Climate-induced catastrophic events have led to severe humanitarian crises in Africa. Between 2000 and 2022, a total of 407.5 million people in Africa were affected by natural disasters. During this time, 4.2 million people became homeless, 53,610 people died and 52,205 were injured.

This is according to the Economic Report on Africa 2023 (ERA2023) which will be launched on December 18, 2023, in Abuja, Nigeria.

Titled: “Building Africa’s Resilience to Global Economic Shocks”, the report shows that climate shocks generally are highly correlated with the cyclical component of GDP growth and not with the long-term trend in Africa, which suggests that part of the volatility observed in growth emanates from climate-induced shocks. A temperature increases beyond a threshold of 0.7 degree centigrade results in reduced real GDP growth. At 1.8-degree centigrade change in temperature, which is expected to prevail by 2030, if current trends persist, we could expect a 2-percentage point decline in real GDP growth, eroding the benefits from positive shocks, such as commodity price booms, and amplifying the impact of negative shocks. In addition, preliminary results of the report show that the frequency of natural disasters increases public debt levels directly. A unit increase in natural disasters could lead to a 0.25 percentage point increase in the ratio of net public debt to GDP.

More significantly, climate change in Africa tends to derail poverty reduction and, in some cases, destroy the livelihoods of millions of people that mainly rely on agriculture and small businesses. Droughts, floods, frosts, and other natural events that lead to crop failure affect the welfare of households that live in rural areas and small towns. A one unit increase in natural disaster frequency would increase the percentage of households living in extreme poverty by 4.4 percentage, says the report.

The report carries important lessons regarding how African countries must incorporate climate change in the design and implementation of their long-term growth strategies. The report calls among other for a development strategy for countries that “leverage their natural resource endowments in a manner that stimulates economic growth while gradually reducing the intensity of carbonization associated with economic activity, especially production, transport and consumption”. This requires embracing green industrial policy at the core of the design and implementation of national development strategy.

To finance this sustainability transitions, the report recommends the issuance of green and blue bonds which can exclusively direct financing to projects with climate and environmental outcomes aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The debt-for-nature swaps envisage climate and nature transactions with positive environmental impacts and can also contribute to Africa’s debt sustainability and provide countries with additional fiscal space to invest in climate resilience and adaptation actions. The development of a mechanism which would facilitate debt buybacks and re-issuance at cheaper rates would be a key factor in allowing countries to sustainably restructure expensive existing debts and enable investment of savings in climate resilience.

Currently, ECA supports the operationalization of the Sustainable Debt Coalition initiative, which upholds these financing mechanisms to assist in addressing Africa’s debt management challenges.

By our staff reporter

Dashen Bank and the Ethiopian Airlines Group jointly launch an innovative service package dubbed ‘Fly Now Pay Later’.

According to the innovators, this new technological innovation offers unprecedented flexibility and convenience for travelers allowing them to experience the unique opportunity to fly first and make payment at a later date.

“This pioneering move will redefine the travel experience,” both Dashen and Ethiopian asserted.

As data shows, the impact of technology in the travel industry is not only limited to registering business growth and profitability, but more importantly, it enhances the travel experience by reducing unnecessary steps that have traditionally contributed to travel ordeals.

Expressing his delight about the newly introduced service, Yohannes Million, Chief Digital Banking Officer of Dashen Bank said, “Fly Now Pay Later (FNPL) is an innovative way to purchase flights that allows travelers to book their trips without paying the full price upfront. The service will be available based on the customers’ choice of a 12- or 6-month payment period. Additionally, customers must open a bank account at Dashen Bank and remain as customers for at least three months in order to enjoy this service.”

Yohannes also emphasized that when customers go to the nearby Dashen Bank branch to apply, they are expected to present the necessary documents along with a guarantee.

At the joint launch, Lemma Yadecha, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, said, “At Ethiopian, we place great value on system and technology modernization. System is one of our strategic growth pillars, and we continue to invest heavily in introducing cutting-edge technologies as part of our customer-centric endeavors. The new payment service we are launching today, ‘Fly Now, Pay Later,’ will offer customers additional payment flexibility and enhance the customer experience. We have integrated our mobile app with the new payment strategy provided by Dashen Bank. We will further strive to make our system compatible with the best practices of other domestic banks as well.”

The credit period for this service is set for six to twelve months, and the credit limit can be renewed at the end of the credit tenure. As Dashen Bank confirmed, its IT department has developed a desktop application that is integrated with the Ethiopian Airlines’ FlyGate application. Ethiopian Airlines, through its booking system, will then provide confirmed passenger flight bookings and services upon successful payment confirmation received from Dashen Bank through FlyGate.

To use this service, customers will receive a spending limit from the Dashen Bank branch and an SMS confirmation that should be entered into Ethiopian Mobile app to purchase flight tickets. Passenger flight tickets can be purchased once or multiple times, up to the facility limit.

As noted during the launch, the credit limit is determined based on the customers’ borrowing capacity, up to a maximum of 600 thousand birr.

The Fly Now Pay Later payment strategy has increasingly been gaining popularity in the travel industry in recent years.

By our staff reporter

Evidence suggests that people living in cities with rapid urban growth and high industrial growth in Ethiopia suffer more from air pollution.

The new findings which come courtesy of an event themed, “Together for Cleaner Air: Towards Putting Ethiopia on the Clean Air Map” at the College of Natural and Computational Sciences of the Institute of Geophysics, Space Science and Astronomy (IGSSA) of Addis Ababa University (AAU), saw researchers converging to address air pollution issues.

As research showed, cities in the country have air contents of dust, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and ozone often exceeding the national ambient air quality standards.

Christina Isaxon (PhD), a Researcher at Centre for Healthy Indoor Environments and a senior lecturer in Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology, revealed in her introductory address that air pollution affects the climate and the human healthwith big consequences not only in premature deaths and human suffering but also economically lost productivity and strain on the health care system.

 “If everybody works together, Ethiopia can be enabled to leapfrog air pollution mistakes that other countries already have done, countries where cities have become denser and more and more polluted,” Christina cited.

According to the Researcher, Ethiopia can plan for cities focused on clean air and green spaces that can accommodate a healthy population and thereby also it plans for cities that are attractive not only to their inhabitants but also attract investors and tourism in general.

Elias Lewi (PhD), Director of IGSSA (AAU), explained that Atmospheric and Oceanic Unit of the Institute is engaged in research activities in the areas of climate change, impact assessment, flood and drought prediction, indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, computational fluid dynamics and chemical analyses of the earth’s atmosphere.

The Director further said that the Institute and its adjunct members from USA and Ethiopia have been working on installing several Purple Air Quality monitoring instruments and there is a hope that it will be finalized as soon as calibration issues are resolved.

Kassahun Ture (PhD), from AAU, noted that air pollution causes and exacerbates a number of diseases, ranging from asthma to cancer, pulmonary illnesses and heart diseases.

“Outdoor air pollution and particulate matter, one of its major components have been classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer,” he added.

As noted in the conference the main source of air pollution in Ethiopia was open burning of waste, vehicle emissions and traditional practices. Among these, open burning was one of the major sources of air pollution in metropolitan cities such as Addis Ababa.

By our staff reporter

Purpose Black Ethiopia comes up with a National Agriculture Innovation Award to boost farmers produce through use of sustainable fertilizers.

As announced by the company, the winner of the competition will receive a financial backing of 1 million birr.

“This innovative competition focuses mainly on the transfer of skills and experience in the agricultural sector; that could help shape innovative ideas into action, which down the line will aid farmers with small fields to increase their productivity,” Purpose Black cited while explaining the vision behind the competition.

The agricultural innovation competition also aims to get farmers out of dependence on chemical fertilizers with new invigorative ideas.

According to Purpose Black Ethiopia, the competition is in alignment with their structure of improving people’s lives which in this case can be benefitted by new approach of procedures and or concepts.

The company is also set to host the second National Agri-Innovation Summit from February 13 to February 15, 2024.

Mulatu Wolde, Director of Agri Innovation, stated that various governmental and non-governmental institutions will take part in the event and at the end of the conference, the best innovators will present their innovative work, especially those that can improve Purpose Black’s agricultural operations.

The director also explained that up to ten contestants will be given various incentives, support and supervision.