debt-fuelled infrastructure spending
To cover the deficit, the government will raise 326.1 billion shillings in net external financing, and another 377.7 billion shillings in net domestic borrowing. Overall spending will rise to 4.19 trillion shillings ($28.90 billion) from an estimated 3.90 trillion shillings in this fiscal year, the ministry said.
With wheat-based diets blamed for rising lifestyle diseases in Africa, scientists are resorting to indigenous crops to solve food insecurity
The benefits of fonio are so marked that academics and policymakers are now calling for the grain – alongside other indigenous foods, such as Ethiopia’s teff, as well as cassava and various millets and legumes – to be embraced more widely across Africa to improve food security.
Why modern farmers and scientists are keen on growing more crops for cows and cars, not food for humans
To see the yield gap in action, compare two important corn producers: the US and Kenya. In the US, the average yield is around 10.8 tonnes per hectare, while in Kenya it’s 1.5 tonnes. While the US is very close to its maximum theoretical corn yields, Kenya – taking into account its different climate – is way below its theoretical maximum. In other words, the US barely has a corn yield gap at all, while Kenya has a yield gap of about 2.7 tonnes per hectare below its theoretical maximum.
Plan by Kenya to buy back $1.4 billion of international bond eases investor jitters it might default
The pressure on the Kenyan government’s finances has forced it to try to squeeze every shilling it can from taxpayers, angering voters who had supported the current government on the premise it would lower the cost of living.
Death of Nigerian businessman, six others in California helicopter crash blamed on bad weather
Herbert Wigwe, chief executive of Access Bank, and his wife and 29-year-old son were among those aboard the helicopter when it crashed shortly after 10pm near Interstate 15. Bamofin Abimbola Ogunbanjo, former chair of the Nigerian stock exchange, was also killed. Their deaths shocked many in Nigeria and in the banking sector.
Election jitters for PM Sunak: UK economy slides into recession, but it is forecast to be short-lived
British households are due to see their first drop in living standards between one national election and the next since the Second World War, analysts have said. Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the GDP figures had more political significance than economic, with voters due to elect lawmakers in two constituencies on Thursday.
Central Bank of Kenya buys dollars to slow down strengthening of the shilling against hard currencies
The government also sold a 70 billion shilling infrastructure bond, receiving over 288 billion shillings of bids, a 412 per cent subscription rate, with strong offshore investor participation. The Kenyan shilling extended gains on Wednesday, hitting its strongest in more than three months as confidence the government would pay off a Eurobond maturing in June buoyed investor appetite.
Japan’s unexpected slip into recession elevates Germany to world’s third biggest economy
While many analysts still expect the Bank of Japan to phase out its massive monetary stimulus this year, the weak data may cast doubt on its forecast that rising wages will underpin consumption and keep inflation durably around its 2 per cent target.
Long orphaned, sorghum farming makes grand return to western Kenya as indigenous crops reclaim niche
Sorghum is Africa’s second most important cereal because it is the primary source of daily calories for approximately 300 million people. However, the crop had vanished from Kenyan farms as a result of large-scale maize farming in areas that traditionally grew sorghum and its ‘sister’ crop, millet.
