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Authors:Michael Takudzwa Pasara Abstract: The corona virus shocked everyone, from private institutions to govern ments. It presented a dual crisis which had not been experienced before, a health crisis and an economic one. The effects of the former would likely be signicficant in the short term while the effects of the latter are likely to be felt in the long term. The country and regional idiosyncrasies implies that some regions will experience a much greater shock than others. Whilst COVID19 is a global pandemic, this article discusses the challenges and opportunities that this crisis presents for Africa. On one hand, the crisis amplifies already existing Africa's weaknesses characterised by uncoordinated and dysfunctional institutions.These manifest themselves in compounded socio-economic challenges such as war, political instability, poor trade channels and systems, poverty, poor health facilities among others. On the other hand, the pandemic presents an opportunity for the continent to re-model itself and take advantage of convergence eefcts thereby 'catching-up' with emerging and advanced economies. This paper provides an overview of how Africans can transform the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity through a coordinated approach. The lesson is that Africans must learn to work as teams or perish as individuals. PubDate: 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z
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Abstract: Does COVID-19 have an impact on South Africa's economy' The impact of COVID-19 on the economy is appalling and cannot be overlooked. Noteworthy, is that the COVID-19 pandemic has deplorable eefcts to governments, investors, financial markets and consumers. There are many effects of the COVID-19, including but not limited to, the strain on the government's expenditure, an uncertainty in financial markets, panic buying, depreciation of the local currency and leading South Africa into a depression. This study presents recommendations that can be used by the government to counter the adverse effects attached to COVID-19. This study therefore suggests that the government reduce the borrowing rate to increase the consumption level and economic growth. In addition, the fiscal authorities should fund all key economic sectors to avoid unemployment and a stagnant economic growth. PubDate: 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z
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Abstract: The National Development Plan compels all cities to create sustainable environments for their communities (RSA, 2012: 37-38). However, the challenge throughout South African cities is the lack of f inances needed to provide the green infrastructure required to drive the sustainable cities agenda, while cleaning up the environment (SANC, 2016: 198-199). Therefore, this paper follows a qualitative, literature-based approach to discuss alternative financing models which include private investors as well. Obviously, as per literature a self-funding municipality could result in cost savings and/or the attraction of outside investment which might be a good idea for South Africa considering its current economic status. However, it seems that in the current situation South African municipalities do not have the finance to kick-start such a process. Therefore, based on satisfactory results from a collaboration between Singapore and China on the transition of greening its cities since 2009, an alternative financing structure for greening South African cities is proposed. This may serve as a guiding tool for policy makers on greening South African cities. PubDate: 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z
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Abstract: Covid-19 not only denotes a global unrestricted wellbeing disaster but has turn out to be a global trade and industry catastrophe that could exceed the overall financial crisis of 2008-09. Right now, most countries are tirelessly designing mitigation measures to try to edge the spread of the virus and save economy. Whatsoever measures to be embraced they will come at a cost. Since Covid-19 is strictly a global shock, worldwide synchronization is critical in containment and mitigation eforts. Unquestionably, with no cure found yet, the present epidemics will suggestively have bearing on global GDP growth for 2020, one on investment downside if containment strategies are lengthened and two, banks' earnings to drop in the second quarter and thus negatively impacting the profitability of banks and hence taxes to the governments. Devising mechanisms to grapple with this pandemic, while following to expert's guidance is essential to return to business normality. Covid-19 like any other virus known illness is going to take time to be contained; henceforth learning on how to cope with it in our daily routine is necessary to kick start our economies undertakings. Based on topical literature, this short paper scans and analyse on-going discourse from past epidemics and lessons learnt to help draw an analysis on that would help to assessing short-term ifscal and monetary impact of Covid-19 on general growth amidst challenging times that most banks, governments and heads of states faces to cope with this pandemic. PubDate: 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Jairo Morales-Nieto Abstract: Since its birth during the sunset of the twenty century, Amartya Sen’s paradigm of human development has been the most acknowledgeable revolution in social sciences. It can be studied as a moral philosophy, political economy, welfare economics, distributive justice theory, social contract theory, and a new metric of human progress. It is a powerful conceptual model having considerable proficiency to replace the hegemony of neoliberalism as mainstream economics and development policy. However, the takeover process has not happened yet because, first, neoliberalism is not only a powerful economic brand, but also an ideology deeply rooted in the genes of conventional market societies and people’s mindset; second, there is a growing feeling that Sen’s paradigm still needs to take distance from neoliberal survival stratagems intended to opportunistically gain possession of some suitable attributes of the human development brand; and third, it is quite visible the insufficiency of the whole set of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (whose origins essentially descend from Sen’s thoughts) to produce accurate transformative changes that can radically substitute the prevalent neoliberal distribution theory, known as «trickle-down economics», that has driven most market societies to intolerable levels of wealth and income concentration with the repulsive consequences of breaking social cohesion everywhere, and even worse, reviving archaic and noxious class struggle ideologies. All these undesirable factors and circumstances working together suggest that it is a good moment to reinvent Sen’s paradigm in the best sense of the word. This essay contains a brief introduction to the main features of the reinvention process showing at the same time an epistemic path to erect Sen’s paradigm as the dominant model to follow. PubDate: 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:O. Digun-Aweto Abstract: An easy way to foster growth on the African continent is to identify success stories on the continent related to current problems and opportunities faced by neighboring or regional counties, understand the concept and ideas behind the solutions proffered and adapt these solutions to solve similar problems. Even though tourism has been identified as a potential driver of economic development, this write up lays special emphasis on tourism centered on a specialized tourism product tagged “gorilla tourism” which has recorded significant success in Rwanda. This article describes in a nutshell how this phenomenon can be adapted to the Nigerian context. For the purpose of this article, Gorilla tourism has been defined by the author as a visit (by foot) to a national park or protected area solely for the purpose of viewing gorillas in their natural habitat under close supervision by a park ranger or a well-trained staff. Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the three countries where the Mountain Gorilla is found in Africa with roughly only just over a thousand plus individuals left (WWF, 2019)
The Volcanoes national park is located in Rwanda, Virunga National park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, part of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. These aforementioned places are where the mountain gorilla inhabits and also where gorilla tourism prominently takes place. The cost of a permit is placed at $1500 in Rwanda with a special package of $15,000 for a group with a personalized park ranger which is the highest. The next in line is $600 in Uganda while the cheapest is $ 400 in DRC Congo. These permits are for one hour of watching gorillas in their natural habitat. Rwanda has been able to develop their tourism product so well that the African Wildlife Foundation (2019) reported that visits to the Volcanoes national park has increased by over 80% and the country’s tourism growth has been ranked as one of the top five in Africa and a major influence is the gorilla tracking package. Rwanda has benefitted immensely from gorilla tourism, the country, in the last two years from the tourism to which gorilla tourism is playing a major role. The receipts from tourism amounted to over $400 million dollars (AWF, 2019). These statistics give and an indication that the same can be replicated in the Nigerian/Cameroun border which is the natural habitat for the endangered Cross River gorilla, forest elephants, drill monkeys, and chimpanzees. PubDate: 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Daniel Thuo Ndung’u; Samuel O. Onyuma Abstract: Ensuring affordable housing is a strategic importance issue for development equality and social peace in developing nations. This article discusses how Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) can assist governments achieve their development strategy of achieving affordable housing programs in Africa. The article argues that African governments should facilitate the issuance of state-backed REITs through the respective capital markets where prospective investors can invest in such financial products and start the journey towards owning a house. Boosting affordable housing programs require African countries to incentivize the private sector to experiment with various affordable housing tailored REITs to ensure their effectiveness and also stimulate capital markets investments. Further deepening of the REITs market by African states will also broaden the capital markets thus enabling the tapping of such markets to raise capital for affordable housing. PubDate: 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Claudio Achadinha Abstract: Two of Africa’s biggest economies have the lowest pension assets as a percentage of GDP on the continent, but pension reforms and technological improvements are expected to increase these numbers. The economies – Nigeria and Egypt – have pension assets as a percentage of GDP as low as 7% and 2%, respectively. This is according to investment firm RisCura’s latest Bright Africa research. The Bright Africa 2019 research looked at ten countries in Africa in this regard, representing approximately half of Africa’s 2017/2018 GDP as measured by the IMF. PubDate: 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Jairo Morales-Nieto Abstract: Because of the perceivable decay of neoliberalism or monetarism as mainstream economics and its prescriptive development policy, the old concept of paradigm is nowadays becoming a fashionable word in academic campuses and political spheres. It is a sound voice that transmits the idea of the erudition of anyone who pronounces it or write about it. Curiously, it is too little what it says about its meaning and good usage, particularly, when heterodox economists insistently allude to the need for a «paradigm shift». With the aim of stripping the concept of its vagueness banner, this article attempts to explain what paradigm and paradigm shift mean looking, by way of illustration, at the transition of three magnificent development paradigms in economic science over the last hundred years. It also gives a brief account of their strengths and weaknesses to face crucial development problems, threats, and challenges in the twenty-first century. PubDate: 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:O. Digun-Aweto Abstract: Tourism if properly harnessed can help in poverty alleviation and contribute to economic growth. Nature tourism in particular has potential to have more impact in rural areas through harnessing the development of tourism around national parks and the facilities. With the large population of Nigeria, home grown tourism though proper destination marketing and social media involvement can boost tourism receipts for national parks with ripple effects extending reaching local communities in close proximity to parks. Since these positive scenarios are on the increase, the role of government should be to create favourable climate though policy and encourage direct investment to ensure the continued growth of the sector. PubDate: 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Terrence Tazvivinga Abstract: Zimbabwe is one of the countries still lagging behind in terms of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 to ensure everyone has access to clean water by 2030. The state of urban water supply in Zimbabwe is deplorable with almost all urban local authorities failing to adequately supply water to residents. Local authorities seem to lack the capacity to solve the water supply crisis and perhaps its time to consider roping in the private sector. The private sector may come in through arrangements such as privatisation, joint ventures, leases and BOTs. The private sector tends to bring efficiencies and innovation which the public sector lacks, and this may improve the water supply situation. Efficiency and innovation may lead to lower cost of service which can translate to lower tariffs. Private sector also has access to other sources of financing which may be readily available for the private sector. Private sector participation also leads to de-politicisation of the water sector and tends to increase efficiency in bill collection. There is however need for a well planned and phased approach to the transition. Stakeholder consultation is also key so as to ensure buy-in from all stakeholders. PubDate: 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z
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Authors:Mfaniseni Wiseman Mbatha Abstract: The South African government has shown a glut commitment in improving the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is entrenched as the long term vision on the National Development Plan, which anticipates to accelerate the growth of the GDP through the industrial and agricultural sectors. This paper analyzes the performance of the South African agricultural economy towards the GDP from the financial year of 2018 and beyond. The case study assisted a researcher to go through the previous report including online data sources such as Statistics South Africa, the Global Economy, and the World Bank. The textual analysis assisted a researcher in critically analyzing the relevant reviewed literature and Microsoft Excel was used to present and analyze the graph to fulfill the quantitative part of this paper. The most important part of the findings reveals that the agricultural sector has shown to reach a recession in terms of contributing to the GDP in 2019 and that raises concerns about the future of the agricultural sector towards contributing to the growth of the GDP in South Africa. This is because the country is currently going through the issue of load shedding, which remains a threat to the growth of the agricultural economy. The government should develop the gas infrastructure by converting all diesel fired power plants to gas in order to back up the agricultural sectors during electricity shortage. PubDate: 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z
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