The world’s largest e-hailing firm, Uber has said that Africa is principal to its growth expansion plans inspite of concerns about profitability, noting that the company sees a very bright future in the continent. To this end,Uber has promised that it is firmly committed to the African market because it holds huge prospects for its growth strategy inspite of the growing competition by both global brands and emerging local services. With 2.7 million active monthly riders and just over 59,000 drivers, Uber says its commitment to the African market remains undaunted.
Since taking the plunge into Africa in 2013 with its first e-hailing service in Johanessburg South Africa, Uber has expanded into 14 cities in sub-Saharan Africa while consolidating its grip on major hubs such as Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. It has also started moving into ancillary cities such as Benin City in Nigeria, and Kumasi in Ghana with the broadening of its offer beyond the saloon cars that make up most of the markets. Recently it veered off its traditional market of car taxi’s to offer water transportation in Lagos Nigeria which shows its dexterity and ability to make adjustments to meet customer needs. This decision according to the company is because a that a lot is happening in the transit space with things like buses and waterways opening up as potential modes to overcome traffic restrictions and challenges.
The Uberboat Lagos which is in partnership with the Lagos State Waterways Authority and Texas Connection Ferries is available on weekdays for now. It was a child of necessity aimed at helping majority of Lagosians who want to escape the ubiquitous Lagos road traffic snarl. In East Africa, Uber offers the UberBoda, a product allowing riders to hail motorcycle taxis, while UberPoa caters for the humble tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) market. These flexible offerings show the company’s efforts to meet the expectations of local consumers informed the introduction and were informed by the culture of cash payments in a continent where credit card ownership remains low. This according to Uber was after analyzing feedbacks it got from its riders on the need for an alternative payment system.
The company is aware that with all these changes, and also the fact that it is operating in a continent with more least developed countries (LCD’s) in the world, it will affect its profitability margin in the short to medium term, but with hope that all these innovations and flexible offers will become profitable in the long run. Behind the issue of profitability, the company also face the potential limitations of a commodified taxi product that could be undercut on price by competitors such as Lyft and Bolt (formerly Taxify) which made market watchers to speculate that Uber may eventually develop into an integrated platform for multiple transport and delivery services.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Efforts airmed at integrating the economies of five Horn of Africa countries to create a regional pool of investment opportunities worth over $15 billion have been launched through an initiative to forge closer economic ties, building on the improving political climate in the sub-region.
The initiative which was formalized on the sidelines of the recently concluded World Bank Group/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC by representatives of Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia promises to lift millions of people in the region from poverty.
The countries agreed on priority projects and programs that will constitute the initiative, which is being developed by the countries with support from the African Development Bank , the European Union and the World Bank.
The effort will culminate in a financing forum next year to seek investors to realize a package of priorities identified by the quintet, which has over the past decade registered some of the highest growth rates in Africa.
Khaled Sherif, the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, who attended the roundtable in Washington said: “The Horn of Africa’s geo-strategic position with regard to the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, has important regional and international significance. “These can be harnessed to spur integration, resilience and usher in a new era of prosperity, enabling the countries to reap significant dividends from the current peace initiatives.”
The Horn of Africa nations identified four priority areas of focus: improving regional infrastructure connectivity; promoting trade and economic integration; and building resilience; and strengthening human capital development. The proposals require financing of around $15 billion.
Most of the Horn of Africa countries easily outpaced the continent’s average growth rate in 2018. Africa’s gross domestic product expanded by an estimated 3.5% last year, while Ethiopia reached 7.7%, Djibouti 5.6%, Kenya 5.9% and Eritrea 4.2%. Somalia was the exception at 2.9%.
The region is expected to receive a further lift from the 2018 peace accord between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which has already increased cross-border trade and could advance economic integration.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Angry members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) have locked up about 52 shops belonging to foreigners at the Opera Square in Accra.
Storming the Central Business District on Monday, November 04, 2019, they called on the government to enforce the law that prevents foreigners from engaging in retail businesses in Ghana.
The traders interacting with Joy Business explained that “we are taking the law into their hands, especially when government has failed us.’’
They say the government’s inability to enforce the law leaves them with no choice than to do it themselves.
“We can’t sit and watch these Nigerian retailers take over our shops and business. There is a law which bans them from doing business yet our leaders sit back and watch them flouting the law,” one Ghanaian trader complained.
GUTA says foreign retailers flout section 27 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 865.
That law specifies that the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place must be reserved for Ghanaians.
Other activities not permitted for non-citizens include:
-Operation of taxi or car hire service in an enterprise that has a fleet of less than twenty-five vehicles
-Operation of a beauty salon or a barbershop
-Printing of recharge scratch cards for the use of subscribers of telecommunication services
-Production of exercise books and other basic stationery
-Retail of finished pharmaceutical products
-Production and retail of sachet water.
At the Central Business District, the GUTA leadership had a special lock with which they were locking the shops, many of which belonged to Chinese and Nigerian nationals.
The exercise was being carried out by the Electrical Association Chapter of GUTA and hence they were targeting electrical shops.
Last week, Thursday, foreign traders in Kejetia, Suame Magazine, Adum, and Asafo markets were all yanked out of the shops.
GUTA Public Relations Officer, Albert Mensah Offei, said that the locking up of retail shops owned by foreigners will soon be extended to other parts of the country.
They specifically targeted shops with foreign names.
The closure of these shops follows the protracted closure of the Nigerian-Benin Border which has left trucks from Ghana stranded at the borders.
So far, Nigerian authorities have revealed an extension of the border until January 31 — a development the President of GUTA, Dr Joseph Obeng has described as proof of weak ECOWAS protocols.
Source: Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| Ama Cromwell|
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
Since the Ugandan government liberalized Coffee sector, the country has been experiencing a boom in Coffee farming as farm developments at the country’s Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda has become a flourishing ground for thousands of acres of Coffee farms. Standing at almost 2,000 metres above sea level, Mount Elgon is Uganda’s highest peak with the right altitude to produce some of the world’s premium Coffee beans for export. The boom according to observers may be an answer to Uganda’s quest to create employment for its teeming youth population. In the last few years, Uganda has grown to become Africa’s biggest coffee exporting country and eighth-biggest in the world. In the past two decades coffee has contributed around 20-30% of Uganda’s foreign exchange earnings.
One of the major players in the industry is Kyagalanyi Coffee, one of the largest coffee exporters in Uganda. Founded in 1992 and later became part of the Volcafe group, Kyagalanyi Coffee is the coffee division of ED&F Man, a commodities trader headquartered in London. Among other visible players in Uganda’s Coffee sector is a subsidiary of Sucafina, a Swiss trading firm, and the Singaporean conglomerate, Olam, which is fast becoming one of the biggest agro commodities giant in Africa with tentacles spread across West, Central and East Africa.
Some of these big firms have identified ways of engaging the farmers in a bid to improve yield and production quality. Ugandan exporters get their coffee from an army of smallholder farmers – as many as 1.7m households – who grow coffee trees alongside crops like bananas or beans. Quality control workers pick out unsuitable green, unroasted coffee beans from a conveyor belt at Dormans coffee factory in Nairobi. The sector flourished in the 1990s, after the government stripped the parastatal coffee board of its export monopoly. Liberalisation was promoted by President Yoweri Museveni with strong donor backing. More money flowed to farmers, poverty rates fell sharply, and production soared. Today about 60-80% of coffee export revenues go into the pockets of farmers, more than in most other African countries.
However, according to the Coffee Farmers Alliance of Uganda, there is need for sustainable farming as the liberalization that ushered in the new wave of Coffee millionaires also led to the collapse of Coffee cooperatives and farmers were left to fend for themselves. The restructuring of the domestic industry was followed by a slump in international coffee prices and a devastating outbreak of coffee wilt disease. Many farmers gave up on their trees. Exports had peaked at over 4m bags in the mid-nineties, but were barely 2m a decade later. Only in the last few years have they returned to peak levels, with 4.3m bags exported in 2017/18. In 2014 Museveni set an optimistic production target of 20m bags by 2020. The deadline has since been pushed back to 2025, but officials are positive.
Experts say that some simple interventions could make the difference. Coffee gains about a third of its weight in the last 2-4 weeks before ripening, so farmers should pick cherries only once they turn red. Another trick is to cut trees back to their stumps, then let them regrow; the farmer sacrifices income in the short-run, but the trees bounce back more fruitful than before. With better techniques and the right support Ugandan farmers could increase yields by 200% for robusta and 150% for arabica varieties, they say.
The problem is creating incentives to do so. Exporters rarely have a direct relationship with farmers. They get their coffee through middlemen, who drive round villages buying up cherries on motorbikes or trucks. Farmers sell their coffee to whoever offers a good price: if one company invests in higher yields, another might reap the rewards.
About 80% of Uganda’s coffee is robusta, which typically ends up in instant coffee blends. There is little price premium for improving quality, and so exporters do not bother. But speciality arabica coffee, which is grown in highland areas, is a favourite of rich-world consumers. That creates the kind of margins which can finance a direct trade relationship with farmers. Kyagalanyi now works directly with 21,000 arabica farmers in three regions of Uganda. One of those is Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano on the Kenyan border, where it operates five washing stations including the one at Gibuzale.
Teams of agronomists fan out across the hills, visiting farmers, checking certification standards and advising on best practices. Small demonstration plots show the benefits of new techniques. At harvest farmers bring their coffee to the washing stations, receiving rapid payment through cash or mobile money. Data from Kyagalanyi suggests the scheme is working. In 2018 half of the households it works with on Mount Elgon cut back trees to the stump, up from just 12% in 2015. Over 40% were using inorganic fertiliser, compared with about 15% in 2014. For washed arabica, yields increased by 72% in eight years with the farmers making about USh2.8m ($764) more each year as a result of price and productivity gains.
Analysts say that Mount Elgon is a good place for a coffee scheme to start. The roads are relatively smooth, the chain from farmer to exporter is quite short, and farmers have a commercial mindset but the challenge is greater in other arabica areas, like the Rwenzori mountains in the west.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The President of African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) Prof. Benedict Okechukwu Oramah has been bestowed with Russia’s National Honour by President Vladimir Putin. The Honour which was bestowed on Prof. Oramah today in Moscow is the national honour of “The Order of Friendship”. The award took place during a ceremony held in the Kremlin, seat of the Government of the Russian Federation, and was witnessed by senior members of the government and other dignitaries.
Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation pp
The Order of Friendship is a state decoration established by Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, and is awarded to Russian and foreign nationals for Special merit in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding between nations, for fruitful work on the convergence and mutual enrichment of cultures of nations and peoples; the active conservation, development and promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of Russia; great contribution to the implementation of joint ventures with the Russian Federation, major economic projects and attracting investments into the economy of the Russian Federation; and broad charitable activities.
The award to President Oramah falls under the category of “Special merit in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding between nations, for fruitful work on the convergence and mutual enrichment of cultures of nations and peoples”. It is, specifically, in recognition of the role played by Afreximbank revitalising trade and economic relations between Africa and Russia as evident in the success of the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum held in Sochi, Russian Federation, from 23 to 24 October, as well as the rapidly rising trade and investment relations between Russia and Africa.
Also named as recipients of the Order of Friendship for 2019 were Vice-President Rosario Murillo Zambrana of Nicaragua; William Craft Brumfield, a U.S. citizen and professor of Slavic studies at Tulane University; Professor Emeritus Rein Müllerson, an Estonian citizen and international law researcher at Tallinn University; Nikos Daskalandonakis, Russian Honorary Consul in Crete; and Armi Lopez Garcia, Russian Honorary Consul in the Philippines.
Some previous winners of the honour include former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad; former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, among others.
Photo Caption: President Vladimir Putin of Russia (left) in handshake with Afreximbank President Prof Benedict Oramah after bestowing the Order of Friendship on him.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Kenya is now officially the 7th most populous country in Africa just behind South Africa, according to new population census figures. This means so many things. First, it means that between 2009 and 2019, about 9.9 million people were added to Kenya’s population. Second, it means that there are now more women than men in the country. The results of the national census carried out from Aug. 24 to 31, indicated the country’s population now stands at 47.6 million, up from 37.7 million in 2009.
“These results now provide us with a unique opportunity to realign our development strategies, policies and programmes,’’ Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta said.
Here Is All You Need To Know
According to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census results presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Nairobi, the total population enumerated during the census exercise conducted in August this year was 47,564,296 persons.
More Women, Less Men
The results indicate that the female population which stands at 24,014,716 accounts for 50.5 percent of the total population while the male population is 23,548,056 persons.
More People Live In Kenya’s Capital Than In Any Other Cities Or Places In Kenya
The 2019 census report, presented to the Head of State by Director General of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Zachary Mwangi again shows that Nairobi is the most populous county in the country with a population of 4.4 million people followed by Kiambu (2.4), Nakuru (2.16), Kakamega (1.87) and Bungoma (1.67).
The least populous counties are Lamu(143,920), Isiolo (268,002), Samburu (310,3217), Tana River (315,943) and Taita Taveta (340,671).
How Reliable Is The Figure?
Although this is the first official declaration of Kenya’s population since 2009, there have estimates of the number of people that live in the country from different organisations and agencies. The current figures may however look reliable since apart from being the first census under Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, it was also the first such exercise in the history of Kenya where technology was fully deployed.
“I am proud to note that the mobile devices used in the census were assembled by our local universities and data capture software was internally developed by the Bureau (KNBS),” the President said of the national exercise that was fully funded by the government.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
As the Nigerian Customs Service extends the border closure to January 2020, making it the longest closure in 40 years, the Nigerian government insists that opening the border will depend on several variables one of which is positive responses from the governments of Benin Republic. This is as the federal government say the ongoing ‘Exercise Swift Response’ will continue till January 31, 2020 based on ongoing deliberations at both national and regional levels. However, analysts say that this continued closure are choking regional trade, noting that businesses across the region have been complaining about the negative impact of the operation on the economy of the region.
Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd).
Most hit by the closure is the Seme corridor of the Lagos-Dakar International Corridor which has blocked a vital West African trade artery and is chipping away regional integration. Experts say that as the border remains closed, vegetables are rotting, as queues of lorries are choking up checkpoints on each side. While border closures are a familiar sight at Seme-Krake, this is reported to be the longest closure in about forty years, with no end in sight. The prolonged closure they say, is a reflection of deep fractures in cross-border trade relations. The cracks at Seme-Krake are particularly damaging since the border feeds the ECOWAS Abidjan-Lagos Corridor.
Nigerian authorities standing guard at the border say the closure is intended to stem the flow of illicit goods smuggled from Benin, which is compromising Nigeria’s agricultural trade, job creation, revenue collection and security. The issue of rice smuggling is particularly contentious, with Africa’s fastest growing staple featuring first on Nigeria’s long list of contraband goods. As Nigeria has made sweeping investments in developing rice production, officials say these efforts are undermined by smuggling from Benin.
Rice smuggled from Benin comes from outside the ECOWAS region, so it fails to meet the rules of origin to qualify for duty-free goods. Beninois smugglers also make a killing by importing rice at cheaper rates than Nigeria, and then selling it below market price in the Nigerian market. A single trip to the Seme-Krake border and its surrounding trade routes confirmed that smuggling is a very real problem that requires targeted action. The blanket closure of the border to all trade, however, is not the answer.
This is because, since the establishment of ECOWAS in 1975, the region has made significant strides in regional integration. The 15 ECOWAS member countries have become one interdependent system, meaning the Seme-Krake border closure has significant knock-on effects. First, the border closure blocks the trade of all goods, not just contraband such as rice, tomatoes and frozen poultry. Trucks entering Nigeria need to comply with ECOWAS conventions, which require all goods to be containerised and sealed at the point of origin until the final destination.
The Nigerian government has kept its seaports and airports open for non-contraband imports, as they have scanning facilities to inspect all imported goods. But this is not a realistic alternative for most traders. Key staple agricultural commodities such as maize, wheat and cassava, which qualify for duty-free status within ECOWAS, are therefore no longer being traded in either direction. This has hit incomes and food security. It also undermines the very foundations of the ECOWAS trade scheme – for the duty-free flow of goods throughout member countries.
Our Correspondent who visited the Seme Border confirmed that majority of trucks piled up at Benin checkpoints are laden with goods that are neither contraband nor imported from outside Benin. One female trucker with 9 seized coconut trucks complained that her cargo had been detained for two months, creating huge costs and unrecoverable losses. Secondly, regional integration has nurtured cross-border regional value chains. Much of Nigeria’s imports from Benin are raw agricultural goods, some of which are used to feed Nigeria’s growing agro-processing industry.
This means that the land border closure may serve to defeat its main objective of supporting agro-industry and employment. It could also hit productivity and raise costs in the agro-processing sector. The only option is to re-route trade to seaports or airports, which also drives up production costs for Nigerian industries. Thirdly, hard border infrastructure hides the strong and indelible links and bonds between border communities on either side of Seme-Krake. This has given rise to a micro-economy that thrives on informal cross border trade. This trade is small-scale, fluid and not subject to official border crossing procedures.
Unlike large consignments of formal trade, women moving with heavy loads of plantain and fabrics on their heads still cross the border. But today, the time taken to cross the border has more than doubled, and seen harassment by customs officials ramped up. Rolling out the recently piloted ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Cards to all cross-border communities would help to identify traders originating close to the borders, who may not have passports or other official means of identification.
Nigeria is still the biggest loser in this closure even though it has achieved relative gains. First, as the biggest supplier of traded goods along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, the closure of the Seme-Krake border has cut off the origin and supply of many semi-processed and manufactured products to cross-border markets in Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Export Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) and Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) are currently collecting data on the impact of the Seme-Krake border closure on volumes and prices of goods traded both informally and formally along the corridor.
If Nigeria’s land borders are not re-opened soon, its neighbouring countries may look to alternative suppliers to fill the gaps created by the closure. If this happens, even when the border re-opens, it may be too late for Nigerian suppliers to regain their market share. While smuggling along unofficial trade routes has significantly reduced, it has come at a huge cost for regional trade. Nigeria’s government are urging Benin to sign an agreement committing not to import goods that are onwardly smuggled. But enforcing such an agreement requires the costly deployment of security forces along both seams of the porous border.
A more cost-effective solution, and one in the spirit of furthering regional integration, would be to fully implement the common ECOWAS External Tariff enforce in 2015. This would make all goods imported from abroad subject to the same tariffs, and would go a long way in eliminating the gaping price disparities that incentivise smuggling. At the same time, governments must continue to invest heavily in transforming agriculture by boosting local production and competitiveness. This will remove the need to resort to trade policy measures to remain competitive.
Finally, the cracks at the Seme-Krake border have surfaced due to much deeper frictions in the implementation of ECOWAS trade policy. For the smooth functioning of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), the Nigerian and Beninois customs authorities must cooperate to enforce the scheme, including through joint operations at the border. For the launch of trade in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from 1st July 2020 to work, strong political commitment and reliable institutional arrangements to keep the continent’s 107 land borders open will be critical.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The new rules that will govern Cocoa certification which is being mulled by the World Cocoa Council will be to the detriment of African farmers’ majority of who are already disenfranchised by the lopsidedness in the industry. A farmers advocacy group said that Cocoa producers, particularly in Africa are worried that the introduction of new certification standards would give far more control to the big organizations in Europe who control the industry, moreso, the farmers are worried that this is a veiled effort by the Council to push the producers, especially the farmers to receive an income below the poverty line.
However, analysts say that while farmers should be pleased with its certification, producers are more concerned about certified sustainable cocoa. A sector that has seen the emergence of several sustainable certification standards in recent years, this necessary overhaul of the system to make the sector more sustainable, does not change the living conditions of producers, particularly African producers who still live below the poverty line on less than a dollar a day.
African commodity exporters are in for a rough ride as the African economy whose main trading partner, China, recorded a sharp 6% decline in growth in the third quarter of this year. This is a record low growth for China, which has recorded its weakest performance in at least twenty-seven years. The 6.2% growth in the third quarter of this year is due to increasing downward pressure from the economy. The fall could also have a strong impact in Africa, as Beijing is the continent’s largest trading partner, with an estimated trade volume of more than $170 billion in 2018.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
After the revolution and political crisis that deposed former dictator Omar El Bashir from power, the Sudanese government has been working frantically to rehabilitate its battered economy and re-engage its development partners, as the country has suffered severe investor drought over the past few years. To this end Sudan has agreed a roadmap to “rehabilitate” the country with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank (AfDB).
According to the Finance Minister Ibrahim Elbadawi , the plan involved structural reforms but did not go into further details. He said as part of the deal Sudan would not have to pay its lenders debt arrears. There could also be non-financial support. Sudan’s inclusion on a list of countries deemed sponsors of terrorism by the United States makes it ineligible for debt relief and financing from lenders like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, cutting off a crucial source of finance.
Elbadawi who was in Washington, D.C. where he was attending the annual World Bank and IMF meetings said that negotiations with other creditors would begin in March.“Based on that, Sudan’s debt relief programme will start by the end of 2020,” he said, without giving further details.
Elbadawi said that “friends of Sudan” will fund its 2020 budget, and said the ministry has submitted financing requests for 20 projects to donors, without identifying who those donors were. A “friends of Sudan” meeting will be held in Khartoum in early December, he said. Another meeting for donors will be held in April.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given Sudan $3 billion in aid, agreed soon after former president Omar al-Bashir was ousted in April, throwing a lifeline to Sudan’s new military leaders at the time.
Sudan’s new transitional government, formed as part of a three-year deal agreed by military and civilian leaders in August, has been working to remove Sudan from the U.S. sponsors of terrorism list, to potentially open the door for foreign investment.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is expected to visit the United States soon, Elbadawi said, without saying when.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Following a similar decision by British Courts to dump the Colonial Wigs, the Malawian Constitutional Court has ruled to suspend the requirements for lawyers and judges to wear the traditional white wigs and black robes in the courtroom even as an early season heat wave is sweeping through the country. Over the decades, many lawyers and professionals from former British colonies have questioned the continued use of the wigs and gowns by both lawyers and judges in courts across the former colonies that make up the Commonwealth. While some countries have dumped the tradition, others have continued to carry on with it.
Agnes Patemba, registrar, Malawian high court and a judicial spokeswoman
The history of the courtroom dress of British judges and lawyers of wearing a white wig and a robe dates back to the 17th century and not much of the uniform has changed since. History has it that in 1625, an academic paper called The Discourse on Robes and Apparel forever changed the way British high court officials dressed. This work led to the adoption of the robe and wig as the courtroom uniform to distinguish judges and barristers from other members of society.
The Discourse on Robes and Apparel not only dictated what could be worn in a court of law, but the conditions and even seasons for each outfit, as well. Courtroom wear isn’t just boring black and white. Seasons and the type of case determine the color and style of robe judges wear. Robes of violet, green, black, and scarlet have served different purposes through the years, though the color requirements have fluctuated many times in the last few centuries.
The fashion trends of the 17th century helped wigs work their way into courtrooms. The headpieces were fully adopted as proper legal wear by 1685 and came with just as many strict rules as robes. Today, both judges and barristers wear wigs, but each has their own style all across most of the former British colonies of the commonwealth. But some countries have started dropping the tradition with Malawi being the last to take that decision. Malawi, a former British protectorate, still follows the British legal system, with the wearing of wigs and robes a requirement for judges and lawyers. However, the heatwave this that swept across the country means that the gowns and wigs were uncomfortable.
Speaking on the development, Chikosa Silungwe, a Malawian lawyer said that the heatwave was making the court’s work challenging. “It’s simple really. The heatwave this week meant that the gowns and wigs were uncomfortable,” he said. Agnes Patemba, the registrar for the country’s high court and a judicial spokeswoman, said the lifting of the wig and gown requirement, is however, a temporary measure.
“There is a heatwave and that has compelled the court to indeed do away with wigs and gowns. It is not the first time this has been done,” Patemba said.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
