Content: Financial Times Articles

  • Racism towards Africans in India threatens trade ties

    Rising harassment disrupts drive to sell education and IT to expanding nations on continent Maxwell Orji says he has been laughed at, spat on and verbally abused on the streets of Greater Noida, close to New Delhi. A student from Nigeria who has just finished a three-­year course at a roadside educational institution called Mahatma […]

  • Trump plan to slash foreign aid will fuel famine and extremism, experts warn

    US president Donald Trump’s proposals to slash overseas aid risks destabilising the world’s most fragile nations and inflaming extremism, aid groups and former US officials warn. “Cuts of the order of magnitude under consideration would be potentially devastating,” said Kevin Watkins, head of Save the Children UK. “At a time when sub­Saharan Africa is facing […]

  • FAMINE ­ War, insurgency and drought leave 20m facing ‘devastating food insecurity’

    The UN has warned that the world is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since the organisation was founded in 1945. It says 20m people face “devastating levels of food insecurity” in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and north­east Nigeria. “Without collective and co­ordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death,” Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s humanitarian […]

  • Shortcuts: Updates from Monaco, Ethiopia and Qatar

    Those not content with having a €2.4m Bugatti Chiron sports car in their garage can now splash out on a matching boat, thanks to a new collaboration between the supercar maker and Monaco­based yacht builder Palmer Johnson. Last week they announced plans to produce a series of motor yachts from 50ft to 80ft, starting with […]

  • NEW CURRENCY : Somalia to relaunch banknotes in effort to beat counterfeiters

    Somalia, a country where up to 98 per cent of local banknotes are fake, is about to embark on the massive task of taking back control of its currency. With the help of the International Monetary Fund, Mogadishu plans to print official banknotes for the first time in more than a quarter of a century […]

  • Rising stars on show at Africa By Design

    Next week, at the Nubuke Foundation in the Accra suburb of East Legon, 21 designers from six sub­Saharan countries will be featured at Africa by Design. “Design has a significant role in African culture,” says organiser Chrissa Amuah, “but we believe it has a commercial future too.” A new consumer class is emerging in Ghana, […]

  • Barclays seals divorce agreement with African subsidiary

    Barclays has reached agreement with its African subsidiary about the details of their divorce, a key step before the British bank can sell more shares in its Johannesburg­listed offshoot. Two people briefed on the matter said Barclays and its South African subsidiary were awaiting approval for the agreement from local regulators. Analysts have estimated that […]

  • DP World wins tribunal case against Djibouti over bribe case

    DP World has won an arbitration case against the government of Djibouti, which claimed the Dubai ports operator made illegal payments to win a concession to operate a container terminal in the Red Sea African state. A London tribunal ordered the government to bear legal and other costs, throwing out claims that DP World had bribed […]

  • Fear of famine grows as Somalia suffers worst drought for decades

    Dry weather leaves half of the population in need of aid, with 2.9m at risk of starvation. Amina Jamila has been locked in a battle for survival for months. When her family’s 400 goats and camels started dying in droves after rains failed for the third consecutive year, she and her husband trekked 30 kilometres […]

  • Doubt over Africa deals as ‘America first’ policy bites

    US president’s approach poses threat to three aid and trade agreements, politicians warn. Donald Trump’s “America first” pledge could threaten Washington’s three biggest health and trade initiatives in Africa, US and African experts and politicians warn. Concern focuses on three bipartisan programmes, backed by successive presidents, designed to help African countries deal with health emergencies, […]

  • MBA students help Ethiopia tackle the impact of urbanisation

      For Ria Tobaccowala, a Chicago native studying in New York, arriving in the fast-growing southern Ethiopian city of Hawassa was a revelation. “The first plants are going up, the first airport is being constructed and the first non-dirt roads are being built,” she says. “Seeing how that’s impacting people’s lives was eye opening.” Tobaccowala, […]

  • The Ethiopian woman helping to bring Chinese to her homeland

      Beijing’s skyline wowed Lina Getachew Ayenew when she arrived in the Chinese capital five years ago, but she was surprised to find the pedestrian bridges looked just like those in her native Addis Ababa. It turns out the building materials used in Ethiopia’s capital were imported from China – one of many signs of […]

  • African farmers set to benefit from insurance scheme

    Africa could receive a $63bn boost from an EU/World Bank-backed insurance project designed to free up loans to the small farmers that form the backbone of the continent’s economies. By packaging a weather-based insurance product with the loans, the scheme plans to give the farmers access to finance that they would otherwise be denied. The […]

  • Rail link fuels Africa trade hopes

    China-built line from Djibouti to Addis Ababa seen as boost for intra-continental freight The sleek passenger train waiting for its inaugural journey at Djibouti’s barely finished Nagad station almost stretched out of sight down the platform. Three tracks behind it was an even longer goods train of dark green wagons that were so new they […]

  • Commodities rebound set to boost global growth

    The pace of global growth will increase this year, fuelled by a rebound in commodity-exporting emerging economies and further recovery in advanced economies such as the US, according to the World Bank. However, the bank’s latest forecasts, which were released yesterday, included a warning that the arrival of the Trump administration in the US and […]

  • How your phone is becoming your doctor

    In a bitingly cold evening in late December, having spent most of the day nursing a stomach ache, I decided I could no longer avoid medical advice. After a week of holiday overeating and end-of-year slothfulness, my body was clearly protesting. So I reluctantly sought the help I needed, and began to list my litany […]

  • ‘The Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah

    Trevor Noah, Johannesburg-born host of the satirical US television programme The Daily Show, has never been to China. But he has chosen our lunch venue, Bashan, an unglamorous Chinese restaurant in London’s Soho, because he says it makes him feel at home. “There’s a cultural feeling to this restaurant that reminds me of being back […]

  • Dubai hotels welcome Chinese and African middle-class tourists

    Dubai is known for taking hospitality to excess: the world’s tallest hotel, rooms costing $24,000 a night, replicas of Arabian and Russian palaces. But developers in the emirate are turning their attention to travellers on more modest budgets in an attempt to lure the growing middle classes of China and Africa. “We are expecting an […]

  • Africa looks to boost growth and jobs with free-trade area

    Six years ago it took almost three weeks for a shipping container to travel the 1,100km from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala, the Ugandan capital. While poor infrastructure did not help, the delays were largely down to the myriad layers of red tape between the two countries. Now that journey is regularly done […]

  • ETHIOPIA TO KENYA Out of the cauldron

    Efi compares his move to Nairobi to Lady Gaga’s song “Mary Jane Holland”, although his life is drug-free and he is certainly not as “rich as piss”. The resonance is more about the song’s first verse: not being a “slave . . . the culture of the popular”, and being able to “fly under radar […]

  • Multinationals seek to milk Africa’s appetite for dairy

    European groups aim to tap into growth potential through expansion across the continent At Anno Walivaka’s two-acre family farm in a valley below Mount Elgon in western Kenya, daily milk production from its handful of cows has increased from less than five litres per animal to more than 15 within a decade. And Mr Walivaka […]

  • Ethiopian unrest triggers collapse in tourism

    A wave of anti-government protests and the imposition of a state of emergency has triggered a collapse in tourism bookings in Ethiopia, underlining the effect the unrest is having on one of Africa’s best-performing economies. As the demonstrations spread across the country, governments, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Ireland, have advised their citizens […]

  • UK ready to shift focus of Africa aid to trade

    Britain is expected to increase the focus of its African aid budget on economic and trade-related projects to try to boost prosperity on the continent while forging new partnerships after leaving the EU. Priti Patel, the international development secretary, is said to be sympathetic to the recommendations from a panel of experts convened by MPs […]

  • Strongman leaders more trusted than democrats

    Data suggest emerging market citizens rate politicians’ standards highly Authoritarian leaders are seen as far more trustworthy than politicians in more openly democratic countries across the emerging world, according to data compiled by the World Economic Forum. Leaders in Singapore, the Gulf states and Rwanda are rated as having the highest ethical standards in the […]

  • China rethinks approach after surge in lending to risky countries

    A surge in overseas lending has left Chinese policy banks highly exposed to countries at risk of default, forcing a rethink that could reshape its engagement with developing economies. A Financial Times analysis shows that six of the 10 biggest recipients of Chinese development finance between 2013 and 2015 are considered to be most at risk […]