NEWS

Around Africa in seven stories…

TECHNOLOGY

AFRICA’S GAMING CULTURE LEVELS UP

AFRICA’S LARGEST GATHERING of game developers and players has taken place at the annual Africa Games Week in Cape Town. Avid game enthusiasts such as Alexander Poone had the opportunity to celebrate and show off their latest creations at the exciting hybrid event.

South Africa boasts the largest gaming market across the continent, with a rapidly rising 40 percent now obsessively playing in some form. A further spike is expected with an estimated high of one billion gamers across Africa within the next five years.

Traditional barriers to the African gaming market are gradually being broken down, with issues such as poor infrastructure, as well as unpredictable electricity and telecoms vastly improving in recent years. There is a high demand for African-made content on a developmental level, and experts believe this is the last untapped consumer audience in the gaming world.

ECONOMY

THE GIG ECONOMY RISES IN SOUTH AFRICA

IN THE CONSTANTLY evolving modern world, we are slowly seeing the decline of the typical ‘9 to 5’ jobs, where you clock in and clock out five days a week. In the face of such global challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic, this outdated structure’s

AGRICULTURE

COCKROACH FARMING FLYING INTO FASHION

DESPITE NOT BEING a huge crowd pleaser in the animal kingdom, and the less than hygienic reputation they carry, cockroaches are being declared as Africa’s “new oil” as insect farming is on the rise across the continent.

This tiny downtrodden creature could provide future solutions to poverty, hunger, and economic struggles all over Africa. They contain surprisingly great nutritional value and are one of 18 species of insect identified as suitable for mass farming. Requiring only scraps of waste to feed on, there is huge potential to this market, as some farmers in Tanzania have already discovered. Daniel Rwehura is a pioneering frontrunner in cockroach farming. Selling each kilo for five euros, he commented in a report by Africa news that he considers the insects his new goldmine.

gradual decline has been rapidly sped up.

To combat mass unemployment across South Africa, the Temporary Employment Services (TES) provide the perfect retaliation to this crisis. Therefore, the more adaptable and risk free ‘gig economy’ is being embraced nationwide by businesses looking to avoid being tethered to giant permanent workforces.

TECHNOLOGY

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) CENTRE OPENS IN CONGO

THE VERY FIRST AI centre for research in Africa has been impressively inaugurated in Congo. The nation’s Prime Minister H.E. Anatole Collinet Makosso recently opened the ground-breaking new facility in the capital of Brazzaville. This research centre for AI, the first of its kind in the continent, will undertake cutting edge research in AI technology by channelling its focus through a human centred approach.

Congo will now act as a regional hub of development for the deepest possible pool of AI focused talent, with Agenda 2063 as the master plan for evolving Africa into a technological powerhouse of the future.

neighbouring countries, and such concerns will not be realised. This giant project will eventually cost $5 billion once complete.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous nation, whilst also having the continent’s second largest electricity deficit. This project aims to tackle that issue and to provide light for 60 percent of the population that are currently enduring darkness.

ENERGY & UTILITIES

ETHIOPIA TURNS ON NILE HYDROPOWER PLANT

A MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR HYDROPOWER plant has begun producing electricity in Ethiopia. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is set to become the biggest of its kind in Africa.

Situated on the Nile, the dam neighbours both Egypt and Sudan and has previously raised concerns of a water shortage further downstream, for those nations that depend heavily on the Nile’s waters. However, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reiterated that the dam will eventually aim to export some of its production of electricity to these

FINANCE

Mastercard and CIH Pay launches in Morocco

AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT of CIH Pay in Morocco earlier in 2022, the CIH bank and Mastercard have hosted a launch event to celebrate the innovatory new mobile payment method. It will now be possible for upwards of 1.7 million cardholders to effortlessly digitise their existing bank cards, in order to make direct purchases through their mobile devices. This advance in technology circumnavigates the need for a physical bank card for Morocco’s consumers.

The lavish unveiling took place at the spectacular Sofitel Tour Blanche Casablanca, where a selection of the nation’s top comedians, musicians and entertainers provided a memorable show for the influencers and key partners in attendance.

This comes as CIH Pay’s latest advance in the extension of its omnichannel strategy to enhance the user experience (UX).

TRANSPORT

Clean mobility progressing in Kenya

AIR POLLUTION HAS been a major problem in Nairobi in recent years, with 5,000 premature deaths recorded in 2019 alone. However Swedish-Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer Opibus is at work to reduce the smog and convert the city’s many motorcycles with traditional combustion engines into electric bikes. These will prove to be extremely beneficial in terms of road safety, financial saving, fuel efficiency and preventing high maintenance cost.

Electric buses have additionally started to operate in Nairobi as Kenya makes progressive leaps towards a greener, safer economy and transport infrastructure.