Sub-Saharan Africa will see moderate but positive growth of 2.7% this year, a welcome rebound from the region’s first recession of 25 years in 2020 when the region shrank by an estimated -3.7%. But 2021 is probably going to be just as tough for African economies as it was in 2020.
One of the long-running tensions in the African startup investment ecosystem has been whether the Silicon Valley funding model, which seems to have been transferred wholesale to Africa’s very diverse and different tech hubs, is right for the continent’s tech hubs at this stage in their development.
Leaders with authoritarian tendencies and social media don’t mix well. There’s evidence of this in India, and most recently in the US, when Twitter was forced to ban president Donald Trump from his favorite megaphone.
Author, playwright, and poet Wole Soyinka has long been forthright about African democracy, especially in his home country Nigeria. He has spoken up against military juntas and civilian autocrats alike, showcasing the eloquence you’d expect from Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature, an honor he received in 1986.
The biggest issue going into 2021 for African economies, without a doubt, will be sovereign debt.
Netflix says it has appointed Zimbabwean telecoms billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to its board.
There’s long been a push for African countries to open up their borders to visitors and many countries have done so to drive tourism and encourage global trade.
Africa is on course to add $180 billion or 5.2% of aggregate GDP by 2025 thanks to the rapid growth of its internet economy, says a report from the World Bank’s IFC and Google. In 2012, the continent’s internet economy (iGDP) was estimated at just $30 billion, or 1.1% of its GDP.
Despite the challenges of its own democratic processes, the US will still have a huge influence over democratic systems in Africa, for better and for worse.
“Now, finally, in our own country…” Karen Bass, chair of the US House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, had a wry smile and sighed during her committee’s Sept. 30 hearing discussing “Democratic backsliding in Africa.”
The past three weeks of Nigeria’s EndSARS protests have me listening again to late Nigerian Afrobeat star and political activist Fela Kuti’s “Sorrow Tears & Blood.” The song, released 42 years ago, is about the violence and psychological terror inflicted by Nigeria’s uniformed officials, in particular the police and army. Fela bemoans Nigerians’ reluctance to rise up, singing in pidgin English: “My people sef dey fear too much!“
One of the biggest challenges in trying to explain China’s role in Africa is that is often involves unpicking long-established narratives. Quartz Africa pulled together a panel of three of the foremost thinkers on China-Africa relations particularly when it comes economics, finance, development and trade to help our readers see beyond the headlines, bluster and speculation.
Of the oft-quoted 600 million Africans living without electricity across the continent, it is estimated about 150 million of them live within range of their local public grids but are still not connected.
Back in April, Togo launched a social welfare program using digital cash transfers as the government tried to help informal workers whose livelihoods had been disrupted by the pandemic and the accompanying lockdown. The Novissi program, which was launched on April 8, signed up more than 1 million citizens in its first week. Up to 65% of the eligible beneficiaries were women.
Supply chains across industries are going through an unprecedented global disruption in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic which has shuttered airports, seaports and hampered the movement of goods and people around the world.
There are nearly 4 billion people on earth who have no access to the internet and there are a multitude of reasons why this is the case, including any combination of the cost of infrastructure, remote dwellers, difficult terrains, the sheer limits of technology and many more.
Making estimates is always a difficult task. This is especially true when it comes to economic forecasts for African countries. One of many reasons is large portions of the economies are in the informal sector and by definition offer fewer reliable data sources with which to make estimates.
While the global Covid-19 pandemic has overwhelmed governments and citizens around the world in all kinds of ways many of the challenges they had at the start of 2020 are still very much present.
In a video interview recorded in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, philanthropist Melinda Gates voiced what many with an interest in Africa were thinking.
One of the well-known clichés of the music business is the tension between record labels and their artists. That’s sometimes because while the few successful artists get all the glory, few labels are ever recognized as anything other than a corporate entity. This is even more so in the streaming age.
Ghanaian startup mPharma, which manages prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their suppliers, has raised $17 million in its latest funding round and announced the appointment to its board of Helena Foulkes, former president of CVS, the largest pharmacy retail chain in the United States.
Over the last few weeks, rumors—and then a few stories—have emerged that the long-expected implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement due on July 1 would be delayed for up to a year while the continent deals with an unprecedented economic crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“That the current uptick in Nigeria’s economy relies largely on its oil sector puts its chances of lasting at risk.”
Tony Allen has died at 79 in Paris according to reports. Allen was the drummer behind the syncopated drumming that breathed rhythmic life into Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat genre blend of big band jazz, funk and traditional African music formats.
