More than 13 million people are now in desperate need of humanitarian assistance in DR Congo where violent conflicts have spread to new parts of the country.
On Friday 13 April, the international community will gather in Geneva for a DR Congo pledging conference. The Norwegian Refugee Council calls for a quadrupling of the current support, to ensure affected communities receive immediate aid.
“We cannot afford the pledging conference to be an ‘all talk and no action’ kind of event,” said the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland. “The international community needs to wake up. Today, the lack of funds is already affecting humanitarian operations. Our teams in North Kivu have seen peer agencies pulling out or scaling down, while the needs are increasing.”
“The stakes are incredibly high in DR Congo. Continued inaction would be measured in loss of civilian lives,” he added.  Last year only 56 per cent of the USD813 million humanitarian appeal was funded.

Donors to the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) – consisting of the African Development Bank, the Government of Japan and the Government of Austria – have approved three catalytic projects totaling USD 2.48 million  to stimulate the growth of Africa’s small and medium enterprises.
These grants will help strengthen the participation of Africa’s SMEs in financial markets and the agriculture sector.
“These three projects are well aligned with FAPA’s core mandate of supporting private-sector development in Africa, a key strategic priority of the African Development Bank. They augur well for job creation in Africa,” said Olivier Eweck, Director of the Syndication, Co-financing and Technical Solutions Department at the African Development Bank, and Chair of the FAPA Technical Committee.
The first project, Regional Financial Market Development Support Project (Projet d’appui au développement du marché financier regional, PADMAFIR) – a FAPA grant of USD 980,000, will contribute to the modernization of the regulatory framework to increase competitiveness and strengthen the capacity of the regulator on new products, including securitization, diaspora bonds and green bonds.
The second project is for the Promotion of Factoring in Africa, through which an investment totaling USD 500,000 is deployed to finance the capacity-building of emerging factoring firms and the development of a sustainable knowledge and learning platform. The platform will provide capital to SMEs by financing their receivables. The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will contribute USD 450,000 towards this technical assistance project.
The third project is a grant of USD one million  for leveraging investments for fertilizer utilization amongst smallholder farmers in Africa.

Political risk will remain a major concern for dealmakers in Africa in 2018. According to a recent report, Resourceful dealmaking: Outlook for M&A in Africa, published by Mergermarket in collaboration with specialist risk consultancy Control Risks, there has been a dramatic fall in M&A activity, with declines of 25 percent in volume and 26 percent in value in the first half of 2017, compared with a relatively buoyant 2016.
Imad Mesdoua, senior political risk consultant at Control Risks, comments: “The drop-off signifies growing investor anxiety surrounding governance issues and weaker economic signals across key African markets. Specifically, political risk and transparency concerns have become the principal obstacles to successful acquisition in Africa. Ethical and compliance considerations are another major factor clouding the outlook for potential investors.”
The report states political uncertainty and relatively weak economic fundamentals have negatively affected M&A activity in Africa. A fall-off in deals was seen in the first half of 2017 compared with a relatively buoyant 2016.

Africa needs to take advantage of the economic potential of its ports and shipping sector if it is to realize its growth ambitions. Globally, ports are gateways for 80 percent of merchandise trade by volume and 70 percent by value. Investment in ports and their related transport infrastructure to advance trade and promote overall economic development and growth is therefore vital – particularly in emerging economies that are currently under-served by modern transportation facilities.
However, port investment must be channeled appropriately to ensure financial sustainability and economic growth. Investment is not always about building new ports or terminals – investment spent on infrastructure without cognizance of the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of the port may not produce the desired results.
Port performance must be seen in the context of not only port infrastructure shortfalls, but also the fact that port performance has a direct impact on the efficiency and reliability of the entire transport network in which the port is just a node for the transfer of goods.
These are among the key findings of an analysis of port development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) issued by PwC. The report, ‘Strengthening Africa’s gateways to trade’, was developed in response to the challenges facing SAA’s ports in attracting external investment and highlighting the regional economic and growth benefits thereof.
As an emerging market region endowed with vast resources and a growing population, SSA must accelerate its market access and trade across the region and with the rest of the world. PwC analysis shows that a 25 percent improvement in port performance could increase GDP by 2 percent, demonstrating the close relationship between port effectiveness and trade competitiveness.
With growing congestion in many African ports, Africa runs the risk of sacrificing further growth through lack of investment in port terminal infrastructure. Despite the high volumes of goods that require transport, the development and integration of ports in Africa’s wider logistic chains remains uneven.