Is this hope or gloom for Africans? COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it encourages innovations in the search for potential treatments for the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) including repurposing drugs, traditional medicines, and developing new therapies. COVID-19, a newly identified strain of …
Read More »Deforestation in Africa accelerates: UN food agency
Paris, France | AFP | Africa is the only continent in the world where deforestation is accelerating, according to key findings of a five-year report released Thursday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In South America, where some countries have been blamed for rampant forest exploitation, the rate of forest loss was …
Read More »UK investor Gridworks eyes African utilities overhaul
In too many countries, transmission and distribution remain the responsibility of badly managed state utilities. Gridworks CEO Simon Hodson explains to David Thomas how his organisation plans to invest to make the sector commercially sustainable In the barren, rocky wasteland at the southern edge of Kenya’s remote Lake Turkana sit the whirring turbines …
Read More »COVID-19: Africa advised to prepare for a worst-case scenario
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A new campaign has been launched to increase financing for Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to raise its capacity for securing essential diagnostics and medical supplies needed for COVID-19 response in Africa. The One by One; Target COVID-19 campaign, spearheaded by Africa-CDC, the …
Read More »COVID-19 has shown that African businesses should diversify markets
When the first cases of coronavirus were detected in December 2019, no one could have ever predicted that it would lead to a pandemic. AZA Trading Desk Manager, Mungai Murega shared insights with The Independent on the economic toll of COVID-19 and potential ways in which African businesses can …
Read More »Where to invest in Africa in the face of COVID-19
As Africa heads towards recession, it’s not easy to know where to invest. Akinyi Ochieng and Isaac Kwaku Fokuo, Jr. highlight three areas that are likely to fare better during the downturn Back in January, Africa’s economic outlook for the year was bright. African Development Bank projections predicted 3.9% growth in 2020 and …
Read More »Uganda rated highly on handling COVID
Survey shows Uganda response leading in Africa Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A study of the response of Sub-Saharan governments to the spread of the Corona virus disease COVID-19 sweeping across the globe has ranked Uganda higly. The survey by GeoPoll which is the world’s largest mobile survey platform …
Read More »Faces from Africa’s anti-virus frontlines
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Across Africa, obscure or forgotten health and government officials have been propelled into the public eye because of their role in fighting coronavirus. Some are unsung veterans of previous efforts to stop epidemics, such as Ebola or AIDS. Others are from a younger generation, making a …
Read More »POLL: 60% say Uganda on right track on Covid-19
Johannesburg, South Africa | THE INDEPENDENT | AGeoPoll survey on Sub-Saharan Africa shows that there is concern that many nations on the continent are poorly prepared for a pandemic as easily transmissible as COVID-19. Many are frightened about coronavirus spreading in their countries, others about its economic impact, especially …
Read More »WHO calls for more COVID-19 testing in Africa
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organisation-WHO is calling for more testing for COVID-19 to be carried out in African countries to know the exact number of infected people. The call was made during a virtual press briefing on Friday. While many countries on the continent have put …
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