ECOWAS Archives - Inside Business Africa

Mar32021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

AfDB backs digital currencies, seeks gender inclusion

Finance

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has thrown its weight behind digital currencies, putting in motion a machinery to build capacity particularly among the female gender in the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) countries, including Nigeria. The African continental lender, yesterday, said its Board of Directors has already awarded a grant of $320, 535 to the West African Monetary Agency (WEMA) to mainstream gender in ECOWAS’ digital financial services (DFS) regulatory framework. The funds, the Bank explained, will support a gender gap analysis of several WAMA strategies, including financial inclusion, gender disaggregation data analytics, digital payment services and infrastructure as well as digital identity. The project, to be executed over three years, will potenti...

Why refined products standard is critical to Africa

Business

A move by the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARA), and the African Union (AU), to ensure common standard for the importation and refining of petroleum products on the continent remains critical to trade, environment and the economy of the region, stakeholders said, Wednesday. Under the plan, Africa is expected to adopt harmonized AFRI Clean Fuel Specifications across. The Cleaner Fuel spec recommends adoption of AFRI five (50 ppm sulphur for gasoline and diesel) by 2025, and AFRI 6 spec (10 ppm for same products) by 2030. ARA Executive Secretary, Anibor Kragha, had told The Guardian that the objective is to stop the importation of fuels not meeting these AFRI specs into Africa by 2021, and give existing refineries until 2025 to upgrade their faciliti...

Violence, exploitation threatens irregular migrants from Nigeria, says IOM

Appointments

A recent report by WAKA Well by IOM X, has indicated that irregular migrants from Nigeria and other West African states faces various forms of violence, exploitation and other abuses along the Central Mediterranean route. WAKA Well by IOM X is an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) working in Nigeria. According to the report irregular migration from Nigeria is mainly directed towards Europe through North Africa, with Nigerians almost exclusively using the Central Mediterranean route. An estimated 84 per cent of migration within West Africa is towards another country in the region, which is seven times greater than migration flows from West Africa to other parts of the world. On regional migration, the report revealed that an estimated 7.5 million migrants move around West Afric...