Browsing: South Africa

Over and above the graft and management woes gripping South Africa’s power utility Eskom, a brazen coal-smuggling gang has been operating under the authorities’ nose, worsening the electricity crisis that could lead to a nationwide blackout.
However, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) says it is closing in on the gang. SARs is working with law enforcers to conduct searches and seizures across five provinces where the coal-smuggling gang operates.…

Kenya will host the second Canada-Africa Business Conference early next year, bringing together investors from the two regions to explore key investment opportunities. Some of the target industries that the 19-20 February 2024 conference will focus on are medical care, infrastructure, energy, financing for Canada-Africa projects, and FinTech.
The two-day meeting in Nairobi’s Muthaiga Country Club follows the two regions’ first-ever program at Botswana’s Gaborone International Convention Centre in 2019.
In partnership with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Canada-Africa Business Conference will bring together key players who will also visit select locations.…

South Africa’s poultry sector is currently undergoing serious challenges. The ongoing load shedding and power disruptions have put tremendous pressure and additional costs on the industry, which makes producing poultry products extremely expensive. One company (Astral Foods) has spent an additional $47.56 million (R919 million) due to load shedding alone. This has had a significant impact on the profitability and sustainability of the company. To make matters worse – South Africa’s poultry sector has been hit with a significant avian influenza epidemic.…

• Uganda has issued first Islamic Banking License after a 20-year wait. On its part, Kenya has issued the first Islamic Bond to finance affordable housing agenda.
• The performance of Sukuk bonds in the continent is revealing untapped demand that could finance development projects.
• Estimates show global Islamic finance assets could reach $3.8 trillion by 2024.

Islamic Finance is on an exponential growth trajectory across Africa, garnering momentum by the day broadening the continent’s financial landscape. African countries are making significant steps towards bolstering access to shariah-compliant financial instruments and services, to cater to the largely financially, excluded Muslim population. This comes as figures from the Islamic Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), forecast that global Islamic Finance assets could reach $3.8 trillion by 2024.

Large swathes of African populace still remains unbanked, pertinently those shifting stance from the conventional system driven by their religious beliefs, thereby unlocking an untapped pool of investments.…

• The demand for cybersecurity skills in Africa has increased by 35% over the past year.
• Africa has a significant digital skills gap, which could create 650 million training opportunities and a $130 billion market by 2030.
• An increasing number of companies are working to develop programs to reduce the IT skills gap on the continent.
  

Over the past few years, Africa is facing a significant digital skills gap, which is stunting growth of economies for the majority of the continent’s nations. 

A study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) indicates that by 2030, about 230 million jobs across the continent will require some level of digital skills. These opportunities have the potential of giving rise to 650 million training opportunities and an estimated $130 billion market.

To harness the emerging opportunities, an increasing number of local and international firms are developing programs to help reduce the IT skills gap on …

• The Cortex Hub and Angel Fair Africa have reached the milestone of a decade of nurturing innovation, fostering entrepreneurship, and connecting African startups with investors.
• The initiative aimed to create an innovation hub in the Eastern Cape to unlock the latent potential of the region’s emerging talent pool and drive technological innovation and break down barriers hindering growth.
• It was initiated by the author, who had previously worked in the ICT field during the apartheid era and had a personal interest in driving technological advancement and economic empowerment in the region.

In a landscape defined by the ebb and flow of African entrepreneurship, milestones are more than mere time markers; they stand as beacons of progress. This year, we gather to celebrate an extraordinary achievement as both The Cortex Hub and Angel Fair Africa reach the impressive milestone of a decade. A decade of unwavering dedication to nurturing innovation, fostering …

The energy crisis gripping South Africa is set to intensify as rising global oil prices, coupled with a heavy dependency on oil imports, threatens to trigger economic fallout in the country. The expected announcement of fuel price increases for October, will put further strain on the country’s economy.

According to data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), the Automobile Association (AA) has issued a stark warning to South Africans about the impending hit on the economy starting October.…

The recent formalization of an agreement to advance what is being hailed as South Africa’s most substantial liquefied natural gas (LNG) endeavor in the Mpumalanga province underscores the potential of natural gas as a viable energy source for the nation. This accord, described as a “non-binding term sheet,” represents a collaboration between South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Afro Energy. The latter is a subsidiary of the Australian gas exploration company Kinetiko Energy.…

• Africa has a capacity of 125GW of hydrogen, second only to wind in terms of renewable energy.
• The Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA) aims to produce 30-60 million tonnes of clean hydrogen annually to add up to $126 billion to the continent’s GDP by 2050.
• The gas is an environmentally positive fuel with low emissions when produced with electrolysis powered by renewable energy.

There’s a new powerhouse in African renewables. And it has plenty of experts talking about it. The report “The State of African Energy 2Q 2023 Outlook,” recently released by The African Energy Chamber (AEC), discusses the current and future projections for renewables on the continent. The most exciting finding is the competitive growth within the hydrogen electrolyzer space.

Africa’s current announced capacity of hydrogen, of about 125 gigawatts (GW), has overtaken solar capacity on the continent and is now second only to wind when it comes to …

• Key US and African leaders advocate for reauthorization of PEPFAR, an aid program that has played a crucial role in the global response to the HIV epidemic.
• US lawmakers call for a politically clean reauthorisation to ensure the program’s resiliency in dealing with shocks like Ebola and COVID.
• Delegates included representatives from various organizations and decision-makers from the US government and Africa, as well as UNAIDS, USAID, Microsoft AI for Health, and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Leaders from various corners of the world recently convened at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., hosted by BroadReach Group, to commemorate the 20-year journey of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Their collective message was clear: PEPFAR must contine and empower local partners, especially in Africa, to ultimately defeat HIV as a public health threat by 2030.

PEPFAR – most impactful foreign aid