AFROBIZ BLOG - Toronto Black Owned Business - Black In Toronto

24 African Heroes Who Stood By Their Beliefs

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 20:57:31 GMT

These African heroes who stood by their beliefs no matter what, worked to liberate African countries from colonizing forces or to better black interests throughout the world. Some paid the ultimate price with their lives.

Nelson Mandela | South Africa

Wangari Maathai | Kenya

Patrice Lumumba | Democratic Republic of Congo

Thomas Sankara | Burkina Faso

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Nigeria

Kwame Nkrumah | Ghana

Yaa Asantewaa | Ghana

Steve Biko | South Africa

Miriam Makeba | South Africa

Kofi Annan | Ghana

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | Liberia

Haile Selassie | Ethiopia

Fredrick Douglass | United States

W.E.B. Du Bois | United States

Amina of Zazzau | Nigeria

Dedan Kimathi | Kenya

Mariama Ba | Senegal

Mansa Musa | Mali

Desmond Tutu | South Africa

Abdias do Nascimento | Brazil

Queen Nzinga | Angola

Chinua Achebe | Nigeria

Thomas Mapfumo | Zimbabwe

Queen Amina | Nigeria

Marcus Garvey | Jamaica

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/c1Y730nU7wy

Un nouveau financement de 80 millions de dollars pour intensifier la lutte contre le virus Ebola

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:31:02 GMT

Le Groupe de la Banque mondiale et le Mécanisme de financement d’urgence en cas de pandémie (PEF) ont approuvé une enveloppe de 80 millions de dollars de dons à l’appui de l’intensification de la lutte contre l’épidémie d’Ebola en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Ces fonds viendront financer plus de la moitié du coût estimé (148 millions de dollars environ) pour le plan de riposte conçu par les autorités du pays et leurs partenaires internationaux et couvrant les six prochains mois (de février et à fin juillet 2019). Le Groupe de la Banque mondiale a dès aujourd‘hui mis à la disposition de la RDC un don de 60 millions de dollars provenant de l’Association internationale de développement (IDA), son fonds pour les pays les plus pauvres.

Mécanisme de financement innovant crée par le Groupe de la Banque mondiale en collaboration avec l’Allemagne, l’Australie et le Japon, le PEF a approuvé un don de 20 millions de dollars via son guichet de liquidités, trois jours seulement après avoir reçu une demande du gouvernement de la RDC. La moitié de cette somme sera décaissée immédiatement pour soutenir la riposte sur le terrain, le solde devant être verse au plus tard, en fonction des besoins opérationnels, sous un mois.

« Cette dixième flambée épidémique est la pire que notre pays ait connue jusqu’ici et ce nouvel engagement financier du Groupe de la Banque mondiale et du PEF va nous permettre, avec nos partenaires, de nous concentrer pleinement sur la lutte contre Ebola et la protection de la santé de nos concitoyens », indique Oly Ilunga Kalenga, ministre de la Santé de la RDC [Photo]. La situation est très difficile, mais nous sommes déterminés à renforcer encore notre réponse, déjà considérable. » « Notre priorité est de stopper cette épidémie d’Ebola et de limiter ses conséquences dévastatrices pour les familles et les communautés.

Les ressources engagées aujourd’hui vont permettre d’intensifier de toute urgence des interventions vitales et de faire en sorte que le manque de fonds ne vienne pas entraver la poursuite de ces activités, précise Kristalina Georgieva, présidente par intérim du Groupe de la Banque mondiale et directrice générale de la Banque mondiale. Les investissements que nous consentons aujourd'hui aideront aussi la DRC et ses pays voisins à renforcer leurs systèmes de santé et à protéger ainsi leur population et leur économie contre les dommages durables causés par les pandémies. » La RDC lutte contre l’actuelle épidémie d’Ebola depuis août 2018 et déplore à ce jour plus de 480 morts confirmés dans les provinces du Nord-Kivu et d’Ituri.

La Banque mondiale a apporté la majorité des financements destinés à soutenir les efforts de riposte déployés entre août 2018 et février 2019. Elle a également fourni son assistance technique pour le renforcement du système de santé de la RDC et, face au risque de propagation du virus au-delà des frontières congolaises, investi dans des plans de préparation aux pandémies dans les neuf pays limitrophes de la RDC. « L’urgence des besoins provoqués par cette nouvelle flambée épidémique en RDC illustre à nouveau l’importance du PEF, qui permet de mobiliser rapidement et de manière fiable les fonds nécessaires pour contrer les urgences sanitaires, commente Gerd Muller, ministre allemand de la Coopération économique et du Développement.

 Nous avons la ferme intention de travailler avec tous nos partenaires pour apporter une réponse rapide et globale. » « En tant que premier partenaire international ayant contribué à la création du PEF, nous restons convaincus qu’il s’agit d’un mécanisme de financement solide face aux épidémies, déclare Masatsugu Asakawa, vice-ministre japonais des Finances pour les affaires internationales.

Le décaissement rapide des fonds sollicitent par la RDC pour endiguer l'actuelle flambée épidémique Ebola est garant d'une lutte efficace contre cette menace infectieuse. » « Notre soutien au PEF s'explique par la détermination de l’Australie à contribuer à la réduction du risque d’épidémies mondiales et à améliorer la sécurité sanitaire de chacun, souligne Robin Davies, directeur de l'Indo-Paciﬁc Centre for Health Security en Australie.

En apportant de nouveaux financements pour assurer une riposte renforcée, nous permettons au PEF de continuer à accomplir sa mission. » Le guichet de liquidités du PEF a été activé pour la première fois en mai 2018, lors de la précédente épidémie d’Ebola qui a sévi en RDC, dans la province de l’Equateur, et dont la propagation a pu être endiguée en quelques semaines. En plus de son guichet de liquidités, le PEF dispose d'un guichet d'assurance de 425 millions de dollars, qui repose sur des obligations placées sur les marchés financiers et peut être activé au cas où une riposte plus importante et impliquant plusieurs pays se révèle nécessaire. L’actuelle épidémie d’Ebola en RDC ne constitue pas ce jour, selon l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), une urgence de santé publique de portée internationale. 

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/fWqk30nXH5W

Meet Refentse Morake from busker to popular Afrikaans singer

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:18:56 GMT

Refentse Morake has taken the Afrikaans music industry by storm - we look back at his journey.

In 2015, two videos of Refentse Morake singing De la Rey and Lisa se Klavier were uploaded onto social media. Little did he know that those videos would make him famous.

The videos of him singing on the streets of Vereeniging went viral and soon after he became the new sensation of South African music.

After becoming a viral sensation, Refentse built a strong career out of doing what he loves most. He released his debut album a year later in 2016. He also had the opportunity to collaborate with a variety of Afrikaans singers, including Ricus Nel, Adam Tas, and Bok van Berk on Hardekole, which made even more people sit up and listen.

When he was 17-years-old, fellow musician Karen Zoid asked him to perform with her at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees. Their performance also went viral and Karen decided to help him with the recording of his album.

Refentse, who has more than 22,000 followers on Instagram, has joined the Jacaranda FM team on numerous occasions to perform and to make a difference in listeners' lives.

Another hit video for Refentse is the legendary poem and song, Sonvanger . The video has been viewed over one-million times on YouTube.

Here are some of our favourite songs from this local hitmaker

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/wteW30nXGyK

Mombasa shoe thief forced to eat raw pepper

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:54:07 GMT

A thief from Mombasa County who was forced to eat a handful of raw peppers after a stealing spree in a mosque has been spotted being battered in another viral video following a theft incident.

His past came back to haunt him after it was discovered he was not new to the game of petty theft.

In a viral video posted on Tuesday, February 5, the thief was seen covered in blood after a group of angry chaps punished him for taking what did not belong to him. Strange enough, his crime was stealing shoes from a mosque.

Angry residents kept pressuring the suspected criminal to say the the number of times he has sneaked in mosques just to take away people’s shoes. “How many times have you come here to steal shoes? Say the truth or I will ask them to beat you,” a voice from the crowd was heard saying. With blood oozing from his face and a jaw severely swollen, the man from Likoni area tried to confess to his sins and disclose where he came from. His shirt was tattered and drenched in blood and he sat down struggling to get a grip of himself. On Monday, February 4, the chap was caught stealing from a mosque again then forced to chew peppers as a punishment.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/z2X730nXEUM

The town where hip hop is healing South Africa’s broken youth

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 16:09:43 GMT

A large body of research shows that in South Africa’s black townships, a youth masculinity dominates, probably best captured by the gangsta hip-hop term “ swagger ”. It involves a highly sexualised, aggressive manner, sporting the latest consumer goods, and not being averse to violence, alcohol abuse and drugs – basically how hip-hop functions universally. What is less commonly known is that there is an “underground” hip-hop movement in South Africa promoting an alternative lifestyle.

I spent a year in 2014 hanging out with hip-hop artists in the townships of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape province. Most of them have been performing since the mid-2000s.

“We don’t do swagger,” says local hip-hop artist Dezz. He detests the “ izikhothane ” subculture in which young men parade with consumer goods and then destroy these. While it gives them a certain status, it does not value “people with nothing”, he says.

In Grahamstown they rap about these people with nothing, praising their resilience for surviving hunger, crime and being looked down upon by others.

Spreading the message of black consciousness

There is something of a religious zeal to these hip-hop artists. Posters at their events make it clear that no alcohol is allowed. Their songs celebrate family and the “narrow path” of morality. Many are vegans. Their central message, however, is not church, but black consciousness . They invoke struggle heroes like Steve Biko and Chris Hani in their lyrics.

Hip-hop artist XNasty, considered the father of hip-hop in Grahamstown, has been promoting Biko’s message for many years. Society is still broken due to apartheid and its legacy of racism and economic oppression, he says. It’s a psychic wound that has festered since apartheid times and has been transferred from parents to children. Parents in many poor townships have been told for so many years that they are “nothing” that this sense of uselessness has been internalised in a sense of nihilism, XNasty explains.

The hip-hop artists explain this negativity in terms of black consciousness – people here are broken, and they don’t realise how they are destroying each other. They suffer a feeling of constant judgment by the rest of society, and so they judge others.

‘Re-animating the human’

In response, hip-hop in Grahamstown refuses to judge, and hangs onto hope. Local rapper Azlan raps about gangsters who return to prison, and implores people to see them as human. “People need to try and imagine how we can help that gangster to change, so he can be a human being, like you and me,” he argues.

“If you are not working you are useless,” says rapper Ithalalenyeni. Others describe how you are taunted to “go back to the village” if you wear unfashionable clothes or do not have a sophisticated mobile phone.

The politics of hip-hop here is about recognising humanity in a space of deep dehumanisation. It invokes public intellectual Achille Mbembe ’s call to “ re-animate the human ” in South Africa. South Africans carry the dehumanisation of apartheid and are now confronted with the double dehumanisation of neo-liberalism , according to Mbembe.

Sociologist Michèle Lamont argues that the symbolic boundaries that divide a society into “people like us” and those that are considered inferior are part of a nation’s culture. In France, with its long history of the revolution, Catholicism and socialism, symbolic boundaries are less harsh than in the US, and people are more inclined to think of the working class as “people like us”, she argues.

In South Africa, slavery, colonialism and apartheid have probably resulted in some of the harshest symbolic boundaries in the world, questioning black people’s basic humanity for centuries. Hip-hop here is about overcoming these persistent symbolic boundaries by celebrating the humanity of ordinary township residents.

Hip-hop artists rediscover obscure words in isiXhosa , read books on history and politics, and work these into their lyrics. They develop rich cultural metaphors celebrating traditions. They reclaim a black intellectual culture.

These hip-hop artists also spend hours mastering complex media software. They write songs about overcoming hardship. They recruit new members and keep these young teens away from crime. They dream of success, but also of transforming the communities in which they live.

Building empowered communities

The academic literature exploring the resilience of young people is, to my mind, too focused on helping individuals do better than expected in precarious, dangerous environments. It does not focus on those young people who are trying to do more than simply survive – those who are also trying to change their environments.

Inspired by Biko, the hip-hop artists in my study are doing exactly that. They are not waiting for politicians, they say, but trying to do things for themselves. The annual Fingo Festival that happens during the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown is just one of the ways they do this.

XNasty and a few other local musicians decided they were not content simply to join in the criticism that the National Arts Festival has too small a presence in the townships and does not offer a platform for local artists. Instead, they did something about it. Their dreams and hard work in fund-raising paid off. Since 2011 the Fingo Festival offers a week-long programme combining local hip-hop acts, National Arts Festival shows and in-depth community discussions.

For these young people, Biko’s central message is that black communities should claim back the right to re-imagine their own future – and then start doing exactly that.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/lBfp30n3Ms9

A guide to Africa's 'looted treasures

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 15:27:18 GMT

During colonial rule in Africa, thousands of cultural artefacts were plundered. African countries want them back and major museums across Europe have agreed to loan the famous Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria. Now France has launched a report calling for thousands of African art in its museums to be returned to the continent.

Benin Bronzes

The Benin Bronzes, which are actually made of brass, are a collection of delicately made sculptures and plaques that adorned the royal palace of the Oba, Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, in the Kingdom of Benin, which was incorporated into British-ruled Nigeria.

They were carved out of ivory, brass, ceramic and wood.

Many of the pieces were cast for the ancestral altars of past kings and queen mothers.

In 1897, the British launched a punitive expedition against Benin, in response to an attack on a British diplomatic expedition.

Apart from bronze sculptures and plaques, innumerable royal objects were taken as a result of the mission and are scattered all over the world.

The British Museum in London says many of the objects from Benin in its collection were given to it in 1898 by the Foreign Office and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty .

In October, top museums in Europe agreed to loan crucial artefacts back to Nigeria for the new Royal Museum, which it plans to open in 2021.

Man-eaters of Tsavo

These were two infamous lions from the Tsavo region in Kenya, East Africa that killed and ate railway workers on the British Kenya-Uganda at the end of the 19th Century.

The labourers were building the railway line between Mombasa and Lake Victoria over nine months in 1898.

The two killer beasts were eventually shot dead by British engineer Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson, at the helm of the railway project.

The stuffed lions were purchased from Patterson by the Field Museum of Natural History in the US city of Chicago in 1925 and catalogued into the museum's permanent collections.

Lt Col Patterson reported the lions' feeding frenzy took the lives of 135 railway workers and black Africans, but the Field Museum says later research conducted by its scientists drastically reduced that estimate to 35 .

The Kenya National Museum wants the lions returned.

Rosetta Stone

The 1.12m (3ft 6in) high Rosetta Stone in the British Museum is originally from Egypt and is a stele made out of granodiorite, which is a coarse-grained rock .

It is a broken part of a bigger slab with text carved on to it that has helped researchers learn how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs - a form of writing that used pictures as signs.

It features three columns of the same inscription in three languages: Greek, hieroglyphs and demotic Egyptian - and is the text of a decree written by priests in 196 BC, during the reign of pharaoh Ptolemy V.

It is unclear how the stone was discovered in July 1799, but there's a general belief that it was found by soldiers fighting with the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte as they were building an extension to a fort near the town of Rashid - also known as Rosetta - in the Nile Delta.

When Napoleon was defeated, the British took possession of the stone under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801.

It was then transported to England, arriving in Portsmouth in February 1802. George III offered it to the British Museum a few months later.

Bangwa Queen

The 32in (81cm) tall Bangwa Queen is a wooden carving from Cameroon, representing the power and health of the Bangwa people.

It is one of the world's most famous pieces of African art and has huge sacred significance for Cameroonians.

Sculptures were made of titled royal wives or princesses and would be referred to as Bangwa Queens in the Bangwa land of present-day Lebialem district of Cameroon's South-West region.

The Bangwa Queen was either given to or looted by the German colonial agent Gustav Conrau in around 1899 before the territory was colonised.

It ended up in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin and was then bought by an art collector in 1926.

According to the New York Times, US art collector Harry A Franklin bought the carving in 1966 for $29,000 and after his death it sold at a Sotheby's auction for $3.4m .

Surrealist portrait photographer Man Ray also included the Queen of Bangwa in a 1937 portrait of a nude model - in what the New York Times says became one of his famous images .

The Dapper Foundation in Paris, France now owns the Bangwa Queen sculpture - and it was on display at the Musée Dapper until 2017 when the museum that focused on African art closed because of low attendance and high maintenance costs.

Traditional leaders of the Bangwa have been corresponding with the foundation, requesting its return to Cameroon.

Authors of the report commissioned by President Macron, Senegalese writer and economist Felwine Sarr and French Historian Bénédicte Savoy, have recommended that French law is changed to allow the return of the African art.

Maqdala treasures

The Maqdala treasures include an 18th Century gold crown and a royal wedding dress, taken from Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) by the British army in 1868.

Historians say 15 elephants and 200 mules were needed to cart away all the loot from Maqdala, Emperor Tewodros II's northern citadel capital.

The British raided Maqdala in protest at the detention of its consul when relations between the two powers deteriorated.

Some of the treasures were later deposited at the UK's Victoria and Albert Museum .

The crown, admired for its silver and copper filigree designs and religious embossed images, and royal wedding dress are significant symbols of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Scholars believe the crown was commissioned in the 1740s by Empress Mentewwab and her son King Iyyasu and given as a gift to a church in Gondar, together with a solid gold chalice.

The dress and jewellery belonged to Emperor Tewodros II's widow, Queen Woyzaro Terunesh.

Ethiopia lodged a claim in 2007 for the return of the antiquities. In April this year, the V&A offered to return the treasures to Ethiopia on loan .

Zimbabwe bird

A soapstone sculpture of a fish eagle is Zimbabwe's main national emblem. Eight of the Zimbabwe Birds were looted from the ruins of an ancient city.

Only eight of the birds were ever recovered. They stood on the walls and monoliths of the ancient city built between the 12th and 15th Centuries by the ancestors of the Shona people.

Seven of the carvings are in Zimbabwe since 2003 when the bottom section of one was returned by Germany .

It had ended up in the hands of a German missionary who sold it to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1907.

Then after Soviet troops invaded Germany at the end of the World War Two, it was moved from Berlin to Leningrad and remained there to the end of the Cold War and then returned to Germany.

The eighth remains in the old bedroom of 19th Century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, whose home in the South African city of Cape Town is now a museum.

He had taken a number of birds from Great Zimbabwe to South Africa in 1906. South Africa returned four of them in 1981, a year after Zimbabwe gained its independence.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/dX4H30n3Jfw

Museum of Black Civilisations in Senegal

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 03:55:08 GMT

Among the first temporary exhibitions to be shown is work from artists from Mali and Burkina Faso as well as from Cuba and Haiti.

After decades of inaction, construction was finally made possible after a $34m (£27m) Chinese investment.

The idea of establishing the museum dates back more than 50 years, to Senegal's late poet-president, Léopold Sédar Senghor.

Along with Martinican writer Aimé Césaire, Senghor was a creative force behind the philosophy of Négritude, which opposed the imposition of French culture on colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

The museum will not be a commemorative monument, its director says, but rather a creative laboratory to help shape a continent's sense of identity.

It is expected to open to the public in the coming weeks.

"This museum is a step forward for us," Amadou Moustapha Dieng, a Senegalese arts journalist, told the BBC.

"I know there are important relics which I'm not able to see unless I go abroad, but now [with] this space, we can get back the relics and Africans can come here now and see this was their history."

The Museum of Black Civilisations has changed the landscape of downtown Dakar.

Built in a circular shape, the architecture was inspired by traditional homes typical to southern Senegal.

In November an experts' report, commissioned by France's President Emmanuel Macron, recommended that African treasures taken without permission be returned to their countries of origin.

Senegal's Culture Minister Abdou Latif Coulibaly told the BBC he welcomed the French report as "every piece from Senegal is in France".

The African state with the highest number of art pieces in France is Chad, another former colony.

The museum's bosses hope they will "be able to turn Senegal into an intellectual and cultural capital of the black world".

For years, Dakar has been aiming to position itself as a cultural capital in the region. With President Macky Sall running for re-election in 2019, the government is hoping that the opening of the museum will help it achieve the goal.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/YytZ30n3lZJ

L'appauvrissement de l'Afrique

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 23:23:04 GMT

L'Afrique n'est pas pauvre, elle est appauvrit.

Voici la carte des ressources africaines. On retrouve notamment le pétrole, les diamants, l'or, le café et l'uranium indispensable aux usines nucléaires qui alimentent les grandes villes européennes, américaines et asiatiques en électricité.

On observe que le cuivre est rare, or il est nécessaire partout dans le monde pour acheminer l'électricité. Cette rareté explique l'enrichissement rapide des pays européens qui l'ont exploité gratuitement pendant plus d'un siècle.

Certaines ressources n'apparaissent pas sur cette carte comme le carbone dont la résistance, la légèreté et la souplesse en font l'élément incontournable dans la fabrication des avions, des voitures, des bateaux, des navettes spatiales, des hélicoptères, des cannes à pêche, des raquettes de champions de tennis et de certains instruments de musique.

Il manque également deux minerais très rares que l'on ne trouve que dans certaines régions d'Afrique noire et nulle part ailleurs dans le monde : le coltan et la cassitérite. Ces deux éléments sont indispensables dans la fabrication de nos téléphones portables, de nos télévisions HD et de nos ordinateurs. Autant dire que l'Afrique possède l'avenir technologique du monde dans ses entrailles!

Le caoutchouc n'est pas non plus mentionné sur la carte mais il est indispensable à la fabrication des pneus de tous les véhicules qui circulent sur terre et dans les airs. Ce caoutchouc est récupéré et préparé en Afrique avant d'être acheté une misère pour rapporter des bénéfices indécents à des multinationales.

En bref, il n'y aurait pas eu de progrès technologiques sans la matière première africaine. L'Afrique possède toutes les ressources indispensables à notre modernité et à notre confort. Il existe beaucoup de films qui montrent des situations apocalyptiques où des extraterrestres débarquent et anéantissent notre mode de vie : plus de voiture, plus de téléphone, plus d'internet, plus d'électricité... Pas besoin d'invasion extraterrestre pour ça. Il suffit juste que tous les pays d'Afrique disent STOP en même temps!

Ce qu'il faut bien comprendre c'est que l'Afrique n'est pas pauvre! Elle est appauvrit! Si les occidentaux et les chinois payaient les ressources africaines aux prix qu'elles méritent, l'Afrique n'aurait pas de dettes et n'aurait pas besoin d'aide financière. Le pillage continue! La domination occidentale continue! Mais il n'est pas trop tard! Notre génération a les moyens de changer la situation et de reconquérir son pouvoir! Et elle est en train de le faire en ce moment en s'organisant économiquement, scientifiquement et socialement à une vitesse phénoménale! Nous possèdons le génie et la résilience de nos ancêtres dans nos gènes! Nous triompherons!

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/M9Dg30n3fLQ

Six of the world’s 12 fastest-growing countries are on the African continent

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 01:33:16 GMT

Africa’s economic growth prospects are amongst the world’s brightest.

The best time to invest in Africa is now. However, foreign investors have not moved into the continent as quickly as expected because foreign investment decisions are often methodically over-structured. One of the major factors cited is too much risk. But risks and profits are inseparable twins: high-risk ventures are frequently associated with higher profits.

Africa is the most profitable region in the world.
A report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development states that between 2006 and 2011, Africa had the highest rate of return on inflows of Foreign Direct Investment: 11.4%. This is compared to 9.1% in Asia, 8.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The global figure is 7.1%.

Examples of companies benefiting from bountiful profits in Africa abound: Sonatrach’s turnover from oil and gas alone was $33.2 billion; MTN Group’s turnover was about $10 billion; and Dangote Group’s turnover was $4.1 billion—all in 2017.

A variety of factors drive up Africa’s profit prospects, making it imperative for European, North American, Asian, and Latin American businesses to invest, helping to foster the continent’s economic progress.

Africa’s economic growth prospects are among the world’s brightest.
Six of the world’s 12 fastest-growing countries are in Africa (Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Rwanda). Further, between 2018 and 2023, Africa’s growth prospects will be among the highest in the world, according to the IMF.

Good news: sectors where foreign companies could have a comparative advantage, such as banking, telecommunications and infrastructure, are among the drivers of current economic growth in Africa—creating clear investment opportunities for foreign businesses.

Africa’s growing, youthful population, amidst an aging population in most other regions, constitutes a formidable market.
The continent’s population is predicted to quadruple from 1.19 billion in 2015 to 4.39 billion by 2100. In 2015 alone, 200 million Africans entered the consumer goods market. Maximizing this bourgeoning market size calls for actively engaging Africa’s structural economic transformation.

Africa’s youthful population contributes to an abundance of labour, which is one of the region’s highest potentials for labor-intensive industrialization, and lowers production costs, leading to benefits that far outweigh the cost of doing business on the continent.
The hourly wage in Africa is less than 50 cents (for example, it’s $0.27 in Mozambique, $0.34 in Nigeria and $1.62 in Morocco) compared to $10.49 in UK, $7.25 in the USA and $6.57 in Japan. Engaging more foreign companies may help raise wage rates in Africa, improve labour market efficiency and generate additional resources for those left behind on the age ladder.

Africa’s large deposits of natural resources promise a bright future for developing value chains.
Agriculture and the extractive sectors are linchpins of national, regional and global value chains. Africa hosts 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. In 2015, the continent produced 13% of global oil, up from 9% in 1998.

The growth trend of oil and natural gas production between 1980 and 2012 was amazing: from 53.4 billion barrels to 130.3 billion barrels for oil; for natural gas, from six trillion cubic meters in 1980 to 14.5 trillion cubic meters in 2012. As of 2012, Africa also controlled 53.9% of the world’s diamond resources.

In 2017, the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone accounted for 58% of the world’s cobalt (used in electronics production) while South Africa accounted for 69.6 % of the world’s platinum production in 2016 (used for catalytic converters and in other goods). Actively investing in adding value to these commodities, among other extractive activities, will shape global economic activities over the next five decades.

Finally, emerging domestic developments lend credence to actively engaging Africa’s economic transformation agenda.
Some of these developments include improvements in macroeconomic prudence and overall governance. For instance, evidence from the 2017 Ibrahim Index of African Governance shows that Africa’s overall governance index improved at an annual rate of 1.4% since 2007, an improvement of more than 5% in at least 12 countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Rwanda and Ethiopia. This improvement helps to mitigate perceived risks for many investors on the continent.

African governments should build on this positive trend to maximize foreign investments. This includes eliminating corruption; improving safety and security; strengthening macroeconomic environment, investing in quality education and skill development in science, technology and innovation; and avoiding a ‘race to the bottom’ syndrome, that gives unnecessary tax holidays and waivers to foreign companies.

Investing in Africa is good business and a sustainable corporate strategy for foreign investors. Advanced and emerging countries’ governments and the private sector should leverage these profitable, emerging investment opportunities.

Using official development assistance to leverage and de-risk the investment climate in Africa is a key component in attracting FDI. Japan’s Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) initiative, to insure a facility in Ghana, is a laudable effort that should be scaled-up and supported by other actors.

Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa offers investment opportunities to foreign companies. Good examples abound: the Sumitomo Chemical’s insect-proofing mosquito nets technology is helping to fight malaria; the Sonatrach, JGC, and Hitachi’s desalinating seawater technology is accelerating access to clean water; and the Commodity Risk Management Group and the Sompo Japan Niponkoa’s weather index insurance is helping to mitigate climate change. In Africa, each SDG offers business solutions and investment opportunities to foreign companies.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is working with African governments and private sector actors to de-risk and improve the continent’s investment climate. Developing industrial strategies and clusters, promoting special economic zones, improving energy access, facilitating innovative funding, advocating for value chain development across countries and supporting investment promotion through the International Conference on the Emergence of Africa are some of UNDP’s efforts.

The best time to invest in Africa is now.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/curV30mKcCH

Who built the largest online community for African millennial women in the world?

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 23:11:12 GMT

During the recent Africa Travel Summit powered by Airbnb , we were introduced to Afua Osei, the energic and flawless host for the event, but after some conversational deep diving, we learned some very interesting additional facts. Not only is Osei a phenomenal host, but she is also the co-founder of She Leads Africa , the No. 1 destination for young African women looking to build successful careers or businesses. This platform also claims to be the largest online community for African millennial women in the world.

During the summit, Black Enterprise caught up with the budding entrepreneur to find out how she got started, and how she grew her community to over half a million people.

BE : How did you get started with the company?

Osei : My first time in Lagos was in 2012 and I was an intern during business school. There was so much attention focused on how to get the right job and present yourself. When I spent my summer in Lagos, I realized that very few people have access to that kind of coaching. You hope that someone’s gonna hook you up, someone’s gonna take care of you, someone’s gonna help you navigate, but if you don’t know anyone, if you don’t have those ‘in’ connections, you literally are kind of navigating the professional space blind.

I wanted to create a platform that would help break through some of those challenges that people were facing and provide them with access to resources, access to information, and access to opportunities, but also doing so in a way that’s relevant to young women. Business and career don’t have to be boring or stuffy. It can be interesting but, it can be helpful as well.

BE : How big is the company currently?

Osei : Right now, we reach around 500,000 women all across the continent. We have a team in Nigeria and South Africa and we have hosted events in more than 10 countries. Additionally, we work with brands like Facebook, Samsung, Google, L’Oréal, and Estée Lauder, who are all our partners from a brand development or marketing perspective.

BE : How did you link up with Airbnb?

Osei : Two years ago, during Women’s History Month in South Africa in August, they wanted to shine a light on some of their hosts because so many of the hosts on the platform, particularly in South Africa are women. So really, it was just about showing them that, not only is this a great opportunity and a way to show culture but it’s a great business opportunity. That’s what we are all about, how do we help women find and use the resources that they have to really expand their economic impact. Since then, we’ve always been supportive about showing opportunities to monetize, showcasing the stories of some of the women that are on the platform, and so when they were planning the summit they reached out and we were happy to be involved.

BE : How did you scale so massively?

Osei : For us, it’s digital first. Doing events is really hard, traveling across the continent is really expensive, so we can’t always go from Joburg to Nairobi which is 700+ dollars; Joburg to Lagos is $800, it gets really expensive, so digital has always been first via email, via social media, via WhatsApp, so developing those connects online have been extremely important and then, of course, finding partners that help us expand.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/OMPH30mJMEG

Ethiopia elected its first female president

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 01:18:35 GMT

Ethiopian members of parliament have elected Sahle-Work Zewde as the country's first female president.

Ms Sahle-Work is an experienced diplomat who has now become Africa's only female head of state.

Her election to the ceremonial position comes a week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a cabinet with half the posts taken up by women.

After being sworn in, President Sahle-Work promised to work hard to make gender equality a reality in Ethiopia.

Addressing parliament, she also pledged to promote peace: "I urge you all, to uphold our peace, in the name of a mother, who is the first to suffer from the absence of peace.''

The new president was keen to make a point about gender equality right from the start, telling MPs that if they thought she was talking too much about women, she had only just begun.

There may now be male-female parity in the new cabinet but elsewhere there is still a long way to go.

Ms Sahle-Work's appointment has been welcomed by Ethiopians on social media with many calling it "historic".

She has been described as Ethiopia's first female head of state of the modern era, with some remembering Empress Zewditu who governed the country in the early part of the 20th Century.

Ms Sahle-Work was voted in after the unexpected resignation of her predecessor, Mulatu Teshome.

The prime minister's chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, tweeted that "in a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of a female head of state not only sets the standard for the future but also normalises women as decision-makers in public life".

President Sahle-Work has served as an ambassador for Ethiopia in Senegal and Djibouti. She has also held a number of UN positions, including head of peace-building in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Immediately before becoming president, Ms Sahle-Work was the UN representative at the African Union.

In the Ethiopian constitution, the post of president is ceremonial with the prime minister holding the political power.

The last African female head of state was Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, who resigned in March over an expenses scandal. She denied any wrong doing.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/iNK630mI31Z