Author: Opinion

Vaccine diplomacy will take centre stage for the global political economy in 2021. It is rapidly emerging as an important tool in the arsenal of global superpowers as they seek to expand their geostrategic influence amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Affordable and equitable access to Covid vaccines has the potential to shape the global economic recovery, and speedy and effective rollout represents a huge opportunity to redraw global power maps and reshape strategic alliances. Naturally, the stakes are high, and the competition is intense to achieve both first-mover advantage and scale.

Africa will emerge as a theatre of competition. But with limited financial resources and a lack of bargaining power the option set will be limited for African countries as they try to procure the vaccine. This lopsided power dynamic, which has entrenched them firmly at the back of the vaccine queue, is being described as vaccine apartheid. John Nkengasong of …

As the country seeks an industry revival, Angola Oil & Gas 2021 will serve as the official meeting place and investment destination for industry stakeholders.

Angola, as the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, holds approximately 8.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Contributing to 50% of gross domestic product and nearly 90% of national exports, oil represents an invaluable resource to the domestic economy. The country also holds the fourth-largest proven natural gas reserves in Africa – approximately 343 billion cubic meters – along with significant renewable potential in solar and wind. In a bid to offset declining hydrocarbon production, the Angolan Government has implemented several key initiatives focused on spurring new exploration activities, increasing foreign direct investment and incentivizing local participation within the industry. Accordingly, Angola is set to become a prime investment destination in 2021, as it seeks a year of revival for its prolific oil and …

‘If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers, and your business will take care of itself ‘J.W.Marriott’

The spread of COVID-19, (commonly referred to as Corona Virus) has now become a household term that is apparent worldwide. As a global health emergency, the hope is that the new vaccines that are aimed to roll out in early January 2021, will add to the greater safety of the human population, namely public areas and workspaces.

Though much of the frontline workers will be vaccinated first, followed by those considered in the vulnerable category, the goal for many countries is to ensure that their populations are vaccinated first.

As Governments/Employers respond to the crisis and slowing down the spread of the virus, decisions to postpone events, impose travel restrictions, withdrawal of everyday services; (restaurants, parks, beaches, cinemas, and entertainment venues) school closures, and work from home …

The first-ever Mozambique Gas & Power 2021 Conference & Exhibition targets foreign direct investment inflows into the country’s bankable gas and power projects.   

Mozambique’s gas boom began almost 10 years ago, with one of the largest natural gas discoveries in the past decade that unlocked 85 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in the northeast part of the country. With subsequent offshore discoveries potentially reaching 180 Tcf, Mozambique has lit up as an investment hotspot on the continent. Moreover, projected gas revenues for the government – valued at $95 billion over 25 years – offer the ability to cultivate long-term economic diversification, job creation, skills development and industrial growth. As the global energy community eagerly awaits first production from the deep-water Rovuma Basin in 2022, the country is set to welcome local and international investors to take part in a prosperous future ahead.

Under the administration of H.E. President Filipe Nyusi, Mozambique …

In a few months, COVID-19 has disrupted our lives, and we are yet to grasp the full extent of it. While the pandemic is global, it exposes current inequalities in Africa: the biggest impact will be on the most fragile countries – as well as on the impoverished, the uninsured, and the information-poor. Beyond the number of infections, deaths, jobs lost and the hit on national economies, COVID-19 will trigger a surge in extreme poverty on the African continent. Various studies have already predicted that an additional 12 million Africans will be pushed below the threshold of living with an income of less than USD 1.9 per day.

While it is easy to dwell on the challenges faced in an unexpected year like 2020, true entrepreneurs have a natural gift to focus on solutions, take action and find a silver lining to the crisis. Specifically, social entrepreneurs have a vital …

This is a financial horror story that is currently running only as an undercurrent to a tsunami of reports on rising death tolls and infection rates. Overwhelming government incompetence and inadequacy, coupled with rising graphs of deaths and hospital admission rates are dominating the news throughout a year when the real story should have been the …

Awards in any field of endeavour signify recognition for exemplary work done in that particular field; it is no different in the insurance sector. That is why insurance awards are highly sought after, with some companies even going to the extent of doing illegal means to get them. 

We have just held the annual insurance awards solely driven by the insurance agents of Kenya. The awards are one of the most competitive and are judged rigorously and fairly by the insurance agents who make up the judging committee. It is fitting that insurance agents get to select and award insurance companies who also form the bulk of stakeholders.  They are the people who know these companies inside out. For this reason few insurance companies are willing to participate because of the many issues that most of these companies have with insurance agents.  

Companies are judged under various …

In the midst of the pandemic, Facebook[1] (and partners) announced 2Africa[2] a new subsea cable. About the same time last year, Google also announced a subsea cable called Equaino[3]. Both cables have been presented as (better) connecting Africa to the world – that is factually inaccurate. The diagrams below by Steve Song[4] under the auspices of Many Possibilities[5] gives you a historical account of Africa been connected to the world by subsea cables since 2001 through SAT3[6] – a consortium of majority Africa owned telecom operators[7]. As per the second diagram Google and Facebook are building the 19^th and 20^th cables which would be live in Q4 2021 and Q4 2023 respectively. Hence Facebook and Google cannot be connecting Africa to the world in 2020 – at best their two new cables could serve as redundancy to the existing …

On Thursday 9 November 2020, former President of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings passed away in Accra, Ghana after a short illness.

A great man has gone to be with his ancestors. For those of us who were privileged and honored to know him, it was truly a sad day.

I met former President Rawlings in 2010 after the former Chairperson of the AU Commission Jean Ping appointed him as the High Representative for Somalia. As a staff of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) at the time, I was then asked with my colleague James Gadin our senior political officer to assist the President and his team to understand the dynamics of the conflict.

As I reflected on the former President, I kept thinking about the 5 Cs of leadership: Compassion, Commitment, Courage, Candor, and Competency. Former President Rawlings embodied all the 5 Cs.

President Rawlings was first and …

Gas flaring challenge,

In the sub-Saharan region, approximately 75% of the population lives without access to reliable or stable energy. And yet, Africa flares around 40 billion cubic meters of gas(gas flaring), annually, of which 35 billion cubic meters are flared in sub-Saharan Africa. These statistics provided by ResearchGate highlight how much gas is being wasted and the importance of investing in solutions that minimise this in favor of changing the African power conversation.

Flaring does more than waste, it impacts citizens’ health. The ResearchGate analysis, for example, found that Nigeria flared 23 billion cubic metres annually, alone. And research by the Climate & Clean Air Coalition found that in Nigeria, some people had not seen the night sky for years. Around two million people along the Niger Delta living within kilometres of a gas flare that fights with the sun for dominance of the sky and they suffer …