Africa

  • The market for sustainable cooling systems in developing economies is set to hit $600 billion by 2050. Research shows that sustainable cooling systems can cut cooling-related emissions by almost 50%.
  • They can also help lower electricity bills, reduce equipment costs, and power sector investments by $8 trillion by 2050.
  • Unlocking finance, in particular private finance, is essential to support the transition to sustainable cooling across developing economies.

Economies in Africa are projected to experience the fastest growth in cooling systems, a new survey by the International Finance Corporation and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)-led Cool Coalition shows.

Globally, Africa is poised to see her cooling systems industry expand by a factor of seven closely followed by countries in South Asia which will see this market segment quadruple.

“The sustainable cooling market represents at least a 600-billion-dollar opportunity for the private sector, …

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  • Guinea has announced a single-use plastic ban, signalling the growing momentum of the African plastic ban movement.
  • Guinea prohibits the production, import, sale, and use of single-use plastics, including plastic bags and oxo-degradable plastics.
  • The country now joins trailblazers Rwanda, Kenya and Somalia, who banned single-use plastics in their jurisdictions.

Africa is experiencing a vital environmental wave with the increasing rollout of tough measures on single-use plastics. With trailblazers Rwanda and Kenya having banned single-use plastics, Guinea has joined the elite club, announcing a sweeping ban on single-use plastic products and packaging.

Early this year, Somalia joined this movement, banning the use of single-use plastics beyond June 30, 2024. Authorities in the Horn of Africa country urged individuals and businesses to explore using environmentally friendly alternatives to meet their packaging needs.

This move by the West African country signals a historic moment for the continent's push to counter the…

  • Innovation is the route to business, company, industry and national success story.
  • To realize this success, however, governments must create policies that encourage and support innovation at scale.
  • For Africa, the jury is still out on the role of governments in driving innovation.

From the developed to emerging to the underdeveloped economies, one thing that policymakers agree is that innovation drives industrial and therefore national progress. It creates opportunity for individuals and investors, grows businesses, and powers a nation’s development agenda. For these reasons, policymakers are advised to place emphasis on innovation.

Matt Banholzer, an economics researcher and author of How innovation can accelerate industry momentum report explains that while macroeconomics concept of development correctly looks at the economy as a whole, policymakers must not be naïve to think policies of the ‘whole’ will foster development of the individual and vice vasa.

The researcher is of the view that policymakers, …

There are two types of businesses that African Americans attempt to boost Africa’s economy and create income.

Businesses seeking to venture into importation and exportation and set-ups creating and investing in production manufacturing in Africa.

Rosa Whitaker, the first assistant United States trade representative for Africa, says that there is so much synergy between Africa and African American business because the region is growing in the areas where African American firms are competitive.

African American companies made a gross profit of about US21.8 billion in the industrial sector in 2013. There is a higher potential for the companies in Africa where consumerism and competitive states are favourable.…

Cryptofund is part of UNICEF’s innovation fund, which allows the organization to hold, receive and disburse funds in cryptocurrency. The CryptoFund is a pooled fund of bitcoin and ether, distributed only in crypto, targeting to create visibility and transparency accounting to donation distribution and investment processes.

CyrptoFund will facilitate startups registered in UNICEF’s 190 programme countries as a prototype Fund that seeks to explore the use of digital currencies in these countries. Forty-one of the nations are African.

Startups registered in the 190 countries and have an operational, open-source blockchain prototype or are willing to make their startup open source are eligible to get the fund.…

While Russia’s preferred visions and modes of action in the Maghreb seem to be fairly well identified, the perceptions and expectations, but also the possible reservations on the Maghreb are more rarely expressed by the leaders of these countries and little-studied at the academic level.

Perhaps we should look at this, as far as the powers that be are concerned, a concern for discretion regarding the sensitive aspects of this foreign policy component – this is particularly true for Algeria – an area on which they generally communicate little and for the academic research community in North Africa, a lack of knowledge related to the history, geography and culture of contemporary Russia.

If there is undoubtedly, on the Maghreb side and with important nuances from one country to another, a manifest interest in a development or a deepening of the partnership with Moscow, questions may remain about Russia’s objectives, especially …

  • Smartphones are now the primary gadget where most people are playing video games
  • 95 per cent of the playing population are mobile gamers
  • The global crypto gaming industry was valued at US$321 million in 2020.
  • The number of gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 77 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2021

For the longest time, most African parents have viewed video gaming as a waste of time and resources. As a result, African gamers mainly played on consoles and computers in gaming joints and cyber cafes.

However, in the last five years, the video game market has lucratively shifted as many Africans enjoy the games and even have gaming consoles on their computers at home. The Coronavirus pandemic kept many people locked indoors, and gaming became one of the most preferred activities to kill boredom during the lockdown.

The video game market has also localised the content to

  • Tropical storm Ana in January 2022 affected 180,869 people, injured 207 people, killed at least 38 people and flooded a total of 70,982 hectares of land.
  • In two weeks, Madagascar, the most cyclone exposed country in Africa, experienced both Ana and Batsirai cyclones.
  • The strength of Cyclone Batsirai could increase and spread to other countries in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Several cyclones, from Cyclone Ana, Batsirai, Idai, Eloise, Kenneth and Tropical Storm Chalane, have tormented the southern part of the African continent – from South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
A cyclone is a tropical storm with heavy winds rotating inwards to an area of low pressure. An anticlockwise circulation occurs in the northern hemisphere, while a clockwise circulation happens in the southern hemisphere.
The frequent occurrence of these storms indicates the heightening effects of climate change in the southern region of Africa and the world at large. …

  • Traders holding the Cardano token will obtain loans of up to 70 per cent of the ADA tokens they hold.
  • The concept of decentralization and blockchain technology can replace traditional financial services such as commercial banks. Cryptocurrencies can also be used as an investment tool, and so can Cardano (ADA). 
  • The government of Ethiopia and Cardano Development had sealed an agreement to introduce 5 million secondary school students and 700,000 teachers on the Cardano blockchain app.
  • The downside of taking loans on Cardano is that the borrowers will have to self-manage the risk of the fluctuating Cardano price.

Cardano (ADA) is proof to take blockchain led by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Charles initial purpose in designing the token Cardano was to create competition for the Ethereum token. Cardano launched on September 29, 2017, after two years of development.

Cardano combines pioneer technologies to provide unparalleled security and sustainability to decentralized

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