The Weekly Brief, by The Kenyan Wall Street, is a newsletter that goes out every Monday morning at 9 am (EAT).

Welcome to the last issue of the newsletter. 2023 has been rough, and the holidays are a welcome break. Especially because fuel prices have dropped marginally, and the rains have eased, somewhat. Fitch, the ratings agency, estimates that Kenya’s annual inflation will ease in 2024.

In this week’s issue, Africa is being disproportionately punished for the climate catastrophe despite being the least polluter, the continent will lose at least $25bn annually to a Europe-wide carbon tax, and Twiga’s co-Founder and CEO, Peter Njonjo, takes a break. Meanwhile, Kenyan fintech firm Pezesha Africa Limted has filed a petition for the liquidation of Marketforce Technologies Limited, a B2B e-commerce platform, citing unpaid debts.

Africa Must Claim It’s Space: Op-ed

By NJ Ayuk.

“Africa must embrace renewable energy, and forgo exploration of its potentially lucrative gas deposits to stave off climate disaster and bring access to clean energy to the hundreds of millions who lack it, leading experts on the continent have said,” Fiona Harvey and Matthew Taylor wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian before COP 27.

• For several years now, wealthy nations and environmental organizations have been strong-arming African countries to leave their petroleum assets in the ground.

• Africa has the lowest per-capital emissions of all continents, averaging 1 tonne of CO2 emitted annually by each individual.

• The stance of the African Energy Chamber has been consistent: Yes, African oil and gas-producing countries should and will do their part to support global emissions-reduction goals.

• “The story of Africa or the developing world is not really an energy transition story, it’s a development story,” Andrew Kamau with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University said in a recent interview with Energy Intelligence.

  • We refuse to let the world set the timing for when Africa will ease up on oil and gas exploration and production.

  • We are convinced that oil and gas production, when managed strategically, provides a pathway for economic growth and energy security, and we are determined to help Africa realize those benefits.

  • African countries cannot be on the same energy transition timeline as Western countries. Africa still needs time – time that the Western world has already had and, frankly continues to milk – to resolve energy poverty and industrialize.

In 2021, global CO2 emissions hit 37.12 bn tonnes. China ranked first in contributing 11.47 billion tonnes; the entire continent of Africa contributed 1.45 billion tonnes, only 4% of global carbon emissions.

In fact, over the last two decades, Africa’s total contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions has never been above 4% — by far the smallest share in all the world. The average American emits as much CO2 in one month as the average African does in an entire year.

And yet, Africa is disproportionately being punished for the climate catastrophe that, let’s be honest, was initiated and is perpetuated by Western and developed economies.

“You hear a lot about all these technologies that are being developed, but where are they at scale?” Kamau asked. “And has somebody industrialized using wind and solar only? I don’t know. We wait to see if it’s possible.”

Kamau also questioned where all the international funding is. The West has made grand financial promises, but the level of support truly needed to undertake a transition to renewables at the pace dictated by the West has yet to materialize.

Headlines You Might Have Missed

• Pezesha Files Liquidation petition against Marketforce Technologies. Link

• EPRA reduces fuel prices as festive seasons sets in. Link.

• Multichoice executives appear before parliament over joint venture with state broadcaster KBC. Link

• KRA’s Jan 1st 2024 deadline for businesses to start generating Electronic Invoices. Link.

• Bretton Woods institutions have granted $4.5bn debt relief to the East African Community’s newest member, Somalia. Link.

• Tanzania has assigned Afren’s majority stake in the Tanga Oil Block project to Octant. Link.

Twiga Co-Founder and CEO Is On a Break

Twiga Foods has announced changes in its top management after Peter Njonjo took a 6-month sabbatical leave.

“The board supports Peter’s decision to take a sabbatical and has full confidence in the capabilities of Twiga’s senior leadership team.  On behalf of the board, I thank Peter for his demonstrated commitment in ensuring the completion of Twiga’s recent funding round,” said Hein Pretorius, Chairman of Twiga.

• Peter Njonjo joined Twiga as Chief Executive Officer in 2019 starting with the distribution of bananas. He said he has decided to take a break after an intense 2023 to focus on personal matters.

• Laurent Gouault, Twiga Chief Operating Officer, and Zuber Momoniat, Twiga’s Chief Financial Officer will be leading the operational and commercial and finance and legal functions of the company respectively during the period.

• In a statement, the company said Peter Njonjo will remain on the board of directors.

Founded in 2014, Twiga Foods is a business to business food distribution company that builds markets for agricultural producers and retailers through technology.

The startup is one of the best-funded on the continent, securing a US$10.3 million Series A funding round in 2017, a further US$10 million in November 2018, and US$34.75 million across two rounds in 2019.

• In August, Twiga announced lay off which targeted 283 employees, representing 33 per cent of its 850 workforces as it pushes for a “lean, agile and cost-effective organization.”

• The lay-off was the second round after it conducted a similar one in November 2022 which affected 211 of its full-time employees.

• The company told TechCrunch it has also shut down 10 distribution centers in Nairobi, and moved all operations to a modern 200,000-square-foot warehouse it opened officially last year

More Headlines

• Kenyan diaspora community capitalizes on week shilling with real estate. Link.

• The government seeks quick fixes as power blackouts persist. Link.

• Explainer: How Kenya’s rate hike affects consumers and businesses. Link.

• A Guide for Secure Online Transactions This Festive Season. Link

Africa to Lose $25bn Annually to Europe-Wide Carbon Tax

The President of the African Development Bank (ADB) Group Dr Akinwumi Adesina has reiterated his warning that the introduction of a carbon border tax by the European Union could push Africa back into exporting raw commodities, and undermine its industrialisation gains.

• The European Union (EU) recently launched the initial phase of a Europe-wide carbon tax on imported goods as part of its climate change reduction measures.

• Adesina said this could penalize African countries.

• “Just trade is what we need, but give us just trade for a just energy transition,” Adesina added. “Africa should not be penalised.”

“African companies that are making cement, steel, aluminium, fertilizers and trying to export to Europe are going to be charged a border tax of 80 euros per tonne. That is very expensive, and all that is going to do is that countries in Africa that already suffer from tariff escalation when they add value to what they produce, now you are forcing them down the value chain,” Adesina said during a panel session at the Doha Forum titled “Decoding the Debt Dilemma—Unveiling Multilateral Solutions.”

“Africa is going to lose $25 billion annually,” Adesina said. “Africa deserves a carve-out on that [taxation] because we are financing Africa’s transition. You cannot industrialise just by renewables; you need a balanced energy mix that allows you to use your natural gas to be able to industrialise.”

• He described natural gas as an essential resource for Africa that should not be restricted in foreign trade.

• He noted that by introducing general punitive measures that also affect developing countries, developed countries are “shifting the goal post” in the differentiated responsibility within the Paris Agreement.

• The ADB argues that this shift is happening by forcing developing countries to attain net-zero carbon emissions much earlier than stipulated.

“Moving to a society which is decarbonised takes time,” Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum said, “We have to find bridges between coal as the most extreme form of fossil fuel through natural gas. We have to move at a speed which makes sense, is cost-effective, and there is a price to be paid."

Qatar’s Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari said targets set by climate change experts had at times been “too ambitious, too aggressive, and had not properly taken into consideration transition periods. Qatar, on the other hand, has established a reputation as a responsible supplier of energy to the world, the minister said.

Interview of the Week

Exclusive interview with Camilo Arango Davila, the Head of Growth at Minka.

Happy holidays.