All Female Crew Fly Africa’s Biggest Airline
Ethiopian
Airlines is marking International Women’s Day by operating an all-women flight
from Addis Ababa to Oslo. This means airport operations, flight dispatch, load
control, ramp operation, on-board logistics, safety and security, catering as
well as air-traffic control are to be carried out entirely by
women. Ethiopian Airlines is keen to showcase women’s longer-term
contribution to the industry and the progress they’ve made in conquering
male-dominated professions, like those of pilot and aircraft technician.
“Women are an integral part of our success story from the start, and with
this dedicated flight we honour and celebrate their indispensable contribution
to our aviation group and the broader aviation industry, our country and the
continent at large,” says Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Officer
Tewolde GabreMariam.
SOURCES: BBC
Analysts Look at Improvements in Africa’s Mining Sector
The African mining sector has endured a difficult time over the
past five years. Commodity prices fell on the back of weaker Chinese demand and
investment decisions on both mine projects and the railways needed to support
them were delayed. New frontiers, such as iron ore development on the borders
of Gabon, Republic of Congo and Cameroon, were worst hit, but even established
areas of production suffered. The outlook for 2019 is not one of unadulterated
confidence but there are reasons for cautious optimism. Fitch Solutions forecasts
that global copper demand will increase from 23.6m tonnes in 2018 to 29.8m
tonnes in 2027, an average annual rise of 2.6%. This is well above expected
production increases, so prices for Zambian and Congolese copper are likely to
rise, increasing the pressure for new mine development.
SOURCES: AFRICAN
BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Upgrading the African Startup Landscape
While innovation has been at the heart of many of the
progressive discussions around African development over the last decade, the
focus has tended to be centered on the benefits and impact of digital
technology as internet penetration rises across the continent. Co-Creation Hub
(CcHub) is based in Lagos and is the early home for some of Nigeria’s
best-known startups. Earlier this month, it opened a design hub and innovation
center in Kigali, Rwanda. The new center aligns with CcHub’s original vision to
take advantage of technology’s potential to meet Africa’s challenges in
education, health, and governance “while unlocking social and economic value,”
says co-founder Bosun Tijani. CcHub’s design lab in Kigali includes a research
and development unit made up of a multidisciplinary team of researchers,
product engineers, and designers. Unlike its hub in Lagos, where startups are
incubated at various stages of growth, the lab is a space for collaboration
where solutions for social impact are created.
SOURCES: QUARTZ
AFRICA
How a Digital Idea Turned Into a Viable Business to Help Smallholder Farmers
Six years ago while wondering how best to use her engineering
skills, Tanzanian ICT entrepreneur Rose Funja decided to enter an innovation
competition. Years later she has turned a digital idea into a viable business
that helps smallholder farmers across the East African nation access credit. In
Tanzania farmers struggle to obtain credit because many do not have bankable
assets or a record of performance to offer as collateral. But Funja had an idea
to help farmers, particularly women, obtain proof of land ownership that they
could use as collateral to access credit. It was a smart solution: using
geographical information system (GIS) technology to generate useful information
for farmers.
SOURCES: AFRICA.COM
Do Smart Cities Have a Place in the African Landscape?
Six years ago a major development was announced in South Africa.
Billed as a game changer, it was meant to alter the urban footprint of
Johannesburg, Africa’s richest city, forever. The Modderfontein New City
project was launched and was dubbed as the “New York of Africa”. Early plans
showed it was to include 55,000 housing units, 1,468,000 m2 of office space and
all the necessary amenities for urban life in the form of a single large-scale
urban district. Over the last decade, a variety of developments like
Modderfontein, including Eko-Atlantic in Nigeria, New Cairo in Egypt, and Konza
Technology City in Kenya, have been touted by both public and private sectors
as panaceas for Africa’s urban problems. The thinking is that as the developments
are disconnected from the existing urban landscape, they won’t be burdened by
crime or informality. However, these projects can take badly needed resources
away from the marginalised areas of the city.
SOURCES: THE
CITIZEN
There’s a $700-billion Opportunity for African Countries
This can be achieved over the next five years if they can close
the gender gap in mobile-phone ownership, according to GSMA, the global
mobile-trade body. It bases that estimate on the commercial opportunity for
mobile operators and the expected boost to GDPs as more women get phones.
Digital commerce will be a big beneficiary, says a new white paper from
consulting firm BFA, commissioned by the Mastercard Foundation. The
sector—everything from retail e-commerce and the sharing/gig economy to the
platform economy and digital trade—is still just 1% of retail commerce in
Africa, compared with 14% and above in countries like the United States and
China. Growth could have a massive impact on African countries, with their
young and increasingly urban populations. But most governments are not ready.
“Most African policymakers do not yet have a clear and comprehensive voice on
the issues at stake or a national stance toward them,” writes BFA. Egypt is the
only African country with any kind of e-commerce policy.
SOURCES: QUARTZ
AFRICA
Looking into Nairobi’s Gentrification
Nairobi is unrecognisable from the sleepy town it was at the
turn of the century. In the past 12 years land prices have soared more than
sixfold in 24 of the city’s 32 suburbs and satellite towns, according to
HassConsult, a local real-estate agent. What caused it all is disputed, though
some developers whisper that the return of dirty money from the West after the
2008 financial crash fuelled the frenzy. Far more money could be made in Kenyan
bricks and mortar than in rich-world stockmarkets. Analysts ask why
bother investing in the Nasdaq (returns of 210% since 2007) when an acre in
Juja, one of Nairobi’s satellite towns would have fetched an
investor 1,428%? Shopping malls, petrol stations and apartment blocks were
levelled; bulldozers cut through slums, leaving tens of thousands homeless. All
this destruction may seem rather wanton in a poor city. Yet the government-backed
body overseeing it, the Nairobi regeneration task-force, insists that the only
way to save the Kenyan capital is to wreck bits of it.
SOURCES: THE
ECONOMIST
Grooming a New Generation of Coders
Rwanda has embraced technology and is now preparing its young
population for the future by launching a coding academy. The school’s motto
“born to code” encourages young people interested in coding to pursue
it as a career. The academy focuses on cyber security and software programming,
and 30 girls and 30 boys enrolled in the first intake. A statement from the
Ministry of Education said, “This model school will graduate its students in a
period of 3 years attended by students who are “Born To Code” determined to
pursue a life-time coding career at an early age to emerge as global software
engineers.” The coding academy targets young Rwandans who just finished
secondary school and performed well in Physics, Mathematics and English. The
$4.6 billion structure that hosts the coding academy and the Nyabihu Technical
and Vocational Education and Training School (VTET) was deliberately built away
from the country’s capital, Kigali.
SOURCES: ALL
AFRICA
A New Frontier in South Africa’s Wine Industry
South Africa’s wine industry is centered around Cape Town. But
pioneers far to the northeast are forging a new frontier in unlikely
surroundings as changing weather patterns test long-held conventions. Cathedral
Peak wine estate’s vines grow in the foothills of the Central Drakensberg, or
“Dragon Mountains,” the towering range that forms a natural western boundary
for KwaZulu-Natal province. Producing wine here at 1,100 meters (3,600 feet)
means turning tradition on its head and nurturing grapes in steamy summer
rainfall, rather than the Mediterranean climate and cool, wet winters of the
much more celebrated Western Cape.
SOURCES: BLOOMBERG
Issuing Title Deeds Will Continue to Increase Young Investors Preference for Real Estate
A survey done last year by Enwealth Financial Services in
partnership with Strathmore University revealed that 62.8 per cent of Kenyans
opt for land and real estate when it comes to securing future investments. The
survey sampled out average Kenyans from the top and middle income earners who
are majorly professionals and self-employed people who have savings and are
planning to invest. As the year begins, investors continue to look out for the
best places to invest in land, however, preference will be given to real estate
companies who have been keen on ensuring that clients sign the legal documents
involved in land transfer. Signing of legal documents assures clients that they
will receive their title deeds at the end of their investment. A title deed
empowers individuals to develop their property without any legal constraints.
SOURCES: AFRICA.COM