PayRetailers (www.PayRetailers.com), the leading payment processor for Latin America is pleased to announce its new expansion to Africa. With coverage across four countries, the company offers a unified payment solution that will be a game changer for cross-border online merchants looking at Africa as their next move for strategic growth.

To strengthen its presence in the continent, PayRetailers is activating its payment processing functions in Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda, and Tanzania. This will offer a simple, user-friendly, and scalable experience to businesses looking to grow their regional operations and give them access to major local methods like SPENN, Airtel, and MTN.

This market is increasingly connected and mobile and destined for strong growth, which is why PayRetailers, in its mission to increase financial inclusion and continue supporting business growth in emerging markets, has decided to activate its networks in the region and drive this exciting era of prosperity.

Lorenzo Pellegrino, Chief Operating&Digital Officer at the fintech, states: “As a part of our strategic expansion, we are extending our coverage to four markets in Africa, at least to start with. Over the coming months, we plan to steadily expand our operation in the continent, which is experiencing incredible growth in the payments industry and has massive potential for merchants looking to diversify and broaden their consumer base. Using the stellar and continuous growth we have experienced in LATAM as our guide, we are well-poised to help businesses thrive faster and more sustainably.”

“We recognize the immense potential and significance of venturing into these dynamic markets,” adds Juan Pablo Jutgla, CEO of PayRetailers. “Each new addition to our market coverage is a gateway into untapped opportunities and strengthened partnerships, ensuring our sustained growth and global relevance. Our imminent expansion into additional countries across West, North, and Southern Africa underscores our commitment to empowering our clients and connecting them with diverse consumer bases across the continent.”

From May onward, businesses will be able to operate in the region using PayRetailers for their online users, representing a major milestone for its client portfolio and its innovation strategy for 2024.

To secure its standing in the African market, the company reveals further expansion plans already in stow for the coming months.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of PayRetailers.

For media contact:
María José Naya
mariajose.naya@payretailers.com

About PayRetailers:
Founded in 2017, PayRetailers has established itself as a leading global provider of online payment services with a focus on Latin America&Africa. The company’s mission is to offer comprehensive payment solutions for e-commerce, covering the entire process of cross-border transactions without the need for a local entity.

Through a direct API, an advanced technological platform, and commercial agreements, PayRetailers provides global merchants with access to over 250 local payment methods across Latin America&Africa. Simplifying payments for both businesses and their clients, PayRetailers increases conversion and boosts sales. Their proprietary technological architecture is also highly flexible and scalable, allowing them to innovate rapidly to meet the ever-evolving market demand.

Based in Spain, with strategically located regional offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Bulgaria, and the Isle of Man, PayRetailers positions itself as a trusted partner for businesses looking to maximize their growth potential and expand into Latin America, Africa, and beyond.

For more information, please visit the PayRetailers website at www.PayRetailers.com or their LinkedIn page at https://apo-opa.co/4dI7wK8.

His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has addressed the Clean Cooking in Africa Summit, emphasising that it has seen a lack of progress because nearly four in five Africans still cook their meals over open fires and traditional stoves using polluting fuels.

He noted that the lack of access to clean cooking had dire consequences for health, the climate and gender equality, contributing to nearly half a million premature deaths of women and children annually in Africa alone.

The President, therefore, reiterated that the sole aim of the summit, organised by the International Energy Agency, IEA, is to elevate clean cooking on the global agenda, to mobilise financial commitments and to develop a roadmap of concrete action-oriented strategies.

His Excellency the President also commended the IEA and the Africa Development Bank Group for convening the summit, adding that the past experiences had revealed a disheartening truth that clean cooking, a matter of utmost importance, was often overlooked in the energy access and electrification planning processes in the different countries.

“Today’s Summit is a call to action, a plea to prioritise this crucial issue for the betterment of our people and our planet. In the context of Sierra Leone, the 2023 SDG Tracking Report shows that Sierra Leone’s access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking was at only 0.8% in 2021, with 1.5% of the population in urban areas having access and 0% in rural areas with access.

“The absence of access to clean cooking solutions significantly affects Sierra Leone’s economy, with estimated annual costs of inaction totalling US$4.7 billion. These costs stem from adverse impacts on various fronts: women’s lost productivity (US$1.4 billion), health (US$3.2 billion), and climate change impacts (US$0.2 billion).

“So, this Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa to Make 2024 a Turning Point for Clean Cooking is critical for Sierra Leone, and hence my presence here today. Therefore, we must be bold enough to implement the right policies and create the enabling environment to ensure that the close to 1 billion people currently lacking access to clean cooking in Africa can transition to cleaner fuels and technologies.

In his opening remarks as Chairman of the plenary and Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol, said he was pleased to have global leaders together to discuss ways of mitigating the effects and lack of access to clean cooking in Africa.

President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, said he was speaking at the summit as president of the ADB and a child who suffered from the effect of the lack of access to clean cooking. He noted that the summit was very timely and it would help mitigate the untimely deaths caused by the effects of the lack of access to clean cooking in Africa.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of State House Sierra Leone.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), is organising a validation meeting for the Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) study for the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor from 14 to 16 May 2024 in Accra, Ghana.

This three-day meeting brings together experts from the ECOWAS Department of Infrastructure, the ECOWAS Project Preparation and Development Unit (PPDU), representatives of the Ministries of Infrastructure of the Corridor countries and project focal points, the African Development Bank, the European Union, UEMOA, the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the World Bank, AFEXIMBANK and the West African Development Bank (BOAD).

These experts will discuss the results of the SDI study, including a comprehensive roadmap for the development of the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, considering economic, social, environmental and logistical factors, that will enable them to obtain funding and support from international organisations, governments and private investors.

This study also aims to (i) identify and unlock the region’s inherent and latent economic potential, and ensure the commercial visibility of the project as well as the economic and industrial value chains, (ii) provide tools and methodology for an economic survey, (iii) propose a mechanism for building consensus among all key project stakeholders, (iv) shed light on existing institutional arrangements and propose alternative options, and finally (v) carry out detailed socio-economic assessments and market analysis of the selected priority projects.

Mr Sediko DOUKA, ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation, represented by Mr Chris APPIAH, Acting ECOWAS Director of Transport, at the opening of this important workshop, said in his speech that the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Project was being implemented not just as a road project but as an integrated “development corridor” which will also catalyse the deployment of other important sectors such as Trade, Industry, Agriculture, Energy, Environment, ICT and Tourism.

In opening the meeting, the chairman of the committee of experts, Engr. Ibi TERNA M., of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, called on all public and private stakeholders to participate in the realisation of this noble vision, which will bring about a lasting transformation of our region’s economic landscape.

The Chairman of the Committee of Experts, Engr. Ibi TERNA M., of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, in his opening address, called on all public and private stakeholders to participate in the realisation of this noble vision, which will bring about a lasting transformation of our region’s economic landscape.

This project to build the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, implemented by ECOWAS, is a 1028 km supranational motorway that forms a major part of the trans-African road network. The corridor will link the main ports and urban areas of West Africa, namely Lagos, Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou and Lomé. It will thus help boost trade and integration in West Africa, in particular by providing seaport access to landlocked countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad) by linking other corridors along the north-south axis.

The Abidjan-Lagos corridor is one of the ECOWAS priorities set out in its “Vision 2050”. It is also one of the projects included in the Priority Action Plan of the African Union’s Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which is implemented by the African Development Bank.

The main objectives are (i) to facilitate the movement of people and goods and (ii) to accelerate regional and international trade and transport by improving road infrastructure. Ultimately, the transport corridor will be transformed into a development corridor to stimulate investment, sustainable development and poverty reduction in the region.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

An armed group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) in northern Mozambique used boys as young as 13 to raid and loot the town of Macomia, in Cabo Delgado province, on May 10, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. It is unclear if the children also engaged in fighting against government armed forces. The recruitment and use of children under age 15 as child soldiers is a war crime.

The armed group, known locally as Al-Shabab, attacked Macomia to loot shops and warehouses before targeting government forces’ positions in the town, triggering heavy fighting. Several witnesses, including relatives of the boys, told Human Rights Watch that among the Al-Shabab fighters who took part in the raid were dozens of boys carrying ammunition belts and AK-style assault rifles. Two people from the same family said they recognized their 13-year-old nephew among the children.

“The armed group Al-Shabab’s use of children as soldiers is cruel, unlawful, and only adds to the horrors of Cabo Delgado’s conflict,” said Zenaida Machado, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Al-Shabab should immediately release all children in their ranks and stop any further recruitment.”

Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with six residents who witnessed the Macomia raid, as well as two humanitarian aid workers in the region. They said that the fighters, including dozens of boys, arrived in the town at around 4 a.m. on May 10. They were divided into at least three groups of “hundreds,” witnesses said. One group wandered around the town, speaking to residents and looting shops and warehouses.

Footage seen by Human Rights Watch, and now widely shared on social media, appeared to show some of the fighters, including a child, carrying guns and freely moving near a local market. According to witnesses and media reports, a second group engaged in fighting against joint South African and Mozambican army troops stationed in the town, while a third group blocked the main road to Macomia, where they reportedly ambushed military vehicles carrying South African troops serving with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM).

President Filipe Nyusi confirmed the raid, which took place in an area that the Southern African military mission previously controlled. The military mission is gradually withdrawing from the country ahead of a July deadline.

More than 700 people fled the fighting that started on May 10 and continued through May 12, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some of the displaced sought to hide in the surrounding forests according to press reports and footage shared online. At least 10 people, mostly soldiers, were reportedly killed in the fighting.

One of the people who hid in surrounding forests was the 22-year-old trader, Abu Rachide. He told Human Rights Watch that upon arrival in the town, fighters engaged peacefully with people and told residents not to fear or flee as they had “come only for the food.” He said: “I and my sister decided to flee anyway because we didn’t want to take risks, but many people stayed behind.”

Abu Rachide said that he saw dozens of children among the fighters, including his 13-year-old nephew who had been missing since a January 10 attack in Mucojo. “I saw him with my own eyes carrying a big gun and ammunition belt and acting like a confident big man,” Abu Rachide said. When he called out to his nephew, Abu Rachide said, the boy waved at him and then continued on his mission.

Abu Rachide’s sister, Aida, confirmed his account. “The boy seemed very comfortable carrying a gun and taking instructions from the [older ones],” she said. “I kept wondering how he became a fighter like that in just four months.”

A 47-year-old trader, Jamal Jorge, who decided to stay in the market to monitor events, said most of the fighters were children and young men who spoke Swahili and Kimwani, a language spoken on the coast of Cabo Delgado. He said he saw more than 20 children among the fighters. “There in the market, I only saw children, some a bit older, maybe 17 or 20 years,” he said. “But to me, most of them were children not older than 16 years.”

Al-Shabab fighters occupied Macomia town for more than 24 hours, abandoning the area on the afternoon of May 11, then moving toward Mucojo, various sources said. Before departing the town, they looted food from various shops and warehouses of humanitarian groups, two humanitarian workers said. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders or MSF) said it had suspended its activities in Macomia following the violence.

Mozambique’s Al-Shabab have long used children in combat. In 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that the group was kidnapping boys and using them to fight government forces in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers.

The United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which Mozambique ratified in 2004, prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting children under 18. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court categorizes as a war crime the conscription, enlistment, or active use of children under age 15 in active hostilities during armed conflict. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child further notes that non-state armed groups are bound by international humanitarian law.

“Al-Shabab’s ability to recruit, train and use child soldiers across Cabo Delgado is very concerning,” Machado said. “The Mozambican authorities, armed groups, and international partners should step up their efforts to ensure that children stay safe in school and at home and keep children off the battlefield.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).