AfDB to Unveil Strategies for Africa’s Transformation at Meetings in Lusaka

The African Development Bank Group will unveil its new agenda for the continent’s economic transformation at this year’s Annual Meetings scheduled to take place from May 23-27 in Lusaka, Zambia.

In an Annual Meetings preview video message, Akinwumi Adesina, who will be presiding over his first Annual Meetings since assuming office as the Bank’s 8th President on September 1, 2015, said that participants will examine a host of burning issues in Africa as well as focus on the Bank’s five new priority actions – the High 5s – designed to scale up its operations for the continent’s transformation.

FG Unveiled and Proposes N6trn expansionist budget for 2016

President Buhari

ABUJA — THE Federal Government, yesterday, unveiled 2016 budget proposal of N6 trillion, allocating 30 per cent of the budget to capital expenditure.

was predicated on crude oil price of $65 per barrel and crude oil production of 2.28 million barrel per day.

The 2016 proposed budget is about N1.62 trillion or 27 per

ANALYSIS: De Beers polishes image in Botswana

 

DE BEERS has adjusted the tone of its engagement with Botswana — making it more about the people than its relationship with the government — to manage the risk of being perceived as too close to the ruling party. This perception could cost it dearly if the opposition wins the next election.
De Beers used last week’s Connecting Resources to Society in Botswana conference organised by Chatham House, itself and the mines ministry to highlight its contribution to the country’s prosperity, development and economic growth.

De Beers forged the Debswana partnership with the Botswana government in 1969, shortly after the discovery of diamonds there. Since then, 708-million carats of diamonds have been mined and the partnership is the linchpin of the entire country’s economy.
De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by value, last week issued a 50-page book outlining the financial and social contribution its partnership has generated. This could be seen as an effort to broaden its engagement with society outside its relationship with the government and, by extension, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

IMF gives China's currency prized reserve asset status

The International Monetary Fund admitted China's yuan into its benchmark currency basket on Monday, in a victory for Beijing's campaign for recognition as a global economic power.

 
The decision to add the yuan, also known as the renminbi, to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket alongside the dollar,

Ghana drops in World Bank ease of doing business ranking

Ghana banks

Ghana’s ranking in ease of doing business has reduced slightly from 112th to 114th in the Doing Business Report, a flagship report of the World Bank which assesses business regulations and the ease of doing business in countries.

The report noted that there is a strong association between performance in the ease of doing business ranking and performance in other measures of economic competitiveness and quality of government and governance.

“Economies that rank well on the ease of doing business also score well on such measures as the Global Competitiveness Index and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.”

Ghana’s new rank in the previous year’s report – Doing Business 2015 – was 112th after the World Bank revised the rankings in accordance with a change in the methodology of the annual report.