Africa Business News

The agreement that establishes the African Continental Free trade agreement was adopted by the member states of the African Union in March 2018 and the date of the last signatory was in October 2019
It is a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a blueprint for attaining inclusive and sustainable development across the continent over the next 50 years.
54 African countries merging into a single market of 1.3 billion people, this agreement creates the largest trade bloc in the world with regards to the number of countries with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. It is described as a vehicle for the economic transformation of Africa.
The AfCFTA with the objective to Accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations.
As this agreement became officially operational on January 1st, 2021, Wilson Erumebor, a Senior Economist at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group is here with me and we will be chatting about what this means for Nigerian Businesses.

The principal investigator of the study said late on Thursday said South Africa’s mid-stage trial of U.S.-based biotech company Novavax Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine has shown it to be 60% effective for non-HIV individuals.Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand leading the clinical study for Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, said the results were good and showed the vaccine is highly effective towards immunization against the coronavirus.He said the results are far superior than any other vaccine against the new variant.

Schools in Mali reopened on Monday after several postponements following a teachers' strike and efforts to control the spread of coronavirus.

Northern Elders Forum has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately summon a meeting of governors and heads of security agencies to find solutions to the growing tension in the country.

The Nigeria Centre For Disease Control confirmed 964 cases and two deaths for the day with the nation now maintaining a run of recording more than a thousand cases per day. NCDC’s latest data takes the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 121,566. Out of that number, 97,228 people have recovered and have been discharged, while 1,504 people have died.A breakdown of the cases recorded on Sunday shows that 360 cases were recorded in the nation’s COVID-19 epicentre, Lagos. The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had 88 cases; Ogun had 73 cases; Imo had 72 cases; Kaduna recorded 67 cases among others,The 964 new cases are reported from 19 states.

The Nigerian Governors Forum has set up a team of experts to advise on the procurement and administration of the COVID-19 vaccines.The decision was taken during the 24th teleconference meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum held on Wednesday.

The continent’s health watchdog on Thursday said African governments must take urgent steps to prepare for distribution of coronavirus vaccines after the African Union announced it had secured 270 million doses.Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told a press conference that they cannot wait as economies are down and people are dying.

The Department of Defense told Reuters on Monday that the U.S. military has not halted a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan despite a new law prohibiting further reductions without the Pentagon sending Congress an assessment of the risks.It said in a statement that no new orders have been issued which impact the progression of the conditions-based drawdown expected to reach 2,500 (troops) by Jan. 15, 2021.

Australia’s parliament on Thursday passed legislation giving the federal government power to veto any agreement struck with foreign states, a move likely to anger China and intensify a bitter diplomatic spat between the two countries.
The law allows the Commonwealth to block any agreement between Australian states, councils or institutions and a foreign government, such as a controversial 2018 deal between the state of Victoria and China.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday issued new rules to restrict travel by Chinese Communist Party members’ and their families’ to the United States, the New York Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
The new policy limited the maximum validity of travel visas for party members and their families to one month and a single entry.

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