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World Bank doubles agribusiness funding to $9bn
The World Bank Group has announced an increase in its financial commitment to agribusiness, pledging to double its funding to $9bn annually by 2030.
According to the Bretton Woods institution in a statement on Wednesday, the initiative aims to create a comprehensive ecosystem for the agribusiness sector, addressing critical challenges and opportunities in the industry.
This significant funding increase comes in response to transformative trends reshaping agribusiness, including climate change, advancements in financial technology, and the need for digital solutions.
“We stand at a crossroads, and the path we choose today will determine the future,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga. “The World Bank’s ecosystem approach moves us beyond fragmented efforts to a constellation of solutions that includes everything from warehousing to logistics to production, but with smallholder farmers and producer organisations at the centre.”
Dangote refinery begins direct petrol sale to marketers
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started supplying Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to some oil marketers directly without recourse to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
It was gathered that while more oil marketers were intensifying efforts to buy the product directly from the plant, others were importing the commodity, as hundreds of millions of litres of imported PMS should hit Nigeria’s shores in two weeks’ time.
North Korean balloon dumps rubbish on South Korea’s presidential compound
Rubbish carried by a North Korean balloon has landed on South Korea’s presidential compound, authorities have said, in the second such incident in recent months.
South Korea’s presidential security service said in a statement on Thursday that a balloon sent from across the inter-Korean border dumped rubbish onto the compound in Seoul’s Yongsan district, but no dangerous items or materials were discovered.
South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo newspapers reported that the balloon contained propaganda leaflets ridiculing President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife.
Egypt’s United Bank to list on Cairo stock exchange today
State-owned United Bank will list on the Egyptian stock exchange on Thursday, the bourse said on Wednesday, a further step towards a rare privatisation of an Egyptian lender.
The central bank announced last month it would sell shares in United Bank in an initial public offering by March.
United Bank’s 1.1 billion shares will be listed at 5 Egyptian pounds ($0.103) each, valuing the bank at 5.5 billion Egyptian pounds, the exchange said.
Along with Arab African International Bank and Banque du Caire, United Bank was one of three state banks the government placed on a list in early 2023 for potential sale.
Kenya fulfilled all targets in IMF review, central bank governor says
Kenya has fulfilled all targets mandated by the International Monetary Fund in a review of its loan programme, the country’s central bank governor said on Wednesday, and expects to continue its engagement with the global lender after April.
Kenya agreed to a four-year loan with the IMF in 2021, and has also signed up for climate change lending, taking its total loan access with the Fund to $3.6 billion.
But deadly protests against planned tax rises forced the government to scupper its planned finance bill in June, leaving the heavily indebted government with a bigger budget deficit for this financial year, mounting unpaid bills, and a delay in disbursement of IMF funding.
A staff level agreement on a combined 7th and 8th review of the country’s programme is scheduled to go the IMF’s executive board for a sign-off on Oct. 30, which will in turn trigger a payout of $611 million.
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