Tag Archives: africa

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Major African tech start-up Andela sacked hundreds of its staff this week — the majority from Nigeria — in one of the largest layoffs in the continent’s budding tech industry. The start-up, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from investors including Facebook and tennis …

  Paris, France | AFP |  Established star Sadio Mane and the emerging 16-year-old Ansu Fati both scored as they shared the limelight among Africans in the top European leagues at the weekend. Senegal’s Mane boosted hopes of succeeding Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah as African Footballer of the Year with …

The continent must also overcome significant hurdles if it is to grab the 4IR opportunity | THE INDEPENDENT | Africa has taken three significant steps in recent months on its journey to a stronger economic future. In March, the African Union launched the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This …

How African researchers are tackling Ebola HEALTH | YAP BOUM | In August 2015 Dr Sakoba Keita, who led the Ebola response in Guinea during the largest Ebola outbreak the world has ever seen, declared: “The Ebola vaccine is a gift from Guinea to West Africa and the world”. This …

The African Union launched the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at a summit in Niger last month. Vera Songwe is the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa that has been providing support for the AU during negotiations and ratifications. She spoke to …

Ghanaian Antwi stars for Pyramids Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  Ghanaian John Antwi scored twice for Sebastien Desabre’s Egyptian outfit Pyramids as they lived up to a billing of being a club to watch in the CAF Confederation Cup this season. The debutants thumped Etoile of Congo Brazzaville 4-1 …

The models and their pros and cons | Ruth Hall, Dzodzi Tsikata and Ian Scoones | Colonialism brought large-scale farming to Africa, promising modernisation and jobs – but often dispossessing people and exploiting workers. Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again …

Paris, France | AFP |  Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea for 40 years on Saturday, is the world’s longest-serving living leader apart from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, on the throne for 67 years. Africa’s longest-serving ruler was also a monarch: Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie reigned for 44 years …

Only developed countries including the US, China, India, some in Europe and South America have well–established gene banks Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | For the recent decades, Africa’s indigenous animals such as the East Africa’s sinewy Ankole cattle; a product of the centuries of selection for traits adapted to …

Why governance standards set in the West and imposed on poor countries are dangerous THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, a friend posted on a social media platform an article by a US scholar about life in a democracy and an autocracy as imagined by Americans! …