Browsing: South Africa

• Banks and shareholders are putting pressure on miners to enhance their environmental standards; They strive for net-zero carbon emissions at direct mining operations and value chains
• Historically, the sector has been responsible for many worker accidents and fatalities. As a result, it would be simple to dismiss the entire industry as an ecologically and socially unsustainable remnant of the industrial past
• South Africa’s future of sustainable mining methods is considered a bellwether for the most significant African sector since it is the continent’s largest centre of mining activity

The mining sector is under increasing pressure to embrace more ecologically and socially sustainable African methods. With lenders and investors requiring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and advancements in the workforce and community well-being, there is a widespread perception that it is in the industry’s best interests to adopt more responsible practices to increase productivity and avoid negative publicity.

The mining …

The meat-alternative market is taking advantage of climate change awareness, and the messaging has changed accordingly, particularly as these products enter the mainstream.

“We can see what many brands’ marketing strategies are – they used to market just to vegans and vegetarians – why not advertise it to everyone and call it the healthy burger?” says Will.

“Now, when non-vegans try some of the products on the market, they are surprised by the quality, they say ‘this is amazing and can’t believe it’s plant-based and environmentally friendly.”

Indeed, this shift in messaging is reflected in the advertisements of large retailers introducing meat-alternative products.

Burger King, which recently launched plant-based Whoppers, Royale’s and Nuggets in South Africa, highlighted the health and environmental awareness prominently in press releases and advertisements.…

• Nissan has opened a new state-of-the-art Navara assembly plant in Ghana
• This marks the second Nissan assembly plant after the Nissan plant in Rosslyn, South Africa
• Ghana imports over 100,000 vehicles yearly; 90 per cent of these are used vehicles, with an estimated value of US$1.14 billion annually

Nissan and Japan Motors have grown a keen interest in the automotive industry in countries among the largest economies in Africa.

The president of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, officially opened the brand-new state-of-the-art Nissan Navara assembly plant in Tema, Accra, on March 31, 2022.

This marks the second Nissan assembly plant after the Nissan plant in Rosslyn, South Africa.

Ghana and Nissan started their partnership together in 2018 when the latter became the first mover in the West African country to sign an MoU with the state to work towards creating the Ghana Automotive Development Policy.

Read: Faze Banks Net Worth …

One of the major criticisms raised against his ambitious continent-wide free trade pact is the fact that it is bound to have disproportionate benefits for different countries.  There are already pre-existing inequalities that favour more developed countries.

Bluntly speaking, it is to be reasonably expected that it is the continent’s tycoons, large business owners that will benefit the most.

Consider this, only three of the agreement’s members i.e. Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt account for almost half (50%) of all of Africa’s GDP. Take for instance the fact that in 2020 alone, the continent of Africa as a whole, imported US$20 billion worth of goods from South Africa.

With the tariff-free movement of goods, South Africa will enjoy a tremendous increase in trade output to the rest of the continent at much lower costs.…

The financial results of the company began with a report of the company’s ESG performance. What stood out the most from the company’s report is that the company achieved zero fatalities during its operations in 2021. This is most exceptional given the nature of mining operations which are for the most part dangerous.

Most if not all Anglo-Plat’s peers have reported reduced or reduced fatalities in their operations but not always a zero-fatality rate. This was attributable to what the company calls their Elimination of Fatalities (EoF) strategy. The strategy focuses on the most common causes of fatalities across Anglo American.

Its purpose is to use what the company calls “accumulated learnings from a wide range of fatalities” and use that data to take a more proactive approach to prevent incidents that result in the loss of life. The strategy has paid off resulting in an outlier performance of zero …

UNCTAD World Investment Report 2021 specifically states that “Greenfield investments in industry and new infrastructure investment projects in developing countries were hit especially hard.”

These financial flows of investment dollars have deep-rooted implications for Africa in the sense that they are vital for sustainable development in less developed and poorer countries.

The decline in investment flows was disproportionately skewed towards developed countries where FDI fell by 58 per cent according to UNCTAD. Investment flows in developing economies fell by a moderate 8 per cent mainly because of resilient flows in Asia.…

In Tanzania, the Fair Competition Commission (FCC) is responsible for promoting and protecting effective competition in trade and commerce as well as protecting consumers from unfair and misleading market conduct.

Without such an entity, companies use false advertising to capture markets, mergers of large firms occur undermining smaller businesses unfairly and the end-user, the consumer, is put at threat.

It is for this reason that Tanzania has recently passed the Fair Competition Order which sets out the thresholds for mergers that should be reported to the Fair Competition Commission (the FCC). In this most recent Order, Tanzania moved the merger notification threshold from USD 360,000 to USD 1.6 million.…

• 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. …

However, economic growth and the rapid expansion of digital and mobile services are set to change this. 

With the African middle class growing across many African nations, the target market for insurance products is growing.

The report highlighted that there has been a significant rise in demand for digital solutions, as smartphone and affordable internet penetration deepens across the continent, providing opportunities for InsureTechs to step in and offer innovative products.…

Sixty-nine per cent of Kenyan businesspeople said that digital payments have positively impacted their businesses as they can easily track expenses and income returns, which reduces errors and enables faster transactions.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been pushing mobile money payments recently. Last year, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kenyan government released a directive through CBK, instructing commercial banks and payment service providers to halt charges on all transfers from mobile money wallets and bank accounts.

Despite the positive trajectory in digital payments adoption in Africa, Visa says there still is room for improvement.…