The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is launching “Focus Africa” to strengthen aviation’s contribution to Africa’s economic and social development and improve connectivity, safety and reliability for passengers and shippers. This initiative will align private and public stakeholders to deliver measurable progress in six areas.
“Africa accounts for 18% of the global population, but just 2.1% of air transport activities (combined cargo and passenger). Closing that gap, so that Africa can benefit from the connectivity, jobs and growth that aviation enables, is what Focus Africa is all about,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
Infrastructure constraints, high costs, lack of connectivity, regulatory impediments, slow adoption of global standards and skills shortages affect the customer experience and are all contributory factors to African airlines’ viability and sustainability. The continent’s carriers suffered cumulative losses of $3.5 billion for 2020-2022. Moreover, IATA estimates further losses of $213 million in 2023.
Delivering on Africa’s Opportunities
Sustainably connecting the African continent internally and to global markets with air transport is critical for bringing people together and creating economic and social development opportunities. It will also support the realization of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) for Africa of lifting 50 million people out of poverty by 2030. In particular, trade and tourism rely on aviation and have immense unrealized potential to create jobs, alleviate poverty, and generate prosperity across the continent.
Africa has a solid foundation to support the case for improving aviation’s contribution to its development. Pre-COVID aviation supported 7.7 million jobs and $63 billion in economic activity in Africa. Projections are for demand to triple over the next two decades.
“Africa stands out as the region with the greatest potential and opportunity for aviation. The Focus Africa initiative renews IATA’s commitment to supporting aviation on the continent. As the incoming Chair of the IATA Board of Governors, and the first from Africa since 1993, I look forward to ensuring that this initiative gets off to a great start and delivers benefits that are measurable,” said Yvonne Makolo, CEO of RwandAir and first female Chair of the IATA Board of Governors (2023-2024).
Six Critical Areas
“The limiting factors on Africa’s aviation sector are fixable. The potential for growth is clear. And the economic boost that a more successful African aviation sector will deliver has been witnessed in many economies already. With Focus Africa, stakeholders are uniting to deliver on six critical focus areas that will make a positive difference. We’ll measure success and will need to hold each other accountable for the results,” said Walsh.
The Power of Partnerships
“Partnerships will differentiate the outcome of Focus Africa from previous efforts to stimulate Africa’s development with air transport. By partnering, stakeholders will effectively pool their resources, research, expertise, time and funding to support the common goals of the six work areas,” said Kamil Al Awadhi, IATA Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East.
The partners will be announced and join forces in Addis Ababa on 20-21 June to officially launch the Focus Africa initiative with more details for each task area.
The Timing is Right
Africa continues the path to recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Air cargo is 31.4% over 2019 levels and air travel is 93% of 2019 levels. Full recovery for air travel is expected in 2024.
“The tasks for Focus Africa are not new. Work is already underway as part of the work of IATA and other stakeholders in Africa. But after the financial trauma that the pandemic brought to African aviation, we are at a unique time of rebuilding. By launching Focus Africa now, we can ensure that the recovery from COVID-19 moves aviation to an even better place than we were in 2019,” said Al Awadhi.

The first private payment system operator, Arifpay financial technologies, announces its integration with the national switch operator, EthSwitch.
As indicated on a joint press conference held on Wednesday April 5, 2023, the integration between Arifpay and EthSwitch is set to bring numerous benefits to customers, merchants, and banks, such as increased financial inclusion, improved payment efficiency, enhanced interconnectivity, support for small businesses, and increased job opportunities and will further help to support economic growth by enabling businesses to process transactions more quickly and cost-effectively.
“EthSwitch is proud to be at the forefront of initiatives that promote interoperability, financial inclusion and digital payments in Ethiopia, and we are excited to support the integration of Arifpay with EthSwitch. We are committed to promoting financial inclusion and supporting the Ethiopian economy through the integration of Arifpay with EthSwitch,” said Yilebes Addis, CEO of EthSwitch.
Bernard Laurendeau, CEO of Arifpay stated that, “With the introduction of interoperable ArifPOS Smart devices, consumers will have more options for everyday payments, and will no longer be limited to using their debit cards only at ATMs.”
The CEOs’ remarks reflect the significance of the integration between ArifPay and EthSwitch in promoting financial inclusion and driving the growth of the Ethiopian economy.
Arifpay is said to be the first Point Of Sale (POS) payment system operator with payment solutions for smartphone, POS and quick response. Recently, Arifpay officially started its POS operation and payment gateway after the approval of a commercial license by the National Bank of Ethiopia.

The Multipurpose Port of Doraleh (DMP) received a ship, from the MOL line, MV Aquarius ACE which unloaded 277 vehicles for transshipments bound for Europe.
DMP has truly become a vehicle transshipment hub. By definition, transshipments is the action of shipping goods or containers to an intermediate destination and then to another destination.
The transshipments activity is on the right track, during the past year, the volumes and performance have increased and as proof, just with the MOL line it closed the year with a significant increase of 90% in traffic compared to the fiscal year 2022. The port has played its role of bursting traffic to the ports of the region, namely Jeddah, Mombassa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Sokhna.
In 2023, the policy of the general management is to set the bar even higher by positioning itself as an International Transshipment Port with the largest volume from Chennai bound for Europe, more precisely at the Port of Antwerp in Belgium.
The first international transshipments vehicles were unloaded on March 23 by the vessel MV Aquarius ACE.
DMP was able to invest in this activity due to its following attribute; A high level of qualification of its workforce, good dock management, availability of vehicle storage spaces, and low incident rate. All of these elements form the core of its service offering.
“With these new flows, there are also import and export prospects for local, regional and international markets that are emerging”, welcomes the management of DMP, which notes however that the transshipment of vehicles is becoming a regular activity. In this perspective, the Director General considers “Maintaining the quality of service is an essential element in the pursuit of our success”.
“Our country is determined to become an international logistics platform and a multimodal center for economic and commercial exchanges.”
DMP has succeeded in strengthening its position as a high-level port, industrial and logistics platform.

Ethio Telecom and the Federal Supreme Court sign agreements to accelerate implementation of a digitally supported judicial service, e-court system.
As indicated on the signing ceremony held on April 4, 2023, Ethio Telecom will provide a reliable and standardized ICT infrastructure including a modern modular data center with reliable power supply, backup network and network security, to ensure judicial services are efficient, effective, modern and accessible to users.
As indicated by the two parties, the agreement will help to provide more access, efficiency and speed in the justice system backed by technology.
It is said that once this digital infrastructure is complete, it will support the judicial services currently offered by the federal courts with a modern technology system that is safe and accessible. It will also ensure transparency in the justice system as clients will be able to conveniently access information about court cases, maintain the security of their personal data, construct a fair justice system, go over court case data, and get efficient and high-quality justice services.
In addition, it is said that the agreement will work to strengthen the implementation of the telecom services cooperation that existed between the two institutions in the past, especially in line with capacity building, training, and in the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology between the two institutions.