Tag Archives: Transport

Transport and Logistics

Ethiopia, Somaliland

Ethiopia-Somaliland deal: A pivotal move for sea access and regional relations

The International Monetary Fund predicts a ‘soft landing’ scenario in 2024 for the global economy.

The Fund’s spokesperson however warned that leaders should be preparing for future shocks and challenges.

Julie Kozack spoke to journalists on Thursday from Washington DC.

“We’ve had a relatively resilient global economy so far. We expect that resilience to continue into 2024,” Kozack said.

“At the same time, inflation is coming down. Labor markets continue to be, uh, resilient. Of course, the news is not all good because this resilience with growth, um, around hovering around 3 percent both last year and over the expected over the medium-term, that’s much lower than previous global average growth rates, which were about 3.8 percent. So we do have work to do to lift global growth, especially over the medium term.”

Africa is projected to be the second-fastest-growing economic region in the world.

The Fund’s executive board has completed the third review of Mozambique’s three-year loan program, allowing for an immediate disbursement to Maputo of about $60.7 million.

The fund’s executives met with representatives of Egypt to discuss reforms as the war rages in Gaza, on Egypt’s eastern border.

“Our team is in discussions with the authorities on a set of policies that would support completion of the first and second reviews of the EFF that Egypt has with the Fund. This strong engagement that we’ve had with the authorities has helped achieve important progress in the discussions, and we do expect those discussions to continue in the coming weeks to operationalize the key policy priorities,” Kozack revealed.

The Fund will update its global growth forecast and unveil the World Economic Outlook report in Johannesburg on January 30.

Additional sources • IMF – Mail & Guardian

Source: AfricaNews, 12th January 2024

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Ethiopia, Kenya

Kenya, Ethiopia revive hopes of Lapsset with talk of new railway

Casual labourers at work at the new Lamu Port site in Kililana in Lamu West, Kenya. PHOTOS | KALUME KAZUNGU | NMG

Is Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Project (Lapsset) on its way back or it is yet another episode in the fanfare associated with the project?

Observers have been wracking their brains over this after Kenya and Ethiopia, entered a deal to jointly search for a financier, and help erect one of the big-ticket projects associated with the Lapsset corridor.

Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and his Ethiopian counterpart Alemu Sime signed a bilateral agreement for a standard gauge railway network between Lamu Port-Moyale-Addis Ababa.

Read: Why Lapsset is stuck on the starting blocks

“We are currently working on the development of the railway line from Lamu to Moyale through Isiolo with a link from Isiolo to Nairobi to connect with the Mombasa-Nairobi-Malaba SGR,” Murkomen said.

The move meant Nairobi had, in one month, reached out to two of its neighbours to extend the SGR to their territories from next year.

Last month, Kenya and Uganda agreed to extend the SGR from Naivasha to Kampala. They, too, agreed on a joint search for financiers, with each side footing the logistical bill on its territory.

For Lapsset, Kenya had pushed this path before.

In January 2020, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding for development and funding and met prospective financiers including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Mission of Africa and the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa Development (Nepad).

Read: Kenya: Ethiopia’s peace vital for development

It was then that the project was adopted as an African Union project and redesigned to link the Lamu port on the eastern African Coast of the Indian Ocean to Douala port in the western Africa Atlantic Ocean earmarking the project as one of the pillars in the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Some of the projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative being considered by the AU included the Nigeria-Algeria gas pipeline project (Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline); Missing links on the Trans-Sahara highway and optic fibre link between Algeria and Nigeria; Dakar-Ndjamena-Djibouti road/rail project.

Others are North-South Corridor Road/rail project; Kinshasa-Brazzaville bridge road/rail project; unblocking political bottlenecks for ICT broadband and optic fibre projects linking neighbouring states and construction of navigational line between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea.

But previous delays in buy-in have often derailed the Lapsset project whose entire infrastructure was meant to cost $22 billion as at 2012 when it was launched. At the time, countries agreed on crowdfunding for their specified projects on their territories.

In January 2020, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan agreed on joint budgetary allocation to establish a coordinating structure to accelerate infrastructure projects.

Read: Lapsset project adopted by AU to boost free trade area

Today, very little has been achieved. South Sudan has, in fact, preferred the Northern Corridor to Lamu corridor.

Increasing insecurity has also discouraged implementation or simply diverted attention of governments. Al Shabaab attacks in Lamu, South Sudan’s civil war and civil strife in Ethiopia have all come in since 2020.

At last week’s meeting, Kenya and Ethiopia came up with a working committee.

“We further agreed to establish a Bilateral Steering Committee comprising officials from Kenya and Ethiopia to fast-track the development of the Lapsset Corridor and its supporting infrastructure,” said Mr Murkomen.

As in the case of Uganda, Kenya is this time providing enticements to Ethiopia. Those privileges include a special yard as well as stationed customs officials should Ethiopia choose to use Lamu in future, for imports.

For Ethiopia, its buy-in into the project is important to revive Lapsset. Kenya recently completed three berths of the new Lamu Port worth $400 million and is expected to serve as a transshipment facility and import port for southern Ethiopia.

Source: The East African,  19th August 2024

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South Africa

E-motorcycle manufacturer declares war on poachers

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Poachers in South Africa are making life difficult for the rangers there, depriving them of elephants, rhinos and other wild animals. To make it easier for the animal protectors to take on the criminals, they are to be equipped with electric motorcycles.

The Swedish company Cake, a manufacturer of electric motorcycles, has teamed up with the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) to combat illegal poaching. In the future, rangers hunting illegal poachers in South Africa will use electric motorcycles specially developed by Cake to move through the bush. In contrast to the currently used motorcycles with combustion engines, these are more environmentally friendly and – most importantly – noiseless. It is the noise of conventional motorcycles that often warns poachers well in advance that rangers are on their way.

Source: chip.de

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General

Transporter for Africa costs less than 10,000 euros

An electric truck for Africa? With the aCar, the TU Munich has developed a transporter that can even cope on African tracks. The minimalist among the electric vehicles will go into series production in Bavaria in 2019 and will also be offered in Germany.

The automobile is a matter of course for Germans: driving beverage crates home, gondola to work on the motorway, jetting off to the Mediterranean on holiday. It’s different in Africa: very few people there have a car, and goods are often transported by cart and bicycle. Electric cars play no role at all in Africa.

But for years now, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has been working on a vehicle concept that allows goods to be transported even in poor countries, but in an absolutely environmentally friendly way. “It’s a vehicle that people there can afford financially, it’s all-terrain capable and can transport large trucks,” explains Prof. Markus Lienkamp, head of the Department of Automotive Engineering.

Electric truck built in African microfactory

A spin-off has been created around the TUM research team: Evum Motors. The company will produce a small series of around 1,000 electric cars in a model factory in Bayerbach, Lower Bavaria, starting at the end of 2019. “Before the car can be produced in Africa, we first have to get the technical processes under control,” says project manager Sascha Koberstedt. “Then we can train people from Africa here, who in turn can pass on their knowledge locally.

The developers had already put the car through its paces for the first time in Africa in 2017 and presented it to a wider audience at the IAA. In 2020, the first microfactory in Africa is scheduled to open, offering the aCar for less than 10,000 euros. “I can put the parts of the car in the garage and you can put it together in a week,” emphasises Koberstedt.

By 2025, 110,500 cars will then be produced annually at eleven production locations worldwide. From December 2019, the minimalist e-vehicle will also be sweeping German roads. However, the price is more than twice as high, at around 22,000 euros. The reason: higher production costs and technical upgrades for road approval.

70 km/h top speed, 200 km range

The basis of the 1.5 m wide, 3.7 m long, 2.10 m high and 800 kg light vehicle is a frame made of profiled sheets, which are also used in truck construction. Although the aCar has no luxury on board, it lacks power steering, ABS, radio and air conditioning. But technically the electric vehicle is reliable. For example, it is fitted with an electric drive train from Bosch. “An electric drive is not only more environmentally friendly, but also technically the better solution, since it requires little maintenance and can develop its full torque directly when starting up,” explains project manager Martin Šoltés.

Two electric motors with 11 hp each accelerate the four-wheel-drive vehicle to a top speed of around 70 km/h. The battery has a capacity of 20 kWh and enables a range of up to 200 km. It takes seven hours to recharge at a household socket.

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Angola

Establishment of companies in Angola

With the new law of August 2015 any investor small or large can start up business activity in Angola without a minimum capital investment and with the advantage of being able to repatriate profits, dividends and capital gains.
Those who are willing to invest at least $ 1m, the new law could grant tax incentives and advantages from a case to case basis.
There are the following constraints: Investors who are willing to put money in one of those following sectors:

  • electricity and water
  • hotel business and tourism
  • transport and logistics
  • civil construction
  • telecommunications
  • information technology and media

must have

  1. a partnership with Angolan citizens or Angolan companies, with the Angolan partner having at least 15 % of the share capital
  2. effective participation of the Angolan partner in the management of the company, clearly stated in the shareholder agreement

The definition of an Angolan company is a company with registered address in Angola and with a minimum of 51 % shareholding belonging to an Angolan citizen.

The company Dusira UG is cooperating with Angolan companies we personally know and will give assistance in establishing companies in Angola.

Phone: +491737692688
E-Mail: mpts@gmx.net

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