The impending withdrawal of Ethiopia from the USA’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) because of human rights concerns will be disruptive and damaging to the country’s clothing and textile sector, a senior government official has told Just Style.

Bantiyhun Gessese, communications affairs directorate director at the Ethiopia Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) said “AGOA has been a major incentive for domestic and international investors to export various types of light manufacturing products free of tax, while creating massive job opportunities especially for the youth.”…

The Ethiopian government has attached the US decision to suspend its country from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from January 2. The Ethiopia ministry of trade and regional integration (MoTRI) today said it was disappointed by the move: “We’re currently disappointed by the threat of AGOA withdrawal currently under consideration by the US government,” it said in a formal statement. …

Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

African universities must undertake strategic collaborations, boost innovation and develop entrepreneurial initiatives, targeting the needs of students to remain relevant in the future, a higher education conference in Nigeria has been told. These concerns formed the core of discussions when public and private sector tertiary education experts gathered over Zoom and in-person in Lagos to discuss the future of African universities at the second edition of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) International Week conference.…

Ethiopian textile and clothing managers and workers are worried that the USA may expel their county from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade access, as armed conflict continues in Tigray.

The US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has said America would “soon” decide on Ethiopia’s status under AGOA, which gives its clothing and textile exporters duty-free access to the United States.…

THE NEED for a proactive effort to improve the teaching and researching of physics in sub-Saharan Africa, as a foundation for critically important scientific work, has been highlighted in a new report from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the UK-based Institute of Physics (IOP).…

Demand for paints and coatings in Kenya is set to recover this year from the impact of Covid-19 epidemic, being driven by the rebound of building construction and other civil engineering works that require use of paints, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has predicted.…

THE ARAB Spring has had a mixed record of success as regards liberalization, but one recent bright spot has been the revolution in Sudan, which in 2018 and 2019 swept away 30 years of despotism under former President Omar al-Bashir. This rebellion, notable for its active nurturing by professional classes, has so far spawned a sustainable ‘Sovereignty Council’ government committed to democracy.…

INDIAN garment exporters with manufacturing units based in the war-ravaged Tigray region of Ethiopia are hoping for an early revival of operations and in the interim say they are finding alternate production centres to honour their supply commitments.

“We are making the products [that were to be supplied from Ethiopian] in our Indian factories,” Arul Saravanan, chief marketing officer of SCM Garments Pvt Ltd, in Tirupur, south India, told just-style.…

THE INTERNATIONAL trade in knitwear products and inputs contains significant variations in prices that can be leveraged buy smart traders within the industry who analyse import-export data and orientate their purchasing and sales practises accordingly.

That said, knitwear traders and manufacturers need to be aware that some bargains really are too good to be true and could be an indication that certain trade flows are being exploited by money launderers seeking to move criminal proceeds from one country to another through artificial pricing – deliberate over- and under- invoicing.…