Emerging economies are often grouped together as something of a monolith. But when it comes to economic performance, they diverge widely, with only some countries achieving rapid and relatively consistent growth over long periods. What is their secret? In the McKinsey Global Institute’s recent review of the per capita GDP growth of 71 emerging economies, […]
Egypt has seen a two per cent drop in its software piracy rate to reach (59%), the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance said in its recent study, released last June. The study revealed that Egypt has managed to decrease the commercial value of the unlicensed software, which declined significantly from $157m in 2015 to $64m in […]
Labour advocates have long complained that international trade agreements are driven by corporate agendas and pay little attention to the interests of working people. The preamble of the World Trade Organization Agreement mentions the objective of “full employment,” but otherwise labour standards remain outside the scope of the multilateral trade regime. The only exception is […]
The global race to cut corporate tax rates accelerated in 2018. According to the OECD’s latest annual review of tax policies across developed economies, the average rate of taxation on corporate profits has fallen from 32.5% in 2000 to below 24% today. This trend is understandable. With private-sector investment remaining stubbornly weak, governments are desperate […]
Africa’s premier fintech event, the Africa Fintech Summit, will be held for the first time in Lagos, Nigeria, on November 8-9, 2018. This event comes on the heels of the earlier edition in Washington D.C. which featured leading policy makers, c-suite business executives, start-ups, and investors. The Summit, organized by Dedalus Global, gathers innovators, investors, […]
Huawei Technologies has launched a position paper that states that ICT has the transformative power to boost sustainable socio-economic development. The Paper adds that governments have a vital role to play in forming a favourable environment for the dynamic and healthy development of the ICT industry. The Paper was launched during the ITU Telecom World […]
Since GSM was first demonstrated in Cape Town in 1993 and the first GSM networks launched the next year, the telecom industry has fundamentally transformed every country on the African continent. As some of the largest employers, most admired - and valuable - brands, and most innovative companies on the continent, telecoms have been synonymous […]
The average quality of policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa was broadly unchanged in 2017, according to the latest review by the World Bank. This is a shift from the deterioration observed in the previous year. This analysis covers 38 countries and describes the progress these countries are making on improving the quality of their […]
On Monday, September 17 2018, the Daily Monitor ran a story with the headline “How BOU Blew Shs 478 billion in the Crane Bank Takeover”. The story and its headline were seriously misleading. The story claimed that the Bank of Uganda (BOU) spent Shs 478.8 billion from an undisclosed account in the Central Bank under […]
The burgeoning gaming industry in Africa has been thrown into stark relief during 2018 with countries across the continent driving key measures to capitalise on emerging sectors. Authorities are also keen to discuss the direct and indirect investment opportunities ahead. Talking ahead of the inaugural ICE Africa (24-25 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg), which is […]
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved the Bank’s Policy on Non-sovereign Operations (NSO). The document provides the framework within which the Bank through its private sector lending window may provide financing or investment without sovereign guarantees to private and public entities that meet specific eligibility requirements on non-concessional terms. […]
After the 2008 global financial crisis, a consensus emerged that the public sector had a responsibility to intervene to bail out systemically important banks and stimulate economic growth. But that consensus proved short-lived, and soon the public sector’s economic interventions came to be viewed as the main cause of the crisis and thus needed to […]
One day in 1961, an American economist named Daniel Ellsberg stumbled across a piece of paper with apocalyptic implications. Ellsberg, who was advising the US government on its secret nuclear-war plans, had discovered a document that contained an official estimate of the death toll in a preemptive “first strike” on China and the Soviet Union: […]