Almost 600 million Africans rely on kerosene lamps and candles for lighting

Six out of every ten Africans, representing 600 million people, rely on dangerous fuel-based lighting like kerosene lamps and candles, Lighting Africa Progress Report has stated.

“This large proportion of Africans who lack electricity spends US$ 10.5 billion a year on kerosene which is the dominant source of lighting,” the 2013 annual report of Lighting Africa says.

It notes that kerosene is used as a primary lighting source by 53 per cent of Africa’s population.

The report also states that resorting to expensive and dangerous fuel-based lighting poses fire hazards and causes pollution.

It suggests that the continent should consider shifting to other sources of energy like windmill and solar.

More than $3.5 billion needed to combat malaria in Africa

WHO country representative in The Gambia
Dr Thomas Sukwa

Africa needs to mobilize US$3.6 billion to fully fund malaria control plans and programmes from 2013 to 2015, WHO country representative in The Gambia has said.

Dr Thomas Sukwa said this amount is in addition to about US$4.4 billion already mobilised from international partners and African governments.

Speaking to journalists in Banjul during a press briefing ahead of the 2013 World Malaria Day on 25 April, the WHO country representative said there is need for increase in domestic funding in Africa, where the proportion of domestic funding estimated as part of overall funding was only 32% in 2011 compared to 43% in Asia and 86% in Latin America.

“To highlight the funding gap, a campaign for the three years will be launched on World Malaria Day [2013] under the theme ‘Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria’,” he said.

History has shown that decrease in financial support for fighting malaria, particularly in areas where significant progress has been made, leads to a resurgence of the disease, thereby reversing years of efforts and investment. 

“Therefore, it is crucial that we stay on course as malaria resurgence will remain a persistent threat until the disease is eliminated altogether,” Dr Sukwa said.

Successful malaria control is critical to progress on all the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - goals 4, 5 and 6 - as well as making significant contribution to progress in other areas including reducing school absenteeism and fighting poverty.

‘Insurance can boost healthcare in Africa’

The insurance industry can greatly help in improving healthcare delivery in a country by designing health insurance schemes for increasing accessibility and affordability of medical services to the people.

President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma [Source: Salone Reporter]

The president of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, presenting on the topic ‘The West Africa said health insurance schemes are built upon the time honored principle of the insurance industry for pooling resources together to avert the consequences of life's contingencies on people.
Insurance Industry: The Challenges and Opportunities in the Light of Recent Economic and Socio-Political Developments’

“Our profession (the insurance profession) has often discriminated against ordinary people when it comes to health insurance schemes,” the Sierra Leonean president said while presenting his paper at the 35th Annual General Meeting and Educational Conference of the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) which started on Monday.

“Rather, we (insurance practitioners) put great emphases on targeting those who could pay the high premiums,” he added.

The Sierra Leonean president, himself an erudite insurance practitioner, said if the insurance profession should be at the centre of the new economy of growth, inclusion and protection, the practitioners must be transcended this mentality.

He said the insurance practitioners must seek out the various options for including the struggling worker, trader and ordinary citizen in national health insurance schemes.

Long route to uniting Africa through trade

[Aljazeera]  African states should aim for increased continental trade, but more political and economic stability is needed first.

    Many African countries' main exports are raw goods like cocoa and cotton, not manufactured products     [EPA]

Greater African unity has long been a cherished but elusive goal.

The recently completed 19th African Union Summit has again given a renewed impetus to establishing closer economic and political ties among the continent's 54 states, based on a heightened appreciation of the need for more intra-regional trade. Hence the theme for this year's summit: "Boosting Intra-African Trade".

The situation is disappointing: Intra-African trade has remained consistently low compared to its trade with other continents.

According to the United Nations' Economic Commission for Africa, more than 80 per cent of Africa's exports are destined for outside markets, with the European Union and the United States accounting for more than 50 per cent of this amount. Asia and China in particular, are also important export markets for African countries.

At the same time, Africa imports more than 90 per cent of its goods from outside the continent, despite its rich resource endowments, which provide the potential to supply the continent's own import needs.

One in four sub-Saharan Africans goes hungry every day – UNDP report

A report by United Nations Development Programme says one in four sub-Saharan Africans, about 214 million people put together, goes hungry every day and warns that countries in the region cannot sustain current levels of economic growth without reaching out to their most marginalized inhabitants.

The UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2012:Towards a Food Secure Future, released on Tuesday, says “15 million of these vulnerable people live in the drought-struck, semi-arid belt of Sahel, which stretches across West and Central Africa. There, malnutrition is threatening the lives of one million children”.

The report also states that more than a million children in the Sahel region are at risk of dying because they don't have enough to eat

Many sub-Saharan African countries have Gini index measures between 0.35 and 0.6. The Gini index is a measure of income inequality used by some economists. A score of “1” on the index indicates perfect inequality (hypothetically all of the wealth is concentrated). A score of “0” indicates perfect equality (hypothetically, all wealth is shared equally among the population).

Niger, for example, has a Gini index of about 0.35, Mali has a Gini coefficient of about 0.33 and Mauritania has an income inequality level of about 0.41. All three countries are affected by the current hunger crisis in the Sahel.

CROSS-BORDER TRADE BARRIERS CAUSE AFRICA TO LOSE BILLIONS – World Bank report

A new World Bank report has revealed that African countries are losing out billions of dollars in potential trade earnings every year because of high trade barriers with neighboring countries.

A news release from the World Bank on Tuesday announcing the publication of the 191-page report entitled “De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services” states that it is easier for Africa countries to trade with the rest of the world than among themselves. 

The report is published at a time when African leaders are calling for a continental free trade area by 2017 to boost trade within the continent. 

Barriers to intra-Africa trade include trade permits, export taxes, import licenses, and bans, all of which are persistent.

According to the new report, regional fragmentation could become even more costly for the continent as World Bank forecasts suggest that economic slowdown in the Eurozone could cut off Africa’s growth by up to 1.3 percentage points this year.