Zambia provides model for how Africa can use Artificial Intelligence to address challenges of urbanization
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Zambia provides model for how Africa can use Artificial Intelligence to address challenges of urbanization

With cities and towns expanding every day, African governments are looking to collect geospatial information that could assist in prioritizing goals, from basic service delivery to ambitious infrastructure plans. Geospatial information contains location information, and uses artificial intelligence and aerial or satellites to enable information about cities to be linked together based on their shared…

Africa must rethink debt accumulation
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Africa must rethink debt accumulation

Even before the coronavirus pandemic swept through the continent, African countries were rapidly raising their debt ceilings. Heads of State flocked to China, as the world’s second largest economy granted loans at will, with little, if any, preconditions. Faced with a first recession in 30 years, the continent’s appetite for debt hasn’t receded. In fact…

Why Eritrea is turning to cactus
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Why Eritrea is turning to cactus

Decades of isolation and authoritarian rule have strangled Eritrea’s economic progress, and now the government is encouraging large-scale cultivation of cactus to help alleviate the human suffering and, in the future, increase export revenues. Cactus is believed to have originated from Central America. Spanish conquerors acknowledged the presence of prickly pears (beles) as soon as…

Nigerian fintechs are booming, despite government crackdowns
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Nigerian fintechs are booming, despite government crackdowns

(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, August 23th, 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://open.spotify.com/episode/65EOEkIMxmHoqG8veXjMHe?si=ma3YD4a5RWeUomTFiP9ycw&dl_branch=1&nd=1) DUMI JERE: Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Weekly Beat. My name is Dumi Jere, and I’m coming to you from South Africa. And with…

Election of a new president in Zambia is sparking an economic revival
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Election of a new president in Zambia is sparking an economic revival

Zambia’s currency (kwacha) has become the world’s best-performing currency since Hakainde Hichilema was announced the winner of the August 12 presidential poll. The value of the kwacha rose by 7.8% this week to 17.92 against the U.S. dollar, the best performance out of more than 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It’s rally wiped out the…

Malawi shows why African countries must rethink offering tax incentives for multinationals
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Malawi shows why African countries must rethink offering tax incentives for multinationals

For years, economists have called on African governments to offer tax incentives to global firms as a way of boosting foreign direct investment (FDI). Countries such as Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Bangladesh are touted as examples of why this model works, despite their different underlying contexts. Nevertheless, Malawi tried this framework in its entirety,…

Nigeria’s Central Bank cracks down on fintech startups
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Nigeria’s Central Bank cracks down on fintech startups

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been given the greenlight by a Federal High Court in Abuja to freeze the accounts of Nigerian investment-tech companies Bamboo, Chaka, Risevest and Trove. The order is limited to six months pending investigations to be carried out by the bank. CBN had sought temporary freezing of the bank…

Explained: How Nigeria’s digital currency will work
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Explained: How Nigeria’s digital currency will work

In June, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that it will launch its digital currency by the end of 2021, with a pilot scheme running from October 1st. Digital currencies are not a new phenomenon. They are becoming increasingly popular as a response to the global rise of digital payment solutions. The rise of…

This is how Malawi’s economy defied the pandemic
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This is how Malawi’s economy defied the pandemic

Last year was a difficult one for economies across the world due to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one landlocked African country did remarkably defy the trend through a combination of prudent leadership and trade with a neighbor that also recorded positive growths. Malawi’s economy grew by 0.9% in 2020. Only one…

SADC adopts new cross-border payment system
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SADC adopts new cross-border payment system

Trading in Southern Africa is set to become faster and easier, following the introduction of the region’s first cross-border e-payment solutions that taps into a market characterized by inaccessible formal banking systems. BankservAfrica, a Johannesburg-based clearing firm, is behind the establishment of the project dubbed Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB). TCIB allows for…

How mobile money made Kenya the top e-commerce market in Africa
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How mobile money made Kenya the top e-commerce market in Africa

Mpesa is a word ingrained in every Kenyan’s lingua franca. The mobile money service that was founded in 2007, and run by telecommunication giants Safaricom, is a force of nature that has led the country to top the world in this sector. It is this dominance that has in turn fuelled the rise of another…

Zambia urgently needs an economic revolution. But are elections worth the hassle?
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Zambia urgently needs an economic revolution. But are elections worth the hassle?

 (This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, August 9th, 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/1655965/8988981) ARNOLD SEGAWA: Greetings and welcome to this edition of Mansa’s The Weekly Beat, I’m Arnold Segawa joining you from Johannesburg, and Maggie Mutesi I think you’re in Cape Verde this…

Africa’s first black-owned car maker is expanding to Namibia
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Africa’s first black-owned car maker is expanding to Namibia

Mureza, a car manufacturer whose story transcends borders, will begin sales in the Namibian market next month after a successful release of its first batch of units in Zimbabwe and South Africa a fortnight ago. Mureza was founded by Tendai Mungofa, a Zimbabwean national based in South Africa, and the company aims to create a…

Explained: Why young people want to “fix” Africa’s top gold producer
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Explained: Why young people want to “fix” Africa’s top gold producer

Thousands of Ghanaians descended on the streets of the capital Accra on Wednesday, demanding President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration do more to create jobs for the youth, bring down the cost of living and improve healthcare and education standards. The demonstrations, peaceful in nature, were held under the slogan #FixTheCountry. Youthful protesters dressed in red and…

This new form of investment was worth $3.3 Trillion in 2020. Here’s why it is growing.
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This new form of investment was worth $3.3 Trillion in 2020. Here’s why it is growing.

As economies worldwide were struck down by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, a new form of investment, fuelled by climate change and social activism, gained ground. The term impact investing has been around for a decade now, but its crescendo only arrived in 2020, according to a report released by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)….

Ghana eyes $1.7B loan to acquire oil and gas assets
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Ghana eyes $1.7B loan to acquire oil and gas assets

In May, Exxon Mobil pulled out of an offshore project in Ghana, hurting its nascent oil and gas sector. The move was part of a wider push to reduce carbon emissions by the American multinational, but it subsequently forced the government to draft a new investment plan that will accelerate oil and gas exploration by…

How can an entrepreneur survive and thrive in Africa?
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How can an entrepreneur survive and thrive in Africa?

(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, August 2nd 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/1655965/8924559) ARNOLD SEGAWA: A warm welcome to this edition of Mansa’s The Weekly Beat. As always we’re joined by Dumi Jere and Maggie Mutesi. How are you doing guys? Let me…

Burundi leaves behind Eritrea as Africa’s last remaining vaccine denier
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Burundi leaves behind Eritrea as Africa’s last remaining vaccine denier

Burundi has accepted the World Bank’s offer to deliver COVID-19 vaccines into the country, a remarkable reversal that has now left Eritrea as the only Africa country without such a plan. “Anyone who wants will be vaccinated,” Health Minister Thaddee Ndikumana told a presser. “We have accepted the request of the World Bank to avail…

Why Nigeria banned sales of foreign exchange to currency traders
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Why Nigeria banned sales of foreign exchange to currency traders

The Central Bank of Nigeria will no longer sell foreign exchange to Bureau Du Change operators, accusing the parallel market of becoming a conduit for illicit forex flows and graft. In announcing the move, the regulator said it will sell dollars and other foreign currencies directly to commercial banks, which have been mandated to sell…

Zimbabwe’s economic resurgence continues as inflation hits record low
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Zimbabwe’s economic resurgence continues as inflation hits record low

Despite battling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe’s economic resilience was on show as government authorities released data on inflation and economic growth this week. According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZNSA), consumer prices climbed 56.37% from a year earlier, compared with 106.6% in June. The last time the Southern African nation’s inflation…