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<p>As part of the state of emergency measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19, Ethiopia has prohibited companies from laying off workers and terminating employment. Technology and Politico-Economical Analyst, Mikael Arage spoke to CNBC Africa for more.</p>


COVID-19: Ethiopia prohibits layoffs during state of emergency


<p>In the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis, the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/04/07/how-the-imf-is-responding-to-africa-amid-the-covid-19-crisis/">International Monetary Fund (IMF)</a> Executive Board has approved immediate debt service relief to 25 poor and vulnerable countries.</p>



<p>Nineteen African countries will receive immediate debt service relief, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Togo.</p>



<p>The following statement provides more details:</p>



<p><strong>April 13, 2020</strong></p>



<p><strong>Washington, DC –</strong> Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued the following statement:</p>



<p>“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>



<p>“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.</p>



<p>“The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”</p>



<p>The countries that will receive debt service relief today are: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.</p>



<p>For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a></p>


IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis. shutterstock_94083223

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<p>Reports from Kinshasa confirm 235 cases of COVID-19 in the country, with 17 recoveries and 20 deaths. As ground zero of one of the most recent Ebola outbreaks, is the country prepared to take on yet another health crisis? And what is the government doing to protect the population and the economy from the impact thereof? Journalist Fanfan Nsumpi CNBC Africa for more.</p>


DRC battles new Ebola cases amid COVID-19 crisis

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<p>Despite the country’s lockdown, Rwanda Agriculture Board, in partnership with districts, has deployed 113 mechanised farming equipment across the country to speed up land preparations and planting activities. John Bosco Talemwa, Agriculture Mechanization Specialist at Rwanda Agriculture Board, spoke to CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Here’s what Rwanda is doing to boost agricultural production amid COVID-19 crisis

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<p>The World Bank estimates that 95 per cent of Kenya’s businesses and entrepreneurs operate within the informal sector. Now as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector is vulnerable and Enterprise Finance and Innovations Specialist, Duncan Oyaro shared his thoughts on how it can be protected.</p>


How Kenya plans to help its informal sector survive the COVID-19 crisis

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<p>In an attempt to ease the burden of high interest costs on customers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, I&#038;M Bank Rwanda has reduced their interest rates by 0.5 per cent. CNBC Africa spoke to CEO, Robin Bairstow for more.</p>


I&M Bank Rwanda reduces interest rates by 0.5% to cushion customers from COVID-19

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<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and is forcing us to adopt new ways of doing things and these include doing meetings and conferences electronically. Mireille Ineza Karera, Founder of KORA Coaching Group explains why it is important to make use of available platform in this period.</p>


KORA Founder on embracing e-MICE during COVID-19

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<p>This week Rwanda recognises the 26th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Typically at this time communities come together and participate in events such candlelight vigils and the Walk to Remember, but this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those activities and all gatherings have been cancelled. CNBC Africa spoke to Dr. Diogene Bideri, Principle Legal Adviser, for the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide for more on the changes to this year’s commemoration plans.</p>


Rwanda commemorates the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi indoors

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<p>One of the phrases that’s been used quite a bit throughout the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, “flattening the curve”; the concept of slowing the spread of the virus so that fewer people need seek treatment at the same time, accommodating healthcare capacity in a given area. But how does this happen? One of the ways is more self-diagnostic materials in better equipped first stop clinics. Health tech company Ilara Health has launched a readiness package for Kenyan peri-urban clinics and CEO Emilian Popa joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


This health tech company is helping small clinics in Kenya fight COVID-19 pandemic

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<p>With a generous donation from the private sector and a new total of five recovered COVID-19 cases, it seems Tanzania is making headway in its fight against the virus, but what are the latest measures that have been put in place to curb its spread? How will the government overcome new challenges arising everyday? Bankable Partner, Ivan Tarimo joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Tanzania ramps up measures to contain the spread of COVID-19

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<p>Safaricom and Vodacom recently announced the completion of the acquisition of the M-pesa brand as well as product development and support services from Vodafone through a newly created joint venture.  This move is expected to accelerate M-pesa&#8217;s growth in Africa. Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Safaricom Chief Officer for Financial Services joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Safaricom

Bank of Uganda slashes key interest rate to 8%

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<p>Governments on the continents have put forward strict measures in an effort to fight coronavirus of which, the impact will be greatly felt across the economies. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have stressed on the need to provide debt relief to developing countries. Grant Harris, CEO, Harris Partners LLC joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


How African economies can survive the COVID-19 crisis

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<p>With over 100 COVID-19 cases, Rwanda is one of the countries in which the outbreak has caused significant disruptions to the economy. We seek to understand how the private sector is coping with the situation and its contribution in overcoming it. Spokesperson of the Private Sector Federation Rwanda, Theoneste Ntagengerwa spoke to CNBC Africa for more.</p>


How Rwanda’s private sector is dealing with COVID-19 shocks

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<p>Over the weekend South Sudan confirmed their first and second cases of COVID-19. The country&#8217;s much anticipated oil licensing round has been postponed and various measures are underway to control the spread of the virus, but with a country that has seen hard times in the recent past in the form of civil war and extreme weather, are these measures enough to protect the country&#8217;s most vulnerable and high risk people? And in a country whose economy depends heavily on oil, how will they afford to recover from this? Akol Dok, Africa Political and Economic Affairs Analyst joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


COVID-19: Can South Sudan afford to take on another crisis?


<p>Who would be an entrepreneur? He heard the dot com crash, smelled the coffee, now COVID-19 keeps him awake at night</p>



<p>By Chris Bishop</p>



<p>Entrepreneur Jonathan Robinson saw his dotcom dream disappear overnight, he awoke from the nightmare to smell the coffee only to suffer COVID-19 keeping him awake at night. It has been a bumpy 20-year ride for Robinson – some of it in discomfort flying deep into the African bush on ramshackle Russian planes.</p>



<p><strong>For more on COVID-19 visit: </strong><a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a> </p>



<p>Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities with $19 billion worth bought and sold every year. Brazil produces a third of world supply. Africa may be a small player, yet emerging, player in the market, but is growing at the grass roots with the help of the Fair Trade movement that seeks to cut out the big traders and give small farmers a bigger slice of the profits.</p>



<p>Forty-five-year-old Robinson, the son of a pastor, picked up the Fair Trade idea in a chance meeting, at a coffee shop, in Victoria on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada. He brought it home to South Africa to set up Bean There – a company that buys Fair Trade coffee everywhere from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda to Burundi. He built up a robust roasting business employing 30 people in Johannesburg.</p>



<p>It was all going so well. Near the end of February, he invested in the future with a relaunch of his company’s image &#8211; just weeks later the COVID-19 shutdown hit. Instead of increasing market share, like most businesses in South Africa, he was thrust into cutting back salaries and negotiating with the landlord.</p>



<p>“The temptation is to put your head in the sand and hope it will go away, but it won’t,” says Robinson.</p>



<p>Overnight the coffee shops and corporates cancelled their contracts with Bean There. Ten tonnes- a-month supply of coffee, to the chattering classes, dwindled to around one tonne.</p>



<p>“I keep waking up at night and thinking this is not happening, this must be a dream. It is not and sometime I struggle to go back to sleep,” he says.</p>



<p>What a world away from another, more pleasant, dream that Robinson lived through in the last days of the 20th century – the dot com boom. He studied a B com in marketing at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg and cut his teeth in IT at IBM, before taking a job at homegrown company Didata. He was selling Cisco Systems – a company that competed with Microsoft in those heady days.</p>



<p>“It was the glory days we were on great money, with good commission, really crazy money,” recalls Robinson.</p>



<p>In 2001, came the crash. Robinson saw the writing on the wall when his shares in the company plunged from R70-a-share to a mere R7 faster than you can say dot com. He quit his job and went backpacking with his wife. They bought a car and drove 27,000 miles, in three months, across the United States and Canada. He worked briefly in Canada, the country where he was born during his father’s time preaching there, in a coffee shop on Vancouver Island on the country’s sunny Pacific coast. An encounter in a coffee shop in Victoria gave him the Fair Trade idea to take home to South Africa.</p>



<p>Buying from supporting 10,000 small farmers across Africa through Fair Trade is easier said than done. It requires hard-work, nerve and thousands of miles of gruelling travel with a large pocketful of US dollars.</p>



<p>Take the 2,000 small coffee growers of the Virunga Mountains, in the shadow of the bubbling lava of the volcano that dominates the horizon of the eastern city of Goma on the border with Rwanda. Their coffee is grown in rich volcanic soil 1800 feet above sea level – a great altitude for growers that produce an equally rich aroma and flavour.</p>



<p>Getting Virunga Mountain coffee to the lips of the coffee drinkers of Johannesburg is a lot easier said than done. The last leg of Robinson’s journey from Johannesburg to the mountains was made in a rattling, unlicensed, Russian plane.</p>



<p>“All the luggage was in the aisle so you had to climb over the seats to get to your seat. There were more people on board than there were seats so there were a number of people standing at the back of the plane when we took off. The seat belt was broken so you had to tie it in a knot,” recalls Robinson.</p>



<p>On the ground, a deal was struck for a container of coffee that began a long journey to Johannesburg. A truck spent a couple of months driving it halfway across the continent to the port at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It took a few more weeks to ship it south from Dar es Salaam to Durban and a few days to clear the port and truck it west to Johannesburg.</p>



<p>Trips to the Virunga Mountains are a distant memory for Robinson in the days of COVID-19. He says he has enough coffee in stock for the rest of the year while he battens down the hatches. What worries him most right now is the exchange rate in a business driven by US dollars.</p>



<p>“18.50 rand to the dollar is a bit of an issue for me right now,” he says.</p>



<p>The exchange rate, like a good, strong, cup of coffee, can also keep you up at night.</p>


CLThomas_170621_1105

The harsh realities of being an entrepreneur. He first had to deal with the dot-com crash, now his coffee business is being hit by the COVID-19 tsunami

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<p>As Rwanda prepares for the Genocide Commemoration week while being in lock down, CNBC Africa is joined by Christian Ntwari, Managing Director of Our Past, to tell us more on this year&#8217;s plan for the event and how coronavirus pandemic is going to affect the event.</p>


Rwanda

COVID-19: Ethiopia prohibits layoffs during state of emergency

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

DRC battles new Ebola cases amid COVID-19 crisis

Here’s what Rwanda is doing to boost agricultural production amid COVID-19 crisis

How Kenya plans to help its informal sector survive the COVID-19 crisis

I&M Bank Rwanda reduces interest rates by 0.5% to cushion customers from COVID-19

KORA Founder on embracing e-MICE during COVID-19

Rwanda commemorates the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi indoors

This health tech company is helping small clinics in Kenya fight COVID-19 pandemic

Tanzania ramps up measures to contain the spread of COVID-19

Safaricom, Vodacom partner to grow M-pesa across Africa

Bank of Uganda slashes key interest rate to 8%

How African economies can survive the COVID-19 crisis

How Rwanda’s private sector is dealing with COVID-19 shocks

COVID-19: Can South Sudan afford to take on another crisis?

The harsh realities of being an entrepreneur. He first had to deal with the dot-com crash, now his coffee business is being hit by the COVID-19 tsunami

How COVID-19 is impacting genocide commemoration events in Rwanda

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Rwanda

COVID-19: Ethiopia prohibits layoffs during state of emergency

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

DRC battles new Ebola cases amid COVID-19 crisis

Here’s what Rwanda is doing to boost agricultural production amid COVID-19 crisis

How Kenya plans to help its informal sector survive the COVID-19 crisis

I&M Bank Rwanda reduces interest rates by 0.5% to cushion customers from COVID-19

KORA Founder on embracing e-MICE during COVID-19

Rwanda commemorates the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi indoors

This health tech company is helping small clinics in Kenya fight COVID-19 pandemic

Tanzania ramps up measures to contain the spread of COVID-19

Safaricom, Vodacom partner to grow M-pesa across Africa

Bank of Uganda slashes key interest rate to 8%

How African economies can survive the COVID-19 crisis

How Rwanda’s private sector is dealing with COVID-19 shocks

COVID-19: Can South Sudan afford to take on another crisis?

The harsh realities of being an entrepreneur. He first had to deal with the dot-com crash, now his coffee business is being hit by the COVID-19 tsunami

How COVID-19 is impacting genocide commemoration events in Rwanda

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