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Opinion
- Africa is already setting the pace, through innovation born out of necessity, creativity rooted in culture, and progress driven by community, writes Yi He, Co-Founder of Binance.
- Innovation in Africa is tested daily against the pressures of currency instability, unreliable power, and low-trust systems.
- These are the conditions where bold ideas are stress-tested, and where blockchain technology has found meaningful, everyday applications.
Each year, Africa Day serves as a celebration of the continent’s culture, history, and progress. But in 2025, Africa is doing more than celebrating — it’s leading.
For too long, Africa has been positioned as a “frontier market,” a place waiting to catch up. That narrative is outdated. Africa is not waiting to be included. It is already setting the pace, through innovation born out of necessity, creativity rooted in culture, and progress driven by community.
At Binance, we’ve witnessed firsthand how innovation looks different in Africa. …
- African countries need to tap the power of the grid and every resource available to them in order to achieve what the West takes for granted every day.
- The big question, of course, is how do we get there? Who bears what burdens, and how?
- Africa deserves the chance to improve the quality of life for its people, and it has the resources to solve its own problems if given the chance.
As the hottest year ever recorded draws to a close, climate change is passing from theory to reality and gaining ever-increasing urgency in statehouses around the world. The goal of achieving net zero CO2 emissions worldwide by 2050 is widely agreed upon by climate experts as necessary to avoid irreversible changes in Earth’s weather patterns that could cause centuries of harm for everyone. The big question, of course, is how do we get there? Who bears what …
- Now is the time for Namibia’s leadership to show it respects the billions of dollars companies spend on oil and gas production.
- One of the most practical ways for Namibia to do that is to update its petroleum contracts: They need language that protects oil and gas companies’ investments.
- Namibia’s contracts should include what’s known as a fiscal stability clause, which would clearly state that if Namibia were to make legislative or regulatory changes—such as new tax requirements—the energy companies signing the contract would be protected from negative economic impacts.
The world is watching Namibia. To be more specific, the energy world is watching. This was evident at the recently concluded Namibian Internation Energy Conference. Ever since oil and gas majors, Rhino Resources, Galp Energia, Shell and TotalEnergies announced massive hydrocarbon discoveries in Namibia’s offshore Orange Basin, interest in additional exploration in the Southern African country has been intense.
And …
- Asking developing nations to ignore natural gas in the energy transition plan is essentially requesting that they ignore half their power capacity.
- Currently, far too many people in Africa can’t buy milk from a refrigerated grocery aisle, do schoolwork after sunset, or get an X-ray at their local hospital.
- Many Western states supplement their grids with wind or solar but ultimately rely on natural gas, oil, or coal.
Western leaders often urge African nations to make a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. They seem to think that African nations can switch to renewable power sources fairly easily if a good energy infrastructure is already in place.
But this is not the case in Africa, where roughly half of the population lacks access to electricity. Far too many of our people can’t buy milk from a refrigerated grocery aisle, do schoolwork after sunset, or get an X-ray …
- The 2009 Copenhagen Accord was not a binding promise but set up a durable framework for future talks.
- One of these solutions is for African countries to use crude oil, natural gas, and other hydrocarbons to develop their resources and use the revenues to finance energy transition.
- In the process, they should also seek to meet several other complementary goals, such as building gas-fired plants that can provide cleaner power than existing coal.
From an African perspective, one of the most important things to come out of COP15, the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, was the formal recognition of the fact that lower-income countries were not in a position to bear as much of the cost of the energy transition as their higher-income counterparts.
That recognition was spelt out in the section of the Copenhagen Accord that included a pledge from the world’s highly developed states to …
- The Russian invasion of Ukraine has proved highly disruptive to world energy markets.
- There is still a distance between Africa and the rest of the world in terms of what the continent can do to establish closer ties to energy markets in Europe and elsewhere.
- Now is the time to offer tax incentives, fast-track projects, show more transparency in processes, and do everything possible to minimize investor risk.
It’s undeniable that the Russian invasion of Ukraine proved highly disruptive to world energy markets. This geopolitical clash led to the imposition of Western sanctions on the export of Russian oil and fuel and the imposition of a price cap on Russian crude by the G7 group.
It also led to the redirection of world oil trade flows. Asian countries such as China and India, for example, began absorbing considerably more Russian oil and fuel than they had done previously, and many …
- The promises made to uplift Africa and its people have failed to provide equitable justice. The trend continues.
- While Africa can play a pivotal role in the global fight against climate change, it should not come at the cost of its own economic development.
- Every climate finance dollar flowing into the continent must find its way into sustainable measures of mitigation and adaptation.
At Africa Climate Week, the resounding call of a child echoed through the packed hall, stating, “We will hold you to your promises.” This declaration not only reflected the sentiment of the child but also resonated with the aspirations of the entire continent.
As civilisation thrived, the continent went from being the cradle of civilization to the dump yard of urbanization. The promises made to uplift Africa and its people have failed to provide equitable justice. The trend continues.
Africa Climate Summit 2023
The promises made to …
Africa’s oil and gas industry looks flat in the final quarter of 2023. That is, as AEC details in its newly released 2024 African Energy Outlook, capital expenditure (CAPEX) on upstream projects is still rising, but it is on a relatively slow upward trajectory — and it is moving up more slowly than we had predicted last year because of changes in the timeline of certain African upstream projects.…
The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) represents an important international forum for countries to discuss and address global climate change issues. However, these conferences have tended to be high-level and process-based, and COP 27 was no exception. – negotiations took place, and some of the highlights included the historic establishment of the loss and damage fund, which was seen as setting a precedent for climate justice.
However, agreements on other matters, such as phasing out fossil fuels and setting emission peak periods, were not achieved. For African countries, COP 28 marks an important pivot point around funding, just transition, and the Nairobi Declaration. There will be a push for realisations on commitments made and innovative funding mechanisms to drive accelerated climate action now and beyond.…
