Zambians head to the polls on 12 August amid mounting economic challenges, reports of election-related political violence and Covid-19. With nineteen candidates vying for the presidency, is the incumbent President Edgar Lungu on his way out?
How easy is it to start a business on the continent? For many costs of starting a business are always as hindrance and a recent report by Business financing UK highlights this. With wide gaps from Equatorial Guinea’s $2,322 to Rwanda were it is free to open up a business, this episode unpacks the different…
Ghana recently launched a Toyota assembly plant making it the second auto assembly plant in the country in less than a year. With the assembly unit boasting a $7 million investment with annual production capacity of around 1,330 units, is Africa beginning to cash in on its ‘youth dividend’?
(This is a transcript of the podcast posted on Monday, July 5th 2021. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/1655965/8814901) Welcome to The Weekly Beat by Mansa with your hosts, Arnold Segawa, Maggie Mutesi, and Dumi Jere. Giving you all the info on Africa’s big finance and economic stories, The…
Global remittances to sub-Saharan Africa slumped by 12.5% to $42 billion in 2020 from $48 billion in 2019 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report by the World Bank and Knomad reveals. The decline has been attributed to movement restrictions introduced in most countries around the world and a rise in unemployment…
South Sudan is looking to boost oil production and build local refineries as part of a sweeping government effort to revive an economy battered by years of war and a global pandemic. Oil production, which accounts for nearly all of government revenues, has plummeted and according to Bol Ring Mourwel, managing director of state-owned Nile…
Africa’s smartphone market rebounded strongly in the first quarter of 2021 following a difficult year characterized by the coronavirus pandemic, a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) indicates. The continent’s smartphone sales rose by 16.8% to 23.4 million units in the first three months of the year compared to a similar period in 2020….
It’s crunch time for loss making Air Namibia with the government due to make a decision on the fate of the carrier in the coming days, following stunning revelations it cannot adequately fund its turnaround nor find any investors. Namibia’s Minister of Finance and Chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Treasury, Ipumbu Shiimi, in a…
TheWorld Bank has announced that sub-Saharan African economies will contract by3.5% in 2020 owing to the coronavirus crisis. Thepandemic could also reverse recent economic gains and push 40 million people inthe continent into extreme poverty. Thismarks the region’s first economic recession in 25 years. Accordingto the World Bank, economic growth in the region will recover…
Africa’s creative industry is currently steeped in uncertainty. The creative world and artists, whose work thrives on human interaction, have taken a serious hit from the current global health crisis and pandemic. Of course, any crisis carries hidden opportunities, and this is no exception. But time and patience are necessary for these to manifest in…
The rapid advancement of technology and internet penetration has seen regular independent contract work evolve to produce some of the biggest technology companies of our era, making up what is known as the gig economy. The gig economy is described as a free and global market system where organisations and independent workers engage in short-term…
The Great Lockdown will go down in history as an economic depression only comparable to that of the Great Depression, except this time no economists or market commentators saw it coming. Unlike the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis where bells were rung, such as the University of Chicago’s Raghuram Rajan’s paper warning that the financial system…
In Rwanda, at the onset of the pandemic, the empty Kigali Arena stood as a symbol of the country’s abrupt slide from normalcy. President Paul Kagame cut the ribbon to mark the opening of the monumental 10,000 seat arena in August of 2019. “This arena is not just a decoration to be visited on Christmas…
Across the world it is hard to find any aspect of life and industry that has not been affected by the devastating spread of the novel Coronavirus. Across the African continent, over 42 countries have issued varying degrees of lockdown measures thwarting movement and activities to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The healthcare sector is…
Amadou Gallo Fall graduated magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia. While at the university he played centre on the basketball team. After finishing his degree, Fall thrived on other merits such as excellent interpersonal skills to secure his place at the NBA as an administrator. He worked for the Dallas…
If you type Africa in Google Image search, the results will show you silhouetted figures of two giraffes or perhaps an elephant set against a crimson sunset across the savanna: a tired, quintessential Western stereotype that has been misused to sum up the continent’s vast and diverse terrains. For months now the stereotyped, yet majestic,…
Life across the continent has fundamentally changed, possibly for a very long time. In this brand-new world a trip to the grocery store, once so harmless and carefree, now elicits paranoia and distrust. Touching or being too close to someone has become unthinkable. With COVID-19 lurking everywhere, we are keeping our distance. In sectors such…
With the rise in COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, hospitals are embracing telemedicine to keep their business going as patients stay away from their facilities due to risks associated with contacts. There has been a rise in remote consultation while tech companies in the country are rising the challenge of plugging the gap with telemedicine services.
Domestic flights re-opened in Nigeria and despite hike in flight costs, flyers trooped out to travel to different destinations across the country after over three months of flight and inter-station travel restrictions.
Covid-19 has battered the world economy. Many industries are reeling, but one shining light is E-commerce. We spoke with Nielsen Africa MD Bryan Sun to find out if companies on the continent are capitalising.