Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A group of scientists and policymakers have launched an international research campaign that will focus on COVID-19 treatments options and vaccine research for low-income countries. The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition which will consist of physicians is targeting African and Asian countries with the poor …
Read More »Empowering SMEs key to increasing development
OPINION | Thomas Yieke | Prosperity should always be at the heart of any initiative geared towards driving economic growth and development. According to Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), SMEs are the engine of growth for economic development, innovation, and wealth creation in Uganda. The SMEs are spread across all sectors …
Read More »Mega African infrastructure projects often hurt local people
There is evidence that the infrastructure that global financiers want to fund is not the kind that majority of the population need | TOM GOODFELLOW | Big infrastructure projects are always controversial. Yet in parts of the world associated with severely deficient infrastructure, the positive value of major infrastructure investments …
Read More »Coronavirus fears spark urban exodus across Africa
behenjy, Madagascar | AFP | No one can remember ever seeing as many people heading out of Antananarivo along national highway number 7. Madagascans have joined the exodus in their hundreds in recent days, forming long queues to get away after the authorities declared a lockdown to try to prevent the …
Read More »Fossil fuel and climate change
As pressure builds to phase out fossil fuels in Africa, African Business Magazine’s NJ Ayuk argues that we must not rob our continent of the benefits it can realise from oil and gas. Africans | THE INDEPENDENT | Pressure is building to phase out fossil fuels in Africa to fight …
Read More »Public distrust hampers Africa fight against virus misinformation
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | African nations fighting the novel coronavirus face a foe as stealthy and dangerous as the microbe itself: misinformation and apathy, fuelled by deep distrust of government. Bogus news and indifference to official warnings are emerging as giant obstacles in a region where poor healthcare infrastructure, …
Read More »Africa’s weak health systems face escalating virus peril
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Equipment shortages, scarce beds and poorly-paid doctors and nurses: Africa is finding that it has few means to protect itself as a feared coronavirus tsunami looms. Earth’s poorest continent has so far confirmed around 1,800 cases and 57 deaths — a tally that is low compared …
Read More »Uganda, Rwanda take action as infections jump across Africa
Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Rwanda went into shutdown on Sunday, imposing some of the strictest coronavirus measures in Africa where infections are rising fast and hospitals ill-equipped to cope. The central African nation banned all “unnecessary movements”, mirroring steps by governments from the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius to …
Read More »Africa must ‘wake up’ and ‘prepare for worst’ over virus: WHO
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that while Africa so far had seen few cases of COVID-19, the continent should “prepare for the worst”. “Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in a virtual news conference. Tedros said that to date, 233 cases of the …
Read More »Young Africans want more democracy
Their ageing rulers are finding new ways to thwart them | THE INDEPENDENT | One day in January Comlan Hugues Sossoukpe woke before dawn in Lomé, the capital of Togo, and slipped across the frontier to a safe house in Benin. It was only the second time he had been …
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