The further you travel from Brussels, the likelier people are to see Brexit as an opportunity. I’m in Kampala, discussing post-EU commercial prospects with business and political leaders from across East Africa. While not everyone here started as a Leaver, there is now a widespread hope that Brexit will lead to more open trade arrangements, above all in farming, which employs two thirds of Africa’s workforce. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy treats Africa as an economic colony. Brussels applies tariffs to tomato sauce, but not to tomatoes; to chocolate, but not to cocoa beans; to roasted coffee, but not to green coffee.

Standard Chartered Bank and the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank) has signed a $300m Term loan facility, backed by a guarantee from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group. Agriculture, Karoo The deal secures long-term USD funding for Land Bank at very competitive terms achieving reduced overall cost of borrowing and diversification of financing sources. The facility has a door-to-door tenure of 10 years and will help increase long-term liquidity for the benefit of the agricultural sector in South Africa.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday it will finance the construction of a 32-MW solar power plant in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena. The financing for the facility was discussed during a visit last week by AfDB's vice president for power, energy, climate change and green growth Amadou Hott to the Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno. AfDB said it plans to back other projects in the country such as its electrical interconnection with Cameroon and the rehabilitation of the current National Electricity Company (SNE) plant.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) have signed a landmark agreement to strengthen partnership at country level. Both parties have agreed to jointly pull together the sum of US $2 billion over the next three years to finance projects in agriculture and food security, renewable energy, small and medium enterprises, and human development (health and education). To realize the shared objective of the agreement, the IsDB and the Bank agreed to each contribute US $1 billion over three years for joint activities focusing on these priority areas and sectors.

The Government of Mozambique, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have announced a new project that will strengthen sustainable forest management and contribute to Mozambique achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15 on forests. The $6 million project is part of the World Bank-funded $47 million Mozambique Forest Investment Project. The project aims to stem the rapid pace of deforestation and support investment in the forest sector while creating new income and livelihood opportunities from sustainable forest management for rural communities.

Globalisation and technological change have contributed significantly to driving economic growth and raising living standards across the globe. However, globalisation has created challenges and its benefits have not been shared widely enough. By bringing together developed and emerging market economies, the G20 is determined to shape globalisation to benefit all people. Most importantly, we need to better enable our people to seize its opportunities. We are resolved to tackle common challenges to the global community, including terrorism, displacement, poverty, hunger and health threats, job creation, climate change, energy security, and inequality including gender inequality, as a basis for sustainable development and stability.

Youth employment should be at the centre of any strategy to face economic and demographic challenges in Africa, the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization José Graziano da Silva told a joint African Union-European Union meeting, hosted at FAO headquarters in Rome. In 2014 alone, about 11 million young Africans entered the labour market. But many see few opportunities in the agriculture sector and are constrained by a lack of skills, low wages, and limited access to land and financial services. Combined, this makes them more prone to migrate from rural areas. "Fostering sustainable agriculture and rural development is essential to absorb these millions of youth looking for a job," Graziano da Silva said.

Government and Unilever today announced a Joint Vision to transform the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP) into a state-of-the-art sustainable palm oil plantation. Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Unilever Global CEO, Paul Polman, agreed on a Joint Vision, outlining their support for the development of a sustainable palm oil industry in Ghana. Under this Joint Vision, Unilever and the Government of Ghana will work together to develop the plantation, support smallholder farmers, and help ensure a positive impact on the local economy.Dr Bawumia commended Unilever for the support it has offered the Ghanaian economy over the years through its continuous presence and operations in Ghana.

Samoa's minister of agriculture, La'aulialemalietoa Leuatea Polata'ivao Schmidt, confirmed in Parliament that negotiations with the World Bank to fund the project should be finalised in the near future. The minister said construction of the abattoir at Nu'u should start before the end of the year, with $US1.2 million from the World Bank allocated for the project. The government said the new abattoir would improve meat hygiene for domestic consumption and ultimately satisfy international regulations. The minister said the facility would take over the processing of all meat before it can be sold commercially and any products not processed through the abattoir will be banned from the commercial market.

Belarus is preparing to build a tractor factory in Angola to modernize agriculture, a logistics center and a diverse machinery network for industry. This was said on Monday in the country by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Belarus, Wladimir Makei, at the end of a meeting with his Angolan counterpart, Georges Chikoti, who is paying a working visit to that European country, reads a note from the MIREX that reached Angop. According to Wladimir Makei, the visit of the Angolan official paves the way for the exchange of information on financial, technological, scientific, academic and cultural capacity.