Economy
ECA calls for policies, infrastructure to promote digital innovations
By Eyewitness reporter
A statement from the ECA, on Sunday, quoted Mr Jean-Paul Adam, Director, Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management at the commission as making the call at a side event to the ongoing 53rd session of the ECA Conference of Ministers.
The event was tagged “Driving Africa’s Industrialisation Agenda by Investing in Youth’s Digital Innovations Post COVID-19″.
In his keynote address, Adam noted that young entrepreneurs could propel Africa’s industrialisation, emphasising that the youths were a critical part of recovery and reset in response to the pandemic.
“We need to reset our development framework for Africa to succeed and digitalisation will play a key role in this,” he stressed.
The director also explained that the reset was about reconsidering sustainable development for Africa and tapping the energy of young people to build forward better.
“Young people are key agents of that reset, the digital space should be one of empowerment and not restriction.” Adam said.
He further said Africa was impacted more than other regions in the context of COVID-19 and climate change, due to its vulnerability, lack of safety nets and minimal fiscal space to adequately respond to such issues.
“We need to respond. We need to address the immediate impact we are facing in terms of lost jobs, in terms of economic opportunities.
”These have been disrupted and we also need to recover from the initial impacts of the crisis of this unprecedented magnitude.” he said.
Adam disclosed that 110 million young people entered the job market in the last 10 years, but only 37 million wage paying jobs were created.
He said the pandemic, however, had presented opportunities for a reset and green recovery for Africa around sustainable energy access for more than 590 million people, without access to electricity.
Furthermore, Adam stressed that digital services were also an opportunity to move Africa’s commerce into the digital space.
He said consideration should be given to specific digital skills which should be invested in and upgrading digital infrastructure like the internet, enhancing digital services, digital identities, and online payment systems.
“We have to ensure access to markets for young people,” he said.
He, however, added that young entrepreneurs must have access to finance and the procurement space.
“E-commerce has emerged as a trade facilitator and the AfCFTA must be leveraged to facilitate trade for young people.
“If we empower young people to enter the digital space and create their own business space, we can expect that every young person will probably create one other job for another person.
“This is the promise that we have for that reset in reviewing the development architecture we believe is necessary for the empowerment of young people and green recovery for Africa.” Adam said.
Economy
Nigeria’s Oil exports face threat as US- Israel attack on Iran escalates, Strait of Hormuz blockade imminent
It links the Arabian/Persian Gulf, or just the Gulf, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea beyond.
It is 33km (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane just 3km (2 miles) wide in either direction, making it vulnerable to attack.
Despite its narrow width, the channel accommodates the world’s largest crude carriers.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), about 20 million barrels of oil, worth about $500bn in annual global energy trade, transited through the Strait of Hormuz each day in 2024.The crude oil passing through the strait originates from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The strait also plays a critical role in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade.
On Saturday, February 28th, 2026, an official from the European Union told the Reuters news agency that vessels crossing the strait have been receiving very high frequency (VHF) transmissions from Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), saying “no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz”.However, the EU official added, Iran has not officially closed the strait.
“Our ships will stay put for several days,” a top executive at a major trading desk told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Countries like Greece have also advised their vessels to avoid transiting through the waterway.
Any instability in this important maritime route could rattle economic stability worldwide.
The strait handles both oil and gas exports and imports.
Kuwait and the UAE import supplies sourced outside the Gulf, including shipments from the United States and West Africa.
The EIA estimated that in 2024, 84 percent of crude oil and condensate shipments transiting the strait headed to Asian markets.
A similar pattern appears in the gas trade, with 83 percent of LNG volumes moving through the Strait of Hormuz destined for Asian destinations.
China, India, Japan and South Korea accounted for a combined 69 percent intake of all crude oil and condensate flows through the strait last year. Their factories, transport networks and power grids depend on uninterrupted Gulf energy.
A spike in oil prices will impact countries such as China, India and several Southeast Asian nations.
How would the Strait’s closure impact oil prices?
According to Iranian state media, the country’s Supreme National Security Council must make the final decision to close the strait, and it has to be ratified by the government.But energy traders have been on high alert in recent weeks amid escalating tensions in the region – home to one of the largest reserves of oil and gas in the world.
Muyu Xu, senior crude oil analyst at Kpler, told reporters that since the war began on Saturday, there has been a sharp drop in vessel traffic through the strait.
“At the same time, the number of vessels idling on either side – in the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf – has surged, as shipowners grow increasingly concerned about maritime security risks following Tehran’s warning of a potential navigation closure,” he said.
“The Strait of Hormuz is critical to the global energy market, as roughly 30 percent of the world’s seaborne crude oil transits the waterway.
” In addition, nearly 20 percent of global jet fuel and about 16 percent of gasoline and naphtha flows also pass through the Strait,” Muyu said.
“On Sunday, March 1st, 2026, an oil tanker was struck off the coast of Oman, signalling a clear escalation of the conflict and a shift in targets from purely military facilities to energy assets.”
Shipping data showed that at least 150 tankers, including crude oil and liquefied natural gas vessels, have dropped anchor in open Gulf waters beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
The tankers were clustered in open waters off the coasts of major Gulf oil producers, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as LNG giant Qatar, according to the Reuters news agency estimates based on ship-tracking data from the MarineTraffic platform.
Moreover, on Sunday, March 1st, 2026,the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it is aware of “significant military activity” in the Strait and said it has received a report of an incident two nautical miles north of Oman’s Kumzar, located in the Strait of Hormuz.
Muyu from Kpler said a broad range of energy infrastructure is now under threat. “This is expected to sharply intensify the oil price rally and could keep prices elevated for a sustained period, potentially longer than during last June’s conflict.”
Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera, “Closure of the Strait of Hormuz would disrupt roughly a fifth of globally traded oil overnight – and prices wouldn’t just spike, they would gap violently upward on fear alone.”
“The shock would reverberate far beyond energy markets, tightening financial conditions, fuelling inflation, and pushing fragile economies closer to recession in a matter of weeks,” he added.
When the US and Israel bombed Iran last June, there was no direct disruption to maritime activity in the region.
What does it mean for the global economy?
Any disruption to energy flows through Hormuz will also impact the global economy, driving up fuel and factory costs.Hamad Hussain, a climate and commodities economist at the United Kingdom-based firm Capital Economics, said that for the global economy, a sustained rise in oil prices would add upward pressure to inflation.
“If crude oil prices were to rise to $100 per barrel and remain at those levels for a while, that could add 0.6-0.7 percent to global inflation,” he said, noting that this would also lead to an increase in natural gas prices.
“This could slow the pace of monetary easing by major central banks, particularly in emerging markets, where policymakers tend to be more sensitive to swings in commodity prices,” he added.
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