Recent events show that Africa’s dependence on external sources of finance is no longer sustainable. It is time for the continent to develop its own lending institutions | HANNAH RYDER AND OVIGWE EGUEGU | Amid all the distress of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, progress on the African Continental Free …

But World Bank warns of looming danger ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s economy could escape the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and post one of the higher growth figures on the African continent in 2021, according to the latest Global Prospects Report of the World Bank released this …

Opportunities, Challenges, and why full implementation of the historic pact may take years ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | African countries began officially trading under the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Jan.01. It is a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 to stimulate intra-African trade. In …

Here’s who will win and who will lose ANALYSIS | STEVE SCHIFFERES | The coronavirus has crippled the world economy. Global GDP in 2020 suffered its sharpest drop since the end of the Second World War, millions were unemployed or furloughed, and governments pumped trillions of dollars into their economies …

Chinese foreign minister Wang’s visit to Africa is another missed opportunity to seal deals ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi has been on a five-nation tour in Africa that started on Jan.04 and took him to Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Tanzania and …

America’s past tells us the farce in Pennsylvania on Jan.05 and the tragedy in the Capitol Jan.06 have something unsettling in common. ANALYSIS | RICHARD PRIMUS | One day before a political mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, a less violent breach of norms dominated the day in a different capitol …

In response to the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, most sub-Saharan governments are developing economic recovery plans. These will require some different thinking, particularly when it comes to agriculture. Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, explains to Michael Aliber, a professor …

Does it matter that government ignores their recommendations? Kampala, Uganda | MUBATSI ASINJA HABATI | For the first time since the 2006 general elections, the European Union Election Mission will not have election observers in Uganda. Initially they citied the Covid-19 pandemic threat and ensuing travel complications for their absence …

Bad news for Bobi Wine supporters Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | What should be the main takeaway from President Yoweri Museveni’s Dec.16 re-appointment of his son, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to head the Special Forces Command and Maj. Gen. Paul Lokech to be the deputy inspector general of police …

Kateregga captures the everyday in his gripping paintings THE INDEPENDENT | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Not very far from the artist’s studio, you can hear the constant piercing sound of metal fabricators welding and hammering away at aluminum- steel metal. They fabricate the material to produce windows and doors for the …