VenturesNow

Kenya’s Ruto to lift logging ban. Here’s why

Published

1 year ago

July 3, 2023

Kenyan President, William Ruto has hinted at lifting the ban on logging which has been in place for almost five years.

Ruto, while in Molo, a town around 200km north-west of Nairobi, said the decision was “long overdue” and was aimed at creating jobs and opening businesses.

“We can’t have mature trees rotting in forests while locals suffer due to lack of timber. That’s foolishness,” he said.

“This is why we have decided to open up the forest and harvest timber so that we can create jobs for our youth and open up business.”

Kenya loses up to 70,000 hectares of forest each year to illegal logging. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Interpol, also says that weak Kenyan laws are largely to blame for the situation.

Climate advocacy group, Greenpeace Africa has criticized the policy plan amid fears it “could have devastating consequences for the environment”.

“In Kenya, forests are home to rare and endangered species, and millions of local people depend on these forests for their livelihoods, relying on them for food and medicine,” the organization wrote last month in a petition against the move.

“Since the Kenyan government imposed the ban on logging six years ago, significant progress has been made in forest protection and with combatting the climate crisis,” it said.

“Lifting the ban will undo all our hard work, as it will open the floodgates to commercial and illegal logging solely driven by profit.”

Kenya’s forest cover currently stands at 8.8%, while the forestry and logging industry contributed 1.6% to the Kenyan economy in 2022.

Meanwhile, the president has insisted on maintaining his goal of planting 15 billion trees over the next ten years.

Related Topics:Featured Kenya logging president William Ruto

Click to comment

VenturesNow

IMF, Egypt reach agreement for fourth review of Egypt’s $1.2 billion loan request

Published

2 days ago

December 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff-level agreement over the fourth review of the Extended Fund Facility arrangement, which might lead to a $1.2 billion payout under the program.

In March, Egypt, struggling with rising inflation and cash shortages, consented to the $8 billion, 46-month facility. Its economic problems were made worse by a precipitous drop in Suez Canal revenue over the last year due to regional tensions.

Over the next two years, Egypt’s government has committed to raising its tax-to-revenue ratio by 2% of GDP, according to the IMF, emphasising removing exemptions rather than raising taxes.

According to a statement from the IMF, this would allow it to expand social expenditure to support vulnerable populations.

“While the authorities’ plans to streamline and simplify the tax system are commendable, further reforms will be needed to enhance domestic revenue mobilization efforts,” the statement said.

According to the IMF statement, Egypt had also committed to maintaining its commitment to a flexible currency rate and to taking more urgent action to guarantee that the private sector became the primary driver of development.

The IMF’s executive board still has to accept the fourth review’s staff-level agreement.

VenturesNow

Libya’s eastern govt accepts petrol subsidy elimination

Published

2 days ago

December 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In a recent statement, the eastern government of Libya claimed it had reached a consensus on a plan to eliminate gasoline subsidies and would draft a mechanism to carry out the accord.

Additional information on the idea was not released by the administration led by Osama Hamad, a challenger to the internationally acknowledged Tripoli-based government.

However, it is uncertain if Hamad’s government would be able to carry out the plan in the divided nation.

According to the Global Petrol Prices online tracker, a litre of gasoline costs just 0.150 Libyan dinars ($0.03) in OPEC member Libya, making it the second-cheapest in the world.

Following an uprising against former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, smuggling networks have thrived in the ensuing political unrest and armed fighting. In 2014, conflicting eastern and western governments separated the nation.

A World Bank analysis estimates that the annual value of fuel smuggling from Libya is at least $5 billion.

In a meeting with Mari Barrasi, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), located in Tripoli, and four members of the bank’s board of directors, Hamad in Benghazi supported the idea of removing subsidies.

The CBL’s Benghazi branch offices served as the venue for the conference.

The eastern parliament appointed Hamad in 2023 to succeed Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who had been put in position in 2021 under a U.N.-backed procedure that the parliament said had lost its legitimacy.

Dbeibah, who is located in Tripoli, stated in January that he will conduct a public poll on the topic of eliminating gasoline subsidies, but he hasn’t done anything about it since.

According to CBL figures, gasoline subsidies cost 12.8 billion Libyan dinars between January and November of this year. 4.8 Libyan dinars to $1 is the official exchange rate.