DAWN

N

DAW

AFRICA and the

METAVERSE March-April 2022

pages 22 77 94 98 101

CONTENTS - March-April 2022 4

Publisher's Message

Business 7 8

10 12 14 18 Black Mountain

47 20 22 24 28 30

10 Small Skills That Add Up to Huge Success Offering Homestyle African Cuisine, Kune is Changing the Face of Kenya’s Food Delivery Sector Now is the Best Point in Time to Become an Entrepreneur Meet the Woman With an ‘Ubah Hot’ Spice for Life 5 Black USA Founders Working to Make the Financial System More Equitable 5 Ways Successful Black Women Entrepreneurs Navigate Their Way Through Negotiations Shopify Exec: The 4 Secrets of Successful Digital-First Companies The Memo: "Meet me in the Metaverse" What Fast Fashion Costs the World 4 Tips for Building a Following--and a Robust Revenue Stream--on TikTok Looking to the Future: Can we Make Supplier Diversity a Priority Post-Pandemic?

Development 32 Ubah Hot 12

34 38 40 41

42 46 46 47

Rwanda Taps into Deadly Lake Kivu for Compressed Natural Gas Dangote’s World Largest Refinery Spells a New Era for Africa Ethiopia’s Telco Battle will Take Place in the Mobile Money Arena 5G: Google’s Subsea Cable Lands in Togo President Kenyatta Welcomes UAE’s Plan to Establish an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre in Kenya Africans are Trying to Fix Wikipedia’s Language Problem — Quartz Africa Overseas Citi Exec Touts Commercial Bank Opps in Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya Ethiopia's Abiy Tells Banking Sector to get Ready for Foreign Competitors It is 30% of the Total Black Mountain That we Have Handed Over

Agriculture 48 Largest Refinery 34 2

March-April 2022

Ghana Launches $54.5M Climate Change Project to Rejuvenate Shea Farming

Pandemic-Health 50

Africa is on Track to Control Coronavirus DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

101

66

106

51 52 53

Pandemic, WHO Says Six African Countries to Kick Off mRNA Vaccines Production Moderna Announces First African Vaccine Facility in Kenya WHO Africa's 1st Woman Leader Helps Continent Fight COVID

Governance 57 58

59

60

62

66 67

How AI Helped Deliver Cash Aid to Many of the Poorest People in Togo Kenya Confronts Russia for Interfering with Ukraine's Sovereignty: "We Strongly Condemn the Trend" Dr. Joyce Banda Honorary Chair of Women Empowerment & Development Society in Asia-Africa In Southern Africa, Leveling the Playing Field at Birth Critical to Reducing Inequality, Intergenerational Poverty 3 Things to Know About Climate Change Hurting Earth’s Inhabitants, and How to Deal With It Nigeria is Documenting its Citizens who Fled Ukraine to Bring Them Home African Refugees see Racial Bias as US Welcomes Ukrainians

Investment 70 72 73 74 76 77 78

3

African Stock Exchange/Bourse Equity Alliance Raises $28.6M to Invest in Woman-Led, Minority-Led Venture Funds The Continent is a Natural Home For Startups Black-led VC Fund Aims to Even the Playing Field for Minority Health-tech Startups China has Invested More in Africa than the Other Top Eight Lenders Combined JP Morgan is First Bank to Enter the Metaverse with a Virtual 'Onyx Lounge' Moody’s has Bought a Leading African Rating Agency: Why It’s Bad News March-April 2022

80 82

84 85

Africa’s Tech Media are Plotting to be as Influential as the Startups They Cover DSW Parent Company Invests $2M in America's First Black-Owned Footwear Factory in Partnership With Dr. Edwards Debut Capital Launches Investor-In-Residence Program with an Class of Women Athletes 6 African Women CEOs Discuss How They Raised more than $1M in 2021

Technology/Science 87 88 90 92 94 98 101 104

Find the Best Free Zoom Backgrounds Newly Devised Human Family Tree Reveals the 'Genealogy of Everyone' Female Scientists in Africa are Changing the Face of their Continent When Your Boss Becomes a Hologram Explain the ‘Metaverse’ to Your Grandparents African Metaverse Ubuntuland Launches How Fortnite Can Help Prepare Your Business for the Metaverse What You Need to Respond to the Google Page Experience Update in 2022

Lifestyle/Culture 106 107 110 114 115 116

Kelly Curtis is the First Black U.S. Skeleton Racer to Compete in Olympics Black-Owned KweliTV is Bringing Authenticity & Access to Streaming Pritzker Prize 2022: Francis Kéré Becomes First African to Win 'Nobel of Architecture' Want to Visit Space? Send Your Name on NASA’s Next Mission Around the Moon Amazon’s Africa Headquarters may be put on Hold Over Indigenous People’s Concerns Brit Designer Appointed as Salvatore Ferragamo Creative Director

History 118

Michael Twitty Creates a New Kind of Garden at Colonial Williamsburg, USA

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Publisher's Message

Ricky Katsuya Publisher's Message

THANK YOU for taking the time to read this edition of Afrca Business Association's Dawn for April 2022.

We have a special guest writer (page 5) by the name Kayla Iriza. Kayla is in grade 8 at Wellspring Academy in Kigali, Rwanda.

We are excited to start featuring our next generation of writers and leaders.

Along with welcoming the new, the Dawn team strives to place before you current content that we hope will entice you to reach out, reach in, join in, give support to or vigorously block. Let us know if our content is of value to you and your endeavors.

Ricky Katsuya, Publisher/President dawn@africabusinessassociation.org aba@africabisinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Kayla Iriza Guest Editorial

We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to: dawn@africabusinessassociation.org.

Awakening the African Giant Within 4

March-April 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Guest Editorial

HOMEWORK SHMOMEWORK omework is one of the hardest parts of school. Exhausted from a whole day of lectures after lectures and

BOOM!

You realise that you have a HUGE pile of homework.

Some of us just stare at it and wonder what we did to God to deserve this. Others cry for help and a large number of us just ignore it but few people do it.

Even though homework isn’t exactly fun, it is very helpful as it helps us understand and grasp what we learnt in school.

Take football for example, when you have a match coming up and the coach has taught you a new technique you will have to practice right?

So homework is like a practice session for a new technique you learnt in school. And the more you practice the more you are ready for the match (exam).

Tips On Doing Your Homework 1. Organize Yourself The first thing you should do is organize yourself. Write down when each homework is due and how much time it will take you. This will help you know which homework to start with.

2. Start Doing Your Homework After organizing yourself you should start doing your homework. Start with the homework that is due the next day but if they are all due the next day start with the homework that takes a short amount of time. This way even if you don’t finish all of them at least you did some.

5

March-April 2022

3. Never Procrastinate One thing that is illegal to do if you want to finish your homework is procrastination. If you procrastinate you will never be able to finish your homework on time because you will always postpone it. This will make you end up having a lot to do and very little time to do it.

Advice from Students Start doing homework when you receive it. Don't trust yourself to do it at home; there are many distractions.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

About the

Africa Business Association The Africa Business Association is an independent international business development organization. We offer access to the latest resources, information, and best practices in advocacy and communications for the African Diaspora and the African entrepreneurs in Africa.

We work to help you have access to news and events as starting points for constructive conversations and calls to action. We seek to cut through the froth of the political spin cycle to underlying truths and values. We want to be so focused on progress that together we can provide a credible and constructive generation of Africans that take seriously our previous generations and act upon all their wishes, our hopes and aspirations to make lasting change for all future generations.

6

March-April 2021

Africa Business Association

"DAWN"

PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Ricky Katsuya

ADVISORY BOARD

Earl 'Skip' Cooper, II, CEO, Black Business Association H.E. Sheila Siwela, Ambassador H.E. Kone L. Tanou, Ambassador

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ricky Katsuya

LAYOUT/TYPESETTING Lion Communications

AFRICA BUSINESS ASSOCIATION NEWS 6564 LOISDALE COURT, SUITE 600 Springfield, VA 22150 USA 1-240-467-6811 aba@africabisinessassociation.org dawn@africabusinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Copyright © 2022

by Africa Business Association News All Rights Reserved.

The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

Image credits: Cover-broadcastmediaafrica.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

10 Small Skills That Can Add Up to Huge Success

By Jessica Stillman

Thanks to the magic of compounding returns, you don't need to be a superstar to achieve incredible things, this VC argues.

What's True for Money is True for Skills.

EINSTEIN IS OFTEN quoted as saying compound interest is the "most powerful force in the universe."

That story is likely apocryphal, but the underlying truth behind the sentiment is undeniable. Modest investments with small rates of return can add up to huge payoffs over time (just like small debts at usurious rates can ruin your life).

And what's true for money is true for skills, VC Morgan Housel argued on his consistently thoughtprovoking blog recently. "It's tempting to want to find the one big skill that will set you apart. But most incredible things come from compounding, and compounding isn't intuitive because the incremental inputs are never exciting on their own," he writes.

Launching rockets and winning Oscars grab headlines because big, rare skills are sexy.

Smaller skills are less sexy, but honed over time and combined with other humble-but-useful skills, they can still add up to huge success. And this type of skill is far more achievable for most of us mere mortals.

What are some examples? Housel offers a long list, but here are 10 to get you started (links are mine and point to more information on the value of the skill or how to develop it): 1. Curiosity across disciplines, most of which are outside your profession. (Steve Jobs agreed on the value of this one.)

7

March-April 2022

2. A well-calibrated sense of your future regret.

(Recommended by Jeff Bezos) 3. Respecting luck as much as you respect risk.

4. Low susceptibility to FOMO. 5. A sensitive bullsh*t detector.

6. Valuing your independence over someone else's priorities.

7. Respecting history more than forecasts.

8. Thinking in probabilities vs. certainties, including the idea that a good decision can result in a bad outcome and vice versa.

9. Quitting while you're ahead before you've exhausted or outgrown what made you successful.

10. Getting along with people you disagree with.

The world is full of bad news and reasons to feel discouraged. Housel's post is a nice tonic to counter feelings of being inadequate and overwhelmed. You don't need to be a genius to make substantial contributions to the world. You just need to doggedly and thoughtfully cultivate a personal portfolio of relatively uncommon but useful skills.

And if that isn't enough to buck you up, I leave you with Housel's encouraging closing words: "Most things that look like superpowers are just a bunch of ordinary skills mixed together at the right time." www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/10small-skills-that-can-add-up-to-huge-success/arAATPa5H Source: www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/skillbuilding-morgan-housel.html Image credit: famouscutouts.com DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Offering Homestyle African Cuisine, Kune is Changing the Face of Kenya’s Food Delivery Sector

By John Njiraini

NAIROBI IS WITNESSING an explosion of lastmile food and grocery delivery. For employees in offices and families at home, ordering a meal has become commonplace.

One issue, however, is lack of choice. “People have been ordering fast food because they don’t have an option,” Faith Mwendia, managing director of Kune, told AFN. In recent months, the Kenyan food delivery startup has been researching the market. It learned that a majority of office workers want a homemade, well-balanced meal that comes at an affordable price rather than fast food. But no-one was offering such a service at scale.

“We saw a big gap in last-mile delivery of tasty African cuisine. This is a market we want to serve,” Mwendia said.

In January, Kune began commercial operations after investing in tech-driven facilities that give it “total control” of the supply chain from sourcing and cooking to ordering and delivery.

Last year it raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from investors including Launch Africa, Century Oak Capital, and Pariti that was used to develop technological capabilities including online and mobile apps, hire employees, grow its network of local suppliers, and construct an operations hub including a kitchen and packaging facility.

8

March-April 2022

It’s now in the midst of raising a seed round to increase production capacity and build a national footprint over the next two years, before embarking on Africa-wide expansion.

As an early entrant, Kune sees vast opportunity in offering Kenyans “fresher and healthier” meal options at affordable prices (its meals sell for around $3 each on average.)

‘We’re a company that champions local’ A 2020 analysis by market insights firm Fitch Solutions showed that Kenya’s food delivery sector is primed for rapid expansion, driven by consumers and businesses adjusting their behavior due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a growing middle class, and high internet penetration rates.

Other factors include significant growth in the use of mobile digital payments, a road network that is well developed and well-connected, and a thriving and vibrant industry around motorcycle taxis — colloquially known as ‘boda-boda’ by the local population — that’s “well-positioned to pivot their services towards the growing demand for last mile delivery solutions,” notes the Fitch analysis.

This conducive environment has given rise to a flourishing sector, with firms like Uber Eats, Jumia Food, Glovo, Bolt Food, and Yum among others championing its growth.

Kune has come in with a totally different concept.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

“We are a homegrown company that champions local: working with local suppliers, and building on local recipes,” Mwendia said.

Though sourcing is currently done through middlemen, Kune intends to eventually bring on board contracted farmers: a development that will mean more earnings for small-scale primary producers.

And, unlike other food delivery firms, Kune has opted not to invest in a fleet of motorcycles.

Instead, it has decided to plug into existing mobility networks like those run by Glovo, Bolt, and Uber.

“We want to concentrate on our core business of cooking tasty foods for our customers,” Mwendia says.

Via its online platform and mobile app, every customer order is processed within five minutes and automatically allocated to one of a pool of around 100 riders. Delivery is guaranteed within 30 minutes. “The ability to use technology to control the entire supply chain makes our meals affordable,” states Mwendia.

The company is in the process of integrating USSD for customers without smartphones.

She adds that Kune is offering opportunities for university students to earn by doing bicycle deliveries. This enables the startup to live up to its promise of delivering orders within 30 minutes, despite the often unbearable traffic that characterizes Kenya’s capital.

is now delivering over 400 meals a day across Nairobi, and expects to grow that to 1,000 meals per day by the end of this quarter.

Apart from serving individual consumers, the startup has contracts with 10 corporate clients to provide meals for their employees; it’s targeting at least 30 more such contracts by the end of the year. This growth strategy includes the opening of four more distribution centers by December.

Kune has additionally entered into agreements with supermarkets where retail customers can buy its meals, and is exploring partnerships with office blocks to open canteens; the startup is also pioneering a new vending machine concept which is undergoing testing and configuration.

Mwendia said that Kune has invested heavily in research and development. It has a dedicated in-house team working on technology and menu advancement to meet the changing demands of customers.

And, conscious of the importance of sustainability and environmental protection, the startup has teamed up with a service provider that collects and recycles around 60% of its waste – which would otherwise typically be incinerated, adding to its carbon footprint.

Diversifying distribution channels Though only two months into operations, Kune

Image credit: pulselive.co.ke, worldbranddesign. com

9

March-April 2022

https://agfundernews.com/kune-is-changingthe-face-of-kenyas-food-delivery-sector-offeringhomestyle-african-cuisine

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Now is the Best Point in Time to Become an Entrepreneur

By Salvatore Buscemi

Today, it's not Many of the relevant industries and about making companies that we see now didn't even a new widget. exist 10 years ago.

WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE of the richest time in human history.

Half of the relevant industries and companies that we see now didn’t even exist just 10 years ago. It’s been transformative. Money moves faster now, and companies sell faster now.

And that wealth effect has transcended to millions of ordinary people globally have been beneficiaries just by standing in the wake of decentralized and digital commerce.

But deep below the surface, there is much more that’s happening. Looking back after two years, the pandemic was the catalyst for a lot of personal and societal changes.

The impact of the pandemic For professionals, the pandemic created a new movement initiated by the new work-from-home white-collar norms; this entrepreneurial class has formally splintered from the middle-class. For the motivated who wanted to start a business, they suddenly realized that it’s never been easier before in the history of humanity to start a business and generate revenue on your own.

Yesterday’s entrepreneurs had to worry about operating capital, getting started, finding clients and customers. To bring a product to market was expensive and one failure could wipe you out.

Today’s entrepreneurs can test messages, products and pictures on social media, get an immediate response and change course immediately. We see this with politicians more and more now, too.

10

March-April 2022

It's almost all about owning your media.

Case in point, one of the new entrants to NFL ownership happens to be hip-hop mogul Jay Z, and he got there by not being shy, nor by taking any company public.

Well, yet.

The middle class has a resume.

Entrepreneurs have a brand.

Media in general has been a tremendous wealth creator for most. Think about it: Owning your media is perhaps one of the easiest levers of socioeconomic mobility readily available to the poor and middle class. That’s very different than it was in the ’60s and ’70s. Back then, if you had a Ph.D. or an MD, that amounted to a much higher social status and that mobility was all but certain.

You were a professional, and that meant there was a market for your specialized skillset.

Which begs the question: Does this new entrepreneur class have a different set of values from the middle class that is left working in cubicle still working for a salary? Certainly. Because the entrepreneur has a brand, which is a function

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

of their value system. Their brand is their promise, and that is what drives the foundation for influencers today.

White-collar workers, on the other hand, don’t have a brand. They have a resume with limited skills that they’ve been pigeonholed into.

Influencers today have a higher status amongst their middle-class brothers and sisters because they control and monetize their media. Like a business. If you have 3.5 million followers on Instagram, then you’re monetizing that at any and every available moment you can. The skills are in the salesmanship, marketing and branding. If you find a way to

Using Web 3.0 as a proxy, it is easier to sell just about anything today than ever before.

Decentralization finance and other innovative structures are only going to make this even easier. Kids today will not be compelled to work in an office environment unless compelled by their parents’ aspirational ego, because those kids will look at white-collar middle management jobs in corporate America the same way we look at coal miners back in the 1920s: frightened, muted but much more indebted.

They say that there’s never a right time to start anything. While that’s true, today it's never been easier to create your own leverageable brand or business. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/418818 Image credit: Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/ pin/338403359472267895)

engage with people in a way that makes them want to pay you, that is a fundamental h u m a n transaction.

To these emerging and established entrepreneurs, the only math that matters is when it shows up in their bank Coal Miners, Virginia USA 1920 account.

11

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Meet the Woman with an ‘Ubah Hot’ Spice for Life

By Valentina Di Donato

UBAH HASSAN NEVER thought she would be an internationally acclaimed model becoming the face of Ralph Lauren, Macy’s, and countless globally recognized designers. Her latest venture has been to become an entrepreneur creating Ubah Hot, a hot sauce that elevates healthy food with African flavor.

Ubah is a Somalian-born, New York City-based model who eats healthy, most of the time. Like many food lovers who want to maintain health, she never wanted to compromise on flavor. “I didn’t want to eat steamed fish and steamed vegetables alone,” Ubah says. So to give food flavor without compromising health, she did what she grew up doing, “Somalians love hot sauce,” She chopped yellow pepper, tomatoes, and jalapeño, the gastronomic accessories that made her otherwise bland diet, delicious.

Creating the sauce was initially to fulfill a personal need: to spice up the bland model diet she ate by bringing a taste of her Somalian home to everyday meals, quickly and easily. Her friends couldn’t get enough of the sauce. “I made this hot sauce and would bring it to dinner and everyone would grab it and ask what it is, licking it and putting it on any and everything.” She quickly realized there was a business to be launched.

For the pallets that may have less spice tolerance, she decided to perfect a range of three recipes with different heat levels. The Yellow Tanzanite, made of habanero peppers is the hottest, Serrano Emerald has a more subtle flavor, similar to a Puerto Rican recaito from the cilantro and garlic base, and the Fresno Ruby is more like a sweet and mildly spicy condiment.

When I speak with Ubah, she joyously tells me the infinite ways to eat the sauces. The lady is a true gourmand. Mixed into mayonnaise and added to a toasted sourdough sandwich with sprouts, 12

March-April 2022

▲Ubah Hassan, founder of Ubah Hot GAVIN O'NEILL ►Ubah Hot Sauce GAVIN O'N

avocado, and a mountain of fresh arugula, or marinated with meats and fish, as a dip for sweet potatoes, a warming flavor base for a lentil soup.

Cooking with Ubah Hot, the possibilities are endless. Each of the three sauces has the mirepoix base of ingredients that makes recipes sing: onion, a pepper medley, and fresh spices. Besides tasting great and adding flavor to food, it helps solve the problem of shortening cooking time. Ubah Hot is more than a traditional hot sauce, it's thicker, acting like a flavor base mirepoix that takes the hard work of chopping a medley of ingredients.

“The peppers come from California and Texas, our tomatoes come from Italy and California. But during the pandemic, we couldn’t be picky,” says Ubah of what is arguably an internationally sourced hot sauce that is uniquely African in flavor.

“When we got selected to be on Oprah’s Favorite Things, we didn’t have enough inventory. Some of my suppliers said there is no way for us to come up with what you need by September. This order should have been made 6 months in advance. But DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

NEILL

now with the pandemic, you double that. I said I will come myself and cook the sauce,” explains Ubah about the complex supply chain issues the pandemic has brought on for countless businesses.

When Ubah decided to enter the hot sauce world, a business that is in rapid growth and expected to reach 4.38 USD Billion by 2028, she did not initially realize how complicated, male dominant, and difficult it would be. Yet, her resilience to push forward and make it happen was in large part due to how she was raised. She tells me how seeing her mother build strong human connections which ultimately helped her mother build a sustainable farming business was not only a masterclass in how to conduct business but how to be in life.

“Each time I heard someone say, ‘It can’t be done,’ I would figure out another way to get it done,” she says. This would often mean doing it herself. “I made boxes, affixing labels, packing jars to meet impossible deadlines.” She also gives credit to the director of contract manufacturing of a large yogurt company by helping to negotiate an industry deal. The director even told Ubah that “'this can be a case study for Harvard business school.' It’s incredible when a man can credit a woman like this,” she explains about the formidable friendships and connections she built that helped her grow as a business woman.

To know Ubah as an entrepreneur that is hungry for life - and hot sauce - you must understand her background and the profound impact her mother’s example had on her. “The freedom and confidence I have come from my mom. She never wore makeup in her life, she did not do things to impress people. She was very real and human. Growing up, my mother had a corn farm in Somalia, she didn’t have money to pay people up front, so she would pay people by credit. And people would line 13

March-April 2022

up to work for her on credit because of how she treated them. I learned then that people don’t want to work just for money, they also want to work in a particular place because of how they are treated.

She always made sure to help the families, she knew all of the workers, she created a sense of community,” explains Ubah. That attitude of connecting with people has created an impressive network of people that have helped Ubah with their expertise in her launch. She did not grow up with those connections because of family ties, she herself built them through family teaching.

Ubah and her family left their home in Somalia for new opportunities in Canada and that was when Ubah’s next chapter began. In a Canadian park, she was discovered by a scout and her modeling career was launched. She became a photographer favorite, working with the iconic Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia. The story was almost prophetically named “Soul Kitchen” for the first Italian Vogue all-Black Issue.

The infectious personality and warmth of Ubah are even grander than her glamour. When speaking with her over the phone, you feel her spice for life, her love of sharing trade secrets and recipes that will keep you looking good but also taste delicious.

I started to understand that she wanted to share a taste of Africa, her home that gave her so much during her formative years, with Americans and the world beyond.

“African food has so much flavor. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner - it's all flavor. African cuisine is not known in the states. The continent is so far away that it just hasn’t been brought, single ingredients are known, but not the entire cuisine.”

The resource wealth of Africa has been known for centuries, globally known for the rich array of commodities that the land has - but now - we can taste the traditions by way of a finished product that is uniquely African in spirit and flavor.

"We can have flavor without the preservatives.

It's a multi-use gourmet hot sauce, a culinary symphony that takes any ordinary meal or dish and elevates it. Ubah Hot makes anyone a gourmand while saving time in the kitchen,” says Ubah. www.forbes.com/sites/ valentinadidonato/2022/02/01/meet-the-womanwith-an-ubah-hot-spice-for-life DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

5 Black USA Founders Working to Make the Financial System More Equitable

By Gabrielle Bienasz

GROWING UP, DENNIS CAIL didn't have any banks in his Monroe, Louisiana, neighborhood. He saw payday lenders charge his father and uncle, who both worked at the local paper mill, 30% fees to cash their checks, plus exorbitant interest rates if they needed to borrow money. So after a career in M&A advisory, Cail decided to try to remedy these all-too-common issues--and help people pay their bills.

In 2018 he started Dallas-based Zirtue, a fintech platform that helps people lend money to family or friends at a 0% interest rate for loans with a term of less than one year, or 5% for longerterm loans. Peerto-peer lending, which accounts for an estimated $184 billion annually, can be applied to any expense. So Zirtue structures lending agreements between friends and family members and automates the repayment process, making it easier for its individual customers to pay their bills and for its corporate customers to collect payments. When you arrange to borrow money from a family member to pay your heating bill, for example, Zirtue's new service sends the funds directly to the energy company. The app "helps keep the lights on, the car running," Cail says.

Starting in February, customers who use Zirtue to borrow money to cover a bill will also have access to a bank account and debit card.

Cail is one of a wave of Black entrepreneurs attempting to address the racial wealth gap and build more equitable access to financial services.

According to the Federal Reserve, in 2019 the typical White family in the U.S. had eight times the wealth of the typical Black family. "Less wealth means Black Americans are underrepresented

14

March-April 2022

in the market for financial products and services," states a 2020 report from McKinsey.

Here are four more Black founders who aim to fix that.

1. Kelly Ifill, Guava Brooklyn, New York-based Guava helps Black-owned businesses bank and build community, and has plans to offer assistance with access to lower-barrier loans. Founder and CEO Kelly Ifill grew up in a family of immigrants and entrepreneurs in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood. She had a job in venture capital but quit to start Guava when she saw how hard the pandemic hit Black-owned businesses. (Guava wasn't her first startup--she had previously co-founded a venture firm, Seneca Network, to help diverse founders get capital.)

"I am trying to enact change for people I love and care deeply about, she says. "And that's hard." She's taken on a huge issue: the lack of access to startup capital Black business owners often have. The average Black-owned startup has $500 in outside equity upon founding, compared with $18,500 for a typical White-owned business, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Guava has raised $500,000 to date, and in mid-January completed an invite-only launch. Ifill hopes to have a couple thousand users by the end of the year and be able to lend to small businesses on the platform by early 2023.

2. Craig J. Lewis, Gig Wage Gig Wage makes it easier for companies to get money to gig workers, with instant payment options and easy integration into company software. "Our vision is to be financial infrastructure for the gig economy," says founder and CEO Craig J. Lewis,

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

pointing out that Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely than Whites to do gig work. Formerly a payroll technology executive, Lewis founded the Dallas-based company in 2014. The hardest part, he says, was getting funding.

The company now has almost 300 enterprise customers and has garnered more than $15 million in capital, but things only got moving when Lewis swapped traditional venture firms for corporate venture. Austin-based Green Dot, which among other things provides financial products to low and middle-income families, led Gig Wage's Series A round. It was a good fit. Lewis grew up with those products. His dad was a contractor, so he intimately understood the importance of getting paid quickly when it came to building Gig Wage.

"I've lived this," he says. This is who I am."

to-reach residents. In response, the company created new partnerships to reach customers, first with the city of Honolulu to distribute COVID relief funds and later with Los Angeles, Birmingham, and New Orleans. When people start using MoCaFi to receive payments from government programs--no social security number needed--they can also open a bank account, and access the platform's other products, including rent reporting to credit bureaus to improve their credit scores, cash back rewards for shopping with local Black-owned businesses, and private coaching and documentation support for purchasing a home.

4. Ashley M. Fox, Empify

There's plenty of information about how to build wealth to be found through Google, but that's not enough help for many people, according to Ashley M. Fox, CEO of Empify, a financial education technology company based in 3. Wole Coaxum, Mobility Capital Philadelphia. "It's Finance (MoCaFi) Wole Coaxum, a former J.P. Morgan executive, about someone saying you can do this, we can founded New York City-based Mobility Capital do this, and I'm going to be here by your side," Finance (MoCaFi) in 2015 to help provide says Fox, who prior to founding the company was access to banking for underserved communities, an analyst at J.P. Morgan and a financial adviser. in addition to other financial services. He was Empify--the name is a portmanteau of empower motivated by the protests of the killing of Michael and modify--got its first contract in 2017, with Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. "You have to have, the Philadelphia school district, to teach wealthin my mind, an economic justice plan that goes building skills. It now has partnered with more along with a social justice plan," Coaxum says. than 75 school districts, companies, and other Eventually, he came to realize that it's one thing organizations.

Empify's classes typically focus on subjects like to build a service to help people get banked-brokerages and annuities, and help people develop nearly half of Black households are unbanked or mindsets that support wealth-building, Fox says.

"It's really about changing how you see money in America," she says. "My students think being rich in America means being a Caucasian man in a trenchcoat." The company also has developed an app and courses for adults, and aims to integrate underbanked, according to McKinsey--but it's an its courses into school systems all over the world in common core curricula. entirely other issue to persuade people to use it.

Things shifted in 2020 when the Bedfordwww.inc.com/gabrielle-bienasz/black-foundersStuyvesant Restoration Corporation, a local financial-equity-wealth-gap.html community development nonprofit, reached out Image credit: Dwolla, Guava, PitchBook Data, to MoCaFi for help distributing payments to hardnylaunchpod.com, linkedin.com 15

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

interviews, Masiyiwa said, “The best way to do this is by mastering the process and respecting institutional framework. Focusing on the idea isn’t enough to grow your business. As an entrepreneur, having the understanding and the ability to build a process around the business is what makes it scale faster.”

3. Find a Great Co-Founder:

Rules for Success From Zimbabwe’s Richest Man Content Curated By Victor Oluwole

ZIMBABWE’S RICHEST MAN, Strive Masyiwa, who is the Executive Chairman of Econet, with roughly 27 years as CEO, has regularly shared advice and lessons learned in interviews and his annual letters to Econet Global’s shareholders.

Here are some of the best examples of what Masiyiwa, 61, has shared over the years.

1. Know Your Numbers: According to Masiyiwa, knowing your numbers as an entrepreneur is the number one way to grow a business and keep your dream alive. You don’t need to become an accountant or bookkeeper, but you certainly need to have a basic level of understanding of the key financial metrics.

“Businesses are based on numbers, and the entrepreneur must always function in numbers.

Make numbers your best friend,” he said.

This is another important rule to having a successful business.

According to Strive, finding the right people to complement what you cannot do is essential for a business to succeed. “I understood this early on when I launched Econnect. In the early days of the business, I tried to raise about $10 million, but I didn’t know how to do it. Before that time, the highest amount I ever raised was $300,000.

So what I did was employ someone who could do what I couldn’t do. I had to negotiate to give him 10% of the company, but he got the job done for me.” I’ve also discovered over the years that good people function at their best when trusted. This is something African entrepreneurs must practice.

“Giving the right people the room to function at their best.”

4. Become a Master at Pitching:

Suppose you bump into Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and you have to say something to him about your business that will make him stop and listen to you. What is it that you’ll say in your pitch? Well, according to Masiyiwa, there are two key principles in a pitch: First of all, as an 2. Become a Master of Process: entrepreneur, you must do your research, and you According to the Zimbabwean billionaire, the must understand your product and the service you three pillars for a successful business are Product. offer so well that you can unpack it in 2 mins.

People. Process. However, to maintain a good Secondly, you need to understand what the product and sell to the right people, entrepreneurs investor wants and who the investor is. The investor must build the necessary structures and systems is not your donor or your grandmother. They may to make businesses grow quickly. In one of his 16

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

find what comes from what you do beneficial, but that’s not what’s driving the investor’s approach to things. So as an entrepreneur, you need to make sure you are pitching to the right people, telling them what they need to hear, as well as the risks you present to them that you need to lower if you’re going to be making pitches throughout your entrepreneurial journey.

travel africa

5. Learn the Art of Networking: As an entrepreneur, you have to be creative about networking. “If you’re a small entrepreneur, don’t always try to get to the CEO or Chairman of the group. Do some research on the organization and try to find out the person making the decisions on the issue you’re interested in.”Also, network much more effectively. Attend industry events and conferences, and register yourself for every business association if possible. Because that’s where you find the Chairman walking along the corridor and you can have a chat with him.

6. Learn to Trust Other Entrepreneurs: Stop looking upwards, but focus on looking sideways. “While building my businesses, I never sought after big players. I was always about reaching out to people around me who I needed to help me build my business. That’s not to say it’s a hard and fast rule. But pay a lot more attention to the passionate young guy or girl sitting next to you.

They’re usually more driven than someone outside your circle.”

7. Look at the Challenges as Opportunities: It is important to learn how to look at challenges as opportunities to succeed as an entrepreneur. For example, there is an entrepreneurial opportunity for somebody in your challenge in the cost of electricity or a particular commodity. So never feel frustrated because of the challenges you’re faced with. Just look at it as a step that you have to climb. www.facebook.com/tbtnewsservice Image credit: TBTNews Business

17

March-April 2022

Promoting Africa-focused Tourism Since 2011

Travel Africa www.Issuu.com/blackbusinessnews DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

5 Ways Successful Black Women Entrepreneur Navigate Their Way Through Negotiation

By Rebecca Deczyns

NEGOTIATION IS A PART of entrepreneurship, whether you're working with a supplier, employee, wholesaler, investor, or any other person with whom you're making a deal. Often, your product and proof of concept aren't enough on their own to help you secure the deals you want to make -and in those cases, some strategy can help you make favorable compromises that can then help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals.

But know going in that you may be spoiling for a fight. Unconscious and structural bias can make it harder for Black women entrepreneurs, in particular, to negotiate. After all, research on salary negotiations shows that Black women receive lower pay than their White male peers, in spite of asking for the same amount or more. And although Black women are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs, they receive less than 1 percent of all venture capital.

So take a lesson from those who've managed to overcome those challenges, structural or otherwise. Here are five tips from two Black women entrepreneurs who've succeeded in negotiating everything from retail partner pay agreements to supplier contracts.

Do your homework.

It may sound obvious, but before any negotiation, it's crucial to have a strong outline of what you hope to gain from a deal. "You have to look at your numbers and see where you need to be in terms of your margins," says Stephanie Summerson Hall, founder of Holly Hill, South Carolina-based glassware brand Estelle Colored Glass. You should also take non-monetary factors, like a product's unique value proposition, into consideration.

Basically, your sales pitch needs to be refined.

You should also develop a clear understanding of

18

March-April 2022

what you're willing to make concessions on, adds Trinity Mouzon Wofford, co-founder of Chatham, New York-based wellness brand Golde. "That way, you're not calculating those things on the spot."

Be prepared for compromise.

Before she became a full-time entrepreneur, Hall was a lawyer for a decade, so she's long approached the negotiation process with confidence. "I always start by being clear on my intentions and making a firm offer," she says. "Part of the chess game is clearly stating what is ideal to you, but [also] knowing that you'll meet somewhere in the middle, as you'll likely have a counter offer."

Getting it right the first time is especially critical if you're negotiating with someone -- like a vendor or a wholesale partner -- that you'll continually work with. As Mouzon Wofford points out, it can be difficult to considerably change your terms in future deals: "Oftentimes, once you sign those documents, it's hard to go back and say, 'Actually, I want this instead.'"

Identify your counterpart's limits.

Compromise is a part of any deal, but it's helpful to know where the person you're negotiating with can be flexible and where they can't. This is especially pertinent for deals like wholesale agreements, Mouzon Wofford says. She recommends reaching out to fellow entrepreneurs who can give you a sense of a retail partner's typical terms, based on their experience. That way, she adds, "you don't end up wasting time playing hardball on something they're not comfortable moving on."

Mouzon Wofford, for her part, has found flexibility in payment terms with retail partners: While many typically offer net-90-day payments, she successfully negotiated for net-30-day payments, which has helped Golde increase its cash flow.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

rs ns

ski

Stephanie Summerson Hall, founder of Estelle Colored Glass. COURTESY COMPANY

say that a negotiation should result in a win-win situation -- and when it doesn't, that's a sign that the deal isn't a fit. Estelle Colored Glass makes about 30% of its sales through retail partners, Golde co-founder Trinity Mouzon Hall says, but she's careful Wofford. Courtesy Golde to select partners that are viable for her company, and she treats them right.

Offer your loyalty.

"One of the things we do is make sure we don't It's easier to make favorable deals when you've crowd the market with our products," she says. "We demonstrated success. Negotiating when you're make sure competing stockists aren't next door to just starting out can be more challenging -- but Hall each other." Their survival is vital for her company's says that the promise of loyalty can help. Before survival, so she prioritizes their longevity, which she even made a website for Estelle Colored Glass, can involve saying no to would-be retail partners.

Hall approached a vendor of luxury boxes to supply If a deal doesn't set your company up for success, her glassware's packaging. The upstate New York- that's also a no-go, Mouzon Wofford says. "If you based vendor had a minimum order number that know that you need a certain margin at that retailer far surpassed Hall's needs and budget, so she to be profitable, and you know that that retailer made a proposal. "I asked, very confidently, 'Can absolutely cannot hit that margin, then you have you please produce a small quantity of boxes for to adjust your pricing or walk," she says. "It doesn't us?'" she says. "And in exchange, I offered loyalty make sense for you to do something that isn't and a long-term relationship." The vendor agreed scalable." and remains Estelle Colored Glass's exclusive www.inc.com/rebecca-deczynski/negotiationpackaging supplier. advice-for-entrepreneurs-making-dealsKnow when to walk away.

Ultimately, both Mouzon Wofford and Hall 19

March-April 2022

compromise.html

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Shopify Exec: The 4 Secrets of Successful Digital-First Companies

By Michael Merola WHAT IS WORK, REALLY? At its simplest, work involves exchanging time and effort for a paycheck. But is it really that balanced?

For as long as we can remember, employees also committed to living within commuting distance of their office—which meant their work dictated where they lived, socialized, and laid roots. Multiple generations have been tethered to one place simply because of a corporate office lease.

But a funny thing happened during COVID: the world realized that a centralized physical space isn’t actually a requirement to do impactful work.

The concept of “office centricity” is over. Shopify (where I work as VP of employee experience) is now fully remote—a decision we made in May 2020.

Many companies went remote during COVID. To them, this meant working from home while waiting for an ever-changing “return-to-office” date. But we asked ourselves, “what if we rebuilt our company to let employees physically center their lives around what they wanted, instead of our office leases? And how can we do this while maintaining a universal employee experience?” We chose to seize the opportunity, going all in on digital-first work. We steered clear of an opt-in model where employees can choose whether to work from home or the office, which can lead to an uneven playing field when it comes to opportunities and seats at the proverbial table. Because of these decisions, we are now Digital by Design.

Here are four ingredients of a successful digitalfirst company.

in my home, like playing board games and helping with homework. Family is what fuels me, so this has fundamentally changed my life.

This is the type of freedom that remote work unlocks: you can build your life around what fuels you. For some of my colleagues, time outside of their house or apartment is what fuels them.

If your team is used to in-office perks like foosball tables and free beer, remote work can seem “blah” at first. But that’s only until they figure out that their life no longer revolves around their workplace, it revolves around them. There are still foosball tables available, but instead of in an office tower, they’re at your neighborhood pub. Amazing lunch options now come from your local deli or taqueria.

Employees can choose where they live; how they schedule their time; how to design their ideal workspace—all the way down to the thermostat setting!

To help with that ideal workspace, consider creating a spending account for each employee.

We call ours the Lifestyle Spending Account, and it empowers our team to spend their budget on whatever they choose—acoustic panels for soundproofing their work area, a neighborhood gym membership, a meal delivery subscription…

With this setup, your employees get to pick custom perks that work for their specific needs, rather than the one-size-fits-all office benefits.

When you can choose your work environment, the option to travel becomes far more feasible. We launched a program called Destination90, where employees can move to and work from a different country for 90 days each year. It’s a chance to experience new perspectives, and stay energized and engaged which often leads to people doing their best work. This summer, my family and I are heading to Japan. There, we’ll be immersed in Japanese language and culture while spending time with our family that lives there, all while I continue to work. Some of my colleagues have ventured to Europe, South America—all over the world. This isn’t working “abroad,” this is simply working digital first.

PRIORITIZE FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY When I was commuting, the odds were 50/50 whether I’d make it home for dinner with my wife and daughters. Since working remotely, I’ve had meals with my family every day except for when CONTINUE TO VALUE IN-PERSON traveling. We’re creating new weekday traditions CONNECTIONS 20

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Remote work untethered us from a physical space, but not from each other. Being digital first doesn’t mean you shouldn’t value occasional moments of IRL time (In Real Life).

Build in periodic IRL time for meaningful and intentional moments of connection, not just people working next to each other at an office two days a week. We’ve invested in spaces around the world to host these moments. At least twice a year for a few days each time, we encourage teams to meet in person, to disconnect from their screens and connect with one another. We use this time for in-person brainstorming, teambuilding, planning, and working through tough problems that we just couldn’t land digitally. Recently, I hosted my team in San Francisco. We worked hard, we were vulnerable with each other, and we agreed on methods of working better together. Then we hopped on a boat with a local historian to learn about the Bay. Our data shows that after these gatherings, our employees consistently report an increase in trust, belonging, engagement, and productivity.

REMOTE WORK ALLOWS YOU TO HIRE ANYONE, FROM ANYWHERE They say that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. With remote work, you no longer need to hire the best candidate in your city. You can hire the best candidate in the world. It’s hard to articulate what a game changer this is.

Now, you can access a global talent pool more diverse than you ever imagined, with people from all backgrounds, demographics, and skills.

Another interesting aspect of remote work is that it allows you to hire, and bring out the best in, employees who may not have thrived in a traditional office environment. Some people write amazing code quietly from their own timezone. Others jam together in a space full of buzz and noise. And some lean into communication channels like Slack or email to share trust-building updates. Digital workspaces often enable employees from a range of backgrounds to shine in a way that loud, busy offices never could.

BUILD CULTURE WITH INTENTIONAL, THOUGHTFUL DESIGN When building a remote culture, it’s important

21

March-April 2022

to deeply consider the tools, rituals, and growth opportunities your employees need.

Showing up to virtual meetings with a good tech setup is the digital equivalent to arriving at an in-person meeting on time. Lags and glitches can reduce productivity, so we make sure all employees are on an equal playing field with their office setup. Employees now receive an Apple M1 laptop and essentials like microphones, webcams, standing desks, and ergonomic chairs.

We’ve set up and maintained important rituals, like our weekly Town Hall where we gather digitally as a global team to learn about important topics, and an internal podcast that gives context on key decisions throughout the company’s history.

And there’s never been a more critical time to invest in an employee’s career growth. These days, people seek workplaces that support their career advancement and personal wellbeing, and it’s up to organizations to continually prove that their employees are in the right place. Some of the ways we do this include dedicated internal movement teams, in-house coaching and mentorship, and encouraging employees to expense things that help them learn, whether it’s a conference, course, book, or tool.

Each company will require their own programs for success, but be sure to rethink everything you built for the office days. We need to be innovative now, not iterative. We need entirely new tools, systems, and technologies.

It’s early days for our Digital by Design experiment.

We haven’t figured it all out. We’re going to screw some things up, and we’re also going to do some great things.

Above all, I leave you with this: if your organization is able to work remotely, do it. Great culture and productivity have nothing to do with where office walls are located. Give your team the chance to build their lives on their own terms, and grant yourself access to the broadest, most diverse talent pool on the planet. Don’t just dip your toe in with a hybrid model. Go all in. Decentralize job opportunities.

Focus on mission, not office. Prioritize people, not place. This is the future of work. https://www.fastcompany.com/90729862/shopifyexec-the-4-secrets-of-successful-digital-firstcompanies DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - Quartz at Work

The Memo: "Meet me in the Metaverse"

By Lila MacLellan, senior reporter and Anne Quito, and edited by Francesca Donner.

ABOUT 10 MINUTES into my interview with Shep Ogden, the 26-year-old co-founder and CEO of a digital media startup that counts Mark Cuban among its investors, I began to panic.

Ogden was showing me around his company’s sleek employee clubhouse in the metaverse, but it was hard to focus. I was sure I was going to vomit.

“Shep, I’m sorry,” I finally said, “I’m not sure I can do this.”

I was nauseated, but Ogden was gracious enough not to laugh. He said my problem was not uncommon for newcomers to VRChat, the virtual platform where Offbeat Media Group built its bespoke private campus.

The real Offbeat Media—maker of virtual influencers and streaming shows—is based in Atlanta, where it has a small physical workspace.

Ogden was speaking to me from his office there, I was at home in New York, and we were both

22

March-April 2022

wearing VR goggles.

With Ogden’s guidance, I adjusted the way my avatar walked so it no longer made me dizzy.

Now my avatar glided, allowing me glimpses of its form. I was a raccoon, I discovered, shortly before sliding—by accident, I might add—into the company’s pool. As I sank, virtual water slowly filled my field of vision.

The so-called metaverse—from where I conducted this interview—is not a single place and its definition is debatable, but enthusiasts are already talking about how it will one day exist as a kind of decentralized internet, where we can live, shop, and socialize in digital public or private VR spaces. And work.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

▲https://soundindepth.com/racismin-the-metaverse-they-want-tosell-african-american-slaves-asnfts-in-the-metaverse/2022/02/13/ top-hip-hop-music-news/admin/ ◄www.electricsouth.org/ea_talks/vrsocial-metaverse-africa-meetup/

Already brands and companies have begun buying real estate in VR. IS THE FUTURE OF WORK IN THE METAVERSE? Not so fast.

What the metaverse can do for the average inperson workplace remains an open question.

But early research and experimentation suggest the uses of the workplace metaverse might fall roughly into three functional categories: • An alternate office space. VR meeting apps allow people to write on whiteboards, or in the air, and to watch video feeds, which might include a Zoom call. Meta’s Workrooms app also has a Passthrough window, which allows users to see into their physical space without removing their headset, so you can work on your actual keyboard. Still, there’s not a whole lot to do in virtual workspaces beyond watching a presentation, running a Post-it note brainstorming meeting, or just talking.

• A place for immersive training. The world’s 23

March-April 2022

big consulting companies are developing content for VR training, putting new hires behind virtual airline counters or in a restaurant kitchen, for example. “If you’re really going to learn, it has to be applied learning—learning by doing something,” says Suneet Dua, products and technology chief growth officer at PwC, “and with the metaverse you get to do applied learning at the next level. It’s like learning on steroids.”

• An employee hangout. Offbeat’s digital campus has become an ideal place for employees to celebrate birthday parties or just hang out. Congregating in the metaverse is “10 times better” than gatherings on video calls, Ogden says, because it really does feel like you’re with other people while you’re physically apart. work@qz.com Image credit: Offbeat Media, Medium, markcubancompanies.com, en.vrcw.net

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

What Fast Fashion Costs the World

By Ryan Lenora Brown Some version of this scene plays out daily in dozens of countries across Africa. In Ghana, imported secondhand clothes are called obroni wawu, dead white man’s clothes. In Malawi, they are kaunjika — literally “clothes sold in a heap.”

In Mozambique, they are known as calamidade, calamity, for their historical association with disaster relief aid.

If you live in the West, chances are at some Bales of secondhand clothing await distribution at a warehouse in Senegal. point you have stuffed your used clothes into a garbage bag and hauled THE BALES ARRIVE by the truckload at the them off to a Goodwill or the Salvation Army. market in Johannesburg at dawn, squat white Maybe you stood over your clothes and asked bricks weighing upwards of 600 pounds, each one them pointedly if they brought you joy, à la Marie as big and unwieldy as a dishwasher. Inside are Kondo. Maybe two years of pandemic living made thousands of pieces of secondhand clothing that owning anything but sweatpants feel superfluous. have been pressed and shrink-wrapped into cubes Either way, if you’re like me, donating your used by textile recyclers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. clothing was probably the end of the story. For most Every morning, the dozens of traders who work of my life, I assumed that the clothes I gave to thrift a stretch of three downtown blocks known as stores were sold at those thrift stores, and that I KwaDunusa — a Zulu word that translates was simply a benevolent donor — giving my more or less to “the place of bending over and low-rise bootcut jeans a second life, and helping a sticking your backside out” — slice the thick charity raise funds in the process. plastic coverings from these bales and spread In fact, what happens to clothing after it’s their wrinkled contents into double-bed-sized bins. donated is a deeply complicated, dizzyingly Depending on the item and its quality, they pick global story about the unseen consequences a price from 3 rand (about 20 cents) to 60 rand of fast fashion, the opacity of charity, and ($4). And then, as morning light slants through the effects on the people who end up on the the surrounding art deco high-rises, they begin receiving end of our well-meaning donations. shouting.

And now, many of those people are calling for “Cheapcheapcheapcheap!” they call to passing Western companies and their customers to change commuters, plunging their hands into piles of their ways, both by consuming less and by taking polyester and Lycra and flipping the contents more responsibility for what they do. Given that the of their bins again and again to catch the eye of fashion industry is responsible for one-tenth of the possible customers. world’s carbon emissions, according to the U.N.

24

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Environment Program — more than international flights and maritime shipping combined — what we do with our old clothes is a question with high stakes, not just for Africa, but for the future of humanity.

I first became curious about the afterlives of our clothing last year, when I began thrifting in Johannesburg as an antidote to my pandemic malaise. A year into a global crisis that had reduced my country-hopping life as a foreign correspondent to an endless parade of Zoom calls, the act of sinking my hands into huge piles of clothes, looking for the gems, felt tangible in a way my work no longer did. Soon, I was finding too much to keep for myself. I launched a store via Instagram, selling mint green Crimplene party frocks, 1980s checked jumpsuits, and firetruck red corsets made in West Germany. In South Africa, as in much of the world, the pandemic had driven a great deal of shopping online, and I quickly tapped into a community of South African women interested in fashion, sustainability, and the intersection of the two — all from the relative safety of their couches.

Rummaging through the piles of clothing in KwaDunusa, as I’ve been doing every week, gives you a visceral sense of how the clothing industry has changed in the past century. In the 1950s, the average American family spent about 10% of its income on clothing, and that money bought them just a few sturdy garments a year.

Now, thanks largely to the outsourcing of garment production to the developing world — where labor costs are far lower than in the West — the cost of an article of clothing has dramatically decreased. In 2019, American families spent on average about 2% of their income on clothing. That’s enough to afford not a new dress or suit twice a year, but dozens of increasingly flimsy garments. The pivot began in the 1990s, as early fast-fashion pioneers like Gap began swapping out styles not seasonally, but monthly, to lure in repeat customers. Over the next two decades, the trend accelerated, culminating with fast-fashion brands like Zara, Topshop, and H&M, which produce 52 “micro-seasons” per year.

The website of the Chinese behemoth Shein, the vanguard of so-called “ultra-fast fashion,” boasts that the company releases 1,000 new styles every day.

25

March-April 2022

Donations overflow a bin in Virginia.

Since 2000, the global production of clothing has doubled. Today, the average American buys about 68 new items of clothing a year. Plunge your arms elbow-deep into a pile of jeans at the dunusa, and you’ll find that the thick, un-stretchable denim of vintage Levi’s 501s and ’90s mom jeans is easily distinguishable from a pile of jeggings as pliable as Silly Putty. In the blouses, the silky polyester of ’70s button-downs feels a world away from the gauzy fluff of a Forever 21 blouse.

But quality is only the beginning of the challenge.

Westerners now consume clothing at such a ferocious pace that our own secondhand shops cannot begin to absorb our discards. Today, although we donate only about 15% of our used clothing to charity, domestic thrift stores are still overwhelmed. They can only sell a sliver — about 10% to 20% — of what they receive. The rest is sold to textile recyclers, who turn the lowest-quality items into rags and insulation and press everything else into bales, which are sold to traders across Asia and Africa.

So most U.S. clothing donations don’t get sold at some suburban American thrift store, but in markets like this one in Johannesburg, where the familiar fast-fashion brands are represented — H&M, Zara, Mango, Target, Forever 21 — along with a seemingly endless parade of secondtier labels with near-generic names. (One day, I rifled through clothes bearing the labels Fashion Concept, Fashion Affair, Up2Fashion, Your Life Your Fashion, and Fashion Style). It’s also not see page 26 DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business Fast Fashion - from page 25 uncommon to see items still bearing the price tag of the Goodwill or Value Village that tried and failed to sell those castoffs to begin with.

“Sometimes when you are thrifting, you see things that look completely new, and you start to wonder, where is this coming from?” says Assent Mathebula, who with her two sisters runs a vintage clothing store in Germiston, a suburb of Johannesburg. “You wonder, do people in America have so much money that they can just wear things once and then throw them away?”

It’s not just fast fashion that creates that impression. The custom shirts that serve as gag gifts and souvenirs at charity events also make their way into Africa’s clothing piles. Everywhere you turn in Johannesburg’s main clothing market, you’ll find out-of-context slogan T-shirts — declaring allegiances (“Straight Outta Germany,” “Fierce Feminist,” “Virginity Rocks”); or made for non-English speaking markets (“Aim Your Own Goal,” “She Beat The Drum”); or representing what could be a museum of minor American fun runs (“The Chick-fil-A Egg Scramble,” “The 2013 Pikes Peak YMCA Turkey Trot”).

To be sure, the availability of inexpensive clothes isn’t entirely a bad thing. In a country like South Africa, where more than half of people live below the poverty line, demand remains brisk, and some Western castoffs have become wardrobe staples for people who might not be able to afford new clothes. The West’s vintage clothes in particular are often sturdier and likely to last longer than the cheap, contemporary clothes that go for similar prices.

“People still buy secondhand because what they find here is nicer than what they can afford new,” says Esther Mapingure, who sells secondhand clothing from bales in Midrand, a suburb of Johannesburg.

The bigger problem is the volume. For every item of secondhand clothing that finds a new home with an African buyer, another unusable one ends up in an African landfill.

“We end up with the Western world’s trash,” says Sammy Oteng, project coordinator in Accra,

26

March-April 2022

Ghana, for the OR Foundation, a nonprofit that works on issues of justice and sustainability in the fast-fashion industry. “They are sending us whatever they do not want anymore.”

The consequences for countries like Ghana are dire. Each day, about 154,000 pounds of used clothing — whatever is too mangled or unfashionable to be sold — leaves Accra’s main garment market, Kantamanto, bound for a dump on the banks of the Korle Lagoon. There, a fivestory mountain of waste towers above the inky black water, an estimated 60% of it clothing.

Every gust of wind heaves scraps of cloth into the lagoon, and many are later coughed up on nearby beaches, often with the labels still intact.

In recent years, countries on the receiving end of Western donations have tried to fight back. In 2017, a group of East African countries announced they were planning to ban the import of used clothes by 2019. “We have to grow and establish our [clothing] industries,” explained Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, at the time.

The United States government didn’t see the move so favorably. Under strong pressure from textile recyclers in the U.S., Washington threatened to strip Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania of their membership in the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a lucrative trade deal that gives many countries on the continent tax-free access to American markets. The textile recyclers claimed East Africa was “taking advantage of U.S. generosity” by banning their imports.

In the end, only Rwanda stood its ground — a sign of the geopolitical power imbalance that makes it hard for African countries to assert their economic independence from the West.

“Allowing countries the space to take that kind of policy decision [without backlash] is crucial if we’re going to grow our own manufacturing industries,” says Etienne Vlok, national industrial policy officer for the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union.

As it stands, lax customs enforcement — along with spotty infrastructure and the prevalence of cheap Asian imports — has made it difficult for Africa to develop a garment industry of its own.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

South Africa, for instance, has a near-total ban on the import of used clothing, but its porous borders allow secondhand bales to travel overland from Mozambique almost completely unchecked. And in countries with their own manufacturing, such as Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Madagascar, production is almost exclusively for Western export rather than local markets.

“For many countries, historically, customs has been focused on facilitating trade — that is, moving things easily through ports and borders,” Vlok says. “Only in recent years have we considered what that means for local production.”

Still, most agree that the root of the usedclothing problem lies with the West and its rabid overconsumption. In Ghana, for instance, Oteng says many people, particularly clothing traders, “are not advocating for a ban, but just a conscious flow of the clothing that is coming in. Less crap and more good quality products that they can actually use.”

Those responsible for managing our clothing donations are also overwhelmed. During the pandemic, Goodwill began issuing a plea to its donors: Stop sending us your garbage.

“We hope everyone brings great things that help our programs, but we know some people make some questionable judgments about what is good to donate,” Heather Steeves, spokesperson for Goodwill in New England, told NPR in May 2021.

Indeed, many advocates believe the best chance

for stemming the flood of low-quality textiles lies, not in government policy, but in consumer behavior: decreasing the demand for ultra-cheap clothes in the first place. A growing awareness of what actually happens to clothing donations, they say, could lead Westerners to treat their wardrobes as something more permanent. Growing concern about climate change could drive them to recalibrate the cost of fast fashion. And growing attention to the treatment of the global workforce could put pressure on the industry’s labor practices.

“During the pandemic, there was such heightened attention to people who do these really foundational jobs in our society, like deliver our goods, or stock our grocery stores,” says Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion and a master’s student in global studies and international relations at Northeastern University. Given how essential clothing is to the lives we lead, Cline wonders if we’ll begin to see the people who make our clothing the same way.

“There’s a real lack of responsibility and holding accountable of the people at the top who have the power to make change,” says Rola Abimourched, deputy director of investigations and gender equity at the Worker Rights Consortium. “They can always hop to a different country with lower labor standards, instead of paying livable wages where they are.”

Oteng feels similarly. “For every item of clothing you own, you could ask yourself a thousand questions — where ITN’s Penny Marshall was the cotton picked? (left) and Liz Ricketts Where was the fabric of The OR Foundation identiy the brands of spun and dyed? Who the pile of clothes. sewed it? For how www.theghanareport. much money?” he com/uk-export-of-trash- says. “The way we to-ghana-creates-30-ftmountain-of-second-hand- interact with clothing clothes-in-accra/ now devalues all the channels our clothing goes through before it gets to us.” https://expmag. com/2022/01/whatfast-fashion-coststhe-world

27

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

4 Tips for Building a Following--and a Robust Revenue Stream--on TikTok

By Hannah Hall

SOME BUSINESS OWNERS still have a perception that TikTok is little more than a repository of videos of teenagers singing and dancing. But the platform--which now has an estimated 73.7 million monthly active U.S. users--can in fact be a vital tool for engaging with your customers and finding new ones.

Given TikTok's vast audience and relatively novel format, getting started can feel intimidating. Later this year TikTok will be launching an SMB Academy to help small businesses with the app: Participants will learn how to properly use effects in their videos, find the best music, create clear objectives with TikTok campaigns, and implement other best practices. Until then, here are helpful tips from Danielle Johnson, the head of SMB account management for North America - global solutions at TikTok, as well as business owners who have found success with the app, on how you can grow your brand's presence and turn it into tangible returns.

and culture. At the same time, Sana began buying dyes from Walmart to create her own tie-dye hijabs, which she wore in the videos.

Soon viewers began asking in the comments where she got her hijabs. That's when the light bulb went on to create a company.

"We knew nothing about business, and e-commerce was completely foreign to us," Sana says. "When we saw the response from people, we sat down and were like, 'Why don't we go all in?'" Now, the Toronto, Ontario-based e-commerce business has become their full-time job, and they are aiming to open stores in U.S. major cities. The 1. Be a User Yourself Saleh family has received a total of 44.5 million Before joining the small business team at TikTok, likes for their videos, has 1.6 million followers, and Johnson was a user of the platform. Her first has gone from operating in a spare room of their piece of advice is to join yourself and see what's house to opening a warehouse. trending. Select some hashtags that are relevant to your business and see the types of videos that 2. Create Content Specifically for are trending for them. Compare your feed with a TikTok friend's to better understand how the site uniquely Forget about conventional, well-polished targets a customer's tastes and habits. "The more 15-second video advertisements. Johnson urges you know the community, the better," Johnson small businesses to instead design content says. specifically for TikTok's platform. Elements like LaLa Hijabs is a great example of this advice the music, the For You Page (the homepage for in action. Founders Sana and Will Saleh, a new video content), and community engagementsocial worker and aircraft maintenance engineer -users can, for example, respond to a video with respectively by trade, created a TikTok in January their own "duet" video--make it distinct from other 2020 to educate audiences about their Muslim faith

28

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

social platforms.

Johnson cites Dallas-based banana milk brand Mooala, which modified its branding strategy to fit the TikTok community, as an example. It introduced a company mascot (a koala), partnered with influencers to help spread the word about the company on the app, and created its own hashtag that now has 2.1 million views. In the past month, Mooala has seen a more than 65% increase in directly through the app. Users have even turned video views, Johnson says. their shopping habits into entertainment--the 3. Build a Viable Community to Become "What TikTok Made Me Buy" hashtag currently has 17 million views.

Viral One success story Johnson offers is that of Justin The For You Page can level the playing field Baer, the founder of menswear brand Collars and for smaller brands, Johnson says, allowing them Co. which has nearly 32,000 followers on the app. to reach consumers that don't follow them. And Baer started last April with a video recorded by keep in mind that often the comments section on his seven-year-old daughter on an iPhone, which a TikTok video is just as important as the content got 50,000 views by the end of the day. Since itself. For LaLa Hijabs, the discussion has been generating $40,000 in the first month following the crucial for building a community on the platform, release of the video, the company's sales have and ultimately, for their e-commerce strategy. increased an average of 40% a month.

"We've had such an incredible response from nonThe entrepreneur recommends small business Muslims," Will says. "Their minds and hearts are owners start simple. "I think people get caught up being opened. Had it not been for TikTok, I don't in being perfect," he says. "Just get it out there and know how we would have advertised or spread test it. TikTok is a great proving ground." awareness. www.inc.com/hannah-hall/tiktok-small-business4. Use TikTok's Tools for Online and tips.html

Offline Success TikTok can spur immediate sales: Its Shopify Storefront feature now allows consumers to buy 29

March-April 2022

Image credit: lalahijabs.com, facebook.com, BevNET.com, blogplan.dwpscoochbehar.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Looking to the Future: Can we Make Supplier Diversity a Priority Post-Pandemic?

By Mayank Shah

Mayank Shah, MSDUK, explores how supplier diversity could become a priority in the distant realm of the postpandemic THE DISRUPTION of the pandemic has created a new and often unknown landscape for business.

For many corporates, supplier diversity has been put on the back burner throughout the global pandemic.

But for, other corporates have realised that they need to look at local suppliers to keep the continuation of their supplies, particularly when the pandemic disrupted the overseas supply chains.

During these testing times, many companies have managed to continue to deliver. Large corporates spend millions of pounds with suppliers annually but changing their supply chains to include more diverse suppliers is beneficial to both the corporate and the supplier.

Moreover, by procuring products and services from small and minority-owned businesses, these diverse and smaller businesses are also contributing to the economy’s recovery both in the UK and worldwide.

The importance of robust supply chains

when they were in the middle of its summer blockbusters’ production at Pinewood Studios and on locations across the UK when the pandemic hit early 2020. As a member of MSDUK, they reached out to us to recommend diverse suppliers who could provide certified PPE products. They were looking for a diverse supplier to provide certified PPE products that could offer a flexible and agile approach to delivery and serve all UK regions.

For Sony, Brocks Compass met their high standards for its PPE products, and on many occasions, the team has gone the extra mile to deliver last-minute requests in different filming locations across the UK. In addition, Brocks Compass has expanded the business to supply promotional merchandise and ergonomic equipment. Sony Pictures demonstrated its ability to be agile and highlighted its commitment to supplier diversity by integrating Brocks Compass in its procurement systems to work more effectively.

Sony Pictures Director of Strategic Sourcing at Sony Pictures, Andrew Edgeley, said: “Sony wants to send a message that small, diverse companies can add value to the baseline. Not only did they deliver, but they have been competitive, offering the flexibility we need to keep our latest productions from Cinderella to Venom 2 and many other movies on track safely. Dee Patel at Brocks Compass has been quite phenomenal because he doesn’t let me down and always goes the extra mile.”

We are also noticing that more and more, this is something that new employees are looking for, a purpose-driven generation with higher expectations.

By looking at local and minority business suppliers, some corporates have created robust supply chains despite the pandemic disruption.

Improving their partnerships and collaboration, successfully delivering a diverse supply chain, and achieving the best outcome for all stakeholders.

Also, when appropriately instilled, diversity in procurement creates social value to strengthen and embed resilience in our local and broader community.

One brilliant case study of how a diverse supply chain helped global name Sony Pictures UK was Generation Z are woke enough to want 30

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

that supplier diversity brings to the business Step 2: Look to the leadership team and secure genuine leadership commitment and engagement, and training Step 3: Training is key. Invest heavily in training people from your supplier sourcing team Step 4: Accountability. What gets measured gets done. Make supplier diversity accountable and set goals.

Step 5: Join an organisation like MSDUK to learn from peers and the success of other organisations with effective supplier diversity programmes.

It takes two to address supply chain diversity genuine evidence of change For many corporates, as a rule, generally include social responsibility, equality, and justice on their websites and in their mission statements.

However, the next generation of employees are more Woke and want more than a statement on a website; they want evidence.

The last two years of the pandemic has forced a shift in the need; it’s no longer enough to have a statement on the website. When graduates apply to us now, they ask us what they are doing on climate change, local communities, etc.

Furthermore, employees are looking for organisations to have a more ethical approach, particularly in the pandemic where we saw front line workers living in poverty and the Black Lives Matter movement. These are hugely influential messages that have seen young people demanding change and seeing corporations take a more ethical approach.

Five steps to a more diverse supply chain The first step is always the hardest, and often it can be a challenge to know where to start as a corporate, so I thought I would share five steps to a more diverse supply chain.

Step 1: Look internally and make a strong business case. Share the ‘Whys’ and the ‘what’s’ 31

March-April 2022

Diversity in supply chains cannot be addressed by corporates alone. As they say, it takes two to tango, and we also need smaller ethnic minority businesses to be open to change. To step up to the plate and engage with corporates they want to work with. Without the EMBs, the corporates can't create a diverse supply chain.

Corporations, businesses, the community and government organisations are all stakeholders in creating a diverse supply chain. Each has a role to play in making supplier diversity viable. Their relationships increase the chances of success for such programmes.

By incorporating supplier diversity objectives is a great way to demonstrate your organisations’ commitment to diversity and inclusion. Supporting small and minority-owned businesses, regardless of an owner’s race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, or other potentially discriminating factor benefits everyone.

Moreover, making this support part of an inclusive business development continuum helps economic growth and will be crucial for our recovery from the pandemic in the UK and overseas.: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/futuresupplier-diversity-post-pandemic/131356 Image credit: © Igor Ivanov

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Rwanda Taps into Deadly Lake Kivu RWANDA HAS COME UP with an invention of its kind, The KivuWatt power station. The energy producer lies somewhere between a renewable and non-renewable source of energy.

For thousands of years, volcanic activity in Lake Kivu has caused a massive accumulation of carbon dioxide and methane to dissolve in the depths of the water. The Engineers of the KivuWatt company have discovered a way to generate electricity from the lake.

There are only three such lakes: Lake Kivu, Lake Nyos, and Lake Monoun, both in northwest Cameroon. The accumulated methane and carbon dioxide prove to be direly destructive in the rare event they were released.

“If the lake is triggered, there would be a limnic eruption that would cause a huge explosion of gas from deep waters to the surface, resulting in large waves and a cloud of poisonous gas. The explosion would put millions of lives at risk,” said Francois Darchambeau, an environmental manager at KivuWatts.

Due to the potential of the limnic eruption, the three lakes are referred to as killer lakes. In the 1980s, Lake Nyos and Monoun experienced limnic eruptions suffocating more than 1,700 people in a gas cloud of toxic carbon dioxide released.

Darchambeau says that a similar explosion at Lake Kivu would risk over two million people in both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

People living around fear the destructive potential of the Lake, with stories going around that several swimmers have disappeared into the depths of the waters.

However, the engineers of ContourGlobal, an American company that owns KivuWatt, have discovered a way of turning the life-threatening feature into a bright future for the Rwandese government and people specifically.

KivuWatt venture started in 2015 and has been producing about 30 per cent of Rwanda’s annual electricity. This is the first large-scale methane to 32

March-April 2022

Rwanda Extracts methane gas from Lake Kivu

power project in the world.

How is the methane gas extracted?

The facility pumps water saturated with methane and carbon dioxide from about 350 meters below the surface. As the water rises, pressure changes separate the water and the gas. The process produces a deafening roar. Membranes are then used to extract methane from carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is pumped back into the lake to ensure the ecosystem balance is not upset.

The extracted methane is sent through a pipeline to a second facility onshore, where the gas turns turbines to generate electric power.

KivuWatts company faces a possible shutdown Last year, Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano, DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

u for Compressed Natural Gas

By Joseph Kangethe

and destroyed hundreds of homes, as earthquakes shook part of the central and the East African region. The second wave of lava pushed deep into the lake itself.

KivuWatts engineers feared a looming danger of the lake itself exploding, and a shutdown was considered. However, the engineers held on to the little hope they had. In addition, they did not even suspend operations since it would have severe consequences on Rwanda’s electricity generation.

Rwanda targets to use methane gas for cooking in 2022 The agreement aims to create a distribution and retail network for CNG to replace biofuels and substitute petrol and diesel fuel in the country.

Moreover, the deal is expected to cut on Rwanda’s LPG imports.

Martin Schmid, a researcher at the Swiss Institute for Water and Environmental Research, said that the gas extracts in Lake Kivu were sustainable. It would take centuries to exhaust the gas already accumulated in the lake. u. www.theexchange.africa The Rwandese government has instituted a supervisory body, the Lake Kivu Monitoring Program, to ensure the safe extraction of methane gas and protect the surrounding population through preservation of the lake’s stability. Gas laws and regulations for methane projects are under review and expected to be gazetted soon, establishing a framework for the development of gas infrastructure and operations Rwanda to use Lake Kivu’s methane gas for cooking. [Photo/CGTN Africa] in Rwanda. exploded, awakening a prediction that lake Kivu might follow the same course.

The lava flow from the mountain killed 32 people 33

March-April 2022

https://theexchange.africa/ economic-growth/energy/lake-kivu-rwandagenerating-clean-electricity-cooking-gas/

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Dangote’s World Largest Refinery Spells a New Era for Africa

By Peter Burdin

A GIANT NEW OIL REFINERY in Nigeria is set to transform Africa’s largest crude producer into an exporter of refined oil. The $19 billion refinery complex, built by Dangote Industries includes a petrochemical plant, a fertilizer plant and a pipeline project in addition to the oil refinery.

It is the largest single-train refinery in the world, employing some 38,000 people, in 2022.

After a tour of the site, the President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi Adesina called it “the best-industrialized project to happen to Africa” spelling a new era for Africa’s industrialization and development.

“I am completely blown away with what I saw here. This project will reverse the huge sum the nation spends on foreign exchange importing petroleum products. So this is huge for Nigeria and for Africa as a continent.”

According to Dangote Industries Group Dangote Industries Group Executive Director Devakumar Edwin the refinery will make Nigeria selfsufficient in gasoline, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel and will deliver a surplus of each of these for export.

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Industries, said that the plant will start processing crude in the third quarter of this year with a processing capacity of 540,000 barrels a day with full production of 650,000 barrels a day by the end of the year.

Mr. Dangote praised Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank for encouraging him to build this huge project and investing a $300 million loan to support its construction: “Without that support, there is no way we could have succeeded in building this massive industrial plant. This is a major revolution and it will definitely put Nigeria on the map”.

For his part Dr. Adesina explained why the bank 34

March-April 2022

had invested in the Refinery project: “We have invested about $300 million in Dangote because we have faith and confidence in him.

And, in fact, every nation needs Dangote, we shall continue to support African champions. Most importantly our human resources and infrastructural development must be our top priority”.

Mr. Dangote hinted that he may well be in the market for some future projects in collaboration with Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank. During the inaugural tour of the new refinery, they talked about setting up further industrial manufacturing on the continent to boost skillssharing and job creation.

The two men go back quite a long way. Dr. Adesina is fond of telling the story of how he encouraged Mr. Dangote to alter his business plan: “He and I used to have a lot of arguments about DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Left: Aliko Dangote with Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

policies and because he used to be the biggest importer and I wanted him to be the biggest producer. One of my best moments was when Aliko Dangote walked into my office and said “I have decided to change my business model and I want to move from being an importer…I’m going to put £300 million on the table and I want to go into commercialized production. ”Three months later Aliko comes back and says

35

March-April 2022

I think I’ve changed my mind from $300 million to $1 billion. Today he is investing well over $8 billion in agriculture”.

The agriculture sector is a massive employer in Africa. And it’s that’s not just in food production, it also provides employment in logistics and transport, marketing, packaging and a whole value chain for a continent with 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and a young workforce.

That’s why the Bank has provided a $210 million loan to launch the first phase of its Special AgroIndustrial Processing Zone Programme. Under its Feed Africa strategy, the Bank will establish processing zones in eighteen African countries concentrating on production, processing, storage, transportation and marketing of commodities.

That all requires investment in infrastructure to boost intra-African trade. The African Development Bank estimates that the continent needs about $68 billion to $108 billion a year to build roads, railways and ports. For Dr. Adesina that’s a massive investment opportunity and a recipe for muchneeded industrialization: “Africa’s industrialization is working. Africa is getting bolder, more visionary. One day the eaglet will see the sun, spread its wings and soar to the sky. The sun is shining. One day Africa will become a global player in global manufacturing. We will soar and reach the world”.

Dr. Adesina sees this new oil refinery as the gamechanger that will boost Africa’s industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate the continent’s economic see page 36

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development Largest Refinery

from page 35

transformation and see the realisation of his High Five Plan to Light Up and Power Africa; to Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the people of Africa: “I’m proud of what we have

accomplished to date. The globally renowned US Magazine Global Finance rated the African Development Bank as the Best Multilateral Financial Institution in the World for 2021.

“This is the kind of Africa we want. Africa showing global excellence in the midst of a turbulent world, finding solutions, and driving innovation and change at scale”.

It’s been a busy year for the Bank. In addition to providing a £10 billion Crisis Response Facility to support countries whose economies have been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been investing $3 billion in the support of attempts to create local pharmaceutical industries in Africa, capable of producing Covid vaccines rather than relying on the west for doses.

In the year which has seen the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area to create a single market of 1.2 billion people worth some $3 trillion, the Bank has launched a range of new initiatives to boost intra-Africa trade and infrastructure. It has also made $25 billion available 36

March-April 2022

to tackle climate change.

The Bank is also seeking to launch financial institutions to encourage and support young entrepreneurs. These Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks will operate across the continent and provide advice and loans for young peoples’ business ideas.

According to Dr. Adesina many young Africans distrust governments: “We must earn the trust of the youth of Africa and use them as a potent force for national development. Forgotten, undervalued and underused, a lot of youth today have a high level of distrust and that must change”.

He points out that 60% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are under the age of 25: “We must prioritize the youth because what we do with and to our youth will determine our future”.

Linked to that is a $600 million investment DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

into Africa’s youthorientated Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme.

This will promote Africa’s FinTech sector and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in digital technology and the continent’s rapidly growing creative industries.

Africa is already leading the world in mobile money accounts and mobile wallets and that is attracting international interest. Google, for example, has demonstrated its belief in African tech by opening an Africa HQ in Ghana and investing $1 billion into tech growth and e-commerce.

Africa is also leading the world in its employment of female entrepreneurs with women making up more than half of the continent’s workforce. In recognition of this, the Bank runs an Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), and is committed to scaling-up Africa’s women-owned enterprises, and trying to help them transition from the informal sector into the formal economy.

But they all have a long road to travel if they are to match the wealth and success of Africa’s richest entrepreneur Aliko Dangote. He’s worth over $20 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and has now built the world’s largest refinery complex.

His trajectory from cement trading to the pinnacle of African business is an inspiration to many. From cement, he diversified into trading sugar, flour, fish, rice, milk and iron. Then after a visit to Brazil in 1996 to study manufacturing, he switched his business model. By 1999 he was building salt and sugar refineries, and later commissioned the Obajana Cement Plant which is the largest cement facility in sub-Saharan Africa and sits at the heart of the continent’s construction and infrastructure 37

March-April 2022

industries.

Today his Dangote Group’s main business – Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar and Nascon Allied Industries – make up about a third of the market of Nigeria’s Stock Exchange.

Dangote Cement alone employs more than 50,000 people in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa. The Dangote Group is already the biggest employer in Nigeria and the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant will see this rise still further.

According to Dr. Adesina, Aliko Dangote should be a role model not just for young Africans but for all entrepreneurs: “Aliko is quite an inspirational and visionary business leader. One of the things I admire most is that he actually believes in Nigeria and he invests his money in Nigeria. He believes in Africa and invests in Africa….he has the vision but also the commitment and passion for his country” Dr. Adesina says Aliko Dangote deserves “worldclass kudos” for his entrepreneurship and he describes the new Refinery as a growth accelerator for Africa.

Now we must wait for the third quarter of this year when the first of 650,000 barrels a day starts to be rolled out to provide what many people hope will be a new era for the continent. www.africanleadershipmagazine.co.uk/dangotesworld-largest-refinery-spells-a-new-era-for-africa/ Image credit: afripreneur, peafrinsights.co.za, Improve the Quality of Life, AFAWA, africaeuropeinnovationpartnership.net

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

-Nelson Mandela DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Ethiopia’s Telco Battle will Take Place in the Mobile Money Arena

By Tom Collins

SAFARICOM OPENED an office in Ethiopia last month, as Kenya’s largest mobile operator aims to take on one of Africa’s most sought-after telecoms markets, with a population of around 120 million people. The company has hired local employees and built a multi-story office in downtown Addis Ababa after warding off competition from other telecommunication companies to secure a $850 million operating license in May. Ethiopia’s telecoms market was closed to foreign investors for decades, but the government has recently embarked on a series of liberalizing reforms in the banking and telecoms sectors.

Safaricom, the Nairobi-based telcom giant, earned global recognition as one of the earliest pioneers of mobile money, introducing its flagship M-Pesa product to Kenya in 2007. This is the success that it hopes to replicate in Africa’s second most populous country.

But while Safaricom will only have to contend with one competitor—government-owned Ethio Telecom with over 56.2 million subscribers and its mobile money service provider, Telebirr, with over 13 million subscribers—there will be significant hurdles along the way.

The main challenge in the immediate term is that the earliest Safaricom can hope to launch M-Pesa will be in May while Telebirr will have had a head start of one year. Telebirr is also using its first mover advantage well, having recently signed an agreement with a Ghanaian fintech company, Zeepay, to facilitate cross-border payments. This is a bold move to tap into Ethiopia’s large, influential diaspora market.

“This is the last big unopened telco market in Africa and probably one of the very few in the world,” says Ethiopian-American Zemedeneh Negatu, the global chairman of the Fairfax African

38

March-April 2022

Fund, a US based investment firm. “It was closed off until last year, so I think for investors this is an excellent opportunity”.

Ethiopia is a promising but difficult market for Safaricom Analysts expect Safaricom to target aggressive expansion in the local market based on a suite of products that includes data, voice, SMS, and mobile money.

Safaricom leads a consortium that includes Vodacom Group (South Africa), Vodafone Group (UK), Sumitomo Corporation (Japan) and the UK’s development finance agency, CDC Group.

The group, operating under the name the Global Partnership for Ethiopia, beat off a rival-bid from South African telecoms giant MTN Group which made an offer of $600 million.

Though Safaricom’s original agreement with the government did not include mobile money, Ethiopia said the contract will be upgraded when a second telecoms license is issued, but has now offered hope that this might come sooner for Safaricom – as early as May. Though the government has declined to give a reason for the delay of issuance of licenses, experts believe that foreign telcos were concerned about the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“I fully suppose the reason behind the postponement is because of the conflict, because, at the time, there were announcements by western embassies to withdraw staff,” says Patrick Heinisch, an emerging markets economist at Helaba commercial bank.

The 15-month conflict gutted Ethiopia’s DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

economy and left thousands dead, though there are recent signs of a tentative peace. However, reports of indiscriminate government drone strikes, and heated tensions between the Amhara, Afar, and Tigray regional governments over land in Western Tigray suggest that the crisis isn’t over just yet.

The war has battered Ethiopia’s economy – the IMF predicts growth of only 2% this year. The second license is expected to be issued in the coming months, with Safaricom likely having a small head start.

Challenges that Safaricom might face in Ethiopia Despite the advantage Safaricom has over other operators due to a strong track-record in the region, the household Kenyan company faces several additional challenges. One key difference between the two countries, is that Ethiopia’s population is not as digitally-savvy nor as wealthy

as Kenya’s. However, most analysts believe there will be strong demand for Safaricom’s services as Ethiopia’s population has been underserved for decades.

“Product adoption should be relatively easy, I don’t see resistance for consumers using their phones for banking like in mobile money,” says Negatu.

Safaricom’s main competitor is Ethio Telecom, a state-owned enterprise. Although the Kenyabased firm enters the market as the more dynamic player, Ethio Telecom is set to offer serious competition after the government proposed selling a 40% stake to a foreign entity – most likely French operator Orange.

An early sign of discord comes as Safaricom and Ethio Telecom have failed to agree on an infrastructure sharing agreement for telcoms towers. Ethio Telecom currently has around 7,500 telecoms towers but Ethiopia needs double that figure to cover 95% of the vast and mountainous country, Negatu says.

Safaricom will look at sharing masts with Ethio Telecom and building new ones to extend services to hard-to-reach customers, he says, though this will be more problematic than in Kenya which is far less mountainous.

Another immediate priority for Safaricom is extending the 4G network outside Addis Ababa where it is currently limited. Safaricom announced in January that it will build a prefabricated data center in Ethiopia’s capital city for $100 million.

The much-needed foreign investment has reignited hopes that Ethiopia will soon turn a page on its period of instability and conflict. Ethiopia’s Communication Authority (ECA) director general believes the Safaricom-led consortium will invest $8 billion on critical infrastructure and services in Ethiopia over the next decade. Safaricom will officially launch commercial services in Ethiopia in April. https://qz.com/africa/2124960/safaricoms-entryinto-ethiopia-will-shake-up-mobile-money Image credit: customercarecontactnumber.in, inclusiontimes.com, News Ghana, ethio. news

39

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

5G: Google’s Subsea Cable Lands in Togo

By Desmond Okon THE SUBMARINE CABLE, which offers a fifthgeneration (5G) mobile service, landed on Friday , march 18th in Togo following a partnership deal involving the Togolese government, Google, and CSquared, an open-access wholesale broadband infrastructure company.

According to a statement made to TheCable, the internet cable offers 20 times more bandwidth than any other cable currently serving West Africa, as Togo becomes the first landing point of the submarine cable in Africa.

Google Africa also confirmed the development in a statement on its website. “In 2019, we introduced the Equiano subsea cable, which will run from Portugal along the West Coast of Africa — connecting Europe to Togo, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, and St. Helena. Today, we are announcing the Equiano subsea cable has arrived in Lomé, Togo — marking the cable’s first stop along Africa’s Atlantic coast,” it said.

The subsea internet cable is part of Google’s $1 billion programme to build digital capacity on the continent.

This year, it is also expected to land in Lagos (Nigeria), Swakopmund (Namibia,) and Cape Town (South Africa), with branching units in place for further phases of the project.

For Togo, Equiano is said to be vital and will play a strategic part in supporting the country’s digitalisation plans.

Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation for Togo, said broadening the access to high-speed internet was a fundamental part of their national digital development process as they strive towards achieving the objectives set out in their Digital 2025 Strategy.

“As Togo continues to earn its place on the regional and international stage as a digital hub and a favourable ecosystem for innovation and investment, our collaboration with Google and 40

March-April 2022

Google Cloud

CSquared in successfully landing Equiano further demonstrates Togo’s commitment to enhancing public and social services for all citizens so that they can benefit economically,” she said.

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director of Google SubSaharan Africa, said the landing of Equiano affirms Google’s commitment to the continent and support Africa’s digital transformation. “We are thrilled that Togo will be Equiano’s first landing on the African continent, as it aligns with the country’s continuing efforts to promote digital inclusion for Africa. We look forward to working closely with the Togolese government and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Transformation as they continue to build their digital infrastructure,” Gajria said.

Lanre Kolade, Group Chief Executive Officer of CSquared, said Squared was honoured to be part of Togo’s digital strategy, a plan focused on social inclusion and economic development that will transform the economy with accessible, safe, and affordable broadband, across gender, and geography.

“CSquared Woezon, our joint venture with Société d’Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), will put in place the next generation of connected infrastructure on which the digital ecosystem, the economy, and the government can ride,” he said.

“Beyond the landing of Google’s Equiano in Togo, the JV will also manage and rollout Fiber Metros and National Backbone across the country, moving Togo forward on its quest to become a digital hub in West Africa with connectivity into neighbouring countries, Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso.” https://www.thecable.ng/5g-googles-subsea-cablelands-in-togo-its-first-spot-in-africa

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

President Kenyatta Welcomes UAE’s Plan to Establish an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre in Kenya The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces has directed the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development to establish an innovation and entrepreneurship centre in Kenya.

PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA has welcomed an announcement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to establish an innovation and entrepreneurship centre in Kenya.

The announcement is part of the outcomes of President Kenyatta’s bilateral talks with His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Following the talks held during the President’s working visit to the UAE, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces has directed the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development to establish an innovation and entrepreneurship centre in Kenya.

“Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development has announced its plan to establish an innovation and entrepreneurship centre in the Republic of Kenya,” a news release by the official Emirates News Agency indicated.

The innovation and entrepreneurship centre will focus on launching programmes, workshops and initiatives geared towards providing aspiring and established Kenyan entrepreneurs with guidance on how they can inject innovation into their entrepreneurial endeavours to boost

41

March-April 2022

the national economy.

According to the Khalifa Fund and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development Chairman Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, the directive of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to establish a centre for innovation and techfocused entrepreneurism in Kenya comes as part of the UAE’s ongoing commitment to contribute towards empowering talented innovators and entrepreneurs around the world.

“With centres such as these, we provide entrepreneurs with resources, support and guidance to contribute to their local and global economy, bringing about positive economic implications and security," Al Hammadi said.

He added: "This collaboration between the UAE and Kenya will see the two respective nations implement Khalifa Fund’s successful model to the new innovation and entrepreneurism centre with the aim of reflecting the same levels of achievement in Kenya as has been experienced in the UAE.” Al Hammadi said the Khalifa Fund, which was recently recognised as the best-in-the-world by the Global Monitoring Index, is committed to enhancing and elevating Kenya in a similar fashion to assist in creating job opportunities for Kenyans.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Presidency of the Republic of Kenya.

Image credit: arabiangazette.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Africans are Trying to Fix Wikipedia’s Language Problem — Quartz Africa

By Quartz (QZ.COM)

ALTHOUGH WIKIPEDIA is an important source of knowledge and one of the world’s most-visited websites, it has a scarcity of content in African languages. To put this into perspective, Swahili Wikipedia has about 69,000 articles, the most of any African-language edition, compared to 6.45 million for the top-ranked English Wikipedia.

But a growing movement in the continent is working to increase African-language content in the online encyclopedia by equipping Africans with tools to create Wikipedia articles in their own languages.

As part of it, three Wikipedia AfroCuration “edit-athons”, or workshops, have taken place recently— separately in Mozambique, South Africa then Zimbabwe—resulting in volunteers creating and editing of hundreds of Wikipedia articles.

“Unless you amplify our history it’s gonna die,” says Lwando Xaso, who organized the South African event through the country’s Constitution Hill Trust, a public-benefit organization.

There’s a language divide and digital knowledge gap African languages are often marginalized in tech, with lack of proper representation in areas such as voice recognition and online learning and knowledge resources. This creates a language divide and a digital knowledge gap that pushes low-income populations and languages that are less widely spoken globally to the periphery. It also prevents some users from benefiting from these technological applications for their own development.

But increasingly, Africans in tech are working to correct these omissions by shaping their own course and taking tech in the direction that would 42

March-April 2022

make it most beneficial for themselves. These initiatives mostly by Africans for Africans extend beyond language use, to other aspects such as fighting for digital rights and equipping women with the tools to combat online violence.

“The survival and growth of African languages will be enhanced by Africans creating knowledge about their cultures in African languages on Internet-based knowledge websites,” says Joyce Nyairo, a Nairobi-based cultural analyst. These sites, she adds, are now a critical space for the amplification of locally-produced knowledge.

Volunteers in Wikipedia “edit-a-thons” learn how to create content In the Wikipedia “edit-a-thons,” which take place online over two days, participants are taught the basics of Wikipedia and writing, editing, and translating articles for the encyclopedia. Lessons include putting references, adding images, and sharing the work. The volunteers then write and edit actual articles. Guest speakers also speak to them for inspiration.

Unless you amplify our history it’s gonna die.

The content worked on is based on a theme for each workshop. For example, the theme for the South African event was the history of women in South Africa and how they contributed to ending apartheid and writing the country’s current constitution. This is notable because globally only

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

sphere, in every sector in English,” she says. “But that is not available in our languages and it is upon us as language activists to participate in creating that content in our languages and make it accessible and available to everybody who is a speaker or user of that language, or reader of that language.”

We have multiple truths, and truths that are spoken in different languages, not just in English.

The AfroCuration series is organized

by WikiAfrica Education, a project of the Moleskine Foundation, an Italy-based nonprofit. It partners with local cultural institutions to hold the workshops, and the

20% of Wikipedia biographies are about women, with the figures for Africa being even worse. For the Zimbabwean one, it was the country’s cultural landscape.

Workshop participants worked on hundreds of Wikipedia articles In total, 135 volunteers participated in the three workshops and they have so far written more than 240 articles and edited more than 290.

Africans writing in their own languages for a platform such as Wikipedia is important “so that the information and knowledge will be passed to generation to generation,” says Lindokuhle Mdluli, a supermarket cashier who took part in the South African workshop.

Mdluli, a native isiZulu speaker, wrote her first Wikipedia articles at the “edit-a-thon.”

“Our native languages are very important,” she tells Quartz. “I will try my best to write all the articles in the world if I can in isiZulu so that it can be passed to generation to generation because this information is very important.”

Other participants, such as Khethiwe Marais, had prior experience creating Wikipedia content.

As an editor, rewriter, and translator of academic and other material, Marais had been translating Wikipedia articles for about three years, working in isiZulu and Tsonga.

“If you search in Wikipedia, you find loads of information in every field you can think of, in every 43

March-April 2022

cultural institutions call out for volunteers.

Xaso, the South African organizer, reckons some of the significances of Africans creating knowledge about their culture on platforms such as Wikipedia is that it preserves languages and creates a space online where African languages can thrive.

Another, she says, is that it helps development in the virtual world in that algorithms must take into account people that speak in different languages and take their knowledge in their native tongue.

“We have multiple truths, and truths that are spoken in different languages, not just in English,” she says. “I think the truth hits differently when it’s in your own language.” https://fastobserver.com/2022/02/africans-aretrying-to-fix-wikipedias-language-problem-quartzafrica.html Source: https://qz.com/africa/2126919/africansare-trying-to-fix-wikipedias-language-problem Image credit: Foss Bytes, Fonts In Use DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

South Africa’s Most Popular Languages are Coming to Duolingo

By Carlos Mureithi

Contestants watch others perform during a Zulu dance competition in Durban. REUTERS/ROGAN WARD TWO OF SOUTH AFRICA’S main languages, Zulu and Xhosa, will be made available on Duolingo, one of the most popular languagelearning apps and websites.

But creating them will take longer than usual, mainly because of the challenge of figuring out how to teach their click sounds, says Myra Awodey, Duolingo’s lead community specialist.

“We’re going to have to design entirely new ways of teaching,” she says, adding that they won’t be able to use a template from another language.

The company says that the addition of the southern African languages, which are spoken by 20 million people, is part of its effort to bring cultural awareness and exposure of lesser-known languages to a wider audience.

“We have a really important responsibility right

44

March-April 2022

now in the world where language diversity is at risk,” says Awodey.

The news is timed with Duocon (2021), Duolingo’s annual festival for language learning, where the company will also publicize the addition of Maori (New Zealand), Tagalog (the Philippines), and Haitian Creole.

A local collaboration The addition of the southern African languages springs from a partnership with Nal’ibali, a South African nonprofit that promotes multilingual reading.

Wanting to expose learnings to more diverse languages and cultures, Duolingo was connected with Nal’ibali by its partner, the Trevor Noah Foundation. Noah, a South African comedian who rose to global fame when he was appointed host of the popular US Daily Show, has a Xhosa mother and speaks Zulu fluently, among other languages.

Zulu and Xhosa in the South African context Zulu and Xhosa are two of South Africa’s 11 official languages, and among the most widely spoken languages in South African homes (23% and 16% respectively, followed by Afrikaans at around 14%. Around 10% of people speak English at home).

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

While the South African government is piloting the use of mother-tongue language instruction at more schools, most use English or Afrikaans as their language of instruction, with African languages as electives Accessing tools and resources to further learn the other languages is difficult, because most books in the country are published in English and Afrikaans, says Huston.

“Everybody needs to learn English, but surely we should also be learning isiZulu,” she says, calling the South African language by its local name.

Being both Bantu languages of the Nguni people, Zulu and Xhosa are mutually intelligible, and their shared grammar, structure, and vocabulary, is part of the reason Duolingo decided to add them both, according to Katie Huston, Nal’ibali’s chief operating officer.

Dr. Luis van Ahn presents on the new languages being added to Duolingo.DUOLINGO Representing.

More African-language courses The addition of Zulu and Xhosa, expected in early 2022, will bring to three the number of African-language courses offered by Duolingo.

The Swahili course, which was added in 2017, has 363,000 active users.

45

March-April 2022

For these two language projects, Duolingo will bring expertise on how to build engaging language learning courses using its tools, learning experts, and a curriculum design team, Awodey says.

Nal’ibali, she adds, will help find people who will be best suited for the roles of content creation and overall planning, as well as getting community feedback from learners and native speakers for the testing phase, which is an important part of the Duolingo’s curriculum developments.

It’s “just super exciting to see more resources that are elevating and equalizing [our] languages,” Awodey says.

Trevor Noah, for his part, told Duolingo cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn in a discussion about languages and the new offerings that he is “truly excited for Zulu and Xhosa [to be added].

Xhosa because I want to start learning it, and speaking it fluently. And then Zulu, just so I can brush up while I’m not in my country.”

But, he adds, “you’re gonna need a whole section in Xhosa just to teach people about the clicks.” https://qz.com/africa/2050074/african-languageszulu-and-xhosa-join-swahili-on-duolingo Image credit: YouTube, slate.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Ethiopia's Abiy Tells Banking Sector to get Ready for Foreign Competitors

By Reuters

ETHIOPIA PLANS to open up its banking i n d u s t r y to foreign competition as soon as parliament passes policies permitting it, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, flagging reforms of one of the last major sectors of the economy still to be liberalised.

When Abiy took office in 2018, he pledged to overhaul sectors like telecoms and financial services.

Measures to open up the telecoms sector are underway, with a consortium comprising Kenya's Safaricom, South Africa's Vodacom, Britain's Vodafone and Japan's Sumitomo building a

network after obtaining an operating licence last year. (see page 36) The fact that Ethiopia has closed its doors to foreign banks has benefited the sector until now, Abiy told lawmakers. "But after this, banks need to prepare themselves with modern ways and information technologies," he added.

"Regarding this, the government is now preparing... a policy amendment. Once preconditions are met and banks are prepared, we will (implement) that."

At present Ethiopia has 18 commercial lenders, two of which are state-owned, according to the central bank. www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ethiopia-s-abiytells-banking-sector-to-get-ready-for-foreigncompetitors/ar-AAU9xMc Image credit: marketscreener.com

Overseas Citi Exec Touts Commercial Bank Opportunities in Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

By Steve Gels CITIGROUP EXECUTIVE EBRU PAKCAN told Bloomberg the bank sees bullish prospects for its commercial banking arm in Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Pakcan, who is CEO of EMEA for Citigroup, said Tuesday the bank plans to focus on existing Citi clients with a presence in these countries. "We will be in the markets with a caveat that we are not going to go to very low or small enterprises, but rather focusing on making the Citi network available to existing clients with multiple countries' presence," Pakcan said in the Bloomberg article.

Under CEO Jane Fraser, Citigroup has been 46

March-April 2022

shedding retail banking operations in 13 countries in Asia and Europe, as well as similar business units in Mexico. Citi is shifting to focus on building up its wealth management arm in countries such as United Arab Emirates. Shares of Citigroup are up 6.2% so far in 2022, compared to a dip of 8.8% by the S&P 500. www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/ overseas-citi-exec-touts-commercial-bankopportunities-in-egypt-south-africa-nigeria-kenya/ ar-AAUa7AW Image credit: WEHOville

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

It is 30% of the Total Black Mountain That we Have Handed Over THE GOVERNMENT HAS OFFICIALLY handed over 30% of the Kitwe Mineral Slag Dump commonly known as Black Mountain to cooperatives owned by the local youth and women.

The Black Mountain located between Wusakile and Nkana West is owned by Nkana Alloy, who are the major shareholders with the Government having a minor stake.

President Hakainde Hichilema announced on Facebook the handover of the Kitwe Black Mountain to a Consortium of cooperatives representing all the 10 districts of the Copperbelt province, the Women in Mining group, and the Community hosting the black mountain.

When handing over the 30% portion of the Black Mountain in Kitwe, Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Paul Kabuswe told the cooperatives to begin operations with immediate effect.

Mr. Kabuswe said the youth and women groups should use the first seven days to ensure that safety measures and a pickup point of chrome for scavengers is secured.

He warned operators at the Black Mountain to ensure that the safety of scavenger’s is guaranteed.

Mr. Kabuswe reminded operators that the Government will not condone gangsterism, cadrelism and jerabo behavior during operations at the slug damp.

Mr. Kabuswe, who was accompanied by Copperbelt Minister Elisha Matambo, said order and sanity should prevail during the operations adding that all cooperatives that have been engaged were scrutinized.

“The community has been given 30%, that is the Zambian youths, the Kitwe District, the Copperbelt Province, the women. Actually I want this point to be clear, the Black Mountain belongs to the youths, belongs to the women in mining and it belongs to all Zambians. So we have handed over 30% of 47

March-April 2022

the Black Mountain to the beneficiaries and the beneficiaries are all in the form of cooperatives being represented by all districts on the Copperbelt. All the ten districts of the Copperbelt have cooperatives that are benefiting from the Black Mountain,” Mr. Kabuswe said.

“Every stakeholder was consulted about the modalities on how we have handed over the Black Mountain to our people. It will be in the form of cooperatives that are all over the place so please take that clear and it is 30% of the total Black Mountain that we have handed over. In this vein I would like to thank Nkana Alloy who have been magnanimous in our discussions and that now we have 30% of the Black Mountain handed over to our youths,” Mr. Kabuswe said.

The Mines Minister further said a trust fund will be opened which will be run by Kitwe District Commissioner Lawrence Mwanza for people to apply for resources to be coming from the mountain.

Mr. Matambo is elated that President Hakainde Hichilema is fulfilling his campaign promises.

Mr. Matambo added that mining will remain the backbone of Zambia’s economy for many years.

Kitwe District Commissioner Lawrence Mwanza said local people should fully benefit from the operations at the Black Mountain. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2022/02/19/it-is-30-ofthe-total-black-mountain-that-we-have-handed-overmines-minister/ Image credit: zambianews365.com DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture

Ghana Launches $54.5M Climate Change Project to Rejuvenate Shea Farming

By Bwalya Chanda THE VICE PRESIDENT of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GLSERP) for farmers in the five regions of the north.

The project seeks to mitigate the effects of climate change on the fragile ecosystem of the Northern Savannah Landscape and improve the shea value chain, particularly for the many women engaged in the entire value chain.

At the launching ceremony in Tamale, Vice President Bawumia said the Shea Landscape Project would be the second emission reductions programme to be implemented under the REDD+ process in Ghana, after the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+.

The project is focused on the northern landscapes, which are currently undergoing rapid deforestation and degradation, including the loss of valuable shea trees.

The GSLERP will provide a unique opportunity to engage the Shea commodity and its by-products on a bigger scale, which are income-generating activities for over 600,000 women.

Ghana is currently the fourth-largest producer of Shea globally. The project is expected to be successful by planting over 1.7 million shea trees over a 7-year project period.

The government, since 2017, has supported scientific research on the shea plant to make it a reliable income-generating product.

The work undertaken by the COCOBOD, has led to an important breakthrough, including reducing the gestation period of the shea plant from over 20 years to an average of 3 years, the Vice President disclosed.

Dr. Bawumia said it was against that 48

March-April 2022

background that the government committed in the 2022 budget statement to embark on projects and programmes that would promote the cultivation of shea in the north, just as cocoa in the south, to transform the local economies of the shea region.

The implementation of GSLERP is crucial, Vice President Bawumia stated, as the project would address about nine Sustainable Development Goals.

He said the project would address the financial constraints of shea farmers, ensure gender equality in the shea-production systems, promote the business development of shea farming among natives, decrease deforestation and enhance fire management covering almost 500,000 hectares.

Vice President Bawumia said the project could be achieved when stakeholders fully commit to it through collective ownership.

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor expressed the government’s gratitude to the chiefs for banning the harvesting of wood and the burning of same into charcoal, saying it would go a long in the fight climate change. www.africanleadershipmagazine.co.uk/ghanalaunches-54-5-climate-change-project-torejuvenate-shea-farming/ Image credit: buzznigeria.com, https://www.ebay. com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Behance

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.

The organisation was transformed into the African Union on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Day

49

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Africa is on Track to Control Coronavirus Pandemic, WHO Says

By Nimi Princewill AFRICAN COUNTRIES ARE on course to control the coronavirus and its emerging variants this year, the World Health Organization's regional head for the continent has said.

African countries have faced a number of challenges since the first outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in February 2020, including the impact of lockdowns on economies and livelihoods, and inequities in accessing vaccines.

However, the continent also saw relatively modest infection and fatality rates, with a higher number of recoveries when compared to cases reported globally, according to data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

"Over the past two years, the African continent has gotten smarter, faster, and better at responding to each new surge in cases of Covid-19," said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti.

"We are finally able to say that if current trends hold, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As long as we remain vigilant, and we act intensely particularly on vaccination, the continent is on track for controlling the pandemic," Moeti told a press briefing Thursday.

Africa has seen nearly 11 million Covid cases (3% of total cases reported globally) and around 242,000 Covid-related deaths (4.2% of globally reported fatalities) as of February 10, according to the Africa CDC. The continent still lags behind other parts of the world in vaccination as only 11% of its adult population has been fully vaccinated, the WHO said in a statement Thursday.

first time a wave's surge in cases has not led to a commensurate increase in hospitalizations and deaths," WHO stated.

Moeti, however, acknowledged that Africa's Covid infection rates could be much higher than the known figures.

"We're very much aware that our surveillance systems problems that we had on the continent, with access to testing supplies... have led to an underestimation of the cases," she said.

Moeti added that as Africa transitions into a new phase of the pandemic, the continent must strengthen its health systems so it is better prepared to manage future waves of infections.

The WHO Africa office said it was spearheading an initiative in 15 African countries to ramp up Covid testing and provide infection prevention tools such as face masks and hand gels.

The health agency also said it has, among other initiatives, increased the number of Covid laboratories in the continent from two to over 900 in two years.

Last month, the head of the Africa CDC, Dr. John Nkengasong, said he feared that Covid-19 could become endemic on the continent given the slow pace of vaccination, but warned that severe lockdowns were no longer the best way to contain the virus.

An estimated 40 million people were plunged into extreme poverty by the pandemic in Africa, according to a World Bank report last April, and containment measures such as lockdowns have A New Phase of the Pandemic cost the continent billions of dollars in lost gross Africa has battled four waves of the highly domestic product. transmissible virus. The WHO Africa office said each wave of the coronavirus had come "with higher www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/africa-is-onpeaks or more total new cases than the previous track-to-control-coronavirus-pandemic-who-says/ ar-AATJWzI one." But compared to previous waves, the fourth wave "was over in six weeks" and "represents the Image credit: africacdc.org

50

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Six African Countries to Kick Off mRNA Vaccines Production Aljazeera

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) has announced the first six countries that will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines in Africa, in the latest effort to boost production on the continent.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia have been selected to ramp up jabs production on the continent.

“No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous,” said Tedros during a ceremony hosted by the European Council, France, South Africa and the WHO. “In the mid-to-long term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint,” he added.

Established in 2021, the global mRNA technology transfer hub was set up to ensure that low- and middle-income countries had all the operating procedures and know-how to produce their own jabs at scale and according to international standards.

As used in the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA technology provokes an immune response by delivering genetic molecules containing the code for key parts of a pathogen into human cells.

The announcement came as Africa, home to some 1.3 billion people, has been struggling to get 51

March-April 2022

enough vaccines while wealthier nations received most of the world’s supplies. Currently, 17% of the African population has received at least one dose – a figure that rises to 75 and 76% in the European Union and the United States respectively, according to Our World in Data.

The hub’s set-up is important considering that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna – the main producer of mRNA vaccines – all declined a WHO request to share their technology and expertise.

Currently, only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on the continent.

“This is mRNA technology designed in Africa, led by Africa and owned by Africa,” said EU’s chief Ursula von der Leyen during the ceremony.

“A perfect example of what we can achieve when we pool together,” she added on Twitter.

The WHO said it would work with the first six countries chosen to develop a roadmap of training and support so they can start producing vaccines as soon as possible.

Training will begin in March.

The South African hub is already producing mRNA vaccines at laboratory scale and is currently scaling up towards a commercial scale.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “This is an initiative that will allow us to make our own vaccines and that, to us, is very important.

It means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party, investment in our economies, infrastructure investment and, in many ways, giving back to the continent.” www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/six-africancountries-to-kick-off-mrna-vaccines-production/ ar-AAU22tm Image credit: devdiscourse.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Moderna Announces First African Vaccine Facility in Kenya From AFP

US VACCINE maker Moderna announced Monday (March 7, 2022) that it would build its first mRNA jab-manufacturing facility in Africa after signing an agreement with Kenya's government to produce up to 500 million doses a year.

The company said it expected to invest $500 million (460 million euros) in the new facility, which will produce vaccines for the continent of 1.3 billion people whose population has been largely shut out of access to Covid jabs.

"Battling the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years has provided a reminder of the work that must be done to ensure global health equity.

Moderna is committed to being a part of the solution," the company's CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna said it hopes to use the facility to supply doses of its Covid-19 jab to African nations as early as next year, in a bid to boost vaccine coverage on the world's least immunised continent.

"Moderna's investment in Kenya will help advance equitable global vaccine access and is emblematic of the structural developments that will enable Africa to become an engine of sustainable global growth," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

More than a year after the world's first Covid-19 shot was administered and two years into the pandemic itself, just 12.7% of Africans have been fully immunised, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The pandemic has exposed Africa's huge dependence on imported vaccines and its tech weakness compared with Europe, China and the United States.

Moderna's announcement follows a decision by

52

March-April 2022

the World Health Organization to create a global mRNA vaccine hub in South Africa last year (see page 51), with Kenya among six African nations selected to be the first recipients of technology aimed at enabling local manufacturers to make jabs.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly called for equitable access to vaccines in order to beat the pandemic, and attacked wealthy nations for hogging doses.

Currently only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on the continent.

African -- and other developing -- nations are pushing at the World Trade Organization for a temporary intellectual property waiver to allow the generic production of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

Europe -- the home of some of the major companies behind the vaccines -- has opposed the move, arguing that the first priority was to build up production capacity in poorer countries. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/modernaannounces-first-african-vaccine-facility-in-kenya/ ar-AAUJwvq?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=W069 Image credit: terracestandard.com DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health - Leader Profile

WHO Africa's 1st Woman Leader Helps Continent Fight COVID

By Carley Petesch

PEOPLE STAND WHEN Dr. Matshidiso Moeti enters a room at the World Health Organization’s Africa headquarters in the Republic of Congo and they listen intently to what she says.

Small in stature and big in presence, Moeti is the first woman to lead WHO’s regional Africa office, the capstone of her trailblazing career in which she has overcome discrimination in apartheid South Africa to become one of the world’s top health administrators.

As WHO Africa chief, Moeti initiates emergency responses to health crises in 47 of the continent’s 54 countries and recommends policies to strengthen their health care systems.

Since her appointment in 2015, Moeti has grappled with the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak, in West Africa. She has also has had to handle lingering criticism of WHO’s spending and hiring in Africa as it also deals with allegations of sexual assault by contractors during Congo’s Ebola crisis.

From 2020, the start of her second term, Moeti has faced her toughest professional and personal challenge: helping Africa respond to the coronavirus pandemic as the continent trails the rest of the world in testing and vaccination efforts. She has become one of the world’s most compelling voices urging better consideration of Africa’s people — especially women, who’ve in many ways been hit hardest by COVID. Her identity as an African woman has been both a strength and an obstacle on a continent where much of society is still dominated by patriarchal systems.

“I’m certainly doing my best to be there not only as a technician and a manager and a leader, but also very much as a woman from the region, from 53

March-April 2022

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti the continent,” Moeti, 67, told The Associated Press during a recent visit to WHO Africa headquarters in Republic of Congo. “I feel very privileged.

“At the same time ... I’m looking forward to the day when it will no longer be notable that there’s a woman leading an organization — when it will have become part of the norm.”

Moeti has made strides within WHO Africa to follow through on her word — starting a leadership program that has helped promote more women by ensuring that female applicants for jobs are taken as seriously as men.

Improved gender parity is evident at WHO Africa, where nearly equal numbers of men and women walk around the sprawling campus, about a 20-minute drive outside Brazzaville along the Congo River. In her time in office, Moeti said, she is proud to have shifted the ratio of men to women — now, four female directors and four male directors flank her in the grand conference room where meetings and Zoom calls are held. Prior, it was three women in the presence of six men.

One of the women at the table is Dr. Mary Stephens who says that seeing Moeti as regional director means a lot to her and others in Africa, where women historically and traditionally have had to take a back seat: “It gives us hope and an indication that it can happen for any woman on the continent.”

Emergency work like hers, Stephens said, “adds another layer of challenge to it for a woman, because you’re deployed to difficult situations and see page 54

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health - Leader Profile WHO Africa Leader

from page 53

it is perceived to be a job that not all women can do. Well, we have been doing this work. I’ve been doing it for almost 10 years now, and we are progressing.”

In Africa, women have suffered disproportionately during the pandemic — with lower vaccine rates, economic turmoil, rising pregnancies, other healthcare issues, increases in domestic and gender-based violence — and Moeti has made addressing that inequality a cornerstone of her work.

“Very often I’m thinking about those people who are most frequently disadvantaged and missed by the health services ... the kind of adolescent girl, that person who is transitioning from being a child taken care of by the child health services to being a woman of reproductive age with all the vulnerabilities that that that implies in Dr. Matshidiso Moet, joins Congo's health minister Gilbert Mokoki on a field trip in Brazzaville, Congo, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/ Africa,” Moeti said.

Moses Sawasawa) She thinks of women she knows and sees. The woman who braids her hair, who lost work because of the lockdown and is as the student spoke — nodding in encouragement. scared of the vaccine. An elderly woman who must “Many people aren’t aware of the presence of the carry her load of food up and down steep hills. virus, so we need to let them know about it and Women selling produce at marketplaces forced to how to avoid getting it,” Mayeyenda said, explaining close their stalls. how Africa still lags behind other parts of the world.

The way out of the pandemic is to reach these Later, Mayeyenda said Moeti and her work women with awareness campaigns and economic inspire her as Africa tries to catch up, and she aid, she said. recommended that the leader also visit universities To this end, Moeti tries to get out into the field to speak and show young women that a future in monthly. She’s frequently joined by government science is possible for them, too. officials and journalists, and the convoy can attract The pandemic has also worsened existing gender a crowd — as with a recent trip to the dense Ouenze inequities in key spheres, according to WHO neighborhood of Brazzaville. Women and men Africa. Women constitute 70% of the health and jostled to get a glimpse of their health minister, the social workers in Africa and are on the frontlines mayor and Moeti, at a small yard outside a health of COVID-19 response, yet 85% of national task center. forces are led by men, according to the U.N. In a colorful tailored top and WHO vest, Moeti After cheering and celebration — part of the listened with the others to 25-year-old biochemistry usual fanfare of official visits — Moeti and the student Arnie Mayeyenda explain COVID-19, officials headed to a hospital, where nurses lined prevention methods and vaccination efforts to up to welcome them. In a tight corner, she and the residents. Moeti leaned over to listen to a translator health minister spoke with a woman being tested

54

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

With hindsight, Moeti says she wishes she’d focused more on Africa’s low-income countries that needed help getting vaccines. She is pleased that the continent’s countries can now get specific vaccines and reliable delivery dates, she said.

A major controversy during Moeti’s term erupted in Congo where a commission found that WHO-contracted staff members were among aid workers who perpetrated sexual abuse during the Ebola Dr. Matshidiso Moeti meets with Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, WHO pandemic crisis from 2018 to 2020. specialist at her office in Brazzaville, Congo, Tuesday Feb. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/ Moeti said policies have been Moses Sawasawa) implemented to be sure this does not happen again, including more stringent for COVID, reassuring her.

Africa has shown lower rates of COVID-19 cases management of the hiring and supervision of compared with the rest of the world, but that’s contract workers.

Moeti remains optimistic about Africa’s path out of likely due to lower testing levels. Countries have the pandemic — and WHO’s role in that progress. struggled to treat the sick, and vaccination rates are low, with just over 13% of all of Africa’s 1.3 Family Matters billion people fully vaccinated at the beginning of With a demanding schedule, she lives on the March. That’s far behind the global rate of 56.6%, WHO campus and her office is just a few meters according to Our World in Data from home. It’s sacred ground, with assistants Moeti has nearly 40 years of experience in making sure she’s not disturbed. Her sprawling public health, but the coronavirus pandemic has desk is neatly organized, with the United Nations confronted her with new challenges. and WHO banners behind it, the backdrop on her “The difficulties have really been about learning many Zoom conferences. Her collection of African about this new virus, adapting quickly and helping sculptures and paintings enlivens the office. countries to do the same,” she said. She noted The women in her family helped her to achieve so Africa faces unique challenges — at the start of the much, she says. Moeti’s mother was a doctor, and pandemic only a handful of the continent’s countries her grandmother a teacher who was widowed with could test for COVID-19, now virtually every nation seven girls to raise in a South African society that can do that. Africa has been dependent upon looked more favorably on educating sons. Moeti imported vaccines which resulted in lengthy delays speaks of her as a hero — “a very determined, as rich nations bought the inoculations first. soldiering-on type of woman.”

The U.N.-backed COVAX initiative, meant to Moeti also acknowledges that she was ensure equitable access to vaccines, did not make privileged to be raised in a family that valued its first deliveries to African countries until a year education above all else. When she was young into the pandemic, and even then had uneven in apartheid South Africa where segregated, distribution. sub-standard Bantu education was enforced for But now steady supplies of vaccines are arriving Blacks, she had to commute to Swaziland for across the continent and Africa is creating labs see page 56 that can manufacture vaccines.

55

March-April 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health - Leader Profile WHO Africa Leader

from page 55

schooling and faced scrutiny at the borders of the small country encircled by South Africa. The commute was too much, so her parents moved the family to Botswana where they could get better, non-racist education.

The importance of education has been a constant in her life. When she pursued a master’s degree in London, she was separated from her daughters for a year, and her marriage to their father eventually ended. She is now remarried to an epidemiologist who has worked on many outbreaks and commutes in and out of the country, she said.

Despite the challenges she has faced, she wouldn’t change her life, she says. Her family and education continue to motivate her to improve Africa’s health care. Thinking of young African girls suffering during COVID-19, Moeti says she wants to help improve their lives, inspire them and make them into leaders.

She wants them to know: “I’m a child who was in the South African township and running around the streets. I hope that will encourage them.” ___ This story is part of a yearlong series on how the pandemic is impacting women in Africa, most acutely in the least developed countries. The Associated Press series is funded by the European Journalism Centre’s European Development Journalism Grants program, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The AP is responsible for all content. https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-healthbusiness-discrimination-531ffb43e84c95d9fc9c17 6022f5bc50 Image credit: IAPB

56

March-April 2022

Governance

How AI Helped Delive

THE BIG IDEA T Governments and humanitarian groups can use machine learning algorithms and mobile phone m data to get aid to those who need it most during d a humanitarian crisis, we found in new research.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread in early 2 2020, our research team helped Togo’s Ministry o of Digital Economy and GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that sends cash to people living in poverty, turn th this th insight into a new type of aid program. The simple idea behind this approach, as we explained s in the journal Nature on March 16, 2022, is that w people use phones differently from poor wealthy people. p Their phone calls and text messages follow fo different patterns, and they use different data plans, for example. Machine learning d algorithms—which a are fancy tools for pattern r recognition—can be trained to recognize those diff d erences and infer whether a given mobile subscriber s is wealthy or poor.

First, we collected recent, reliable and representative data. Working on the ground r with w partners in Togo, we conducted 15,000 phone surveys to collect information on the living p conditions c of each household. After matching the survey responses to data from the mobile phone s companies, c we trained the machine learning algorithms to recognize the patterns of phone a use u that were characteristics of people living on o less than $1.25 per day.

The next challenge was figuring out whether a system based on machine learning and phone s data would be effective at getting money to the d poorest people in the country. Our evaluation p indicated that this new approach worked better in than th other options Togo’s government was cconsidering.

For instance, focusing entirely on the poorest ccantons—which are analogous to U.S. counties— would have delivered benefits to only 33% of the w people living on less than US$1.25 a day. By p DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

er Cash Aid to Many of the Poorest People in Togo

By Emily Aiken and Joshua Blumenstock

contrast, the machine learning approach targeted 47% of that population.

We then partnered with Togo’s government, GiveDirectly and community leaders to design and pilot a cash transfer program based on this technology.

In November 2020, the first beneficiaries were enrolled and paid. To date, the program has provided nearly $10 million to roughly 137,000 of the country’s poorest citizens.

WHY IT MATTERS Our work shows that data collected by mobile phone companies—when analyzed with machine learning technology—can help direct aid to those with the greatest need.

Even before the pandemic, over half of the West African nation’s 8.6 million people lived below the international poverty line. As COVID-19 slowed economic activity further, our surveys indicated that 54% of all Togolese were forced to miss meals each week.

The situation in Togo was not unique. The downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic pushed millions of people into extreme poverty.

In response, governments and charities launched several thousand new aid programs, providing benefits to over 1.5 billion people and families around the world.

But in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, governments struggle to figure out who needs help most urgently. Under ideal circumstances, those decisions would be based on comprehensive household surveys. But there was no way to gather this information in the middle of a pandemic.

Our work helps demonstrate how new sources of big data—such as information gleaned from

57

March-April 2022

satellites and mobile phone networks—can make it possible to target aid amid crisis conditions when more traditional sources of data are unavailable.

WHAT’S NEXT We’re conducting follow-up research to assess how cash transfers affected recipients. Previous findings indicate that cash transfers can help increase food security and improve psychological well-being in normal times. We are assessing whether that aid has similar results during a crisis.

It’s also essential to find ways to enroll and pay people without phones. In Togo, roughly 85% of households had at least one phone, and phones are frequently shared within families and communities. However, it is not clear how many people who needed humanitarian assistance in Togo didn’t get it because of their lack of access to a mobile device.

In the future, systems that combine new methods that leverage machine learning and big data with traditional approaches based on surveys are bound to improve the targeting of humanitarian aid. https://www.fastcompany.com/90722122/irsrefund-delays-are-already-frustrating-early-filerswho-need-their-2022-checks-most Image credit: rawpixel

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance - United Nations

Kenya Confronts Russia for Interfering with Ukraine's Sovereignty: "We Strongly Condemn the Trend"

By Jackson Otukho Amb. Martin Kimani ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022, Kenya breaching international law, urging them to defend confronted Russia for what it termed as undermining multilateralism. the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Sending Troops (View/hear full statement @ https://twitter.com/teddyeugene/ Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy status/1496007006339182592) has also accused Russia of violating its This is after the Vladimir Putin led super-power sovereignty. Sending troops Shortly after Putin country recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk recognised Donetsk and Luhansk as independent areas of Ukraine as independent states. states, he ordered the deployment of troops to two During an emergency U.N. Security Council breakaway regions. In a lengthy address packed meeting, Kenya's permanent representative to with grievances against the West, an angry Putin the UN Ambassador Martin Kimani said the claimed eastern Ukraine was ancient Russian land. country was gravely concerned by Russia's His announcement drew condemnation with the announcement. Kimani, during the Monday, Unites States halting business activities in the February 21, conference, noted that Kenya's stand breakaway regions. The Joe Biden led country on diplomacy to help end the conflict in Ukraine also banned the importation of all goods from the was not considered. He added that the threats by area.

Russia to use force had significantly affected the The Republic of Kenya is a member of the United integrity and political independence of Ukraine.

Nations Security Council. In January 2021, Kenya "We do not deny that there may be serious replaced South Africa as one of three (A3) elected security concerns in these regions. But they African nations on the Council. Niger and Tunisia cannot justify the recognition of Donetsk and also have two-year terms on the UN Security Luhansk as independent states. Not when there Council. were multiple diplomatic tracks available and www.tuko.co.ke/kenya/444156-kenyaunderway that had the ability to offer peaceful reprimands-russia-interfering-with-ukrainessolutions," said Kimani. sovereignty-we-strongly-condemn-trend The ambassador also accused powerful states, among them members of the Security Council, of Photo credit: KenyaMissionUN. Source: Twitter 58

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Dr. Joyce Banda Named Honorary Chair of Women Empowerment & Development Society in Asia-Africa

By ALM

THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF MALAWI, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda, has been named Honorary Chair of the Women Empowerment & Development Society in Asia-Africa.

In a letter conveying the appointment, the Council & Diplomats committee of the Association stated that Dr. Banda’s choice as the Honorary Chair is hinged on her, “outstanding achievement in the field of women development, capacity building and corporation.”

In her role as the Honorary Chair, Dr. Banda will among other things, “lead discussions against, discrimination and limitations on women and girls; join forces with others against gender-based violence and abuse; Support full and effective participation and equal opportunity for women and girls in leadership in all spheres of life – including the workplace; Ensuring all women and girls have access to quality learning, and: Sharing examples of real-life women and girls who are making a difference every day.”

She is also expected to “help Asian and African women improve their ability to adapt to the development of the times and enhance their social status through publicity and education on women development, academic exchanges and personnel training.”

Dr. Banda’s appointment to chair this important association of women from Africa and Asia is consistent with her life-long commitment to the promotion of issues pertaining to women, children and vulnerable members of society.

Dr. Joyce Banda served as the President of Malawi from 2012-to 2014. She was the first female president and credited for turning the country’s economy around. Malawi’s economy was on the verge of collapse in 2012, when she took the saddle of leadership. She immediately instituted a number of economic reforms which led to significant 59

March-April 2022

economic expansion; Malawi’s rate of economic growth rose from 1.8% in 2012 to over 6.2% in 2014. During her tenure, the country’s operational industrial capacity improved from 35% in 2012 to 85% in July 2014, and the foreign exchange import cover was increased from one week to three and half months in July 2014.

Dr. Banda is also an entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist. Prior to assuming office, she served as a Member of Parliament, Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, Foreign Minister, and Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. While serving as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, she championed the enactment of The Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill (2006), which provided the legal framework to support the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.

Her unwavering commitment to the promotion of women’s maternal health and reproductive rights led her to establish the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood, which spearheaded the fight against high maternal mortality rates and the promotion of safe motherhood in Malawi. During her presidency, Malawi registered considerable success in the areas of maternal and child health, reducing the maternal mortality ratio from 675 deaths per 100,000 live births to 460, a reduction of 32%.

Dr. Banda also sits on the board of several leading international organizations, including the Madrid Club. www.africanleadershipmagazine.co.uk/formerpresident-of-malawi-dr-joyce-banda-namedhonorary-chair-of-women-empowermentdevelopment-society-in-asia-africa DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

In Southern Africa, Leveling the Playing Field at Birth Critical to Reducing Inequality, Intergenerational Poverty

By The World Bank

OVERALL INEQUALITY in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is driven largely by inequality of opportunity. The report, Inequality in Southern Africa: An Assessment of the Southern African Customs Union, says climate and economic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which generally affects poor people more severely, makes gains towards a more equitable society fragile.

Comprised of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa, SACU is the world’s most unequal region. Average inequality in SACU countries has declined since the 1990s but remains relatively high compared to both other Sub-Saharan African and upper-middle-income countries. In 2010–15, the average Gini coefficient for SACU countries was around 59, compared to 42 for SubSaharan African and upper-middle-income, the report shows. There is, however, heterogeneity across countries; with a consumption per capita Gini coefficient of 67 in 2018, South Africa ranks as the most unequal country in the world, according to the latest World Bank data. The Gini coefficients of all other SACU countries except Lesotho, exceeded 50. Even Lesotho, with a Gini coefficient of 45 in 2017, was among the top 20% of unequal countries.

The report finds that the contribution of inequality of opportunity to overall inequality in SACU has increased in recent years. This is perpetuated by poorly functioning labor markets that are characterized by high unemployment especially among the youth, and where inherited circumstances continue to determine employment outcomes and earnings. Further, there are barriers to accessing productive assets such as education, skills, and land that people need to generate income and improve their wellbeing.

“Leveling the playing field at birth through

60

March-April 2022

expanding coverage of quality education, health, and basic services to disadvantaged populations in the SACU region is critical to reducing inequality and breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty,” said Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, World Bank Country Director for Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa.

The report provides a comprehensive diagnosis of the sources of inequality in SACU, finding that differences in circumstances children are born into, over which they have little or no control, explains at least one-fifth of inequality in SACU. Further, when race is included in the analysis, the contribution of inequality of opportunity in South Africa more than doubles. Circumstances at birth and during childhood, such as gender, race, location, parental education, and family wealth, are strongly associated with inequality of opportunity, even before people interact with factor markets.

The report also shows that lack of jobs and access to key productive assets such as education, skills, and land, is slowing down progress towards a more equitable income distribution. In addition, inequality in wealth is high and invariably results in inequality of opportunity. As a result, intergenerational mobility remains among the lowest in the world.

In a context where jobs are scarce and skilled labor is in short supply, having post-secondary or tertiary education is key to both accessing jobs, and obtaining better wages once employed.

“To accelerate inequality reduction, SACU countries can build on what they are already doing well with the same resources through

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

improving the efficiency and effectiveness of social spending,” said Pierella Paci, World Bank Practice Manager of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice for Eastern and Southern Africa.

The report also finds that fiscal policy in SACU significantly reduces poverty and inequality through progressive tax and benefits systems and by spending a relatively big share of their public resources to social sectors such as education, health, and social protection.

However, despite considerable social spending, outcomes are relatively poor and highly unequal. The contribution of social spending to inequality reduction could be enhanced by improving quality, targeting, and efficiency.

The report suggests three policy measures to accelerate the reduction of inequality in SACU region, including: Promoting policies that foster equality of opportunity through expanding coverage and quality of education, health and basic services across sub-regions and disadvantaged populations.

Addressing the highly skewed distribution of productive assets by strengthening access and availability of private sector jobs, facilitating entrepreneurship and skills acquisition for disadvantaged populations and improved access to land and productivity in rural areas.

Investing in adaptive social protection systems to increase resilience to climate risks and economic vulnerability while enhancing targeting of safety net programs towards the most vulnerable populations for more efficient use of fiscal resources. https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/ publication/in-southern-africa-leveling-theplaying-field-at-birth-critical-to-reducinginequality-intergenerational-poverty

travel africa

Promoting Africa-focused Tourism Since 2011

Travel Africa www.africabusinessassociation.org

61

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

3 Things to Know About Climate Change Hurting Earth’s Inhabitants, and How to Deal With It

By Isabella Isaacs-Thomas

RISING TEMPERATURES around the globe are increasingly killing humans and trees, have forced half of all species on the planet to relocate, caused more water-borne and respiratory illnesses in people and threatened food and water security for millions, says a major new climate report released Monday, February 28th by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Climate change is actively harming humanity and all other life on the planet, our long-term fates inextricably linked. The report details exactly how we are being hurt — and contributing to that hurt. It stresses that the long-term survivability of our planet depends on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reshaping human society with sustainability in mind, both key to addressing the consequences of a warming planet.

“Half measures are no longer an option,” IPCC chair Hoesung Lee said in a statement Monday.

The IPCC, which is made up of an international assembly of top scientists, issues major reports like these every five to seven years. A report published in August detailed the science behind global warming, and the link to human activity.

These latest findings – the second report in a series of three – focus on the global impacts of climate change on people and nature, which will vary based on the level of warming reached in coming decades. It also addresses adaptation options that can help ensure that the planet remains liveable for generations to come.

“This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, biodiversity and people and integrates natural, social and economic sciences more strongly than earlier IPCC assessments,” Lee said. Some of the major takeaways include: • A direct link to climate change. An increasing number of specific events— from coral reef dieoffs to land scorched by wildfire to heat-related human deaths — can now be directly attributed

62

March-April 2022

to climate change. That trend is consistent with recent advancements in attribution science, which allows researchers to connect isolated incidents to the broader phenomenon of global warming.

• Harm to mental health. Climate change’s impacts on human health are wide-ranging.

The report details various mental health effects, like for those who experience or even displaced by extreme weather events like wildfires, or among people whose access to food is threatened, said report co-author Sherilee Harper, associate Firefighters w professor the the University of Alberta’s many weathe resulting if hu School of Public Health. Even a deluge of media coverage about climate change and the way those consequences will worsen over time is affecting our mental wellbeing.

• Threats to health and health care systems.

Extreme heat events pose a significant threat to all life, and have already caused loss of human life across the globe. More exposure to wildfire smoke and other atmospheric irritants are associated with cardiovascular and respiratory distress. And these weather events, from wildfires to extreme flooding, also pose a threat to crucial health care systems needed to address the impact on individuals and communities.

“Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” UN Secretary-General António Gutteres said in a statement Monday. He added that the globe’s biggest polluters — which includes highly developed and industrialized nations like the United States — “are guilty of arson.”

In order to limit global temperature rise to just 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels — a goal long agreed upon by the international community DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

decision-makers can take in order to improve resilience to climate change and reduce its effects, many of which will be specific to different communities.

In order to identify which options are best for the people and ecosystems in question, the authors emphasize the importance of prioritizing local and Indigenous knowledge in developing and successfully implementing action plans. work to extinguish wildfires in Corrientes, Argentina, on Feb. 25, 2022. Wildfires are among Meanwhile, steps er extremes that will continue to impact humans and nature, with more severe consequences to bolster biodiversity umanity does not successfully reduce global warming. Photo by Joaquin Meabe/Getty Images and ecosystems can provide direct benefits to human communities. Restoring wetlands, increasing the number of green spaces in cities and incentivizing farmers to diversify their crops and livestock are all examples of actions that both support the independence of people and nature, according to the report.

Here are three trends to watch.

Climate change will have direct implications for our food security and nutrition Climate change is already threatening agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, report co-author Rachel Bezner Kerr, a professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University, said in a Sunday news briefing. Some areas of North — the world would need to slash emissions by 45% America and other parts of the globe are starting to by 2030, therefore achieving net zero emissions face threats to their food security and safety, which by 2050, Gutteres added. Instead, he said, global are projected to worsen without intervention.

As temperatures rise, the amount of time people emissions are set to increase nearly 14% over can safely spend outside will shrink, leading to the current decade.

Though the implications of this report are dire — reduced hours (and therefore reduced pay) for as were the others that came before it — experts those whose livelihoods rely on outdoor work, such are not hopeless. There are a wealth of paths that see page 64 63

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance Climate Change

from page 63

as farmers and some other laborers.

The ripple effects of reduced opportunity for farm labor, as well as a changing landscape for agriculture itself, means that more people will be at risk of not having enough to eat. The report found that: • Flood and drought-related acute food insecurity and malnutrition have already increased in Africa and in Central and South America.

• Food productivity on land and in the sea is threatened by rising temperatures, which weaken soil health, increase pressure from pests and diseases and reduce the amount of seafood or shellfish available to eat.

infrastructure will increase alongside warming.

Disruptions are expected to be more severe for coastal communities and those located on permafrost.

• Climate change will have implications for labor migration and urbanization as certain groups are potentially forced to leave agriculture behind and find alternative sources of income.

• Urban agriculture can actually help stabilize food systems and increase their sustainability.

Experts emphasize that these factors will lead to rising food prices and risks of malnutrition, as well as raise concerns about food safety, including contamination of certain crops and seafood.

• Multiple cities have already included adaptation in their climate policies and planning, attributable in part to growing public and political awareness of the effects of climate change and risks.

Urban populations will skyrocket in coming decades, offering challenges and opportunities

William Solecki, the report’s co-author and a professor of geography at City University of New York’s Hunter College, said cities are a classic example of both challenge and opportunity. He added that innovative adaptation approaches like cultivating urban vegetation — which can provide cooling benefits in heat-prone cities — can enhance cities’ safety and stability.

IPCC co-chair Debra Roberts echoed there are many ways that cities can give us chances to repair the damage. “Green buildings, reliable supplies of clean water and renewable energy, and sustainable transport systems that connect urban and rural areas can all lead to a more inclusive, fairer society,” she said in a press release Monday.

Half of the world’s population currently lives in cities. By 2050, that number is projected to grow to 70%, with many people in unplanned or informal settlements, according to the report.

Today, many urban residents are subject to more heat waves, which can contribute to poorer air quality and render crucial infrastructure unreliable.

As is the case with other impacts of climate change, those who are most economically and socially marginalized are especially vulnerable to these conditions which can also threaten access to necessities like transportation, sanitation and water.

The report found that: • The cost of maintaining and fixing urban 64

March-April 2022

Adaptations must consider local needs and knowledge to be successful DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Successful climate change adaptations are designed with both humans and nature in mind.

That’s because the success of natural ecosystems has a direct impact on our wellbeing and our ability to stop or reduce warming.

One example is existing carbon sinks. Permafrost and forests are natural ecological systems that help soak up carbon from the atmosphere. But increased warming threatens their stability and can even reverse the role they systems play, turning them instead into sources of carbon.

There isn’t enough data to pinpoint what specific level of warming would permanently shift these systems away from their role as carbon sinks, said report co-author Camille Parmeasan of the University of Plymouth’s Marine Institute. But she emphasized that “every increment of warming” weakens their ability to store carbon.

Local and Indigenous knowledge have historically been largely locked out of institutional discussions around climate change. Indigenous communities in particular often rely heavily on the natural systems most at risk, and the report emphasizes the value of incorporating that wisdom into effective adaptation approaches: • When decision-making includes local and Indigenous knowledge, and coordinates across risks and institutions, prospects for climateresilient development increase.

65

March-April 2022

• Maladaptation, or efforts that don’t consider adverse outcomes particularly for marginalized people, can both reinforce and entrench existing inequalities among those groups. Initiatives that are informed by local, Indigenous and scientific knowledge, as well as culture values, can help prevent those outcomes.

• The new report marks the first time that colonization has been listed as a root cause of vulnerability to climate change.

Effective interventions that reduce climate impacts and risks look different depending on the people and places in question, and therefore must put “vulnerable groups and countries at the heart of the decision making process,” said report co-author Edwin Castellanos, director of the Sustainable Economic Observatory at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

“We need to remember that we are part of the nature that surrounds us and not its owners,” Castellanos said. www.pbs.org/newshour/science/3-things-to-knowabout-climate-change-hurting-earths-inhabitantsand-how-to-deal-with-it Image credit: mytelegraphnews.com, Business Insider

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Nigeria is Documenting its Citizens who Fled Ukraine to Bring Them Home By alexander onukwue

NIGERIA’S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS said on Feb. 27 that it received over 250 of its citizens who fled Russia’s deadly war in Ukraine to the borders of nearby European countries, and was processing them for subsequent return to their homeland.

According to the ministry’s statement on Twitter, officials received 130 Nigerians at Bucharest, the Romanian capital, 74 at Budapest in Hungary, and 52 in the Polish capital Warsaw. A further 200 were expected to arrive in Budapest today (Feb. 28), the ministry said, adding that each person was provided safe accommodation while being documented.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nigeria has started the process of bringing its nationals home from UkraineHungary became Nigeria’s saving grace after impasse in Poland.

Though Nigeria has an estimated 4,000 students in Ukraine, it was reluctant to provide specific information to them about possible evacuation in the 24-hour period after Vladimir Putin’s soldiers started shelling in Ukraine. Nigerians in Ukraine were told to stay calm and take care of themselves, a counsel that, while good intentioned, did not reflect the worsening situation in Kyiv and Kharkiv where students reported witnessing the war break out in real time.

66

March-April 2022

Fearing that help would come too late, Nigerians began finding their ways out of Ukraine to the borders of neighboring countries in the hope that they would be granted entry, but that did not exactly happen. Africans have reported being subjected to racism at those borders, and even Nigeria’s foreign ministry acknowledged that the situation in Poland was “unsavory.”

A diplomatic alternative was arranged with Hungary, and Romania, while the ministry invoked the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help resolve the blockade at the Ukraine-Poland border. Hungary enacted a decree that permitted people with passports with valid Ukrainian resident permits to enter its shores temporarily without needing a Schengen visa.

Nigerians who want to enter Hungary have been advised to have “some money in Euros, and cooperate with the Hungarian border authorities,” according to a Feb. 27 travel advisory by the Nigerian embassy in Hungary. https://senegalbgc.org/blog/2022/02/28/nigeria-isdocumenting-its-citizens-who-fled-ukraine-to-bringthem-home Source: https://qz.com/africa/2134960/nigeria-is-nowtaking-steps-to-bring-citizens-home-from-ukraine Image credit: fastobserver.com DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

African Refugees see Racial Bias as US Welcomes Ukrainians

By Associated Press

Wilfred Tebah, who fled Cameroon during its ongoing conflict, on Thursday, March 31, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos)

WILFRED TEBAH doesn’t begrudge the U.S. for swiftly granting humanitarian protections to Ukrainians escaping Russia’s devastating invasion of their homeland.

But the 27-year-old, who fled Cameroon during its ongoing conflict, can’t help but wonder what would happen if the millions fleeing that Eastern Europe nation were of a different hue.

As the U.S. prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war, the country continues to deport scores of African and Caribbean refugees back to unstable and violent homelands where they’ve faced rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and other abuses.

“They do not care about a Black man,” the

67

March-April 2022

Columbus, Ohio, resident said, referring to U.S. politicians. “The difference is really clear. They know what is happening over there, and they have decided to close their eyes and ears.”

Tebah’s concerns echo protests against the swift expulsions of Haitian refugees crossing the border this summer without a chance to seek asylum, not to mention the frosty reception African and Middle Eastern refugees have faced in western Europe compared with how those nations have enthusiastically embraced displaced Ukrainians.

In March, when President Joe Biden made a series of announcements welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, granting Temporary Protected Status to another 30,000 already in the U.S. and halting Ukrainian deportations, two Democratic lawmakers seized on the moment to call for similar humanitarian considerations for Haitians.

“There is every reason to extend the same level of compassion,” U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, and Mondaire Jones, of New York, wrote to the administration, noting more than 20,000 Haitians have been deported despite continued instability after the assassination of Haiti’s president and a powerful earthquake this summer.

Cameroonian advocates have similarly ratcheted up their calls for humanitarian relief, protesting in front of the Washington residence of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the offices of leading members of Congress this month.

Their calls come as hundreds of thousands in Cameroon have been displaced in recent years by the country’s civil war between its French-speaking government and English-speaking separatists, attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram and other regional conflicts.

The advocacy group Human Rights Watch, in a February report, found many Cameroonians see page 68

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

oversees TPS and other humanitarian programs, declined to respond to the complaints of racism deported from the U.S. suffered persecution and in American immigration policy. It also declined to say whether it was weighing granting TPS to human rights violations upon returning there.

Tebah, who is a leading member of the Cameroon Cameroonians or other African nationals, saying American Council, an advocacy group organizing in a written statement only that it will “continue to protests this month, said that’s a fate he hopes to monitor conditions in various countries.”

The agency noted, however, that it has recently avoid. issued TPS designations for Haiti, Somalia, Sudan Hailing from the country’s English-speaking northwest, he said he was branded a separatist and South Sudan — all African or Caribbean nations and apprehended by the government because of — as well as to more than 75,000 Afghans living in his activism as a college student. Tebah said he the U.S. after the Taliban takeover of that Central managed to escape, as many Cameroonians Asian nation. Haitians are among the largest and have, by flying to Latin America, trekking longest-tenured beneficiaries of TPS, with more overland to the U.S.-Mexico border and than 40,000 currently on the status.

Other TPS countries include Burma, Honduras, petitioning for asylum in 2019.

“I will be held in prison, tortured and even killed Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, if I am deported,” he said. “I’m very scared. As a and the majority of the nearly 320,000 immigrants with Temporary Protected Status hail from El human, my life matters too.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which Salvador.

Lisa Parisio, who helped Catholics launch Against Racism in Immigration, argues the program could easily help protect millions more refugees fleeing danger but has historically been underused and overpoliticized.

TPS, which provides a work permit and staves off deportation for up to 18 months, doesn’t have limits for how many countries or people can be placed on it, said Relatives of the late chief of Manga Village react outside their burnt house Parisio, who is the in Manga, a village that borders Nigeria and Cameroon, on Jan. 28, 2022, advocacy director weeks after suspected separatist fighters allegedly attacked Manga village in for the Catholic northeastern Nigeria, which left five people dead and 21 persons missing. In Legal Immigration the two neighboring regions of western Cameroon, the army and separatists have been clashing for five years, squeezing the civilian populations. (Photo by Network.

Yet former KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)

African Refugees

68

March-April 2022

from page 67

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

President Donald Trump, in his broader efforts to restrict immigration, pared down TPS, allowing designations for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa to expire.

Although programs like TPS provide critical protections for vulnerable refugees, they can also leave many in legal limbo for years without providing a pathway to citizenship, said Karla Morales, a 24-year-old from El Salvador who has been on TPS nearly her whole life.

“It’s absurd to consider 20 years in this country temporary,” the University of Massachusetts Boston nursing student said. “We need validation that the work we’ve put in is appreciated and that our lives have value.”

At least in the case of Ukraine, Biden appears motivated by broader foreign policy goals in Europe, rather than racial bias, suggests María Cristina García, a history professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, focused on refugees and immigrants.

But Tom Wong, founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego, said the racial disparities couldn’t be clearer.

“The U.S. has responded without hesitation by extending humanitarian protections to predominately white and European refugees,” he said. “All the while, predominately people of color from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia continue to languish.”

Besides Cameroon, immigrant advocates also argue that Congo and Ethiopia should qualify for humanitarian relief because of their ongoing conflicts, as should Mauritania, since slavery is still practiced there.

And they complain Ukrainian asylum seekers are being exempted from asylum limits meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while those from other nations are being turned away.

“Black pain and Black suffering do not get the same attention,” says Sylvie Bello, founder of the D.C.-based Cameroon American Council. “The same anti-Blackness that permeates American life also permeates American immigration policy.”

Vera Arnot, a Ukrainian in Boston who is considering seeking TPS, says she didn’t know much about the special status until the war started 69

March-April 2022

and wasn’t aware of the concerns from immigrants of color. But the Berklee College of Music sophomore hopes the relief can be extended to other deserving nations.

Arnot says TPS could help her seek an off-campus job with better pay so she doesn’t have to rely on her family’s support, as most in Ukraine have lost their jobs due to the war.

“Ukrainians as a people aren’t used to relying on others,” she said. “We want to work. We don’t want welfare.”

For Tebah, who is staying with relatives in Ohio, TPS would make it easier for him to open a bank account, get a driver’s license and seek better employment while he awaits a decision on his asylum case.

“We’ll continue to beg, to plead,” Tebah said.

“We are in danger. I want to emphasize it. And only TPS for Cameroon will help us be taken out of that danger. It is very necessary.” https://thegrio.com/2022/04/03/african-refugeeson-ukraine-crisis/?utm_medium=email Video: https://youtu.be/3UDdMS6vFw4 Image credit: https://www.istockphoto.com/ vector/republic-of-cameroon-vector-mapgm633689496-112322201

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

African Stock Exchange/Bourse • Algeria • Angola • Botswana • Cameroon • Cape Verde Islands • Cote de Ivoire • Egypt • Ethiopia • Ghana • Kenya • Libya • Malawi • Mauritius • Morocco • Mozambique • Namibia • Nigeria

Algiers Stock Market Angola Stock Exchange and Derivatives Botswana Stock Exchange Douala Stock Exchange Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres UEMOA (Abidjan) The Egyptian Exchange Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Ghana Stock Exchange Nairobi Stock Exchange Libyan Stock Market Malawi Stock Exchange Stock Exchange of Mauritius Casablanca Stock Exchange Bolsa Valores de Mocambique Namibian Stock Exchange Nigerian Stock Exchange

• Rwanda • Seychelles • Somalia • South Africa

Rwanda Stock Exchange Seychelles Securities Exchange Somali Stock Exchange Bond Exchange of South Africa Johannesburg Stock Exchange

• South Sudan • Swaziland • Tanzania • Tunisia • Uganda • Zambia • Zimbabwe • Zimbabwe

Khartoum Stock Exchange Swaziland Stock Exchange Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange Tunisia Stock Exchange Uganda Securities Exchange Lusaka Stock Exchange Victoria Falls Stock Exchange Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

70

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.sgbv.dz www.bodiva.ao www.bse.co.bw www.douala-stock-exc www.bvc.cv (in Portug

www.brvm.org www.egx.com.eg www.ecx.com.et www.gse.com.gh www.luse.co.zm www.lsm.gov.ly www.mse.co.mw www.stockexchangeof www.casablanca-bours www.bolsadevalores.co www.nsx.com.na www.nse.com.ng/Page www.abujacomex.com www.rse.rw https://merj.exchange www.somalistockexcha www.bondexchange.co www.jse.co.za/Home.a www.a2x.co.za www.kse.com.sd www.ssx.org.sz www.dse.co.tz www.bvmt.com.tn www.use.or.ug www.luse.co.zm www.vfex.exchange www.zse.co.zw

www.africabusinessassociation.org

change.com guese)

Lomé, Togo peaksofafrica.co.za

fmauritius.com se.com o.mz

es/default.aspx

ange.so o.za aspx

Stocks Mirror the Economy Africa has around 29 stock exchanges representing 38 countries including two regional exchanges.

Africa has become the newest destination for emerging markets investors. From 2000, according to the World Economic Forum, "half of the world's fastest-growing economies have been in Africa." By 2030 one in five people will be African. Combine the continent’s soaring population with technology, economic growth, increasing demand from its growing middle class, improvements in infrastructure, political stability, health and education, and Africa could be the next century’s economic growth powerhouse. Nobody can predict the growth trajectory with accuracy, but Africa is poised for growth.

Profile: The Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) is the regional stock exchange of the member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The Exchange is located in Abidjan but maintains market offices in each of the affiliated countries. Being both an economic and political institution, the BRVM is governed by the provisions of the OHADA Uniform Act relating to Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups. The operations of the Exchange are entirely digital making it a technical success story on the continent.

Dealing members therefore need not be present on the premises of the central office but can engage from their own offices which the bourse guarantees equal access regardless of the economic operator's location. https://afx.kwayisi.org/

71

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Equity Alliance Raises $28.6M to Invest in Woman-Led, Minority-Led Venture Funds

By Bernadette Giacomazzo - Friday

EQUITY ALLIANCE, led by former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, has announced that it has closed a $28.6 million fund, which they say they will use to invest in other woman-led and minorityled funds.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the “fund of funds” is aiming to provide both a professional network and a mentoring program for the funds it intends to back.

“It’s easier to open doors,” Parsons said to the outlet. “What we have to figure out is how to take this favorable mentality that is existing and create mechanisms that enable us to deploy capital in a successful way, so we make a lasting change in the economic spectrum.”

Equity Alliance notably invested in Esusu, a Blackowned fintech company. As AfroTech previously reported, Esusu reached a $1B valuation in January 2022, and they said they wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of Equity Alliance.

“It’s like chatting with people you know have your best interest at heart,” said Abbey Wemimo, Esusu’s Nigerian-born co-founder and co-chief executive, to the Wall Street Journal.

Equity invested $500,000 into Esusu at a $65 million post-money valuation. Esusu also received an investment from Serena Ventures — founded

by Serena Williams — which is also an Equity portfolio fund.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Claude Grudinsky said that the mission of Equity Alliance resonates with minority, and underrepresented, fund managers.

He recalled a conversation with a Black female fund manager, who appreciated the concept.

“She liked our model because she wanted to demonstrate that Black women can actually outperform white men, and the for-profit model is the only real litmus test in this case,” he said. www.msn.com/enus/money/other/ equity-allianceraises-28-6m-toinvest-in-womanled-minority-ledventure-funds/ ar-AATtyAB

Statement from Claude Grudinsky, CEO of Equity Alliance

72

March-April 2022

Top to Bottom: Claude Grudinsky Richard Parsons Serena Williams

Image credit: Stanford University, Crain's New York, blogspot.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

The Continent is a Natural Home For Startups

By Samuel Gebre & Antony Sguazzin

Ikeja computer village market in Lagos, Nigeria.

AFRICA’S STARTUP scene is booming. The startup sector attracted a record $5 billion last year and saw the creation of five unicorns, companies that have achieved a pre-market valuation of more than $1 billion, including Nigeria’s Flutterwave.

There were more than 500 early-stage deals in Africa last year, most valued at less than $5 million, setting the stage for a jump in demand for new capital, according to research provider Briter Bridges.

This year is looking even more promising.

Investment bankers plan to set up a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to target technology companies in Africa and Swedish unicorn founders have committed to a growth fund to back startups across the continent.

Africa is ripe for startups. The continent is under banked, paving the way for innovative fintech companies. Poor service delivery by governments 73

March-April 2022

and underdeveloped commercial sectors present opportunities, including providing solar-power solutions, cooking fuel and connecting informal traders with suppliers.

For now, the activity is confined to the relatively developed markets of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. That’s poised to change as businesses secure more capital and use improved technology to expand.

Implementing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and a new cross-border payment and settlement system will help to quicken expansion.

And as long as governments fail to provide the basic services that those in developed nations take for granted, startups will try and fill those gaps. www.bloomberg.com/news/ newsletters/2022-02-04/next-africa-the-continentis-a-natural-home-for-startups

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Black-led VC Fund Aims to Even the Playing Field for Minority Health-tech Startups

By Bertha Coombs

DR. DERRELL PORTER knew he had a good VC investment idea: a company that provides a platform to help partners in 2020 researchers develop and commercialize gene and were white, 15% cell therapies.

Asian and just 3% “Academic medical centers and scientific Black, according innovators — they’re not pharmaceutical to the VC Human companies. They tend to look for partners to Capital Survey help finish the development of their programs,” conducted by explained Porter, who founded Cellevolve to help Deloitte, in conjunction with the National Venture make it easier for those researchers to connect Capital Association and Venture Forward. with biotech companies.

Marcus Whitney is an African American venture partner and the co-founder of Jumpstart Health in Nashville. He says he felt a cultural shift from investors he’d talked to for years, following the George Floyd protests in 2020 and the focus that summer on racial equity.

“I tapped into an awareness that there was a willingness to do something that I’ve never really felt at any point in my life,” said Whitney.

He seized on that willingness as an opportunity Getting start-up off the ground meant making to raise capital to invest in Black-led firms. his own connection with financial backers, but “The number one question was, hey, this sounds his timing was bad. He began talking to investors great. I want to be a part of it. But are there actually about Cellevolve in March 2020, on the eve of the enough deals pandemic shutdown. out there?” he When things reopened, Porter found that getting said. venture capitalists to invest was about more than He had no buying into an idea. trouble finding companies and “They’re really making a bet on you as the launched the entrepreneur, and therefore it’s a profoundly personal decision,” said Porter, who holds a medical Jumpstart Nova fund to invest degree from University of Pennsylvania Medical School and an MBA from The Wharton School. He exclusively in noted, “being different or in the situation where the Black-led health investor may not see themselves in you, or may firms. He wasn’t not find a way to connect, that makes it harder to the only one to capitalize on the greater willingness to invest in under-represented founders last year. find capital.”

The venture capital industry is among the In 2021, venture capital and private equity saw a least diverse in finance. Nearly eight out of 10 25% jump in woman- and minority-owned firms in 74

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

N

DAW Jumpstart Nova launched in January 2022 and was founded by Marcus Whitney.

(Courtesy Photo)

the industry, according Fairview Capital Partners.

The actual numbers remain small — 627 womenand minority-led firms, 84 of which were Blackowned. Their capital raises were also smaller; the median was $100 million, compared with $170 million industrywide.

One of Whitney’s first investments was Cellevolve, which included taking a seat on the company’s board.

“Without Marcus … taking the bet on Cellevolve and me personally, I mean, we never might have gotten a company off the ground,” said Porter.

The Jumpstart Nova Fund now has $55 million investments from backers including Eli Lilly, HCA Healthcare and Bank of America. The plan is to back 20 start-ups this year, but Whitney’s already identified more than 150 prospects.

“We think we can catalyze more capital going to these founders beyond what we can do from an investment perspective,” Whitney said.

He hopes forging a network that brings more focus to under-represented founders will help even the playing field when it comes to accessing and raising capital. www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/black-led-vc-fundaims-to-even-the-playing-field-for-minority-healthtech-start-ups-.html Image credit: linkedin.com

N

DAW

N

DAW

Agriculture - Busine ss Development - Educa - Commentary tion - Governance Histor y - Investm ent - Lifestyle/Cult ure Technology/Scienc e

"2021"

New Year New Decade New View New Start

Special Feature:

Touri T ourissm mp page age 4 40 0 Special Feature:

Nigeria Enters the World of Crypto

Economics page 32 Holiday Edition

Awakening the Africa n Africa Business

Launch of AfCFTA page 22 Giant Within

Association News November-Decembe r 2020

Promoting Africa-focused News and Commentary

"DAWN" www.africabusinessassociation.org

75

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

China has Invested More in Africa than the Other Top Eight Lenders Combined

By Tim McDonnell

China lends billions of dollars more to infrastructure projects in Africa than any other country or international bank.

REUTERS/NOOR KHAMIS

CHINA, IN ADDITION to being Africa’s biggest trading partner, is building the future of the continent’s urban landscapes almost singlehandedly. And in spite of rhetoric from US president Joe Biden and other leaders from wealthy countries on the urgent need to improve infrastructure on the continent, investment from those countries and international development banks has stagnated at levels far below what is needed.

Between 2007 and 2020, China’s two main overseas development banks invested $23 billion in infrastructure projects on the continent, according to a Feb. 9 analysis by the Center for Global Development, a US think tank. That’s $8 billion more than what the other top eight lenders combined, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, and US and European development banks, contributed.

During that period, total lending from all parties has leveled off at about $9 billion per year, less than one-tenth (pdf) of what the continent likely needs to support its growing population and meet urgent health, development, and energy challenges.

In some cases, Chinese infrastructure lending

76

March-April 2021

has been a risk for African countries, with projects blamed for being sloppily executed, prioritizing the interests of politicians and exporters over local communities, not employing local workers, and piling up unsustainable debt burdens. But on the whole, the CGD report argues, Chinese infrastructure investment has been a net benefit to African economies and sets a bar that the US and other lenders should aspire to.

Renewable energy projects attract the most development funding in Africa The report also finds that between all public lenders, renewable energy projects have attracted more investment than other sectors, including fossil fuels.

That may be a good thing for the global climate, but with more than half of people on the continent still lacking access to electricity, some economists argue that far more investment is needed in grid infrastructure and, in some cases, natural gasfired power plants. https://qz.com/africa/2125769/china-hasinvested-23-billion-in-africas-infrastructure

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

JP Morgan is First Bank to Enter the Metaverse with a Virtual 'Onyx Lounge'

By Michelle Shen

J.P. MORGAN OPENED up an "Onyx lounge" in the metaverse, a virtual lounge in the blockchainbased world of Decentraland.

Within Decentraland, users can buy virtual plots of land in the form of NFTs and make purchases using cryptocurrency backed by the Ethereum blockchain.

Users have described their experience in the Onyx lounge on Twitter, noting the picture of CEO Jamie Dimon and a tiger lurking around.

On top of that, the company released a paper explaining the opportunities they are exploring in the metaverse.

The report points out that J.P. Morgan can operate like a bank in the virtual world much like it does in the real world, since the virtual worlds in the metaverse have their own population, GDP and currencies. Similar to its role as a bank, it can facilitate crossborder payments, foreign exchange, financial assets creation, trading and safekeeping.

Because of these possibilities, J.P. Morgan plans to "play a major role in the metaverse," the report says. More specifically, the bank can help tackle issues like account validation, transaction status and fraud prevention, similar to how it does with real-world clients.

The company also wants to serve content creators who plan on commercializing their creations within the metaverse, whether its lending money to finance them or establishing virtual wallets for them to collect commission.

The lounge could provide a foothold for J.P. Morgan to explore its role in the digital world. www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/02/15/jpmorgan-bank-joins-metaverse/6803137001 Image credit: blockcrunch.co, 77

March-April 2022

hattiesburgamerican.com, https://privatebank. jpmorgan.com DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment - Commentary

Moody’s has Bought a Leading African Rating Agency: Why It’s Bad News

By Misheck Mutize MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE, one of the three dominant global credit rating agencies, is acquiring a majority shareholding in Global Credit Rating (GCR), a leading credit rating agency in Africa.

The move is based on Moody’s anticipation that there will be a robust increase in demand for credit rating services in Africa. Moody’s also has a significant stake in the Egypt-based Middle East Rating and Investors Service or MERIS. Credit ratings agencies are key players in financial markets. They provide a quantified assessment of the creditworthiness of a borrower. In Africa, the demand for borrowing through financial markets is growing exponentially as traditional funding sources dry up.

GCR is the largest rating agency headquartered in Africa. It accounts for most of the ratings issued on the continent. It was established in 1996 and is based in Mauritius, with offices in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal.

The ‘big three’ rating agencies – Moody’s, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch – control more than 95% of the global credit rating business. They have been accused of monopolising the credit rating market by implementing anti-competition tactics to maintain their market dominance. In the US and Europe, they were fined for anti-competition practices.

Other shortcomings include a lack of understanding of the domestic context of African economies. This is because their primary analysts barely conduct field visits in rated countries.

Moody’s only has one office in South Africa which covers all the 28 African countries that it assigns ratings.

Having an increased presence in Africa will 78

March-April 2022

certainly enhance Moody’s understanding of the local context in rated countries.

Nevertheless, its acquisitions are a huge setback for the development of alternative rating agencies to compete against the monopoly of the ‘big three’.

Home-grown Capabilities GCR has pioneered the ratings of domestic instruments that were aligned with Africa’s longterm strategy for promoting access to affordable capital and promoting the development of domestic financial markets. An example is an innovative financing initiative that’s supporting governments to mobilise domestic resources through domestic financial markets. It’s been supported by the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

African-based rating agencies mainly assign ratings for domestic issuances. Their ratings are more detailed and significantly higher than both international ratings issued by the ‘big three’. This is because they understand the local contexts and that domestic borrowings have no exposures to exchange rate risk.

The danger is that Moody’s entrance into the domestic ratings market ushers in the challenge of negative analyst biases against African countries.

This trend has been visible in the international ratings market.

There is also a problem of regulation when it comes to international rating agencies operating on the continent. They are largely unregulated.

Most rated African countries have domestic bond markets. But they lack legislation for credit rating services. In addition, they do not have competent authorities to oversee the regulation and licensing of international rating agencies.

The exception is South Africa which has the G20 comparable laws requiring international rating agencies to be registered and licensed locally. They are also required to operate within the country’s credit rating services regulations.

Without competent authorities that enforce regulations in each country, there is no central coordination to keep the work of international rating DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

agencies under check.

This is true too when it comes to the issue of anti-competitive behaviour. In a well regulated environment, Moody’s acquisition of GCR would have been assessed on the basis of anticompetitive considerations.

No country has successfully appealed a decision.

This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is no appeal authority on the continent that can conduct a fair hearing of the country’s submissions and pronounce a decision. Instead the appeals are in accordance with the agency’s own rules provided under the Procedures and Methodologies Used to Moody’s Failures Moody’s has been called out for issuing unsolicited Determine Credit Ratings.

Secondly, the rating agencies are both ‘the credit ratings. These are sovereign ratings that are assigned without being requested by either the player and referee in Africa’. This is not the case in rated country or its agents. Effectively, the rated other territories. country does not have any formal contractual Solutions There is a growing appetite for African-issued relationship with the rating agency. So it’s not paid financial instruments. An indication of this is for.

Among the ‘big three’, Moody’s has the highest bond issuances being oversubscribed by at least number of countries it assigned unsolicited ratings. three times. This has resulted in rating agencies There are a number of downsides to unsolicited positioning themselves for more business on the ratings. Firstly, the rating agency does not consult continent.

As their dominance and influence continues to adequately with government representatives during the review process. This means it doesn’t gain an expand through mergers and takeovers, African understanding of the sovereign risk exposures countries need to consider taking the following and the government’s strategy in addressing the steps.

First, enact legislation on credit rating services to downside risk factors.

Secondly, the lack of an agreement with the ensure that regulation of international credit rating country being rated opens the door to rating agencies is at least on a par with international agencies using unfavourable unsolicited ratings as requirements. They should be in line with the G20 a credible ‘threat’, forcing countries into contracts. requirement of regulated and accountable credit Over and above the issue of unsolicited ratings, rating agencies at a global level.

Second, competent authorities responsible for a number of African countries have registered their displeasure with credit ratings, especially enforcing the credit rating services legislation, from Moody’s. Media statements have been should be mandated to issue rules and guidelines issued advising stakeholders that the ratings to provide additional guidance and ensure uniform aren’t reflective of the countries’ creditworthiness. implementation of the laws.

In addition, the African Union and its agencies In some instances, countries have appealed the should coordinate national competent authorities ratings. to institute a continental regulatory body as a Examples include: platform of appeal for countries that seek recourse • The Zambian government rejecting Moody’s from the unfair practices by rating agencies. This rating downgrade in 2015; • The Namibian Government appealed Moody’s should be an equivalent of the European Securities downgrade of the country to junk status in 2017; and Markets Authority and the US Securities and • Nigeria strongly contested Moody’s downgrade Exchange Commission. in both 2016 and 2017; Without these, African countries will continue to • Tanzania appealed against Moody’s inaccurate face the challenges of unsustainable borrowing in rating in 2018; both domestic and international markets.

• Ghana recently appealed against its rating by https://theconversation.com/moodys-has-boughtFitch and Moody’s, which is not reflective of the a-leading-african-rating-agency-why-its-badcountry’s risk factors. news-176827

79

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Africa’s Tech Media are Plotting to be as Influential as the Startups They Cover

By Alexander Onukwue

where household dollars prioritize food.

What is the hack for sustainable influence for media startups?

True media influence goes beyond news TechCabal isn’t alone in documenting African startups. In Nigeria, there’s Techpoint which hosted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, while iAfrikan Tomiwa Aladekomo, seated in the center, with some members of the covers the scene leadership team at Big Cabal Media. BIG CABAL MEDIA from South Africa.

Weetracker, which charges subscriptions, is based in Kenya.

IT STARTS AS A SCRAPPY blog of punchy hot Each of these help draw serious attention to takes by a hobbyist who gets tired of writing gadget reviews. Seven years later, it’s raising $2.3 million in African startups, yet some observers still see seed financing from venture capitalists that believe an overt focus on fundraising news that leaves it can be the most important publication covering a knowledge gap in how the world understands the business and human impact of technology in African innovation. It’s leading to new competition from Substack newsletters, including one by Africa.

That’s one summary of the rise of Big Cabal Emeka Ajene, co-founder of ride-hailing app Media, a Nigerian company that publishes the Gozem that operates in francophone west and online outlet TechCabal, and Zikoko, a pop culture central Africa.

“The most influential content goes beyond site that lights intergenerational Twitter fires with its blunt interviews and BuzzFeed-like quizzes. fundraising or launch announcements to showcase Tomiwa Aladekomo, the company’s CEO, says innovative or pioneering thinking that offers new the funding round is “a signal that we are building insights to readers,” Ajene, whose newsletter is something that matters,” describing his brands as called Afridigest, tells Quartz.

David Adeleke, another Substacker who writes experiments in understanding the future of media Communique on media and tech (and, like me, is a consumption in a youth-dominated Africa.

Experimentation has been key to Africa’s startup TechCabal alum), says “much of what tech media scene which received $5 billion from VCs in 2021. currently does is reactive.” As such, African tech But media experimentation is a tricky business publications are not doing enough of the agenda80

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

setting that the media does in Silicon Valley. It’s partly a talent problem, Adeleke says; not enough African tech journalists have spent a long time covering the continent’s issues enough to lead the zeitgeist.

And real influence isn’t ultimately about quantifying clicks on articles or simply racking up subscriber numbers. Tefo Mohapi, founder of iAfrikan, says he measures impact by influencing decisions. “Some of our articles have been used in court cases given the information they presented, while some have been key in lobbying policy-makers.”

TechCabal can point to some ecosystem influence, leading the case for Nigeria’s Startup Bill in partnership with government representatives, investors, and entrepreneurs. Big Cabal has also been a talent mill of sorts for startups, numbering one Piggyvest co-founder, and the CEO of Pinterest-like app Backdrop amongst its alumni.

But Aladekomo hopes to do more with his now heavier wallet in areas like improving capacity for reporting. He’s hiring a former Rest of World and BuzzFeed journalist to be training and features editor, though declining to name her. Other initiatives to improve the newsroom’s capacity will flow from that.

VC-funded African media is an uncertain territory Venture capital funding for digital media companies has slowed, from a 2015 high of over $1 billion to just over $100 million in the US last year. But that’s still a lot; VC interest in African media has practically been negligible as investors focus on mining fintech unicorns.

Big Cabal’s raise, in which MaC Venture Capital, Luminate Group, Unicorn Group, and Future Africa participated, is on the back of the company quadrupling its revenue last year over 2020. Advertising on its websites and newsletters, sponsored events, and consulting projects are how it made most of its money.

Techpoint, which remains bootstrapped, was profitable last year, according to CEO Muyiwa Matuluko (an early TechCabal writer). They retained a remote work policy adopted in the pandemic, and switched its formerly weekly newsletter to a more personalized, daily digest supported by advertising.

81

March-April 2022

What does he make of the VC model?

“Due to socioeconomic constraints, ad revenue remains the most viable business model for African media. This means there’s very little room for the kind of ‘growth’ VCs desire,” Matuluko says.

Ajene shares a similar case for pessimism. “The current dependence of most Africa-focused media platforms on ad- and sponsorship-based models is generally at odds with traditional VC models, especially with the disparity in advertising average revenues per user across Africa versus more developed markets.”

While noting that producing quality content is expensive, Mohapi worries that VC money could affect editorial independence. “It is my personal opinion that in the long term it is not sustainable as it will taint the coverage that the media company does.”

Plan to be a media and tech company Perhaps then, Africa’s future tech media platforms should be designed around subscription models like Weetracker which can offer high levels of recurring revenue when done right, Ajene suggests.

TechCabal isn’t going that route, yet. “We want our content everywhere, for more people to read about the continent. Paywalls reduce the number of people that can access the content,” Aladekomo says.

He is seeking value in tech-related products that can be monetized. Zikoko Memes, a project that may have been inspired by Giphy, will get a refresh this year to be more compatible with iPhones, Aladekomo says. An app is said to be in the works too.

It seems like getting VC investment could help strengthen a media company’s capacity for such endeavors. But most attention will be paid to how Big Cabal, Techpoint, and the continent’s other outlets extend their bandwidth to elevate tech coverage, paying talent well enough to hang around bars in Lagos and Nairobi to overhear employee and c-suite conversations that transcend unicorn funding stories. https://qz.com/africa/2143538/africas-tech-mediaoutlets-are-entering-a-growth-stage

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

DSW Parent Company Invests $2M in America's First Black-Ow Factory in Partnership With Dr. D'W

SINCE FLY KICKS have been ingrained in the culture forever, it’s only right that there’s an investment into the community known for making shoes pop! With that said, today, Designer Brands has announced that it will invest a total of $2 million “into advancing action-oriented Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.”

The parent company of the renowned shoe retailer, DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse will partner with Pensole along with iconic footwear designer, Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, President of Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design (PLC), to bring more inclusivity to the footwear industry per PR Newswire.

“The footwear industry needs more diversity.

The partnership we are entering into with Designer Brands and DSW is a new business model that truly empowers the consumer to influence the industry toward that goal,” said Dr. Edwards in an official statement. “Together with Pensole, Designer Brands and DSW will provide designers opportunities to offer new products directly to consumers. Along the way we will create careers and invest in talented aspiring designers to become the future of our industry.”

Designer Brands will put their support behind JEMS by Pensole, the first Black-owned footwear factory in America. JEMS, which stands for “Jan Ernst Matzeliger Studio,” was named in honor of the Black footwear pioneer who received a patent that transfigured footwear manufacturing, still in use by footwear companies all over.

“We see the footwear industry lacking effective representation by people of color, specifically Blacks, and this $2 million investment will address root causes to remove barriers,” said Designer Brands Chief Executive Officer Roger Rawlins.

“Blacks represent less than 5% of those across all design industries, thus lacking much-needed 82

March-April 2022

diversity. Designer Brands and DSW’s commitment with Pensole will create a U.S.-based shoe factory, with the goal of all work leading to the launch of Black designers’ brands inside of DSW.” As Black History Month (February in the USA and Canada) continues, Designer Brands has adapted the “MORE THAN A MONTH” theme to not only pay homage to Black innovators but to equip designers of color with new opportunities.

Shoes will be designed by PLC graduate students DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

wned Footwear Wayne Edwards

By Shanique Yates

and will be sold exclusively at DSW from now until September 15th — Matzeliger’s birthday. www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/shopping-all/dswparent-company-invests-2m-in-america-s-firstblack-owned-footwear-factory-in-partnership-withdr-d-wayne-edwards/ar-AATWKSx Source: AfroTech Image credit: arch-usa.com, suitepdx.com, Sneaker News, footwearnews.com 83

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Debut Capital Launches Investor-In-Residence Program with an Inaugural Class of Women Athletes

By Samantha Dorisca

Sanya Richards-Ross Lexie Brown SOME OF THE WORLD’S greatest women athletes are embarking on the investment arena.

On a mission to inspire non-traditional investors, early-stage venture capital firm Debut Capital is launching its first-ever Investor-in-Residence Program for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous founders.

The first cohort will include some notable names such as four-time Olympic Track & Field Gold Medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, three-time Track & Field Olympian Medalist Lauryn Williams, fourtime All-Star, and WNBA Champion Chelsea Gray, and 2021 WNBA Champion Lexie Brown. The inaugural class will partake in a six-week program to learn from individuals in venture capital.

According to the press release, topic points will include generating deal flow, portfolio construction, and post-investment support. The cohort will have access to an investment total of $100,000. Debut Capital’s class of professional women athletes is “a way to begin closing the gap between them and 84

March-April 2022

Chelsea Gray

Lauryn Williams

their male athlete counterparts.”

“The gender pay gap between female professional athletes and their male counterparts continues to grow,” says Pilar Johnson, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Debut Capital, in a press release. “The Debut Investor-In Residence Program hopes to reduce the gap by providing these female athletes a collaborative space to gain new learnings that can build generational wealth and inspire others.”

About Debut Capital According to the release, “Debut Capital is here to disrupt the VC world by providing capital and strategic guidance to BLI founders and ultimately building a more diverse VC ecosystem.”

It also states that their current portfolio consists of but isn’t limited to Breakr, Loop, Squire, and Somewhere Good. https://afrotech.com/debut-capital-launchesresidence-program-women-athletes-venturecapital DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

6 African Women CEOs Discuss How They Raised more than $1M in 2021

By Tage Kene-Okafor

Row 1 L-R: Jessica Anuna, CEO, Klasha; Honey Ogundeyi, CEO, Edukoya; Jihan Abass, CEO, Lami Row 2 L-R: Fara Ashiru Jituboh, CEO, Okra; Tebogo Mokwena, CEO, Akiba Digital; Nelly ChatueDiop, CEO, Ejara

WOMEN-FOUNDED COMPANIES in the U.S. raised more money from venture capitalists in 2021 than ever. Reports indicate they secured 83% more funding than the previous year, primarily attributed to the record-setting $329 billion U.S. startups raked last year.

But according to data from PitchBook, less than 2% of VC funding went to all-women-founded teams in 2021. It’s identical to what’s happening in Africa: Less than 1% of all VC dollars went toward startups with one or more women founders last year, according to The Big Deal, which details investments in Africa. On the bright side, founding teams counting both women and men as members raised 17% of VC investments in Africa in 2021.

85

March-April 2022

These numbers are more frightening when retraced almost a decade back. According to Briter Bridges, another publication that tracks VC investments in Africa, only 3% of the total funding raised by startups in Africa since 2013 has gone to all-women co-founded teams.

So despite total funding for women-founded companies reaching $834 million in 2021, per Partech Africa — a VC firm and data tracker of African investments — and the number of women in venture capital increasing, their representation remains minute against a faster-growing percentage of startups run by men. see page 86

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment Women CEOs

access problem experienced by thin-file individuals and SMMEs in South Africa, a problem that is Women-founded startups in Africa to have prevalent in other countries in Africa. This segment raised $100 million or more are led mainly by often doesn’t access affordable credit (and other white CEOs. Not that it’s any fault of theirs, but the financial services like insurance) and is excluded representation of their companies being Africa- by high street lenders like banks. And I want to based skew funding results in such a way that they change that. don’t capture how much of an enormous feat it is Fara Ashiru Jituboh, CEO, Okra for African women to raise $1 million.

Okra simply enables developers Before 2021, only a handful (women-led startups and businesses to build personalized that raised $1 million or more with African women digital financial service products. Our as CEOs) had secured that much funding. In 2021, mission is to digitize financial services 11 such startups achieved that feat, a record year for Africa. for this group. We spoke with six of them to share their fundraising experiences in a venture capital Jihan Abass, CEO, Lami Lami is a B2B2C insurance-as-a-service market that can be unfriendly toward women.

Here’s who we talked to (read their full stories on platform and API. Lami has digitized the entire insurance value-chain end to end from KYC, the TechCrunch site at link show below): pricing, underwriting, and claims processing all in  Jessica Anuna, founder and CEO, Klasha one platform, and API that can be used to distribute  Tebogo Mokwena, co-founder and CEO, Akiba any insurance product at any point of sale.

Digital  Fara Ashiru Jituboh, co-founder and CEO, Okra Honey Ogundeyi, CEO, Edukoya Edukoya is an education technology company  Jihan Abass, founder and CEO, Lami on a mission to make high-quality education more  Honey Ogundeyi, founder and CEO, Edukoya engaging, personalized, and accessible for the  Nelly Chatue-Diop, founder and CEO, Ejara next generation of Africans. Our primary offering Jessica Anuna, CEO, Klasha is an online mobile learning platform that connects e Klasha is a technology company that allows primary and secondary international merchants such as H&M or Zara to school learners with the receive payments online in 99.9th percentile of certified tutors for real-time local African currencies and one-on-one learning. money methods. African consumers can make payments to international Nelly Chatue-Diop, CEO, Ejara Ejara is a crypto-led 21st-century financial merchants in over five African currencies through the KlashaCheckout; the merchant then receives institution for Francophone Africans and its diasporas. We are building bridges between their payout in G20 currencies.

This allows international merchants to scale into crypto and traditional finance by enabling access Africa seamlessly through our technology and, in to various investment and saving offerings while turn, allows African consumers to access global incorporating African familial values of wealth and community into our construction. goods and services frictionlessly. from page 85

Tebogo Mokwena, CEO, Akiba Digital Akiba Digital is a South African-based fintech building an alternative credit scoring infrastructure (basically a new age credit bureau) for small businesses and individuals excluded by traditional credit bureau scores.

I started this company after noticing a massive 86

March-April 2022

https://techcrunch. com/2022/03/15/6-africanwomen-ceos-discuss-howthey-raised-more-than-1min-2021 Image credit: LinkedIn, tissuepathology.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Here’s Where to Find the Best Free Zoom Backgrounds

By Doug Aamoth

ON A ZOOM CALL the other day, a coworker of mine made a remark about the artwork I have hanging on the wall behind me: two very genericlooking pictures of deer. So generic, in fact, that I have thought about them exactly twice: the day I hung them and when my coworker mentioned them.

It was then that I decided to dedicate the rest of my Zoom existence to using the virtual background feature (here’s how to do it, if you haven’t already played with it).

And while Zoom has a decent collection of built-in backgrounds, I found myself longing for something a bit more exciting, bold, unique, and/or interesting.

Which led me to the following sites. . . .

and have some very specific ideas of the types of backgrounds you want in it.

UNSPLASH: A BIT MORE TRADITIONAL The Zoom backgrounds collection at Unsplash is one-stop shopping if you’re looking for more traditional interior backgrounds.

It’s not nearly as large at the Pexels collection— this one’s about 10,000-strong—but there’s a great mixture of home office, traditional office, modern office, and other similar backgrounds. There are a great many bookshelf options, too, should you be in the market for a more studious look.

There are also plenty of Zoom background collections curated by Unsplash users, which are helpful if you find yourself liking a particular person’s PEXELS: THE NEVER-ENDING COLLECTION style and taste. Just drill into their collection to see If it’s quantity you’re after, look no further than the similar stuff.

Zoom Backgrounds collection on Pexels. There are CANVA: CREATE YOUR OWN almost 140,000 images and almost 30,000 videos If you’ve blasted through tens of thousands of to choose from—a truly mind-boggling selection. backgrounds and still can’t find one you like, it’s There’s a lot to sift through here, and you’ll time to swing by Canva to create your own. need to set aside some time to do so: Although You can start with one of more than 3,000 the collection is comprised of mostly high-quality available templates, or use a blank template to imagery, it runs the gamut from truly out there to really put your mark on it. more conventional background scenes.

There’s a mixture of free, paid, and video There aren’t a whole lot of filtering options other backgrounds in no particular order, but there’s than size and quality, although there’s a neat plenty to work with here—and Canva’s a pretty search-by-color feature that lets you surface stuff easy-to-use design tool, even if you’re a novice. that matches your favorite hue.

This one’s got the best filtering features, too: The real winner here, though, are all the video by style, theme, and price—with plenty of subbackgrounds. Many are unassuming, looping selections to help you drill down to what you’re scenes that add a bit of interest to your meetings looking for. without being overly distracting (except the leafhttps://www.fastcompany.com/90729924/best-freeeating giraffe, which is definitely distracting). zoom-backgrounds All in all, this is a great first stop, especially Image credit: Unsplash if you’re looking to build out your own collection 87

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Newly Devised Human Family Tree Reveals the 'Genealogy of Everyone'

By Will Dunham

FROM BUSTLING TOKYO to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, from Novosibirsk in Siberia to the equatorial city of Quito, from congested Cairo to the desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, people everywhere comprise a single family.

Researchers on Thursday underscored that point, unveiling the most comprehensive family tree for Homo sapiens ever devised, based upon both modern and ancient genome data from more than 3,600 people from around the world. They dubbed the results the "genealogy of everyone."

The study helps delineate human genetic diversity and map out how people globally are related to one another, with our species arising in Africa before fanning out worldwide.

The oldest roots of present-day human genetic variation reach back to northeastern Africa at a time before our species originated, according to Anthony Wilder Wohns, a postdoctoral researcher in genetics at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and lead author of the study published in the journal Science.

"The very earliest ancestors we identify trace back in time to a geographic location that is in modern Sudan. These ancestors lived up to and over one million years ago - which is much older than current estimates for the age of Homo sapiens - 250,000 to 300,000 years ago. So bits of our genome have been inherited from individuals who we wouldn't recognize as modern humans," Wohns said.

This million-year-old genetic contribution likely came from the species Homo erectus, Wohns said. Homo erectus, which lived from about 1.9 million years ago to 110,000 years ago, was the first species in the human evolutionary lineage 88

March-April 2022

with body proportions resembling our own.

The study, spearheaded by the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute, also documented how extinct human species such as the Denisovans and Neanderthals left genetic descendants among modern-day people around the world, though not in Africa.

"For example, people in Papua New Guinea and Oceania have quite large amounts of Denisovan ancestry, but even people living in Europe have some ancestry that looks like these ancient people," Wohns said.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

The study helped shed light on when and where major population developments unfolded, such as the large-scale "out of Africa" migration that led our species to distant locales and occasional interbreeding with Denisovans and Neanderthals.

"Our method uses DNA sequences to learn about the ancestral relationships between individuals.

Informally, what we try to do is to trace how genetic mutations, which occurred in our ancestors, and the bits of genome in which they occur have been passed down through the generations to the present day," Wohns said.

"Moreover, we can estimate the date and approximate geographic location of ancestors," Wohns added.

Other studies have indicated that groups of Homo sapiens departed Africa at various times in 89

March-April 2022

the ancient past. The new study suggests that the timing of the most significant departures occurred roughly 72,000 years ago.

The study raises the possibility that our species populated the Americas and Oceania well before the earliest archaeological evidence of human presence in those regions.

"Our method estimated that there were ancestors in the Americas by 56,000 years ago.

We also estimated signif ic ant numbers of human ancestors in Oceania specifically Papua New Guinea - by 140,000 years ago," Wohns added. "But this is not firm evidence like a radiocarbondated tool or fossil."

The researchers built the genealogy using 3,601 genetic samples from people around the world and eight ancient samples, the oldest coming from Neanderthal remains about 110,000 years old from a Siberian cave. They examined genome fragments from 3,500 ancient humans but did not directly incorporate these into the genealogy.

"The story of humanity is written in our genes," Wohns said, "and reconstructing our genealogy allows us to read that history." www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/newlydevised-human-family-tree-reveals-genealogyeveryone-2022-02-24/ Image credit: www.pinterest.co.uk/ pin/145522631690272803/ DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Female Scientists in Africa are Changing the Face of their Continent EDITORIAL Chemist Veronica Okello at Machakos University in Kenya is urging younger researchers to be less timid, air their views and approach professors for professional opportunities.Credit: Esther Sweeney for Nature

FEMALE SCIENTISTS IN AFRICA are entrepreneurial and resourceful. They are finding innovative solutions to problems that affect their communities, and many are actively seeking to engage others in their work. But for more women on the continent to achieve in science, they need policies that help to lower the barriers to their success and that incentivize international collaborations. These are among the findings of a special series of articles in Nature, as well as a poll that received responses from 249 African researchers. The majority (217) work in African countries, and 103 identified as female.

Our series shows that women working in research in African countries are thriving — founding businesses, launching non-profit scienceeducation efforts, training the next generation of scientists and joining their countries’ health, agricultural and space ministries.

They include Khady Sall in Senegal, who in 2020 led a project to manufacture face shields against COVID-19, and Veronica Okello in Kenya, who is researching green approaches to cleaning up 90

March-April 2022

heavy metals such as chromium and arsenic.

We also profile Aster Tsegaye, an HIV/AIDS researcher helping to train researchers in Ethiopia, and Elizabeth Kimani-Murage, who studies malnutrition in Nairobi’s urban communities.

Pontsho Maruping has switched from working in South Africa’s mining sector to helping to develop the country’s astronomy and space programme. Meanwhile, Angela Tabiri in Ghana studies quantum algebra and founded a network of female mathematicians. Adidja Amani helps to run vaccination programmes at Cameroon’s public-health ministry, and Nigerian microbiologist Amina Ahmed El-Imam researches the production of fuels from microorganisms.

Many also work in community empowerment, are helping to communicate science to wider audiences or are working to boost science education. And their achievements have often come after a period of study or research abroad — a finding echoed in our poll. Of our poll’s 103 female respondents, 59 had studied abroad; their reasons for doing so included gaining international experience, building DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

professional networks and bringing back specific expertise.

It is also clear from the profiles that many of the women made huge personal sacrifices to obtain their PhDs — those who studied overseas and are mothers, for example, often spent months at a time away from their children, leaving them in the care of others, such as fathers and grandparents.

Women in Africa experience greater barriers to developing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) than do women in high-income countries, with lack of funding a particular problem. Some challenges, however, will be familiar to women the world over.

Many women need to take time out for pregnancy, maternity leave and breastfeeding, and women also tend to do a higher share of childcare and domestic duties.

Moreover, some women told Nature that they have not been promoted as quickly as their male counterparts, even though they are publishing at the same rate and bringing in as much research funding and equipment to their institutions as men. The reasons vary, but include being evaluated according to outdated criteria. Often, for example, adjustments are not made for the gaps in publication and funding records that result from women taking parental leave. Although the gender gap is closing, the World Economic Forum forecasts that, at current rates, this could take 95 years in sub-Saharan Africa (go.nature. com/3i9oxb9).

Our series also illustrates the impacts of chronic funding shortages in Africa, and the resourcefulness needed to push many projects forwards. In countries where universities lack access to national grant programmes, some researchers and students pool funds from their salaries to buy reagents and small items of equipment. They are willing to make these and other sacrifices, knowing that research experience will both make them valuable and benefit their communities.

Africa’s researchers badly need long-term, stable investment from internal and external funding sources, including venture capital. In our poll, 56% of respondents (122 of 217) working in science 91

March-April 2022

in Africa cited a lack of funding as their greatest career challenge, and it was the top concern for both men and women. Work–life balance was the second-most mentioned concern for women.

If only Africa’s governments and the international donor community could do more to help scientists to realize their ambitions: even modest funding increases could go a long way towards accelerating nation-building.

That said, some continent-wide initiatives are helping to address systemic challenges for female scientists in Africa. Since 2011, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), based in Nairobi, has sponsored 228 doctoral and postdoctoral fellows, 57% of whom were women, across a number of countries. CARTA has two women at its helm: co-directors Catherine Kyobutungi and Sharon Fonn.

Similarly, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a pan-African network of centres that has trained almost 2,500 students in intensive, residential mathematics master’s programmes, with more than 800 going on to get PhDs. AIMS is led by the educationalist Lydie Hakizimana, and its main goals include increasing the continent’s number of maths students and the representation of women in STEM fields. Onethird of its alumni are women.

Such networks are further strengthened when researchers in high-income countries, which tend to have more-mature scientific infrastructures, get involved. Researchers in such countries have an important part to play by collaborating with researchers in Africa.

Such partnerships would benefit scientists not just in Africa, but throughout the world. African researchers include leaders in their fields; scientists on the continent can also bring fresh perspectives, informed by their knowledge and experiences, to research projects. International collaboration needs to be more common. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, such exchanges can happen seamlessly on virtual platforms.

Africa’s female scientists are on the rise — and partnering with them could give sky-high returns. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00492-x DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

When Your Boss Becomes a Hologram

By K Oanh Ha

AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER of Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd., Mark O’Neil typically makes dozens of trips a year to far-flung locales for meet-and-greets with the 17,000 crew members of the 400 vessels his company operates. In January he showed up in 3D, 6-foot splendor at a conference in Manila—but traveled just a few miles from the company’s Cyprus headquarters.

O’Neil participated in the event as a life-size hologram inside a 7-foot-tall box, and he was able to interact with the audience via a screen in Cyprus. Columbia plans to use the technology to train workers without having to fly people around the world, and O’Neil likes the idea so much that he’s planning to purchase more units for other offices. “It was a real ‘beam me up’ moment,” he says. “They felt I was really there.”

At least a half-dozen startups as well as giants such as Google and Microsoft Corp. are seeking to provide holographic communications services to businesses, and companies such as DHL, Novartis, and luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen have signed on as clients. Driven by the pandemic to rethink the rules of work, corporations see holograms as an innovative way to communicate with employees and customers while cutting down on travel.

Columbia’s system was provided by Portl Inc., a Los Angeles company that sells the high-tech box O’Neil used in Manila and the Cyprus studio with a camera, light, microphone, and backdrop. The whole setup cost Columbia $160,000, though Portl sells individual boxes for $65,000, and it also offers a $5,000 tabletop version that projects a shrunken version of the subject. Portl has raised $15 million from investors including Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, and it says it expects to sell 500 booths and 5,000 tabletop units this year. In 92

March-April 2022

Portl’s $65,000 holographic box.Source: Portl

IWC Schaffhausen CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr attends the 2021 Watches & Wonders Fair in Shanghai via hologram.Sour Portl

March the company plans to release an app that will allow users to substitute a cellphone for the studio gear.

Holography was invented by Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor in 1951, and two decades later he won the Nobel Prize in physics for the idea.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

rce:

eldeforma.com The technology had a breakthrough in 2012 when the late Tupac Shakur appeared as a rapping hologram at the Coachella music festival. That was followed by projected concerts featuring Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. This spring, “holographic avatars” of the septuagenarian members of the Swedish pop quartet ABBA will be accompanied by live musicians for a series of concerts in London.

These days, the technology is increasingly making its way into corporate headquarters and onto stages for conferences and sales presentations.

“Holograms were never in demand for anything but entertainment until recently,” says David Nussbaum, who founded Portl in 2019. “Instead of digitally resurrecting dead artists, I saw holograms as a new way of communication.”

Some skeptics say Portl and its rivals don’t offer true holograms, but rather two-dimensional holographic projections.

Strictly speaking, holograms are meant to be 3D images projected into thin air by lasers, so you can walk around and view them from all angles. Portl’s images, by contrast, require the box, which creates the 93

March-April 2022

illusion of depth, but when viewed from the side or behind it’s … just a box. Google is testing a booth with cameras and a glass screen where users can chat face-to-face with lifesize, 3D images of each other. And Microsoft offers holograms viewed through virtual-reality headsets.

The problem, says Larry O’Reilly, CEO of Toronto-based ARHT Media Inc., is that full-size holograms require more data than today’s networks can typically transmit. His company, which has a long list of multinational clients such as AstraZeneca, Ericsson, and UBS, uses a projector to show an image on a screen. Customers can buy a setup to capture and display holograms for about $100,000 or lease it for $25,000 a day. Last year, ARHT signed a deal with WeWork, the shared-offices company, to offer the service, and it’s building hologram studios in 30 locations from New York to Singapore. “People can’t look away,” O’Reilly says.

“We create the illusion of 3D in a life-size person or object with no noticeable latency, which creates a sense of presence.”

Sherrif Karamat, CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, says he’s a fan of the technology but insists vendors must bring down prices sharply before it will be widely adopted. A year ago he appeared as a hologram via ARHT’s technology at his group’s annual meeting in Singapore. Onstage with a live moderator and several others, he says the conversation flowed easily, and he even elbow-bumped a fellow speaker at one point. “Holograms are here to stay, and they’ll be used more and more,” Karamat says.

“But we’ll always want to be there in the room at times.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/2022-03-03/big-tech-and-startups-lookto-3d-hologram-for-travel-free-communication Marketing Video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=aEpkTc-N8Zk&t=228s

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse

How to Explain the ‘Metaverse’ to Your Grandparents

By Aaron Frank

THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION for a complete or 1. Spatial Computing (What is that?) almost-beginner. There’s plenty of mainstream 2. Game Engines (What are those?) coverage on the issue, but it often conflates 3. Virtual Environments (Is that the Metaverse? …sort of) concepts: VR is not the Metaverse (though it’s 4. Virtual Economies So let’s explore...

related), crypto/Web3 by itself is not the Metaverse (though also related). Confusing, I know. Whether you’re a business person, or grandparent, this is my best effort to lay everything out.

Firstly, who am I to explain the Metaverse to the grandparent/MBAs of the world?

There are experts with more experience who are commenting smart things in this space, and I will cite many of them here. I was too young for Second Life in its prime, but I do come from what I might call the Oculus Rift generation.

Since 2013, I’ve used VR, built apps, and written related articles at Vice and other places. I’ve also worked at a Silicon Valley technology organization called Singularity University where I’ve researched, used, and built virtual worlds as my core focus.

That’s the point of view I can offer.

What is the Metaverse?

In 99.99% of cases, provided the term is used correctly, you could replace the word ‘Metaverse’ with ‘internet’ and the sentence will mean the same thing. So then why is everyone using this fancy new word? I think analyst Doug Thompson, says it very well “that we’re using the term as a proxy for a sense that everything is about to change.”

So if the Metaverse is just the internet, what about the internet is about to change?

To answer that question, this article comes in four parts:

94

March-April 2022

1. Spatial Computing (and the history of the ‘interface’) To understand the changes coming to life online, you have to start with the seemingly obvious way we currently access the internet; computers.

And to understand where we’re headed, we have to look to the history of computing interfaces.

By computer interface, I’m referring to the way that humans interact with digital machines to get them to do what we want.

In the middle of the 20th century, getting a computer to do things involved sticking your hand in it to wire cables.

Then something called punch cards were invented which allowed us to keep our hands to ourself.

Then came command lines (like MS-DOS) - you

could interact by typing words. Next was the invention of the graphical user interface (GUI) or clicking pictures and what most of us take for granted as just how they work today. Today GUI’s are used in everything from ATMs, to ticketing machines, and it’s the reason ordinary nonprogrammer people like us can use them.

Why do I go through this history? The point is that

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

at every stage in the development just described, working with computers became easier, more accessible, and more people could use them.

Today, the next great computing interface is emerging — it just doesn’t have a good name yet. You may have heard about concepts like augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, immersive computing, or whatever two-letter acronym.

What all of these concepts share in common is that they involve the use of 3-dimensional space.

Game engines may be one of the most consequential technologies of the next decade but maybe you’re asking: What is a game engine?

A game engine is the software tool developers use to build (and run) video games. In these software programs you can upload 3D objects, apply rules for how those objects can move, add sounds, etc. The Protectwise system shown above was made using the Unity game engine.

Aaron Lewis nicely points out, “game engines are basically eating the world. Urban planning, architecture, automotive engineering firms, live That is a very big deal.

My colleague at Singularity University, interface music and events, filmmaking, etc. have all shifted designer Jody Medich, taught me just how a lot of their workflows/design processes to Unreal important 3D space is for the human brain. Which Engine and Unity.”

Another jargon-y term you might start to hear makes sense. We are born into 3D space. We grow up living in 3D space. It would make sense is ‘digital twin’, which is the idea that a physical that our brains and bodies are built to interact in thing can use its sensor data to create a software copy of itself inside a computer. This lets humans 3D space.

So this term ‘spatial computing’ is becoming a interact with simulated industrial objects as if they’re computers. commonly used way to refer to these interfaces.

While there’s more happening in the world Generally you should also think of ‘spatial’ things as having the properties of moving around in of game engines than I can go into, there’s two engines to know; Unreal and Unity. Unreal is space.

To explain why this matters, I often use the owned by Epic Games, the publisher which example of Protectwise (now a Verizon company). owns Fortnite, and Unity is a large publicly traded They build tools to help cybersecurity professionals company. Personally I’ve only ever used Unity detect threats to their IT/ computer systems. Typically, a cybersecurity person lives life inside dashboards looking at log files to sense what’s happening. What if that data could be turned into a spatial environment? Now patrolling your company’s computer system is like playing a video game. More people could do that since it’s more intuitive.

This isn’t the Metaverse, but it does point in the direction we’re headed. Cybersecurity work turned into a VR game.

Spatial computing like this is since it’s designed to be somewhat beginnercoming to life online. friendly.

2. Game Engines (The Construction Tools to The last thing you should know about game Build the Metaverse) see page 96

95

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse Metaverse

from page 95

In the future, it won’t just be games, but the entire physical world will be like a canvas ready to paint engines, is that they are going to see mind-bending with data. levels of improvement this decade.

To make this all happen, technology companies The takeaway is that during this decade, are scrambling to build what gets referred to as graphics will stop looking like ‘graphics’. We’ll see the Mirrorworld or AR Cloud. These words mean photorealistic virtual environments that appear like the same thing as a ‘digital twin’ from earlier. If real life. This means you should try to see past the you want to go deeper on this, I wrote this article cartoonish aesthetic today’s Metaverse coverage exploring its impact on society. will put in your mind.

This is all another way of saying the internet is For example, imagine what that means for spilling out of our phones and computers to merge something like Beyond Sports, a Dutch company with physical reality. The Metaverse won’t just be which uses Unity and real time positional data random cartoon game worlds built by developers. taken from sports to render live events as they are It will also be digital replicas of very real spaces, happening inside virtual reality. Picture this in 10 likely the whole earth, and digital twins of industrial years (walking around inside a game live with your stuff like your car. It will come to include sitting in friends) and now we’re starting to arrive at what your backyard with family members beamed in as we might be doing in the Metaverse. avatars, or putting on a VR headset to walk around And here we can introduce the first of a good other cities in real time. definition of what the term Metaverse is pointing Next, let’s explore more traditional virtual toward: the internet has been built by web worlds. Perhaps the most well known example is developers, the Open Metaverse is being built by a platform called Second Life, which was a huge game developers. phenomenon roughly 15 years ago and is still big If you start paying attention to it, you’ll notice today. game engines everywhere, which is especially If you’re not familiar, it is a collection of virtual true for……. worlds built by users that you can explore as an avatar. Millions of users signed up, and lots of 3. Virtual Environments Now that we’ve introduced spatial computing stuff happens there. It’s also a good reminder that and game engines, we’ve arrived where most anytime you see the media claim that something is mainstream coverage of the Metaverse tries to ‘the first’ virtual-based whatever, that’s very likely not true. pick up as its starting point.

Weddings, shopping, concerts; it’s all been done Virtual environments are the ‘places’ we’ll be in Second Life logging into in tomorrow’s internet. They are also A very real economy exists in Second Life, where a tricky thing to define. In many ways, Twitter and Discord (it’s an online messaging platform) are users buy and sell virtual goods and services and already virtual environments where people meet it has its own currency; the Linden Dollar.

Today, there are a whole suite of platforms that and exchange. could be thought of as successors to Second Life The virtual environments I’m exploring here, however, are the spatial ones built in game engines - Rec Room, VRChat, Altspace, Decentraland, and there’s two kinds to explore. First is real world Somnium Space, and a lot of others.

The ultimate vision of the Metaverse is that all of augmented reality (think Pokemon Go).

The other is the more traditionally thought of these experiences (from Beyond Sports, Pokemon ‘online’ ones you have to sit down at a computer GO, Fortnite, Roblox, to everything) will become (or go into a VR headset) to access, though this an interconnected network of virtual environments, distinction is arbitrary and is already falling away. aka the internet but for experiencing stuff.

My own journey to understanding this started Pokemon GO is a helpful example of AR in the real world. It’s a spatial game, built using Unity, that several years ago in a platform called Sansar, originally launched by the same company behind brings 3D characters to the physical real world.

96

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Fortnite Twin Galexies

Second Life. What struck me is that I was ‘walking around’ with Sam inside the Internet. Also, here was a retail e-commerce site to buy clothes online.

I will say that just like most companies today have a website, at some point most companies will have a 3D virtual environment of some kind.

With spatial computing (game engines and virtual environments like these), we’re closing the gap between the difference of any experience you could have in real life (going to a concert, hanging out with friends, etc.) and having that same experience mediated by a computer online.

This is what concepts like Ready Player One (a Steven Spielberg film adapted from a book) are directionally pointing toward.

And here we get our next helpful description of the Metaverse: To tie it all back together the Metaverse is the internet, but also a spatial (and often 3D), game engine driven collection of virtual environments.

4. Virtual Economies (…and NFTs) One of my favorite statistics is that Second Life still supports an annual economy roughly $500M in size (that number grew during Covid19). The GDP of Second Life is larger than some real world countries.

Fortnite, a game that doesn’t cost a penny to play, still earned $9B in 2018 and 2019. How? They sell in game stuff for players to express themselves in a variety of ways through virtual clothing, dance moves, and other items. In some ways the Metaverse is just a giant virtual fashion industry.

If that sounds silly or weird, just think about how someone carefully plans what clothes to wear, or 97

March-April 2022

what profile picture to use on LinkedIn. We care about how we express ourselves in the world. If we’re going to spend an increased portion of our time online, it’s not so silly to expect people will want to buy expensive Gucci bags to carry around Roblox.

So where do NFTs fit into all of this? Among other uses, NFTs offer the infrastructure to let people take custody of owning this virtual stuff.

I hate to do this, but it’s worth taking one giant step back to unpack what an NFT actually is.

First thing to note is that NFTs are powered by blockchains. A blockchain is really just a fancy excel spreadsheet that keeps track of who owns what (like what a bank does to keep track of who owns what money). When you send money to someone, today we rely on centralized authorities like a bank to keep track of changing the number of monies in our accounts to reflect the transaction.

The idea behind a blockchain is that everyone just gets a copy of the same spread sheet, and the big deal/breakthrough is that through complicated cryptography (where the term ‘crypto’ comes from) all those spreadsheets communicate to agree about which transactions are legitimate.

No more needing central trusted authorities. No way to hack, change, or mess around with what the spreadsheet says.

NFT stands for non-fungible token. The key word is ‘fungible’ which just means whether you can exchange something for an equivalent version and it will be equally valuable (bitcoin is fungible because it doesn’t matter which bitcoin you have, they are all equally valuable). Non-fungible is the opposite: each item is unique. This is why we’re seeing a lot of digital art using NFTs. NFTs use blockchains to determine who owns what.

This shift toward a decentralized way of managing life online has an industry term you will hear more and more called Web3, which is worth getting to know.

The NFT is the token associated with the metadata that points at the thing.

The reason NFTs and the Metaverse are conflated so often is that there’s an expectation that they may power these virtual economies by acting as the infrastructure to mediate the exchange of see page 98

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse Metaverse

from page 97

information and assets online.

To be clear, this is not yet a universally agreed upon idea. Second Life, Fortnite, and plenty of other platforms have been doing just fine without NFTs. But one reason NFT/crypto is one of the noisiest places on the internet is because it’s fastpaced, novel, and supported by an absurd amount of money.

I don’t mean that in a negative way; but this area is the unmapped, build-it-as-we-go, unsettled frontier of life online. There are some fascinating projects at the front end of this, but whether NFTs do or don’t power some dematerialized system of capitalism misses the point that NFTs are likely more important than just ‘owning stuff’.

Now we can tie together everything we’ve learned about the Metaverse and review a recent scene from an online event to explore the way NFTs might play a role.

Here is the ‘Metaverse Festival’ (yes, a real thing) that was headlined by performances from global stars like Deadmau5. It happened in the browser-based Decentraland (a spatial, game engine driven, virtual environment).

It’s Friday night and you head to the nightlife district of Decentraland (a plot of land which is an NFT). To get in you must be of age. You carry an identity token (which could be an NFT), to verify your eligibility for entrance.

You notice someone wearing a hoodie (an NFT) from RTFKT, a virtual apparel company recently

acquired by NIKE. Those are expensive, I’m told.

It’s free to enter, because the event is sponsored

by Kraken, who wants to be the cryptobank of the Metaverse. By attending you’re issued what’s called a ‘proof of attendance protocol’ token, or POAP (that is an NFT).

Later, when you sign up at Kraken, they offer a discount to those who can show, with that token, they attended the event.

Metaverse or no Metaverse, as John Palmer describes, NFTs mean the internet becomes a place where everyone has an inventory. Earlier we mentioned the Metaverse is an interconnected collection of experiences, and if that’s the case, you might want to carry your single identity, history, and inventory of assets around with you.

If that sounds familiar it’s basically giving users back their own cookies and personal data from big companies. I don’t want to go there; but it’s why a lot of people are scared of Facebook/Meta building a centralized Metaverse instead of one that is open and decentralized.

Stitching it Together I’ve gone way down an NFT sideroad here, but it’s worth stitching together the spatial computing/ virtual world developments with what’s been happening in crypto/web3. When I started this research 7ish years ago, crypto people were far away and somewhere else. Today, I now have to explore Web3 stuff, since these areas are merging.

If you’re still here — thank you — you might still be wondering: so what? How does any of this

African Metaverse Ubuntuland Launches

By Unlock News Desk AFRICA’S FIRST METAVERSE Ubuntuland plans were announced for commercialization of the 3D virtual reality experience, a virtual world that marries creativity, cryptocurrency, and commerce.

Africarare will be developing the metaverse joined

by MTN and M&C Saatchi Abel.

MTN, Africa’s largest multinational mobile telecommunications company joining Africarare

98

March-April 2022

with an upcoming 12×12 village (144 plots of real estate) secured in Ubuntuland.

Additionally, M&C Saatchi Abel have entered the metaverse as the first South African agency to do so. There will only ever be 204,642 plots

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

meaningfully improve anything about the world, or even the internet? How is any of this better than what we have today?

Lots of people will have points of view, and I won’t advocate one perspective or another. But I do have a personal anecdote.

At the start of my MBA program, the UK government had implemented a rule that no more than 6 people could be together indoors. For 300 ‘zero-chill/connect on LinkedIn’ business students, that’s a tough start to the year.

We even tried a full zoom call with all of us.

My classmates will remember me as that kid who threw some weird internet ‘house party’ using a platform called High Fidelity. It employs spatial audio, so you only hear the people clumped around you. It took some getting used to, but was a reasonable way to get 150 of us, as basic 2D avatars, moving around in a shared online space.

What the Metaverse enables, through the dimensional space, is a way of replicating some but not all natural human behaviors which you can’t replicate in existing online spaces such as Slack, Discord, or Zoom. There are times you want the magical chaos of unplanned social interaction mediated by ‘personal space’.

In the professional world, I’m endlessly fascinated by this company which runs a 60,000 person organization from inside a virtual world software built in Unity. The founder of that software company tells me that when you have to actually walk your avatar from meeting to meeting, there’s

opportunities for chance encounters you’d never get jumping from Zoom to Zoom.

I’ve also used that same software to run learning programs, and likewise, there are ‘moving around the room type’ learning activities I could never run using Zoom.

Additionally, the Metaverse might grow to become a more intuitive internet. Just like spatial computing interfaces are easier to use, websites may become like walking into physical stores, something our brains and bodies might better understand.

That said, it goes without saying, we won’t replace real-world experiences nor should we want to. We also won’t stop using today’s platforms like video-conferencing. The Metaverse is just the evolutionary next stage of the internet, and offers a new suite of communication tools that will be helpful for some things and less for others.

To conclude: this is all a long-winded way of saying the Metaverse is the internet. But spatial.

And built with game engines. And probably NFTs. And who knows where that takes us…

Please do reach out if you have any comments, questions or feedback. I’m always learning more too.

of land available, made up of different village sizes in various community hubs. The land is positioned and priced according to a tiered value system.

Landholders will be able to customize their 3-D land spaces, such as hosting shops, producing resources, renting virtual services and developing games or other applications.

Designated spaces will serve the community for work, play

and wellness purposes, including a state of the art meeting rooms, online therapy rooms (with optional anonymity), concert stages, film festival spaces, meditation lounges and other dynamic interactive environments. And, there’s more to come, such as staking, DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) and blockchain play-toearn gaming.

Renowned South African artist Norman Catherine has developed a unique collection of avatars for the metaverse, which will shortly be available to purchase. The Normunda tribe is based on the

Read the full article here: https://medium. com/@aaronDfrank/how-to-explain-themetaverse-to-your-grandparents-b6f6acae17ed Image credit: IBM Corp, linkedin.com, hustlemag.co.ke

see page 100

99

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse Ubuntuland

from page 99

artist’s signature lexicon, that has fetched record prices in galleries around the world. An avatar is a 3-D graphical representation of a user or the user’s character or persona in this space.

Furthermore, an exciting collaboration between Africarare and South African superstar Boitumelo Thulo has been announced. Popularly known as Boity, the acclaimed television personality, rapper, actress, businesswoman and model, revealed her first virtual reality music video, entering the event in the same Sun Goddess custom creation upon which her outfit in Queen Boity avatar form was based. The Boity tribe of 10,000 avatars will soon be available for fans, with a Boity village currently being developed and plans for virtual concerts under way.

The currency in Ubuntuland will be the $UBUNTU token, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain and available from later this year. Everything in Africarare can be bought, sold or traded using $UBUNTU tokens, including buying, developing, selling or renting plots or villages in Ubuntuland, and the in-world purchases of digital goods and services. The valuation of the token will be calculated according to what users invest / build / play / trade inside the metaverse.

Two art galleries will feature in Africarare, dedicated to showcasing Africa’s prolific creativity.

The Mila gallery (Swahili for ‘tradition’), already open, will host curated collections by some of Africa’s foremost artists, while the Inuka gallery (Swahili for ‘rise’) will feature works by emerging African artists from later in 2022. Both galleries will stage various exhibitions on an ongoing basis with art pieces being be sold as NFT’s (non-fungible tokens).

In the Africarare marketplace, creators and developers can trade in in-world assets such as land, avatars, avatar additions

100

March-April 2022

and other goods and services that are and will be available in Ubuntuland. The marketplace focuses on four main areas: Art, Ubuntuland, Avatars&Skins and Digital Services. Users will also be able to trade on secondary platforms such as Opensea and others.

The Central Hub land area is reserved for Africarare custom made experiences, ranging from art to education and including experiences like galleries, live performances, stand-up comedy, video content channels, film festivals, safaris and more.

“Africarare will connect Africa to this booming arena of the global economy, stimulate growth and create multiple new jobs such as digital designers, creators and architects ” said Mic Mann, Co-founder and CEO of Africarare. “Additionally, it will enable South African artists to showcase their talent to the world and monetize their distinctive creations,” he added. “With Africarare being built on collaborative partnerships, the possibilities for commercialisation are endless” said Shayne Mann, Co-founder of Africarare.

“This is an exciting moment for us as we lead businesses on the continent to enter the metaverse marketplace. This is exactly what our Ambition 2025 strategy is premised on – leveraging trends that amplify consumer’s digital experiences and engagement. We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers’’ – Bernice Samuels MTN Group Executive. https://www.unlock-bc.com/85107/africanmetaverse-ubuntuland-launches-with-mtn-andsaatchi-onboard https://www.bizcommunity.com/ Article/196/16/225516.html Image credit: africarare

DAWN www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse

How Fortnite Can Help Prepare Your Business for the Metaverse

By Jerod Venema

LAST MONTH, J.P. Morgan set up its own space in a mall in Decentraland, a virtual world. In January, Walmart signaled its metaverse intentions when it filed for a trademark related to "digital currency" for use in "an online community." In December, Nike bought a company that makes sneakers for the metaverse.

The metaverse isn't coming, it's already here.

So, how should your company prepare?

Gaming has long been a prototype for this new concept called the metaverse. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft and EverQuest created persistent online worlds more than a decade ago with digital goods and clothing worth real money, vibrant communities and virtual online interactions.

Today's online games expand this financial 101

March-April 2022

power with real world brands designing and selling virtual items and experiences: Louis Vuitton designed skins and weapons for League of Legends, and Ferrari let players test-drive its 296 GTB in Fortnite.

Hundreds of millions of gamers play online games for fun and socializing every day.

Epic Games alone hopes to scale Fortnite, one of the more advanced virtual spaces, from 60 million monthly users to a billion.

Here is what today's virtual worlds of gaming tell us about how to build a thriving metaverse.

What Brands Can Learn About the Metaverse from Gaming Worlds Lesson 1: People will join your digital space for a specific purpose.

Online gamers play games to have fun with other people. It doesn't matter how great a game looks, how detailed the virtual world is, or the size of the company's marketing budget--if the game isn't fun to play (and in the case of online games, play together), it won't succeed. For games, enjoyment is the special purpose. see page 102

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Metaverse Metaverse

from page 101

Takeaway: Provide special purpose(s) for why your customers would spend time in your corner of the metaverse. What can they experience there that they can't find anywhere else? Perhaps it's a unique live event, a special competition or educational opportunities.

Lesson 2: Allow users the flexibility to be creative within your space.

Designers make games, but it's the players who bring them to life. The most popular games give players the freedom to make their own culture and meaning, both inside and outside the game world.

Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" developers created a game world with all kinds of engaging experiences, quests and environments. But much of what made this MMORPG a global phenomenon is the digital culture of the millions of subscribers who have played this (still active!) game since 2004. For example, the designers created a guild system that allowed like-minded players to team up on group missions called raids, but it was the players who made each guild unique in its personality and style. And without these guilds we would never have seen the legendary Leeroy Jenkins become a timeless symbol of charging into a dangerous situation before you're ready.

Takeaway: Digital culture grows from the bottom up. Build a versatile virtual world that empowers people to build community, interactivity and meaning.

Lesson 3: Create an open, cross-platform experience rather than a digital silo.

For all their popularity, online games still run inside their own digital spaces and don't offer universal access. Even free-to-play games like "League of Legends" require fast computers and speedy internet connections. What's more, today's gaming worlds don't share content, as you won't find weapons from "Elder Scrolls Online" inside "World of Warcraft."

Since today's online games are built expressly for group entertainment inside a relatively closed environment, they create digital silos that lack the openness and cross-platform presence of the ideal metaverse. This is fine for a game, but a thriving metaverse will have interoperability and 102

March-April 2022

cross-platform data sharing to enable a truly open experience.

Takeaway: Look for ways to extend your metaverse experience beyond your single silo. Use open technologies where possible. How can your digital culture and story cross the boundaries of virtual worlds?

Lesson 4: Reduce or remove barriers to entry.

Today's online games require too much onboarding and startup effort to appeal to a truly universal user base. Just learning a new game's systems, strategies and environments can take days or even months.

To build a metaverse for everyone, we need to offer a progressive immersion experience. This would start by making the onboarding process for joining new virtual worlds and the places and events within them as simple as opening a web browser.

Once users are comfortable inside the metaverse, there should be easy steps to progressively get more engaged. The experience can begin on a browser and eventually lead to VR headsets and deep immersion.

Takeaway: Think about how to reduce onboarding and setup requirements.

Today's gaming worlds show how the metaverse is not some abstract marketing concept or the pipe dream of a tech billionaire. Instead, the metaverse and its interconnected virtual worlds are a real entity that most people will one day join--brands and businesses need to prepare. https://www.inc.com/jobsohio/technologys-futureis-in-ohio.html Image credit: bestinau.net DAWN www.africabusinessassociation.org

SPONSORED BY THE U.S. TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

U.S.-NIGERIA 5G and Next Generation Networks Workshop

TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION WILL FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 2022

Q 5G and Next Generation Networks rollout and deployment

9:00AM TO 11:40AM EDT 9:00AM TO 11:20AM EDT

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is sponsoring the U.S.Nigeria 5G and Next Generation Networks Virtual Workshop on April 26-27, 2022. This workshop will convene public and private sector leaders from the United States and Nigeria to identify the technologies and solutions that can accelerate Nigeria’s 5G and Next Generation Networks. Participants will hear about the latest trends and technologies for connectivity, spectrum management, 5G deployment and security, as well as best practices for ICT sector HIZIPSTQIRX Nigeria’s ICT sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Nigerian economy and the second largest ICT market in Africa. In December 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) conducted a spectrum auction to support the delivery of broadband services for the deployment of 5G networks. The Government of Nigeria aims to leverage the newly auctioned spectrum to develop a platform for new ERH IQIVKMRK XIGLRSPSKMIW WYGL EW -S8 EVXMJMGMEP MRXIPPMKIRGI %- and big data. The rapid growth of the Nigerian 5G sector presents a compelling need for infrastructure development, as well as an STTSVXYRMX] JSV 9 7 JMVQW XS TVSZMHI XLIMV I\TIVXMWI ERH WSPYXMSRW

Q Case studies on adopting 5G and Open RAN for public administration and services Q Financing 5G projects and deployments Q Deploying an open 5G ecosystem

ATTEND THE VIRTUAL WORKSHOP TO Q Form new business partnerships Q Learn about upcoming project opportunities in Nigeria Q Understand the landscape of the ICT sector in Nigeria Q Learn how to participate in Nigeria’s 5G rollout Q Showcase U.S. innovative technologies and solutions

REGISTER %XXIRHERGI EX XLMW IZIRX MW PMQMXIH XS 9 7 ERH 2MKIVMER MRHMZMHYEPW JMVQW SV GSRWYPXERXW EW HIJMRIH F] 978(%ŭW 2EXMSREPMX] 7SYVGI ERH 3VMKMR 6IUYMVIQIRXW EZEMPEFPI SR 978(%ŭW [IFWMXI EX [[[ YWXHE KSZ

ORGANIZED BY THE

CONTACT INFORMATION

CONNECT WITH USTDA

This event is being organized by USTDA’s contractor, BCIU. For more information, please contact: Gaetan- Nicolas Bernimolin Contracts Coordinator, BCIU gbernimolin@bciu.org or 646.925.7202

103

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

What You Need to Respond to the Google Page Experience Update in 2022

By David Freudenberg

AUGUST 2021 IS THE MONTH Google changed forever—that is, if you own a website. The Google page experience update rolled out for mobile devices, shocking business owners who were not prepared.

Google announced that the update was coming, but few were prepared. An analysis of 5 million desktop and mobile pages before the update found the average time it takes a website to load on mobile is 27.3 seconds. John Mueller, senior webmaster trends analyst at Google, says the best practice is to have your website load in two to three seconds. With an average load time of 27.3 seconds on mobile, websites were not even close to being prepared.

Websites that did not prepare lost tons of traffic and money. Now Google announced the page experience update is coming to desktop devices in February 2022. Once again, websites are not prepared. The average load time of websites on desktop devices is 10.3 seconds— still a far cry from the Google recommended two to three seconds.

How to respond to the 2022 update What can you do to adjust your website in response to this update? The answer is to make adjustments based on what we know from the last one. Page experience for desktop devices uses the same ranking factors that influenced the last page experience update for mobile. These ranking factors are: • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

• First Input Delay (FID).

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

• HTTPS security.

104

March April 2022

•

Absence of intrusive interstitials.

Measure the performance of your website’s page experience ranking factors by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

How to improve your website’s LCP Largest Contentful Paint is a metric used by Google’s Core Web Vitals to measure the time it takes for the content on the page to first become visible. Excellent user experience starts at an LCP of two seconds or less.

Websites with a slow LCP could be improved by making the following adjustments: • Increase the speed of server response times.

• Defer any noncritical JavaScript and CSS. • Optimize resource-heavy elements affecting load time.

How to improve your website’s FID First Input Delay is a metric used by Google’s Core Web Vitals to measure the time it takes a page to respond when someone clicks on the page. Google-owned web.dev recommends that a website’s FID load in 100 milliseconds or less.

Heavy JavaScript is the most common issue for websites with a slow FID. When the browser of your website is busy loading JavaScript, it cannot respond to user interactions, causing a negative user experience. Help the browser load JavaScript faster to improve the FID: • Use code-splitting to break up long JavaScript execution tasks.

• Optimize the interaction readiness of the page.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

How to improve your website’s CLS Cumulative Layout Shift is a metric used

by Google’s Core Web Vitals to measure how visually stable a page is when someone clicks on it. For example, when someone clicks a link in the navigation bar, the content may shift unexpectedly before loading the new page. The ideal CLS load time is 0.1 seconds or less.

Website issues are the most common causes of CLS when visiting a website, the No. 1 cause being ads and images that lack dimensions.

Use width and height attributes for your images and videos. Using these attributes ensures the browser can allocate the necessary space while the image is loading. Eliminate CLS when using ads by following these best practices: • Statically reserve space for the ad slot.

• Be careful when placing non-sticky ads around the top of the viewport.

• Avoid collapsing the reserved space when the ad slot is visible by the placeholder.

• Use historical data to place the most likely size for the ad slot.

• Remove the largest possible size for the ad.

from a negative experience. For this reason, Google made HTTPS security a ranking factor for the page experience update. Install an SSL certificate for HTTPS security to protect your website’s user experience.

How to improve a website with intrusive interstitials Anything that pops up on the screen hindering the user from using the website is an intrusive interstitial—for instance, a call to action to join an email list or a banner advertisement. Google considers intrusive interstitials a negative experience for users. Removing interstitials could increase your rankings and traffic on Google.

As Google ushers in the page experience update for desktop devices from February to March 2022, your website will respond better by following these best practices. Remember, websites that do not prepare get left behind during a Google update.

Don’t risk your brand’s traffic and revenue by Downloading and rendering web fonts can also failing to prepare for this new update. cause a layout shift. Try using the Font Loading www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/ API to reduce its time to acquire fonts and minimize what-you-need-to-prepare-for-the-google-pagethis occurrence. experience-update-in-2022

How to improve your website’s HTTPS security

Image credit: waterscapetech.com , binaryfountain.com

Secure websites are important to protect users 105

March April 2022 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Kelly Curtis is the First Black U.S. Skeleton Racer to Compete in Olympics

By BOTWC Staff

SHE’S WAITED A LONG TIME for this opportunity!

Kelly Curtis just made history as the first Black U.S. skeleton racer to compete in the Olympics, The New York Times reports.

Curtis has always been an athlete, running track and field at Tulane and Springfield College before making the shift to skeleton, a sport where athletes race headfirst down an icy track at speeds up to 90 mph. Curtis would use her down time to take on various small gigs and drum up funds to secure training to help perfect her skeleton sliding skills. According to Team USA, a couple of years ago she decided to join the United States Air Force, completing basic training before focusing on training for the Olympics.

“So there was a lot of mutual respect. I respected the women I was going through basic training with right away… if you tell anybody you’re training for the Olympics, then all of a sudden they have a lot of respect for you as well,” Curtis previously told reporters.

Despite the long shot of actually making it, Curtis never gave up, continuing to train while finding ways to support herself. Now, the 33-yearold has added her name to the history books, becoming the first Black American skeleton racer to compete in the Olympics. She made her debut, just four years after Simidele 106

March April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Black-Owned KweliTV is Bringing Authenticity & Access to Streaming

By Ineye Komonibo Refinery29

DeShuna Spencer

IN THE AGE of the streaming service, TV and film lovers are spoiled for choice. There are more than 200 different streamers currently available on the market with thousands of different titles to binge. But if you’re looking for platforms that cater to a more… melanated experience, the number of offerings decreases drastically. Though conversations about diversity and representation in Hollywood are ongoing, we just aren’t seeing enough significant

institutional change in the landscape; Black creatives, actors, and stories are still being put on the back-burner. If you look hard enough, however, there is one corner of the entertainment industry that is all about Black business: kweliTV. As one of the only streaming services on the market to cater specifically to the global Black community, kweliTV’s mission is to create a pipeline through which Black filmmakers can connect directly with Black viewers. Launched in 2018, the Black-owned interactive streaming service is home to over 600 unique original films and series — many of which you’ve likely never heard of before — brought to life by Black creatives from all over the diaspora. Its catalog boasts a rich selection of for-us-by-us content across all genres, running the gamut from spellbinding documentaries like Seeds: Black Women in Power to hilariously entertaining cartoons (Vanille) to everything in see page 108

Adeagbo made history as the first Black African woman to compete in the sport at the Olympics.

Curtis said that while role models were few and far in between, she held onto the ones she could in hopes that she would one day join that illustrious league of athletes.

“I didn’t really have too many people to look up to in the skeleton world, but I did in bobsled. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants and trying to inspire the next generation,” Curtis explained.

In 2017, Nigeria made history, debuting their first ever women bobsled team in the Olympics. Jamaica has also made a return in the Winter Olympics, their bobsled team returning to compete for the first time in over two decades. Representation like that is what kept Curtis going, seeing other people performing in 107

March April 2022

similar sports. Now, she gets to become the next role model for a newer class of athletes. Curtis will join veteran Olympic athlete Katie Uhlaender and Andrew Blaser, the three representing the U.S. at the Winter Games. The three-man skeleton crew is the smallest the U.S. has ever sent to compete in the sport since the 2002 Olympics.

Still, Curtis is excited, getting ready to live out a longtime dream, something she says she won’t be able to believe until she hits the ice.

“I’m still not going to believe it until that green light goes for Race Day 1,” said Curtis. https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/ botwc-firsts/kelly-curtis-is-the-first-black-u-sskeleton-racer-to-compete-in-olympics Image credit: Molly Choma, uskings.us

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture kweliTV

from page 107

between (a personal fave: Africa United).

The origin story of the hidden gem streaming service started with a simple observation. Founder DeShuna Spencer was searching for some new content to dive into and couldn’t find what she wanted. For Spencer, a local journalist-turned-PRrep-turned-entrepreneur who had grown up on all of the Black classics that we know and love, modern television and film simply wasn’t hitting the way it did in the past. Bored with reruns of Love Jones and Brown Sugar (oldies, but goodies) and the onslaught of popular reality shows that tended to depict Blackness in problematic light, Spencer’s efforts to seek out new types of Black content seemed like a herculean task because she didn’t have access to them as an someone on the outskirts of the entertainment industry. She wanted to support these films, but she had no idea how or where to start.

“At the time, it felt like the only way to see the newer Black films by Black creatives was to go to an independent Black film festival,” recalls Spencer during a Zoom conversation with Unbothered. “But I wasn’t in the industry like that — I couldn’t just go to the Pan African Film Festival or to Sundance to check them out.”

When her deep dive into Netflix, the main streamer on the market at the time, produced meager results for newer Black films (Strong Black Lead’s rich catalog wasn’t yet a thing at the time), Spencer was surprised to learn that there wasn’t a streaming service offering a wide range of diverse genre-spanning Black projects. Rather than complaining about the void, she decided to tackle it head-on by filling it herself despite having little to no knowledge of the entertainment space.

“I had all these ideas about what I wanted to see, but there was no streaming service that offered any of that,” she explains. “So one day, I was sitting on my couch and just thought I’ll start one myself!, which is crazy because I didn’t know the first thing about the industry. But I just knew that there was a gap that needed to be filled. People always say that if you don’t see something you want to see, then you have to make it yourself. And that’s what I did.”

108

March April 2022

Spencer’s vision started with baby steps, a few conversations with content creators here and there and tireless research into how much launching a media company would cost — as it turns out, a lot — and slowly but surely, her vision began to come together, starting with 38 independent filmmakers who agreed to let the platform stream their work.

As Spencer connected with filmmakers and other industry professionals while building the framework for kweliTV, she began to realize that out the space wasn’t just for viewers hungry for new titles; kweliTV would be just as game-changing for the passionate creatives eager to share their work.

Being a Black filmmaker in an industry still affected by racial bias isn’t easy, and the path to creating a film, even one meant for the indie circuit, can be a difficult one. Statistics show that only 7% of filmmakers in Hollywood are Black, and even the most in-demand Black filmmakers are still working with less funding because of the persistent wage gap in Hollywood. When their films are completed, getting them out to the public often presents additional challenges as Black creatives struggle to secure the marketing and distribution deals that DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

would allow their films to be seen by the masses.

It’s a whole ordeal from start to finish.

Spencer can’t ease the stresses of the development stage — though filmmakers working with kweliTV do have a built-in network designed to help them connect and exchange resources with each other during production — but Spencer wants to alleviate the pains that come with distributing content by purposely seeking out indie filmmakers who haven’t necessarily had the opportunities their peers have been afforded. She hopes that by giving these under-recognized talents a platform, they’ll get noticed by movie lovers and by major studios/distributors alike, and be able to ascend professionally. In an ideal world, being featured on kweliTV will be the foot in the door that leads to creators getting even bigger deals that can change the trajectory of their careers forever.

“It feels good that these creatives trust me with their work,” says Spencer. “A lot of first time filmmakers have been burned by other streaming services and distributors, but we’re filmmaker-first at kweliTV. Success for us means that the creative is successful, even if it’s not on our platform.

109

March-April 2022

We’ve had people get exclusive deals with bigger streamers, and we celebrate that. Oftentimes, they’ll come back to us because we’re family. We’re like Grandma’s house; you know we’ve always got a home cooked meal, banana pudding, and greens on the stove for you.”

Since its launch, kweliTV has seen massive growth, bringing in thousands of loyal subscribers and frequently dropping brand new titles on the platform for those fans to enjoy. Spencer is excited by the recognition that the streaming service has received (including a small business spotlight in Apple’s App Store for its disruption within the tech world), and she’s eagerly anticipating further expansion of the community that she’s built. Yes, there’s a lot of competition in the streaming industry — a new streaming service seems to pop up every other day — but what distinguishes kweliTV from its rivals is the core value that guides every business decision it makes: authenticity. Because it’s focused on centering Black narratives of every kind, kweliTV is able to foster an intentional community for Black people all over the world. The space, unencumbered by outside (read: white) expectations that can often influence the verity of the work, allows filmmakers to share their projects with the world exactly as they were meant to be shared. The result? Blackity-Black stories that actually speak to who we are as a diaspora.

“Kweli means ‘truth’ in Swahili, and we want to represent Black culture that’s real to who we are and how we live our lives,” Spencer explains. “And not just here in the U.S., but across the globe because Blackness can’t just be viewed through one lens.”

“We want to give Black creators the freedom to express themselves in a way that doesn’t require them to compromise their truth for a larger studio or a wider audience,” she concludes. “Of course, we have non-Black subscribers too, but our audience is Black, so we’re not diluting our Blackness to appeal to anyone. The goal isn’t to be relatable — the goal is to be authentic.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestylebuzz/black-owned-kwelitv-is-bringing-authenticityaccess-to-streaming/ar-AAVcCsT?ocid=msedgntp Image credit: refinery29

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Pritzker Prize 2022: Francis Kéré Becomes First African to Win 'Nobel of Architecture'

By Oscar Holland

WHEN HE WAS 7 years old, Francis Kéré left his family home to attend school because his village, Gando in Burkina Faso, did not have one of its own. Thirteen years later he moved to Germany on a carpentry scholarship with a dream of returning home one day to build the classrooms that didn't then exist.

Kéré achieved just that, becoming an architect and completing his first building, Gando Primary School, in 2001. The project proved to be a springboard for his career and still guides his ethos today. Having further transformed his village and other communities across Africa with his socially minded designs, the 56-year-old has now been named among the greats of his profession.

On Tuesday, March 15th, organizers of the Pritzker Prize, often dubbed the "Nobel of

Francis Architecture," revealed Kéré as Credit: Courtesy Erik its 2022 laureate.

The first African architect to claim i the th award d in i its 43-year history, Kéré achieved the feat with a portfolio consisting largely of schools, health centers and community facilities -- projects that might once have been considered too modest for a prize that has historically honored the designers of iconic buildings. Speaking to CNN shortly after hearing the news, he credited his success to his community in Gando.

"This is not just a prize for myself," he said on the phone from Berlin, Germany, where he headquartered his firm, Kéré Architecture. "Without having the courage to go back home, and to get my people to join me on the journey to build the school that (launched) my career, this would never

Gando Primary School, pictured after Kéré completed an extension in 2008. © courtesy Francis Kere/Pritzker Architecture Prize

110

March April 2022

DAWN

A digital impression construction. ©

www.africabusinessassociation.org

have been be possible."

Casting mud like concrete and embracing local materials over imported ones, Kéré proposes a vision of architecture that both strengthens communities and responds to the climate crisis.

As such, Tuesday's Pritzker Prize announcement is not only a nod of approval for him, but for Kéré. "vernacular" architecture -- a term k-Jan Ouwerkerk used to describe designs that directly respond to local climates, materials and building traditions -- itself.

Though Kéré has since designed bigger projects, including large-scale campuses and two national parliaments, his approach remains grounded in principles established in Gando. Raising funds for the school from overseas, the architect returned to his village with plans for a contemporary and sustainable 5,600-square-foot facility. Knowing the village had no access to electricity or air conditioning, he proposed strategically placed windows that allow indirect sunlight to enter while generating airflow that serves as natural ventilation.

But despite collaborating closely with local craftspeople, Kéré said he faced resistance over

of the Benin National Assembly, which is currently under © courtesy Francis Kere/Pritzker Architecture Prize

111

March April 2022

his choice of materials. The use of traditional clay bricks, which -- even when fortified with concrete -- offer natural cooling, was not entirely welcomed by villagers, who thought the structure would not withstand the rainy season as well as glass and steel. The villagers' instinct to conflate modern materials and notions of progress is something that the architect has encountered throughout his career.

"There is still a feeling that everything that's local is primitive," he said. "Let's say 90% of people in Burkina Faso use clay, but they see it as a 'poor person's material.' So, when they have more money to spend, they try to look for other materials."

"Sometimes the Western world -- and how it communicates -- makes things in the West (appear to) be the best. And they are perceived by others to be the best, without taking into account that local materials can be the solution to the climate crisis and can be our best alternative in terms of socio-economic (development).

"The more local materials you use, the better you can promote the local economy and (build) local knowledge, which also makes people proud."

Empowering communities In the two decades since completing his breakout project in Gando, Kéré has realized plans for a village library, housing for teachers and a 2008 extension that significantly increased the school's capacity. He has also adapted his approach to different contexts in Burkina Faso, where he has completed almost a dozen projects, and across the continent, from Senegal to Uganda, Togo to Sudan.

At the Benga Riverside Residential Community in Mozambique, Kéré incorporated existing baobab trees, shrubs and native grasses in his design, offering shade and protecting houses from dusty winds. His curvilinear SKF-RTL Children Learning Centre in Kenya, meanwhile, was built from compressed earth bricks that were produced on-site.

In each case, his work is as much about process as design. Working with local craftspeople not only imparts ownership over community buildings, see page 112

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture Nobel of Architecture

from page 111

Kéré said, but it helps develop vocational skills that can be used to generate future income. As this year's Pritzker Prize jury, chaired by 2016 winner Alejandro Aravena, wrote of Kéré in its citation: "He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the objective; not the product, but the process."

Kéré's background in carpentry makes him as much a builder as an architect. "Hand-crafting, and cutting or putting materials together, was something that fascinated me," he said. "And I try -- even without knowing it -- to do the same with my architecture."

Yet, he sees a growing divide between design and construction, believing that many of today's architects are alienated from the processes that bring their visions to life.

"There's a big disconnection," Kéré said. "You have people just sitting in an office with a computer designing and shaping our world. This is not the best approach... If you have a big (architecture) firm, then it's good to find a way to give people experience on construction sites.

"It doesn't take a miracle; it's possible. And we need to be aware that young professionals who (spend time) on construction sites, and really see how materials are put together, will have a different

approach to design than those who just design on their computers."

Growing profile If Kéré's philosophy is instinctively practical, he clearly recognizes the power of symbols and visual identities. Take, for instance, his recently completed Startup Lions Campus, an education center in northeast Kenya whose distinctive towers both aid ventilation and mimic the region's termite mounds, rooting the structure in its surroundings.

Then there was the tree-inspired pavilion he designed for London's Serpentine Galleries, which each year invites a leading international architect to produce a temporary installation. Part of a growing body of Kéré's work outside Africa, the conceptual creation brought together various ideas underpinning his work, from perforated wooden blocks that produced natural air circulation to a rain-collecting canopy that alluded to the challenges of water scarcity.

Kéré's growing international profile has invited increasingly monumental commissions. After Burkina Faso's national assembly was destroyed during civil unrest in 2014, the architect was asked to envision a replacement in the country's capital, Ouagadougou. The stepped facade of his pyramidical design offers both public space and a message of democratic openness, though the project remains on hold in the aftermath of

Kéré Architecture's design for the Burkina Institute of Technology (BIT). © courtesy Francis Kere/Pritzker Architecture Prize 112

March April 2022

DAWN

Village Opera, a cultural pro Faso. © courtesy

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Serpentine Gallery commissions architects each summer to create their first structure in the UK. Credit: Courtesy Kéré Architecture

January's coup d'état.

Construction of another Kéré's national assemblies, in neighboring Benin, is however underway. Like his Serpentine Pavilion, its topheavy form was inspired by trees -- in this case, West Africa's palaver tree -- and their role as

ject currently being constructed in Laongo, Burkina Francis Kere/Pritzker Architecture Prize

113

March April 2022

traditional meeting places, with the parliament's main volume blooming out from a hollow "trunk."

In both cases, Kéré said, the challenge was to create uniquely African expressions of democracy, memory and identity. But while these nationalscale projects differ in size from the architect's schools and health centers, his approach remains rooted in localism.

"How do you make a project represent a nation?

From a village to a nation state, you need to look around the country and ask, 'Where do you have local and natural stone ... and then we go to source it, in order (not to borrow) a style from somewhere else.

"This is how I'm trying to translate the work I have started in Gando to structures that present national pride."

Kéré will officially be named Pritzker laureate at a ceremony in London later this year. As with previous winners, he will be awarded a $100,000 grant and a bronze medal. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pritzkerprize-2022-francis-k%C3%A9r%C3%A9becomes-first-african-to-win-nobel-of-architecture/ ar-AAV5bCk?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=W069 DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Want to Visit Space?

You Can Send Your Name on NASA’s Next Mission Around the Moon for Free

By Jordan Mendoza USA TODAY IF YOU CAN’T WAIT TO TRAVEL IN SPACE, NASA is offering the public the chance to send their names on their next mission as they prepare to send humans back on the moon.

Later this year, NASA will launch their their Artemis I mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, part of the agency’s commitment to “build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come.”

To commemorate the mission, NASA will allow anyone, for free, to put their name on a flash drive that will be on the Orion capsule.

“We’re getting ready for Artemis I — and we want to take you with us,” NASA said in a tweet.

How To Sign Up Signing up is simple. First, visit the Artemis I website here.

After clicking on the “Get boarding pass” button, it will direct users to fill out their first and last name, alongside with a 4-7 digit pin code.

After submitting, NASA will send a QR code to allow those who sign up to virtually join future

NASA launches. To access their “boarding pass,” users need to remember their pin code.

There is no date set for the launch, as NASA has delayed the launch date due to the need for safety checks. The agency hopes to launch the spacecraft in May 2022.

The unique opportunity will come as the Orion spacecraft will launch “on the most powerful rocket in the world” and will fly farther “than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown,” NASA says. Orion will fly around 62 miles above the moon’s surface for approximately six days, as the spacecraft will spend an estimated month in space.

The goal of the mission is to give astronomers a basis for how their spacecraft, which is built for humans, will perform on a deep space exploration. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/ world/2022/03/07/nasa-send-name-aroundmoon/9404286002/ Image credit: Bustle

114

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Amazon’s Africa Headquarters may be put on Hold Over Indigenous People’s Concerns

By Alexander Onukwue

A SOUTH AFRICAN COURT ordered Amazon to pause construction of its 4 billion rand ($300 million) headquarters in South Africa over concerns by indigenous people that the US company is defiling sacred land.

The High Court in Cape Town, where the 37acre site is located at the intersection of two rivers, issued the ruling on March 18. It told Liesbeek Leisure Properties, the project developer, to carry out “meaningful engagement and consultation” with the Khoisan people who claim to be the site’s original inhabitants.

Amazon received approval from the City of Cape Town in April 2021, but resentment and protests quickly followed. Last week’s order is the culmination of up to 50,000 objections from various parties.

platform on the continent.

Dan Plato, Cape Town’s mayor until last year, said Amazon’s proposed HQ offered “many economic, social and environmental benefits,” but that the city had “carefully and thoroughly considered all of the submissions and concerns during the appeal process,” guided by the need to “balance investment and job creation, along with heritage and planning considerations.”

Indigenous people did not buy it.

“A concrete block for an Amazon headquarters on this terrain is egregious and obscene,” Tauriq Jenkins, a leader of a Khoi traditional group opposed to the project, told the New York Times.

The alleged obscenity lies in the fact that the project site is where Khoi communities repelled Portuguese soldiers in 1510, regarded as South Africa’s first resistance to colonialism. Other opponents have raised environmental issues.

Will Amazon abandon its future Africa home?

Jenkins, who is quoted in nearly every media article about opposition to Amazon’s project, told Bloomberg his group “will now proceed with the review with favorable prospects” following the ruling.

Whether it means Amazon will totally abandon the project or grant concessions to indigenous groups remains to be seen. The retail giant had South Africa’s indigenous Khoi people stop promised to build a heritage center close to its Amazon Amazon has an active operation in South Africa, office environs, which some other indigenous boasting three data centers and a workforce of groups approved of, but perhaps more will be about 7,000 people, and routinely lists many jobs needed. on its website. The plan for a headquarters was https://qz.com/africa/2144522/will-a-court-orderto create a local base for Amazon Web Services, stop-construction-of-amazons-africa-hq which possibly had its origins in South Africa, but Image credit: newsdigestblog.org also activate the retail giant’s online commerce

115

March-April 2022

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Brit Designer Appointed as Salvatore Ferragamo Creative Director

By Gargi Harjai

Maximilian Davis was appointed as Salvatore Ferragamo's creative director (Image via @Ferragamo/Twitter) ON MARCH 14, 2022, Salvatore Ferragamo made the announcement of a change in the creative director position, which is now being appointed to Maximilian Davis.

Effective immediately from March 16, 2022, Maximilian will take over as the brand's creative director, replacing Paul Andrew, who quit the brand to design for his namesake brand.

The young British designer will ascend to the creative helm just after showcasing his Fall Winter 2022 collection at London Fashion Week under the umbrella of Fashion East.

Salvatore Ferragamo also appointed a new CEO in January 2022 by appointing Marco Gobetti to take the realms at the Italian fashion house.

116

March-April 2022

More about Maximilian Davis Maximilian Davis was born in Manchester and graduated from the London College of Fashion. He leans on his Trinidian-Jamaican origins and designs from a culturallyhybrid point of view with sharp elegance and bright colors.

In 2020, he founded his eponymous brand and immediately garnered international recognition, gaining the likes of A-list celebrities such as Dua Lipa, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian.

Maximilian Davis learnt the art of sewing with the help of his grandmother and launched the DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

label from his bedroom in Seven Sisters.

Before launching his eponymous brand, Davis worked for Grace Wales Bonner, Asai, Mowalola, and Supriya Lele.

Maximilian Davis recently showed off his collection at London Fashion Week with Fashion East, where he offered sharp tailored pieces, sexy little dresses, nappa cropped jackets, and luxurious suede trench coats. The appointment of Salvatore Ferragamo marks a new chapter for Davis as well as the Florentine label.

The newly appointed CEO of label Marco Gobbetti commented upon Maximilian Davis' beginning on the label saying, “I am delighted to welcome Maximilian at the House of Ferragamo. The clarity of his vision together with the level of execution and his powerful aesthetic make him one of the most brilliant talents of his generation. His work is defined by elegance, refined sensuality, and constant commitment to quality. Through his lens of contemporary sensibility, he will write a 117

March-April 2022

new, exciting chapter for this house built on a heritage of creativity, craftsmanship, sophistication, and outstanding human values.”

T h e Ferragamo label has taken a progressive step by hiring a young black creative representative in the fashion house.

Davis was also deeply grateful for the position and expressed it in a press release made by the Ferragamo group saying, “I am deeply honored to be joining Ferragamo, and grateful for the opportunity to build on the rich and profound heritage of the house. Ferragamo represents a dedication to timeless elegance and sophistication that I find incredibly inspiring. I’m looking forward to articulating my vision, elevated by the codes of Italian craftsmanship, quality and innovation.” https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/ who-maximilian-davis-brit-designer-appointedsalvatore-ferragamo-creative-director Image credit: fashioneast.co.uk, maximilian.it, fashioneast.co.uk DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

History

Michael Twitty Creates a New Kind of Garden at Colonial Williamsburg, USA

By Hadley Keller

◄ Michael Twitty in the Sankofa Heritage Garden with Colonial Garden Superviser Eve Otmar shortly after its groundbreaking.

WAYNE REYNOLDS, THE COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION

The food historian is spearheading the Sankofa Heritage Garden, a plot dedicated to telling the history of the era's enslaved people.

MICHAEL TWITTY HAS made a career out of highlighting the connections between food, history, religion, and culture. The culinary historian, author, and blogger behind Afroculinaria explores the enduring food legacy of the African Diaspora, tracing the roots of today's cuisines and cultures to emphasize the outsized influence of African traditions and knowledge.

One of his latest projects, though, goes deeper than food on the table, quite literally: Twitty has partnered with Colonial Williamsburg to help tell the history of Black food during Colonial America through a replica of the kind of garden plots enslaved people of the era would have kept.

“One of the things I want to do is to try to bring to 118

March-April 2022

▲ The garden contain grown by people of Afr

WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDA

life the landscapes of the invisible, the landscapes of the erased and forgotten," Twitty told House Beautiful during a recent visit to the living history museum as part of its Craft & Forge program, where he gave a tour of the Sankofa Heritage Garden.

“We’re talking about a space that was 52% Black," Twitty notes of Williamsburg in its 18thcentury heyday. The Sankofa Garden endeavors to present more of the history of that oft-overlooked half of the town's population, providing a living, breathing juxtaposition to the "gentleman's garden" it sits next to.

The project is part of a larger effort (one that's gradually happening across many historical institutions) to reframe historic museums through a broader lens, one that encompasses all the residents who would have lived in a historic space—and contends with the darker history of what went on there, something many historic DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

ns basil, okra, peanuts, and many other crops rican descent. WAYNE REYNOLDS, THE COLONIAL

ATION

► Twitty visiting the garden this fall.

HADLEY KELLER

homes and museums have often swept under the proverbial rug.

Derived from a Ghanan term meaning "to go back," Sankofa celebrates ancestral heritage— and what can be learned from it today. To Twitty, the core of the Sankofa garden is displaying not only the types of crops enslaved people were growing at the time, but paying homage to the immense knowledge enshrined in these crops and how they're used.

"These gardens were spaces of knowledge," he explains. In the garden plots they maintained, Twitty points out, enslaved people in Colonial America practiced techniques like companion planting and animal repelling (peppers on the edge of a plot, for example, kept out foragers, while basil deterred mosquitoes) that weren't widely adopted among white, Western gardeners until far later.

"In Africa, there are different forms of knowledge for different people," Twitty says. In contrast to 119

March-April 2022

Western ideology, which tends to value so-called "intellectual" knowledge over learnings passed down through family or neighbors (which are often dismissed as superstition), in most African traditions, "it's not hierarchical—everyone has a different knowledge."

The Sankofa garden makes clear the impact that this knowledge had on plant and food culture in America—a legacy that continues to this day.

"So many other things changed irrevocably since then, but the food did not," Twitty notes, citing the enduring popularity of things like tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, and beans in foods associated with the American South—all elements that trace their roots back to the African continent, and which were nurtured by people of African heritage in the New World. "They brought with them seeds and ideas that would become southern food," Twitty notes. see page 120

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Sankofa Garden

from page 119

Though for or the people who would have been working a plot like this, the garden—which would have been tended at night, as daytime was spent toiling for the enslavers— was much more than a food source, Twitty points out. It was a means of preserving a legacy, connecting a community of people who had been brutally displaced, and providing a creative outlet for people who were systemically denied one.

"These gardens are not just food," says Twitty.

"They’re a release for the mind." https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/ a38539639/michael-twitty-colonial-williamsburgsankofa-garden/ Book credits: 120

March-April 2021

Rice: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469660240/ rice, The Cooking Gene: https://afroculinaria.com/ about/how-to-get-a-copy-of-the-cooking-gene, Kosher Soul: https://www.goodreads.com/book/ show/49244777-kosher-soul DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Celebrations

African Diaspora Independence Days J 26, 1960 R DJIBOUTI - J 27, 1977 R CAMEROON - J . 1, 1960 R SEYCHELLES - J 29, 1976 R HAITI - J . 1, 1804 R CONGO D R SUDAN - J . 1, 1956 D (KINSHASA) - J 30, 1960 F MOROCCO (I ) - J 30, 1969 G GRENADA - F 07, 1974 J R T GAMBIA - F . 18, 1965 R BURUNDI - J 1, 1962 SAINT LUCIA - F 22, 1979 R RWANDA - J 1, 1962 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - F . 27, 1844 D R SOMALIA - J 1, A R EGYPT - F . 28, 1922 1960 WESTERN SAHARA - F . 28, 1976 D P R M ALGERIA - J 3, 1962 K MOROCCO - M 2, 1956 R CAPE VERDE - J 5, 1975 R GHANA - M 6, 1957 F I R COMOROS S MAURITIUS - M 12, 1968 -J 6, 1975 R TUNISIA - M 20, 1956 R MALAWI - J 6, 1964 R NAMIBIA - M 21, 1990 C THE BAHAMAS - J 10, A 1973 R SENEGAL - A 4, 1960 D R SÃO TOMÉ AND S N Z MOROCCO PRINCIPE - J 12, 1975 (M )-A 7, 1956 R LIBERIA - J 26, 1847 R ZIMBABWE - A 18, 1980 A MOROCCO (S S Z , R BENIN - A . 1, 1960 M )-A 27, 1958 R NIGER - A . 3, 1960 R SIERRA LEONE - A . 27, 1961 P D R BURKINA R TOGO - A 27, 1960 FASO - A . 5, 1960 M JAMAICA - A 06, 1962 P ' D R ETHIOPIA - G R CÔTE D'IVOIRE (I C )M 5, 1941 A . 7, 1960 R CUBA - M 20 ,1902 R CHAD - A . 11, 1960 S ERITREA - M 24, 1993 C R GUYANA - M 26, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - A . 13, 1960 1966 R CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE) R SOUTH AFRICA - M 31, 1910 A . 15, 1960 J GABON - A . 16, 1960 NIGERIA (B C N )-J 1, R R TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO - A 1961 31, 1962 A A ' R V S (J )-J 19, 1865 K SWAZILAND - S . 6, 1968 R MOZAMBIQUE - J 25. 1975 F S C ST. KITTS D R MADAGASCAR -

J

121

March-April 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

AND NEVIS - S 19 1983 G BELIZE - S 21, 1981 R MALI - S . 22, 1960 R GUINEA-BISSAU - S . 24, 1973 R BOTSWANA - S . 30, 1966

O CAMEROON (B C S )O . 1, 1961 F R NIGERIA - O . 1, 1960 R GUINEA - O . 2, 1958 K LESOTHO - O . 4, 1966 R UGANDA - O . 9, 1962 R EQUATORIAL GUINEA - O . 12, 1968 R ZAMBIA - O . 24, 1964 G ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES - O 27, 1979 MOROCCO (I Z ,T )O . 29, 1956

N G ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 01 N 01, 1981 C DOMINICA - N 03, 1978 P ' R ANGOLA - N . 11, 1975 R SURINAME - N 25, 1975 I R MAURITANIA - N . 28, 1960 BARBADOS - N 30, 1966

D U R TANZANIA - D . 9, 1961 R KENYA - D . 12, 1963 LIBYA (S P ' L A J ) - D . 24, 1951 www.thoughtco.com/chronological-list-of-africanindependence-4070467 www.caribbeanelections.com/education/ independence/default.asp

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania - Image captured from the International Space Station in 2007.

Africa from the air, captured by NASA. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/africa/nasa-photos-africa-from-space/index.html 122

March-April 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

N

Agriculture - Business - Commentary Development - Education - Governance History - Investment - Lifestyle/Culture - Technology/Science

DAW

"Awakening the African Giant Within" The Africa Business Association (ABA) is pleased to invite you to be an integral part of our publication the DAWN - Awakening the African Giant Within. DAWN is a voice through which public and private entities and people share pertinent information and market business and investment opportunities in Africa and the African Diaspora. Gain access to these trillion dollar markets via ABA DAWN outreach and advertising opportunities.

• • • • •

Outreach to Africa Business and Investment Outreach to Diaspora Business and Investment Advertorial/Feature story advertising Profiles Bid and Tender opportunities

Our readers are Diaspora Africans, African small business owners, African American Chambers of Commerce members, business owners, corporate buyers, prime contractor’s, importers-exporters, community organization members, elected officials and civic/social leaders in Africa and the United States. Don’t be left out. Advertise in this door opening publication. 1-240-467-6811

Reserve Your Ad Space Today!

Call: +1 (240) 467-6811 or E-mail: DAWN@AFRICABUSINESSASSOCIATION.ORG

Advertising Opportunities Full Page w/Feature Story Full Page Advertorial or Titled Article Half Page Spot Ad Marketing Massage with website link

US$3,500 US$3,000 US$3,000 US$1,500 US$ 500 US$ 185

********Rates Subject to Change*********

123

March-April 2021

DAWN

www.africanbusinessassociation.org