DAWN by Africa Business Association

DAW

Nigeria Enters the World of Crypto Economics page 32 Holiday Edition

CONTENTS - November-December 2021 4

Publisher's Message

Business 7 8 10 12

14 RedBottoms for a Cause 23

16 20 22 24

“Something from Nothing,” Inspiring People to Turn their Dreams into Reality 400 Rand - The Global Gig Worker Make Your Business Idea a Reality ‘Invest in Yourself’: How to Grow Your Business With Self-Investment, Educa on and Authen city 5 Strategies Entrepreneurs can Incorporate to Build Brand Awareness The Interna onal Cheat Sheet for Startups and Small Businesses Chris an Loubou n, Sabrina Elba, and Idris Elba Reinvented Red-Bo oms for a Cause What I've Learned as a Black Female Founder in Silicon Valley Has Black Lives Ma er Really Helped African Brands?

Development 26 28 29 30

Aviation Sustainability 38

32 33 34 35 36

Alphabet Device Makes Drinking Water From Air Africa’s Post-Covid Economic Recovery will be an Uphill Ba le With 900,000 Developers, Here's Where the Next Big Startup Ecosystem Will Be How Mobile Money Grew in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Last 10 Years Nigeria Launches Digital Currency ‘to Drive Economic Growth’ USAID Delivers on Prosper Africa Goals with Africa Trade and Investment Program Nearly 90 Countries Join Pact to Slash PlanetWarming Methane Emissions COP26: World Leaders Promise to end Deforesta on by 2030 An Airline CEO’s Strategy for Making African Avia on Sustainable

Agriculture 40 Benin Bronzes 62

42 45 Crypto Opps

97 2

November-December 2021

How Tech and Agriculture can Help Africa’s Pandemic Recovery Growing Crops Under Solar Panels - a Bright Idea Eco-friendly, Lab-grown Coﬀee is on the Way, but it Comes with a Catch

Pandemic-Health 47 50

WHO Honors Henrie a Lacks for "Incalculable" Medical Breakthroughs Re red Black Surgeon is on Global Mission DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

52 54 56

106

to Educate how Vitamin D3 can Help Combat COVID-19 First Malaria Vaccine Approved by W.H.O. WHO-led Program Aims to Buy An viral COVID-19 Pills for $10 Pfizer Moves to Allow Cheap Versions of Promising Covid Pill

Governance 58 60 61 62 64 66 67

Why it’s not Nearly Enough that Germany is Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronzes Biden Meets Kenya's President Uhuru Kenya a at the White House Erdogan Meets Liberia's Weah, Leaders of Togo, Burkina Faso Permanent Forum on People of African Descent The United Na ons Could Finally Create New Rules for Space Africa's First Chief Heat Oﬃcer - on a Mission West African Regional Bloc Adopts New Plan to Launch Eco Single Currency in 2027

Investment 68 70 73 73 74 79 81

African Stock Exchange/Bourse Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if you’re not African Stars Invest in Black-Owned Sports Technology Firm StatusPro IMF OKs Big Increase in Funds to Alleviate Pandemic Impact Google will now oﬀer African Startups more than No-Strings Cash and Oﬃce Space Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners Closes Second Fund with $325 Million in Capital Commitments Worldcoin Launches a Global Cryptocurrency that will be Given to Every Person on Earth

Technology/Science 83 88

This 29-year-old is on Track to Build a $1,000,000 So ware Development Company Black Company Raises $2.4 Million to Build

November-December 2021

111 89 90 92 93

Technology for Cross-Border Commerce in Africa Founder of Tribl Messaging App for Pan-African Commerce Plans for a New Black Wall Street Ethical AI Trained on Reddit Posts Said Genocide is OK if it Makes People Happy African Vibes' Mag Oﬀers List of 10 Educa on Apps all Parent's Should Know About ‘There’s a Blockchain App for That’

Lifestyle/Culture 96 97 98 100 102 104 105 106 109

Google Honors the Founder of African Sign Language Studies in one of Their Latest Doodles Cambridge University to Return Benin Bronze to Nigeria in Historic Moment 'A Tes mony that We Existed': Benin Receives Looted Art from France Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature 6 Essen al Essays by Groundbreaking Cultural Cri c Greg Tate UFC Will Debut in Africa in 2022, Thanks to African MMA Champions Milwaukee Bucks Celebrate NBA Championship with White House Visit Pro-gamers are Pu ng Kenya on the Global Esports Map – Quartz Africa How Masai Ujiri is Using Basketball to Transform the Lives of African Youth

History 112 Phillis Wheatley DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Publisher's Message

Ricky Katsuya Publisher's Message And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Zechariah 13:9

IT IS FAIR TO SAY going forward everyone in this world will have to adjust our lifestyles, business operations, relationships and overall approach to life because of the health challenges and requirements that we are facing due to the unending pandemic. Yes, this reality is key for the business man and woman out there in Abidjan, Richmond or wherever you may be. The sudden interruptions to business like closures and openings, mask requirements, and vaccine requirements point to the need for agility in our approach to business. The "New Normal" for every business is to have a Web Front for their business and a determined approach to making web sales as important as the main store front. We might be resistant to embracing the digital options, particularly for the mum and pap stores in Ndola, Zambia, but ultimately, if we want our businesses to survive the pandemic challenge we have to build oﬀ of what already exists now:  Mobile money for most of the population is widely used,  Access to internet is available to all,  Sellers and buyers can connect by phone and internet,  Local delivery capabilities exist,

 Electronic payment between seller and buyer is available. Articles throughout this issue of the DAWN provide examples of how many types of businesses are using digital technology and developing new digital tools to help us all thrive in the "New Normal." HERE AT AFRICA BUSINESS, we are playing our role in connecting businesses in Africa, in America and the Diaspora. To that eﬀect we invite you all to participate in our upcoming trade mission for Africa and America. The Rwanda-USA Trade Mission is currently accepting businesses to participate in the delegation and for those businesses in the USA that are interested in exploring business opportunities in Africa. Visit the trade mission website for details: www. rwandausatrademission.com. We look forward to seeing you on the road near your home or wherever you maybe. Ricky Katsuya Publisher/President dawn@africabusinessassociation.org aba@africabisinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Awakening the African Giant Within 4

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture - Business - Commentary - Development - Education - Governance History - Investment - Lifestyle/Culture - Technology/Science 5

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

About the

Africa Business Association The Africa Business Association is an independent international business development organization. We oﬀer access to the latest resources, information, and best practices in advocacy and communications for the African Diaspora and the African entrepreneurs in Africa.

Africa Business Association

"DAWN"

PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Ricky Katsuya

ADVISORY BOARD

Earl 'Skip' Cooper, II, CEO, Black Business Association H.E. Sheila Siwela, Ambassador H.E. Kone L. Tanou, Ambassador

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ricky Katsuya

LAYOUT/TYPESETTING

We work to help you have access to news and events as starting points for constructive conversations and calls to action. We seek to cut through the froth of the political spin cycle to underlying truths and values. We want to be so focused on progress that together we can provide a credible and constructive generation of Africans that take seriously our previous generations and act upon all their wishes, our hopes and aspirations to make lasting change for all future generations. 6

November-December 2021

Lion Communications

AFRICA BUSINESS ASSOCIATION NEWS 6564 LOISDALE COURT, SUITE 600 Springfield, VA 22150 USA 1-240-467-6811 aba@africabisinessassociation.org dawn@africabusinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Copyright © 2021 by Africa Business Association News All Rights Reserved. The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

Image credits: Cover-http://creativafrica.blogspot.com, United States Department of Commerce; Publisher's Message-christart.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

“Something from Nothing,” Inspiring People to Turn their Dreams into Reality By press@fiverr.com FIVERR’S “SOMETHING FROM NOTHING” campaign serves to address the notion that there are millions of people, from entrepreneurs to company decision-makers, around the world sitting on incredible business ideas, but only a few of them will turn those ideas into reality. In a recent study Fiverr conducted in partnership with YouGov that asked U.S. adults about starting a business, 25% of respondents revealed they had a business idea in the last 18 months; however, of the nearly 60% (59%) who never pursued their business idea, 58% said it was due to lack of resources. The new campaign addresses this issue, showing freelancers on Fiverr can help kickstart business ventures, and drives home the concept that anyone can take “nothing” and, with help from Fiverr talent, “do something” to bring that idea to life. “2021 has presented a major shift in the way employees view work - people are putting autonomy and flexibility above all else, some are even leaving their jobs to take time oﬀ and pursue their passions. For many, this means following through on a business concept or taking a risk in their current job by leading a new project or pushing new ideas,” said Gali Arnon, Chief Marketing Oﬃcer at Fiverr. “This new campaign is hyper-focused on the businesses, products, or services not yet created but are still just an idea. Thousands of incredible businesses have come to life with the support of expert freelancers on Fiverr, and we’re looking forward to seeing thousands more grow into world-class companies.” Fiverr’s “Something from Nothing” campaign was developed in collaboration with Ostrich Studios, represented by By The Network, and includes work from Fiverr’s global community 7

November-December 2021

of skilled freelancers, such as motion graphics, game development, logo designs, and merchandise designs (provided by designsbysaba, erman11, sarahroseandrew, joannaan, yambostudio, and petru_huja ). “We’re really flipping the script with this new campaign. While our last few campaigns showcased real businesses, this is focused on how Fiverr freelancers can support any business to grow, innovate, and succeed. All you need is to do something, ” said Duncan Bird, Vice President of Brand Marketing & Digital at Fiverr. “We wanted to show more of the breadth and skill that freelancers on the platform can offer to take new ideas and make them a reality. As with all of our campaigns, we’re excited to share something bold and showcase the incredible talent Fiverr has to offer.” Fiverr’s “Something from Nothing” brand campaign features a variety of brand hero and acquisition ads which will run across digital channels and TV. To learn more about the campaign, click HERE. About Fiverr Fiverr’s mission is to change how the world works together. Since 2010, the Fiverr platform has been at the forefront of the future of work connecting businesses of all sizes with skilled freelancers offering digital services in more than 500 categories, across 9 verticals including graphic design, digital marketing, programming, video and animation. In the twelve months ended June 30, 2021, 4.0 million customers bought a wide range of services from freelancers across more than 160 countries. We invite you to become part of the future of work by visiting us at fiverr.com, read our blog and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Source version - businesswire.com: www. businesswire.com/news/home/20211027005236/en Video: https://mms.businesswire.com/ media/20211027005236/en/920431/19/5363152_ FIVERR_Nothing_60_WEB_16x9_ProResHQ_ October22nd2021.mp4?download=1 Image credit: techworm.net

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

400 Rand The Global Gig Worker As told to NORMA YOUNG for Rest of World

THE GLOBAL GIG WORKERS THIS PROJECT EXAMINES, THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF GIG WORKERS, HOW DIGITIZATION IS RESHAPING WORKING PATTERNS, LIFESTYLES AND LIVELIHOODS. NOMAGUGU SIBANDA is a nanny and housekeeper on SmartMaid — an on-demand app for home services that launched in mid-2020. She is from Zimbabwe and currently works in Johannesburg, South Africa. Migrants from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia often have limited documentation, and many find jobs in domestic service. Around 9% of female migrants and 6% of male migrants from these countries work in the sector in South Africa. Some secure live-in roles or work for a single employer, but many work as freelancers or on contracts, taking hourly or daily jobs. On-demand platforms such as SweepSouth and SmartMaid have emerged to link workers with clients. Workers using the apps say they earn on average 3,500 rand a month — more than the 2,600 rand that is typical for traditional contract workers doing similar tasks oﬀ the platforms and more than the 3,000 rand minimum monthly wage for full-time domestic workers. Note: $1 is approximately 14.40 rand. https://flipboard.com/@restofworld/theglobal-gig-workers-p9og7p4aun9qqj7d?utm_ medium=share&from=share&utm_ source=flipboard&utm_campaign=campaign Image credit: Photography by Barry Christianson for Rest of World 8

November-December 2021

I WON’T TAKE ANY JOB that costs more than 20 rand [about $1.38] to get to. It’s nice to get work, but I don’t want to spend it all on travel. You have to use your common sense. When I get a booking, I look at the map carefully to see where it is before accepting a request. Fortunately, I do have regular bookings. I have a client who’s booked me every Tuesday and Saturday. So, I know that I will have some work every week. They pay me through SmartMaid, which helps me to budget because I know what money is coming to my account. I do take random bookings as well. They pay better — 100 rand an hour, and they’re usually for a few hours. Regular bookings pay between 300 and 350 rand for a full day. When I’m at my regular weekly client, I still check my phone for new requests. My client is based in Melrose Arch, and so, while I’m in the area, I like to go online and see if there might be other bookings. I was there yesterday, and at about 2 p.m., I got a message asking if I could go nearby to a client in Bramley. I messaged him via the app and said I was in the area but not yet finished with my work for the day. Luckily, he said, no problem, I can come the following day. He made a booking for 9 a.m. I left Joburg at 8:15 a.m. to go to Bramley. The taxi cost 12 rand. I usually wear my SmartMaid T-shirt when I leave the house, so I don’t need to change before I start work. But I do keep a spare DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Nomagugu Sibanda helps her daughter get ready before going to work.

T-shirt in my handbag, in case I want to wear something clean when I’m going back home. I prefer to wear just a normal skirt and a T-shirt, so I’m comfortable when I’m working. When I got there, the client told me he wanted me to clean but not do any laundry. His house was big, and he had a lot of rules — he was worried about Covid-19 and said I had to make sure I didn’t make him sick. I had to sanitize my hands regularly. When I work, I don’t like to play music on my phone or have the TV on in the background. I like silence. Sometimes I will sing softly while I work. Some clients will leave their TV on for me, but I will switch it off. “I like that I can make my own choices and manage my own time. It feels like I’m working for myself.” With this sort of work, it’s not just about cleaning. You have to make sure your client is happy with you. I try to learn what clients prefer. I also try to see their mood. I try to figure out how they would want something done, not just do what they want done. But I also make sure I mind my own business. There are clients I have who are two young men. I have seen so many different girls at their place but will never say anything. I don’t even greet the girls; I just keep quiet and mind my own business. Because I could tell that the Bramley client was big on hygiene, I even took my shoes off when I went to clean the bedrooms. He had carpets. 9

November-December 2021

I also did his ironing and changed the bedding. After I’d finished everything, the client told me to rake his garden. The booking had been just for cleaning, not gardening. I decided I’d do it — but I told myself that if he booked me again, then next time I would tell him, No, my work doesn’t include the garden. I’m glad I did this, because when I left, he said he would book me again. And he did. I finished work there around 1 p.m. He was going to pay me cash but then didn’t want to use all the cash he had on him. So, he ended up paying me via e-wallet. I withdrew the money on my way home. When I get paid in cash like this, SmartMaid takes their admin fee from my next booking. This is the sort of booking that I like. I get paid for more than if I work a full day, and then I still get to go home and spend time with my child. I’ve been on the app for almost a year. Before I was working as a hairdresser. Work there became tough during the lockdown. When a friend told me about the app, I decided to join because I needed work. I still do hairdressing, but when I’m too tired, I don’t switch on the app. Most of the time, when I’ve done a half-day request, I just want to go home. Sometimes though, I’ll check on the app to see if there are any other requests nearby. I like that I can make my own choices and manage my own time. It feels like I’m working for myself. https://restofworld.org/2021/global-gig-workerson-demand-cleaner-south-africa

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

Make Your Business Idea a Reality by Following a Few Simple Steps By Mike Kappel, AllBusiness.com contributor

AS THE VERY SUCCESSFUL WALT DISNEY once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” And as a successful entrepreneur myself, I can confirm that you can make your dreams come true if you set your mind to it, persevere, and give it all you got. But, making your business idea a reality doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience, and a ton of hard work. So, how do you make your business idea and dream come to life? Let me walk you through it. Got a solid idea for a product or service? Awesome. Now it’s time to get going and make your idea a reality. But in order to do that, you have to be willing to put in some legwork. To get your idea oﬀ the ground and help your business dream come true, start with these seven steps:

      

Conduct a market analysis Create customer personas Analyze competitors Look for trends Conduct surveys Collect demographic data Consider psychographics (e.g., values, hobbies, etc.) You can’t try to sell your service or product to everyone under the sun. It’s not realistic because 1. Do your research not everyone is going to have a want or need for When trying to bring your business idea to life, what you’re planning on offering. Also, people have start by doing some research. Look at: different pain points. So, find your ideal customer  The market who would want to buy from you and narrow down  Potential competitors your audience as much as possible.  Your audience After you get a good idea of whom you want to Your product or service won’t get off the ground target, it will become easier and easier to determine if there isn’t a viable market for it. So, take some next steps, such as marketing strategies. time to really dig in, research, and find out if your idea is sound. To help with this process, consider 3. Establish a financial game plan Unless you’ve found a way to grow money also doing a SWOT analysis to analyze strengths, on trees, chances are you’ll need some type of weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your funding to support your entrepreneurial dream. In business idea. fact, less than half (48%) of small businesses have 2. Narrow down your target audience their financing needs met. To make your dreams I mentioned your audience earlier, and I’m going come true and get the funding you need, establish to mention it again. Why? Because pinpointing the a financial game plan. right target audience for your startup can make or Before you can set your dream in motion, you break your business’s success. So if you want your need to have a good idea on how you plan to idea to work, narrow down your target audience. finance said dream. Luckily, owners have a lot of To find the ideal audience for your idea, you can: 10

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

business funding options, including small business loans, lines of credit, and investors. When planning, you should also get a good idea of how much you’re going to be spending by forecasting future finances and keeping expenses in mind. The more prepared you are financially, the easier it will be to get your business oﬀ the ground and sustain it for years to come. Not to mention, going in while being financially unprepared can cause you to become one of the 38% of businesses that fail because they run out of cash or fail to raise new capital (yikes!).

4. Write up a business plan Along with financial planning comes an even bigger plan: your business plan. Your business plan is like a road map for your company. It details every little thing about your business, from funding to marketing. And it should answer a variety of questions about your business, like what problems your solution will solve and whom you want to target. Your business plan can help you further understand your market, obtain outside funding from lenders and investors, and strategize y o u r c o m p a ny ’s future. So, what all should you cover in your business plan? Include the following sections:  Executive summary  Company description  Market analysis  Organization and management  Service or product line  Marketing and sales  Funding  Financial projections

Not sure how much to include in your plan? The general rule of thumb is the more details the merrier. But, don’t go overboard when it comes to text. Make your plan easy to read and digest by spacing out text, using bullet points, and including images (e.g., charts and tables).

5. Test your idea Prior to taking some bigger steps, like registering your business, make sure your idea works. And what better way to do that than test it out? Whether you have a service or product, you need to test it before oﬃcially launching your business. Otherwise, you can wind up with disgruntled customers. Or worse, no customers at all. Testing your idea before fully investing in it can give you insight on any changes you need to make and the longevity of your idea. To test out your product or service, you can ask family or friends for feedback, interview your target market, or conduct focus groups. Conducting testing allows you to get honest feedback about your idea without fully committing to it. You then can use that feedback to make improvements to your product or service before you unveil it to the world.

6. Set reachable goals Another big aspect of running a business is setting goals. And when you’re chasing after your entrepreneurial dream, you need to set goals to help stay on track and motivate yourself. When it comes to setting goals, be realistic. Set reachable goals that you can actually obtain within a reasonable time frame. Not ones that are nearly impossible to achieve, especially as a new business owner. Consider using SMART goals, or specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound goals. That way, you can outline your goals and ensure you don’t miss any important details. Here are some examples of goals you can set for yourself while making your business idea a reality:  Get feedback from X friends and family.  Secure funding by the end of the year.  Get X customers by quarter 3.

7. Take action see page 12

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

‘Invest in Yourself’: How to Grow Your Business With Se By Kayla Harrison, Contributor

“You have a digital presence, and you can Grow with Google coach Mary Rabago use this as your business platform, social media discusses the importance of establishing a digital presence to grow your business, tell platform, [and] to engage with new customers,” Rabago stated. your story and attract consumers. Here are four ways that businesses can establish IT CAN BE CHALLENGING to grow a business digitally without the right tools and strategies. An even bigger challenge for entrepreneurs is understanding how to establish trust and communication with consumers. Mary Rabago, a Grow with Google coach and founder of Mary Rabago Productions, teaches her clients that the best way to grow your business is by establishing a digital presence using a variety of tools, which can help you organize information about your business, engage customers and provide a space for you to tell your entrepreneurial story.

Business Success

from page 11

Again, making your business idea a reality doesn’t happen within a few hours, days, or even weeks. It takes time and baby steps. But once you’re ready to dive in and have prepared everything (hint, hint: steps 1-6), you can begin to take action. After you get your ducks in a row with your business plan, target market, etc., you can start taking action in other areas, such as:  Registering your business  Securing a location  Building your website  Advertising  Hiring employees  Choosing an accounting method  Setting up payroll if you have employees

and grow their digital presence while engaging consumers.

Educate and invest in yourself The first step to running a successful business is investing in yourself as an entrepreneur. Rabago emphasizes the importance of participating in workshops and educating yourself about the digital business world, necessary digital skills to be successful, and how to manage a business with online tools. “I've been blessed and business is really good right now, but I could have definitely been at a

Don’t be scared oﬀ by your big to-do list. Instead, take it one day at a time, and slowly but surely you can turn your business idea into a reality. www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2021/10/11/ make-your-business-idea-a-reality-by-followinga-few-simple-steps

Making your business idea a reality is a step-by-step process

This article was originally published on AllBusiness.com: www.allbusiness.com/ make-your-business-idea-a-reality-few-simplesteps-151925-1.html

All of these steps can seem intimidating, but trust me, they’re oh-so worth it in the end.

Image credit: AllBusiness.com, Black Illustrations

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

elf-Investment, Education and Authenticity diﬀerent level if I hadn’t invested in myself at the beginning,” said Rabago. “I lasted about two years of going crazy, trying to figure out things, making all the mistakes … but if I can save those two years for any new entrepreneur, I will gladly do [so] by sharing my advice: invest in [yourself] first. There are countless grants and loans out there to help support your business. Rabago advised educating yourself about where to find them, how to apply and the best ways to use those funds.

Find what makes you valuable to customers When establishing your digital presence, the key is to find what makes you stand out and what customers will find valuable. For Rabago, it’s being bilingual and bi-cultural. “[Clients] don’t only get the information that Google’s providing for them through a digital aspect,” she noted. “I also input my knowledge about the culture, about the language, about strategy … because in every aspect of life, communication is key.” Rabago is able to communicate better with her clients because of her skills and experience. As a business owner, consider how you can personalize experiences for your consumers and gain their trust. Identify which parts of yourself and your business allow you to create connections with your audience, and leverage them to find long-term customers who are loyal to your service or product.

That’s why it’s so important to infuse your marketing content with your story, she said. Spread the messages and share the lessons that only you can.

Don’t sell yourself cheap

Know your value and don’t settle for less than that, said Rabago. Not everyone will like what you’re doing or who you are as a brand, but that doesn’t mean you should make yourself or your business “less” to appeal to those types of people. “I believe that you’re not the cup of tea for everyone, but the right ones will come [if you are] faithful to yourself and don’t minimize your value,” she explained. “I think as [entrepreneurs] … we tend to minimize ourselves in many ways. Once Tell your story One of the best ways to form connections with … you know what your value is, people will start your target audience, according to Rabago, is by respecting and also appreciating what you bring to being authentic and sharing your “why.” Every the table.” entrepreneur has a reason for starting their www.uschamber.com/co/grow/marketing/growingbusiness, and telling your story to consumers will with-education-and-authenticity draw them in on a more personal level. www.grow.google “Tu historia tiene poder — your story has power,” Image credit: https://growonair.withgoogle.com said Rabago. “People are going to buy your product or your service because of the ‘why,’ because of your story.”

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business

5 Strategies Entrepreneurs can Incorporate to

ONLINE MARKETING IS THE NEW-AGE reality and has opened a bold new world for entrepreneurs. However, the plethora of opportunities and promotional strategies available can be crippling to many entrepreneurs. Several startups and small businesses struggle with developing an eﬀective strategy for enhancing their brand awareness. Given below are 5 expert-curated strategies to help entrepreneurs build their brand awareness.

1. Stay Updated About What Is Going Around You Building brand awareness also calls for 'awareness' from your side. Based on the niche of your brand, stay updated about what is happening in the industry. Also, constantly analyze whether the requirements of your target audience have changed. It's also essential that you remain in constant light about the latest marketing trends. For example, online video consumption has enormously risen in recent times. A study says that 83% of marketers believe that video is an important way of constant marketing, and it's not a trend to be simply ignored. Hence, staying updated about all that's happening around is very crucial for building brand awareness.

resources are shareable. Audiences share and reshare resources they find interesting and engaging. Infographics, tables, slides and how-to guides and videos are all examples of resources. Confluencr - India's largest influencer marketing agency partnered with Mirraw- a humble young brand with ambitious goals. Mirraw focuses on Indian ethnic wear, jewellery, and accessories with a clientele across India, Europe, and the United States. Mirraw's goal was to build an enhanced presence in the market in the coming few years. The campaign that Confluencr designed for Mirraw was pivoted around building brand awareness across Instagram. Our campaign involved the promotion of resourceful content and hence we launched the 'Your Kurti Fit' campaign. What was it about? It was about spreading awareness about the importance of finding the perfect fit for apparelbecause every person is unique. Micro and nano influencers collaborated with the brand for this campaign many of whom were lifestyle, fashion, and mom bloggers. The campaign received 43K+ engagement, 325K+ total views, 23K+ total likes, and 2,301 comments. That's how powerful resourceful content is.

3. Build Your Brand Around Community And A Sense Of Belonging What do creating resources suggest? Brands

2. Create Resources For Your Audience

can provide 'how-to' information and educate the audience about how their products or services are beneficial and provide solutions. Also, resources help the audience to understand the expertise of the brand and the team behind it. Most importantly, 14

November-December 2021

A sense of belonging is a basic human need. People respond positively when they feel that they belong to a certain place or people. A study says that 13% of consumers are willing to pay 31-50% more if they notice that a certain product or service

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Build Brand Awareness By zainliaquat

is making a positive impact on society. Hence, people's sense of self is hugely reliant on the feeling of being a part of a community. Hence, if a brand promotes a sense of 'we' and relates itself to a bigger collective, people will sense that it shares common values and purpose. Hence, position your business with the community and people will realise that your brand is not just another name for a product or a service, but an extension of their lives.

4. Enhance The Customer Experience And Satisfaction A brand, especially a young business should always go above and beyond to provide both potential and present customers ultimate satisfaction. This should be the ultimate goal of a business. Unsatisfied customers are a piece of bad news in the age of online reviews. Happy and satisfied customers will leave positive feedback and will likely recommend the brand to several others.

5. Consistency Is The Key A lack of consistency will create a barrier between the customers and the brand. Hence, consistency is one of the most eﬀective strategies for amplifying brand awareness. People will not 15

November-December 2021

remember everything they see or hear on social media or online platforms. Hence, Entrepreneurs should keep in constant touch. Research says that consistent presentation of a brand will enhance the revenue by 33%. Hence, a brand should stay consistently connected with the audience until it builds significant momentum.

Conclusion Eﬀective strategies can amplify brand awareness, help reach more prospective customers and also build value for your brand. They positively impact the scalability of your brand, helping you to inflate your brand awareness with each step you take. Don't rely on quick fixes. Rather, think of long-term benefits. That way you will be able to increase brand awareness in the right manner with the right audience. www.theodysseyonline.com/5-strategiesentrepreneurs-can-incorporate-to-build-brandawareness/1-stay-updated-about-what-is-goingaround-you

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - Success Plan

The International Cheat Sheet for Startups a By Leo Waldenback, co-founder Zutobi

PLAN FOR SUCCESS Starting a small business is an exciting endeavor. But, if you want to see your business succeed, you need to plan in advance. Using our cheat sheet (and keeping your eyes set on your goal) can help get you there. Launching your small business can be a daunting concept. There are a thousand and one things to sort out, and if you’re a brand new startup, it’s easy to feel the extreme force of overwhelm, anxiety, and panic. But, here at Zutobi, we’ve made things simple again with our International Cheat Sheet for Startups and Small Businesses.

can do for free: to taste your food. It’s only through tasting your culinary masterpiece that you’re made aware of the ingredients it’s lacking, what it needs more of, and what you need to dial down on. In your business, this is precisely the same. Monitoring your data within a campaign or project is the number one strategy for growth. Digesting and analyzing your figures is your way of sampling your food. If you go all-in with a kilogram of salt because you felt your dish needed more salt, it’ll quickly become too salty and inedible. Meaning, the dish you worked hard on would go straight in the trash. But, if you were to taste your existing food, you’d Let’s review — What is a Startup? Before we go any further, let’s clear up any know it needed only a pinch of salt to elevate it to the next level of flavor. confusion about the term “startups.” The takeaway? Taste your numbers. It’s only If you’re a startup, it means you: then that you’ll realize whether to spit them out, • Are a young company that is just “starting up.” add more, or start from scratch. • Have less than 100 people working for you. Rule 2: Focus on the Markets That Drive Your • Are one of the following six types of startups: Revenue lifestyle startups, small business startups, scalable startups, buyable startups, large When marketing your business, you’ll quickly company startups, or social startups. discover that each demographic will make a Startups are full of drive, determination, and different dent in your revenue. Again, it’s about analyzing your data regularly passion for their business. But, more often than and understanding which market is purchasing not, they lack the practical experience they need to avoid the pitfalls and reach their goals in a time which product or service. You’ll want to dedicate your time, effort, and that suits them. money to a market that drives your revenue. For International Issues in Your Startup — Don’t fall into the trap of trying to persuade a This Cheat Sheet Comes into Play demographic that they need your product when Rule 1: Test the Waters, But Don’t Commit they’re clearly not interested. Before You Spot Traction Get to know the demographics you’re pitching Any business investment is a risk. That’s why to — and understand the differences — both small it’s so crucial not to overcommit before you can and large – between them. monitor positive progress. You can then fit the puzzle together to why a Think about it like cooking. A successful chef specific group is buying more from you than the will tell you that the most critical cooking method other. amongst any and every cuisine is something you It’s essential that you understand the story behind 16

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

been created with the location in mind. We’ve got a massive range of 30 free online tests for our audience. They range from practice tests based in Utah to Missouri to many other states around America. Where are you going to market your startup or small business? Consider affiliate marketing tactics, email the data. And, once you’ve done so, focus on the marketing, and search engine optimization as methods of marketing. Just ensure you do your market that’s driving your revenue the most. For example, we understand that the younger market research and understand the marketing demographic who are just learning how to drive status of the location. dominate our market. While other driving test apps Rule 4: Don’t Go Too Broad With Your may be niched toward adult learners, ours is used Marketing Before You Find Marketing predominantly by the younger generation. So, we Campaigns That Work focus on that market as they drive our revenue. Spreading your brand too thin on the ice can In our Pennsylvania permit tests, for example, have disastrous effects on your revenue. we made sure to mimic the communication style If you choose to dedicate your efforts across of our audience. We studied the language choice seven different marketing platforms, it will be tricky carefully to make sure our content appeals to to monitor an accurate representation of what is them. working and what isn’t, especially if you are doing this alone or even in a small team. Rule 3: Test Different Marketing Platforms No matter what form they take, your marketing and Know That Different Platforms Work in tactics require a solid amount of time to make a Different Countries story. Unless you have a clear idea of a beginning, Small businesses often overlook this rule. There are hundreds of online courses that teach middle, and end, it’s impossible to state whether it the secrets of successful marketing. And, seeing was or wasn’t practical. It may take some time before you find a marketing as they’re all available online, you could be taught campaign that works for your brand with your by someone from anywhere in the world. The difference is, of course, that what works for target audience. However, when you do find it, it’s like you’ve won the lottery. them may not work for you. Once you’ve discovered your ideal marketing For example, social media marketing is a strong marketing strategy. However, depending on the platform and campaign, you’ll need to expand country you’re selling to, you’ll see spikes in usage your local variants to all markets. You can do this by adding more products or across all the different social networking platforms. services to your site, target new markets, and/ China, for example, has strict website restrictions, and many social networking sites are unavailable. or co-branding with another business within your So, the population of China uses a different industry. platform from the people of America. Rule 5: Don’t Try to Sell to Customers That If you were trying to launch your business in Don’t Want Your Product. Focus On the Ones China, you’d need to know this to avoid spending You Can Convert money on social media ads for them to fall on flat This is fundamental to business development. ears. If you are working hard to persuade a specific You can be even more specific when it comes demographic that your product or service can to marketing platforms and locations. The content change lives, you’re marketing to the wrong you put out there needs to be well adjusted to the customers. area it’s matched to. see page 18 Our range of practice permit tests for 2021 has

and Small Businesses

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - Success Plan Success Plan

demographic as best you can. The more specific the target audience, the deeper you can probe to This is a monumental waste of time. understand their pain points and general life. That If customers don’t want your product, don’t try way, your marketing can speak directly to them, to convince them that it’s worth their time. This resulting in more sales and more considerable is signifying that you need to change your target revenue. demographic. Rule 7: Enter A New Market Only After And don’t see this as a negative. While it didn’t Thorough Research gain you sales, it did help you learn a clear lesson that this specific audience did not respond to your product. So, you can scratch them oﬀ your list. Of course, you can, to a certain extent, avoid this by doing your market research in-depth. To launch a successful business, you need to have an obvious idea about who you’re selling to. Part of the puzzle is that they’re receptive to your brand, products, services, and transformations. You’ll need to focus on the type of customers or clients that genuinely convert. Probe deeper into their life and try to spot patterns between each customer. Try to gain as many reviews as possible from those who bought from you. This way, you can As we said in Rule 6, once you’ve mastered one analyze them and find similarities. The more you market or location, you can move on to the next. do this, the clearer your avatar will be. Once you But do so with caution. have a solid understanding of who your brand You should not now, nor should you ever, enter a sells to, you can personalize them through your new market without thorough research. messaging. Every demographic has a diﬀerent set of from page 17

Rule 6: Try to Become a Household Name in at Least 1 Country Or Market – If You’re Too Spread Out, Your Brand And Organic Revenue Will Suﬀer This rule goes above and beyond ‘great marketing.’ The marketing side of things will, if done right, influence this next step. Being a household name means you’re the preferred brand within that industry. Dyson, for example, controls 20.7% of the market for vacuum cleaners in the US. They’re a firm household name, focusing closely on the average family in their marketing tactics. It’s crucial to focus on one demographic or location at a time. Once you’ve mastered one and become a household name for that audience, you can conquer another demographic. If you try to spread yourself out too thin, you will negatively impact your business’s revenue. The key is in knowing. Understand your 18

November-December 2021

qualities, problems, likes, dislikes, fears, and day-to-day routines that your brand needs to acknowledge and cater to in their marketing for maximum success. If, for example, you gained an excellent response from an audience in New York, with female buyers ranging between 21 and 30, you’d need thorough research to sell the same product or service to an all-male audience from Hawaii, between the ages of 50 and 60. There’s very little that these two demographics have in common. So, to break that market wide open, you need to understand their need for this product. Without thorough market research, you’ll find it challenging to make the sales you need to drive your revenue. Rule 8: Become A Thought Leader By Providing New Insight Into Your Niche

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Knowing the typical issues and opinions within your niche is good. Providing new insights and revolutionary methods is excellent. So, up-level your brand from good to great today. You’ll need to stay up to date with the latest trends and thoughts surrounding your industry, and more specifically, your niche. Use social media to explore the competition, and analyze t h e i r common t a l k i n g points. You could take it even further by reading through the comments left by their target audience. If they’re a direct competitor, you can learn from their engagement, picking up on the language used by the audience and the response specific themes receive. Use this to evolve your content and marketing, making sure to always be relevant and modern. Convey your excellent subject knowledge through your content strategy, showing the world that you are an authority within your niche. You should aim for your brand to be the equivalent of Google within your industry.

• • • • • •

Gender Occupation Family size Income Family status Education level

The variation for all of these sectors will determine how an individual responds to certain words and structures. There’s a level of psychology to positioning the right message for specific audiences. While a younger audience may appreciate slang in your marketing, an older, more corporate audience may not. The way to nail this is simply by understanding and knowing your audience as best as you can. You should aim to know your audience as well as you know yourself. A steep ask, we know. But, you should shoot for the moon, and if you can’t quite get to that level, you’ll still land amongst the stars.

Rule 10: Ensure Your Company Can Handle The Burden Of Multiple Tax Systems And Shipping Logistics (If Applicable) When starting up your business, your passion, determination, and drive are on full steam. It can sometimes lead to forgetting about your tax systems and shipping logistics. While, admittedly, these are the more ‘grey areas of business, they still exist and need careful thought and preparation. Consider Shipping Tax, especially if you’re making your products available in different countries. Shipping Taxes will vary depending Rule 9: Understand That Different Markets on location, so if you’re opening up this feature, Respond To Different Messages be prepared to do your research and learn what This is true for all demographics. While it’s applies to your business. evident that different countries will react differently This should also play a role in adding shipping to different messages based on cultural influence charges. If you’re going to offer a ‘free shipping’ and sociolinguistics, zooming in even more will deal for an order over a specific price, it’s crucial to show you that every demographic will respond understand how much profit you’ll make with this. in different ways. This can be through slight Monitor the numbers and make sure they factor intricacies of the more extreme contrasts. into your strategy. Either way, the difference in demographics https://readwrite.com/2021/09/14/theshould be at the forefront of your mind when international-cheat-sheet-for-startups-and-smallmapping out your marketing strategy. businesses Demographic traits include: Image credit: blogspot.com, factorfinders.com • Age 19

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - for a good cause

Christian Louboutin, Sabrina Elba, and Idris Elba Reinven

C H R I S T I A N LOUBOUTIN’S iconic red-bottom heels are one of the ultimate luxury status symbols. But a new collaboration with Idris and Sabrina Elba, launched recently, is reimagining them for a thoughtful cause. Like so many 2020 projects, Louboutin, Idris, and Sabrina’s new shoe partnership first began out of a virtual chat last summer. On June 15 of last year, the Black Lives Matter movement was at the center of the global conversation with protests occurring around the globe, and Idris and Sabrina went on Instagram Live with BLM’s cofounder, Opal Tometi. “We were having a conversation about what was happening in the world, and how we could contribute,” Sabrina tells Vogue. Louboutin tuned in to the chat, and he immediately saw an opportunity to partner with the Elbas to use fashion for more. Together, the trio decided to produce a shoe collection that would directly benefit Black youth. Out now, the new Louboutin “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” collection was codesigned by the Elbas, and 100% of its proceeds will be donated to five nonprofit organizations: Be Rose, Purposeful, Immediate Theatre, Gathering for Justice, and the Somali Hope Foundation. These organizations aid in making the arts accessible to all, ending child incarceration, and providing 20

November-December 2021

mentorship for girls, among other causes. The line includes luxury sleek, pointy-toe pumps and mule sandals for her, high-top sneakers and oxford dress shoes for him, and leather top-handle bags. For the Elbas, it was a tangible way for them (along with their customers) to add to a good cause. “Our intention is to contribute to the moment,” says Idris. “Some people can contribute by protesting, by passing legislation, by oﬀering money—but the intention of the contribution is what is important.” Sabrina felt it was important for the charitable components to be global in scope. “We wanted to do something that had an international reach,” she says. “With George Floyd’s murder, there was such a global outcry of pain; people realized this is a global issue.” Together with Louboutin, the couple wanted to make sure the design process was just as purposeful as its core intention. Louboutin incorporated his signature red soles, of course, but he also collaborated with the Elbas on special, oneoﬀ details that touch on themes of empathy. Across some of the sneakers and pumps, for instance, DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

nted Red-Bottoms for a Cause By CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

reads, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” something Idris read while visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in L.A.; it struck the actor as a message of empathy. “The message we wanted to share with people is a message of solidarity and hope,” says Idris. Sabrina also had the idea of adding imagery of Strelitzia reginae plants to the pieces, which is a symbol of hope and freedom. “It’s something more lively and enthusiastic to say all isn’t dark. We can still find hope in this challenging time,” Louboutin says. This is only the first of many collaborations to come between the Elbas and Louboutin too. In the future, they will be releasing more shoe collections together—all for a good cause. 21

November-December 2021

“Through this collaboration, and going into deep conversations about the actual situation we’re facing all around the world, it strengthened our relationship,” said Louboutin. For Sabrina, the partnership is simply a dream come true. “The first luxury designer shoe I ever bought was Louboutin,” she says (he also made her wedding shoes). “I saved up all my tips and bought a pair of So Kates. The first time I put those on, I was just like, a bad bitch.” www.vogue.com/article/christian-louboutinsabrina-idris-elba-shoe-collaboration Image credit: Misan Harriman, Julien Vallon, Courtesy of Christian Louboutin

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - Commentary

What I've Learned as a Black Female Founder in Silicon Valley By Shanea Leven, Founder and CEO, CODESEE, @SHANEALEVEN

"WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you had all of the time, money, and resources in the world?" This question was posed to me by long-time Googler, Colt McAnlis--and at the time it was striking. Since Colt and I started working together in Google Developer Relations, I've been grateful to call him a mentor. For days, I turned his question over and over in my mind. Growing up with a mindset of scarcity--believing there was never enough, and I was never enough-this single question shattered generations of engrained teachings. It seemed like such an absurd and even irrelevant question to my lived reality; he might as well have asked me what superpower I would choose. I struggled to conjure his hypothetical constraint-less state, let alone imagine what kind of impact I could have by taking it on. While my mind was filled with the weight of constraints and expectations, I continued to wonder, "What would I do?" As a Black woman in Silicon Valley, coming up with a response felt truly challenging. In my view, this is how the world works: There's one world for one kind of person and a diﬀerent world for another. Silicon Valley is no diﬀerent. In mid-August of this year, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing the nation is more multiracial than ever. People of color represented 43% of the U.S. population in 2020--up from 34% in 2010. In two or three decades, experts project, white Americans will fall below half the population and lose majority status. There are nearly 22 million Black women in the U.S. It's a young and growing population, and so many are hungry for opportunity. Even rarer is a Black woman company founder -- fewer than 0.5% of Silicon Valley tech leadership positions are held by Black women, 22

November-December 2021

according to one study). I've always been one of those women hungry for opportunity. I want to help others--to make a positive impact and leave the world a little better than I found it. But, at every turn, most Black women are resource-constrained--running out of time and underfunded. The eﬀort that most Black women must exert--their hunger to make a diﬀerence--is often clouded by long-standing stereotypes. Sometimes, even disdain. While the statistics suggest the rise of Black women could and should be encompassing, these social bounds remain a daily occurrence. I have felt all of this and more. I have made more mistakes than I can count. I have rubbed people the wrong way, or perhaps worse, spent hours mentally churning over the potential of having rubbed people the wrong way. I have fallen into the same traps so many women like me know--Black women--making the same devastating errors that others with more melanin in their skin have made. But, I've also done a few things right. Within that young, growing population of Black women and men, I count myself as one of the many Black women who have overcome a barrage of potentially defeating sociocultural challenges to thrive. Here's what I've learned:

1. You do what you need to do in order to achieve the things you want. Often, Black women are not aﬀorded the same opportunities as our lighter counterparts. So, if you're a Black woman, you're going to need to seek them out; you're going to need to be bold and DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

tireless. You may need to leave that job where you're treated poorly; to take that riskier role at that startup. You may need to move into unfamiliar places. This may be diﬃcult, as we are also often carrying the collective weight of our families, communities, and even our entire gender or race. It's a lot. Sometimes these risks will not work out, and that's okay. But you must take hold of your potential and see it come to life.

beyond, remember, you are enough. You belong in every room you walk into. Act "as if", but check the boxes, learning the techniques to engage eﬀectively and win the hearts and minds of others. In other words, master the rules of the game in order to break them later. It's what white guys do, after all.

3. Think of personal relationships as color-blind.

The landscape is slowly starting to change, with more Black people beginning to break through the glass ceiling of Silicon Valley. Our awareness of the presence of Black people stepping into leadership roles is growing, too. But the truth is, there has always been extremely talented Black people in every industry. We're just starting to receive more recognition now. The thing is, we cannot accomplish this alone. 2. Black women cannot allow others Black leaders must build personal to define them-- but you can learn the relationships with communities of people that have too often excluded them in the past. I rules of the game (in order to break suggest seizing on this as an exciting opportunity them later). There's no denying that thinly veiled instances to learn about another world. Seek to understand of racism, or microaggressions, are an all-too- the burdens others are (and are not) carrying. common reality for Black women in the workplace. Learn the possibilities that others encounter with I know from personal experience. What's seen ease, and identify how you could adopt them. Simply, you deserve to learn what it feels like as ambition and boldness in a white man can be to operate without constraints. You have the construed as manipulative and uppity in a Black woman. I've been called "calculating" and "overly ambition and the right to consider Colt's question for yourself. Take hold of the opportunity to assertive," though I know that's not who I am. In regard to this reality, the most meaningful adopt a boundless mindset in a world that advice I can oﬀer is this: Stay true to yourself. Be remains imperfect, but in which you know--I real, and really yourself. Don't let others' biases know--you can thrive. frame your identity or slow your determination to www.inc.com/shanea-leven/what-ive-learned-asa-black-female-founder-in-silicon-valley.html succeed. Despite the mass of news articles and opinion pieces like this one that reminds you of the Image credit: codesee.io, General Assembly continued disparities across the tech industry and 23

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Business - Commentary

Has Black Lives Matter Really Helped African Brands? BY IJEOMA NDUKWE

THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE 2020 was memorable for AAKS designer Akosua AfriyieKumi. She woke up to hundreds of orders via her brand’s online store — a volume of sales unprecedented in the handbag line’s six-year history. “I knew the [Black Lives Matter] protests were happening, but I was wondering, ‘why are people shopping?’,” she recalls. “Then I realised a lot of people were sharing lists of Black-owned businesses online. From June to December [the sales] never stopped.” For AAKS, based in Ghana, direct sales online grew by 700% in 2020 alone. From her home workshop in the city of Kumasi in the south of the country, the designer is preparing orders that have been placed by major international retailers over the past nine months. Afriyie-Kumi initially felt under immense pressure when faced with the expectations of her new clients. “The majority expected me to operate like a major retailer,” Afriyie-Kumi says. “I’m a small business. It’s a challenge meeting the orders. I had the worry that they might cancel the orders.” The process of completing one of Afriyie-Kumi’s handcrafted bags can take from 10 to 14 days. AAKS bags are handcrafted in raﬃa from palm tree leaves. The harvested leaves are left to dry in the sun before being soaked in vegetable dyes to create the striking colours so characteristic of the brand’s designs. Artisans in northern Ghana handweave the raﬃa; in the finishing process, leather linings, buckles, handles and straps are applied. Fortunately for the AAKS designer, her new clients are firmly aligned with the sustainable and

November-December 2021

AAKS artisanal ethos of the brand. “Companies are so understanding once I explain the nature of our operations,” she says. AAKS is one of many African brands that have become highly prized in the aftermath of last year’s anti-racism protests in the West. Calls to end racial and social injustice catalysed a global Black economic empowerment movement that has boosted Black businesses around the world. South African brand Maxhosa Africa likewise experienced a surge in demand, with sales growing by 400% in June 2000. The luxury knitwear line was featured on Beyonce’s Black Parade, a platform on the singer’s website to promote Blackowned brands. Its online store promptly sold out of stock. Maxhosa’s knitwear, for both men and women, features colourful patterns in silk, mohair and wool thread that appear to have been dipped in a rainbow. They reference traditional beadwork and symbolism from designer Laduma Ngxokolo’s Xhosa heritage. However, despite the positive interest, Ngxokolo says he is unenthusiastic about servicing the influx of requests from international retail platforms. “Unfortunately, they only place orders in very Sika DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

small quantities,” he explains. “Processing a very small order costs more than the revenue that you’re going to generate from that order. I personally feel that some outlets want to be on trend, or they want some form of credibility or want to leverage demand I’ve created. It’s not really worth it.” Ngxokolo says longer-lasting and lucrative opportunities are needed to promote meaningful change. “If you think [back] five years ago or even three years ago [about] boutiques that placed Black brands, do they still stock them to this day? No, they don’t.” African Fashion Foundation creative consultant Arieta Mujay-Barg is also a touch sceptical about increased interest in African brands. “Of course, it’s a bit of a trend,” she says. Mujay-Barg has witnessed a revolving door of African creatives over the years. She urges caution: “This whole thing happened last year — let’s wait and see the figures.” One of the most high-profile initiatives promoting Black economic empowerment is the 15 Percent Pledge, founded by Canadian designer Aurora James. The Pledge has called on major retailers to commit a minimum of 15 per cent of their shelf space to Blackowned businesses to reflect the size of the African American demographic in the US. The Pledge has evolved into a nonprofit headed by racial justice activist LaToya Williams-Belfort. ‘We didn’t get to this moment overnight,” Williams-Belfort says. “It’s been years of systemic injustice to get here. So it will take time and work for companies to take the pledge… Eighteen companies have taken the pledge since June and are making progress to hit their 25

November-December 2021

benchmarks and goals, while others are at varying stages of discussions with the organisation.” Meanwhile, retailers are creating or reevaluating their internal diversity, equity and inclusion strategies. This includes major global luxury platform Net-a-Porter, which says its buyers are in the process of improving access for, and visibility of, Black-owned brands. Mujay-Barg says social media has played a central role as a conduit for African creatives who have taken control of their narratives to deliver their aesthetic story directly to trend-spotting gatekeepers of the industry. Fashion designer Phyllis Taylor highlights how social media influencers’ approval has driven transformative growth for her made-in-Africa brand Sika. The influencers’ followers post images and videos of her collections on Instagram. Sales have grown by 150% since June. Within less than a year, Taylor has hired 30 people to boost the production team in Ghana to 50 artisans. She is ramping up output to fulfil substantial orders for 10 new wholesalers keen to stock her hand-dyed batik prints. For all the good news, Taylor describes the expansion as an uncomfortable period of “forced growth… With all these deadlines and interest we have to work at a different pace — that hasn’t been easy. I’ve gone from [being] a retailer to a production house. I’m grateful for it, but it’s not what we set out to do”. Taylor is among a number of African designers who are considering broadening their handcrafted offer to include some elements of machine-made product. The dilemma is that these brands could lose part of their allure and be potentially obliged to abandon some of the sustainable practices that originally attracted eco-conscious consumers and wholesalers. Growth can be difficult but it’s also exciting and potentially transformative. “Before it was about the big brands — the Guccis, the Louis Vuittons — but now people are craving something different,” Afriyie-Kumi says. “The Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a conversation.” www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/has-black-livesmatter-really-helped-african-brands

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development - An Opportunity

Alphabet Designed a Low-cost Device to Make Drinking Water from Air. Now it’s Open-sourced By Adele Peters

LAST YEAR, ON THE ROOF of a parking lot at Google’s headquarters, engineers from X— Alphabet’s “moonshot factory”—set up a panel to begin its first tests. The design, called an atmospheric water harvester, pulls in outside air, then uses fans and heat from sunlight to create condensation, producing clean drinking water drip by drip. In a new paper published today (October 27th) in Nature, the team calculates how much this type of device could potentially help give more people access to water that’s safe to drink. G l o b a l l y, as many as one in three p e o p l e still drink u n s a f e water that can spread diseases. The X team used WHO/ UNICEF datasets t h a t mapped out exactly w h e r e t h e s e people live and, for the first time, c ompared

November-December 2021

those locations with the ideal climate conditions for using an atmospheric water harvester. Then it compared those locations with the ideal climate conditions for using an atmospheric water harvester. When the air is too dry, for example, the devices don’t work well, but the study found that 1 billion people who currently don’t have safe drinking water live in places where the device would function well. Because larger water infrastructure projects, like desalination plants, take many years to plan and

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

build, the small devices could help fill the gap in the meantime. “This can leapfrog a lot of that and go directly to the source with a small device that’s solar powered,” says Jackson Lord, lead author of the paper, who previously worked at X on the project. The X team works on multiple major challenges simultaneously, including new approaches to renewable energy and more sustainable ways to grow food. The team had tried to find ways to generate clean water multiple times, but only began focusing on atmospheric water harvesting after realizing that it could narrow its scope to think only about drinking water, not water used for other purposes. The project started in 2017. “One-tenth of 1% of the clean water in the world goes into our mouths,” says Astro Teller, the head of X. “The other 99.9% is for things like bathing and cleaning the dishes and agriculture and things like that. And all of that doesn’t have to be as clean…Once we had that perspective shift, all of the sudden solutions that hadn’t seemed plausible 27

November-December 2021

suddenly seemed plausible.” Atmospheric water harvesting devices use a very large amount of energy to generate each liter of water, so the kind of simple, low-cost device the team developed could never produce enough water to meet every need. But, in many places, it can provide suﬃcient drinking water. The device is designed to work oﬀ-grid, and eliminate every possible expense. It uses only a few solar photovoltaic cells to power its fans, and relies mostly on solar heat. (Some others, like a startup called Source, use a related design.) It has few parts. A fan pulls in outside air and a desiccant absorbs moisture from it. A second fan recirculates another stream of air heated by the solar collector. In the same way that dew naturally forms outside, when the warm air meets the cooler air inside the machine, drops of liquid form. The team’s prototype produced 150 milliliters of water per hour per square meter; a final device could likely produce five liters of water a day. Despite the simplicity of the design, it hasn’t yet reached the goals that Alphabet had for its cost. To meet X’s criteria for “radical technology” that can create large new businesses for Alphabet, it wanted to be able to produce water at a cost of just one cent per liter. The team saw a path to reach 10 cents per liter, but not as low as one cent—so X decided to stop working on the project. But because the design could have a meaningful impact even at 10 cents, it’s now opening up its data, prototypes, software, and hardware documentation on Github and Figshare so anyone can use the intellectual property and keep moving the work forward. “We don’t always do this, but in this particular case, we felt like this had made enough of the right kinds of progress had enough of the right kinds of potential that sharing it with the rest of the world was actually going to get the benefits to the world faster than if we just kept it an X thing ourselves,” says Teller. “If we can accelerate the progress of delivering safe water in any way,” adds Lord, “we think that’s a worthy goal.” www.fastcompany.com/90690242/alphabetdesigned-a-low-cost-device-to-makes-drinkingwater-from-air-now-its-open-sourced Image credit: X,

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Africa’s Post-Covid Economic Recovery will be an Uphill Battle By Ciku Kimeria

IT IS SAID THAT SUNDIATA KEITA, the founder of the Malian empire, first walked at the age of seven. After this he went on to become one of the world’s greatest warriors and the founder of an empire whose progressiveness, reach, and might would astound poets, writers, travelers, historians, and archaeologists for centuries to come. A recent IMF report suggests that Africa will require Sundiata-esque grace to rise up and leap(frog?) into the global economy. The predictions are bleak. The global economy is projected to grow 6% in 2021. This year, sub-Saharan Africa will grow at only 3.5% up from 2020’s figure of -1.8% while the US, UK, and emerging and developing Asia will grow at 7%, 7%, and 7.5% respectively. The IMF outlines three key priorities for the world’s post-Covid-19 recovery: Curbing the acute eﬀects of the pandemic especially through vaccinations; fiscal and monetary measures to jumpstart growth sectors; and investing in the future by lowering carbon dependence and increasing digitalization. In all of these areas, the continent’s outlook is not promising. When it comes to the pandemic, a

November-December 2021

deadly cocktail of vaccine n at i o n a l i s m, restrictive patents, and limited vaccine manufacturing infrastructure has left the continent with just over 1% of its population f u l l y vaccinated. In terms of monetary and fiscal policies, though some governments did initially try to cushion citizens with social and economic safety nets in the earlier stages of the pandemic, those have mostly stalled or been discontinued as the pandemic drags on. Citizens have found themselves battling a third wave, but being further downtrodden by rising unemployment, food inflation, and increased taxes. This is even before looking at countries where many are skeptical about loans obtained in the name of fighting Covid-19. Given the more urgent priorities of combating the virus and its devastating socioeconomic eﬀects, the IMF’s third level of measures have only been implemented insofar as they aid the continent in dealing with those first two areas. We can only hope that when this chapter of Africa’s story is chronicled, it will be in the form of a brief footnote, a la Sundiata’s first seven years, before delving into the following chapter, that of Africa’s eventual rise. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/africa-post-covideconomic-recovery-065807159.html DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

With 900,000 Developers, Here's Where the Next Big Startup Ecosystem Will Be By Owen Hughes

AFRICA WILL BECOME an innovation hotbed in the next five years as an influx of developers turns the continent into a "world-leading start-up ecosystem," according to Gartner. The analyst predicts that a 30% increase in developer talent in Africa, which has in recent years seen an influx of venture capital funding, will see the region evolve into a software development powerhouse rivalling Asia by 2026. A number of African nations have established innovation hubs in an eﬀort to attract coders and tech talent to the region, and draw investment from overseas. This includes Kenya's $1 billion tech ecosystem – dubbed 'Silicon Savannah' – which continues to attract entrepreneurs, investors and technologists from Africa and further afield. "In the next three years, there will be nearly 900,000 professional developers across Africa enabled by the rise of informal education channels," said Gartner. "As this market continues to grow, global investors will reduce their venture investment in China in favour of this emerging market."

The analyst's forecast was part of a series of strategic predictions put forward at Gartner's IT Symposium/Xpo 2021 Americas. www.zdnet.com/article/with900000-developers-hereswhere-the-next-big-startupecosystem-will-be Image credit: Gates Cambridge Scholarship, mybeeponline.com, Al Jazeera English 29

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

How Mobile Money Grew in Sub-Saharan A By Kristin Houser

TWO OF AFRICA’S BIGGEST STARTUP stories of 2021 involve the billion-dollar valuations accorded to OPay, and Wave. Propelled by Chinese and American venture capital, each rose rapidly to own large shares of the financial services sector in Nigeria and Senegal respectively, primarily because of their sprawling mobile money operations. But Opay and Wave are just two among many companies behind sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile money push, underpinning an ecosystem that generates $13 billion a month in transaction value, the most of any region in the world.

Africa’s mobile money rise According to the GSM Association (GSMA)—an Saharan Africa. industry organization that represents the interests But before 2011, references to mobile money of mobile network operators worldwide—64% of on the continent were about M-Pesa, Safaricom’s the $2.1 billion transacted daily through mobile pioneering service in Kenya in 2007. Orange, money platforms in 2020 happened in sub- Airtel, and MTN followed suit with their own

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Africa in the Last 10 Years

versions a few years later, but non-telco operators like Paga, Firstmonie, Ecobank, and Standard Bank also joined the fray, adding diverse models to the business environment. The result is that at least 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have five or more deployed mobile money services, from 5 in Kenya to 17 in Nigeria. More than half of the 310 live mobile money services in the world are in Africa. The diversity of service providers increased the number of mobile money accounts in sub-Saharan Africa by 11 fold between 2011 and 2020. The region accounted for 45% of all registered mobile money accounts and 48% of registered agents last year. Accounts are more active over 30 and 90-day periods in sub-Saharan Africa (29% and 40% respectively) than in other regions, except in Latin America and the Caribbean (40% and 59%). Knowing that users continue using their mobile money accounts after signing up helps the industry understand whether mobile money is merely a fad or a necessity. Taken together, these data seem to support an impression that sub-Saharan Africa is the destination for investors seeking value from developing financial markets.

GSMA devised a “regulatory index score” for 90 countries to identify those that have the most enabling environments for mobile money. The score is based on six indicators including consumer protection, KYC, and infrastructure and investment environment. While most sub-Saharan African countries have high overall index scores (over 70 out of 100), there are concerns. For example, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal score 32 on KYC, indicating sub-optimal requirements for identification and verification. Francophone West Africa’s big four mobile money markets, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso score 40 on consumer protection. Nigeria shines on KYC (92) and consumer protection (100), perhaps aided by its central bank’s ultra-vigilant supervision of the financial sector. Yet, it lags behind Ghana, Liberia, and South Africa on the enabling environment for infrastructure and investment. In July, Nigeria’s central bank published a directive (pdf) that effectively prevents telcos from participating in the mobile money sector. For prospective mobile money providers, the challenges in each country will differ according to the regulatory issues that exist. A country like Kenya, where M-Pesa holds 98% market share (pdf), does not seem welcoming. But if there is a broad lesson from the rise of OPay and Wave, it is that the financial services sector in sub-Saharan Africa remains open to new entrants with consumer-friendly strategies to take on incumbents. Some of the world’s biggest financial institutions are already hedging for the next 10 years.

More is needed on infrastructure and investment

https://techio.co/how-mobile-money-grew-in-subsaharan-africa-in-the-last-10-years

Despite the impressive metrics, the next decade for mobile money could be better if attention is paid to regulatory aspects of the sector.

Source: https://qz.com/africa/2065566/mobilemoney-has-grown-13-fold-in-sub-saharan-africasince-2011

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Nigeria Launches Digital Currency ‘to Drive Economic Growth’ By Chinedu Asadu, Associated Press

NIGERIA HAS LAUNCHED a digital currency which the Central Bank of Nigeria says is a “major step forward in the evolution of money” in Africa’s most populous country. President Muhammadu Buhari said at the launch Monday that the digital currency and the blockchain technology it uses can foster economic growth and increase the GDP of Nigeria’s economy, one of Africa’s biggest, by $29 billion over the next 10 years. The use of the Nigerian Central Bank Digital Currency “can help move many more people and businesses from the informal into the formal sector, thereby increasing the tax base of the country,” Buhari said, eight months after the West African nation began a crackdown on cryptocurrencies. The eNaira — whose motto is “Same naira, more possibilities” — is an equivalent of Nigeria’s paper naira currency and is regulated as an official tender by Nigeria’s Central Bank. Experts see the launch as a big step toward a cashless Nigerian society and speedy growth of the digital economy which has been a priority of Nigeria’s apex bank since 2012. “The eNaira is a major advancement for Nigeria,” said Andrew Nevin, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria. “It is a much simpler payment mechanism and … is going to help in a lot of dimensions including in reducing the amount of cash being used and the cost of transactions.” The central bank said the launch of the digital currency is “one milestone on a long journey … eNaira enables households and businesses to make fast, efficient, and reliable payments, while benefiting from a resilient, innovative, inclusive,

November-December 2021

and competitive payment system,” the bank said in a policy document seen by The Associated Press. The central bank also hopes the digital currency will encourage financial inclusion in the country of more than 200 million people. Only 45% of Nigeria’s 106 million adults have bank accounts as of 2020, according to the Lagosbased Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access, a financial sector development organization. Authorities are optimistic the eNaira will also drive digital transactions which have seen rapid growth in Nigeria over the years. As of 2020, the country’s recorded 2.7 billion transactions valued at 162.9 trillion naira ($396 billion), according to the central bank. The initiative will also make it “much easier to transfer value” especially for small-value transactions, Nevin told AP. “Fintechs, banks and other financial players building on top of the eNaira will create more and more useful products and services and the positive economic impact is going to build up,” he said. https://wgnradio.com/news/international/nigerialaunches-digital-currency-to-drive-economicgrowth Image credit: pulse.ng DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

USAID Delivers on Prosper Africa Goals with Africa Trade and Investment Program From Oﬃce of Press Relations press@usaid.gov ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22nd, Administrator Samantha Power announced the launch of USAID’s new Africa Trade and Investment program at the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Ministerial. The continent-wide program is USAID’s flagship effort under the Prosper Africa initiative and will expand and accelerate two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States. The program helps to fulfill the promise of the global Build Back Better World Partnership with the G7 and earlier commitments to increase two-way trade and investment. Since June 2019, USAID has supported African and U.S. businesses and investors in closing more than $2.8 billion in new exports and investments, and built a deal pipeline of more than $10 billion. The new program is expected to generate thousands of African and American jobs and deliver billions in exports and investments by 2026. DAI Global will implement the Africa Trade and Investment program across Africa with satellite offices that will support North and sub-Saharan Africa through well-coordinated services driven by private-sector needs. The new trade and investment program for Africa builds on USAID’s 20+ years of experience implementing the Trade and Investment Hubs, which have mobilized $9 of private investment for every $1 of USAID funding. The program is welltimed to support implementation of the African

November-December 2021

Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and increase intra-regional trade in Africa, which will in turn attract increased U.S. business interest in this growing continent-wide market. Africa plays an increasingly important role in the global economy with some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and a young, tech-savvy and rapidlyurbanizing population. USAID is one of the 17 U.S. Government agencies that make up the Prosper Africa initiative. Through Prosper Africa, the U.S. Government is working hand-in-hand with the private sector, African governments, and multilateral organizations to bolster two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States. USAID is committed to strengthening private sector ties between African nations and the United States, spurring investment at a scale that could never be matched by foreign aid alone, and partnering with people across the African continent to realize a shared vision for a better future. For the latest on the USAID’s support for Prosper Africa and African trade and investment visit: https://www.usaid.gov/prosperafrica For updates on the whole-of-government Prosper Africa initiative, visit: prosperafrica.gov. www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/ oct-21-2021-usaid-delivers-prosper-africa-goalsafrica-trade-and-investment DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

Nearly 90 Countries Join Pact to Slash Planet-Warming Methane Emissions By Kate Abnett and Valerie Volcovici, Ilze Filks NEARLY 90 COUNTRIES have joined a U.S.and EU-led effort to slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, a pact aimed at tackling one of the main causes of climate change, a senior Biden administration official said. The partnership will be formally launched later on Tuesday, November 2nd. Methane is the main greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It has a higher heat-trapping potential than CO2 but breaks down in the atmosphere faster - meaning that cutting methane emissions can have a rapid impact on reining in global warming. The Global Methane Pledge, which was first announced in September, now includes half of the top 30 methane emitters accounting for two-thirds of the global economy, according to the Biden administration official. Among the new signatories that will be announced on nNovember 2nd is Brazil - one of the world's five biggest emitters of methane. China, Russia and India, also top-five methane emitters, have not signed on to the pledge. Those countries were all included on a list identified as targets to join the pledge, previously reported by Reuters. read more Since it was first announced in September with a handful of signatories, the United States and European Union have worked to get the world's biggest methane emitters to join the partnership. There were roughly 60 countries signed up only last week, after a final diplomatic push from the United States and EU ahead of the COP26 summit. While it is not part of the formal U.N. negotiations, the methane pledge could rank among the most significant outcomes from the COP26 conference,

November-December 2021

given its potential impact in holding oﬀ disastrous climate change. A U.N. report in May said steep cuts in methane emissions this decade could avoid nearly 0.3 degree Celsius of global warming by the 2040s. Failing to tackle methane, however, would push out of reach the Paris Agreement's aim to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The 30% methane cut would be jointly achieved by the signatories, and cover all sectors. Key sources of methane emissions include leaky oil and gas infrastructure, old coal mines, agriculture and landfill sites. If fulfilled, the pledge is likely to have the biggest impact on the energy sector, since analysts say fixing leaky oil and gas infrastructure is the fastest and cheapest way to curb methane emissions. The United States is the world's biggest oil and gas producer, while the EU is the biggest importer of gas. The United States is due to release oil and gas methane regulations soon. The EU and Canada both plan to unveil methane legislation addressing the energy sector later this year. www.reuters.com/business/environment/nearly90-countries-join-pact-slash-planet-warmingmethane-emissions-2021-11-02

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

COP26: World Leaders Promise to end Deforestation by 2030 By Georgina Rannard & Francesca Gillett

BRAZIL - WHERE STRETCHES of the Amazon rainforest have been cut down - was among the signatories on Tuesday, November 2nd. The pledge includes almost £14bn ($19.2bn) of public and private funds. Experts welcomed the move, but warned a previous deal in 2014 had "failed to slow deforestation at all" and commitments needed to be delivered on. Felling trees contributes to climate change because it depletes forests that absorb vast amounts of the warming gas CO2. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the global meeting in Glasgow, said "more leaders than ever before" - a total of 110 - had made the "landmark" commitment. "We have to stop the devastating loss of our forests," he said - and "end the role of humanity as nature's conqueror, and instead become nature's custodian". The two-week summit in Glasgow is seen as crucial if climate change is to be brought under control. The countries who have signed the pledge - including Canada, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the

November-December 2021

Congo, the US and the UK (the full list is here) - cover around 85% of the world's forests. Some of the funding will go to developing countries to restore damaged land, tackle wildfires and support indigenous communities. Governments of 28 countries also committed to remove deforestation from the global trade of food and other agricultural products such as palm oil, soya and cocoa. These industries drive forest loss by cutting down trees to make space for animals to graze or crops to grow. More than 30 of the world's biggest financial companies - including Aviva, Schroders and Axa have also promised to end investment in activities linked to deforestation. And a £1.1bn fund will be established to protect the world's second largest tropical rainforest - in the Congo Basin. Prof Simon Lewis, an expert on climate and forests at University College London, said: "It is good news to have a political commitment to end deforestation from so many countries, and significant funding to move forward on that journey." But he told the BBC the world "has been here before" with a declaration in 2014 in New York "which failed to slow deforestation at all". Find this and more related articles at: www.bbc. com/news/science-environment-59088498 Image credit: https://ukcop26.org/glasgowleaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use/

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development

An Airline CEO’s Strategy for Making African Aviation Sustainable By Quartz Africa

AFRICA’S AVIATION INDUSTRY is highly fragmented. The continent has hundreds of independent airlines, many of which are unprofitable and on the brink of collapse as they struggle to compete effectively with big global carriers. Further, the aviation business has been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic. But airlines are trying to innovate and looking to consolidate to make the businesses sustainable. In September, Kenya Airways and South African Airways, two flag carrier airlines, entered an agreement to create a pan-African airline group. And earlier this year, Kenya Airways launched Fahari Aviation, a division to enhance innovation research, and development of unmanned aviation systems (UAS), including drones. Quartz spoke with Allan Kilavuka, the CEO of Kenya Airways, on innovation, consolidation of African airlines, the African Continental Free Trade Area, and the effects of the pandemic on the airline. Kilavuka, a former General Electric executive, has headed the airline since Jan. 2020. The conversation has been edited for clarity. How has the covid-19 pandemic helped or hurt business? The effects of the pandemic started in earnest around March of 2020. We rely primarily on air traffic, and air traffic came down substantially. Currently about 80% of our businesses is passenger business, and in April 2020 most places—in fact possibly the whole world shut down—for a period of depending on each country between four to six months. If you don’t fly for a single day, you lose close to a million dollars. Now in aviation if you don’t fly—I mean in our case for example—if you don’t fly for a single day,

November-December 2021

you lose close to a million do dollars. You d llllars Y ou can iimagine magine i six months it’s quite substantial. We were really hard hit. Then we had to start building up again after reopening towards the end of last year. We first had to convince the passengers it’s safe to fly or safer to fly. Secondly the economic situation and the resources of people who needed to fly had been significantly depleted. We had a situation where corporations had cut budgets. We had our premium customers who were the business customers not flying, and we still had restrictions. Even up to now we still have restrictions in some countries. It’s been a long and painful recovery process. We’re not there yet, it’s going to take some time. But every day is better than the previous day, because more and more people feel more confident to fly. Now the flip side to this is cargo business, which was about 10% of our business. For that one it was the opposite, where there was cargo needed for emergency support for PPEs to support the pandemic, vaccines – just goods and services. Right now there’s a problem because we have a backlog on the supply chain of goods and services particularly to and from Asia. You have heard of shortages of goods particularly electronic goods. There’s no capacity to move enough goods across the world. This is kind of a good problem for us because the problem is capacity. Then we have the eﬀect on employees – we reduced payouts and employees’ salaries have not been so good. What we try to do is to limit the number of exits from our staﬀ so as to keep as many people as possible employed. And for the people we had temporality let go we have to make sure they are in our radar, so that if and when we need them we call recall them. DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Has the pandemic changed the company culture? It has changed the way we approach business. Many of our people are still working from home. We have a lot more flexi hours and flexi working conditions. In addition digital literacy has gone up. We have also increased our digital capabilities – not just our employees but also to our customers. They can access us a lot more easier using online tools. The other thing that has changed is agility, because the pandemic changed things very quickly. The rules are different in different countries and they are changing every day. So you have to be agile, and move along with the changes that are happening. And also, because this is unprecedented, you cannot rely on past experiences to make some of the moves that you’re making. So you have to be creative, innovative, in order to come up with solutions for the customers. Speaking of innovation, how do you envision your new division, Fahari Aviation, enhancing innovation, research and development in the UAS space? This is a very exciting project for us. First what’s a cutting-edge technology in aviation? It will have to be UAS technology – that would have to be what it is. Because very soon we’ll have pilotless aircrafts flying, just as there are driverless cars. Right now technology is so good that pilots, when they use autopilot, can just sit and watch and make sure that their aircraft is going in the right direction. The aircraft can virtually take off, fly and land on autopilot. So we are not too far from pilotless aircrafts. We have become a more agile organization, over the last one and a half years, and so, we have to be at the front and center of every new emerging technology and we want to be in the conversation of how we introduce that UAS technology in this country. This is why we set up Fahari and we have a lot of experience in aviation. We are one of the most experienced aviators in this country and in 37

November-December 2021

this continent. We used that manned aircraft experience and translated it into an unmanned aircraft experience. We want to provide efficient and cheaper solutions to some of the problems that we see in the country. For example, there’s a lot of need for aerial inspection, surveillance. Even aerial spraying of crops. Right now we’re in discussions with some organizations to see how we can help farmers to do that. As an example, we can provide local solutions to the locust menace. In the past, when you see a problem, people used to send helicopters – in fact they still do even now. We can provide a solution for that. Just to give you a typical example, so we were partly involved in the wildlife census that took place, that KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) was doing a few months ago, and we were given a section of it. So that’s the kind of thing that we want to roll out, helping those kinds of initiatives, so have discussions for example with the forestry department or can we help do the census for afforestation in Kenya? Talk to state co-operations that have a lot of utilities—Kengen, Kenya Power and Lighting, Kenya Railways, Kenya pipeline—to help them do their inspections and surveillance on their installations, instead of using very expensive helicopters. Of course many people are doing this, but the difference that we bring to the table is our experience and our ability to monitor safety. Because there can be a lot of rogue operators – that’s one of the things that people need to be aware of. And we want to make sure that this space is safe and we have been involved in a lot of safety enforcement when it comes to manned aircrafts and we can translate that to unmanned aircrafts. The future of aviation, not just in Africa, globally, is when you consolidate Many African airlines, including Kenya airways, have been unprofitable for years. In September, you announced an agreement with South African Airways with a long-term view to create a pan-African airline. Is the future of aviation in the continent strategic and collaborative partnership that focuses on see page 38

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Development Aviation Stability

from page 37

consolidation? Yes, the future of aviation, not just in Africa, globally, is when you consolidate. Because aviation is a very expensive venture, with very low margins. You need to create economies of scale, so that your unit costs, drop. But more importantly, you also want to make sure that you are creating a network that gives your customers or passengers many options. That way, then you attract a lot more people to the group. That’s what happens when you consolidate. You look at your customers and you see, what kind of solutions can you provide to your customers, by giving them a variety of options, and also by accessing destinations that you’re not able to access if you did it alone. So for example with South African Airways, when it comes to fruition and we get to the point where we want to get to, which is to co-create a large pan-African airline group, you will find that if we have close to 50 destinations that we fly to and they have 50 destinations they fly to, if you merge them together you’ll have close to a hundred destination for our customers. Not only that, they have diﬀerent routes to get to those destinations, so they can choose to fly through their hub in Nairobi, they can choose to fly through their hub in Johannesburg. Secondly, because you now have a larger asset pool, you can then reduce your maintenance costs, you can reduce your purchase cost of equipment, because of the economies of scale. And then you have an opportunity to share expertise, between two diﬀerent organizations, and to build each other up, and also you have checks and balances of maintaining standards and safety because that is key, and critical. You have to think about this in the global context because we’re not an island. Africa from an aviation standpoint is quite small. But if you look at the larger aviation market, African aviation is completely fragmented with hundreds of airlines – small ones, most of them unbuyable, and most of them unfortunately at the risk of collapse. What happens in Europe and in the US and the western world and even in Asia is they look at the market and see how they can work together, 38

November-December 2021

especially in a crisis. They consolidate e their assets, so thatt they become more e viable with more e assets to share e across the groups – and that’s what hass happened. If you look at the e US, they have I thinkk four major airliness that operate in the e US. In Europe, theyy also have maybe three major airlines that operate and dominate those markets. And yet, they are almost close to 10 times our market here from a seats perspective. So if they can do it, it means that they have a cheaper way of operating and they have a bigger bargaining power and so we need to do the same as well here. It’s a strategic play. What challenges do you foresee in the consolidation process? There are so many. You have to overcome obstacles around skepticism from people who have said this has been tried before and failed. We have to cross jurisdictions – remember in the case of South African Airways and Kenya, these are two diﬀerent jurisdictions, there are antitrust laws that we have to make sure we abide by and uncompetitive behavior. Of course there are going to be people who will not wish us well and try to stop this both in and outside the country. There’s many obstacles, but that is why we are leaders, to see how to overcome those obstacles and make this work. It’s going to be a very very rough ride, but, we are committed to make it work. How is Kenya Airways positioning itself to play a role in the African Continental Free Trade Area? We are very excited about this, this is actually why we exist as Kenya Airways. Cause our main mission is to support the sustainable development of Africa. So this is part and parcel of it. In fact the consolidation aspects of the airline is exactly to support this. People need to move freely.

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

S So we need to interconnect Africa as much as A p possible so they ccan trade. In addition, we a are ramping up our ccargo unit. By the e end of this month, w we’ll have an a additional 120 tons o of space that will b be flying daily. We iincreased it by 150 tons between last year and this year. We are slowly ramping up the cargo capacity to support Africa continental free trade area and also to support our customers to fly from place to place. The other thing as well is to agitate for fifth freedoms, which is the right to fly directly from one destination to another without necessarily going through your hub, so that you can move goods freely across the continent. That is something that we are also going to be advocating and pushing, so that African trade can happen much more freely within the continent. That is the role we’re playing and working with other airlines.

What is it like to be the CEO of an airline in Africa today? I think it is a huge responsibility because aviation is extremely critical in the role it plays in propping up the economic development in Africa. It’s estimated for example that aviation contributes 4% of GDP. It’s a very important sector to play in and also for the number of people it employs. There are people who really rely on the airline business to make a living and to grow their careers. It is a great honor and privilege to play that part and also to demonstrate that we can make a success of this, cause there’s been a lot of discussions around why African aviation does not work. And so we come up with strategies that will make this sustainable. That’s one of the things we’re pushing for when we push for consolidation and more collaboration among African airlines.

What keeps you up at night or gets you motivated to go to work every morning? I think it’s just to make sure that the people who have faith and hope in this particular airline continue having that faith and hope and they don’t lose faith. How to make sure that they continue seeing the greater vision of this company and to keep hope alive. This is what I feel is important for me. So every morning I wake up and see how do I make sure that that message does not wither oﬀ , To what extent has the Single African Air that people still hold on to the hope that we have. Transport Market been implemented? This one is an old one and to be absolutely We’re a very promising airline and we know we can completely honest it is stuck in implementation. I play our part in sustainable development in Africa. think that African markets, African countries, need What book are you reading for inspiration? to come up with the rules of engagement so that I’m reading one called Celebrations of Discipline. we can activate it. It’s not activated as it should Actually it might be the fourth time I’m reading it. That be, so it’s basically known as open skies. So the by [Richard] Foster. I think that one is just to help idea is to get the rules of engagement set, agreed, me stay focused. I don’t know maybe everybody signed oﬀ, so that it can be implemented. else is disciplined. I think it’s always important to There’s a lot of fears because if you don’t have maintain your focus and your sharpness. I read a that in place, how it’s going to be implemented, lot of books by John Maxwell. There’s one called when, how to make sure there is a level playing Leadership Gold, which am rereading as well. I read field across the various airlines, and how to make a lot about leadership, discipline, self-discipline. it fairer. Once you open up the skies, you will And the Bible. need to make sure that people are playing fair. https://theparadise.ng/an-airline-ceos-strategy-forSo, that is really where it is. It’s been there for a making-african-aviation-sustainable/ long time, but not implemented. Especially with the Africa continental free trade area I think it’s more Source: https://qz.com/africa/2094880/kenya-airwaysstrategy-for-making-african-aviation-sustainable/ important that we now really seriously talk about Image credit: newtimes.co.rw activating it. 39

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture

How Tech and Agriculture can Help Africa’s Pandemic Recovery By Quartz Africa

AGRICULTURE IS A PILLAR of Africa’s economy, with the continent heavily dependent on the sector. It contributes 23% of the continent’s GDP and 49% of employment in the continent. But the covid-19 pandemic has disrupted agricultural activity in the continent with considerable eﬀect, as smallholder farmers, who contribute most of the food supply, face movement restrictions, reductions in people’s purchasing power, and other factors. The pandemic has strained Africa’s food systems and economies at large. A new report concludes that youth engagement in agriculture will be essential to the continent recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic. It highlights the need for investments to stimulate access to innovations to encourage young Africans to embrace agriculture to generate jobs and repair food systems hit by the pandemic. The report is by the US-based nonprofit Heifer International, which works to eradicate poverty and hunger through agriculture. Researchers surveyed 29,900 youth, 299 smallholder farmers, and 110 agriculture technology startups, innovation hubs, and technology organizations across 11 African countries. The Heifer International survey found that 40% of agriculture organizations in the research were forced to close at least temporarily due to the pandemic, 38% experienced a reduction in average purchase amount per customer, and 36% still do not have the financial capital to grow back their businesses. Fourteen percent of respondents said technology barriers have had a detrimental eﬀect on farmer productivity. But the report finds hope in the youth and tech as the survey found that many entrepreneurs are 40

November-December 2021

developing useful agri-tech tools and services for smallholder farmers in the continent. They are using artificial intelligence, remote sensing, geographic information software, virtual reality, drones, application programming interfaces es and other technology gy to boost agricultural al productivity and profits. Africa has a burgeoning g agri-tech scene. Agri-tech h startups raised $60 million n in 2020, representing g 8.6% of the total funding g secured by tech startupss in the continent last year, according to Disrupt Africa, a website that provides startup funding data. Hello Tractor, an example of an agritech company in the continent, provides an application that enables farmers to book tractors and another for remote fleet management. The company operates in 13 African countries. ounttri ries es. “The vision is to continue to support our growers earn higher yields, higher productivity through mechanization,” its founder, Jehiel Oliver, told Quartz. “And ultimately, we wanna see Africa and all the countries become thriving economies built on its most important industry, which is agriculture.” DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

innovations have a pulling power for every stakeholder in the sector as they can create opportunities for young people while sustainably increasing productivity for smallholder farmers. The latter would in turn improve their livelihoods and stimulate economic growth, it says.

Use a diﬀerent color below for Agritech

Africa is a young continent, with almost 60% of its population aged below 25. The survey found that young people are interested in getting into agriculture but they lack access to finance and training to build sustainable and businesses for sustainable incomes and rewarding careers. And out of the youth who engage in agriculture, only 23% of them use any form of agricultural technology, due to lack of financing and training. The climate is changing. Things are never the same. The markets are more complex. The report recommends that governments facilitate young people having access to agri-tech tools to transform food production. It argues that smallholder farmers would embrace advanced technologies if the tools were aﬀordable; and agriculture

November-December 2021

“Africa is not providing the financing or training to ensure its young people have easy access to the same agritech tools—like drone technologies, precision soil sensors, and digital farmer services—that are transforming food production around the world,” said Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president for Africa programs at Heifer International. Enoch Chikava, the interim director for agricultural development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said innovation is fundamental to making agriculture in the continent productive, profitable, and sustainable. “The climate is changing. Things are never the same. The markets are more complex. So, you need innovation that will help you to really turn all these global technologies into impact on the ground,” he told Quartz. https://theparadise.ng/how-tech-and-agriculturecan-help-africas-pandemic-recovery/ Image credit: YouTube, Hello Tractor DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture

Growing Crops Under Solar Panels? Now There’s a Bright Idea By Matt Simon

IN JACK'S SOLAR GARDEN in Boulder County, Colorado USA, owner Byron Kominek has covered 4 of his 24 acres with solar panels. The farm is growing a huge array of crops underneath them— carrots, kale, tomatoes, garlic, beets, radishes, lettuce, and more. It’s also been generating enough electricity to power 300 homes. “We decided to go about this in terms of needing to figure out how to make more money for land that we thought should be doing more,” Kominek says. Rooftops are so 2020. If humanity’s going to stave off the worst of climate change, people will need to get creative about where they put solar panels. Now scientists are thinking about how to cover canals with them, reducing evaporation while generating power. Airports are filling up their open space with sun-eaters. And space doesn’t get much more open than on a farm: Why not stick a solar array in a field and plant crops underneath? It’s a new scientific (and literal) field known as agrivoltaics—agriculture plus photovoltaics—and it’s not as counterintuitive as it might seem. Yes, plants need sunlight, but some need less than others, and indeed get stressed by too many photons. Shading those crops means they will require less water, which rapidly evaporates in an open field. Plus, plants “sweat,” which cools the panels overhead and boosts their efficiency. “It is a rare win-win-win,” says Greg BarronGafford, an earth system scientist at University of Arizona who’s studying agrivoltaics. “By growing these crops in the shade of solar arrays, we reduce the amount of that intense sunlight that bakes off the water and stresses out the plant.” BarronGafford is among the recipients of a new $10 million grant from the USDA’s National Institute

November-December 2021

of Food and Agriculture to research agrivoltaics for different regions, crops, and climates. Barron-Gafford has been running experiments to quantify several variables—like growth, water use, and energy production—to determine which crops might benefit most. For instance, he’s grown salsa ingredients—cilantro, peppers, and tomatoes—and found that they grow just as well, if not better, under solar panels than in the open. They also only use half the water. (“Think if you spilled your water bottle in the shade versus the sun,” says Barron-Gafford.) He also found that the panels significantly reduce air temperatures, which would benefit farmworkers tending to the plants. His work suggests that the panels might act as a protective bubble to shield crops from extreme heat associated with climate change, which overwhelms crops and decreases their yields. Heavy precipitation that can damage crops is also on the rise, since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. “In times when there is extreme heat or extreme precipitation, by protecting plants in this manner, it can actually benefit them,” says Madhu Khanna, an economist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who also won funding from the USDA’s new agrivoltaics grant. “So that's another factor that we want to look at.” Khanna will be studying what the ideal solar array might be for a particular crop, for instance, if it needs bigger or smaller gaps between panels to let sunlight pass through. Height, too, is an issue: Corn and wheat would need taller panels, while shrubby soybeans would be fine with a more squat variety. Thanks to those gaps, crops grown under solar panels aren’t bathed in darkness. But, generally

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

speaking, the light is more diffuse, meaning it’s bouncing off of surfaces before striking the plants. This replicates a natural forest environment, in which all plants, save for the tallest trees, hang out in the shade, soaking up any sunbeams that break through. Barron-Gafford has found that a forestlike shading under solar panels elicits a physiological response from plants. To collect more light, their leaves grow bigger than they would if planted in an open field. He’s seen this happen in basil, which would increase that crop’s yield. Barron-Gafford has also found that the pepper Capsicum annuum, which grows in the shade of trees in the wild, produces three times as much fruit in an agrivoltaic system. Tomato plants also grow more fruit. This is likely due to the plants being less stressed by the constant bombardment of sunlight, to which they’re not evolutionarily adapted. But every crop is going to be different, so scientists have to test each to see how they react to shade. “For example, we probably wouldn't recommend that somebody plant summer squash directly in 43

November-December 2021

the deepest shade, directly under a panel,” says Mark Uchanski, a horticultural scientist at Colorado State University who’s studying agrivoltaics and tested that exact scenario. “The better location for that might be further out toward the edges where it's more likely to get a little bit more sun, because we did see a yield decrease in that case.” While setting up the panels entails some up-front costs, they might actually make farmers some money, as Kominek told Grist in this 2020 story before his panels were in place. They’d produce energy to run the farm, and the farmer can sell any surplus back to a utility. And since some plants— like those salsa ingredients in Barron-Gafford’s experiments—will use less water, that can reduce irrigation expenses. “If we can actually allow farmers to diversify their production and get more out of the same land, then that can benefit them,” says Khanna. “Having crops and solar panels is more beneficial for the environment than solar panels alone.” see page 44

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture Agrivoltaics

from page 43

This kind of setup also cools the solar panels in two ways: Water evaporating from the soil rises up towards the panels, and plants release their own water. This is dandy for the panels’ efficiency, because they actually perform worse when they get too hot. They generate an electric current when the sun’s photons knock electrons out of atoms, but if they overheat, the electrons get overexcited and don’t generate as much electricity when they’re dislodged. And as with putting solar panels above canals, using farmland pulls off the neat trick of not taking up any extra land. To deploy a traditional solar array, you’d need to clear space first. But canals and agricultural fields are already in use. “It's this big macro-trigger to kind of get people to the table and think about: What does rural economic development look like, and what's the future of agriculture?” says Andrea Gerlak, a social scientist at the University of Arizona, who’s working with Barron-Gafford on the deployment of agrivoltaics. “If it allows smart agriculture, sustainable agriculture, and it uses less water, it's this big trigger to get people talking.” But agrivoltaics won’t work for every farm. Solar panels remain a significant investment, especially on a field-sized scale. Maneuvering around them with heavy harvesting equipment will also be a challenge, so Khanna says the arrays should be designed as flexible systems. “The idea would be that you have these panels that are not just going to be fixed at a given angle and stationary,” says Khanna. “They'll actually be able to rotate and become vertical, and let the equipment pass through.” Kominek adds that the United States is seeing a massive transfer of farmland from an older generation to a younger one, which has to decide what to do with their inheritance. Faced with the difficulties of drought and heat, the temptation might be to say, “To hell with crops,” and cover a farm entirely with solar panels. But he and Barron-Gafford don’t think it has to be an either-or proposition. “The question for policymakers and landowners is, are we going to be taking out a lot of arable 44

November-December 2021

land—land where we could have chickens, cows, vegetables, perennials, and other things—and just putting in solar panels and having weeds grow underneath them?” Kominek asks. “Or are we going to create regulations that help to keep that soil active, to help it keep doing productive things, like it has been doing over the previous decades or centuries?” Barron-Gafford also points out that agrivoltaics need not be limited to the kinds of crops people eat. A farmer might let native grasses grow wild under the panels, providing food for livestock, which would also benefit from the shade. Or they might promote the growth of plants for native pollinators like bees. With the right management, that land could pull double duty as a synthetic forest—just because it’s shaded, doesn’t mean life can’t flourish underneath. “I think everything likes a little bit of shade,” says Kominek. “There's quite a variety of crops that enjoy it. And when it's 100 degrees outside, I enjoy the shade.” www.wired.com/story/growing-crops-under-solarpanels-now-theres-a-bright-idea Image credit: COURTESY OF GREG BARRONGAFFORD

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture

Eco-friendly, Lab-grown Coffee is on the Way, but it Comes with a Catch By Nadra Nittle NOTE: Your DAWN Team presented a companion article on Lab-grown Coﬀee in the Dawn October-November issue on page 52 available on the ABA website at www.africabusinessassociation.org.

HEIKO RISCHER ISN’T QUITE SURE how to describe the taste of lab-grown coffee. This summer he sampled one of the first batches in the world produced from cell cultures rather than coffee beans. “To describe it is difficult but, for me, it was in between a coffee and a black tea,” said Rischer, head of plant biotechnology at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tanks in Atomo’s factory. The food tech startup is making which developed the coffee. “It depends beanless coffee from plant waste. Photograph: Atom really on the roasting grade, and this was a bit of a lighter roast, so it had a little bit more VTT’s coffee is grown by floating cell cultures of a tea-like sensation.” Rischer couldn’t swallow the coffee, as this in bioreactors filled with a nutrient. The process cellular agriculture innovation is not yet approved requires no pesticides and has a much lower for public consumption. Instead, he swirled the water footprint, said Rischer, and because the liquid around in his mouth and spit it out. He predicts coffee can be produced in local markets, it cuts that VTT’s lab-grown coffee could get regulatory transport emissions. The company is working on a approval in Europe and the US in about four years’ life cycle analysis of the process. “Once we have time, paving the way for a commercialized product those figures, we will be able to show that the that could have a much lower climate impact than environmental impact will be much lower than what we have with conventional cultivation,” Rischer conventional coffee. The coffee industry is both a contributor to the said. American startups are also working on beanless climate crisis and very vulnerable to its effects. coff ee. In September, Seattle-based Atomo Coffee Rising demand for coffee has been linked to deforestation in developing nations, damaging released what it called the world’s first “molecular biodiversity and releasing carbon emissions. At the coffee” in a one-day online pop-up, charging $5.99 same time, coffee producers are struggling with a can. The startup, which has raised $11.5m, makes its the impacts of more extreme weather, from frosts coff ee by converting the compounds from plant to droughts. It’s estimated that half of the land used to grow coffee could be unproductive by 2050 due waste into the same compounds contained in green coffee. Ingredients, including date seed extracts, to the climate crisis. In response to the industry’s challenges, chicory root, grape skin as well as caffeine, are companies and scientists are trying to develop and roasted, ground and brewed. This method results commercialize coffee made without coffee beans. see page 46 45

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture Lab-grown

from page 45

in 93% lower carbon emissions and 94% less water use than conventional coffee production, as well as no deforestation, according to Atomo. “The industry has known about the deleterious effects of coffee farming for a long time, whether we’re talking deforestation or major water usage,” said Atomo’s co-founder Jarret Stopforth. “[Before starting Atomo] I was thinking to myself, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this.’” Atomo’s facility can produce about 1,000 servings of coffee a day. The goal is to increase that to 10,000 servings a day over the next 12 months, said Stopforth, and in two years to move into a facility that can produce 30m servings of coffee a year. Stopforth says that Atomo will start the initial phase of the new factory build within the next three months. Alternative coffee companies like Atomo not only have the potential to help tackle the climate crisis but to benefit the industry generally, said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Take arabica beans, said Charlebois. “You need specific climatic patterns, and it’s much better if you’re more in control in a laboratory environment than just trying to rely on Mother Nature.” Technology can help stabilize production and make it more predictable, he said. But it’s unclear how many people would be willing to give up conventional coffee for one of its beanless counterparts. A 2019 survey by Dalhousie University found that 72% of Canadians say they would not drink lab-grown coffee. Maricel Saenz, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Compound Foods said she was working to “reinvent” coffee and to show people why doing so matters. Compound Foods, which has secured $4.5m in seed funding, says it recreates coffee farm production in the lab. The startup uses microbes and fermentation technology to grow a variety of flavors and aromas, Saenz said. Preliminary results from a carbon life cycle analysis indicate that the company’s coffee produces a tenth of the greenhouse gas emissions and water use of traditional coffee, Saenz said. She 46

November-December 2021

plans to introduce her product by late 2022 and expects pricing to be similar to specialty coffees. “As we improve our processes, we aim to decrease our prices,” she said. As the population grows and pressure increases on natural resources, Saenz said, “we need to be producing food in more efficient ways, using a lot of the biotechnology and fermentation tools that are now at our disposal.” But Daniele Giovannucci, president and cofounder of the Committee on Sustainability Assessment, a consortium that focuses on agricultural sustainability, is concerned that scaling up lab-grown coffee could affect the livelihoods of the millions of workers in the traditional coffee industry, especially in countries such as Ethiopia where coffee is central to the economy. “What’s going to happen to all these people?” Giovannucci asked. “What are they going to do, because this is a key cash crop?” There’s a risk, he said, that lab-grown coffee could create significant socio-economic problems that could drive even greater climate change effects. “It is not clear if, in the end, its net effect may worsen global sustainability, along with many millions of lives.” Saenz, who is from Costa Rica, a coffeeexporting country, said, “I know many coffee producers, so it’s something that I definitely worry about.” But, she added, “the number one threat that coffee farmers have today is climate change” – whether that’s heat that disrupts ripening times, or unexpected frosts as Brazil experienced in the summer, which severely damaged crops. Saenz said her company will collaborate with nonprofits to support small coffee farmers transitioning to more sustainable agricultural practices, including providing training and crop insurance. While lab-grown coffee shows real promise, said Charlebois, the politics should not be underestimated, especially as so many farmers depend on conventional methods of producing crops and many of them live in developing economies. “Scalability is not an issue for lab-grown coffee,” he said, “but regulations and general acceptance of the technology will be greater challenges.” www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/16/ lab-grown-coffee-eco-friendly DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health

WHO Honors Henrietta Lacks for "Incalculable" Medical Breakthroughs By Li Cohen

▲ henrietta-lacks-family-photo-nationalh i tt l k f il h t ti l institute-of-health.jp © Credit: CBSNews ► Henrietta Lacks / Credit: National Institutes of Health © Provided by CBS News THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) on Wednesday, October 13th, awarded a posthumous award to Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who unknowingly had her body's cells biopsied while undergoing cancer treatment — and ultimately helped change medical history. The cells that were taken from Lacks' tumor, called HeLa cells, were the first human cells to be successfully cloned, and have since been infinitely reproduced. Those cells, WHO said in a statement, "have allowed for incalculable scientific breakthroughs" related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, polio vaccine, drugs for HIV and cancers, COVID-19 research, and even the eﬀects of zero gravity. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus bestowed the award, saying it's important for the organization to acknowledge 47

November-December 2021

her nonconsensual, but critical, contribution to modern medicine. For years, WHO said, Lacks' race and story were hidden by the global scientific community. "In honoring Henrietta Lacks, WHO acknowledges the importance of reckoning with past scientific injustices, and advancing racial equity in health and science," the Director-General said. "It's also an opportunity to recognize women - particularly women of color - who have made incredible but often unseen contributions to medical science." Lawrence Lacks, one of Henrietta Lacks' five children, received the WHO's award on her behalf Wednesday. "My mother's contributions, once hidden, are now being rightfully honored for their global impact," see page 48

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health Henrietta Lacks

from page 47

the 87-year-old said. "My mother was a pioneer in life, giving back to her community, helping others live a better life and caring for others. In death she continues to help the world. Her legacy lives on in us and we thank you for saying her name." Lacks was a mother of five when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The cells taken from Lacks' body, WHO said, have been "mass produced, for profit, without recognition to her family." More than 50 million metric tons of HeLa cells have been distributed globally, and have been the subject of more than 75,000 studies. Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. George Gey obtained Lacks' cells in 1951. Johns Hopkins says on its website that the entity has "never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line." Rather, Johns Hopkins says, it offers the cells "freely and widely for scientific research." Earlier this month, on the 70th anniversary of Lacks' death, her family sued biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for selling her cells, saying it was part of a "racially unjust medical system." The family has requested that the company tell Lacks' family the full amount of its net profits it obtained from selling HeLa cells. "Thermo Fisher Scientific has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway," the lawsuit says, adding that white doctors at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s, where Lacks underwent treatment, preyed history of profiting off the research of using and on Black women with cervical cancer. exploiting Black people and their illnesses and "The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents their bodies." the unfortunately common struggle experienced www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/who-honors-henriettaby Black people throughout history," the suit says. lacks-for-incalculable-medical-breakthroughs/ar"Indeed, Black suffering has fueled innumerable AAPw38H?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=W069 medical progress and profit, without just www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2021-whocompensation or recognition. Various studies, both director-general-bestows-posthumous-awarddocumented and undocumented, have thrived off on-the-late-henrietta-lacks#:~:text=The%20 the dehumanization of Black people." award%20was%20received%20at%20the%20 WHO%20office,Lacks%E2%80%99%20 Among the lawyers for the family's estate is civil grandchildren%2C%20great-grand%20 rights attorney Ben Crump. "We want to make sure children%2C%20and%20other%20family%20 that the family voice is finally heard after 70 years of members being ignored," Crump told CBSN. "The American www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/ pharmaceutical corporations have a shameful dp/1400052181 48

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Moderna Plans African Vaccine Plant as Drugmakers Urged to Help Poorest By Josephine Mason and Maggie Fick MODERNA PLANS TO INVEST up to $500 million to build a factory in Africa to make up to 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines each year, including its COVID-19 shot, as pressure grows on the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture drugs on the continent. African countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been urging drugmakers for months to set up vaccine plants on the continent to help it secure supplies of COVID-19 shots that have been hoovered up by wealthier nations. As of Thursday, October 21st, only about 4.5% of Africans had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the continent's top public health official, John Nkengasong. Moderna's (MRNA.O) proposed site is expected to include drug substance manufacturing as well as bottling and packaging capabilities. The U.S. drugmaker said it would begin the process of deciding the country and location soon. "We expect to manufacture our COVID-19 vaccine as well as additional products within our mRNA vaccine portfolio at this facility," CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said he had not seen the Moderna statement and the company had not consulted with him. At a news conference, he welcomed any efforts to address the continent's medium- to long-term needs, but said Moderna's plans would not solve its problems securing COVID-19 vaccine doses now. Bartholomew Akanmori, a vaccine regulation officer at the WHO's Africa office, said the WHO hoped Moderna's plant would help with diseases of public health interest other than COVID-19 and which had not yet received research and development support. 49

November-December 2021

Moderna's move comes as a debate rages between drugmakers and governments about waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic and give more developing countries access to shots. read more The United States said it would support a waiver, but the idea has faced opposition from pharmaceutical firms, which argue they need to oversee any technology transfer due to the complexity of the manufacturing process.

Potential Sites Potential candidates to host Moderna's African plant include South Africa, Rwanda and Senegal, health experts say, although a senior South African official involved in a drive to boost local vaccine manufacturing said he wasn't aware of the Moderna announcement. South Africa's health department didn't respond to a request for comment. Pfizer (PFE.N) and its partner BioNTech (22UAy. DE), struck a deal in July for South Africa's Biovac to help make around 100 million doses a year of their COVID-19 vaccine for Africa. BioNTech said in August that it was looking into building malaria and tuberculosis vaccine production sites using mRNA technology in Rwanda and Senegal. read more The WHO has been trying to persuade Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to join forces with its plan for an African tech transfer hub. But a senior WHO official told Reuters last month there hadn't been much progress in talks with Moderna. read more Nkengasong said he hoped Moderna would work with an initiative called the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing launched this year which looks at Africa's needs at a continental level. "Ten countries in Africa have expressed an interest in vaccine manufacturing, (we) can actually bring them all together and put Moderna at the centre of that. ... That would really speak to the need to be transparent and also ... coordinate our efforts," he said. www.reuters.com/world/africa/moderna-plansmrna-vaccine-factory-africa-2021-10-07 Image credits: Unofficial Networks DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Retired Black Surgeon is on Global Mission to Educate how Vitamin D3 can Help Combat COVID-19 By Jeﬀrey McKinney

DR. LESLIE RAY MATTHEWS has devoted much of his life—and spent $3.5 million of his own money—to research and uncover the benefits of Vitamin D3. Matthews has been in the news lately talking about statistics that show 80% of people who have died from COVID-19 were Vitamin D3 deficient. The deaths included those who were vaccinated and unvaccinated. Yet the international award-winning surgeon and retired doctor says that does not have to be the case for millions of people. Now, Matthews is on a global mission to inform how doses of Vitamin D3 can help prevent the contraction of COVID and minimize the symptoms related to the devastating sickness. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, is a fan of two supplements to improve immunity—vitamin C and vitamin D. He takes both daily. “If you’re deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection,” he stated. Matthews hopes people of color get the message. For instance, he says 97% of African Americans are Vitamin D3 deficient. That compares worldwide to 50% of the population. He noted Vitamin D3 reduces chronic inflammation. It can help many people with ailments like heart disease, strokes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, joint and muscle pain, and upper respiratory tract infections. It has been reportedly proven that if you have enough Vitamin D3, your immune system will be stronger and that can help you fight off COVID-19. So, why aren’t more people with COVID-19 related problems taking it? 50

November-December 2021

“The reason more people are not taking Vitamin D3 is due to a lack of public awareness of its relevance and intensity,” Matthews says. Based in Atlanta, Matthews retired in 2019 as a full professor of clinical surgery at the Morehouse School of Medicine. He was a trauma and critical care surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital. A medical professional for over 30 years, he is a double-board certified general trauma surgeon. He has made multiple presentations before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. He has earned many accolades, including induction as a member of the Royal Society of Medicine, joining Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud and others in the elite global organization whose members have made extraordinary accomplishments in the medical field. BLACK ENTERPRISE connected with Matthews via email to get his expertise on Vitamin D3. BE: It was estimated this month that 70 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated, potentially providing more firewood for the highly transmissible Delta variant. Why does that make it more urgent for people to consider taking Vitamin D3 now? The coronavirus pandemic will not be cured by vaccination. Vitamin D3 is necessary for a healthy immune system that can fight off any infection, whether it is viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic. Vitamin D3 deficiency is incompatible with a healthy immune system. What makes Vitamin D3 such a vital health problem combatant? Vitamin D3 is an anti-stress hormone. It is a DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

is influenced by chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is lowered by vitamin D3. Wearing face masks, washing your hands frequently, eating a healthy diet, exercising, social distancing, and getting adequate sleep are all things that should be done. What are the newest research findings you have discovered on Vitamin D3 the public should be aware of? I can reverse Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), treat traumatic brain injuries, and treat most resistant infections with a high dose of Vitamin D3. I've been awarded a patent for Concussion/ Traumatic brain injuries. How could taking Vitamin D3 helps to reduce an individual’s overall health care costs? Vitamin D3 deficiency reduces the chances of achieving optimal health. Vitamin D3 decreases hospital length of stay, hospital cost, and the overall mortality rate. A vitamin D3 level less than 18 nanograms/per milliliter increases your risk of death by 30%. Therefore, keeping your Vitamin D3 levels greater than 18 nanograms reduces your risk of death and overall medical cost.

Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews

When and why did you get involved in Vitamin D3 research? In 2002, I got involved in Vitamin D3 research. I did so because it is an anti-stress hormone that controls 3,000 out of 30,000 genes, or 10% of your DNA. I understood Vitamin D3 to have many medical usages, such as positively lowering hospital costs for patients. Vitamin D3 is essential for optimal health. You cannot maintain optimal health by being vitamin D3 deficient.

necessity when the human body is under stress, such as after a heart attack, coronavirus, during childbirth, traumatic brain injury, or a gunshot wound. Within the first 24 hours of being admitted to the hospital, your vitamin D3 level declines by half. Vitamin D3 aids in the response to any kind BE: What is next on your agenda tied to of stress. Vitamin D3 research, and what do you hope to accomplish? Is Vitamin D3 a complete cure-all for COVID Half of the world’s 7.8 billion population is Vitamin and other illnesses or just a partial solution? If it is not an entire solution, what other steps D3 deficient. I hope to do global education on the importance of Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 deficiency is should people be applying to battle those a pandemic that must be addressed before we can problems? Vitamin D3 is a preventative measure. It is not address the coronavirus pandemic. a treatment. The term “cure” is frowned upon by www.blackenterprise.com/retired-black-surgeonthe Federal Drug Administration. Vitamin D3 can on-global-mission-to-educate-how-vitamin-d3slow or stop chronic inflammation. Also, chronic can-help-combat-covid-19/ inflammation can be attenuated and reduced by Image credit: Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews vitamin D3. The development of most diseases 51

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Health - Malaria

First Malaria Vaccine Approved by W.H.O. By Apoorva Mandavilli

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION on Wednesday, October 6th, endorsed the first ever vaccine to prevent malaria, debuting a tool that could save the lives of tens of thousands of children in Africa each year. Malaria is among the oldest known and deadliest of infectious diseases. It kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — among them 260,000 children under age 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child’s immune system to thwart Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa. The vaccine is not just a first for malaria — it is the first developed for any parasitic disease. In clinical trials, the vaccine had an efficacy of about 50% against severe malaria in the first year, but dropped close to zero by the fourth year. And the trials did not measure the vaccine’s impact on preventing deaths, which has led some experts to question whether it is a worthwhile investment in countries with countless other intractable problems. But severe malaria accounts for up to half of malaria deaths and is considered “a reliable proximal indicator of mortality,” said Dr. Mary Hamel, who leads the W.H.O.’s malaria vaccine implementation program. “I do expect we will see that impact.” A modeling study last year estimated that if the vaccine were rolled out to countries with the highest incidence of malaria, it could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children younger than age 5 each year. And a recent trial of the vaccine in combination with preventive drugs given to children during hightransmission seasons found that the dual approach was much more effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death than either method alone. To have a malaria vaccine that is safe, moderately effective and ready for distribution is “a historical 52

November-December 2021

event,” said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the W.H.O.’s global malaria program. Parasites are much more complex than viruses or bacteria, and the quest for a malaria vaccine has been underway for a hundred years, he added: “It’s a huge jump from the science perspective to have a firstgeneration vaccine against a human ▲▲ A baby receive vaccine Mosquirix, i parasite.” The malaria parasite is a particularly Ghana, in 2019. Cre insidious enemy, because it can strike Aldehuela/Agence F — Getty Images the same person over and over. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, even those where most people sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets, children have on average six malaria episodes a year. Even when the disease is not fatal, the repeated assault on their bodies can leave them weak and vulnerable to other pathogens, permanently altering the immune system. Malaria research is littered with vaccine candidates that never made it past clinical trials. Bed nets, the most widespread preventive measure, cut malaria deaths in children under age 5 by only about 20%. Against that backdrop, the new vaccine, even with modest efficacy, is the best new development in the fight against the disease in decades, some experts said. “Progress against malaria has really stalled over the last five or six years, particularly in some of the hardest hit countries in the world,” said Ashley Birkett, who heads malaria programs at PATH, a nonprofit organization focused on global health. With the new vaccine, “there’s potential for very, very significant impact there,” Dr. Birkett said. Called Mosquirix, the new vaccine is given in DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

of children protected against malaria in some way to more than 90% from less than 70%, Dr. Hamel said. “The ability to reduce inequities in access to malaria prevention — that’s important,” Dr. Hamel said. “It was impressive to see that this could reach children who are currently not being protected.” It took years to create an efficient system to distribute insecticide-treated bed nets to families. By contrast, making Mosquirix a part of routine immunization made it surprisingly easy to distribute, Dr. Hamel added — even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which prompted lockdowns ed the malaria ▼▼ A nurse discussed the new in Cape Coast, malaria vaccine at the Ewim Polyclinic and disrupted supply chains. edit...Cristina in Cape Coast, Ghana. Credit:.Cristina “We aren’t going to have to spend a decade trying France-Presse Aldehuela/Agence France-Presse — to figure out how to get this to children,” he said. Getty Images This week, a working group of independent experts in malaria, child health epidemiology and statistics, as well as the W.H.O.’s vaccine advisory group, met to review data from the pilot programs and make their formal recommendation to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the W.H.O. The next step is for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, to determine that the vaccine is a worthwhile investment. If the organization’s board approves the vaccine — not guaranteed, given the vaccine’s moderate efficacy and the many competing priorities — Gavi will purchase the vaccine for countries that request it, a process that is expected to take at least a year. But as with Covid-19, problems with vaccine production and supply could considerably delay progress. And the pandemic has also diverted resources and attention from other diseases, said Deepali Patel, who leads malaria vaccine programs three doses between ages 5 and 17 months, and at Gavi. “Covid is a big unknown in the room in terms of a fourth dose roughly 18 months later. Following where capacity is currently in countries, and rolling the clinical trials, the vaccine was tried out in three countries — Kenya, Malawi and Ghana — where out Covid-19 vaccines is a huge effort,” Ms. Patel said. it was incorporated into routine immunization “We’re really going to have to see how the pandemic unfolds next year in terms of when countries will be programs. More than 2.3 million doses have been ready to pick up all of these other priorities.” administered in those countries, reaching more than www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/health/malaria800,000 children. That bumped up the percentage vaccine-who.html 53

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

WHO-led Program Aims to Buy Antiviral COVID-19 Pills for $10 By Francesco Guarascio

A WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION-LED programme to ensure poorer countries get fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments aims to secure antiviral drugs for patients with mild symptoms for as little as $10 per course, a draft document seen by Reuters says. Merck & Co's (MRK.N) experimental pill molnupiravir is likely to be one of the drugs, and other drugs to treat mild patients are being developed. The document, which outlines the goals of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) until September next year, says that the programme wants to deliver about 1 billion COVID-19 tests to poorer nations, and procure drugs to treat up to 120 million patients globally, out of about 200 million new cases it estimates in the next 12 months. The plans highlight how the WHO wants to shore up supplies of drugs and tests at a relatively low price after losing the vaccine race to wealthy nations which scooped up a huge share of the world's supplies, leaving the world's poorest countries with few shots. A spokesperson for the ACT-A said the document, dated Oct. 13, was still a draft under consultation and declined to comment on its content before it is finalised. The document will also be sent to global leaders ahead of a G20 summit in Rome at the end of this month (October). The ACT-A asks the G20 and other donors for additional funding of $22.8 billion until September 2022 which will be needed to buy and distribute vaccines, drugs and tests to poorer nations and narrow the huge gaps in supply between wealthy and less advanced countries. Donors have so far pledged $18.5 billion to the programme. The financial requests are based on detailed estimates about the price of drugs, treatments and tests, which will account for the programme's 54

November-December 2021

biggest expenses alongside the cost of distributing vaccines. Although it does not explicitly cite molnupiravir, the ACT-A document expects to pay $10 dollar per course for "novel oral antivirals for mild/moderate patients". Other pills to treat An experimental COVID-19 treat mild patients are molnupiravir and being develo being developed, but Co Inc and Ridgeback Biother molnupiravir is the only seen in this undated handout ph Merck & Co Inc and obtained b one which has so far 17, 2021. Merck & Co Inc/Hando showed positive results in late-stage trials. The ACT-A is in talks with Merck & Co and generics producers to buy the drug. The price is very low if compared with the $700 per course that the United States has agreed to pay for 1.7 million courses of the treatment. However, a study carried out by Harvard university estimated that molnupiravir could cost about $20 dollars if produced by generic drugmakers, with the price potentially going down to $7.7 under an optimised production. Merck & Co. has licensing deals with eight Indian generic drugmakers. The ACT-A document says that its target is to reach a deal by the end of November to secure the supply of an "oral outpatient drug", which it aims to be available from the first quarter of next year. The money raised would initially be used to "support procurement of up to 28 million treatment courses for highest risk mild/moderate patients over the next 12 months, depending on product availability, clinical guidance, and volumes changing with evolution of needs," the document says, noting this volume would be secured under DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

tment pill, called ped by Merck & rapeutics LP, is hoto released by by Reuters May out via REUTERS

an advance purchase agreement. Larger additional amounts of new oral antivirals to treat mild patients are also expected to be procured at a later stage, the document says. Another 4.3 million courses of repurposed COVID-19 pills to treat critical patients are also expected to be purchased at a price of $28 per course, the document says, without naming any specific drug. The ACT-A also intends to address essential medical oxygen needs of 6-8 million severe and critical patients by September 2022. Tests In addition, the programme plans to invest massively in COVID-19 diagnostics in order to at least double the number of tests carried out in poorer nations, defined as low income and lowmiddle income countries. Of the $22.8 billion, ACT-A plans to raise in the next 12 months, about one third and the largest share is to be spent on diagnostics, the document

November-December 2021

says. Currently poor countries conduct on average about 50 tests per 100,000 people every day, against 750 tests in richer nations. The ACT-A wants to bring testing rates to a minimum of 100 tests per 100,000 in poorer states. That means delivering around 1 billion tests in the next 12 months, around 10 times more than the ACT-A has procured so far, the document shows. The largest share of diagnostics would be rapid antigen tests at a price of around $3, and only 15% would be spent to procure molecular tests, which are more accurate but take more time to deliver results and are estimated to cost around $17, including delivery costs, the document shows. The push on tests is meant to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, as only 0.4% of the about 3 billion tests reported across the world have been conducted in poor nations, the document says. It would also help spot earlier possible new variants, which tend to proliferate when infections are widespread, and therefore are more likely in the countries with lower vaccination rates. The document underlines that "vaccine access is highly inequitable with coverage ranging from 1% to over 70%, depending largely on a country's wealth." The programme aims to vaccinate at least 70% of the eligible population in all countries by the middle of next year, in line with the WHO's goals. www.reuters.com/business/healthcarepharmaceuticals/exclusive-who-ledprogramme-aims-buy-antiviral-covid-19-pills-10document-2021-10-19 Image credit: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Pandemic

Pfizer Moves to Allow Cheap Versions of Promising Covid Pill By Robert Langreth and James Paton first sign of infection are seen as crucial for getting the pandemic under control. Pfizer’s drug reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 89% in a large study of highrisk patients, the company said this month. It is applying for emergency authorization in the U.S. and has said it plans to seek authorizations in other countries soon. “These are potentially life-saving drugs,” Charles Gore, executive

PFIZER INC. REACHED a licensing agreement that will allow generic-drug manufacturers to produce inexpensive versions of its Covid-19 pill for 95 low- and middle-income countries, following a similar move by Merck & Co. In a statement on Tuesday, Pfizer said it has signed an agreement with the United Nationsbacked Medicines Patent Pool to license the experimental pill, once it is authorized by regulators, to generic companies that can supply it to countries that account for roughly 53% of the world population. The shares fell 1% in pre-market U.S. trading. Pfizer won’t receive royalties from sales in lowincome countries, and won’t get royalties from sales to middle-income countries covered by the pact as long as Covid-19 is classified as a publichealth emergency, according to the statement. The widely awaited deal could help bolster access to a potent new virus-fighting tool. Unlike the exotic mRNA technology in Pfizer’s Covid-19 shot, the chemical techniques used to manufacture pills are mature and long-established, and numerous generic companies can cheaply produce them. Pfizer has been under considerable pressure to license the technology ever since it announced promising clinical-trial results earlier this month. Highly eﬀective pills that can be taken at the 56

November-December 2021

director of the Medicines Patent Pool, said in an interview. “The sooner we can get it out there, the more people who won’t need to go to the hospital and won’t die.” In addition to lower- and lower-middle income countries, the pact includes some upper-middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as countries that transitioned from lower-middle to upper-middle income status in the past five years, Pfizer and the Medicines Patent Pool said. Merck also has a promising experimental Covid pill called molnupiravir. The U.S. pharmaceutical giant reached a licensing deal with the Medicines Patent Pool last month that covers over 100 lowand middle-income countries. Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP have sought emergency authorization for their pill in the U.S.; DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Image credit: clipart-library.com, Jacaranda FM advisers to the Food and Drug Administration are set to consider the application at a hearing this month. Discussions with Pfizer moved rapidly, Gore said, and the pact could allow supplies to get to countries within months. “As with molnupiravir, we’re trying to make this as fast as humanly possible,” Gore said. The Merck and Pfizer agreements cover about the same number of people, he said.

November-December 2021

The patent pool is also in licensing discussions over a Covid vaccine that have intensified recently, according to Gore. He declined to elaborate or identify the company but said it’s not a developer of an mRNA shot. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-16/ pfizer-agrees-to-allow-cheaper-versions-ofpromising-covid-pill Image credit: narcity.com, lifegurunewshubb.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Why it’s not Nearly Enough that Germany Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronze

By Jürgen Zimme

AFTER YEARS OF PRESSURE, Germany recently announced that an agreement had been reached to return hundreds of priceless artefacts and artworks that had been looted from Nigeria in colonial times and were on display in German museums. Commonly called the Benin Bronzes, these beautiful and technically remarkable artworks have come to symbolize the broader restitution debate. Why has it taken so long, will other countries follow Germany and what happens next? We asked a leading expert on colonial German history and a prominent voice in the debate around the artefacts, Dr Jürgen Zimmerer, to tell us. What are the Benin Bronzes and why are they so important? The Benin Bronzes—or rather Benin objects, because not all of them are made of metal; some are ivory or wood—are objects originating from the Kingdom of Benin, in today’s Nigeria. When the British Empire invaded the kingdom in 1897, thousands of the objects were looted, partially to pay for the costs of the military expedition. They were later auctioned oﬀ in London and elsewhere and soon became central pieces in the collection of many museums in the Global North. Due to their artistic brilliance, they changed the way Europeans saw African art, as they could no longer pretend that there was no art in Africa but only craftsmanship, as the old racist colonial stereotype had it. Nevertheless the Europeans, and later the US, had no problem keeping the loot. Why are they in the news now? Almost since their looting, demands for their restitution have been made by Nigeria and other African states. So they were never entirely absent, but perhaps not in the global media. Now, with the intense interest in the question of colonial loot, the

November-December 2021

focus has also turned to them. Central for this shift in interest was the announcement by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017 in Ouagadougou, to return colonial loot from French colonial museums and to commission the ground-breaking report by Senegalese academic and writer Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy that ultimately supported his decision. So was the approaching opening of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin (which eventually opened on 20 July 2021), one of the largest museums in the world. It houses the collections of the former Berlin ethnological museums and more than 200 Benin Bronzes were meant to go on display there. However, activists and scholars, who had pointed to the problem of colonial loot, have stopped the plans for the moment, not least because of the international media interest. In Germany, this parallels the attempt to come to terms with the first genocide of the 20th century, committed against the indigenous Herero and Nama people in what was then German South west Africa, today Namibia, which also drew attention to the question of colonialism and its legacies. How has Germany handled the return? Poorly, very poorly, to be honest. Those in charge of (cultural) policy and many of the museums were initially unaware of the “problem” of colonial loot at all. When pressure mounted, they downplayed the critique, ridiculed the critics, then attacked and defamed them. The low point, so far, has been one of the initial founding directors of the Humboldt Forum, the art historian Horst Bredekamp, accusing postcolonial critics of being anti-Semitic. All this in order to protect both the collections and the traditions of Western scholarship connected to them against the allegation—justified in my opinion—of having ignored the racist traits in their DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

is es

erer

A bronze work is displayed for sale in front of a shop in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria

histories. Only after pressure both by German civil society and (international) media did government and museums concede that some—the oﬃcial communiqué spoke of a “substantial number”—of the Benin Bronzes should be returned.

In the Global North we are now prepared to concede that there were acts of violence within colonialism, however we have to understand that colonialism in itself was (and is) violence. We have to decolonise and must advance to a position of global social justice, especially if humankind wants Where are the rest of the bronzes? They are distributed all over the global North. to stand a chance of surviving the climate crisis. Even if Germany were to return all of the Benin What is expected to happen after they arrive objects in Berlin, this would not amount to much in Nigeria? more than 10% of what was looted. To be sure, other There is currently an Edo Museum of West museums will follow, or even play at leading the African Art being built in Benin City in Edo State returns, such as museums in the German cities of in southern Nigeria, which should be hosting Stuttgart or Cologne. However, other big museums Benin Bronzes. How exactly returned artwork is outside Germany are slow to follow. Colonialism distributed between Nigeria as a nation state, Edo was a European project and so was the looting of state as federal entity and the Oba King—as heir of art. So all of Europe, all of the Global North are the former kingdom and representative of the Edo implicated and need to address this issue. Many people.—is still a matter of discussion. Frankly, Benin Bronzes are for example in the US. however, this is not the Europeans’ concern. What The most important collection however, with up the rightful owners do with their art is their decision, to 800 of the artefacts, is in the British Museum in and this must not delay restitution. London, which, apparently with the support of the https://qz.com/africa/2042246/germanys-return-of-nigeriaslooted-benin-bronzes government, has categorically denied the need for restitution. This ties in with a larger debate about Original article: https://theconversation.com/germany-istaking responsibility for colonialism as a crime returning-nigerias-looted-benin-bronzes-why-its-not-nearlyenough-165349 against humanity. 59

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Biden Meets Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House By Rob Crilly, Senior U.S. Political Reporter and Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in the Oval Oﬃce Thursday, marking the first time Biden hosted an African leader. In the Oval, Biden thanked Kenyatta for his 'leadership in defending the peace, security, and democratic instincts of the region and your country.' 'You're doing a heck of a job,' Biden told Kenyatta. 'You know, Kenya is currently the President of the U.N. Security Council. Thanks for letting us stay in,' Biden also joked. He announced that the U.S. would be giving additional vaccine doses to the African Union. 'And I'm proud to announce that - that we're making an additional historic one-time donation of 17 more million doses of J&J vaccine to the AU, and we're going to be sending some more of these by the end of the year to Kenya,' Biden said. 60

November-December 2021

Kenyatta is the son of the country's first president. Kenya has long had a strong relationship with the U.S., partnering with Washington in eﬀorts to thwart Islamic terrorism. It is a powerful regional player and it has a border with Ethiopia, where war has triggered a humanitarian crisis. 'They will also discuss eﬀorts to defend democracy and human rights, advance peace and security, accelerate economic growth, and tackle climate change.' Kenya also currently holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10093425/ Biden-meets-Kenyas-president-Uhuru-KenyattaWhite-House.html Image credit: Reuters

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Erdogan Meets Liberia's Weah, Leaders of Togo, Burkina Faso By DAILY SABAH

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2R), Togo President Faure Gnassingbe (L), Burkina Faso President Christian Kabore (2L), and Liberian President George Weah in Lome, Togo, October 19, 2021 AA Photo

PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN on Tuesday, October 19th, held a four-way meeting with Liberian president and former football star, George Weah, as well as leaders of Togo and Burkina Faso. Erdoğan was in Togo on the second stop of his three-nation four-day diplomatic trip to Africa. He already visited Angola and will later travel to Nigeria. Togo President Faure Gnassingbe hosted the working dinner with Erdoğan, Weah and Burkina Faso President Christian Kabore at the Presidential Palace. The meeting was closed to the press. Erdoğan, who played semiprofessional football in his youth, perhaps had a chat about the sport with Weah, who has had a remarkable career in Europe. Weah, who became Liberia's president in 2018, 61

November-December 2021

remains the only African player to win the Ballon d'Or, an annual award presented to the best football player in the world. The Liberian is known for his spells at French sides Monaco and Paris SaintGermain as well as Italian powerhouse Milan. Erdoğan’s Africa tour is seen as part of Turkey's policy to contribute to the economic and social development of the continent by encouraging peace and stability. The tour also serves as an opportunity to develop bilateral relations based on equal partnership and mutual benefit. Turkey's African policy, which encompasses political, humanitarian, economic and cultural spheres, is part of its multidimensional foreign policy. www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/erdoganmeets-liberias-weah-leaders-of-togo-burkina-faso DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance - United Nations

Permanent Forum on People of African Descent Remarks by Ambassador Linda ThomasGreenfield on the Adoption of a Resolution Establishing the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent T H A N K YOU, Y MR. PRESIDENT. A thank you And to t Chad and C Costa Rica for f facilitating t o d a y ’ s resolution. The United States S strongly supports the creation of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent. We fully engaged in the modalities to shape its mandate. The Biden-Harris Administration has put dismantling systemic racism and achieving racial justice at the forefront of our agenda. Because ultimately, racism is a problem in every society, and that means every society needs to grapple with it. Recently, you have seen us do this grappling across multilateral fora. At the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council, we led a joint statement on combating racism and racial discrimination, signed by over 155 countries. We welcomed cooperation with the investigative mechanisms established in the Human Rights Council Resolution 47/21. And Secretary of State Blinken announced that we will facilitate visits to the United States by the Special Rapporteurs on Racism and on Minorities. Mr. President, today, the United Nations has reached another important milestone on this collective journey: the establishment of a Permanent Forum for People of African Descent. This forum represents the full acknowledgement that, at long last, we are compelled to give voice to the dynamic challenges and aspirations of People of African Descent around the world. This forum is universal in its purview; and it is forward-looking in its agenda. It creates a new and necessary space, for all People of African Descent, to come together 62

November-December 2021

and build a better future. There are a few details I want to be clear about. First, we want to emphasize that our strong support for this resolution does not change the United States position on Durban. The creation of this forum is one step – among many – the UN System and Member States are taking to combat all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance. So, the Permanent Forum is far bigger than any one issue, program, or conference. And so, it is inappropriate for the establishment of this forum to be housed under an individual conference agenda item. So, while this is being adopted under its current agenda item, our position on the Durban Declaration and Program of Action remains the same. Second, we want to stress that the mandate of the Forum does not include the elaboration of a UN declaration. The purview of developing UN declarations remains with Member States. The Forum’s consideration of a UN declaration on People of African Descent would only be a part of the broader consideration by Member States. Finally, Mr. President, racism and intolerance are sadly universal; our approach to eliminating them must be too. So, we will continue to defend all groups who face discrimination – including indigenous people, women and girls, LGBTQI+ persons, people with disabilities, and so many more. And we will elevate their perspectives, their rights, and their fights whenever and wherever we get a chance. Thank you, Mr. President. ON 2 AUGUST 2021, the General Assembly adopted it resolution 75/314 which formally operationalized the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, as "a consultative mechanism for people of African descent and other relevant stakeholders as a platform for improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent, as well as an advisory body to the Human Rights Council, in line with the programme of activities for the implementation of

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

the International Decade for People of African Descent and in close coordination with existing mechanisms". The modalities, format and substantive and procedural aspects of the Permanent Forum are described in the General Assembly resolution 75/314. Specifically, the Permanent Forum has the following mandate: • To contribute to the full political, economic and social inclusion of people of African descent in the societies in which they live as equal citizens without discrimination of any kind and contribute to ensuring equal enjoyment of all human rights; • To provide, in coordination with existing mechanisms, expert advice and recommendations to the Human Rights Council, the Main Committees of the General Assembly and organs, programmes, funds and agencies of the United Nations aimed at addressing challenges of all the scourges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and all their contemporary forms and manifestations confronted by people of African descent and that impede the full and eﬀective realization and enjoyment of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms; • To consider the elaboration of a United Nations declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent; • To identify and analyse best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives to address, as appropriate, the issues highlighted in the provisions of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action relevant to people of African descent; • To monitor and review progress on the eﬀective implementation of the programme of activities of the International Decade for People of African Descent, and to this end gather relevant information from Governments, United Nations bodies and organs, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and other relevant sources; • To request the preparation and dissemination

November-December 2021

of information by the United Nations system on issues relating to people of African descent and promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies; • To raise awareness and promote integration and coordination of activities of agencies, funds and programmes relating to people of African descent within the United Nations system; • To support the coordination of programmes aimed at the socioeconomic development of communities and people of African descent, and to examine the urgent global need to establish adequate channels to obtain data disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographical location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts, to enable the systematic design and collection of and access to high-quality, reliable and timely disaggregated data and gender statistics, conducive to the better execution of public policies in relation to people of African descent; • To oﬀer advice and recommendations on matters concerning the protection, promotion and respect of all human rights of people of African descent, and to undertake any specific task as requested by the Human Rights Council or the General Assembly. The Oﬃce of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had been working to create a permanent Forum on People of African Descent since November 2014, when it was mandated to do so through the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/69/16 entitled “Programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent”. www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Racism/ InternationalDecade/Pages/ ForumPeopleAfricanDescent.aspx#:~:text=%20 Specifically%2C%20the%20Permanent%20 Forum%20has%20the%20following,a%20 United%20Nations%20declaration%20on%20 the...%20More%20

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

The United Nations Could Finally Create New Rules for Space By Ramin Skibba ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, a group of diplomats from the United Kingdom proposed that the United Nations set up a group to develop new norms of international behavior in space, with the aim of preventing the kinds of misunderstandings that could lead to war. As spacefaring nations advance their military satellite capabilities, including being able to disrupt or damage other satellites, such provocative behavior could escalate already-tense diplomatic situations—and create more space debris in low earth orbit, a crucial region that’s already chock-full of derelict spacecraft. This is the first significant progress in developing space rules in more than four decades. The most important piece of space law, the Outer Space Treaty, was negotiated by the fledgling space powers in 1967. “Meanwhile, space is getting increasingly complicated,” says Victoria Samson, the Washington office director for the Secure World Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank based in Broomfield, Colorado. There are many players in space now; new kinds of cyberweapons and lasers can jam, dazzle, or spoof satellites; and tens of thousands of satellites are orbiting in the sky. Monday’s vote before the UN’s First Committee, which is focused on international security and disarmament, passed overwhelmingly, with representatives of 163 countries voting yea versus eight nays and nine abstentions. Considering the widespread support for the proposal, including backing from the Biden administration, Edmondson expects it to pass in the full UN General Assembly next month. The proposal would create a new working group at the UN that will meet twice a year in Geneva in 2022 and 2023. By the end of that time, the group must reach consensus on new rules and identify areas in 64

November-December 2021

need of further investigation. Crafting norms for the kinds of activities that escalate tensions or generate debris will likely be top priority for this group, says Cassandra Steer, an expert on space law and space security at the Australian National University in Canberra. While the US representatives approved the UK-led proposal, those from the other two most influential space powers, Russia and China, were among the “nay” votes. Those nations’ opposition stems from a longtime debate over whether to instead focus efforts at the UN on negotiating new treaties among all nations with spacecraft, because treaties carry more weight and can be more clearly enforceable. For example, China and Russia have been pushing for a resolution preventing an arms race in outer space, as well as a new international treaty against deploying any weapons in space. Currently, only nukes are outlawed in space. But those ideas haven’t gained traction with the US and its allies. In fact, US representatives have voted against such proposals for years, arguing that there are no weapons in space and therefore no arms race to address. (In the 1980s, President Reagan championed the idea of developing spacebased missile interceptors as part of the short-lived “Star Wars” concept. While a few policymakers today, like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, continue to advocate for them, no one has yet designed or launched such weapons.) “The US and its partners have been instrumental in blocking any progress with treaties and binding norms,” Steer says. There’s far more international consensus for creating nonbinding norms involving behavior in space rather than stricter policies targeting specific technologies, says Samson. She says she’s “cautiously excited” that the UN is finally escaping its impasse on space diplomacy. Dozens of countries have already published responses to the UN proposal, mostly in support of it. Nongovernmental groups, including Samson’s Secure World Foundation, arms control groups, and even the International Committee of the Red Cross, have done so as well. The latter points out that “the use of weapons in outer space … could have significant impacts on civilians on Earth.” If, say, a satellite that people depend on for weather information, communications, or navigation were DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

disabled during some international dispute, it could have far-reaching consequences. That’s a particular problem with “dual-use” technologies, Samson says, referring to spacecraft that can be used for military and civilian purposes. For example, while some military communications involve dedicated military satellites, 80% of those communications use a variety of commercial satellites, which could nevertheless be considered military targets. (The space industry was not invited to directly comment, since individual companies are regulated by their national, not international, policies. Representatives from the American space industry often participate in the US delegation.) The dangers of space debris, which could be generated by an orbital collision or attack, continue to draw attention, especially considering the amount of debris produced by anti-satellite missile tests, such as those by China in 2007 and India in 2019. Even tiny bits of untrackable space flotsam can be harmful, because they’re moving at high speed. Bruce McClintock, lead of the Space Enterprise Initiative at the Rand Corporation, a federally financed and military-focused research center based in Santa Monica, California, notes that, on Earth, tornado winds can jam pieces of straw into telephone poles. “Now imagine you’re at orbital speeds, and you have something the size of a paint chip moving at thousands of miles an hour. Those are things that can cause serious damage to satellites,” he says. That’s a major reason why Aaron Boley, a planetary scientist and cofounder of the Outer Space Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, calls for banning tests of weapons that can destroy satellites. “Having a ban on debris-generating antisatellite tests is an area where I think there could be wide agreement,” he says. His institute published an open letter on September 2 making the case for such a ban, with signatories from multiple countries. A ban on tests that generate “long-lived debris”— shrapnel that stays in orbit for years instead of falling and burning in the lower atmosphere—might have a more realistic chance of being adopted, McClintock argues, though he’s sympathetic to the argument in the Outer Space Institute’s letter. To avoid collisions or attacks between satellites, which would also likely produce debris, experts 65

November-December 2021

frequently cite the Incidents at Sea agreement between the US and the former Soviet Union, which was signed in 1972. The accord mandated more communications between the two countries and required ships, including those engaging in surveillance, to remain clear of each other to avoid collisions. “It didn’t change the size and structure of naval forces, but brought in rules for notifications for exercises,” says Jessica West, a senior researcher at the research institute Project Ploughshares based in Waterloo, Ontario. Giving satellite owners prior warning and requesting consent to approach would go a long way, “so that they don’t freak out, and they don’t worry, and they don’t respond to what you’re doing in an escalatory way because your intention is simply to do an exercise,” she says. In a sign that the US is moving toward supporting norms in space, the Defense Authorization Bill, which has passed in the House but not yet in the Senate, requires defense officials to develop a list of priorities for such norms, including those involving the issues of space debris and how spacecraft should behave in close proximity with one another. In July, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin published a memo identifying “tenets of responsible behavior” in space along similar lines. While nonbinding norms clarifying allowable behavior could reduce tensions, the approach isn’t without its drawbacks. “If you focus on behavior, but you allow this proliferation of hardware and technology, at some point you have an arms race. So are you making an arms race safer, or are you preventing an arms race?” West asks. Despite the possible shortcomings of the approach, Steer says it’s a realistic one, given where international relations are today. “We can come up with very effective nonbinding norms, which have huge political impact, and they impact what states are doing with their national binding laws,” she says. “Treaties can take years or decades to negotiate, and we just don’t have time.” http://space4peace.org/the-united-nations-couldfinally-create-new-rules-for-space/ Source: www.wired.com/story/the-united-nationscould-finally-create-new-rules-for-space/ Image credit: United Nations

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance

Africa's First Chief Heat Oﬃcer - on a Mission By Kim Harrisberg

MIAMI HAS ONE - so does Athens. Now Freetown has appointed Africa's first Chief Heat Oﬃcer, a mother on a mission to shield her city Eugenia E Euge ugeni nia ia Kargbo Kargb Karg bo bo

#FreetownTheTreetown and her kids from the chaos of climate change. "Freetown is my home, I have my family here, so it will be an honour to see it develop into a safer, cooler place for my community," Eugenia Kargbo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview from the capital of Sierra Leone. The 34-year-old was appointed this week to combat rising temperatures and come up with everyday ways to cool the sweltering streets of the city she has always called home. She joins Jane Gilbert and Eleni Myrivili, women appointed this year to do the same mammoth job for their fast-heating homes of Miami and Athens. Kargbo has big plans yet one simple goal - she wants her two children to be able to walk the city streets freely just as she did as a small girl, stepping out without fear of heat stroke. "Climate change is a global issue, just like COVID, so we need to sound the alarm and fight this collectively because sooner or later it will aﬀect us all," said Kargbo. Kargbo is already steering a range of anti66

November-December 2021

heat initiatives, from tree planting to waste collection and awareness campaigns. She has a year to make a diﬀerence; it is no small task for a city of 1.2 million that lost some thousand lives and millions of dollars in damage to a rainfalltriggered mudslide in 2017. From floods to droughts to landslides, the West African nation has been battling the realities of climate change for more than a decade, with climate experts warning against the risks of extreme heat for the city's most vulnerable. In the dry season, heat causes crop failure, water shortages and wildfires. In the wet season, it exacerbates water-borne diseases such as malaria, according to policy group the Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Like her counterparts in the United States and Greece, Kargbo's role is part of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center's strategy to provide a billion people with climate resilience solutions by 2030.

TREES AND TRASH She is no stranger to big city jobs. Kargbo has worked with the mayor since 2018 in various roles, be it tackling sanitation or creating employment. She is also part of a #FreetownTheTreetown plan that has seen 300,000 trees planted city-wide

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Governance since 2020, with 700,000 to go, all aimed at cooling the city and preventing landslides. She trains unemployed youth to start businesses collecting waste using tricycle carts, opening up former dump site for transformation to community gardens. "So many people are scrambling for land as the city keeps expanding and deforestation increases," Kargbo said. In her new year-long role, Kargbo hopes to expand her existing projects and collect a raft of new heat and housing data to help the city plot a strategy for the long term. "Climate change is on our doorstep and we are

seeing it already impact farmers, food security and people's health and safety," said Kargbo."We need to innovate to reduce health impacts on the most vulnerable." https://baloboba.blogspot.com/2021/10/africasfirst-chief-heat-oﬃcer-on.html Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit <a href="http://news. trust.org" target="_blank">https://ift.tt/395i6L9> Image credit: therealistwoman.com, Freetown City Council

West African Regional Bloc Adopts New Plan to Launch Eco Single Currency in 2027 By NEWS WIRES ECOWAS commissioner Jean-Claude Brou at an ECOWAS G5 security summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2019. © Issouf Sanogo, AFP

A group of fifteen West African countries have adopted a new road map to launch a single currency in 2027 after its previous plans were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic. THE NEW ROAD MAP was agreed by heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of the ECOWAS Commission, told a news conference after a summit of the leaders in Ghana on Saturday The countries hope a single currency will help to boost trade and economic growth

November-December 2021

"Due to the shock of the pandemic, the heads of state had decided to suspend the implementation of the convergence pact in 2020-2021" Brou said. "We have a new road map and a new convergence pact that will cover the period between 2022-2026, and 2027 being the launch of the Eco," he said, referring to the name of the new currency. Nigeria, the largest economy in West Africa, currently operates a managed float for its currency, while eight others including top cocoa producer Ivory Coast, use the France-backed CFA, pegged to the euro. https://amp-france24-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp. france24.com/en/africa/20210619-west-african-regionalbloc-adopts-new-plan-to-launch-eco-single-currencyin-20277 DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

African Stock Exchange/Bourse • Algeria • Angola • Botswana • Cameroon • Cape Verde Islands • Cote de Ivoire • Egypt • Ethiopia • Ghana • Kenya • Libya • Malawi • Mauritius • Morocco • Mozambique • Namibia • Nigeria

Algiers Stock Market Angola Stock Exchange and Derivatives Botswana Stock Exchange Douala Stock Exchange Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres UEMOA (Abidjan) The Egyptian Exchange Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Ghana Stock Exchange Nairobi Stock Exchange Libyan Stock Market Malawi Stock Exchange Stock Exchange of Mauritius Casablanca Stock Exchange Bolsa Valores de Mocambique Namibian Stock Exchange Nigerian Stock Exchange

• Rwanda • Seychelles • Somalia • South Africa

Rwanda Stock Exchange Seychelles Securities Exchange Somali Stock Exchange Bond Exchange of South Africa Johannesburg Stock Exchange

• South Sudan • Swaziland • Tanzania • Tunisia • Uganda • Zambia • Zimbabwe • Zimbabwe

Khartoum Stock Exchange Swaziland Stock Exchange Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange Tunisia Stock Exchange Uganda Securities Exchange Lusaka Stock Exchange Victoria Falls Stock Exchange Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.sgbv.dz www.bodiva.ao www.bse.co.bw www.douala-stock-exc www.bvc.cv (in Portug

www.brvm.org www.egx.com.eg www.ecx.com.et www.gse.com.gh www.luse.co.zm www.lsm.gov.ly www.mse.co.mw www.stockexchangeof www.casablanca-bours www.bolsadevalores.co www.nsx.com.na www.nse.com.ng/Page www.abujacomex.com www.rse.rw https://merj.exchange www.somalistockexcha www.bondexchange.co www.jse.co.za/Home.a www.a2x.co.za www.kse.com.sd www.ssx.org.sz www.dse.co.tz www.bvmt.com.tn www.use.or.ug www.luse.co.zm www.vfex.exchange www.zse.co.zw

www.africabusinessassociation.org

change.com guese)

fmauritius.com se.com o.mz

es/default.aspx

ange.so o.za aspx

Stocks Mirror the Economy Africa has around 29 stock exchanges representing 38 countries including two regional exchanges. Africa has become the newest destination for emerging markets investors. From 2000, according to the World Economic Forum, "half of the world's fastest-growing economies have been in Africa." By 2030 one in five people will be African. Combine the continent’s soaring population with technology, economic growth, increasing demand from its growing middle class, improvements in infrastructure, political stability, health and education, and Africa could be the next century’s economic growth powerhouse. Nobody can predict the growth trajectory with accuracy, but Africa is poised for growth. Profile: The Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) is the regional stock exchange of the member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The Exchange is located in Abidjan but maintains market offices in each of the affiliated countries. Being both an economic and political institution, the BRVM is governed by the provisions of the OHADA Uniform Act relating to Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups. The operations of the Exchange are entirely digital making it a technical success story on the continent. Dealing members therefore need not be present on the premises of the central office but can engage from their own offices which the bourse guarantees equal access regardless of the economic operator's location. https://afx.kwayisi.org.

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if you’re not African By Larry Madowo in New York Fri 17 Jul 2020 05.25 EDT

American venture capital and private equity is dominating Africa, but it’s mostly funding other white foreign founders as black entrepreneurs struggle to raise financing “SORRY FOR ASKING, but do you understand that the money belongs to the company and is not your personal fund?” When Jesse Ghansah saw this question in an email from a prominent white investor in San Francisco while fundraising for his first startup four years ago, he refused the deal. The 28-year-old Ghanaian entrepreneur, whose business is in Ghana, and his co-founder found it condescending when they were already in Silicon Valley’s prestigious startup development program Y Combinator. “I really doubt that a white founder would be asked the same. There are a lot of systemic issues as a black founder raising money abroad,” he says. His experience is not uncommon. While many were wary of speaking publicly, African entrepreneurs told the Guardian about humiliation, discrimination, stereotyping and sometimes racism that they endure in interactions with some of the world’s most prominent investors. North America-headquartered investors accounted for 42% of all African venture capital deals in the last five years, according to the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Only 20% of venture cash came from Africa-based investors, forcing the continent’s entrepreneurs to seek support from westerners. Of the top 10 African-based startups that received the highest amount of venture capital in Africa last year, eight were led by foreigners, the Guardian’s analysis of public data revealed. In Kenya, for instance, only 6% of startups that 70

November-December 2021

received more than $1m in 2019 were led by locals, a Viktoria Ventures analysis found. In Nigeria, 55% of the big money deals went to local founders and 56% for South Africa. Global heavyweights such as Goldman Sachs, Stanford University, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital have all invested more frequently in African startups with white founders involved than they have invested in firms led exclusively by black Africans. White privilege Advantages that white entrepreneurs have include having a safety net to take time oﬀ to travel to Africa, backgrounds in elite education and better access to US-dominated funding funnels. “It’s obvious that I come from a privileged standpoint,” says Matt Flannery, a white American behind two Africa-facing startups, Kiva and Branch International, which have collectively raised more than $270m, according to the industry website Crunchbase. “I grew up in a relatively wealthy place, I went to Stanford University, I live in the Bay Area. I have dozens of venture capitalists as friends, and obviously that helped me raise money,” he told the Guardian from his home town in Oregon. Flannery said he has always been concerned about the funding gap in Africa and is working to expand access to financing for African entrepreneurs. Across the east African region, only 10% of all funding for startups went to local founders, according to a 2017 study by Village Capital. One exemplar is Twiga Foods, a seven-yearold startup that connects food producers and vendors to markets that has raised $67m. It was co-founded by Peter Njonjo, a Kenyan who was a senior Coca-Cola executive and an OxfordDAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

educated American. Grant Brooke, the co-founder, who is originally from Texas, said he is aware of “a lot of underlying biases and advantages” of his background. “I’ve seen this in real time. When I talk to a venture capitalist who looks like me and has the same educational background, even when I mess up something, they’ll just correct me and write it off as a conversation among colleagues,” he said. “If a black African founder were to do the same, they would see him as ignorant and judge him differently. I don’t even think that’s conscious, but they do it.” Brooke blames the tough conditions for outsiders on those who run funds and the investment committees that make final decisions. In 2018, there were just seven black decision-makers at the 102 largest investment firms in the United States, a survey by the Information showed. Only 1% of venture-backed founders in the US are black, according to the review website RateMyInvestor. At 500 Startups, “the most active early stage venture capital firm in the world”, black people are largely underrepresented. It estimates that only 92 founders identified as Black or African American out of the 2,400 companies it has invested in worldwide. “We look for companies that are globally focused and can scale beyond their home country,” Clayton Bryan, a black Venture Partner at the firm said in a statement. 500 Startups had two African startups out of 29 in its most recent cohort. Gap-year entrepreneurs Senegalese technologist Mariéme Jamme accuses outsiders of bringing a neo-colonialist mentality to the African startup ecosystem and exploiting naive first-time entrepreneurs. “Many Africans have had their intellectual property stolen so they don’t own their ideas or their companies,” says Jamme, the UK-based founder of the non-profit iamtheCODE. She says some have nicknamed her an “angry black woman” for calling out the power imbalance. Twiga’s Brooke, who met his Kenyan co-founder while studying for his doctorate degree at Oxford, understands why it is easy for expatriates to set up shop in Kenya. “There’s a lot of young westerners who can afford to take off a year or two of their life 71

November-December 2021

and not have income and try to start something because their parents will support them,” he says. “Kenyans can’t even move to America without having a job, yet Americans can move to Kenya legally.” Stephen Gugu, a co-founder of ViKtoria Angel Business Network in Kenya, has followed the flow of capital into the so-called Silicon Savannah but noticed that foreigners sell their vision better. “In all honesty, the expatriate founders pitch better than we Kenyans do. They’re able to paint this picture of an Africa that is full of opportunity,” he said. “Local founders are not as aggressive in their pitches. At times there’s no substance but they [foreigners] are good at telling the story even when they have no context.” A white founder is 47,000% more likely to be funded in Kenya than in the US, the Seattle-based author and entrepreneur Roble Musse calculated based on 2018 disclosures. White people make up less than 1% of the population. He discovered that 65% of expatriate founders – mainly from the US, the UK, Italy, Denmark and Germany – had not even lived in Kenya before they started their companies. The ignorance about the African market by the deepest-pocketed investors has stunted many indigenous youths on the continent with promising ideas. “If I was white, my idea would have been taken at face value. But because I’m black, I need to go the extra mile, I need to make sure that my education level is right, that my product actually does what I say it does,” says South African polymer technologist Nomahlubi Nazo. She quit her job and took a cosmetic formulation science course before launching her startup, Foi Science. But three years later she is still bootstrapping and looking for seed funding to carry out clinical trials before she can get approval to sell her products. Iyinolowa Aboyeji. The 29-year-old Nigerian cofounded two of the continent’s best-known startups Iyinolowa Aboyeji. The 29-year-old Nigerian co-founded two of the continent’s best-known startups. Photograph: Iyinolowa Aboyeji Iyinolowa Aboyeji blames the structural issues with capital on the continent on local banks and see page 72

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment Deep Pockets

from page 71

pension funds that have not embraced venture capital. The 29-year-old Nigerian is one of the most successful African entrepreneurs of his generation, having co-founded two of the continent’s best-known startups, the payments company Flutterwave and Andela, which outsources African software developers to global companies. “I think it is too easy for people to make this a white or black issue but that only benefits privileged Africans with Ivy League degrees and MBAs who believe funding should be given to them on a platter just because of their skin color,” emailed E, as he is known. “Two of my six co-founders for Andela might have been white but I actually think it hurt our earliest fundraising almost as much as it might have helped us. It is not easy to believe a white man or woman will know what they are doing in Africa. Our presence actually helped assuage a lot of investors that they weren’t throwing money into some white savior project.” His financing initiative, called Future Africa, allows anybody to fund the continent’s innovators with at least $10,000. The first deal was fully funded within 72 hours, the second in six hours, both for over $100,000. “If we in Africa keep denying young people opportunities to make mistakes and impact and then go on to blame racism for the discrepancies in funding, we are only interested in point[ing] fingers, not in the deep structural changes that are in our power to make to turn the situation around,” he wrote. Jesse Ghansah has recently just closed a round of funding from both African and foreign investors for his second startup and believes the tide is slowly turning. He is now the founder and CEO of financial technology company Swipe but the Ghanaian knows there is still work to do. “The yardstick used to judge African founders is really diﬀerent. Most of the investors are white, so having a white founder on your team helps,” he said. More local venture capital funds and angel investors are getting started on the continent to address the absence of patient capital and the funding disparity. Ingressive Capital by Maya Horgan Famodu, a 72

November-December 2021

29-year-old Nigerian American, is one of them. It just doubled the size of its three-year-old fund to $10m to invest in “early stage tech-enabled startups” in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa. “There are so many brilliant youths across the continent who just need a little bit of access and introduction or seed financing to build the next billion-dollar business,” she says of her mission. This article was amended on 6 August 2020. An earlier version listed “global heavyweights” who it said had invested in companies “started by white founders in Africa more frequently than they have invested in firms led by black Africans”. This should have said in companies that included white founders rather than those led exclusively by black Africans. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has pointed out that of its two start-up investments in Africa, one — Andela — had a mixed team of black and white founders. www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/17/ african-businesses-black-entrepreneurs-usinvestors Image credit: restofworld.org

Stars Invest i Technology F

By Jeroslyn Johnson LEBRON JAMES, NAOMI OSAKA, AND DRAKE are all making money moves in the right direction after investing in an emerging sports technology and gaming company in an industry that’s projected to be worth $57 billion by 2027. The champion athletes and Grammy Awardwinning rapper are among the latest group of investors into StatusPRO, a new Black-owned sports tech company that revolutionizes the way coaches, players, and fans experience their favorite DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

IMF OKs Big Increase in Funds to Alleviate Pandemic Impact By MARTIN CRUTSINGER THE GOVERNING BODY of the International Monetary Fund has approved a $650 billion expansion in the agency’s resources to support economically vulnerable countries battling the coronavirus pandemic and the economic downturn it has caused. The 190-nation lending institution said Monday that its board of governors approved the expansion of its reserves known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the largest increase in the institution’s history. “This is a historic decision ... and a shot in the arm for the global economy at a time of unprecedented crisis,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. “It will particularly help our most vulnerable countries struggling to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.”

in Black-Owned Sports Firm StatusPro

n sports, a press release states. Co-founders Andrew Hawkins (Hawk) and Troy Jones are former NFL players who saw a need to combine the virtual reality world with sports. After securing funding from the likes of KB Partners, TitletownTech, Greycroft, Verizon Ventures, Haslam Sports Group, 49ers Enterprises, and SC Holdings, Hawkins and Jones sought to secure investments from professionals with a track record of building sustainable businesses in sport, entertainment, and technology. StatusPRO combines player data and XR (augmented reality and virtual reality) to create a virtual hub of training and fan engagement products for sports enterprises and consumers, according 73

November-December 2021

The general allocation of SDRs will become effective on Aug. 23. The IMF said that the new reserves will be credited to IMF member countries in proportion to their existing quotas with the agency. About $275 billion of the new allocation will go to the world’s poorer countries. The agency is also looking into ways richer countries could voluntarily channel SDRs to poorer countries, the agency said. The big boost in IMF resources had been rejected by the Trump administration. But after President Joe Biden took office in January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen threw her support behind the proposal. Many Republican members of Congress objected to the SDR increase, saying that the expanded IMF resources would benefit U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran. However, the increase in resources was strongly supported by international relief agencies. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-businesshealth-coronavirus-pandemic-7d5ca23b17bde063 a4d599b44f686e77

to a press release. Currently, the company works alongside multiple NFL teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL Players Association, and the NCAA. Hawkins and Jones are breaking glass ceilings in the world of sports and tech. Representing less than 1% of Black entrepreneurs in the field, over half of StatusPRO employees and contractors consists of former athletes, and 51% of their funding to date has come from minority-led or owned venture capital firms or venture capitalists. Tennis champion Osaka has expressed her excitement to partner with StatusPRO and what the company has in store for the VR industry. “I look for investment opportunities that can have a lasting impact on culture and society – and StatusPRO is poised to do that,” Osaka said. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-businesshealth-coronavirus-pandemic-7d5ca23b17bde063 a4d599b44f686e77

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Google will now offer African Startups more than No-Strings Cash and Ofϔice Space By Alexander Onukwue

AT A VIRTUAL EVENT ON WEDNESDAY (OCT. 6), Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said his company will invest $1 billion in Africa over five years to build a subsea internet cable, support nonprofits, and fund businesses. The cable, named Equiano after the Nigeriaborn 18th-century abolitionist, has been in the works since 2019 when it was first announced. It will connect Africa to Europe, and increases Google’s global internet infrastructure that includes Dunant—which stretches from Virginia Beach in the US to the French Atlantic coast—and Curie, which connects Chile to Los Angeles. Google is “making tremendous progress” on constructing the branches of Equiano that will land in Nigeria, Namibia, St. Helena, and South Africa, according to Nitin Gajria, the company’s managing director for Africa. When completed, the cable will “provide approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve Africa” and reduce internet prices by 21%, Gajria said. Equiano is one of two subsea internet cable projects by Big Tech companies in Africa, in addition to Facebook’s 2Africa which was expanded this month to cover 26 countries. But Google is getting into a space that Facebook hasn’t entered yet: directly funding African startups with venture capital. Google is Africa’s latest big name VC One highlight of the event was when Onajite Emerhor, who leads Google’s startup accelerator in Africa, announced that 50 entrepreneurs will get a share of a $3 million fund for Black founders in Africa. The initiative resonates because even though Africa is a predominantly Black continent, white privilege has sometimes crowded out Black founders. Some of the 50 have already raised six-figure funding from investors, but Google’s equity-free money comes with perks like credits for cloud 74

November-December 2021

storage which, for early-stage startups, frees up cash for other needs. The package is similar to what the company’s startup accelerator program has offered to over 80 early-stage startups since 2017 in Africa. For growth-stage African companies however, Google now has a $50 million venture capital fund. On a call with journalists, Gajria said check sizes and equity stakes will differ with each startup Google invests in, and that there was no restriction as to sector. The fund will seek out startups “solving real challenges in Africa,” he said. It’s a subjective definition that will become clear when Google starts getting mentioned in African startup funding announcements. But as much as it is a Silicon valley giant, Google will probably not be a tech financing innovator in Africa since it is joining a market square that already features the world’s big name investors, from institutional players like SoftBank, and Tiger Global to strategic tech investors like Mastercard, Visa, Alibaba, and Stripe. Firms backed by Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg have long been active on the continent, helping drive a consistent growth in startup funding over the last decade, and minting unicorns. Can Google look beyond Africa’s big four? That said, Africa is not yet so flush with funding that Google becomes a surplus investor. Indeed, because most funding has stayed in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt, there’s a demand for new money sources that can finance minorities like women-led startups in these countries, as well as entrepreneurs in less-funded regions like Francophone Africa. Google’s five physical offices in Africa are in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo, and Accra, but Gajria said it won’t constrain their ability to seek opportunities across the continent. That remains to DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Sundar Pichai is ready to increase Google's Africa presence

be seen because for now at least, these countries have first dibs on Google’s other business plan for Africa – a $10 million fund that will issue lowinterest loans to small businesses in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. It will be managed by Kiva, a California-based non-profit microfinance company. From a technology perspective, the day’s other notable announcement was that Google now runs 75

November-December 2021

a financing partnership with Safaricom for Kenyans to buy Android smartphones, and plans to do the same with other telcos like Airtel, MTN, Orange, and Vodacom in other countries. https://qz.com/africa/2070161/google-is-africaslatest-big-name-investor-with-50-million-fund Image credit: SCREENSHOT/YOUTUBE, blog. google, benjamindada.com, google cloud

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

The Most Popular Digital Bank in Almost Every Country in the World By Brian Cohen THE 20TH-CENTURY DREAM was to put every shop and service under one roof, be it a mall or a Ballardian high-rise apartment complex. But the 21st century took that ideal and put it in a little black box. Banks, shops, and even your gym now fit neatly into your phone. Malls have become ghost towns, and everyone’s moving to the country. Digital banks — including neobanks — are the pinnacle of this ideal: • A digital bank is an online-only offshoot from an established IRL banking service, e.g. Openbank (Santander). • A neobank is an app-based banking service not associated with a traditional bank, e.g. Chime. It might not technically be a ‘bank’ if, rather than have a charter, it partners with a chartered institution. A digital bank allows you to plan and micro-manage your own finances, but with the support of artificial intelligence, a carefully designed app interface, and powerful data analysis under the hood. And as cryptocurrency goes mainstream, neobanks are in prime position to make handling your crypto feel like second nature. However, there are so many new digital banks popping up that it’s hard to know where to start. So, BusinessFinancing. co.uk crunched some numbers of our own, analysing Google search data to reveal the most popular (most-searched) digital bank in every country. https://thegate.boardingarea.com/ the-most-popular-digital-bankin-almost-every-country-in-theworld/?utm_medium=Flipboard&utm_ source=BoardingArea 77

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Jay-Z’S Marcy Venture Partners Invests in 24-Year-Old Technologist, Spatial Labs Founder Iddris Sandu By Alexa Imani Spencer

JAY-Z’S MARCY VENTURE PARTNERS added another blockchain investment to its profile with a recent collaboration with spatial LABS (sLABS), a tech incubator that focuses on the metaverse and blockchain-based products. The incubator’s founder, 24-year-old technologist Iddris Sandu, has built an impressive resume since he began working with big brands at 13-years-old. He and his company’s past partnerships include Apple, Google, Facebook, Uber, Instagram, Beyoncé’s Ivy Park, Kayne West’s Yeezy, and Rihanna’s Fenty line, Billboard reports. The Ghana-born and southern California-raised tech founder also partnered with Nipsey Hussle’s The Marathon Clothing Store. “Iddris has a conscious world view and a youthcentric vision that is innovative and refreshing to witness,” JAY-Z said in a statement. “We share similar parallels in how we imagine impacting 78

November-December 2021

people in our lifetime. Partnering with him on this journey and others is very exciting.” sLABS is preparing to launch its debut product, LNQ, next year. According to Billboard, with LNQ, a blockchainenabled hardware platform, Sandu intends to “provide young creators with better tools to utilize the metaverse as it becomes a reality.” “JAY-Z has always been at the forefront of cultural evolution and identifying the next leaders…Aligning with Marcy Venture Partners assists with our vision for elevating the youth as it relates to access and a means to true technological empowerment,” Sandu said, “The lasting impact of this relationship is not simply defined by the work we’re doing now, but by the immeasurable impact for generations of creators to come,” he continued. This venture is but one of Marcy Venture Partners’ recent tech investments. The firm began supporting Bitski, a San Francisco-based startup NFT marketplace, earlier this year. The collaboration was part of a $19 million investment backed by a team of investors including Roc Nation’s co-founder Jay Brown, Troy Carter, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and 3LAU. https://gumroad.com/l/njrzl Image credit: Lenny “kodaklens” Santiago DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners Closes Second Fund with $325 Million in Capital Commitments By Jeﬀrey McKinney

JAY-Z’S MARCY VENTURE PARTNERS has closed its second fund with $325 million in capital commitments. The venture firm, which closed its debut fund with $85 million, is now managing $600 million in assets altogether, says co-founder Larry Marcus, TechCrunch reported. It was co-founded in 2018 by Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), former Roc Nation CEO Jay Brown and former Walden VC general partner Marcus. Marcy Venture Partners is among the holdings of JAY Z, Hip Hop’s first billionaire and “Hard Knock Life” rapper. The aim of the co-founders is to drive the consumer and mass-market to allow culture to transcend across products, services, media and technology. Also describing itself as having a “consumer, culture and positive impact” investment strategy, the firm reports most of its existing portfolio companies are founded or run by people who identify as women or people of color. The firm is focused on pushing forward its key values, which consist of empowerment, inclusivity and accessibility. To date, the venture capital firm has allocated funds to 21 companies, including skincare, food companies, and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty. The fund reportedly firm led a $70 million funding round for the lingerie company. Marcy Venture Partners has had a busy year and continues to proceed briskly. In May, Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners dabbled into crypto projects

November-December 2021

investing in Bitski — an NFT marketplace based in San Francisco. It reputedly has also invested in spatial LABS, a tech incubator founded by Ghana-born Iddris Sandu (see page 78). Jay-Z and tennis champion Serena Williams joined the cryptocurrency wave by investing nearly $20 million into NFT platform Bitski. As NFT sales keep surging, the Brooklyn emcee and pro athlete deemed it necessary to get their piece of the pie. Bitski prides itself in being “the Shopify of NFTs” and will continue developing its platform after closing a $19 million Series A funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz, Forbes reports. www.blackenterprise.com/jay-zs-marcy-venturepartners-closes-second-fund-with-325-million-incapital-commitments Image credit: Jay-Z Architectural Digest DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment

W Gl tha Pe

By D

WORLDCOIN IS UNVEILING a new global cryptocurrency that will be given to every human on earth. It has raised $25 million at a $1 billion valuation. Coming out of stealth recently, the company is unveiling hardware device, dubbed an Orb, for the first time, along with testing data that suggests it could onboard its first billion people into crypto within the next two years. Cofounded by Alex Blania, Sam Altman and Max Novendstern, Worldcoin plans to create a new global digital currency that is fairly distributed and used by as many people as possible. Its investors include Andreesen Horowitz, the big Silicon Valley investment company that has made a lot of cryptocurrency bets. Altman is president of Y Combinator and CEO of OpenAI. To rapidly get its new currency into the hands of as many people as possible, the project lets

November-December 2021

everyone claim a free share of it. While a globally adopted cryptocurrency would open social and economic doors for billions of people, cryptocurrency as a technology is still in the early stages of adoption, so far only reaching about 3% of the world’s overall population. Worldcoin hopes to change this, rapidly, the company said.

How it works Prospective users will be able to claim their free share by using one of the thousands of Orbs that will be operated by independent entrepreneurs around the globe. The Orb is a secure custom hardware device that captures an image of a prospective user’s eyes to DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Worldcoin Launches a lobal Cryptocurrency at will be Given to Every erson on Earth

Dean Takahashi @deantak

determine whether the user is real and whether they have claimed their free share yet. This is done by converting the image of the eye into a numeric code, which means that the original image does not need to be stored or uploaded. The numeric code is also not linked to the user’s wallet or transactions, further preserving user privacy. In contrast to the practice of many centralized services used by most people today, no other personal information is required. Additionally, users who want to participate in the Worldcoin network without ever visiting an Orb will be able to do so, albeit without receiving their free share of the currency.

up to Worldcoin. Given the sign-up rates seen so far and expected orb deployment rates, Worldcoin would be on pace to onboard more users than all cryptocurrencies combined within a year of its launch. Should this trajectory be maintained, over a billion people would be onboarded within two years. There are already 25 independent entrepreneurs, or Orb Operators, actively testing more than 30 Orbs in 12 countries across four continents (Africa, South America, Europe and Asia). In the coming months, the scale of these tests is expected to increase as hundreds more devices and Orb Operators come on-line. After an initial production ramp-up phase, over 4,000 Orbs will be distributed per month, or 50,000 per year. So far, the average Operator has signed up around 700 people per Orb per week.

An inclusive plan Orb operators will scan people in without needing any other personal identification. To ensure that Worldcoin is both inclusive and useful to all users, the team is also developing a wallet app that anyone can understand and use. The wallet app will allow users to participate in global peer-to-peer payments throughout the existing Ethereum ecosystem, learn about the project and other cryptocurrencies, and find Orb Operators to claim their Worldcoin. The wallet will be non-custodial, which allows users to retain direct control of their Worldcoin. Worldcoin will launch its protocol on top of Ethereum, the cryptocurrency protocol, as a Layer 2. This will both significantly improve its transaction throughput and energy efficiency as compared to Ethereum, a network which will soon transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. (That means it will use less energy for blockchain transactions). The Worldcoin protocol will be completely permissionless and operated by independent validators.

Big investors Institutional investors include Andreesen Horowitz (Series A Lead), 1confirmation, A wide ide reach More than 100,000 people from different Blockchange, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, see page 82 countries around the world have already signed 81

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Investment Cryptocurrency

from page 81

Day One Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Fifty Years, Hypersphere, HASHED, Kenetic Capital, Multicoin, Three Arrows Capital, and more. Angel investors include Reid Hoffman (CoFounder of LinkedIn), Sam Bankman-Fried (Founder of FTX), Denis Nazarov (formerly a16z, founder of Mirror.xyz), Jesse Walden (formerly a16z, Founder of Variant Fund), and the founders and early team members from Solana, multiple Ethereum projects, Polkadot and Web3 Foundation, and more. Worldcoin will use the capital from its latest funding round to ramp up Orb distribution and build its team as it prepares for a global launch. Worldcoin has 70 employees. Altman had the idea to launch a new global currency by airdropping it to every human on earth. The motivation was simple. Crypto is here to stay, but so far it has failed to reach mass adoption. And a global, commonly owned currency, held by billions, could improve equality of opportunity for everyone. He started working on the project with

Blania and Novendstern in 2019. Asked why it’s going to have an edge on the existing giants of cryptocurrency — Bitcoin and Ethereum — the company said there is no purchase necessary and no long sign-up process. By giving away coins, it can skip a lot of steps that make crypto hard to understand and get into. Since it is a Layer 2 on Ethereum, it is compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem, and it will have bridges to other protocols like Solana and Polkadot. In order to pull off the global launch of a cryptocurrency that is given to everyone on earth for free using a secure, custom hardware device, lots of things need to come together. The main reasons for raising so much money have to do with the development, manufacturing, and deployment of the Orbs and hiring a team that can pull off the global launch. https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/21/worldcoinlaunches-a-global-cryptocurrency-that-will-begiven-to-every-person-on-earth Image credit: Worldcoin

Image credit: iStock, carbonafrica.co.ke 82

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

This 29-year-old Left his Job, and now He's on Track to Build a $1,000,000 Software Development Company By Charlene Rhinehart

TECH ENTREPRENEUR Oladosu Teyibo founded software company Analog Team in 2018. Now, the 29-year-old is on track to net seven figures in 2021, according to Business Insider. Analog Team was cofounded by Oladosu Teyibo, Myesha Luster, and Yao Adantor to connect diverse talent to tech companies. The software company works with tech firms that are looking to build transformative software products. Analog Team acts as a matchmaker, identifying the needs and developing the solutions. Tech firms collaborate with individuals from underrepresented communities to power their digital business. Teyibo’s work isn’t limited to the United States. He provides opportunities to African engineers who want to work with startups in the United States. For decades, India has been the primary outsourcing destination for IT services. Teyibo’s goal is to make Africa a go-to resource for talent. “There is not a pipeline issue or a knowledge gap,” Teyibo told Insider. “It’s just about providing opportunities and looking for the gems that are in the rough.” Teyibo is Using Tech and Innovation to Build His Software Development Company Africa’s emerging tech landscape is unlocking a wealth of opportunities. Teyibo is positioning his business to be on the cusp of change and leverage the talent in Africa. “The world is on the “precipice of innovation and change,” and positioning oneself as a business leader early can pay oﬀ in the long run,” Teyibo told Insider. “In the next 10 or 20 years, you can actually 83

November-December 2021

have a say in where we go as a global community.” Prior to launching A n a l o g T e a m , Teyibo pursued a degree in information systems technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Then, he spent some time at the Cyber Innovation Center. It’s a not-for-profit corporation on a mission to “develop a sustainable knowledge-based workforce that can support the growing needs of government, industry, and academic partners.” While at the company, he managed mergers and acquisitions. In 2016, Teyibo decided to shift directions. He left his job at Cyber Innovation Center and pursued the path of entrepreneurship. For aspiring or new entrepreneurs who want to build an impactful business, Teyibo oﬀers these words of wisdom: “The most important thing about building a business is to be the last one standing. The right way to do that is to constantly innovate.” www.blackenterprise.com/this-29-year-oldleft-his-job-and-now-hes-on-track-to-build-a1000000-software-development-company

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Climate Crisis

They Pulled 63,000 Pounds of Trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but That's Just the Start By Jay Cannon

A FRIDGE, TOILET SEATS, AND MORE than 63,000 pounds of trash. That's what a cleanup team recovered in a monthslong eﬀort to chip away at the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive collection of marine debris plaguing the Pacific Ocean. A half-mile long trash-trapping system named "Jenny" was sent out in late July to collect waste, pulling out many items that came from humans like toothbrushes, VHS tapes, golf balls, shoes and fishing gear. Jenny made nine trash extractions over the 12-week cleanup phase, with one extraction netting nearly 20,000 pounds of debris by itself. The mountain of recovered waste arrived in British Columbia, Canada, in October, with much of it set to be recycled. Crew sorts through marine debris collected by The Ocesn Cle But this was not a one-oﬀ initiative. In Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup fact, it was simply a testing phase. And the cleanup team is hoping it's only the start of more to come: more equipment, more extractions and cleaner oceans.

Ramping up the Cleanup The catalyst behind the cleaning is The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit trying to rid the world's oceans of plastic. Boyan Slat, who founded the organization in 2013 at the age of 18, called the most recent testing phase a success, but said there's still much to be done. The 27-year-old from the Netherlands said the group can enter a new phase of cleanup after testing eased some scalability concerns and proved that the system could accomplish what it was designed to do: collect debris. 84

November-December 2021

A cleaning system named "Jenny" was created by Th Ocean Collective to collect mass amounts of waste from Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

“The goal wasn’t to maximize catch, otherwise the operation would’ve looked a lot diﬀerent," Slat told USA TODAY. “The primary goal was to collect data, not plastic." The testing phase was a step forward in completing the organization's lofty set of goals. It hopes to deploy enough cleaning systems to reduce the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 50% every five years and to initiate a 90% reduction in floating ocean plastic by 2040. Netting 63,000 pounds of trash is an eyepopping number, but it pales in comparison to the enormity of the patch, which covers an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France, according to The Ocean Cleanup. The group estimates the inner part of patch contains more than 1.8 trillion pieces of eanup in October 2021. plastic that amount to roughly 88,000 tons, though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cautions that it's tough to make a true estimate on its size due to constantly changing borders and content. The patch is fueled in part by a steady stream of trash and debris that flows from rivers into oceans. A peer-reviewed study published in 2017 estimated between 1.27 million and 2.66 million tons of plastic waste flows into oceans via rivers every year. Another study, published in April, put that estimation between 880,000 and 3 million tons. If it doesn't wash right back onto shore, debris e fl owing in from rivers can be pushed by ocean m the currents and end up in the North Pacific Gyre, one of the world's five major gyres and the 85

November-December 2021

glue that holds the Great Pacific Garbage Patch together. That's where Slat hopes build up a fleet of cleaning systems that can greatly reduce the size of the waste patch over time. Slat said The Ocean Cleanup will shift its focus back to cleaning the patch on Friday, October 29th, when Jenny, the prototype cleaning system, gets deployed back into the Pacific to collect anywhere from 22,000 to 33,000 pounds of waste every week. While Jenny tackles the garbage patch, The Ocean Cleanup will work on a larger, full-scale cleaning system set to be released in summer 2022 that expects to be the blueprint for creating a fleet of systems. Slat projects they will need 10 full-scale systems to clean the patch at a rate of just under 20,000 tons per year, which would put the group on par to reach its goal of reducing the mass by 50% in five years. Reducing the existing patch is only one phase of the battle, though. “We need to clean the legacy, but we also need to tackle the source,” Slat said. The Ocean Cleanup plans to roll out new devices called "Interceptors" that aim to trap waste in rivers before they enter the ocean. The solarpowered contraptions, which closely resemble a boat, use a long barrier to direct waste towards a conveyor belt that drops all the debris into dumpsters. Three "Interceptors" are already up and running in rivers around the world: one in Indonesia, one in Malaysia and one in the Dominican Republic. Another one, in Vietnam, is installed but it not yet operational, a spokesperson from The Ocean Cleanup said.

Where Does all the Waste Go? Getting trash out of the ocean is a herculean task in itself, but perhaps just as important is what to do with it once it's on dry land. The Ocean Cleanup says 95% of the plastic it collects can be recycled. The organization has already begun turning that plastic into products like sunglasses to be sold on its website. Slat said the see page 86

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

◄ An "interceptor" is shown in the Rio Ozama in Santo Domingo, Dominica Republic August 2020. The contraption is designed to clean debris from rivers before it reaches the ocean. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup

► A conveyor belt moves waste onto an "interceptor" in the Klang River in Selangor, Malaysia. The device was developed by The Ocean Cleanup to collect debris from rivers. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean Cleanup

from page 85

group will soon pivot away from sunglasses and is in contact with brands to create other products. For other objects like wood, glass and the remaining plastic that can't be recycled, the group manages the waste in accordance with local legislations as it explores alternative recycling options, a group spokesperson said. Turning ocean waste into products is one stream of income for the nonprofit, which will be relying heavily on funding as it looks towards scaling up its fleet of cleaning systems and taking aim at its sky-high goals. “Honestly, we can go faster if the resources are available. It’s really just a question of money," he said.

November-December 2021

The Ocean Cleanup says it receives funding from philanthropic, commercial and governmental donations and sponsorships. Funding is one of many hurdles that lie ahead for The Ocean Cleanup and for Slat, who embarked on this journey after he went on a scuba diving trip when he was 16 and saw "more plastic bags than fish." “Last week, seeing the plastic on the ship, seeing all these containers being oﬄoaded, I know it’s still a long journey ahead, but ... it was quite a relief," Slat said. “It’s within the realm of possibility for the first time since the invention of plastic that we can clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/10/29/ great-pacific-garbage-patch-ocean-cleanup-nets63000-pounds-trash/6138815001/ DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Google and New York Times Unite to Change How Skin Tones Are Seen in Digital Storytelling By Natalie Venegas

WHEN IT COMES to representation in the media and documenting diverse stories, it’s clear the need for more representation is not only necessary, but has been a continuously expressed need by marginalized communities with the rapidly changing media and social landscape In an eﬀort to spark progress in telling those diverse stories Google recently announced the Pixel 6, a smartphone powered by a new photography initiative called Real Tone, which uses machine learning to photograph a wide range of skin tones more accurately. The brand is calling the device “the most inclusive smartphone yet.” To further demonstrate what Real Tone can produce, Google collaborated with The New York Times’ advertising department and its creative studio, T Brand, to develop a creative launch campaign called “Picture Progress.” The two-minute campaign video features three photographers as they discuss how they use the tool to tell authentic, diverse stories. “Picture Progress” uses short films to illustrate how color photo technology has evolved through the years as BIPOC creators describe their vision for the future of image equity. “As a part of our ongoing commitment to product inclusion, we want to be sure our camera and imagery products work for everyone,” Daryl Butler, Google’s vp of marketing, devices and services, Google said in a statement. “With Real Tone on Pixel 6, we’ve partnered with industry experts to ensure that users of all skin tones feel accurately and beautifully seen. We’re excited to be able to collaborate with The New York Times’ T Brand to showcase how Real Tone can be a tool for representative storytelling.”

Although Google e is not the firstt to implementt technology that better represents an expansive range of skin tones, T Brand is helping the brand explore the creative element of storytelling at a deeper level. For Vida Cornelious, vp creative of NYT advertising, the collaboration represents a future where our archives achieve peak accuracy. “At T Brand, we are committed to telling accurate, authentic stories, celebrating all aspects of diversity,” Cornelious shared in a statement. “‘Picture Progress’ explores image equity as our pathway to equalizing our visual history. The creative started by asking, ‘How much more representative could our history look going forward if we are able to record it accurately? What more could we see in our past if we were conscious of how we were capturing it?’ The ‘Picture Progress’ campaign is a moment to see the diversity and beauty of the nuanced stories captured in our skin.” “Taking a selfie and being able to see your hair texture captured in detail, or being in a group photo with friends and seeing a spectrum of beautiful, human colors is a definite sign of progress,” a T Brand rep continued. “Capturing all the nuances of skin color and texture are important in how a human story is crafted and ultimately understood. Image equity will make the diﬀerence in how we celebrate ourselves.” The campaign launched in October in a paid post on The New York Times online, in print and across the platform’s digital suite. www.adweek.com/creativity/google-and-newyork-times-unite-to-change-how-skin-tones-areseen-in-digital-storytelling/

Accurate Representation 87

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Black Company Raises $2.4 Million to Build Technology for CrossBorder Commerce in Africa By Jeﬀrey McKinney

A TECH STARTUP THAT provides borderless e-commerce payment services among its offerings, Klasha, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding to scale up. The firm will use the funding to help international businesses take in online payments in African currencies from consumers continent-wide and give the merchants the money in their preferred currency, Pymnts.com reported. Now available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, Klasha plans to add three new countries in the fourth quarter to a customer base of 10,000. “By 2025, half of the world’s population will live in Africa,” Klasha Founder and CEO Jessica Anuna said. “It is imperative that African consumers are able to remain globally competitive, which includes having access to the goods they want without payment or delivery restrictions.” The “Motherland Continent” offers strong potential growth opportunity for Klasha. Analysts report the value of e-commerce in Africa is expected to reach $29 billion next year. Yet, Africans still find it difficult to make international payments for products online, TechCrunch reported. Klasha reports Nigerians alone spend $12 billion online annually and are set to increase that to $25 billion by 2025. Based in Lagos and San Francisco, the startup, sees a niche in cross-border commerce and provides multiple integrations to help simplify transactions. Founded by Anuna in 2018, the firm initially focused on making it easier for Africans to buy products from global fashion retailers.

November-December 2021

But now, Anuna says the firm has several features and a new business model focused on helping Africans make payments and get the goods they want—as long aren’t perishable—despite their location. Since Klasha relaunched in May, TechCrunch disclosed the firm has processed over 20,000 transactions and claims to be growing 366% monthly. It generates revenue via sales commissions and subscriptions retailers pay to use Klasha for analytics and help check how their products are faring in diﬀerent markets. “For a lot of these retailers, this is the first time they’ve ever sold into Africa before. So we oﬀer a complete end-to-end e-commerce suite for them as opposed to having to use disjointed services that aren’t interconnected with technology,” Anuna said. www.blackenterprise.com/black-company-raises2-4-million-to-build-technologyfor-cross-border-commerce-inafrica/

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

Founder of Tribl Messaging App for Pan-African Commerce has a Plan for a New Black Wall Street By Black Enterprise IKECHI NWABUISI, founder & CEO of TRiBL, calls for a “New Black Wall Street,” oﬀering a bold vision on how Blacks around the world can create generational wealth by building oﬀ some of the many lessons learned 100 years after the famed Greenwood community in Tulsa was destroyed. Nwabuisi, a Nigerian-American, is the founder and CEO at TRiBL, a messaging app for PanAfrican commerce, says that while it’s a great time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the horrific “Black Wall Street” massacre where nearly 300 people were killed and 35 acres of businesses and homes were destroyed. He says a strategic plan is needed to lay the groundwork for a new global digital wealth strategy built on community and e-commerce. “I can’t tell you how angry I am that this part of our nation’s history was hidden for so long,” Nwabuisi says. “More importantly, the seemingly sudden awareness about the success of those brave Black men and women only validates the false narrative that lives in the media on why Black people can’t create wealth, leading us to approach the problem incorrectly.” Here are three other key components of his strategy: 1. Leverage Black consumer buying power. The $1.4 trillion Black consumer buying power should be used to create the new Black Wall Street. Focus on Black excellence; the power of community; and, the importance of unity. In the year since the death of George Floyd, there is the need to create a blueprint for wealth creation within our communities. He points out that, according to BankGreenwood.com, a dollar circulates six hours in the Black community, 20 days in the Jewish community, and 30 89

November-December 2021

days in the Asian community. 2. Promote and celebrate buy Black initiatives. Nwabuisi says Blacks around the world should take greater control of their own destinies and move from words to actions to understand these three valuable lessons that can be applied today: 1) Create wealth within the Black community; 2) Buy Black; and 3) Create safe spaces/communities where majority of commerce is Black-owned. The tragedies of the past year have fueled a new energy in buying Black. #BlackWallStreet, #BuyBlack and #BankBlack are trending. WeBuyBlack.com has become one of the largest online marketplaces for Black-owned businesses. The Oﬃcial Black Wall Street app oﬀers another invaluable tool for Blackowned businesses and consumers. 3. Invest in technology. Nwabuisi says that there needs to a greater investment in technology to create social networks that allow Blacks around the world to have greater access to blockchain. Community plus commerce plus technology, he says, are the tools for Blacks to accumulate longterm wealth. “The new Black Wall Street empowers us to retrain our community with a community-first mentality that will significantly shift our behavior,” Nwabuisi says. “Group economics amongst Black people around the world will enable us to take advantage of some of the biggest wealth creation events which will occur over the next 50 years, i.e., emerging market real estate/infrastructure, blockchain, cryptocurrency, etc. With the power of our global community, we have the potential to tap into more than $2.5 trillion in Pan-African commerce.” Nwabuisi’s app, TRiBL, is an all-in-one crypto platform that uses a Discord meets CashApp like experience to pool money and streamline commerce within Black communities across the U.S., Nigeria and more. The company has partnered with VISA and crypto firms Circle Internet Financial & Paxos Brokerage Firm to enable interoperable exchange of digital currencies worldwide. www.blackenterprise.com/founder-of-triblmessaging-app-for-pan-african-commerce-has-aplan-for-a-new-black-wall-street/ This story first appeared on Blacknews.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science - Ethical Concerns

Ethical AI Trained on Reddit Posts Said Genocide is OK if it Makes People Happy By Matthew Gault

ASK DELPHI, A PIECE of machine learning software that algorithmically generates answers to any ethical question you ask it and that had a brief moment of internet fame in October, shows us exactly why we shouldn’t want artificial intelligence handling any ethical dilemmas. Is it OK to rob a bank if you’re poor? It’s wrong, according to Ask Delphi. Are men better than women? They’re equal, according to Ask Delphi. Are women better than men? According to the AI, “it’s expected.” So far, not too bad. But Ask Delphi also thought that being straight was more morally acceptable than being gay, that aborting a baby was murder, and that being a white man was more morally acceptable than being a black woman. According to the researchers behind the project, AI is rapidly becoming more powerful and widespread, and scientists must teach these machine learning systems morality and ethics. “Extreme-scale neural networks learned from raw internet data are ever more powerful than we anticipated, but to what extent can they learn to behave in an ethically-informed and sociallyaware manner?” Ask Delphi explains on its Q and A page. “Delphi demonstrates both the promises and the limitations of language-based neural models when taught with ethical judgments made by people.” Delphi is based on a machine learning model called Unicorn that is pre-trained to perform “common sense” reasoning, such as choosing the most plausible ending to a string of text. Delphi was further trained on what the researchers call the “Commonsense Norm Bank,” which is a compilation of 1.7 million examples of people’s

November-December 2021

ethical judgments from datasets pulled from sources like Reddit’s Am I the Asshole? subreddit. To benchmark the model’s performance on adhering to the moral scruples of the average redditor, the researchers employ Mechanical Turk workers who view the AI’s decision on a topic and decide if they agree. Each AI decision goes to three different workers who then decide if the AI is correct. Majority rules. Like other AIs, Ask Delphi can be remarkably dumb. AI researcher Mike Cook shared a number of terrible answers the AI gave on Twitter. But Ask Delphi also learns fast and has been updated several times since its initial launch. On October 27 Vox reported that the AI said genocide was OK as long as it made everyone happy. If you ask that question the exact same way now, Ask Delphi will tell you it’s wrong. “I think it’s dangerous to base algorithmic decision making determinations on what Reddit users think morality is,” Os Keyes, a PhD student at the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centred Design & Engineering, told Motherboard. “The decisions that an algorithm is going to be asked to make are going to be very different from the decisions that a human is going to be asked to make. They’re going to be in different situations, but also, but if you think about the things on Reddit forums are, by definition, to a human, moral quandaries.” Mar Hicks, a Professor of History at Illinois Tech specializing in gender, labor, and the history of computing, was also taken aback by Ask Delphi when it launched. “I was confused and concerned as to why this project was put on the open web, inviting people to use it,” they told Motherboard. “It seemed irresponsible. Almost immediately it returned

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

incredibly unethical responses—in terms of being racist, sexist, and homophobic, and sometimes also in terms of being complete nonsense. It quickly became clear that depending on how you phrased your query you could get the system to agree that anything was ethical—including things like war crimes, premeditated murder, and other clearly unethical actions and behaviours.” Researchers have updated Ask Delphi three times since its initial launch. Recent patches to the moralizing machine include “enhances guards against statements implying racism and sexism.” Ask Delphi also makes sure the user understands it’s an experiment that may return upsetting results. Loading the page now asks the user to click three check boxes acknowledging that it’s a work in progress, that it has limitations, and that it’s collecting data. “Large pretrained language models, such as GPT-3, are trained on mostly unfiltered internet data, and therefore are extremely quick to produce toxic, unethical, and harmful content, especially about minority groups,” Ask Delphi’s new pop up window says. “Delphi’s responses are automatically extrapolated from a survey of US crowd workers, which helps reduce this issue but may introduce its own biases. Thus, some responses from Delphi may contain inappropriate or offensive results. Please be mindful before sharing results.” It’s mission remains the same: to teach robots how to make moral and ethical decisions. Both Keyes and Hicks, and a slew of other AI experts, reject that AI needs to learn ethics and morality. “I think that ensuring AI systems are deployed ethically is a very different thing than teaching the systems ethics. The latter elides responsibility for decision making by placing the decision making within a nonhuman system,” Hicks said. “That is deeply problematic.” Hicks said that many researchers think attempting to teach AI something so complicated as human morality is a fool’s game. At best, the machines tend to reflect an average of humanity’s own morality back at us, and humanity can be pretty twisted. 91

November-December 2021

“It's a simplistic and ultimately fundamentally flawed way of looking at both ethics and at the potential of AI,” they said. “Whenever a system is trained on a dataset, the system adopts and scales up the biases of that data set.” According to Keyes, morality is a complicated idea developed over thousands of years and incubated in humans during their entire life. It’s not something a machine can be taught. “But there are a whole host of moral questions, millions of them, that we have to ask ourselves collectively and individually every single day, which don't feel complicated,” they said. “We have undergone this long period of socialization in our lives, the good or ill, that teaches us like 99 percent of the time, how we are expected to behave. And it's that 1 percent of the remaining time that things ended up in an Abby column or on Reddit. There is no preschool for algorithms to teach them to stop poking Timmy in the eye.” Ask Delphi also reveals the stark limits of machine learning. “It tricks people into thinking AI's capabilities are far greater than they are, and pretends that the technology can be something more than it actually is,” Hicks said. “Too often that leads to systems that are more harmful than helpful, or systems that are very harmful for certain groups even as they help other groups—usually the ones already in power.” Keyes was more blunt. “We’ve spent the past decade with people insisting that general AI is right around the corner and AI is going to change the world, and we’re all going to have Skynet living in our phones and the phones will shit custom antibiotics and piss gold and all the world’s problems will be solved through algorithms.” “The best they can come up with is ‘we made a big pivot table of what Redditors think is interesting and that’s how morality works,” Keyes said. “If you tried to submit that in a level 100 philosophy class you wouldn’t even get laughed out of the room. I think the professor would be too appalled to laugh.” www.vice.com/en/article/v7dg8m/ethical-aitrained-on-reddit-posts-said-genocide-is-okay-ifit-makes-people-happy Image credit: getfundedafrica.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science

African Vibes' Mag Offers List of 10 Education Apps all Parent's Should Know About By Ester Msafari AFRICAN VIBES MAGAZINE has oﬀered us all a list of 10 edtech apps that parents and teachers can use to move our children toward genius status. The list was compiled and published as part of observing World Teacher's Day on October 5th.

#1 - Xander Educational Apps This award-winning app is tailored for children between the ages of 3 and 10. It is designed for children who do not have access to mainstream costiler apps. The Xander apps can teach a child in his or her mother tongue - Shona, Swahili, Zulu, English, Afrikaans and many more. https://xander.co.za/

#4 - Duolingo Learning a language enhances memory skills and problem-solving abilities. This free app introduces African students to European languages such as Swedish, English, German, Italian and others. African languages are accessible also - Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, and Portuguese. Students learn to write and can learn a new word each day. www.duolingo.com

#5 - Daily Art

The budding artist will enjoy using this app as it focuses on Western Fine Art and showcases famous works of art. The students learn about art history and famous #2 - Kytabu fi gures in the art world. Also, the student can delve Kitabu is the Swahili word for book. This app - an african school into the art archive within to view stunning paintins. https://getdailyart.com/en/ online - offers access to a library of books, tests, videos and content #6 - iHomework in an affordable and accessible The volume of assignments at way. The content is available school can be overwhelming. offline for students to learn at their own pace. It is This app helps a student to a lifesave for parents who cannot afford expensive get organized. The students text books. are able to keep track of https://kytabu.africa assignments, homework, exam dates, and to-do #3 - Khan Academy lists. The app has a feature This is a free app that offers that makes it possible for family members to maths and computing studies to pupils of all ages. The content synchronize their activities across other devices. www.ihomeworkapp.com/app/index.html can be downloaded to mobile devices. The app is content rich #7 - This is My Body - Anatomy for Kids and includes videos, aand inThe app makes the subject of depth articles on maths, algebra, anatomy fun to learn. It contains geometry, calculus, and others. It also covers colorful visual elements. basic music notation studies. Parents were involved in the www.khanacademy.org design of the app accompanied by a group of doctors. The app 92

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

if uniquely designed to appeal to both younger and older children. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/my-body-anatomyfor-kids/id545172723

#8 - Toca Lab A student who is new to science will find this app absorbting and inspiring. It oﬀers experiments with the use of virtual lab equipment. In addition, the student will learn about the Periodic Table and get acquainted with all 118 elements. https://tocalab.com

#9 - WhizApp This app focuses on mathematics. The student learns to use mental calculations. This is an excellent way to boost both memory and concentration skills. The app oﬀers lessons

that are challenging and fun at the same time. https://web.whizapp.co

#10 - Complete Physics This free app can be downloaded on Android devices and it covers subjects such as Kinematics, Energy, Momentum, Optics, and others. There are formulas to learn and practicals to try. The app serves as a good physics exam preporation platform. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details

Conclusion By incorporating new teaching tools with the traditional ones, we support learning for the generation that has been eﬀected by the pandemic and all students as we move toward future learning environments and challenges. www.africanvibes.com/world-teachers-day-seeafrican-vibes-list-of-educational-apps-that-willturn-your-kids-to-geniuses

Soon You’ll Be Saying, ‘There’s a Blockchain App for That’ By Olga Kharif

WHEN MARIA-EUGENIA VALLE needed to show proof of vaccination to attend a folk-pop concert in Bogotá in September, she pulled out her phone and opened her VitalPass app, which uses blockchain technology to generate a QR code that allows a venue to verify a user’s status. The digital passport is more reliable than a paper vaccination card, which could easily be faked, the 22-year-old says. “You can trust it more, because it’s got a 93

November-December 2021

thing with blockchain behind it.” Blockchain is best known for supporting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but versions of the technology are fast making their way into many facets of daily life, from vaccine passports to finance, gaming, and cross-border payments. The market for blockchain technology and services is projected to grow to $67.4 billion see page 94

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Technology/Science Blockchain

from page 93

by 2026, from $4.9 billion this year, according to researcher MarketsandMarkets. At its simplest, blockchain is a shared database where digital information is recorded and stored in “blocks” that are eﬀectively immutable, making the data on the chain secure and verifiable. Software code called smart contracts allows the blockchain to take on some functionalities of a bank or a game without any human involvement. “The best

making inroads:

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

About 1.7 billion people in the world are shut out of traditional financial institutions, according to the World Bank, for reasons including lack of a nearby provider or prohibitively high service fees. DeFi apps run via software living on blockchains are open to anyone with an internet connection. These banking alternatives oﬀer accounts that earn interest for digital coins. Consumers can also take out loans or lend their coins to others. Users have pumped more than $110 billion into these products, up from about $21 billion a year ago, according to tracker DeFi Pulse. That said, participating in DeFi carries many risks: There’s no bank to hold your hand, there’s no Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance, and scammers abound. That could change as federal regulators tighten oversight to weed out money laundering and fraud. Even large financial institutions are starting to eye DeFi. Société Générale SA is planning to facilitate a loan of about $28.6 million via such a service early next year. “Today if you take 20 largest clients of the bank, there’s not one single one of them that’s not looking seriously into these solutions,” says Jean-Marc Stenger, chief executive oﬃcer of Société Générale Forge, subsidiary, a blockchain-focused way to think of blockchain is as a computer, with referring to blockchain solutions for capital capabilities we didn’t have before,” says Ali Yahya, a markets. Discussions are now centered on how big general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen blockchain will get, and how quickly that’ll happen, Horowitz. Once a developer writes a program, “the Stenger says. code will continue to operate and run indefinitely.” Many of these new apps reside on decentralized Gaming A frustration among gamers is that they can’t public blockchains, which are open to all and not controlled by any one person or group. VitalPass take their swords or characters from one game to data live on an open digital ledger called Algorand. another, and sometimes they can’t easily sell the On public blockchains, anyone can help verify weapons they win or buy. Blockchain gives players network transactions, and many of them have the chance to profit from their skills. Axie Infinity is proven to be resilient and secure. App developers played by more than 1 million daily active users— who use public blockchain architecture don’t have most of whom pay to play—who earn digital coins to pay to build or maintain it, though they usually by defeating rivals and who breed cute monsters as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, assets tracked via have to pony up transaction fees. Here are some key areas where blockchain is blockchain that they can sell on crypto exchanges. 94

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Some people in developing countries say such playto-earn games have already become their main source of income. “This is a completely diﬀerent engagement model that’s closer to work,” says Yat Sui, executive chairman of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong maker of and investor in blockchain games. Traditional video game companies are entering the arena. Ubisoft Entertainment SA, the French maker of titles such as Assassin’s Creed, has invested in Animoca, and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says he wants the company to be a key player in blockchain gaming, which he sees as a growth driver for the industry. Still, with the risk of scams and regulatory uncertainty looming, some in the gaming sector are taking a cautious approach. Valve Corp., which runs the popular Steam game store, recently prohibited developers on its platform from publishing blockchain-based games that issue or allow the exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs.

Cross-Border and Commercial Payments People sending funds from the U.S. to relatives overseas have grown accustomed to giving huge

November-December 2021

cuts to intermediaries such as Western Union Co. That’s changing. In October, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. started a pilot program to let consumers in the U.S. and Guatemala send money internationally for free. Underpinning the service is startup Paxos Trust Co., whose socalled stablecoin runs on the Ethereum blockchain and whose value doesn’t change much from day to day. Blockchain infrastructure is also expected to make settlement of commercial payments and transactions faster and cheaper. While conventional settlement of stock sales takes two days, Paxos earlier this year tested same-day settlements of stock sales with Credit Suisse, Instinet, and Bank of America. The company is hoping to commercialize the capability next year, says Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla. “We are on the cusp of that happening,” he says. “The next use of blockchain is less about crypto as an asset class but crypto being used for real-life services.” www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-16/ what-is-blockchain-how-the-technologytransforms-daily-life Image credit outlier.ie, cryptoshib.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Google Honors the Founder of African Sign Language Studies in one of Their Latest Doodles By Samantha Dorisca PROFESSOR OKOMBO’S WORK was inspired at an early age due to his experience being raised during British colonial rule. Born on a remote Kenyan island in Kaswanga, Okombo witnessed the English language taking precedence over his ethnic identity sweeping his native tongue to near extinction. The violent awakening further propelled the professor to ensure the heart of his indigenous African heritage would never be dimmed. The solution would lie in educating the next generation to ensure the native language would always be preserved. Okombo would pursue a linguistics degree in 1983, publishing Masira ki Ndaki — one of the first novels in a Kenyan language. Advancing his career, he would become a professor of linguistics and literature at his former school, the University of Nairobi, where the Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) Research Project began. Here, Professor Okombo published 30 scientific publications cemented on the composition, vocabulary, and behavioral studies of the language of deaf Kenyans. His impressive arsenal of informative content led to the incorporation of Kenyan Sign Language, which was incorporated throughout schools, churches, hospitals, and the media. This feat would open the doors for the deaf community to operate in society with greater ease, securing opportunities that were often overlooked due to language barriers and land Okomobo the notable title as the international president of the World Federation of the Deaf from 1992 to 1995. The Doodle of Okombo was featured on Google’s homepage in Kenya, joining the search giants

November-December 2021

features. As AfroTech previously told you, Google honored jazz musician Hugh Masekela for his artistry and human rights activism. Happy Birthday, Okombo! Your contributions will forever go down in history. www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/google-honorsthe-founder-of-african-sign-language-studies-intheir-latest-doodle/ar-AAQsUZ9 Image credit: AfroTech, Google, towardsdatascience.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Cambridge University to Return Benin Bronze to Nigeria in Historic Moment By Hannah Ryan, CNN Jesus College is a big step on the path of restitution for the hundreds of priceless and timeless artifacts that were looted from Benin City in 1897. I hope this commendable action by Jesus College will spur other institutions as well as individuals in possession of Nigerian artifacts to return them voluntarily," the Minister said. "We will not rest until all our artifacts that have been illegally taken away are returned to their homeland." The Oba of Benin, Omo N'Oba N'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II said of the bronze's return: "We are indeed very pleased and commend Jesus College for taking this lead in making restitution for the plunder that occurred in Benin in 1897. We truly hope that others will expedite the return of our artworks which in many cases are of religious importance to us." Sonita Alleyne, the Master of Jesus College, called the decision a "historic moment" and said it was the "right thing to do out of respect for the unique heritage and history of this artifact." Alleyne gave thanks to the LWSP "for its diligent and careful investigation into the provenance of the Bronze" and to the "students who pioneered calls for this." The return of the Benin bronze to Nigeria comes as momentum continues to gather for museums, galleries and other institutions across the UK to return artifacts looted during Britain's colonial era to their nation of origin. Britain's imperialist monuments and looted artifacts have been facing a reckoning over the past year -- after calls to bring down statues to colonizers and to repatriate historical objects to their original homes reached a peak during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

NIGERIA'S NATIONAL COMMISSION for Museums and Monuments will receive a Benin bronze cockerel from Cambridge's Jesus College in late October -- in a move the university called the "first institutional return of its kind." The Benin bronze was given to Jesus College by a father of a student in 1905, after it was first acquired in a 1897 expedition by British forces into the historic kingdom of Benin -- now part of modern-day Nigeria -- which resulted in the looting of thousands of bronzes from the region. Following calls from the student body, the Benin bronze was removed from public display in 2016. Jesus College later established the Legacy of Slavery Working Party [LWSP] -- comprised of students and academics -- to further explore the history of the bronze, its links to the slave trade, and the morality of owning it. In November 2019, the college announced it would be returning the bronze to Nigeria after calling it a "royal ancestral heirloom" and stating that it "belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin." Cambridge University said in a statement that delegates from Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments and Benin would visit Jesus College on October 27 for a "ceremony to complete the handover process and celebrate the rightful return of the Bronze." www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cambridgeIn a statement to CNN, Nigeria's Minister university-to-return-benin-bronze-to-nigeria-in-historicof Information and Culture -- Alhaji Lai moment/ar-AAPBgGj?ocid=msedgdhp Mohammed -- said of the return: "This gesture by Image credit: expressiveinfo.com 97

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

'A Testimony that We Existed': Benin Receives Looted Art from France By Reuters

1. TWENTY-SIX WORKS OF ART seized by French colonial soldiers in 1892 returned to Benin on Wednesday, November 10th, a landmark in the long fight by African countries to recover looted artefacts. The works, which include the doors of the Palace of Abomey, royal thrones and warrior dance staﬀs, were formally welcomed back to Benin at a ceremony presided over by President Patrice Talon. "This return is a testimony to what we have been, a testimony that we existed before, a testimony to what we have known," Talon said before an audience that included representatives of Benin's royal families. The artefacts will initially be housed in a museum in the city of Ouidah before being transferred to a new museum being built in Abomey, site of the royal palaces of the Kingdom of Dahomey. The restitution is the largest France has made to a former colony, but it represents only a fraction of the 5,000 works whose return Benin is seeking and the tens of thousands of seized African works held in France. About 90% of Africa's cultural heritage is now believed to be in Europe. The Quai Branly museum alone holds some 70,000 African objects. A 2018 98

November-December 2021

report commissioned by the French government said around 46,000 of them should qualify for repatriation. That report, by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French art historian Benedicte Savoy, recommended the full restitution of all objects taken by force or presumed to be acquired through inequitable conditions. France has returned several other objects to former colonies in Africa and says it plans to continue to do so. But advocates for restitution, including Talon, have said the process has been too slow and limited in scope. Several other European museums and governments have also moved to return works of art to Africa at a time when its institutions are grappling with the cultural legacies of colonialism. The German government announced in April that it aimed to start returning Benin Bronzes, copper alloy relief sculptures from the Kingdom of Benin, to Nigeria next year. www.reuters.com/lifestyle/a-testimonythat-we-existed-benin-receives-looted-artfrance-2021-11-10 Image credit: Reuters, zamwild.com, latestbreakingnewsvideo.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

4. Image Legend: 1. French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Benin's President Patrice Talon 2. People wait to welcome the convoy carrying

November-December 2021

26 cultural artefacts. 3. French President Macron and Benin's President Talon view palace doors 4. Convoy delivery

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature By Alison Flood

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE has been awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Gurnah, who grew up on one of the islands of Zanzibar and arrived in England as a refugee in the 1960s, has published 10 novels as well as a number of short stories. Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said that the Tanzanian writer’s novels, from his debut Memory of Departure, about a failed uprising, to his most recent, the “magnificent”, Afterlives, “recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”. No black African writer has won the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986. Gurnah is the first Tanzanian writer to win. Gurnah’s fourth novel, Paradise, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994. Olsson said that it “has obvious reference to Joseph Conrad in its portrayal of the innocent young hero Yusuf’s journey to the heart of darkness”, but is also a coming of age tale, and a sad love story. As a writer, Gurnah “has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism in East Africa, and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals”, Olsson told gathered journalists in Stockholm. Gurnah was in the kitchen when he was informed of his win, said Olsson, and the committee had “a long and very positive” conversation with him. Gurnah’s most recent novel Afterlives tells of Ilyas, who was stolen from his parents by German colonial troops as a boy and returns to his village after years fighting in a war against his own people. 100

November-December 2021

‘The theme of the refugee’s disruption run throughout his work’ … Abdulrazak Gurnah. Photograph: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images

It was described in the Guardian as “a compelling novel, one that gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure”. “In Gurnah’s literary universe, everything is shifting – memories, names, identities. This is probably because his project cannot reach completion in any definitive sense,” said Olsson. “An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion is present in all his books, and equally prominent now, in Afterlives, as when he began writing as a 21-year-old refugee.” Worth 10m Swedish krona (£840,000; $1,142,235.52), the Nobel prize for literature goes to the writer deemed to be, in the words of Alfred Nobel’s will, “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. Winners have ranged from Bob Dylan, cited for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, to Kazuo Ishiguro “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.According to Ellen Mattson, who sits on the Swedish Academy and the Nobel committee:

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

“Literary merit. That’s the only thing that counts.” The Nobel winner is chosen by the 18 members of the Swedish Academy – an august and mysterious organisation that has made eﬀorts to become more transparent after it was hit by a sexual abuse and financial misconduct scandal in 2017. Last year’s prize went to the American poet Louise Glück – an uncontroversial choice after the uproar provoked by the Austrian writer Peter Handke’s win in 2019. Handke had denied the Srebrenica genocide and attended the funeral of war criminal Slobodan Milošević. The Nobel prize for literature has been awarded

101

November-December 2021

118 times. Just 16 of the awards have gone to women, seven of those in the 21st century. In 2019, the Swedish academy promised the award would become less “male-oriented” and “Eurocentric”, but proceeded to give its next two prizes to two Europeans, Handke and Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk. www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/07/ abdulrazak-gurnah-wins-the-2021-nobel-prize-inliterature Image credits: University of Kent, ebay.com, nuriakenya.com, abebooks.com, azaniansea.com

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle and Culture

6 Essential Essays by Groundbreaking Cultural Critic Greg Tate By Duncan Harrison

YESTERDAY (7 DECEMBER), the news broke that acclaimed journalist Greg Tate had died. He was 64. Tate was a long-time critic for The Village Voice in New York City, and his essays often explored the emergent influence of hip-hop culture on the arts in America. His first book, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, collected 40 of these essays. Tate was also a founder of the Black Rock Coalition, an organisation launched in 1985 with “the purpose of creating an atmosphere conducive to the maximum development, exposure and acceptance of Black alternative music.” He was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies and lectured at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Throughout his life and work, Tate believed in connecting the dots between art and the realities which surrounded it. In exploring this, he became a vital critical voice in contextualising Black music within its wider creative histories. His worldview will be sorely missed by artists, critics and fans around the world. In the wake of his passing, we’re revisiting some of Tate’s finest works. If you haven’t read these, here are six pieces which should serve as an introduction to the man The Source magazine called “the Godfather of hip-hop journalism”.

01: To Pimp a Butterfly Rolling Stone Tate’s review of Kendrick Lamar’s historic 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, for Rolling Stone.

02: Cult-Nats Meet Freaky-Deke The Village Voice A 1986 essay on “the coming age of the postnationalist black aesthetic,” featured in Flyboy in 102

November-December 2021

the Buttermilk.

03: Afropessimism and Its Discontents The Nation Tate’s last published piece, from September. “A guide for the perplexed, the puzzled, and the politically confused” reflecting on Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III.

04: Azealia Banks, Fantasea (SelfReleased Mixtape) SPIN For SPIN, Tate’s review of Azealia Banks’ selfreleased debut mixtape.

05 Jean-Michel Basquiat, Flyboy in the Buttermilk The Village Voice Another piece archived in Flyboy: Tate examines the complicated career and impact of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

06 Bad Brains: Hardcore of Darkness The Village Voice A 1982 piece for The Village Voice on the “baddest hardcore band in the land, living or dead”. https://crackmagazine.net/article/lists/6-essays-gregtate-kendrick-lamar-basquiat-azealia-banks-badbrains/ Image credit: Greg Tate at BRC Orchestra Blaxploitation Songbook, Schomburg Center NYC, 2010

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Image credit: clipartkid.com, clipart-library.com

Lifestyle/Culture

UFC Will Debut in Africa in 2022, Thanks to African MMA Champions By Brunno Braga

KAMARU USMAN, USMAN ISRAEL ADESANYA, ADESANYA and Francis Ngannou. If you are a fan of mixed martial arts, you are aware of the fact that these are three of the most important names in MMA as of late. More importantly, you also know that these athletes are African-born fighters. These world champions have become huge celebrities on the continent over the past two years. Now, because of their success, the most popular MMA brand company in the world, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), will debut in Africa in 2022. Nigerian-born Usman came first. In 2019, he became the UFC’s first ever African-born champion. Then, the same year, his fellow countryman Adesanya took home the middleweight title. In March 2021, Cameroonian fighter Ngannou claimed his own world title belt, beating Stipe 104

November-December 2021

Mi i to Miocic t become b th the h heavyweight i ht champion. h i Those triumphs made UFC CEO Dana White consider expanding his sport brand in Africa. In an interview with BroBible, White revealed his plans to debut the UFC in Africa, and begin promoting its operations on the continent. “We are preparing the UFC for 2022 (in Africa),” White told BroBible, however he has not revealed any specific host countries as of yet. In addition to holding events in the motherland, the UFC is also looking for athletes who may potentially be the next African MMA stars. White also plans to establish a branch of the UFC Performance Institute in Africa, which would be the company’s third after its branches in China and at its headquarters in Las Vegas. “We always believed that this business would be big globally, finding talent around the world,” said DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture White. “We will build a Performance Institute there. Whenever you find a place where people grow up in diﬃcult times, there are always good talents there. Not just fighters, but athletes of all kinds. The question is what kind of resources they have there to grow and learn. I want to build the PI there and I think we’ll see some tough guys come out of there in five or six years.” Known as the ‘Nigerian Nightmare,’ Kamaru Usman was born in Auchi, Nigeria and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight with his family. Usman started his MMA career in 2012 and amassed a record of 5-1 before being selected for the Ultimate Fighter 21. In March 2019, he realized a dream by becoming a world champion. In an interview with CNN, he said that he hopes that his journey — along with that of Adesanya and Ngannou — can be the example others might need to follow in their footsteps. “[Fighting in the UFC] wasn’t an example of

something that was attainable and now we are that example for the masses,” Usman told CNN. “Because I go back to my childhood growing up and starting to get into sports and simultaneously ending up in wrestling, of all places, in high school.” Usman mentioned the importance of researching the young athletes and finding out what they were doing and how they were able to breakthrough and get to that point. “That’s something that’s so powerful because you’re letting the human mind know that this is attainable. I never saw an example of a UFC champion and now to be that example for the masses all across Africa, not just Africa, all across the world, it’s something that I definitely do not take for granted.” https://travelnoire.com/ufc-will-debut-in-africa-in2022-thanks-to-african-mma-champions Image credit: BBC News

Milwaukee Bucks Celebrate NBA Championship with White House Visit By Aamer Madhani | The Associated Press PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN WELCOMED the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks to the White House, praising team members not just for their achievements on the court, but also for their eﬀorts to promote coronavirus vaccinations and for speaking out after the 2020 police shooting of Jacob Blake sparked protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Bucks were the first NBA champions to visit the White House in nearly five years, ending a Donald Trump-era hiatus. “You took a stand for justice and peace in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and you’ve gotten people engaged,”

105

November-December 2021

Biden said. The NBA postponed games in 2020 after the Bucks announced they would not participate in Game 5 of a first-round playoﬀ series as they sought to shed light on what they said were racial injustices facing African-American communities. The Bucks, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, were genuinely excited to get back to the tradition of NBA champs visiting the White House. www.nba.com/news/bucks-celebrate-championshipwith-white-house-visit Image credit: NBA DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

Pro-gamers are Putting Kenya on the Global Esports Map – Quartz Africa By Daniel Maithya

ONCE A FRINGE SPORT, organized competitive gaming—known as esports—will this year hit revenues of over $1.1 billion with an audience of 474 million people. It’s even up for debate, whether esports will join the Olympics and if it even needs the Olympics given it has built its own legitimacy. Africa is a hub of opportunities for esports given the large population of young people who are the major consumers. In Kenya, digital gaming is moving to a higher level of recognition as the industry yields high revenues. In 2019, Kenya was ranked the eighth most popular gaming hub in Africa with the local market projected to reach $118 million in 2022 up from $63 million in 2017, according to PwC. The industry is quickly shaking oﬀ the narrative that gaming is for kids and idlers. High internet penetration, a youthful population, fast adoption of technology, and endorsements from deep-pocketed sponsors are among the key reasons for the rise of esports in Kenya. For example, in 2019, Kenya’s leading mobile network operator, Safaricom, in partnership with Pro Series Gaming (PSG) and Standard Group, ran an esports tournament “for youth aged between 18 and 26 who are looking at gaming as a career choice.” The event included at least 700 gamers and finals took place in five regions in Kenya. Adam Mcloude Wekesa, an esports manager, says that the Kenyan esports community has attracted a huge number of gamers who join in all the way from Uganda and Tanzania in a bid to “get the Kenyan esport experience.” “The level of esports awareness in Kenya has increased in folds and the results are measurable. Tournaments have increased and this is because more people are getting interested and becoming aware of the esport culture.”

How are players picking up esports in Kenya? 106

November-December 2021

Two top esports stars in the country—Sylvia Gathoni, known as “Queen Arrow,” and Brian Diang’a popularly known as “Beast”—got into professional gaming after participating in a Mortal Kombat tournament in 2017 and 2015 respectively. “In 2015, I found a mortal kombat tournament being advertised and I signed up. It was my first time in a tournamentt and d I finished i h d third. Despite the odds, I was happy with my placement and I decided I was going to engage in pro-gaming full time. That was my spark,” says Diang’a. Gathoni states, “I began my esports journey back in 2017 when I participated in the Mortal Kombat XL tournament held at the East African Gaming Convention at Two Rivers Mall. I came in fourth and it sparked my love for professional gaming.” To rise up the ranks, esports pro-gamers must demonstrate hard work and commitment given that their expertise is self-taught. Diang’a enhanced his skills by taking classes of his own and watching tournaments and tutorials on YouTube. Benchmark interactions are also instrumental in helping pro-gamers in Kenya assess their gaming skills, which enables them to learn the dynamics of esports. “I had a lot to learn from people out there who were playing games at a very diﬀerent level compared to what I could play here. For instance, when I attended work-related duties in Egypt, I met seasoned veterans in gaming and they helped me a lot in growing pro gamer fundamentals,” Diang’a says. Transitioning into professional gaming in Kenya requires up-coming esports gamers to practice

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

▲" Ken esp of t Mo ►" and team

"Blaze" has represented nya in regional and global ports competitions and is one he country’s most celebrated rtal Kombat players "Queen Arrow" is one of Kenya's top esports gamers d has been signed on to UYU, one of the best esports ms in the fighting game community. RED BULL KENYA

with people who have mastered their games. “This strategy challenges an individual to not only become competitive but also to identify loopholes in their gaming skill set,” Gathoni says. The Kenyan esports fraternity boasts skilled and talented professional gamers who have excelled in competitive gaming tournaments on local, regional, and global platforms. Those who are excelling in esports as a career motivate younger Kenyan millennials and younger generations who also dream of having promising careers in esports as players, content creators, and casters among others.

Kenya is an enabling place for esports Esports in Kenya presents numerous, valuable opportunities that can be potentially modeled into an enviable career. The esport community is growing impressively and more gamers are engaging in 107

November-December 2021

competitive tournaments. In 2018, Kenya launched the Esports Kenya Federation (ESKF), which is Kenya’s first esports league. It consists of 16 teams that compete for top prizes. ESKF seeks to increase Kenya’s visibility and participation in esports competitions. The exposure that progamers get after participating in tournaments, on the regional and global scale, play a critical role in enhancing the visibility of esports in the country. “Esports players make eﬀorts to bring back insight to the Kenyan esport community based on the experiences they had when playing against pro players from other countries,” Wekesa says. He adds that implementation of e-sport guidelines used in global tournaments brings the competitive e-sport feel to the Kenyan community.

Monetizing esports in Kenya With endorsements and large companies venturing into esports, pro-gamers have been able to access opportunities that would otherwise have been unavailable. Diang’a’s participation in the Safaricom Blaze program, which oﬀers mentorship to young people, is an indication of the prestige that established esports gamers enjoy. Top esports gamers have also attracted the attention of renown brands and sports entities. Stories of top gamers have received global media attention. Diang’a has worked for brands like Pro Series Gaming, Red Bull, and Reev Gaming in Japan. Gathoni, on the other hand has been signed to UYU, “which is one of the best esports teams in the fighting game community.” “I have had a chance to steadily reach my goal of being one of the most recognized esports athletes on the African continent. I have traveled to see page 108

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture Esports

electricity outages, and unreliable internet connection are a common problem. Wekesa says, “A lack of corporate sponsorship worsens the international tournaments,” she adds. For those who make it in the sector, there are struggles of upcoming and potential pro-gamers.” Moreover, female pro-gamers battle an also additional opportunities to make more money. additional share Diang’a works as a tournament administrator and of challenges junior league operator while also participating in c ompared tournaments. to their male Jameel Syed, c o u nte r p a r t s . the Proprietor In spite of of Nerdhub, Gathoni’s rich the first esports experiences center in Kenya proving that says that she is a skilled esports has and recognized the opportunity pro-gamer, she to oﬀer youth experiences diﬀerent career prejudice from options. society due to The future her position as a of esports woman. in Kenya – “There are days I have opportunities to deal with and challenges hurtful remarks If Kenya was to fully because at realize the potential of times, someone esports, the gaming out there feels scene could be one that I haven’t of the top ones in the achieved what I region. The fact that have because I establishments such work hard but because of my gender,” she says. as Pro Series Gaming Despite all this, the fact that the sector has and Rampage Corps organically grown in the country with minimal have flourished in support and the fact that the country now has a this relatively new few globally recognized pro-gamers, is a vote sector in Kenya is of confidence in this sector and the Kenyan an indication that the opportunity. country is a potential hub for lucrative esport investment. https://countydevelopment.co.ke/pro-gamers-are“If we could educate the masses on the merits of putting-kenya-on-the-global-esports-map-quartzgaming and esports in Kenya and its huge positive africa impact as seen in more developed countries, the Source: https://qz.com/africa/2088089/progaming industry can generate billions,” Wekesa gamers-are-putting-kenya-on-the-global-esportssays. map Despite having a successful pro-gaming profile, Image credit: YouTube, facebook.com, pro-gamers still face a fair share of challenges in innovationsoftheworld.com, kenyancollective.com the sector. Gaming equipment is very expensive, 108

from page 107

July-Augus 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture

How Masai Ujiri is Using Basketball to Transform the Lives of African Youth By Diana Tsai

GROWING UP PLAYING BASKETBALL in Africa, NBA Champion and Toronto Raptors ViceChairman and President, Masai Ujiri realized the abundance of talent in his homeland – but these players were often referred to as raw, lacking experience in the game and lacking access to coaching and facilities. That’s why Masai founded Giants of Africa in 2003 – a non-profit organization that provides quality facilities, gear and coaches with the goal of empowering African youth through the power of sport. I’m thrilled to sit down with Masai Ujiri, NBA Champion and Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and President, to explore his incredible nonprofit Giants of Africa and his vision and passion of using sports as a vehicle for transformative impact. Diana Tsai: Let’s start from the beginning! You started Giants of Africa in 2003. Was there a catalyst or was this a long-held dream? Masai Ujiri: When I was playing on the national team years there were always these youth that would want to hang around all of us. They wanted to learn, and I could see sometimes it was the fundamentals they were lacking. When I first started the camps, honestly, it was kind of selfish! I wanted to find the next star. And so we created these camps, and I modeled it from Basketball Without Borders (by the NBA, which I was director of their camps in Africa). So I had 3 motivations: inspiration from the impact of Basketball Without Borders, wanting to find the next star, and teaching kids the basic fundamentals of basketball. Because ultimately, when I see those kids, I see myself. Tsai: What has been the total impact of Giants of Africa to-date? Ujiri: Each summer since 2003, we’ve conducted camps across the African continent for boys 109

November-December 2021

▲Masai Ujiri and former President Barack Obama ►Giants of Africa Camp

and girls between the ages of 15 and 19. We’ve c onnec ted with youth in over 17 African countries and territories thus far, Giants of Africa has developed players at the local, national, international and professional levels. Over 100 of our campers have attended high school or university in the United States and Canada, nearly 25 former participants have played on junior teams in clubs throughout Europe and over 65 have attended the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program in Africa. And those numbers don’t include the hundreds of Giants of Africa youth who – inspired by the game of basketball – have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, see page 110

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

◄Masai Ujiri

Ujiri

from page 109

teachers and so forth. In addition to hosting camps, Giants of Africa has built basketball courts and conducted outreach programs in communities of need throughout Africa, including United Nationssanctioned refugee camps in Kakuma and Dadaab. We’re now launching a new initiative to build 100 basketball courts across the continent to help build critical infrastructure for local communities. Tsai: You’ve leveraged your influence and leadership in sports for good. Any advice for other athletes out there who want to follow your example on how they can best use their superpowers for good in the impact world? Ujiri: I was advised when I first got into a leadership role something really important: follow your passions. What am I passionate about for the greater good? I chose Giants of Africa. That was my passion, it’s what I loved. And that was the best advice I got - choose something that you are passionate about, choose something that you know does good. Bring other people along in some kind of way. You talk about helping other people. That’s my passion too: how do I go back and give people as much opportunity and more than I got as a young basketball player? Tsai: You speak so powerfully about how proud you are of Africa, the potential you see in the talent of Africa. What’s your biggest dream for Africa? How is Giants of Africa part of that dream? Ujiri: Africa’s biggest resource is its people. 110

November-December 2021

That’s why my mind expanded from when originally I was looking for basketball talent to today, where we nurture the talent potential in every one of our kids to all types of careers even outside of sports. Because the reality is that out of each camp of 50 to 100 kids, there are only 1 or 2 that make it into the big leagues. What happens to the rest of these kids really matters, and so at our camps we teach life skills, and develop their minds beyond sports. We use sports as the opportunity to open their eyes to diﬀerent career paths like become a sports doctor, or psychologist, or lawyer, or journalist. We have an incredible example of a kid called Webber, he became an engineer while playing basketball. He wanted to find out ways to make the basketball upright, because these things were costing so much money to ship from the US to Africa, like $15,000. And he's saying, we have all the metals, we have the glass, we have everything here, why can’t I make them locally! And he learned to make them- you should see the rims! He's making them and they are incredible, NBAquality. We use them for some of our camps, he's supplying universities. And it's incredible. This is someone who didn't play in the NBA, he didn't play professionally, but used the game and now found a niche, found an opportunity, found a career. Tsai: For me, Africa has talent. And Africa's biggest resource is its people. Ujiri: My biggest dream for Africa is everything can happen there that has happened for us here in the Western world. And I firmly believe sports is DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Lifestyle/Culture one the next big things that is going to happen in Africa. Tsai: What are the core principles of being a pro-basketball player that apply to just professional success in ANY career path? Ujiri: It’s the discipline that sports brings. The discipline of being on time. The discipline of camaraderie. The discipline of winning. Of listening. Really listening. A lot of us like to talk, not listen. Tsai: You’ve inspired hundreds of African youth that basketball can be a tool for breakout professional success. Who inspired and mentored you when you were a teenager, growing up in Northern Nigeria? Ujiri: The first mentorship and role model comes from parents - the beliefs, values, work ethic, honesty, how we treat people the right way. When I started playing sports, I was lucky to have a great American coach who had come to us via the Peace Corps, Oliver Johnson. He taught us life skills. Tsai: What’s the most important life skill your mentor Oliver Johnson taught you? Ujiri: I’ll give you something that happened in one of his camps. I sprained my ankle and it hurt, so I sat out the drills. Then in the evening, when the game started, I tied up my shoes, like “I’m ready to go!”, and Coach [Oliver Johnson] looked at me and said, “You didn’t do the drills, but your ankle is good enough for the game?” And I had to go sit back down. That taught me, not everything is fun. You have to put in the hard work, the grind. And I just learned that lesson right there. Every time you’re in sports, you have to go ALL IN, ALL OUT, work hard, have passion. That’s what it takes for you to even participate, to compete - and then for you to win. Tsai: The NBA generates around $8B in revenue per season. What’s your prediction as to how long it’ll take basketball in Africa to become a billiondollar industry? Ujiri: It’s coming. People are beginning to realize. I think social media, and the way games are being watched now, is playing into this. The game is really evolving into something that is engaging. How long is it going to take? We need infrastructure first though. That’s what motivates me. Tsai: You say, “we need infrastructure” - if you had $100million to invest into infrastructure to 111

November-December 2021

empower talent, where would you put the money? Ujiri: ARENAS. The arena space in Africa is almost nonexistent. You go to cities like Nairobi, Lagos, there are no arenas. Arenas are incredible spaces that host hockey, conventions, basketball, lacrosse, our Raptors, fairs, speaking engagements - you cannot get a date. These engagements create leads, business, restaurants, apartments, bars, shops, everything around that we don’t have that. Building arenas is where we should be going now, because it’s going to develop so much. Tsai: You had mentioned earlier your passion for teaching boys at your camps about respecting women. One of the things that brings me the greatest sadness in the world is the amount of violence that's committed against women. As someone who cares deeply about women's empowerment, I'm really curious how this became an important message for you? I think sports are one of the most incredible ways to reach young men because young men are so influenced by sports. Ujiri: It starts with my mom. My sisters, my wife, my daughter. When I sit and look at her, you imagine all kinds of things. She could be a young girl born in a refugee camp. Here she is, an incredible, beautiful soul, like so many incredible beautiful souls are born all over the world. Why should they not be respected or treated in the best possible way? There are diﬀerent cultures around the world, but for me, I always say this, i don’t know anyone from this world that did not come from a woman. Tsai: How can listeners get involved / help? Ujiri: Join the Giants of Africa online community at www.GiantsofAfrica.org and follow @ and #BuiltwithinTour on GiantsofAfrica Instagram. www.forbes.com/sites/dianatsai/2021/10/08/ how-can-sports-be-a-force-for-good-masai-ujirisanswer/ Image credits: sharpmagazine.com, innov8tiv. com, Konbini

DAWN www.africabusinessassociation.org

History

Phillis Wheatley Edited by Debra Michals, PhD | 2015 National Women's History Museum

DESPITE SPENDING MUCH of her life enslaved, Phillis Wheatley was the first African American and second woman (after Anne Bradstreet) to publish a book of poems. Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, Wheatley was captured by slave traders and brought to America in 1761. Upon arrival, she was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first name Phillis was derived from the ship that brought her to America, “the Phillis.” The Wheatley family educated her and within sixteen months of her arrival in America she could read the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. She also studied astronomy and geography. At age fourteen, Wheatley began to write poetry, publishing her first poem in 1767. Publication of “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield” in 1770 brought her great notoriety. In 1773, with financial support from the English Countess of Huntingdon, Wheatley traveled to London with the Wheatley's son to publish her first collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral—the first book written by a black woman in America. It included a forward, signed by John Hancock and other Boston notables— as well as a portrait of Wheatley—all designed to prove that the work was indeed written by a black woman. She was emancipated her shortly thereafter. Wheatley’s poems reflected several influences on her life, among them the well-known poets she studied, such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray. Pride in her African heritage was also evident. Her writing style embraced the elegy, likely from her African roots, where it was the role of girls to sing and perform funeral dirges. Religion was also a key influence, and it led Protestants in America and England to enjoy her work. Enslavers 112

November-December 2021

and abolitionists both read her work; the former to convince the enslaved population to convert, the latter as proof of the intellectual abilities of people of color. Although she supported the patriots during the American Revolution, Wheatley’s opposition to slavery heightened. She wrote several letters to ministers and others on liberty and freedom. During the peak of her writing career, she wrote a well-received poem praising the appointment of George Washington as the commander of the Continental Army. However, she believed that slavery was the issue that prevented the colonists from achieving true heroism. In 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man from Boston with whom she had three children, though none survived. Efforts to publish a DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

second book of poems failed. To support her family, she worked as a scrubwoman in a boardinghouse while continuing to write poetry. Wheatley died in December 1784, due to complications from childbirth. In addition to making an important contribution to American literature, Wheatley’s literary and artistic talents helped show that African Americans were equally capable, creative, intelligent human beings who benefited from an education. In part, this helped the cause of the abolition movement. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/ biographies/phillis-wheatley Image credit: writeawriting.com, africanamericancollection.com

“At thirteen, she was already writin g poems in a langu age that was not her own. No one belie ved that she was the author. At the age of twenty, Ph illis was questioned by a court of eigh te en enlightened men in robes and wig s. She had to recite texts from Virgil a nd Milton and some messages from th e Bible, and she a lso had to swear that the poems she h ad written were n ot plagiarized. From a chair, she gave her long examina tion, until the cou rt accepted her: sh e was a woman, she was black, she w as a slave, but sh e was a poet. " Phillis Wheatley, was the first Afric anAmerican writer to publish a book in the United State s.”

Search Google for "Books of Phyllis Wheatley" 113

November-December 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Celebrations

African Diaspora Independence Days J 26, 1960 R DJIBOUTI - J 27, 1977 R CAMEROON - J . 1, 1960 R SEYCHELLES - J 29, 1976 R HAITI - J . 1, 1804 R CONGO D R SUDAN - J . 1, 1956 D (KINSHASA) - J 30, 1960 F MOROCCO (I ) - J 30, 1969 G GRENADA - F 07, 1974 J R T GAMBIA - F . 18, 1965 R BURUNDI - J 1, 1962 SAINT LUCIA - F 22, 1979 R RWANDA - J 1, 1962 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - F . 27, 1844 D R SOMALIA - J 1, A R EGYPT - F . 28, 1922 1960 WESTERN SAHARA - F . 28, 1976 D P R M ALGERIA - J 3, 1962 K MOROCCO - M 2, 1956 R CAPE VERDE - J 5, 1975 R GHANA - M 6, 1957 F I R COMOROS S MAURITIUS - M 12, 1968 -J 6, 1975 R TUNISIA - M 20, 1956 R MALAWI - J 6, 1964 R NAMIBIA - M 21, 1990 C THE BAHAMAS - J 10, A 1973 R SENEGAL - A 4, 1960 D R SÃO TOMÉ AND S N Z MOROCCO PRINCIPE - J 12, 1975 (M )-A 7, 1956 R LIBERIA - J 26, 1847 R ZIMBABWE - A 18, 1980 A MOROCCO (S S Z , R BENIN - A . 1, 1960 M )-A 27, 1958 R NIGER - A . 3, 1960 R SIERRA LEONE - A . 27, 1961 P D R BURKINA R TOGO - A 27, 1960 FASO - A . 5, 1960 M JAMAICA - A 06, 1962 P ' D R ETHIOPIA - G R CÔTE D'IVOIRE (I C )M 5, 1941 A . 7, 1960 R CUBA - M 20 ,1902 R CHAD - A . 11, 1960 S ERITREA - M 24, 1993 C R GUYANA - M 26, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - A . 13, 1960 1966 R CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE) R SOUTH AFRICA - M 31, 1910 A . 15, 1960 J GABON - A . 16, 1960 NIGERIA (B C N )-J 1, R R TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO - A 1961 31, 1962 A A ' R V S (J )-J 19, 1865 K SWAZILAND - S . 6, 1968 R MOZAMBIQUE - J 25. 1975 F S C ST. KITTS D R MADAGASCAR -

114

July-August 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

AND NEVIS - S 19 1983 G BELIZE - S 21, 1981 R MALI - S . 22, 1960 R GUINEA-BISSAU - S . 24, 1973 R BOTSWANA - S . 30, 1966

O CAMEROON (B C S )O . 1, 1961 F R NIGERIA - O . 1, 1960 R GUINEA - O . 2, 1958 K LESOTHO - O . 4, 1966 R UGANDA - O . 9, 1962 R EQUATORIAL GUINEA - O . 12, 1968 R ZAMBIA - O . 24, 1964 G ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES - O 27, 1979 MOROCCO (I Z ,T )O . 29, 1956

N G ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 01 N 01, 1981 C DOMINICA - N 03, 1978 P ' R ANGOLA - N . 11, 1975 R SURINAME - N 25, 1975 I R MAURITANIA - N . 28, 1960 BARBADOS - N 30, 1966

D U R TANZANIA - D . 9, 1961 R KENYA - D . 12, 1963 LIBYA (S P ' L A J ) - D . 24, 1951 www.thoughtco.com/chronological-list-of-africanindependence-4070467 www.caribbeanelections.com/education/ independence/default.asp

https://www.snapfish.com/Holiday/Cards, pngmart.com

115

July-August 2021

DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org

Agriculture - Business - Commentary Development - Education - Governance History - Investment - Lifestyle/Culture - Technology/Science

DAW

"Awakening the African Giant Within" The Africa Business Association (ABA) is pleased to invite you to be an integral part of our publication the DAWN - Awakening the African Giant Within. DAWN is a voice through which public and private entities and people share pertinent information and market business and investment opportunities in Africa and the African Diaspora. Gain access to these trillion dollar markets via ABA DAWN outreach and advertising opportunities. • • • • •

Outreach to Africa Business and Investment Outreach to Diaspora Business and Investment Advertorial/Feature story advertising Profiles Bid and Tender opportunities

Our readers are Diaspora Africans, African small business owners, African American Chambers of Commerce members, business owners, corporate buyers, prime contractor’s, importers-exporters, community organization members, elected officials and civic/social leaders in Africa and the United States. Don’t be left out. Advertise in this door opening publication. 1-240-467-6811

Reserve Your Ad Space Today! Call: +1 (240) 467-6811 or E-mail: DAWN@AFRICABUSINESSASSOCIATION.ORG

Advertising Opportunities Full Page w/Feature Story Full Page Advertorial or Titled Article Half Page Spot Ad Marketing Massage with website link

US$3,500 US$3,000 US$3,000 US$1,500 US$ 500 US$ 185

********Rates Subject to Change*********

116

July-August 2021

DAWN

DAWN

Articles inside

Milwaukee Bucks Celebrate NBA Championship with White House Visit

How Masai Ujiri is Using Basketball to Transform the Lives of African Youth

Pro-gamers are Pu ng Kenya on the Global Esports Map – Quartz Africa

UFC Will Debut in Africa in 2022, Thanks to African MMA Champions

6 Essen al Essays by Groundbreaking Cultural Cri c Greg Tate

Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

African Vibes' Mag Off ers List of 10 Educa on Apps all Parent's Should Know About

Google Honors the Founder of African Sign Language Studies in one of Their Latest Doodles

Cambridge University to Return Benin Bronze to Nigeria in Historic Moment

'A Tes mony that We Existed': Benin Receives Looted Art from France

Ethical AI Trained on Reddit Posts Said Genocide is OK if it Makes People Happy

‘There’s a Blockchain App for That’

Founder of Tribl Messaging App for Pan-African Commerce Plans for a New Black Wall Street

Black Company Raises $2.4 Million to Build

This 29-year-old is on Track to Build a $1,000,000 So ware Development Company

Worldcoin Launches a Global Cryptocurrency that will be Given to Every Person on Earth

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners Closes Second Fund with $325 Million in Capital Commitments

Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if you’re not African

Google will now off er African Startups more than No-Strings Cash and Offi ce Space

African Stock Exchange/Bourse

West African Regional Bloc Adopts New Plan to Launch Eco Single Currency in 2027

Permanent Forum on People of African Descent

Africa's First Chief Heat Offi cer - on a Mission

The United Na ons Could Finally Create New Rules for Space

Erdogan Meets Liberia's Weah, Leaders of Togo Burkina Faso

Pfi zer Moves to Allow Cheap Versions of Promising Covid Pill

Why it’s not Nearly Enough that Germany is Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronzes

Biden Meets Kenya's President Uhuru Kenya a at the White House

WHO-led Program Aims to Buy An viral COVID-19 Pills for $10

How Tech and Agriculture can Help Africa’s Pandemic Recovery

Eco-friendly, Lab-grown Coff ee is on the Way but it Comes with a Catch

WHO Honors Henrie a Lacks for "Incalculable" Medical Breakthroughs

Re red Black Surgeon is on Global Mission

Growing Crops Under Solar Panels - a Bright Idea

First Malaria Vaccine Approved by W.H.O

An Airline CEO’s Strategy for Making African Avia on Sustainable

COP26: World Leaders Promise to end Deforesta on by 2030

Nearly 90 Countries Join Pact to Slash Planet Warming Methane Emissions

How Mobile Money Grew in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Last 10 Years

Nigeria Launches Digital Currency ‘to Drive Economic Growth’

USAID Delivers on Prosper Africa Goals with Africa Trade and Investment Program

Has Black Lives Ma er Really Helped African Brands?

Africa’s Post-Covid Economic Recovery will be an Uphill Ba le

Alphabet Device Makes Drinking Water From Air

With 900,000 Developers, Here's Where the Next Big Startup Ecosystem Will Be

What I've Learned as a Black Female Founder in Silicon Valley

400 Rand - The Global Gig Worker

Make Your Business Idea a Reality

5 Strategies Entrepreneurs can Incorporate to Build Brand Awareness

“Something from Nothing,” Inspiring People to Turn their Dreams into Reality

The Interna onal Cheat Sheet for Startups and Small Businesses

Chris an Loubou n, Sabrina Elba, and Idris Elba Reinvented Red-Bo oms for a Cause

‘Invest in Yourself’: How to Grow Your Business With Self-Investment, Educa on and Authen city

Publisher's Message