DAWN July-August 2020

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

THE GREAT GREEN WALL

The Great Green Wall page 50 Special Feature: Investment ProďŹ les Republic of Ethiopia page 30 Republic of Zambia page 34 Awakening the African Giant Within Africa Business Association News

July-August 2020

CONTENTS July-August 2020 4

Publisher's Message

Business 8 10 13 14 16 18

42 Haitian History

21 22 24

Trade Shows: What's Next?

8 Steps to Choose a Reliable Trade Fair for Your Export Business Zimbabwe Signs $3.5 Billion Compensation Deal With White Farmers Andela is Expanding Across Africa after Shutting Down its O ces and Going Remote The Startup Movement is Globalizing: New Report Proves It Kenya and Nigeria are Leading Africa’s Push to Start Taxing Silicon Valley’s Global Tech Giants Zambian Company Spots Opportunity for Locally-made Spices and Pastes What is #BlackPoundDay? The History of Black Management Reveals an Overlooked Form of Capitalism

National Profiles 30 34

The Great Green Wall

African Roots & Diaspora Ghana Library

Development 38 39

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Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Republic of Zambia WPEC Launches 'Titans Tank' Virtual Business Competition for African and African American Female Entrepreneurs 7 of the Best Free Online Business Classes for Aspiring Entrepreneurs USADF C.A.R.E.S How France Extorted Haiti for one of the Greatest Heists in Geopolitical History Zambia: Zanaco to Enter Micro-Finance as Part of Digital Push, says CEO 1st Ethiopian-Assembled All-Electric Hyundai Ioniq Rolls Out of Haile Gebrselassie’s Marathon Motor Engineering Plant "My Roots in Africa" is Fighting Deforestation in Africa 100,000 Trees to be Planted in Seychelles by Xmas with Help from Jobless Tourism Workers Community Tree Planting - Food & Trees for Africa

Pandemic DAWN

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74 86 56 56

African Narrative

Crowdfunding Platform Supports Women

Coronavirus in South Africa: Deciding who Lives and Dies in a Cape Town Township

LNG Coming on Line

African Union/Governance 59 61 62 65

African Union Covid-19 Response Fund Launch of the “Decade of African Roots and Diasporas” African Countries are Having to Come to Terms with a Growing Diaspora’s Dual Citizenship Biden's VP Pick: Why Kamala Harris Embraces her Biracial Roots

Investment 70 73 74 75 78 80 84

African Stock Exchange/Bourse Africa's Largest Oil Refinery Opens Next Year This New Crowdfunding Platform is Designed to Support Women Entrepreneurs Globally Even Though Less Than 1% of Venture Capital Goes to Black Funders, Here's How I Raised $11 Million Mozambique: The Next Great LNG Player Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if You’re Not African It is Time to Fund the Future

Technology/Science 86 88 89

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Changing the African Narrative Tesla Talent Call Out! Botswana: Lab Tests to Solve Mystery of Hundreds of Dead Elephants

July-August 2020

78 91 92 93

Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Provide their first Commercial Internet Service in Kenya Kenya’s 3D Printing Community Making Covid-19 Equipment Banking On Thorium

Lifestyle/Culture 94

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Ghana Library Showcases Black and African Literature Beyoncé's "Black Is King" Trailer Features Lupita Nyong'o, Jay-Z, and More

Resources 100 102

Events Around the African Continent and the World Resource Vault

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Publisher's Message

“Then he said to me: “Son of man, th They say, ‘Our bones are dried up an Therefore prophesy and say to them: My people, I am going to open your g will bring you back to the land of Afri

Ricky Muloweni Publisher's Message

The time and need is now for Africans living in the Diaspora to participate in the process of establishing more value-added industries in Africa!

The African population has more than enough middle class families to provide an initial market for any value addition startup company. Diaspora Africans have the ability to inject an enormous jolt of funds in the African manufacturing industry with their estimated annual savings of US$53 billion. Given that some if not many Africans in

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the Diaspora left their countries of origin due to economic reasons, it is clearly hard for them to see themselves doing business "back home" with that historical perspective.

Africa continues to evolve. The economic woes that you left could get worse and even be overtaken by new colonialists that seem to be coming into Africa in droves under the pretext as friends protecting your continent from the West.

No matter how far you go to the West you still have your families remaining in the cities and villages you grew up in. Yes, the British colonial masters where bad, but they left you, your country, your dignity and your people and gave you your 'independence.' But the new economic colonial masters are coming and o ering loans to your current leaders with clauses imbedded within that surrenders part of your national land to them for generations, way past the time when you will be gone.

And, they are doing it as you read this message.

So the question is “What will you do now?” Now, when you have the ability to work with your western friends, who by now consider you an equal, to invest in a small business in your home village?

Africa cannot, allow itself to lose all of the freedoms that Nyerere, Nkrumah, Kaunda, Mandela and many others bled and died for.

We know the working age population of Africa is growing. Many African families are moving into middle income status in part because the Diaspora relatives are sponsoring them. With that they are also consuming “nice things.” And, the vast majority of Africa is clearly young. We all can help our youth to do great things and then enjoy our old age.

Africans living in the Diaspora have many

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hese bones are the people of Africa. nd our hope is gone; we are cut o .’ : ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: graves and bring you up from them; I ica.” Ezekiel 37:11-12

points of encouraging reference. Let’s take Aliko Dankote. He is a success having started his initial business from a $3,000 loan from his uncle. We have nephews and nieces in Africa that can use this example to start something.

West Africa is endowed with oil and gas, cocoa, gold and a population of 400 million to provide a market unlike no other. What is stopping you from acting. Not all are born entrepreneurs, that is true but we can identify the entrepreneurs among us and encourage (and invest in) them to grow businesses that will benefit all of us.

East and Central Africa, the home of mobile money and Mpesa, continue to innovate in the mobile technology world. Diaspora-based Africans can clearly play an important role by investing in this massive resource-based region from the tourism sector to manufacturing and the processing of various teas along with other produce products.

Why does Africa have to export raw materials and import finished products? Need I say the words “youth unemployment.” Who coined that?

It only makes sense for Diaspora-based Africans to invest resources that can grow businesses and industries that will employ the youth of Africa.

Southern Africa with its well-developed railway network can be a great test on how the Africa free trade area will work and flourish. With its immense natural resources and booming agriculture infrastructure, a single market will enable finished goods to move from South to North and East to West, unfettered.

Africans living in the Diaspora need to begin to see themselves in these business arrangements as net contributors to their communities in the countries in which they live and their country of origin.

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Savor the Flavors of Africa at Your Own Kitchen Table, African Cooking Made Easy www.kitchensofafrica.com Yes, in most cases they are so invested in their careers in the West that it becomes very hard to see positives come out of the lands that they left.

Let us remember that we are of the DNA of this land and some of our people in these lands can rise as far as we enable them.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., after visiting Lagos, Nigeria, wrote in his 1961 article The Time for Freedom Has Come, “the liberation in Africa has been the greatest single international influence on American Negro students.” Fast forward to 2020 and the George Floyd events, what is your message to the African Students in the West about protecting and enhancing Africa's nascent economic freedom?

Ricky Muloweni Publisher/President dawn@africabusinessassociation.org aba@africabisinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org DAWN

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About the

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

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.

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Africa Business Association

"DAWN"

PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Ricky Muloweni

ADVISORY BOARD

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

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ricky Muloweni

LAYOUT/TYPESETTING Lion Communications

AFRICA BUSINESS ASSOCIATION NEWS 6564 LOISDALE COURT, SUITE 600 SpringďŹ eld, VA 22150 USA 1-571-278-9441 aba@africabisinessassociation.org dawn@africabusinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Copyright Š 2020

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-urbanintellectuals.com, Page 64-www.amazon.com, Page 71-Freepik

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Kanzam South Africa PTY

Business

TRADE SHOWS: WHAT’S NEXT?

By Tim Carter

“Will trade shows come back, as economies start to open up?” “What are trade shows going to look like post pandemic?” “Will it be worthwhile to exhibit at shows?”

Several of my clients have recently asked some serious questions about trade shows!

I am optimistic shows will open in the next few months and will return to growing the world’s economies.

The size of the trade show industry alone will provide momentum to reopen for business, and there are other good reasons shows will return sooner rather than later.

Trade shows experienced general downturns post 9/11 and after the 2008 financial crisis, the two most recent recessionary examples similar in impact to our current situation. In both instances, the recovery happened with quarter-over-quarter consistent growth ultimately surpassing prerecession levels. While the recovery from the pandemic may be di erent, there will be some similarities.

UFI published a report in December 2019 that framed the global economic impact of the trade show industry, To extract just a few of the conclusions of that study:

2018 Direct Global Impact • Approximately 32,000 exhibitions (shows) directly involved 303 million visitors • Nearly five million exhibitors across more than 180 countries • More than $136.9 billion of direct spending by visitors, exhibitors and additional exhibitionsrelated expenditures • Exhibitions supported 3 million direct jobs globally • Generated $81.1 billion of direct GDP • Exhibitions generated nearly $30,200 in direct spending per exhibitor on a global basis • Based on $81.1 billion direct GDP impact,

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the exhibitions sector would rank as the 72nd largest economy globally

2018 TOTAL (DIRECT AND INDUCED) GLOBAL IMPACT • • • •

$325.0 billion of business sales 2 million jobs $197.5 billion GDP Would rank the sector as the 56th largest economy globally, larger than the economies of countries such as Hungary, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, and Ecuador. From the same 2019 study, “North America and Europe ranked first and second in direct spending, representing 44% and 34% of total global direct spending in 2018, respectively. … (of the) nearly 303 million visitors and 4.5 million exhibitors in 2018…Europe ranked first in terms of total visitors with 112.0 million visitors and 1.3 million exhibitors. North America followed with 91.2 million visitors and 1.6 million exhibitors.”

There is no doubt, the trade show industry is a large part of the global economy, in numbers of jobs, and in direct and total economic impact.

Zooming in, consider the impact on local levels.

Trade shows are serious economic generators in dozens and dozens of cities across North America, employing thousands. Trade shows are magnets to these cities, attracting spending by show visitors throughout the local economies; hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation and many other opportunities.

As I mentioned above, the sheer size of the trade show industry will provide momentum to reopen for business. Cities want their residents to be able to return to work (and tax revenue.)

Businesses need to reopen. Trade shows can and will directly restart jobs. Exhibitions will reconnect companies within hundreds of industries so they can collectively jump start their businesses and put people back to work. Trade shows will come back DAWN

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because they are one of the most e cient ways businesses communicate directly with customers, prospects and suppliers.

Trade shows are one of the most e ective platforms to jump start the global economy.

Not only the size and e ectiveness of the trade show industry encourages their eventual return, but our natural behavior as humans and citizens of the world will compel shows to return. Who among us isn’t ready to leave the house and hang out with friends and strangers alike? We are ready to return to our churches, synagogues and mosques, go to a play, or show, or concert, and shop at farmers markets and art fairs. We are ready to go back to work! By and large, we need to be with other people, to enjoy the same experience, to laugh and sing and clap together. We thrive in growing and learning together, and we enjoy sharing our knowledge and experiences with others. Trade shows might be way down the list of events in terms of fun, but attending shows provides another means for social and industry networking. Note: to make your trade fair a bit more fun, remind your booth sta ers to remember to smile! It makes it a more enjoyable social experience and attracts more booth tra c too!

Trade shows will not return to full capacity overnight. Our experiences recovering from past recessions tells us exhibitions will start with fewer exhibitors and fewer attendees. Companies will

be making hard choices as they ramp up their businesses, and many will determine to spend in areas they deem more necessary to their immediate needs. Some individuals will determine not to travel. These factors, and more, will result in trade shows starting at a slower pace and increasing in size and attendance over time.

For those that make the decision to return to shows immediately, there will be some apprehension, but also an opportunity. My experience during the recoveries coming out of 9/11 and 2008, when the early shows were smaller and not as well attended, the quality of the exhibitors and attendees were much better than at shows just prior to those events. Firms that were seriously looking to do business, were the ones who chose to immediately return and exhibit at their industry trade show.

They wanted and needed to do business, had the quality products and services they believed in, and knew if they could get in front of decision makers, success would be theirs.

Companies that decided to attend those early industry shows, sent fewer sta ers, resulting in high concentrations of decision makers. These firms were on the hunt for needed products, services and suppliers that would give them the advantage they wanted within their industry. Coming out of those shows, exhibitors had met with fewer people, and gathered fewer leads. But the leads gathered were, on the whole, qualified and real.

The connections made were with decision makers.

The trade show model remains valid and has many positive purposes and outcomes. Trade shows can and will help the world economy recover, by helping individual businesses recover. Hopefully we will take this opportunity to emerge not the same, but better. https://blog.skyline.com/ trade-shows-whats-next Image credit: booking.com/ Durban-Hotels

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Business

8 Steps to Choose a Reliable Trade Fair for Your Export Business

By Shrey Kaushik

There are a plethora of International Trade Fairs out there in the world.

There is a Trade Fair for all kinds of businesses like general fairs, specialized Trade Fairs, National and International, Special Events, Permanent Events, etc.

It can be a little tricky to choose the most suitable Trade Fair for your Export Business.

For instance, you cannot just participate in a clothingspecial Trade Fair if you are an Agro Exporter.

Therefore, it becomes of the utmost importance to choose a relevant Trade Fair for your Export Business.

Before you participate in any sort of Trade Fairs, it is recommended that you understand your forte and the right niche of your business.

This is because, after comprehending this, it will be easy for the Business Owners to find a suitable Trade Fair.

An appropriate Trade Exhibition will aid you as an Exporter to enhance your sales for the long term.

Trade Fairs o er a tonne of benefits that one should notice deliberately which involve brand awareness, building corporate image, widening business contacts, finding the best distribution channel, exposure, etc.

However, as we are aware that finding a suitable Trade Exhibition can be daunting, therefore, we have summed out few points for you.

After reading these points, you will be able to find the a suitable Trade Fair for your business.

So, without wasting any time let’s get to Business.

Criteria to Choose a Suitable Trade Fair for an Exporter 1. Setup your Intent The foremost thing one should work on before even starting to choose a Trade Fair is to set up your intent of participation.

Understand what are your objectives and strategies for exhibiting your export business.

Classify your goals, which can be anything from if you want to increase the sales, launch a new product, strengthen your customer relationship or it can simply seek exposure.

Hence, it will be possible to dive into the selection process only after you set up your goals and objectives.

By doing so, it will be crystal clear for you to decide about what type of Trade Fair you should exhibit in.

The confusion regarding the same may not appear after setting up your intent of participation.

Therefore, strengthening your goals and objectives may help you in the long run.

2. Analyze your Options After setting up your goals and objectives, you should then work on analyzing the options or variety of Trade Fairs of your niche that are available around the globe.

You must already be aware of the fact that there are a variety of Trade Fairs and Exhibitions that exist across the market.

Although, you must keep this in mind that not all of them are going to be fruitful for your Export Business.

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While understanding this, you will also be able to signify the type of audience which attends such events and what kinds of speakers talk at these exhibitions.

Additionally, the exhibition can prove to be an exposure booster for your Export Business if the concerned Trade Fair is well-publicized.

Leadingly, an Event’s Reputation tends to attract successful and renowned personalities and experts from the industry that will eventually boost your promotion level.

5. Determine your Budget

Instead of searching for Trade Fairs on various websites, it is beneficial to find one website that will summarize all Trade Fairs.

This will save a lot of your time and energy as all the information will be provided to you under one roof.

Hence, it is recommended by the experts to categorize the available Trade Fairs that will enhance and fulfill your expectations.

3. Channelize your Research This step requires an activation of the inner Sherlock in you.

Once the goals are set and you have zeroed down to a fewer options, you can then proceed with focusing on the chosen Trade Fairs.

This way, you will be able to channelize your thinking in selecting a trade event that will give you optimum results.

Additionally, it is also significant to learn about the statistics of the event available on the Event Website.

Along with that, you should also study the event demographics and whether or not is the event is suitable to fulfill your goals and objectives.

Doing so, the options of events will narrow down to a further few, making it a lot more easier to choose comparatively.

It is highly crucial to keep in mind that you should not overspend on your Trade Fair participation while incurring losses.

Study your books of accounts so that you find a figure that is stored as reserves and surplus.

When you develop the estimated cost of participation for a Trade Fair, there will be varied types of expenses to consider.

These expenses can involve the registration fees, logistics of the products, hotel expenses, travel expenses, emergency funds, giveaways, marketing expenses, and a lot more.

This assists in being prepared before any disaster or mishap of your budget takes place.

Moreover, this also allows you to handle all sorts of financial surprises.

You should always make sure to plan ahead of time before things start going out of hand.

4. Understand the History of the Event Now that you have a limited variations to choose from, it’s time to dig a little more deep into the history of these exhibitions.

Determine the age of the event’s existence. Check if the event is taking place for the first time or if has been conducted for several years.

This is because, the history of a thing speaks for itself than anything else. It acts like facts from the past.

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6. Study the Audience The type of attendees which come at the event tells you more about it than everything else.

In general, this is the reason why studying the audience has to be a vital step to perform before registering for the event. see page 12

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Business from page 11

If you wish to enhance your Return on Investment, it is compulsory but to consider all these points.

You will get to know that a particular exhibition is an important one if its audience is filled with top Industry Owners and best Supply Chain Distributors.

Hence, you should prioritize all the Trade Exhibitions depending on these benefits.

Keep the Trade Fairs of utmost benefits at top and make sure you give your best to participate in such events.

Additionally, if there are press opportunities, make sure to send them your company information in advance so the media can cover all the latest footage.

This may eventually lead you to have a higher Return on Investment (ROI) than the previous year.

8. Analyze opportunities Every Trade Fair or event has di erent types of opportunities.

Some trade events can have press exposure while others may have the perfect audience that you are looking for.

7. Feasibility Now that all the above points are taken care of, you should further move towards checking the logistic feasibility and its budget-friendliness.

This is a vital step that tells you whether your plan has a successful future or not.

When we say logistic feasibility, it means whether the event provides labour for dismantling the booth or shipping and if the drayage services are included or not.

The feasibility tells us if the Trade Fair can be pulled o easily without letting your business su er with an extra financial cost.

Your vision should always be based on finding a perfect balance between logistic feasibility and a wellsuited event as nothing can get worst than logistic nightmares.

Moreover, there can be events that are the most suitable but you may face logistics feasibility issues with them.

This is the reason how noting all of the above things will prove to give you a clear and bird-eye view of the whole situation.

Opportunities can come knocking at your door in various disguises, it is your job to find an optimum choice to grab onto.

Summary After reading all the above points, you must have understood that thorough research and digging will give you an idea of what is better and what is not.

These steps are completely interdependent and hence, it is suggested not to miss out on any of it.

These steps remain the same for all small, medium, and large size exporters.

The exporters now know that all aspects like history, demographics, seminars, competitors, experts visit, type of audience, logistic feasibility, etc. are all equally important. www.expohour.com/blog/steps-to-choose-areliable-trade-fair Image credits: hortidaily.com, worldtourismwire. com, store.thehungerstore.thegreatergood.com, 10times.com, discount99.us/Morrocan Textiles

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Business

Zimbabwe Signs $3.5 Billion Compensation Deal With White Farmers

By Godfrey Marawanyika & Ray Ndlovu Zimbabwe’s government signed a $3.5 billion deal to compensate White commercial farmers who were evicted from their land two decades ago.

The agreement is a turning point in a dispute that tipped the southern African nation’s economy into freefall by slashing food production and export income and prompted sanctions from the U.S. and the European Union.

“Today marks a huge milestone,” Andrew Pascoe, president of the Commercial Farmers Union that represents the White farmers, said Wednesday at a signing ceremony in the capital, Harare. “As Zimbabweans, we have chosen to resolve this long-outstanding issue.”

The government plans to sell a 30-year bond on international markets to pay for the compensation, according to the agreement it signed with the farmers. Those whose land was expropriated will receive half their money in a year and the balance in four equal installments annually.

A committee has been formed by the government, farmers and donors to help raise the funding, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said at the ceremony.

It’s unclear how Zimbabwe will carry out the bond sale, given that the nation is battling inflation of more than 700%, faces shortages of currency, fuel and food, and more than 90% of the population is out of formal employment.

“It would require a dramatic improvement in Zimbabwe’s fortunes to make that possible,” said Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital in London.

Food Shortages Zimbabwe has endured intermittent food shortages since the government began the oftenviolent program that seized most White-owned, 13

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large-scale farms from 2000. The country’s rulers maintain that the land was taken forcibly during colonial times and needed to be returned to Black residents.

“Success is highly unlikely,” Jee-A van der Linde, an analyst at Paarl, South Africa-based NKC African Economics, said on the bond plan.

“There is so much debt going around in Africa at the moment, Zimbabwean long-term bonds will hardly attract much interest, if any.”

Zimbabwe owes about $8 billion to creditors, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

The compensation agreement is for improvements and assets on the more than 4,000 farms that were seized and doesn’t pertain to the land itself, Ben Gilpin, a director of the CFU, said earlier this month.

“This momentous event is historic,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa said at the ceremony. “It brings closure and a new beginning.”

The signing of the compensation accord came a few hours after the death of Agriculture Minister Perence Shiri at the age of 65. The government didn’t specify a cause of death. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-29/ zimbabwe-white-farmers-sign-3-5-billion-compensationaccord Image cedit: future-agricultures.org

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Business

Andela is Expanding Across Africa after Shutting Down its O ces and Going Remote

By Yomi Kazeem.

Developer outsourcing company Andela is major name investors including Facebook’s Mark making yet another major shift in its operational Zuckerberg, former vice president Al Gore and model. tennis superstar Serena Williams.

After laying o 135 people in May as well as Its initial business model included training local shutting down o ces globally while adopting entry-level developers to be globally competitive, fully remote operations, Andela will now allow place them on fourapplications from interested developers across year contracts and all of Africa, rather than just in the six countries— earn revenue by Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana and outsourcing their skills Egypt—where it had previously operated in. to clients in that time The remote, pan-African model essentially sees frame. Andela’s new Andela morph into an online marketplace for model means it will African developers who can apply, get accepted take on neither the and then be matched with an Andela client, usually initial cost of training an American company in need of engineering nor employment and talent. simply earn revenues The company has some experience with the new when it can place model having operated remotely in Ghana and engineers signed up Egypt and accepting engineers from outside those on its platform. countries’ capital cities. Andela is now accepting applications from senior developers across the continent adept in the most in-demand web frameworks and program languages.

However, developers will now only be contracted on a per project basis rather than be employed by Andela.

The move represents a significant shift from Andela’s founding premise of providing opportunity that might have been out of reach to budding developers across Africa primarily through training—a premise upon which it raised Andela’s erstwhile Lagos o ce. around $180 million from ANDELA 14

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The latest change in strategy by Andela is linked to an earlier operational shift in September when it ended its vaunted developer training programs in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, and let go of around 400 junior developers across those three countries due to an inability to place them.

While acknowledging the company no longer required large o ce spaces for its developer training programs, Andela chief executive Jeremy Johnson, confirms the decision to go remote and lay o sta was partly a cost reduction exercise “accelerated by Covid-19.” Andela had physical o ces in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda as well as New York, San Francisco and Austin, Texas in the US. But Johnson says the move is also due to recognizing that requiring its developers to work in o ces and cities where those o ces were located, had represented a barrier to accessing opportunities. “When you think about it through the lens of enabling talent, requiring physical o ces is actually part of the problem,” he tells Quartz Africa.

“Not enabling remote work is part of what creates the issue of talent being evenly distributed while opportunity is not.” There’s also the obvious benefit for Andela to expand the pool of developer talent available to its clients while potentially providing more African engineering talent with opportunities for work.

There’s evidence to support the company’s choice to opening up pan-African applications rather than simply focusing on bigger tech markets.

GitHub’s annual State of the Octoverse report for 2019 showed developers from Africa created 40% more open source repositories on the software engineering marketplace than in the previous year—a higher growth percentage than any other continent globally. Crucially, rapid growth in developer contributions was noted outside countries renowned for their large developer communities with growth seen in countries like Mayotte, Sierra Leone, Chad, Seychelles, Algeria and Guinea Bissau. That scale of activity mirrors the trend of tech hubs emerging beyond Africa’s legacy tech markets.

Andela’s latest tweak to its operational model since being founded in 2014 is unlikely to be its last. While there’s no established timeline yet, Johnson confirmed to Quartz Africa that the company will ultimately look to open up its network to applications from software engineers across the world and not just in Africa. https://qz.com/africa/1873379/andela-shuts-o cesexpands-across-africa-by-going-remote/?utm_ source=email&utm_medium=daily-brief&utm_ content=9185828 Image credit: YouTube

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Business

The Startup Movement is Globalizing: New Report Proves It

By Alex Lazarow.

Seemingly every day, we hear of the growth of the global startup movement.

It is certainly easier than ever to become a technology entrepreneur everywhere. Cloud computing has brought down the cost of starting companies, allowing anyone to rent Google GOOGL +0.9%’s enormous computing power by the hour rather than having to purchase and maintain dedicated servers. The plunging cost of telecommunications infrastructure, combined with the advent of collaboration software, has given rise to frictionless remote work. In fintech, one of the sectors where I invest, a range of ecosystem infrastructure is being built. Global markets themselves are looking more attractive for startups. The proliferation of mobile phones provides a way to reach more than five billion users worldwide. More than two billion people have online identities and interconnect and establish digital footprints through social media.

Today, there are over 480 innovation hubs globally and over 1.3 million venture backed companies.

An excellent annual barometer of the state of the global innovation movement is Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report (https://startupgenome.com/reports/gser2020). The 2020 edition o ers exciting news for the rise of innovation ecosystems globally. I share three particularly relevant conclusions below.

1. Not only has innovation gone global, so has innovation success Globally, there are over 400 unicorns – companies valued at over a billion dollars around the world. A decade ago this was highly concentrated in Silicon Valley. No longer. Today, 84 separate

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startup ecosystems have produced a billion-dollar startup, up from 4 in 2013. Fintech continues to be a core component of global innovation success stories.

Harkening back to Roger Bannister breaking the psychological 4-minute barrier, the report authors talk about the $4b ecosystem barrier – the amount of startup ecosystems that reach that level of generated ecosystem value. In the last 2 years, between 2017 and 2019, 48% more ecosystems have broken through, reaching 70 today.

2. The capital of technology is being challenged The report states “There Will Be No ‘Next Silicon Valley’. There Will Be 30.” This is certainly playing out in the numbers. See below the ranking of top hubs around the world, and how much stronger challengers are becoming.

These emerging centers represent a mix of regional winners (e.g. Singapore for South East

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Asia) or specialist ecosystems. The authors note the rise of Asia Pacific particularly. Today, 30% of the leading ecosystems are from the region, a share that increased 50% in 2012. These shifts are happening faster than expected (Startup Genome had predicted 100 by 2029 so they're on track to beat this estimate potentially this year).

The types of startups being built are also shifting. Importantly, global ecosystem players are becoming global leaders. The largest (credit-led) digital bank is in Brazil (Nubank) which has scaled regionally, the largest robotic process automation company was born in Romania (UiPath), the largest VR success was born in Prague (Beat Saber), and the largest superapp is in China (Tencent). Deeptech startups are now nearly 50% of all startups.

on average 33% of their FTE pool.

What this means

The innovation economy is accelerating globally, and startup hubs are becoming ecosystems, with growing capital bases, thriving employee pools, and a network of mentors.

Yet, to succeed, it will require resilience, particularly through recent headwinds.

Importantly, it will also require a new playbook. As I explore in my just-released book: Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs - from Delhi to Detroit - Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley (HBR Press), building a startup in more nascent ecosystems looks di erent. We cannot just copy-paste the Silicon Valley playbook.

Getting this right is more important than ever.

Entrepreneurship is the largest force of job growth 3. The road ahead will not be easy. globally, and in the US is responsible for all netBuilding a startup is already challenging. Covid-19 new job creation since 1977. In the US, according unsurprisingly has challenged startups everywhere, to Stanford research, 40% of all publicly traded but perhaps most a ected are those scaling in the companies were once startups and they represent tougher, less resource-rich ecosystems around the 80% of R&D budgets. world.

I look forward to Startup Genome’s update next Venture capital is down 20% globally, and that year but also the regular sub-sector reports they pain is concentrated in more emerging ecosystems. will start publishing throughout the year, starting in Nearly 20% of global startup founders saw a September. term sheet rescinded and nearly 50% saw their www.forbes.com/sites/alexlazarow/2020/07/08/theprocesses slow down materially. Over 72% of startup-movement-is-globalizing-new-report-provesstartups saw their revenues drop (40% by 40% or it/#538a6c8f3d58 more). This is going to have downstream e ects as Image credits: www.fastquicksearch.com/Results/ well: 60% of startups have laid o some employees, Silicon, habeshelink.com, BBC, techtrends.co.zm 17

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Business

Kenya and Nigeria are Leading Africa’s Push to Start Taxing Silicon Valley’s Global Tech Giants By naijapops Internet use across Africa skyrocketed from 2.1% in 2005 to 24% by 2018—the highest growth rate globally.

That growth has seen global tech companies from Facebook and Google to Uber and Netflix expand their digital services across the continent, not just to capture the still small current market but also to strategically position themselves bearing in mind Africa's young population and expected population boom.

But, like elsewhere, African governments are increasingly looking to develop a framework that allows them to generate tax revenue from these very popular digital services when used within their territories. The upside is obvious: collecting "digital taxes" will help African countries on their quest to grow their local tax bases which are typically undercut by large and un-captured informal sectors.

Then there's the benefit of diversifying income sources—a boon especially for some large African economies dependent on the export of raw commodities. And while it'd be important at any time, it's especially important now given the looming economic challenges of Covid-19 with the Sub-Saharan Africa region set for its first recession in 25 years.

technology companies that countries can adopt. But that slow-moving process is not guaranteed to be successful, especially after the United States pulled out of talks last month.

Full speed ahead Without a global, or even continental standard in place, African countries have typically levied digital operations indirectly through a range of taxes on mobile financial transactions and value-added taxes on communications services including calls and mobile data.

As local internet use has grown among Africa's middle-class, tech multinationals—from ridehailing giants like Uber and Bolt, and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba, and entertainment streaming platforms like Netflix and Spotify—have increasingly provided their services to African users. Even though Africa still accounts for a tiny slice of these companies' global revenues, their rising prominence and influence in local markets means African governments eye as them as taxable targets regardless of the fact several do not have a physical presence in their countries.

There's just one problem.

Without provisions in existing legislation and international tax treaties, there's currently no global standard for setting up and implementing taxes on multinational technology companies.

"The law is now just trying to catch up," says Wole Obayomi, head of tax, regulatory and people services at KPMG Nigeria. For its part however, Change the game the Organization for Economic Co-operation And so Nigeria and Kenya—two of Africa's and Development (OECD) is working on creating largest internet markets and most developed a new global tax framework for multinational tech ecosystems—have stepped up plans to tax

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multinational tech companies.

After extending the scope of Kenya's finance laws to allow it to collect taxes on "income earned through digital marketplaces" last year in a move that appears focused on e-commerce, a new law

Uber in Kenya Reuters Magie Fick

signed by the president at the start of the month will see a digital services tax of 1.5% of gross transaction value imposed on digital marketplaces and platforms that derive income from Kenya. The tax will take e ect from January 2021. Kenya's tax on gross transactions rather than profits is key and likely targets tech giants like Uber which remains "famously unprofitable."

In Nigeria, a newly passed ministerial order (SEP order) allows Africa's largest economy to tax companies that have a "significant economic presence" and are involved in digital transactions or providing services locally even without physical o ces or subsidiaries. The order deems companies to have significant economic presence in Nigeria if they derive gross income of over 25 million naira ($64,000) from digital services, use a Nigerian web domain or register a web address in Nigeria, 19

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target Nigerian users in advertising and marketing or reflect online payments in Nigeria's currency.

There's the obvious question of how these provisions could a ect local startups or even Africa-focused startups operating across di erent countries. Take Jumia, the pan-African e-commerce giant that's set up shop in 12 African countries. But while Jumia is incorporated in Germany, all of its operations in individual African markets "are fully registered as local entities" and "pay all the local taxes already," a Jumia spokesperson explains.

It's a similar reality for startups that are wholly registered locally in the countries they operate in and are already subject to existing tax laws, unlike tech giants like Netflix.

But local startups also face the real risk of double taxation, particularly in Kenya where the framing of the digital services tax encompasses all digital marketplaces in the country—and not just those based in Silicon Valley or Europe. As such, locally registered and homegrown e-commerce companies which already face relevant taxes may yet face an additional digital services tax.

"I think the government of Kenya should be igniting the digital economy not seeking to su ocate it in its crib," says Aly-Khan Satchu, a Nairobi-based financial and investment analyst. "Whatever nickel and dime income the government collects at this juncture will be at the expense of future growth," he tells Quartz Africa.

Invariably, these e orts to introduce these taxes will likely win support from locally competitive players, as past evidence, and long-running sentiments, suggests. In the wake of Netflix going live across Africa, MultiChoice, the largest pay TV player across Africa, has been vocal about the need for the company to be regulated, bemoaning its operations as an over-the-top service without paying taxes, setting up a local presence or putting down infrastructure.

Telecoms companies across the continent have also pushed for messaging platforms including Facebook's popular WhatsApp to be regulated because, they say, it undercuts their voice call and SMS revenue. And like in other parts of the world, Uber's Africa operations have long faced pushsee page 20

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Business the companies o ering those services have earned within their territories. With subsidiaries of global back from local taxi groups who decry its model tech companies often providing administrative and as anathema to their survival. marketing support, mothership companies can While proposing these laws and regulations is potentially allocate costs to their operations in a one thing, implementing and enforcing them is quite manner that leaves countries with little or nothing another. Without a widely agreed upon standard to tax. for taxing tech multinationals, there's significant "The uncertainties regarding the profits earned from and taxable in Nigeria is a notable issue the SEP order failed to address," writes Amaka SamuelOnyeani, senior manager at the Nigerian arm of global tax consulting firm, Andersen Tax. That gap a m p l i f i e s the need for international consensus especially as one of the 'Google for Nigeria' walking the walk OECD's key Reuters Akintunde Akinleye objectives in potential for unilateral laws to be subject to dispute creating a global digital tax framework will be as recent examples show. France's attempts to providing an acceptable formula for profit attribution implement a tax on tech giants, including American and taxing. In the meantime however, without companies, left it on the brink of a trade war with clarity on earnings within their jurisdictions, African the United States last year while India's digital tax countries looking to press on will have little choice plans, in form of an "equalization levy," have faced but to "rely on the integrity" of tech multinationals, pushback from US tech giants.

Obayomi says.

In the unlikely scenario that tech multinationals www.naijapopsblog.com/2020/07/kenya-andvoluntarily accept being taxed in African markets nigeria-are-leading-africas.html without similar resistance, it will only solve just one variable of a more complex equation. As Mustapha Ndajiwo, founder of the African Center for Tax and Governance, notes in a working paper published last month, "the main problem is not taxable nexus, but attribution of profits."

Essentially, without a global framework in place, countries seeking to collect taxes on digital services first have to ascertain how much profits from page 19

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Business

Zambian Company Spots Opportunity for Locallymade Spices and Pastes

By Nelly Muringi Sage Valley (www.facebook.com/sagevalleyzm) is a Zambian company which produces spices Sage Valley co-founders Nancy (left) and Zita and pastes from locally sourced ingredients. The Kafwimbi business was started in 2019. Co-founder Zita Kafwimbi (29) answers our questions.

1. Give us your elevator pitch.

Sage Valley is a brand that manufactures various pastes and spices. With the local spice market flooded by foreign products, we have taken the opportunity to fill this gap by producing internationalstandard locally-made products. It has given us the opportunity to support the agricultural sector by adding value and creating diversification for farmers to grow di erent herbs and spices apart from the normally grown crops, all while giving them a direct market to sell to and, in turn, build wealth for themselves and their families.

4. What risks does your business face?

The major risk our business faces is largely competition from already established foreign brands. They can negatively impact our business by o ering cost reductions. Small businesses like ours have higher costs than they do.

2. How did you finance your startup?

We financed our startup using the little savings we had and eventually got support through the Empress Fund, managed by Africa Trust Group (ATG http://africatrustgroup.com), based in Cape Town, South Africa. Empress Fund was established by a syndicate group of high-net-worth individuals from across the African continent and diaspora, to invest in the growth of women-owned businesses in the Southern African Development Community (SADC https://sadc.int).

5. So far, what has proven to be the most successful form of marketing?

Social media platforms. We are in a digital era where most people have access to the internet and that has worked in our favour.

3. If you were given $1 million to invest in your company now, where would it go?

It would go to the expansion of the business by adding more condiment lines and a manufacturing plant with machinery that would make our production more e cient. We would then go into exports to our neighbouring countries and beyond.

We would also diversify into the value addition of other agricultural products in our country.

7. Tell us about your biggest mistake.

Our biggest mistake was not consistently checking current market pricing before production.

It a ected how we priced our products but we have learnt to always be updated with current market flows to help us be competitive and still remain a sustainable business.

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6. Describe your most exciting entrepreneurial moment.

Scooping the “best value addition winner for 2020� at the Nkoka Women in Agro Business awards (www.facebook.com/NkokaWomenInAgrowBusiness).

It was such a proud moment for us as a business.

www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/zambian-company-spotsopportunity-for-locally-made-spices-and-pastes/69333

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Business

What is #BlackPoundDay? Black Pound Day is a solution-based approach to support the growth of the UK Black economy. As a direct and peaceful response to the systematic racism that creates un-equality for the Black community in the United Kingdom.

Starting with one day per month, Black Pound Day encourages everyone to spend money with local and online UK Black-owned businesses. Replacing your usual purchases with services and products from Black-owned businesses.

The day is also an opportunity to find out how everyone can support Black businesses over the long-term.

In response to the death of George Floyd and the current Black Lives Matter protests, So Solid Crew’s (www. instagram.com/o cialsosolid), Swiss has developed the idea of Black Pound Day. His idea hopes to underpin our long-term financial growth and infrastructure, empowering and motivating the Black community.

Black Pound Day encourages everyone to replace their usual purchases with products from Black-owned businesses, once a month.

Spending locally or online with UK Black-owned businesses.

The day is also an opportunity to find out how everyone can support Black businesses over the long-term. So don’t forget to share brands that you love, businesses that you can’t live without and make sure to hashtag #BlackPoundDay. Black Pound Day launched on Saturday, 27 June 2020.

Spread the Message Joining the movement means so much more than just shopping on the day, share the blackowned businesses you love with people, share the message and educate those around you about how 22

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The Black Pound metro-co-uk So Solid Crew o cial charts company

#BlackPoundDay can help the growth of the British economy, while promoting unity and equality.

Help us spread the message by taking part in the #BlackPoundDayChallenge (https:// blackpoundday.uk/tag/challenge).

We are looking for people to help raise awareness of the #BlackPoundDay movement, by creating a short video. If you’re a shopper tell us in a short video where you’ll be shopping, what businesses you love and why. If you’re a business owner share in a short video what you will be doing in-store or online to support the movement.

When you’re done please tag us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and send us the video so that we can share it. Don’t forget to hashtag #BlackPoundDay AND #BlackPoundChallenge. https://blackpoundday.uk/what-is-black-poundday/ ##BlackLivesMatter ##BlackPoundDay #Black Businesses

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Business - History

The History of Black Management Reveals an Overlooked Form of Capitalism

By Lila MacLellan On June 4, the reverend Al Sharpton appeared at the first public memorial for George Floyd and delivered a stirring eulogy, one that served as a bridge linking the personal grief of the slain man’s family with America’s history of racism and violence against Black people.

He presented a long, devastating account of the ways Black Americans have been metaphorically pinned down—physically, spiritually, and economically—just as Floyd had been suffocated by the Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck. “We were smarter than the underfunded schools you put us in, but you had your knee on our neck,” Sharpton said. “We could run corporations and not hustle in the streets,” he also said, “but you had your knee on our neck.”

Leon Prieto and Simone Phipps, two management professors and the authors of African American Management History (Emerald Points, 2019 www.amazon.com/African-American-ManagementHistory-Cooperative/dp/178756662), were watching that afternoon from Atlanta. They found that last statement profound, they later told me, because it pithily encapsulated the reality of running African American businesses in the United States. It also spoke to what Prieto and Phipps see as their role in the Black Lives Matter movement: connecting the dots between the philosophies of historical Black business leaders—whose ideas, values, and traditions have been left out of the management canon—and America’s racial inequities today.

The pair argue that the ideas supported by African American managers during the first few decades of the 20th century, a relative golden age for Black business, hold lessons that are relevant in this century.

Discovering the Hidden Figures of Black Management History

Charles Clinton Spaulding, circa 1912. Na onal Archives and Records Administra on/Crea ve Commons

historically Black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina. There they noticed an oddity that would hold true throughout their academic careers: In the textbooks they read, all of the management gurus that informed their views of organizational culture, financing, strategy, or the purpose of a company, were caucasian, says Phipps, now an associate professor of management at Middle Georgia State University’s School of Business. “[W]e learned a lot about African American history, but when we were reading the management textbooks, I was like, ‘Ok, there are a lot of things that can be here, but they’re not listed.’ I felt that there had to be African Americans who contributed to the field.”

Phipps and Prieto, who are married, are both The Father of Black Management History from Trinidad and Tobago. They first met as The first figure the duo studied extensively undergraduate students at Clafl in University, a was Charles Clinton Spaulding (https:// 24

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from page 24

northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/charlesclinton-spaulding-1874-1952), who led North

Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, the largest African American life insurance company of the times, for 50 years until his death in 1952.

Several years ago, reading a book about Black business history, and then checking the bibliography for original sources, Prieto discovered a kind of manifesto Spaulding had written in 1927 for the Pittsburgh A look back into a history that wasn’t widely known.

Courier, the largest Black newspaper of Teenie Harris Archive/Carnegie Museum of Art the era (https://niemanreports.org/articles/theblack-press-past-and-present), reaching hundreds of odd jobs in Durham, until he was invited to join thousands of readers. Under the headline “The the insurance company. But where his story differs Administration of Big Business,” Spaulding from other self-made-man fables is in Spaulding’s shared his views on running a major firm. To his strong, faithful support for his community as he mind, the eight fundamentals of operations that gained fame and became one of the moguls of demanded a leader’s attention were: Durham’s “Black Wall Street.” (www.ncpedia.org/ • cooperating and teamwork; anchor/durhams-black-wall-street) • authority and responsibility; In the writings and speeches in Spaulding’s • division of labor; archives, housed at Duke University (https:// • adequate manpower; library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/spauldingcc), • adequate capital; Phipps and Prieto discovered an unrelenting call • feasibility analysis; for cooperation and consensus-building within • advertising budget; organizations, and an emphasis on the symbiotic • and confl ict resolution. relationship between a company and the world His article, the scholars note, was published outside its doors.

Spaulding’s devotion to a collective style of 20 years before similar theories about the functions of management by Henri Fayol, a working and to corporate social responsibility French theorist and textbook mainstay, were was not an isolated case of the era. Nor did it translated for American readers. (The podcast materialize strictly as a response to the times, Talking About Organizations, which invited the pair assert. Rather, they hypothesize that Prieto and Phipps to be guests on the show the cooperative model that was popular among last year, has transcribed Spaulding’s article in Black businesses then—and which infused the full, here. (www.talkingaboutorganizations.com/wp- way free-market enterprises operated in the Black content/uploads/2019/06/Administration-of-Big-Business- Wall Streets of Durham and other American cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma—grew out of a much older Spaulding-1927.pdf)) In one sense, Spaulding’s life story is a classic African philosophy called Ubuntu, a Nguni American tale of success: Born on a farm in rural Bantu word meaning humanity, derived from North Carolina in 1874, only a decade after slavery an idiom that’s sometimes translated as “I am was abolished, Spaulding, who had to leave school because we are” or “a person is a person through to work at home as a child, went to Durham other persons.” Ubuntu as a world view that to finish grade school at age 20, not letting the stresses our interconnectedness was popularized knowledge that he’d be significantly older than the globally in the 1960s, primarily by Desmond see page 26 other students deter him. After graduating, he took 25

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Business - History from page 25

Tutu, the South African archbishop emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights activist (https://theconversation.com/what-archbishoptutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-andharmony-84730).

The sense that ubuntu defines our human experience is common in several African cultures, Prieto says, and manifests in a range of cooperative financial models that flourish across the African diaspora. (For example, he had grown up contributing to sou sou, or a savings club, he tells his students in lectures, and it was a sou sou that allowed him to purchase the plane ticket that brought him the US. (www.essence.com/news/ money-career/what-is-a-sou-sou-savings-club-facts) It may not have been called ubuntu, but that moral code survived as a shared value among Africans enslaved in the US, Prieto and Phipps say.

Writers and educators including W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington, who influenced Black business pioneers, had also championed the cooperative model as a tool for economic independence, according to Prieto and Phipps. “I don’t think people have a sense of how difficult it was for Black Americans, after slavery, to find their way in the capitalist system without any capital,” says Prieto.

Spaulding was managing a cooperative grocery store for Black Americans when he was recruited by two of the founders of North Carolina Mutual, John Merrick, a former slave who had become a prominent barber, and Aaron McDuffie Moore, the first African American doctor in Durham.

Too busy with their own jobs to actually run the company, they asked Spaulding to become a salesperson and, in fact, sole employee. Spaulding took the baton and ran a marathon, driven by the insurance company’s social mission. At the time, white-owned insurers would not serve Black customers, Phipps says, which meant that when a Black person died, “the family often had to literally pass the hat around for a collection to cover the funeral and burial costs.”

Spaulding wasn’t named president of the North Carolina Mutual until 1920, but he was its de facto leader until then, anyway. Under his

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management, the company grew to serve more than 100,000 clients by 1908. He hired hundreds of employees, including women and some white salespeople, and expanded the business to 16 states. He worked tirelessly, never taking a vacation, because he believed that he was doing “god’s work,” says Prieto, “by helping the Black community in Durham, and the United States by extension.” And Spaulding gave back, donating to hospitals, libraries, churches, and newspapers, and publishing his views so they would be instructive to other established or aspiring Black business owners.

“The idea of spirituality is sort of a new concept these days in management, that idea of your work being meaningful and being able to have purpose,” says Phipps. But, a century ago, Spaulding knew that employees needed that larger mission as motivation. “The terminology of ‘spirituality’ is a bit controversial, but the idea was that he was able to link spirituality and the corporation, and that was a common theme in the people we were researching,” says Phipps.

On special retreat-like days he called forums, Spaulding also ran professional-development seminars on oration, communication, and managing. Phipps describes the forums as “an empowering way to get people together and to develop people without having a formal training and development program.” Prieto adds, “It was a way for employees to build some confidence about themselves, as people of African descent who can come to work, gain some skills and make a difference within the organization and the community as well.”

Spaulding also instinctively understood the value of office luxuries to attract and retain the best talent. As Prieto and Phipps write in their book: “Today, many employees enjoy the idea of working for companies such as Google, and Facebook, which have medical facilities, great dining, and various other perks. At the Mutual, in 1948, on the second floor of their building, one could find an ‘elaborately modern clinic’ headed by a graduate of the Harvard Medical School, a printing press, and a ‘model cafeteria,’ where the staff could get a first-class meal at around 17 cents.”

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of these ‘perks’ as a way to increase motivation within the Mutual family.

People typically want what is best for their family, and the good old Mutual spirit reflected this convention.”

The Mother of African American Management

Though Spaulding’s tale unspools across the bulk of their book, the academics also deconstruct the managing styles of the aforementioned Merrick and Alonzo Herndon, former Maggie Lena slaves turned influential entrepreneurs Walker in 1913. who were among the first investors in Crea ve North Carolina Mutual and Atlanta Commons Life. They also write about two entrepreneurs in the Black beauty industry, Annie Turnbo-Malone and Madame C. J. Walker.

And then there’s Maggie Lena Walker, the historical leader whose writings left the professors most awestruck and electrified.

Born in 1864 to a former slave in Richmond, Virginia, Walker grew up in poverty, but she would become the fi rst woman in the United States to start a bank, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, in 1903. This feat followed her ascension to the head of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a mutual-aid society she ran for 35 years.

Along with 22 other women, she also launched a

department store called the Emporium, a business spun off from the Aid society to serve African American customers and give African American women jobs demanding skills other than housekeeping and other forms of manual labor.

Evidence to support the argument that Walker had this gift as a manager at the society and, later, as a bank president, exists in abundance in Walker’s fiery speeches, many of which addressed the role Black women could and should play in business or in any career of their choosing. At a talk in 1912, for example, Walker proclaimed, “Let woman choose her own vocation, just as a man does his. Let her go into business, let her make money, let her become independent, if possible, of man: let her marry, bringing into the partnership, if not money, a trade or business—something else besides the mere clothes upon her body.”

She had a real love for her people, says Phipps, and it comes through in her rallying cries for African Americans to boycott white businesses and start their own instead, to starve “the lion of prejudice” that sought to prevent Black Americans from accumulating wealth and self-sufficiency.

Walker’s ideas and progressive speeches were, for decades, temporarily lost to history. Today, there is a renewed interest in her life story; two years ago, her hometown erected a statue of her in an overdue tribute.

Slowly Lifting the Knee off Black Entrepreneurs

In Walker and Spaulding’s time, Black businesses that were run as cooperatives or operated in that spirit thrived. But they also were attacked by white mobs in sometimes deadly violence, as in the Tulsa massacre of 1921 (https://daily.jstor.org/thedevastation-of-black-wall-street) and elsewhere. Racist competitors waged a psychological war against Revisi ng history: management professors Simone Phipps and Leon Prieto.

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Business - History Black cooperatives, too, says Prieto, by calling them communist and anti-American.

“White supremacists, anytime they had an opportunity to label Black citizens un-American, they took it,” he says.

A full century later, Black entrepreneurs in the US are still wrestling the lion of prejudice, long before they can even hang a shingle. Citing recent data from the Federal Reserve, the Guardian reports that between 2012 and 2017, 47% of companies with Black owners that applied for loans were approved, compared to 75% of those with white owners (www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/16/

black-owned-firms-are-twice-as-likely-to-be-rejected-forloans-is-this-discrimination). When banks do grant

says.

For her part, Phipps says she didn’t truly understand the experiences of African Americans before she moved to South Carolina. Even then, she felt compelled to read about Black American history and ask her own questions, in the process developing a specific lens on injustices as they persist today.

The first textbook author to update his work to add Spaulding’s story was Chuck Williams, author of MGMT (Cengage Learning www.cengage.com/c/ mgmt-11e-williams/9781337407465PF), which Prieto was using in his classes.

Now Prieto and Phipps are hoping that future edits will introduce other figures, particularly Maggie Lena Walker. “We think she could be considered the mother of African American management,” says Prieto. “C.C. Spaulding is recognized as the father of African American management. She deserves her place as well.”

African American applicants access to capital, Phipps also notes, they tend to attach interest rates that are much higher than those offered to white customers.

Arguably, some of the responsibility to correct contemporary biases sits with the country’s business schools, which have been struggling to Reclaiming the Future Ultimately, Prieto and Phipps want to see more diversify their student populations and faculty than just an acknowledgment of the proven, (https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-address-the-lackof-diversity-in- compassionate form of capitalism detailed in their o u r - n a t i o n s - research. They also want to see African Americans b u s i n e s s - launch businesses and build wealth by adopting it. schools).

“There is a term from the Akan people of Ghana Un-erasing known as Sankofa, which means, ‘go back and get it.’ It embodies the importance of reflecting History on African philosophies from the past in order to Like Rogers, reclaim the future,” Prieto and Phipps write in the Prieto and introduction to their book.

Phipps want This could be exactly the right moment for that to change the appeal. Scholars have found that African American environment cooperatives surged in numbers during periods for Black of political momentum, first after slavery in the Americans US ended and again in the 1970s, in the decade in corporate after the passage of the US Civil Rights Act (www. life, beginning with what they read and absorb policylink.org/blog/collective-courage). as college students, and can therefore imagine for Could today’s Black Lives Matter movement give themselves. rise to a new wave of cooperatives and a shift in Happily, Prieto and Phipps can claim some the culture of Black business? “You know,” says early success: At least five textbook authors have Prieto, “it just might.” updated their books to include Spaulding and his Edited by DAWN staff. The full article is available eight fundamentals of business administration, at: https://qz.com/work/1868106/black-businessciting the duo’s research. history-reveals-potent-management-lessons For some people, says Phipps, this topic is Image credit: www.amazon.com controversial. “They’d rather not look at it,” she 28

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African Society for Cyber Security Awareness “ASCSA” in none profit organization established to promote safe online behaviour and practices. We aim to encourage South African, Africa and the rest of the World to be more vigilant about practicing safe online habits and encourages them to view Internet safety as a shared responsibility at home, in the workplace, and in our communities. African Society for Cyber Security Awareness has three focused Cyber Safety Program ASCSA is a well-recognized & registered 'non profit organisation company with single mission of promoting Cyber Safety Awareness programs on new age technological crimes (cybercrime) & frauds and safeguard our people. With our single motto, “Enable Empower and Educate” We intent to carry out boots-on-the-ground projects to accomplish our objectives. This requires a great deal of careful planning, communication, and local involvement for each project. Our goal is to accomplish the following: • • • • •

Increase and reinforce cyber safety awareness and training Engage the government to commit in securing cyberspace Elevate the Nation’s awareness of cybersecurity and its association with the security of our Nation and safety of our personal lives Generate and communicate approaches and strategies to keep families, and communities safe online To bring together and highlights the best safety messages, tools and methods to reach parents, children and caregivers

ASCSA primary focus is nurturing and educating our young people as they are the majority citizen of the Cyber World. The ultimate objective is to implement broad reaching education and awareness efforts to empower African women and children with the information they need to keep themselves, their organizations, their systems and their sensitive information safe and secure online whilst encourage a culture of cyber safety.

Investment Profile - Ethiopia

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

By Africa Business Association

According to World Bank es mates, from 2000 to 2018, Ethiopia was the third-fastest growing country of 10 million or more people in the world, as measured by GDP per capita. Two of Ethiopia’s main development goals are poverty reduc on and elimina ng dependence on food aid. The country’s poverty rate fell to 31% by 2015 (the latest year Ethiopia’s poverty level was assessed by the World Bank). Life expectancy rose from about 52 in 2000 to 66 in 2017, and infant mortality more than halved over that period. By HE Aiby Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia displays his Nobel Peace Prize 2050, the United Na ons (UN) projects the country to grow to over 205 million people, from Prime Minister: around 115 million today, making it among the fastestHead of Government growing large countries in terms of popula on, too. Name Prime Minister: Ethiopia is young with 71% of its popula on under 30.

Abiy Ahmed In 2019 Ethiopia’s parliament passed a bill to allow h ps://pmo.gov.et/ members of the Ethiopian diaspora, who have taken Region: up na onali es in other countries, to invest, buy East Africa shares, and set up lending businesses in theciountry’s Es mated GDP: state-dominated financial sector. By posi oning its 5 US$222 (2019) million strong diaspora community the prospects for Es mated Popula on: more foreign direct investment is clearly assured. With 114.86 million consistent success Ethiopia is will li tens of millions out of poverty and live up to the country’s burgeoning Value Proposi on Ethiopia has been among Africa’s most impressive status as the next global manufacturing center. growth performers over the past decade, averaging 10.9% annual growth between 2004 and 2014, despite O cial Name: being a non-oil producing country. The government’s Federal Democra c Republic of Ethiopia economic strategy has been premised on sound Government Format: macroeconomic policies, diversifica on by promo ng Federal Parliamentary Republic, whereby the 30

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agriculture and industrial development, and crea ng a business environment that is conducive to investment, supported by infrastructure development. Home to the con nent’s second largest popula on of 90 million

industrial parks by March 2019, with 80 per cent of these posi ons filled by women. And by the end of the Ethiopian 2018-19 fiscal year (7 July 2019), exports from industrial parks reached $142 million, up by 50% from the previous year and accoun ng for approximately 5% and 50% of total and manufactured goods exports, respec vely. h ps://ins tute.global/advisory/ reflec ng-how-ethiopiasindustrialisa on-push

Doing Business In Ethiopia

people in 2015 and a forecasted almost 100 million in 2020, the country is posi oned as a yet untapped investment opportunity in Eastern Africa.

What does your na on o er that an investor’s value proposal needs?

For investors coming to Ethiopia, the main incen ves have been cheap labor, with Ethiopia being one of the most popular des na ons for low-cost country sourcing, complemented by the-lowest-in-the-world electricity tari . The East Africa economic block is very progressive and is home to some of the top global countries with highest performance in ease of doing business such as Rwanda and Kenya.

Ethiopia has seen the highest GDP per capita growth on the con nent, with a CAGR of 10.93% expected between 2000 and 2020. Ethiopia has also maintained one of the lowest levels of income inequality, ranking third lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and 12th globally in terms of the World Bank Gini co-e cient es mates.

Development in Ethiopia Recognizing the decades-long industrializa on experiences of Western and East Asian countries, and the fact that Ethiopia is a late-late starter: it is s ll early days for the country’s most recent industrializa on push. Nonetheless, but it is useful to acknowledge progress and give credit where it is due. As of May 2019, 12 industrial parks have been constructed or are under construc on, 6 of which are fully occupied by investors. Of the parks that are opera onal, all but one are full. By June 2018, total capital invested in industrial parks during the preceding three-year period was approximately $540 million, or $180 million per year—accoun ng for roughly 5% of annual FDI inflows in recent years.2 70,000 jobs had been created across 31

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Investment Profile - Ethiopia What is your promise to investors?

Its poli cal stability, in what is a vola le Horn of Africa region, has cemented its role as a key Western ally. This has been demonstrated by United States (US) President Barack Obama’s visit to Addis Ababa in July 2015, where he reiterated the importance of Ethiopia’s role in regional security. Although companies are taxed at 30%, Ethiopia ranks compara vely well in 44th posi on globally, for its rela vely low total tax rate as a percentage of profits.

What services do you provide for your investors?

The Ethiopian government con nues to update and revise its commercial code in order to facilitate private investment and enhance the business opera ng environment. This will include a focus on simplifying regula ons for poten al investors, standardizing accoun ng prac ces to accurately assess opera ng liabili es such as tax, increasing protec on of shareholders and modernizing trade and registra on procedures and processes.

What sets apart Ethiopia from the rest of the countries in Africa is its high-quality, beau ful handicra s.

Ethiopian products, from jewelry and clothing, leather and wickerwork to delicacies and more - all will remind you of the rich culture and tradi ons of Africa. Ethiopia

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is a mysterious, beau ful, and mountainous piece of paradise in the Horn of Africa and the birthplace of Early Chris anity. Lake Tana in Northern Ethiopia promises a pilgrimage of a life me, as it is famous for its ancient monasteries and churches. Visit Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) and see the astonishing Menbere Selassie Church. Indeed, a tour is not complete without buying some unique and famous local cra s.

Six Sectors of Investment Opportuni es in Ethiopia Given all the ongoing projects, the government of Ethiopia has iden fied six major sectors of investment opportuni es. These are: Transport Infrastructure - Many na onal and regional projects are currently being undertaken to improve the transporta on system for land, air or sea travel.

Industrial Sector - One main focus of the country now is to increase produc on in sugar, tex les, leather products and cement. The industrial sector is expected to be a major contributor to the economic output of the country by the year 2025.

Agriculture - Despite being the largest contributor to the economic output of Ethiopia, the agricultural sector s ll looks for methods to present opportuni es for be er farming technology. In fact, 8 million acres are now being o ered to commercial farming investors.

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Energy - The country’s aim to be the regional exporter of energy is very evident with all the wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal projects under way.

Mining - Due to its rich resources of minerals including gold and tantalum deposits, there’s no doubt that Ethiopia will double its exports in the years to come.

ICT - The innova on of 4G and 3G will increase the demand for advanced technologies such as telemedicine, video conferencing, and distance learning.

With all these developments, prospects and projects

that are ongoing, it’s certain that this country will emerge as one with immense business opportuni es.

Natural resources Ethiopia has rich deposits of coal, tantalum, iron, nickel, manganese, potash and phosphates. Gold and tantalum reserves are found in the South, West and North of the country. The oil and gas sector is s ll at the explora on phase. While largely untapped, resources are under development to help diversify Ethiopia’s economy away from agriculture.

Ethiopia is where co ee originated. In the Oromia region we grow some of the best co ee in the world.

Consumers may purchase Ethiopian co ees and teas under many brand names around the world. Your purchase of any Ethiopian-grown/made products contributes to the viability of the economy and the stability of the na on.

Ready to investor in Ethiopia's economy and future growth?

If you plan to venture into business in a country like Ethiopia, u lize our export developers to enable you to be familiar with the kind of market and people you’ll be dealing with. Contact us at africa@ africabusinessassocia on.org.

Also, please review pages 16, 48 and 50 to read ar cles on business ac vi es in Ethiopia. image credits: africa-ontherise.com, Booking.com/Addis-AbabaHotels, blogspot.com, www.tripadvisor.com

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Investment Profile - Zambia

Republic of Zambia

By Africa Business Association

Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa that is bordered by eight countries with an es mated popula on of 16 million people. It is rich in natural resources, has a stable poli cal climate and a strong legal and financial system. Zambia has 40% of the water resources in Southern Africa and there is significant poten al for the agricultural sector with a large land mass, the majority of which is arable. Currently, only 14% of the land is under cul va on and the government has plans to develop the sector given its key role in promo ng growth and allevia ng poverty.

In 2019 Zambia's Vice President Ms. Wina launched the Diaspora Policy recognizing that all Zambians HE Edgar Changwa Lungu, President of Zambia speaks at the United Na ons. irrespec ve of where they are in Daily Monitor the world need to be cared for and treasured as key human capital needed for the country’s Republic development agenda. Formula ng the Diaspora Policy, President: the Zambian Government was mindful of the various Edgar Changwa Lungu challenges hindering the par cipa on of the diaspora h ps://pmo.gov.et/ in the country’s development. A strong diaspora Region: community provides viable prospects for more foreign Southern Africa direct investment.

Es mated GDP: US$73 billion (2019) O cial Name: Es mated Popula on: Republic of Zambia 16.0 million Government Format: 34

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Value Proposi on The country's central and hub loca on in the region as well as a combina on of the following key strengths makes Zambia an ideal investment loca on: 1. Peaceful and stable poli cal system 2. Posi ve and investorfriendly economic environment 3. Guarantees and security to investors with legislated rights to full and market value compensa on 4. Abundant natural resources presen ng excellent investment and trade opportuni es 5. Thriving private sector Copper Mine. lusakavoice.com 6. A rac ve investment Zambia is a good place to work and live – sub-tropical incen ves climate, friendly people, mostly English speaking, open7. Unlimited repatria on of proďŹ ts air lifestyle with nature reserves, game parks, rivers, 8. Progressive banking, legal and insurance services lakes and waterfalls. of interna onal standards and stock exchange market What does your na on o er that an 9. Duty-free access to regional, wider Africa, EU investor’s value proposal on needs? and USA markets With a total mineral resource of at least 2 billion tons

Gem Sor ng/Ra ng. blogspot.com

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Investment Profile - Zambia in the Copperbelt region alone, the Mining sector o ers real poten al for growth and further expansion. Aside from copper and zinc, Zambia also boasts of precious stones such as emeralds, amethysts, aquamarine, gold and diamonds among others. Zambia has 752,000 square km of landmass, 58% of which is arable. New farming blocks have recently been made available for use by both local and interna onal investors for full cul va on and agro-business purposes. A number of hor cultural and floricultural crops with export markets in Europe and South Africa are being promoted for expansion. There are opportuni es to engage in agro-processing and move up the value chain and investments through joint ventures.

Zambia's tourism poten al lies in its vast The Epoch Times natural resources most of which are pris ne and unexploited and cater to a diverse and broad range following key strengths makes it an ideal investment of interests including varied sceneries, wilderness loca on. and wildlife, adventure ac vi es, diverse culture • Abundance of natural resources and manpower, which are highly under-u lized and na onal heritage. Aside from the world-famous Victoria Falls, a UNESCO Heritage site, Zambia boasts • Poli cal Stability since a aining independence in 1964 many other a rac ons, including 19 na onal parks and 34 game management areas covering other 22.4 • No Controls on: prices, interest rates, foreign exchange rates, free repatria on of debt million hectares. Zambia’s wildlife estate is one of the repayments largest in the subregion, with wildlife protected areas occupying about 40% of the country’s land surface • 100% repatria on of net profits • Guarantees and Security to investors with legislated area. rights to full and market value compensa on Development in Zambia • Duty Free Access to Regional, wider African and the Guided by the overall vision of transforming Zambia USA markets under SADC, COMESA/FTA and AGOA into a middle-income country by 2030, the Zambian (African Growth and Opportunity Act) respec vely government aims to promote economic diversifica on • Banking, Financial, Legal and Insurance services of to ensure a broad based and sustained economic interna onal standard as well as a Stock Exchange growth that would help li the majority of its people • Double Taxa on Agreements with a number of out of poverty.

European, North American, African and Asian Doing Business in Zambia countries Zambia is a mul -party democracy and provides a • Good place to work and live – sub-tropical climate free market liberalized economic environment in a and vegeta on with plenty of water. Friendly stable strife-free and mul cultural society. The Zambian people, mostly English speaking, with high literacy government welcomes investors across sectors and rate. Educa onal establishments to University the laws rela ng to investment provide investment level. Strong religious values. Open-air lifestyle incen ves and protec on to increase investment with nature reserves, game parks, rivers, lakes and and interna onal trade as well as increased domes c waterfalls. economic growth. The country's land-linked and central • Thriving Private Sector – Government has loca on in the region, as well as a combina on of the successfully priva zed most of the previously 36

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state-owned enterprises, thus encouraging an entrepreneurial culture

What services do you provide for your investors?

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Act of 2006 and amended in 2014 o ers a wide range of incen ves in the form of allowances, exemp ons and concessions for companies. The Act provides for investment thresholds to qualify for fiscal and non-fiscal incen ves.

PRIORITY SECTORS 1. Manufacturing 2. Construc on and establishment of infrastructure, excluding renova on, expansion and refurbishment a. Educa on: Construc on of educa on and skills

iii. Construc on and establishment of exhibi on centers iv. Construc on and establishment of museums v. Construc on and establishment of Theme parks vi. Construc on and establishment of art galleries vii. Construc on and establishment of theatres; viii. Construc on and establishment of a large retail complex containing a variety of ten or more stores, restaurants or other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building. (d) Housing : Development of fi y (50) or more houses erected or maintained under one management or control on land developed specifically for the ci ng of such houses in accordance with a comprehensive plan which provides for the laying out of roads and the furnishing and availability of services essen al or ancillary to the use of such building as houses (e) Agriculture: construc on of crop and grain storage facili es Please review pages 21 and 46 to read ar cles on business ac vity in Zambia.

Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-tunya)

training ins tu ons b. Health: Construc on of health centers’ as defined under the Health Professions Act 2009. c. Tourism i. Construc on and establishment of hotels ii. Construc on and establishment of conven on centers 37

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Lions in South Luangwa, Zambia

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Development

WPEC Launches 'Titans Tank' Virtual Business Competition for African and African American Female Entrepreneurs The Women’s Program Engagement Council (WPEC) aka “Africa’s Titans®”, a Global Sustainable Partnerships (GSP) Global Ini a ve designed to help African and African American women entrepreneurs and business owners expand into new markets, today launches a new ini a ve christened ‘Titans Tank.’

Titans Tank will entail a virtual business compe on to allow women entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and exis ng business to the public and the WPEC community. The top five businesses will be selected to par cipate in the final compe on. These women will get the rare opportunity to showcase their ideas, products, or services to judges and poten al investors. To apply, please click on this link: h ps:// docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgwhWMLmBSLMrV4zqiSPg3SgEzbfK3QKaMu_VxvZLx4VHog/ viewform.

According to Kimberly L. Fogg the Founder and Chair of (WPEC), the goal of WPEC is to work with investors to help them look at women entrepreneurs through a “new lens” as it relates to the value of inves ng in women and to ensure their voices are represented, recognized and championed for their role as innovators, job creators, entrepreneurs, mentors, while helping raise awareness that these women have longevity in the local, na onal and global markets.

Kimberly noted that the campaign invites African and African American women entrepreneurs and business owners globally to send in a short video of their idea or exis ng business. “We will showcase this on all our social media pla orms including @TWPEC Facebook page and LinkedIn in the week of August 17th. The judges will select the top five “Titans” and the winner will be announced on Sept 26th 2020.”

In keeping with the theme of Africa’s Titans® the compe on will focus on two categories.

• Titans in Innova on, Technology, and Communica on Connec vity • Titans in Banking, Business, Investments, and Marke ng

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WPEC is looking to partner with key female representa ves of major Fortune 500 companies, African leaders, company founders, philanthropists, key policymakers and business leaders to serve as mentors to share their journeys through the private and public sector spaces describing not only their successes, but also iden fying policy gaps, challenges, obstacles and suggested solu ons for future best prac ces.

About WPEC WPEC is an innova ve social entrepreneurship organiza on comprised of a global network of women leaders who play a pivotal role in the global support of ge ng more women in managerial/execu ve posi ons and on corporate boards, with a mission of developing, growing, and sustaining women leadership in their own businesses globally. WPEC operates globally through building a commi ed global black woman led Africa’s Titans® network of entrepreneurs and business owners who are u lizing innova on to drive global sustainable development, addressing exis ng socio-economic gaps, and integra ng social impact in the con nent of Africa and the Diaspora through alloca ng a percentage of their funding to GSP as their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partner. WPEC works with investors to help them understand the shi in paradigm of development and facilitate local/foreign direct investments through a “new lens” as it relates to the value of inves ng in women/women-owned businesses who have longevity in the local, na onal and global markets. (www.facebook.com/TWPEC/) Media Contacts: For the United States Kimberly L. Fogg, Founder GSP and WPEC kfogg@gspartnerships.org 1-404-909-2428 For Africa African Media Agency contact@africanmediaagency.com Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of WPEC

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7 of the Best Free Online Business Classes for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

By Je Haden

• How to pitch and sell to customers Time involved: Six weeks, approximately one to three hours per week.

How to Start a Startup Stanford (Sam Altman) (http://startupclass.samaltman.com)

More a series of videos than a class, "How to Start a Startup" covers a wide range of topics-and includes startup founders like Reid Ho man (LinkedIn), Emmett Shear (Just.tv and Twitch), Marc Andreessen (Netscape), Aaron Levie (Box), and Paul Graham (Y Combinator.)

What will you learn?

• How to build a team • How to build a product and talk to users • How to raise money • How to build a great culture • How to build services that scale • How to manage, operate, and be a great founder Time involved: 20 videos, approximately 50 minutes each.

Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans Sloan School of Management (MIT) (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-

Want to start a business but don't know where s21-nuts-and-bolts-of-business-plans-january-iap-2014) Maybe you won't need a business plan--plenty of to start? A little education can go a long way, people argue you don't. Or that your business plan especially when it's free.

Here are seven great online classes for aspiring will start changing the first week.

Even so, understanding the basics of a business entrepreneurs--from some of the top business schools in the country (United States of America). plan will definitely help bring focus to your idea and your first steps--so what better than the course Becoming an Entrepreneur that has been taken by every MIT MBA student for Massachusetts Institute of Technology over two decades? (www.edx.org/course/becoming-an-entrepreneur?source=a What will you learn? w&awc=6798_1595420600_33f03b14bdcda2cb6befb0740e5 818af&utm_source=aw&utm_medium=affiliate_partner&utm_ • How to refine and present your idea • How to create marketing and sales plans content=text-link&utm_term=78888_Skimlinks) • How to choose the right business model What will you learn?

• How to develop financial projections • How to overcome the most common myths of • How to plan for legal, accounting, copyright, entrepreneurship etc. issues • How to define your goals as an entrepreneur • How to execute your plan and a startup Time involved: Six videos of approximately • How to identify business opportunities an hour each, plus extensive lecture notes and • How to conduct market research and choose supplemental material (if you want more). your target customer • How to design and test your o ering Launching Your Startup

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Development Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)

How do you make a small fortune? Begin with a large fortune and start a (insert your favorite startup money pit here).

Because a business without (eventual) profits isn't really a business. campaign=TnL5HPStwNw) What will you learn?

Ideas are great...but execution is everything. A • How to develop the right business models great idea and a solid plan is a given; the next step • How to keep your best customers is to put it into action.

• How to determine the right financing for your What will you learn? business (even if "financing" just means your • How to build a minimum viable product (MVP) savings) • How to build a team • How to calculate burn rate, break-even point, • How to build a network: advisers, mentors, and other key financial metrics and milestones professional service providers, etc.

• How to pitch investors • How to create a brand • How to decide when the time is right, and under • How to bring your brand to market what terms, to exit.

Time involved: Self-paced, approximately eight Time involved: Self-paced, approximately six hours. hours. w w w.coursera.org/learn/whar ton-launching-star tup?ran MID=40328&ranE AID=TnL5HPSt wNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HP St wNw- Et Jx8 PUisGioFF2KQyGwXQ&siteID =TnL5H PSt w Nw- Et Jx8 PUisGioFF2KQyGwXQ&utm _ c ontent=10&utm _ medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_

Growth Strategies Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) (www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-launching-startup?ranM ID=40328&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HPSt wNw- 8hCqbMrI6w_ax49F7RKCgw&siteID=TnL5HPStwNw8 h C qb M r I 6 w_ a x4 9 F 7R KC g w&ut m _ c o ntent =10 &ut m _ medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_ campaign=TnL5HPStwNw)

Professional Resilience: Building Skills to Thrive at Work Deakin University (www.futurelearn.com/courses/professional-resilience?utm_ sourc e= RakutenMar keting&utm _ medium=Af f iliate&utm _ campaign=2116208:Skimlinks.com&utm_content=10:1&utm_term =UKNetwork&ranMID=42801&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteI D=TnL5HPStwNw-U3ELyijeZiSgluKKF718wA)

Once you've launched, you'll need to growYou can learn business and entrepreneurial skills -especially if you're bootstrapping your way to success and financing your startup with the from a wide variety of sources. But who will teach you how to stay the course when times get tough, revenue you generate. as times inevitably do? For starters, these folks.

What will you learn?

What will you learn?

• How to land customers • How to use earned, paid, and owned marketing • How to follow a few simple steps to become more resilient as e ciently as possible • How to develop specific skills to deal with • How to build cost and pricing structures di cult situations • How to develop and track the right key • How to perform a little self-care to recharge performance indicators (KPIs) for your business your resiliency batteries • How to build a great culture--and maintain it as • How to apply resiliency frameworks to your startup grows professional and personal situations Time involved: Self-paced, approximately seven Time involved: Two weeks, approximately three hours. hours per week.

Financing and Profitability

Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) (w w w.c o u r s e r a .o r g / l e a r n /g r o w t h - s t r a t e g y ?r a n M I D = 4 0 3 2 8 & r a n E A I D =Tn L 5 H P S t w N w& r a n S i t e I D =Tn L 5 H P S t w N w - c d d O o N 9V Y ju3 Q.y FJJ y y 0A & siteI D =Tn L 5 H PS t w N w c d d O o N 9 V Y j u 3 Q .y FJ J y y 0 A & u t m _ c o n t e n t = 1 0 & u t m _ medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_

www.inc.com/je -haden/7-of-best-free-onlinebusiness-classes-for-aspiring-entrepreneurs. html?utm_medium=40digest.7days3.20200721. carousel&utm_source=email&utm_content=&utm_ campaign=campaign Image credit: Times Higher Education

campaign=TnL5HPStwNw)

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USADF C.A.R.E.S

The United States African Development Foundation launched the USADF C.A.R.E.S COVID-19 Program to build resilience among African enterprises and entrepreneurs while combating COVID-19 in Africa, with a focus on the Sahel, Great Lakes, and the Horn regions.

The USADF Capital for African Resiliencebuilding and Enterprises Support (C.A.R.E.S) Program has a dual purpose: To immediately disburse working capital to approximately 300 agricultural cooperatives, youth entrepreneurs, and o -grid energy enterprises, that USADF currently supports across USADF's 21 countries of operation.

To increase the capacity of USADF's 100%, African owned and managed local implementing partner organizations to provide e ective solutions to grassroots organizations facing severe socioeconomic uncertainties.

"For 40 years, USADF has prided itself on being agile, innovative, and responsive to the needs of marginalized and impoverished people and communities in Africa," said C.D Glin, President and CEO. "USADF's mission has never been more critical than now. It's time for us to leverage our experience to ensure that our grantees have the resources to withstand challenges unique to the coronavirus, survive in the face of the unprecedented challenges, and thrive."

We know that COVID-19 will most likely have a devastating impact on African economies with an overall reduction in GDP for 2020 by three to eight percent, according to an analysis by McKinsey & Company.

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With the USADF C.A.R.E.S Program, our goal is to provide some financial and technical assistance needed to help African enterprises and entrepreneurs reevaluate to see how their operations can best benefit their communities as they seek to mitigate and adapt to the e ects of COVID-19.

USADF will continue to monitor the situation and will respond accordingly through our 100% African sta and a network of pan-African implementing partners. Regardless of the challenges, we will remain true to our mission: to create a pathway to prosperity for underserved communities in Africa.

About the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) The U.S. African Development Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency established

by Congress to invest directly in African grassroots enterprises and social entrepreneurs. USADF's investment increases incomes, revenues, and jobs by promoting self-reliance and market-based solutions to poverty. USADF creates pathways to prosperity for marginalized populations and underserved communities in the Sahel, Great Lakes, and the Horn of Africa. Annually, USADF's grant assistance generates approximately $100 million in new economic activity. To learn more, please visit www.usadf.gov.

Communications Contact: Afia Frempong.

Email: Comms1@usadf.gov www.usadf.gov/pressreleases/2020/4/18/usadf-announcescovid-19-response-and-recovery-program-usadf-cares

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Development - History

How France Extorted Haiti for one of the Greatest Heists in Geopolitical History

By Marlene Daut, University of Virginia USA In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, there have been calls for defunding police departments and demands for the removal of statues. The issue of reparations for slavery has also resurfaced.

Much of the reparations debate has revolved around whether the United States and the United Kingdom should finally compensate some of their citizens for the economic and social costs of slavery that still linger today.

But to me, there’s never been a more clear-cut case for reparations than that of Haiti.

I’m a specialist on colonialism and slavery, and what France did to the Haitian people after the Haitian Revolution is a particularly notorious example of colonial theft. France instituted slavery on the island in the 17th century, but, in the late 18th century, the enslaved population rebelled and eventually declared independence. Yet, somehow, in the 19th century, the thinking went that the former enslavers of the Haitian people needed to be compensated, rather than the other way around.

The tax on its freedom that France forced Haiti to pay severely damaged the newly independent country’s ability to prosper.

Just as the legacy of slavery in the United States has created a gross economic disparity between Black and white Americans, the tax on its freedom that France forced Haiti to pay—referred to as an “indemnity” at the time—severely damaged the newly independent country’s ability to prosper.

The cost of independence Haiti o cially declared its independence from France in 1804. In October 1806, the country was split into two, with Alexandre Pétion ruling in the south and Henry Christophe ruling in the north.

Despite the fact that both of Haiti’s rulers were veterans of the Haitian Revolution, the French had 42

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never quite given up on reconquering their former colony.

In 1814 King Louis XVIII, who had helped overthrow Napoléon earlier that year, sent three commissioners to Haiti to assess the willingness of the country’s rulers to surrender. Christophe, having made himself a king in 1811, remained obstinate in the face of France’s exposed plan to bring back slavery (https://ageofrevolutions.com/2016/01/25/ genocidal-imaginings-in-the-era-of-the-haitian-revolution).

Threatening war, the most prominent member of Christophe’s cabinet, Baron de Vastey, insisted,“ Our independence will be guaranteed by the tips of our bayonets!”

In 1803, Napoléon had sold Louisiana to the United States for 15 million francs. Using this number as his compass, Pétion proposed paying the same amount. Unwilling to compromise with those he viewed as “runaway slaves,” Louis XVIII rejected the o er.In contrast, Pétion, the ruler of the south, was willing to negotiate, hoping that the country might be able to pay France for recognition of its independence.

Pétion died suddenly in 1818, but Jean-Pierre Boyer, his successor, kept up the negotiations.

Talks, however, continued to stall due to Christophe’s stubborn opposition.

“Any indemnification of the ex-colonists,” Christophe’s government stated, was “inadmissible.”

Once Christophe died in October 1820, Boyer was able to reunify the two sides of the country.

However, even with the obstacle of Christophe gone, Boyer repeatedly failed to successfully negotiate France’s recognition of independence. Determined to gain at least suzerainty over the island (https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzerainty) – which would have made Haiti a protectorate of France—Louis

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Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer receiving Charles X’s decree recognizing Haitian independence on July 11, 1825.

XVIII’s successor, Charles X, rebuked the two commissioners Boyer sent to Paris in 1824 to try to negotiate an indemnity in exchange for recognition.

On April 17, 1825, the French king suddenly changed his mind. He issued a decree stating France would recognize Haitian independence but only at the price of 150 million francs – or 10 times the amount the U.S. had paid for the Louisiana territory. The sum was meant to compensate the French colonists for their lost revenues from slavery.

Baron de Mackau, whom Charles X sent to deliver the ordinance, arrived in Haiti in July, accompanied by a squadron of 14 brigs of war carrying more than 500 cannons.

Rejection of the ordinance almost certainly meant war. This was not diplomacy. It was extortion.

With the threat of violence looming, on July 11, 1825, Boyer signed the fatal document, which stated, “The present inhabitants of the French part of St. Domingue shall pay … in five equal installments … the sum of 150,000,000 francs, destined to indemnify the former colonists.”

total was more than 10 times Haiti’s annual budget.

The rest of the world seemed to agree that the amount was absurd. One British journalist noted that the “enormous price” constituted a “sum which few states in Europe could bear to sacrifice.”

Forced to borrow 30 million francs from French banks to make the first two payments, it was hardly a surprise to anyone when Haiti defaulted soon thereafter. Still, the new French king sent another expedition in 1838 with 12 warships to force the Haitian president’s hand. The 1838 revision, inaccurately labeled “Traité d’Amitié” – or “Treaty of Friendship” – reduced the outstanding amount owed to 60 million francs, but the Haitian government was once again ordered to take out crushing loans to pay the balance.

Although the colonists claimed that the indemnity would only cover one-twelfth the value of their lost properties, including the people they claimed as their slaves, the total amount of 90 million francs was actually five times France’s annual budget.

The Haitian people su ered the brunt of the consequences of France’s theft. Boyer levied draconian taxes in order to pay back the loans.

And while Christophe had been busy developing French prosperity built on Haitian a national school system during his reign, under poverty Boyer, and all subsequent presidents, such projects Newspaper articles from the period reveal that had to be put on hold. Moreover, researchers the French king knew the Haitian government was see page 44 hardly capable of making these payments, as the 43

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Development - History In May 2015, when French President François Hollande became only France’s second head of have found that the independence debt and state to visit Haiti, he admitted that his country the resulting drain on the Haitian treasury were needed to “settle the debt.” Later, realizing he directly responsible not only for the underfunding had unwittingly provided fuel for the legal claims of education in 20th-century Haiti, but also lack of already prepared by attorney Ira Kurzban on behalf health care and the country’s inability to develop of the Haitian people – former Haitian President public infrastructure.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide had demanded formal recompense in 2002—Hollande clarified that he meant France’s debt was merely “moral.”

To deny that the consequences of slavery were also material is to deny French history itself. France belatedly abolished slavery in 1848 in its remaining colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and French Guyana, which are still territories of France today. Afterwards, the French government demonstrated once again its understanding of slavery’s relationship to economics when it took it upon itself to financially compensate the former “owners” of enslaved people.

The resulting racial wealth gap is no metaphor.

In metropolitan France 14.1% of the population lives below the poverty line. In Martinique and Guadeloupe, in contrast, where more than 80% of the population is of African descent, the poverty rates are 38% and 46%, respectively.

The poverty rate in Haiti is even more dire at 59%. And whereas the median annual income of a French family is $31,112, it’s only $450 for a Haitian family.

These discrepancies are the concrete A portrait of Alexandre Pétion. ALFRED NEMOURS ARCHIVE OF consequence of stolen labor from generations HAITIAN HISTORY, UNIVERSITY of Africans and their descendants. And because the indemnity Haiti paid to France is Contemporary assessments, furthermore, reveal the first and only time a formerly enslaved people that with the interest from all the loans, which were were forced to compensate those who had once not completely paid o until 1947, Haitians ended up enslaved them, Haiti should be at the center of the paying more than twice the value of the colonists’ global movement for reparations. claims. Recognizing the gravity of this scandal, https://qz.com/africa/1877241/how-franceFrench economist Thomas Piketty acknowledged extorted-haiti-for-the-greatest-heist-inthat France should repay at least $28 billion to Haiti history/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=dailyin restitution. brief&utm_content=9249103 from page 43

A debt that’s both moral and material

Former French presidents, from Jacques Chirac, to Nicolas Sarkozy, to François Hollande, have a history of punishing, skirting or downplaying Haitian demands for recompense.

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Read the original article: https://theconversation. com/when-france-extorted-haiti-the-greatest-heist-inhistory-137949

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Development

Zambia: Zanaco to Enter Micro-Finance as Part of Digital Push, says CEO

By David Whitehouse

Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco www.zanaco.co.zm) plans to launch microfinance services including loans and savings for poor households in the fourth quarter, CEO Henk Mulder tells The Africa Report.

The services are part of Zanaco’s digital strategy and will rely on digital credit-scoring and collection systems, says Mulde. The loans will be mainly to households, for amounts as small as $50 or $100. “You can do it e ciently if you can do it digitally,” he adds.

Microfinance has too often concentrated on lending to the exclusion of saving, argues Mulder.

“That’s the problem. Borrowing is not necessarily a good idea with high interest rates. It can bring people into trouble.” Microfinance borrowers from Zanaco will also be able to have a savings account, he said. “It’s not a one-product push.”

Mulder is optimistic about prospects for Zambia’s economy. Discretionary spending globally has been hurt by COVID-19, but basic needs in Zambia are still being fulfilled. Copper, he notes, has rebounded to well above $6,000 per ton.

Still, Zambia needs greater economic diversification away from copper mining and agriculture. “We need more industrialisation. We need more value-added,” he notes. There are not enough small new businesses starting in Zambia, says Mulder. But young entrepreneurs should not be borrowing straight away to get going. “You have to start small.”

The government needs to educate and give incentives to entrepreneurs. “Starting a business doesn’t mean that you are going to make a profit right away,” something which the government

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Mukwandi Chibesakunda, CEO Zanaco Forbes

doesn’t always seem to understand, he says. “They could do better on that.”

Succession Zanaco, which listed in 2008, is Zambia’s biggest local bank. Its largest shareholder with a stake of 45% is the African investment company Arise, which is backed by Norfund, Rabobank, and Dutch development bank FMO. Mulde, who became CEO in 2016, will step down to be replaced by Mukwandi Chibesakunda, CEO of National Savings & Credit Bank of Zambia, or NATSAVE. Chibesakunda, the first female President of the Zambia Institute of Banking and Finance, joins Zanaco on 1 October. “It’s time for a Zambian CEO,” says Mulder, who plans to seek non-executive African roles.

• The bank’s digital strategy means that IT security will need to be high on Chibesakunda’s agenda, says Mulder. “It’s a worry we all have

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• • • • •

• •

47

as bankers. I would advise her to focus a lot on it.”

A priority will be ensuring that the bank’s management board has su cient depth, adds Mulder.

Chibesakunda will also need to close branches as digital channels take greater prominence, notes Mulder.

This, he adds, is a more sensitive issue for a Zambian bank, as opposed to a foreign bank operating in Zambia.

About 30% of branches will need to be cut in coming years, he estimates.

Physical points of contact will be maintained by greater reliance on agents, for example family shops, where basic banking transactions can be carried out.

These agents are a crucial element of the bank’s digital strategy, says Mulder.

Zanaco now has about 6,500 agents versus 400 in 2016.

July-August 2020

• Mulder expects the figure to rise to 20,000 in the next three years.

Mulder also expects his successor to be charting a course through a process of national banking consolidation. The current total of 19 banks in Zambia needs to drop to about nine or ten, he says, adding that the process would be facilitated by the implementation of Basel II capital requirements for banks. In any case, he says, “consolidation is a question of time. It’s unavoidable.”

Bottom Line Zanaco will need discipline not to lend too fast too soon to poor households, while keeping an emphasis on less lucrative savings products. https://www.theafricareport.com/33583/zambia-zanaco-toenter-micro-finance-as-part-of-digital-push-says-ceo Image credit: sadcnews.org:

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Development

1st Ethiopian-Assembled All-Electric Hyundai Ioniq Roll Haile Gebrselassie’s Marathon Motor Engineering Plant

By David Whitehouse Marathon Motor Engineering, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Company and Olympic Champion Haile Gebrselassie, has started assembling the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq in Ethiopia.

We must say this is an awesome move by Marathon Motor Engineering and Hyundai to jump straight in with an all-electric car.

We recently shared progress on VW’s first assembly plant in Ghana that is now producing several ICE models in Accra, including the Tiguan and Tremont SUVs, the Passat, Polo, and the Amarok Pickup. We strongly believe VW should have included some EVs as part of the lineup.

One of the comments on that story from one of our readers, Geo Willingham, added that: “It would have guaranteed futurelooking jobs (rather than training at least some people on legacy hardware) and been better for the country as a whole, not to mention the people that buy them, etc.”

In his Tweet, Abiy Ahmed Ali, the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, says, “As we transform Ethiopia’s greening & climate resilient aspirations into concrete actions through the #GreenLegacy initiative, this morning I received the first electric car fully assembled in Ethiopia. No emission cars can help reduce pollution.”

Really exciting times for Ethiopia. Clean and renewable hydropower dominates Ethiopia’s energy generation mix, contributing around 90% of the installed generation capacity. The electricity tari s are also very favorable, with residential 48

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tari s at around $0.06/kWh. Driving EVs in Africa is a whole lot cheaper than driving ICE, as we have covered previously here. A study by AfricanEV reveals just how good driving the Hyundai Ioniq EV and several others can be in Ethiopia.

It costs just $0.92 to drive the Hyundai Ioniq over a 100 km trip in Ethiopia, where as the same trip in a Toyota Corolla would cost you $5.37.

The Hyundai Ioniq has been well received in Europe and in other markets where it has been launched. A lot of pundits have been impressed with its e ciency. Bjorn Nyland gave the Ioniq a very glowing review. Another critically acclaimed EV is the Hyundai Kona, and to show that the transition to electromobility is happening much faster than most people think, Hyundai has sold DAWN

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ls Out of

over 100,000 Hyundai Konas in just 2 years.

All in the middle of the “supply constraints” drama and long waiting lists in some markets, and Hyundai has since moved to ramp up production of the Kona. We certainly hope the Kona is one of the models that the Marathon Motor Engineering Plant is assembling now, or one that it will be assembling in the very near future. South Africa is one of Africa’s largest market for motor vehicles and it also hosts many vehicle assembly and manufacturing plants.

We previously looked at why South Africa may be left behind if it doesn’t jump in on the EV action soon. We hope South African plants get in on the action fast. We really should commend Hyundai

for jumping right in with an EV as one of the launch models assembled in Ethiopia. We hope these Ioniqs will also be exported to other East African countries like Kenya and Rwanda. We will keep following the developments in this market. Exciting times ahead! https://cleantechnica. com/2020/07/27/first-ethiopianassembled-all-electrichyundai-ionic-rolls-out-of-hailegebrselassies-marathon-motorengineering-plant Image credit: semonegna.com, www.zoro.com/Marathonmotors, afkinsider.com

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Development

"My Roots in Africa" is Fighting Deforestation in Afr

By Paul Adepoju, for CNN

Every year, about 15 billion trees are cut down globally, and across Africa, deforestation rates has surpassed the global annual average of 0.8%.

Forests in West and East Africa, where conservation e orts are not matching deforestation activities, have undergone almost complete decline between the 1900s and 2017, according to a comparison of reconstructed African forests by a team of ecology and evolutionary biology scientists at Yale University.

One reason for this is that people living in rural areas in Africa still depend on wood from felled trees for their cooking, according to the Africa Energy Outlook 2019 report (www.iea.org/reports/ africa-energy-outlook-2019).

'My Roots in Africa' An African startup is trying to be a part of the solution to this deforestation crisis. The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD http://mipad.org), a group working to bridge the gap between Africans in the diaspora and those living on the continent, wants people to have roots in Africa -- literally.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed plants trees in Ethiopia CNN

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Through a social impact initiative, the group wants to plant and assign more than 200 million trees across Africa by 2024 before the end of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (www.un.org/en/observances/decade-peopleafrican-descent).

From any part of the world, My Roots in Africa Project, makes it possible for anyone to place a request to have a tree named, planted or gifted in honor of themselves or anyone they love.

"My Roots in Africa is...Uber for trees, connecting local communities impacted by pollution or deforestation, with global citizens looking to plant their roots in Africa," said Kamil Olufowobi, MIPAD's Founder and CEO. "It presents an opportunity where Africa wins, the diaspora wins, and all of humanity wins. It supports the diaspora to reduce their barrier of entry to Africa.

The new initiative will be o cially launched in February 2020 on the sidelines of the African Union Summit and aims to drive support for the Great Green Wall (www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-greenwall) while also promoting climate action one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

"For every new tree that is planted, we can name one that is existing after you. Many diasporans want to connect to Africa and there is a deep sentimental and emotional connection that this program brings which is 'now I have roots DAWN

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rica

THE GREAT GREEN WALL

in Africa'," Olufowobi told CNN. To further personalize the service, MIPAD partnered with Decagon Institute to deploy data science and artificial intelligence to identify and geo-tag trees planted using blockchain technology.

This will enable its subscribers to know the exact location of their allocated tree and be able to see it using satellite imagery including Google Maps.

It also helps prevent allocating the same tree to more than one person.

Planting trees remotely MIPAD says it is already working with city parks and forestry departments in every major African city to help people plant their tree remotely.

"We get the orders placed and the park and forestry departments are the ones who do the implementation. They are the owners of the trees, all we are doing is being the voice of Africa to the diaspora saying 'you can support Africa and in return, you can have your root planted," 51

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Olufowobi said.

MIPAD is banking on its history of connecting Africans to get them involved in the project.

In line with the UN's declaration of the International Decade for People of African Descent, MIPAD identified people of African descent from all parts of the world and has so far honored around 500 people in over 60 countries.

Several African countries are also planting trees.

In July 2019, Ethiopia planted 350 million trees in a day, setting a new world record (www.cnn. com/2019/07/29/africa/ethiopia-plants-350-million-treesintl-hnk/index.html). The government has also joined

more than 20 other African nations in pledging to restore 100 million hectares of land as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (https://afr100.org).

About five months after this feat, Nigeria's see page 52

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Development

Therefore, Africa is our collective responsibility.

This is not restricted to people of African descent, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that this is open to all of humanity for you to support the continent's most populous country will plant a Africa and have your root planted right here on further 25 million trees as part of the Great Green African soil," Olufowobi told CNN. Wall — an ambitious project aiming to plant www.cnn.com/2019/12/24/africa/mipad-africa-tree-naming-intl/ index.html trees spanning 8000 km and stretching the breadth of Africa from Senegal to Djibouti.

Image credit: Irish Ind, WordPress.com

from page 51

'Africa is our collective responsibility' The continuity of long-term projects such as planting millions of trees and combating climate change is a major concern in several African democracies where incoming governments often disregard or abandon long-term projects by their predecessors.

Olumide Idowu, co-founder of the International Climate Change Development Initiative (www. facebook.com/ClimateWed) argued that a orestation projects will help Africa to tackle threats posed by climate change such as floods, droughts and heat stress and forests.

Idowu said developed countries can help preserve Africa's forests if they reduce the demand for tropical hardwoods considering that the timber export market is a big driver of deforestation.

To repair the damage that has been done already and to secure the future of the continent's forests, the MIPAD CEO said Africa needs help from around the world.

"All of humanity, we were Africans first before we were anything else."

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MIPAD Foundation Unveils My Roots In Africa Project.

AFRICA IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT, PLANT YOUR ROOTS!

Enter your name or the name of your honoree in the BOOK OF ROOTS. In the future, people will not ask, "where are you from?" People will ask, "where do you have roots?"

YOU Win! Africa Wins! Diaspora Wins!

Earth Wins!

My Roots In Africa enables the global African diaspora to plant tree(s) in Africa, remotely or inperson, have it geo-tagged and named as a priceless gift in honor of themselves or a loved one, to reconnect with their roots while simultaneously helping to reverse the e ects of climate change.

• You join the climate action movement • You enter your name in the BOOK OF ROOTS; the world root registry that records forever all people who have planted tree(s) on earth.

We are happy to have you join millions of other people who want to plant a tree to replenish the earth and make the earth a greener planet.

Kindly

DONATE

(https://dashboard.flutterwave.com/

donate/gps35edj7aqs) to support upcoming tree planting projects, Watch videos of others who have "planted their roots" in Africa: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQzIV4NzjvRQeDLM-sQstg.

• World Tree Day – 21st March • World Earth Day – 22nd April • World Greenery Day – 4th May • World Environment Day – 5th June • World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought – 17th June • World Rainforest Day – 22nd June • World Nature Conservation Day 28th June • International Day of Climate Action – 24th October • World Soil Day – 5th December

• You create a unique connection with the continent

To learn more about the project visit our featured stories on CNN (https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/24/ africa/mipad-africa-tree-naming-intl/index.html) and BBC

• You create a job or educate a child in Africa

(www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08001mm).

For every tree planted...

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Development

100,000 Trees to be Planted in Seychelles by Xmas with Help from Jobless Tourism Workers

By Seychelles News Agency.

Employees from the tourism industry who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 are joining in an ambitious project to plant 500,000 trees in a bid to reforest Seychelles' second-most populated island.

The opening phase of the project will see 100,000 trees planted from this month to the end of December and the are expected to plant native and agroforestry trees on some of the most deforested areas of Praslin.

The project initiated by Seychelles Employee Transition Scheme (SETS) will be implemented by the Terrestrial Restoration Action Society of Seychelles (TRASS), a Praslin-based environmental group committed to the restoration of degraded terrestrial sites of the islands of Seychelles. The chief executive of SETS, Guy Morel said that the environmental conservation project is being named 'Rebwaz mwan': Praslin, calling to be reforested.'

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"This is an ambitious project but if we need transformation we need to take bold steps. This project already existed and was being done by TRASS and by increasing the number of trees to be planted, we will cater for the people made redundant on Praslin," Morel said.

The Seychelles Employee Transition Scheme (Sets) is a non-profit public sector enterprise mandated to facilitate the reskilling and placement in economic activity of persons made redundant as a result of economic decline following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The biodiversity consultant working with TRASS, Elvina Henriette, told SNA on Thursday that the success of the campaign relies on this very important labour force.

"The initiative by TRASS and SETS comes at a very opportune time, now that the COVID-19 pandemic has made humanity realize the importance of nurturing our relationship with nature.

In many countries around the world, nature/wildlife has made a comeback. Let us as a nation take this opportunity to pave a new way forward in this national initiative to make Praslin a greener tropical island," said Henriette.

Henriette added that the exercise will involve sta from coco de mer, Lemuria, Berjaya

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Praslin Beach, Ra es, and Acajou - all tourism establishments from the island.

According to Henriette, this will be the biggest tree planting campaign ever undertaken in Seychelles.

The seedlings will be planted on degraded land in selected areas on Praslin for environmental protection and conservation of important ecosystems. The sites cover both mountain and coastal including wetland areas.

The biodiversity consultant explained that the group will be involved in di erent tasks in preparation for the actual planting. "We will have a nursery team to produce and maintain plants in the nursery, one team to collect humus and soil, another will collect seeds, cuttings and wildlings

as well as one responsible to clear invasive plants in areas to be planted amongst other tasks," said Henriette.

TRASS is ensuring the success of the plantings by also having a watering team which will water all of the 500,000 plants for six months after planting. The organisation has also received permission from several landowners to rehabilitate their lands as part of their contribution to this initiative.

The initiators of the project - SETS and TRASS are signing a memorandum of understanding for this project whose implementation will start on August, 24. https://allafrica.com/stories/202008110518.html Image credit: allafrica.com

Community Tree Planting - Food & Trees for Africa Trees for Homes is the most successful township, greening initiative in South Africa.

Originally designed to address South Africa’s history of inequitable settlement policies, the programme grew to become the country’s benchmark of innovation in urban forestry.

A typical project sees two trees going to each home in a township: 1 x fruit tree and 1 x indigenous tree.

Which trees a household receives depends on a number of factors but FTFA will ultimately choose trees that are going to have the best survival. In some projects the community members ask for two fruit / nut trees.

Developing community foresters with training and skills is also an integral part of the programmes design. These environmental champions create threads of awareness and appreciation and also have an opportunity for temporary and (potentially) long-term employment.

TFH is currently driving greenbelt initiatives in a number of townships in major city centers nationally. We aim to transform these townships into rich urban food forests, teeming with life and biodiversity.

This programme is also registered with the VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) making it possible to utilise it as a carbon o set programme. https://trees.org.za/trees-carbon/communitytree-planting Image credit: fastgrowingtrees.com

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Pandemic

Coronavirus in South Africa: Deciding who Lives and Dies in a Cape Town Township

By Andrew Harding While the surfers are back out in large numbers on the waves in False Bay, taking advantage of an easing of some lockdown rules in South Africa, just inland on the sandy, windswept plains of Khayelitsha, coronavirus is spreading fast through the impoverished, crime-ridden township and, in the process, highlighting some of the challenges this whole country is likely to face in the coming weeks.

"Yes, we're definitely seeing very big numbers currently here," said Dr. Ayanda Trevor Mnguni, head of internal medicine at the 300-bed Khayelitsha District Hospital.

With its own wards full, Khayelitsha District Hospital is sending new cases across the road to a new facility, built, in the space of one month, in a sports hall, and run by MÊdecins Sans Frontières - an organisation that has been a familiar presence in the neighbourhood for 20 years, focusing on the battle against HIV/Aids.

The MSF clinic is one of many steps that this province - the Western Cape - has taken to prepare for an anticipated surge of cases.

"Already this is spreading like wildfire," said Eric Goemaere, a Belgian MSF Doctor who has spent many years in Khayelitsha.

"We are having to take some tough decisions.

When the health workers need There's no point sending the extremely sick cases treatment back to the referral hospital because they don't In a health service already wrestling with a historic have the sta or the equipment. The hospitals in shortage of nurses, Dr. Mnguni has already had this region cannot cope," he said. to triple the number of medical sta , and turn the Instead, the most severe cases are left, almost entire hospital into a Covid-19 ward. certainly to die, in a palliative care section in the But now many of his key workers are, themselves, corner of the sports hall, while the precious supplies succumbing to the virus. of oxygen are reserved for those perceived to have "We've got a lot of sta who are infected. We've a better chance of recovery. had a week where we lost our porters. The following week it was our radiographer. A week after that‌ Everyone volunteering to help Dr. Goemaere, who has long experience fighting our sta from the laboratory," said Dr. Mnguni.

The strains have exposed the underlying health TB, HIV and Ebola, emphasised the importance of a community health approach - outsourcing as issues in the community.

"The majority of our nurses are themselves much work as possible in order to reduce pressure patients who've got diabetes and hypertension, so on hospitals.

He also stressed the need to secure reliable that puts a huge strain on the system. Also, we're noticing an explosion of undiagnosed diabetics, supplies of oxygen - one patient can easily use who are now being diagnosed as a result of Covid. four huge bottles a day - and to find enough sta , And that obviously overwhelms our emergency particularly nurses, in order to help turn the patients over at regular intervals to lie on their chests. unit," added Dr. Mnguni.

Khayelitsha has so far recorded more than 6,500 'Spreading like wildfire' cases of coronavirus, the second-highest number

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Khayelitsha has more than 100,000 homes.

Getty Images

"I worry about the old people. There's nobody to look after them."

Theodora Luthuli, Nursery school principal BBC

in a Cape Town district.

The township has a population of about 400,000, according to the 2011 census.

A few miles away, in the neighbouring township of Nyanga East, several hundred people were lining up for a free meal, served by a local nursery school and funded by donations.

The elderly stood in their own, separate queue, while children and adults stood in line on either side of the street.

"I'm hungry. No food at home. No money," said one elderly woman.

The principal of Khanyisa Nursery, Theodora Luthuli, said food aid was being given to 500 to 1,000 people, and the number was rising daily.

"This virus has exposed underlying issues.

People were already unemployed here, lockdown or not," she said.

"I worry about these old people. There's nobody to look after them, and even the places where they can isolate are becoming full of infection.

"But during this period, we've experienced everyone trying to help. A lot of my volunteers are actually men, who are often abusers and cause violence against women. So now they're saying

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enough is enough," said Ms. Luthuli.

The survivor Back in Khayelitsha, 46-year-old Lusanda Jonas was busy exercising in her front yard, shu ing a few steps in her flu y pink slippers and dressing gown before stopping and rotating her arms in a slow circle.

She had been discharged from hospital a day earlier, having recovered from Covid-19 after spending a fortnight in intensive care.

"People are not taking it seriously. It makes me feel so bad," said Ms Jonas, a diabetic who works as an administrative secretary at a nearby police see page 58

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Pandemic from page 57

Gqamana, manager of Nothemba Funeral Services - one of the largest in the township. Its motto is "The last people to let you down."

station.

She had come home to learn that six people "on No funeral rituals this same street" had died from the virus.

Funeral parlour manager Luthando Gqamana says many people don't say their relative died of Covid-19 Getty Images

"This virus is going to kill more people. You need to stay at home and take care of yourself. You need to wear a mask," she said, before going inside for a rest.

At a nearby shopping centre, almost everyone was wearing a face mask, and standing patiently in long queues outside banks and supermarkets.

But many people in Khayelitsha live in informal settlements - in home-made tin shacks - where self-isolation and social distancing are near impossibilities.

Another issue being confronted here, alongside a lack of education about the virus, is stigma - a familiar challenge from the long struggle against HIV/Aids.

"There's a whole stigma attached to the fact that someone passed away from Covid," said Luthando

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Late one afternoon workers were busy unloading the day's last three Covid-19 corpses from an undertaker's van, and moving the body bags into the company's large freezer unit in a dank warehouse near the railway lines.

Standing beside a display of wooden co ns, Mr. Gqamana described how many clients were reluctant to admit that their relatives had died of the virus, and how they became angry when they were told that - since the cause of death was always clearly indicated in o cial documents - they could not perform certain traditional rituals, like touching or dressing the body of a dead relative.

"When they are burying a loved one and can't perform certain rituals - that's when it kicks in that, no, this is actually real," he said. www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53256879

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African Union Covid-19 Response Fund

T

he African Union calls on all African citizens and friends of Africa to support the #AUCOVID19responseFund.

The Fund was established by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat on 26 March 2020, with the aim of strengthening the continental response to COVID-19 by: Boosting the capacity of the Africa CDC to support response to public health emergencies across the continent; Support the procurement and distribution of essential COVID-19 medical equipment and supplies and mobilize rapid response by Member States; and Mitigate its socio economic and humanitarian impact on African populations. #AfricaResponds

To give a little, visit: https://au.int/en/aucovid19responsefund. https://au.int/en/videos/20200704/african-unioncovid19-response-fund

https://africacdc.org

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African Union About Agenda 2063:

The January 2013 African Union Summit adopted Agenda 2063 – "The Africa We Want" as Africa's blueprint and master plan for sustainable development and economic growth of the continent.

It is an affirmation by African Heads of State and Government of their commitment to transforming Africa into the global powerhouse.

To fast-track implementation of Agenda 2063 over the 50 years, the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan spanning from 2014 to 2023 is developed and endorsed at the June 2015 Summit of the African Union.

In line with the Union's resultsbased approach to development, high importance to reporting on the implementation of Agenda 2063 as a prerequisite for facilitating peer learning and mutual accountability and thus realising the continent's developmental goals. https://au.int/ en/agenda2063/overview. https://au.int/en/ pressreleases/20200210/launch-firstcontinental-report-implementationagenda-2063

Joint Press Release

Image credit: African Union

Launch of the First Continental Report on Implementation of Agenda 2063 The First Continental Report on the Implementation of Agenda 2063 was launched today on the margins of the 33nd Ordinary Summit of the African Union.

The report is an assessment of 31 African Union Member States and six Regional Economic Communities towards achieving Africa’s blueprint and master plan for sustainable development and economic growth.

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Launch of the “Decade of African Roots and Diasporas” Source: Ambassade du Togo à Londres

and federating initiatives with a view to strengthening the role and contributions of people of African roots and diasporas to the economic development of the continent.

After the communication of Minister Robert DUSSEY at the Summit of the African Union, a large majority of countries adhered to the Togolese initiative and the Presidency Pr Robert DUSSEY, Minister of Foreign A airs, African Integration and Togolese of the African Union wished to rea rm the importance of the Abroad question of roots and diasporas African.

A consensus emerged on the establishment of ithin the framework of the 33rd Summit of the African Union, the Minister of Foreign a High Level Committee to prepare the content and the A airs, African Integration and Togolese conditions for the implementation of this pan-African Abroad, Pr Robert DUSSEY, representing HE Mr. platform.

A call for project proposals open to all African countries Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, President of the is planned for the identification, study and selection of Togolese Republic, presented the February 10, a projects that can be included in the continental agenda communication on behalf of Togo on the launching of of the Decade of African Roots and Diasporas. the “Decade of African Roots and Diasporas”.

Through this innovative framework for cooperation This Togolese initiative, “Lomé Framework”, aims to between African countries, the aim is to better involve set up a platform for the preparation and promotion of Africans from outside and to strengthen the links projects, initiatives and events relating to African roots between Afro-descendants, communities with African and diasporas and aims mainly to: roots, diasporas and their continent, “mother earth.

• propose a periodic program presenting events by “, Africa. The objective is to make African diasporas country and flagship operations; strategic actors in the development of Africa.

• o er an international showcase for projects carried As such, Togo is preparing the first “African Diaspora out by di erent countries; Economic Forum”, making Lomé the capital of African • ensure the coordination and consistency of the roots and diasporas. actions proposed; www.africa-newsroom.com/press/launch-of-the-decade• mobilize participants for events o ered by di erent of-african-roots-and-diasporas#:~:text=Launch%20of%20 countries.

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Minister Robert DUSSEY underlined, at the Summit of Heads of State and Government, the inclusive nature of the Lomé Framework aimed at grouping 61

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African Union - Continent

African Countries are Having to Come to Terms with a Growing Diaspora’s Dual Citizenship

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong

Earlier this year, Jawar Mohammed, the prominent political activist and media entrepreneur, who had returned home to Ethiopia from the US, looked set to challenge his former ally, prime minister Abiy Ahmed, in the country’s election. But there was immediately uncertainty created over Jawar’s eligibility simply because he had been a US citizen. Ethiopian law does not allow dual nationality and even though he has written letters saying he’s renounced his US citizenship that uncertainty remains.

Jawar’s case is one of many that highlights an increasingly common issue for many African countries, who after years of battles with Western imperialism and colonial rule were determined at independence for their citizens to literally pick a side and not be allowed to carry the passports of other countries.

But in the 60 years since independence across the continent, the forces of globalization and transatlantic migration has seen dual nationality come up more frequently as an issue which needs to be addressed across politics and business through to sports.

Back in 1985, Saudi Arabia’s soccer authorities initially refused to hand over the trophy of the Afro-Asian Cup after losing to Cameroon in the finals of the tournament.

They claimed Cameroon had fielded an ineligible player who was none other than 62

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legendary star Roger Milla, who had traveled to Jeddah on a French passport as he couldn’t also have a Cameroonian one.

Now, Cameroon is considering a revision of its nationality code which was enacted in 1968. The current law stipulates any Cameroonian adult who willfully acquires a foreign nationality automatically loses their Cameroon nationality.

But a new draft bill—a copy of which Quartz Africa has seen—says “a Cameroonian who has acquired another nationality shall retain Cameroon nationality unless it is expressly relinquished by the concerned.” The bill is expected to pass through with little challenge.

Some African governments have been reluctant to legalize dual citizenship, arguing the patriotism of people with dual citizenship could be questioned. But there’s also anecdotal evidence some of these governments are more concerned an influential and economically independent diaspora, able to move freely between countries, could support a challenge to the leadership.

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A Ugandan-American family celebrate becoming US citizens at a naturalization ceremony in Boston.

By 2010, a comprehensive study (www. opensocietyfoundations.org/uploads/d5d1d0861a0d-4088-b679-003e09e9c125/citizenship-lawafrica-third-edition-20160129.pdf) showed that

21 African countries, including DR Congo, Liberia, Algeria and Zimbabwe, prohibited dual citizenship. Meanwhile, 23 others permitted dual citizenship under certain circumstances like if acquired by marriage to a foreign spouse or allowed for citizens from birth only. Other countries did not address the issue of dual citizenship in their laws.

Despite these restrictions it is not unusual among middle class Africans to find people holding dual nationality in countries which don’t allow dual nationality, in part because many countries don’t have comprehensive systems for checking until they vie for o ce. In 2017, up to two-thirds of the

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presidential candidates in Somalia’s election held foreign passports while as many as 100 of its 275 legislators also held foreign passports. Eventual winner, now president, Mohamed Farmaajo, also held American citizenship. He had previously worked for the State Transportation Department in Bu alo, New York.

Many African countries today have sizable diaspora communities, notably in Europe and North America, with an increasing economic, social and political influence aided by the improvement in communications and travel networks over the last couple of decades.

The World Bank estimates the African diaspora around the world at 30.6 million, but the figure could be even higher when unrecorded African migrants are considered. see page 64

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Practicalities

Many African professionals and businessmen at home and in the diaspora want to pick up foreign passports for very practical reasons—they want to be able to move freely around the globe.

According to the Africa Visa Openness Report 2019, on average, Africans can only travel to 25% of other African countries without a visa. But holders of passports from North America and Europe can travel visa-free to more African countries than Africans.

Henley & Partners, the global citizenship a n d residency advisory firm which is set to open an o ce in Lagos, has pointed out that most Nigerians wishing to subscribe to their offerings have no plans to relocate. Instead, they just want diaspora, who have taken up nationalities in to have a passport which makes it easier to other countries, to invest, buy shares, and travel without the unpredictability of visa set up lending businesses in the country’s applications. state-dominated financial sector.

The latest Henley Passport Index shows Ghana seems to be one of the African that two of Africa’s most populated countries which has been quick to recognise countries, Nigeria and Ethiopia occupy the the potential of its diaspora and the advantage 97th and 98th positions respectively on of granting them the possibility to hold dual the index. The Nigerian passport o ers its citizenship. As early as 2000, it passed a law holders visa-free travel to just 46 countries to recognize dual nationality for its citizens. mostly in Africa, while the number is 44 for The government of Ghana has since made Ethiopia. e orts to attract its Ghanaian origin and https://qz.com/africa/1876755/cameroonother African descendant diaspora to return ethiopia-come-to-terms-with-dualhome, with the Year of Return, Ghana 2019 citizenship recording remarkable success (https://qz.com/ africa/1757853/ghana-gives-citizenship-to-100Image credit: Wicipedia african-americans-year-of-return).

In 2019, remittance inflow from the African diaspora topped $48 billion. Such remittances in 2010 contributed to 2.6% of the continent’s GDP. The IMF has estimated the African diaspora save an around $53 billion every year outside of the continent. There is a belief that if it was easier to invest in their countries of origin as dual nationals more of those savings would come to Africa.

Last year, Ethiopia’s parliament passed a bill to allow members of the Ethiopian

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United States - Governance

Biden's VP Pick: Why Kamala Harris Embraces her Biracial Roots

By Soutik Biswas, India correspondent

"My name is pronounced "comma-la", like the punctua on mark," Kamala Harris writes in her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold.

The California senator, daughter of an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father, then explains the meaning of her Indian name.

"It means 'lotus flower', which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flowers rising above the surface while the roots are planted firmly in the river bo om."

Early in life, young Kamala and her sister Maya grew up in a house filled with music by black American ar sts. Her mother would sing along to Aretha Franklin's early gospel, and her jazz-loving father, who taught economics at Stanford University, would play Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane on the turntable.

Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris separated when Ms. Harris was five. Raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and a civil rights ac vist, Kamala, Maya and Shyamala were known as "Shyamala and the girls".

Her mother made sure her two daughters were aware of their background.

"My mother understood very well she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident black women," she wrote.

"Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture, but living a proudly African-American life," wrote the Washington Post last year.

The 55-year-old senator says she has not grappled with her iden ty and describes herself simply as "an American". In many ways, say people who know her, Ms. Harris straddles both communi es e ortlessly.

When Ms. Harris got married to Douglas Emho , a lawyer, in 2014, "in keeping with [our] respec ve Indian and Jewish heritage", she put a flower garland around her new husband's neck and he stomped on a glass.

Ms. Harris's public image has been more ed to her iden ty as an African-American poli cian, especially recently during the current conversa on around race

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and the Black Lives Ma er movement in the US. But Indian-Americans also view her as one of their own, her candidacy sugges ng a poten al wider recogni on of the Indian and South Asian communi es in the country.

It is clear that her late mother was a big inspira on for Ms. Harris. Gopalan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, the oldest of four children. She graduated from the University of Delhi at the age of 19, and applied to a graduate programme at Berkeley in the USA. Gopalan picked up her doctorate degree at age 25 in 1964, the same year Ms. Harris was born.

She met Kamala Harris's father and fell in love at Berkeley while par cipa ng in the civil rights movement.

Back in India, Gopalan had been raised in a household of "poli cal ac vism and civic leadership".

Her grandmother never a ended high school, but was a community organiser taking in vic ms of domes c violence and educa ng women about contracep on.

Her grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a senior diplomat in the Indian government who lived in Zambia a er it gained independence, and he helped se le refugees.

Kamala Harris lived in Zambia as child with her family for a me during her grandfather's tour of duty.

In her book, she writes she is close to her mother's brother and two sisters, with whom she kept in touch through long distance calls and le ers and periodic trips. Ms. Harris's mother died in 2009, at age 70.

US Democra c Party ac vists like Shekar Narasimhan say her candidacy would be "seismic" for the IndianAmerican community. "She's a woman, she biracial, she will help win the elec on for Biden, she appeals to various communi es and she's really smart."

"Why should Indian-Americans not be proud of her?

It's a signal that we are coming of age." www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53745141 Image credit: Getty Images

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Afican Union - Regional Economic Communities

African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) h ps://nepad.org Advoca ng for the Accelerated Implementa on of the African High-Speed Rail Project Par cipants at the webinar on the African High-Speed Railway Project which was held on 29 July, called on African Union and leaders of the con nent to fast track implementa on of the high-speed rail to support the implementa on of the con nental free trade area.

Mr Raila Odinga, the AU High Representa ve for Infrastructure Development in Africa noted the many railway developments across Africa said the con nent has spent a lot of me on planning and emphasised that now is the me to hit the ground running as the world will not wait any longer.

Ci ng the new free trade area, the African Con nental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), the AU High Representa ve said transport logis cs and interconnec vity are cri cal to the success of the project.

the Africa CDC has rolled out a new program, the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Tes ng in Africa (PACT) to increase tes ng by suppor ng African governments with support to test 10 million people over the next four months. The PACT program will also deploy 1 million community health workers to aid contract tracing and seek to train an addi onal 100,000 healthcare professionals in the con nent.

Addi onally, during this crisis, the Africa CDC has also served as a central ins tu on in coordina ng sta s cs and sharing knowledge of the SARS-CoV-2 virus throughout this pandemic.

Even with the Africa CDC, there is a s ll a case to be made for greater coordina on and coopera on on regional levels. As COVID-19 cases are not spread equally across subregions, with North and Southern Africa accoun ng for over 50% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases, regional approaches are necessary to respond accordingly to varying levels of outbreak severity.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) www.comesa.int Among the many recommenda ons of the webinar was the need to launch implementa on of the highspeed project a er the design and planning issues have been sorted out.

Other takeaways included the need to possibly shorten the implementa on metable; fast tracking of ra fica on of the Luxembourg protocol for rolling stock acquisi on; engagement with African private sector; the need to create African Railway standard; enforcement of localisa on to boost job crea on, and; the urgent need to explore internal financing through sovereign wealth and pension funds, among others.

Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) www.uneca.org/oria/pages/amu-arab-maghreb-union The establishment of the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) by the African Union is a huge step for the con nent in providing a con nent-wide pla orm to coordinate infec ous disease management. During this crisis, 66

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Food Security Response Plan The COMESA Secretariat has developed a dra COVID-19 Regional Food and Nutri on Security Response Plan to improve agricultural produc vity, enhance access to compe ve markets and trade in agri-food commodi es in the region.

Implementa on of the Plan is expected to create synergies and complement exis ng ini a ves in the region and Member States, targe ng specific commodi es and value chains that are cri cal for both regional and na onal food security and nutri on, and with strong linkage to smallholder agriculture.

According to COMESA agriculture experts, COVID-19 risks escala ng further, the current food insecurity arising from the nega ve impact of the containment measures on the agri-food system. These include restric ons on movement and availability of labour for farm work, di cul es in moving food from rural DAWN

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to urban areas, limita ons to agro-input supplies and availability, closed markets, restric ons on agriculture extension and advisory services and financing agricultural ac vi es due to curtailed banking services.

Other key suppor ve interven on programmes that COMESA Secretariat is implemen ng to support the sector include: the Regional Enterprise Compe veness and Access to Market Programme (RECAMP), Joint Industrializa on Pilot Programme between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Reinforcing Veterinary Governance (VET-GOV) in partnership with AU-IBAR – Funded by EU and AU, the Climate Change Programme, Priori zing of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Investments for Market Access (P-IMA), the COMESA Seed Harmonisa on Implementa on Plan (COMSHIP), the Biotechnology and Biosafety Programme and the CBC Agro-Industry Seed.

underdeveloped, making it di cult to conduct intracon nental business. Further emphasis to revamp na onal transport and infrastructure that can create linkages among African regions is therefore needed in order to improve the movement of goods and services across the con nent. Regional infrastructure development programmes, such as the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, are thus op mum ways to achieve con nental connec vity for Africa. It is equally impera ve that African countries and regional economic communi es streamline and apply exis ng regional trade agreements into their na onal policy and execu ve bodies to obtain the benefits associated with deeper trade and market integra on in Africa..

Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) www.uneca.org/oria/pages/cen-sad-communitysahel-saharan-states Trade and Market Integra on In recent years, an encouraging upsurge in e orts to boost intra-African trade has been observed among African countries. The Ac on Plan for Boos ng IntraAfrican Trade (BIAT), TFTA, and the recently launched nego a on for CFTA are specific steps to establish the African Economic Community – and thus, s mulate the trade of goods and services through regional integra on agreements designed to eliminate tari and non-tari barriers. Although a number of trade and market integra on-related agreements, protocols and conven ons have been signed among member States in their respec ve regional economic communi es, a number of factors have contributed to its slow implementa on. Among the main barriers to trade, are poor infrastructure developments, maintenance and connec vity, and conflicts and security issues in subregions.

Moreover, a number of the con nent’s railways and roads o en lead to marine ports rather than crossborder linkages over land. Internal waterways are, similarly, insu ciently exploited and in most cases 67

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East African Community (EAC) www.eac.int EAC to launch Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System The EAC Deputy Secretary General, in charge of Productive and Social Sector, Hon Christophe Bazivamo has disclosed that all is set for the launch of the EAC Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS) in collaboration with the EAC Partner States National Focal Points on Covid-19 and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA).

The EAC Secretariat has distributed special terminals (tablets) procured with the support from TMEA to support operationalization of the system, adding that all selected borders will be equipped with the necessary terminals to allow easy movement of the truck drivers.

The tracking system is expected to be the key to the region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After installation, users are to share their Covid-19 test results on the platform for easy information exchange along the Central and Northern corridors. The system see page 68

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African Union - Regional Economic Communities from page 67

will subsequently pass on the results using already existing systems used by the national revenue and health authorities in the region.

The RECDTS will help in sharing of EAC Covid-19 Test certificate for cross border truck drivers/crews electronically, and facilitate easy information exchange along transport corridors within the EAC and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The RECDTS is directly linked to the national Laboratory repository for all COVID-19 results for each Partner State. Only the negative results are automatically linked to the application and information is shared across all transport corridors through a secure mechanism,” said Hon. Bazivamo.

Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) www.ceeac-eccas.org In 1983, ECCAS adopted the Protocol on Freedom of Movement and Rights of Establishment of Na onals of Members States. This protocol includes provisions for the freedom of movement, residence and establishment for all ci zens in the ECCAS region.

In prac ce, the free movement of people is only e ec ve in four CEMAC member States namely Cameroon, Chad, Congo and the Democra c Republic of the Congo. The rest of the member States require visa for fellow ECCAS ci zens. Some member States underline security issues as the main reason for delaying implementa on. The poli cal commitment is able to solve the problem of free movement of persons and is, arguably, the main reason for the slow implementa on of the Protocol. More recently, however, more member States are o ering fellow ECCAS ci zens’ visa on arrival and in some countries, the movement of people is rela vely fluid.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) www.ecowas.int The West Africa Compe veness Programme (WACOMP) aims to support several selected value chains at the na onal and regional level so as to promote structural transforma on and be er access 68

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to regional and interna onal markets while taking into account social and environmental concerns.

The major objec ves of the programme are to strengthen the compe veness of West African countries and also enhance their integra on into the regional and interna onal trading system. To reach this overarching goal, the programme will work to: • improve performance, growth and contribu on to the industry, • regional trade and exports of selected value chains, • and improve the business climate at na onal and regional levels.

The Programme has 16 Na onal components and 1 regional component.

Each country is individually responsible for the implementa on of its component and the ECOWAS Commission, with the support of West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU/UEMOA) Commission, is responsible for the implementa on of the regional components and for the coordina on of the programme through a programme overall steering commi ee to be convened once every year. A number of Technical partners will support implementa on at the country and regional levels.

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) h ps://igad.int/ Ethiopia Receives In-Kind Support Of Personal Protect Equipment The Minister of Health of the Federal Democra c Republic of Ethiopia, HE Dr. Lia Tadesse, received personal protec on equipment from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). This in-kind support is part of the regional response to fight the COVID-19 epidemic and will benefit the cross-border sites, refugee camps and Internal Displaces Persons.

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at Cross Border sites, at refugee camps and where IDPS and Migrants reside,” said the H.E. Dr. Lia Tadesse.

“IGAD is an important pla orm for regional coopera on,” said the minister. “We highly appreciate the support and will con nue collabora ng with Member States to fight the pandemic”.

Dr. Girum Hailu Maheteme, Represen ng IGAD, represen ng the Execu ve Secretary of IGAD, H.E. Dr. Workaneh Gabeyahu, commended the e orts of the government and the people of Ethiopia in comba ng the Covid-19 disease.

“This support is aimed for the protec on of the frontline care workers,” said Dr. Girum Hailu.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) h ps://sadc.int SADC, EU and Germany step-up coopera on towards regional response to COVID-19 Through the EU-SADC Support to Peace and Security (SPSS) programme, the EU is suppor ng SADC to monitor and address the escala ng trends of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) arising from movement restric ons put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The EU and SADC have allocated EUR 361,000 to the EU-SADC Regional Agriculture Policy (RAP) programme to support Regional and Na onal Early Warning Systems. In addi on, the EU and SADC have

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allocated EUR 180,000 to the Global Climate Change Alliance Programme (GGCA+) to improve availability and access to high value nutri ous agricultural produce using Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies in Eswa ni, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe targe ng food insecure and vulnerable communi es impacted by COVID-19.

Ambassador Sadek added that, “the EU wants to be relevant to SADC and stands in solidarity with SADC Heads of State and Governments, and the SADC Secretariat to support the regional response both to the health crisis as well as economic recovery.

COVID-19 can only be defeated if we act united through a coordinated global e ort”.

The SADC Execu ve Secretary highlighted that, “the collabora on between SADC and the Interna onal Coopera on Partners in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will assist to facilitate trade and ensure sustained movement of essen al goods and services, enhance capacity of local manufacturers of PPEs and medical supplies, boost food and nutri on security of vulnerable communi es and address Gender-Based Violence. With unity and joint e orts of all stakeholders, we will defeat COVID-19”.

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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

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

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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.

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Africa's Largest Oil Refinery Opens Next Year

By Tom Jackson Africa's largest oil refinery, which is anticipated to be the biggest single-train structure, is set to be opened early next year.

The Dangote Oil Refinery is the brainchild of Africa’s wealthiest man, the Nigerian Aliko Dangote. It is under construction in Lagos, the commercial capital.

Devakumar Edwin, the Dangote Industries executive director, confirmed progress had been The refinery will handle 3 billion cubic foot of gas done. “It is still within the time frame of completion,” daily.

Edwin said. www.cajnews.co.za/2020/08/10/africas-largestThe facility will have the capacity to process oil-refinery-opens-next-yea 650,000 barrels of crude oil daily. It will consist of Image credit: ajirayako.co.tz, 1,100km pipeline infrastructure, the largest in the businessandmaritimewestafrica.com world.

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This New Crowdfunding Platform is Designed to Support Women Entrepreneurs Globally

By Dana Givens

Gaining startup capital for a new business can be extremely challenging. Women and minorities are often cut out of lucrative venture capitalist funding, leaving them with few options to accumulate the funds they need to launch their new venture. This woman entrepreneur sought to help other women gain independence with a platform to help fund their dream ventures.

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racy Garley, founder and CEO of GoFundHer, (www.gofundher.com) launched a crowdfunding platform for women to convene in a space to receive financial and community support. The Liberian-born entrepreneur worked with crowdfunding owner Roger Mensah to make her idea a reality.

“I developed the crowdfunding website and social club as sister companies embracing the causes of girls and women,” Garley wrote in an email interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE. “To gain users I created City Girls Big Dreams weekly online “Dream Session” (https:// citygirlsbigdreams.com) events for girls, women, and their supporters to learn about GoFundHer. com while connecting with mentors to develop their goals then collect money online. The Dream Session events are coordinated by interns I mentor in the spring, summer, and fall semesters, as part of an internship program designed for GoFundHer. com to grow the number of women with experience working at technology companies.”

The platform has expanded to more than 150 countries since its launch in 2019. The company also offers direct deposit service for small businesses in over 39 countries including India, 74

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Australia, and countries across Europe, with users being allowed to withdraw their money in 24 currencies. The platform allows users to create unlimited fundraising pages with the ability to collect monthly and one-time donations.

“It was important that I provide these opportunities for women around the world because women are still far from achieving social, economic, and political equality. At the current rate of progress, women will have to wait nearly 100 years to close the overall gender gap with men. So I wanted to get started on this very big problem we have in our world,” she added.

“I’ve learned that it’s good to always be willing to help prevent other women from making the same mistakes I made during the early years of my business journey. I know what it feels like to have a dream, but not have the money to fund that dream. This is not a good feeling at all, especially being a girl or woman—some women sell their bodies just to put food on their table. GoFundHer. com is the premium crowdfunding platform that is empowering girls and women to fund their dreams without any obligations or contracts. Real women empowerment starts with enhancing her confidence and bank account.” www.blackenterprise.com/this-new-crowdfundingplatform-is-designed-to-support-womenentrepreneurs-globally DAWN

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Even Though Less Than 1% of Venture Capital Goes to Black Funders, Here's How I Raised $11 Million

By Joseph Heller

As an African American entrepreneur, I can tell you that you’ll face tremendous obstacles in building your vision. But there is nothing more personally liberating than seeing your dream come true—and right now, as an African American entrepreneur, your platform for change is growing exponentially as VCs are slowly starting to understand that they need to be more inclusive and that there are vast opportunities outside of their small network.

I encourage all African Americans to pursue their dreams of being an entrepreneur—and if your dream is to change the world, you should raise venture capital. There will always be difficulties— yes, unique to you. My goal in this piece is to encourage you to keep moving in spite of them. So here’s my story on how I raised an $11M Series A. It begins when my father came home one day and handed me a copy of Black Enterprise’s 1995 edition of the BE 100s. From that day forward, I decided that I would be an entrepreneur. I grew up in a mostly white neighborhood and went to a mostly white private school. On the weekends, I would work at my grandparents’ business in South Central Los Angeles, which was a historically black community in L.A. At a young age I was very aware that African Americans lived in relative poverty compared to most white people.

That was compounded by overtly racist experiences I had throughout my childhood that made it clear that society viewed African Americans as inferior.

But the individuals on the BE 100s my dad gave me told me there was hope.

I had a burning desire from an early age to prove to the world that I could do something great despite society’s perception of me. I always had this

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feeling that I would not be treated fairly in a large corporation—and the BE 100s were the perfect catalyst for my imagination to envision a reality where I would be totally liberated to create my own rules and vision for the world.

A few months after receiving that Black Enterprise magazine, I was inspired to start my own web design business in high school. In college, I raised angel investment to build a platform that would allow artisans to sell their products online. And after graduating from UC Berkeley, I went to China where I ended up starting an import/export business. Our customers were large companies that needed supply chain management consulting to

help them navigate the myriad process of working with Chinese factories.

Around the same time, I realized that there was a growing trend of small businesses that were being empowered by tools like Shopify and Instagram, where literally anyone could start their own business and sell products. But the backend manufacturing—how products actually got made—was still extremely complicated for these small businesses.

I wanted to create a technology company that see page 76

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Joseph Heller from page 75

would solve this problem, but I didn’t have the necessary connections in venture capital to raise money back then. So I decided to build TheStudio. com (www.thestudio.com) and later SuppliedShop. com (https://suppliedshop.com) with my own capital—slow but steady. Our vision was and is to democratize manufacturing for small businesses using software.

After having built the company to eight digits in revenue with over 100 employees in four countries, I decided that it was time to go back to the U.S. and raise venture capital—surely now the story was convincing—and with the numbers to prove it! I had seen companies raise a lot more money with no revenue and a less compelling vision for the future. I was confident that given the fact that we

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had obtained a relative level of success completely bootstrapped and had a compelling vision and technology that actually worked that we would be able to easily raise money.

I soon found out that it would be much harder than I anticipated.

The big problem with the venture community is that it really operates like the stereotypical good old boys network. Forty percent of VCs went to Harvard or Stanford. It’s a pretty cynical testament to the insular nature of VCs that out of all the brilliant people they could hire in this country, 40% of them hail from just two schools. Seventy percent of VCs are white and only 3% are black; LatinX only represents 1%. Less than 1% of venture capital goes to Black founders.

I’ll be very clear: I think the vast majority of VCs are well-intentioned and are not overtly racist.

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But because the VC model encourages firms to hire and invest in people that they have previous relationships with, the entire ecosystem ends up looking like a country club. Furthermore, there

are extreme but unconscious biases of what a successful entrepreneur should “look” like—and our natural human instinct of pattern recognition thinks a successful CEO looks like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos. When I walked in a room, I didn’t look like a CEO to investors, and that perception hurt me when I was raising money.

Every African American knows that intangible feeling where you know you are unfairly judged by a room full of white people, just because of the color of your skin. I felt that.

I have the data to back up my feeling. I pitched roughly 150 VCs and about 80% of the partners that I pitched were white and 20% were non-white. I received zero term sheets from the white VCs and five-term sheets (out of 30 pitches) from non-white VCs. The data is quite clear that although VCs don’t want to acknowledge biases, these biases do exist.

Raising VC money was the most agonizing thing that I have ever done in my life. I had spent years preparing the company to raise VC money, poured all of my savings into the company, and was literally being told on a daily basis that we weren’t good enough to raise money. It was really a heartbreaking experience. But through hard work and perseverance, we were able to raise an $11 million Series A. To entrepreneurs in the stage I was a few years back, I say this: raising money is hard for everyone— including white males. But it will be more vastly more difficult if you are Black. If you’re in the middle of doing so, you must continue pushing hard to make your dreams come true. There’s no other way.

To VCs, I say: the entire venture capital community must take a hard look at themselves. Is your 77

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mandate to perpetuate inequality and do what is easy? Or is it to further equality and bring real value to your LPs by getting exposure to different types of businesses? If the venture community continues to be insular and ignore that things are changing, history will judge VCs as being part of the problem and maintaining inequality in our country—and being quite shortsighted in missing out on what was the best, most profitable outcome. Now is when the venture community can really step up and do the right thing both for society and for their investors.

The good news: there has never been a better time for black entrepreneurs. Because of the Black Lives Matter movement and other sources of pressure, the venture community is finally starting to pay attention to the problem. I encourage all Black entrepreneurs to take the leap now, not later—start solving complicated problems and light the path forward for others. www.blackenterprise.com/less-than-1-percent-vcgoes-to-black-founders-heres-how-i-raised-11-million Image credits: thestudio.com

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Mozambique: The Next Great LNG Player

By Sihle Qekeleshe

Rovuma LNG Project

Mozambique is on its way to becoming a top ten liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier. The southern African nation – which has more than 125 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas reserves – has been touted as the next great LNG player and is making full use of its potential as it looks at rivaling top African LNG producers.

Mozambique’s total output is about 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of natural gas and condensate from the Pande-Temane Project, an onshore gas discovery and the country’s only generating area.

Anadarko and Eni are the two companies that discovered Mozambique’s potential of more than 125 tcf of natural gas reserves (75 tcf in block Area 1 and 50 tcf in Area 4) in the ultra-deepwater Rovuma Basin, however, they are not the only companies attempting exploration activities. ExxonMobil,

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Qatar Petroleum and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) are also competing for control over Mozambican LNG. The discoveries in Mozambique are high quality, non-associated gas reserves and mostly free of pollutants such as CO2 and H2S, making advances from a scientific point of view fairly straightforward.

The Coral South Floating Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Area 4 – operated by Eni – became the first Rovuma basin plant to reach a final investment decision (FID).

Field construction began in 2017 with the first gas scheduled for 2022. In 2016, the Coral South FLNG project reached an SPA for the 20-year sale of 100% of LNG supply to BP, which is expected to be sold internationally.

Companies in Area 1 and Area 4 (operated

by Anadarko and ExxonMobil, respectively) are progressing towards FID for onshore LNG terminals. For Rovuma LNG (Area 4), most of the LNG is contracted to buyer entities a liated to the co-venture participants (including ExxonMobil, Eni, CNPC, ENH, Kogas and Galp).

For the Mozambique LNG project (Area 1), developer Anadarko has signed long-term SPAs with foreign purchasers such as PTT, CNOOC, Tokyo Gas & Centrica, BP, Pertamina and Bharat Petroleum, for a total of over 9.5 mmtpa, much of which will be sold for domestic use to Asian countries such as China, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and India.

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Mozambique is projected to become one of the top ten biggest LNG producers worldwide in the mid2020s, with more than 30 mmtpa of LNG coming on stream, which is equal to Nigeria and Algeria.

The country is expected to target countries across the Asia Pacific region including China, Japan, and South Korea, as well as various European countries.

The development of the LNG sector will add direct income to the government of Mozambique and will encourage local industry growth through a domestic gas portion of the initial project and subsequent expansions.

Mozambique LNG (Area 1) will have initial volumes of 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (mmcfd) for domestic use in the region. Shell has also commissioned a study to develop a gas-toliquids (GTL) facility, but this alternative will require additional domestic gas volumes. Construction on the mega LNG ventures is projected to last more than a decade, providing substantial jobs and educational opportunities to Mozambicans.

Investment Progress The progress of the construction of the extraction and exportation (Coral South FLNG facility) is at over 60%. Work on tow-in installation in the Mozambique Channel is scheduled for the end of 2021, will be 432 m long and 66 m wide, weigh about 220,000 t and be able to house up to 350 people in its eightstory accommodation module.

Cabo Delgado’s land-based infrastructure has also been improved. According to the Area 1 consortium, over the course of two years of operation the subcontracted firms, together with oil and gas companies, have kept 5,000 employees on the field.

Other tasks associated with the oil and gas sector have been assigned to TechnipFMC, Oceaneering International, Advanced Technology Valve, Cameron Italy, VanOord and a consortium bringing together McDermott, Chiyoda and Saipem.

There is also an installation of tens of kilometers of pipeline on the seafloor that will pump natural gas from the reserves directly to land.

Although Area 4 has not yet confirmed its final investment decision, the consortium made its initial investment decision in October last year and

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revealed the assignment of engineering, acquisition and construction activities to a consortium made up of JGC, Fluor and Technip FMC. Peter Clarke, vice-president of ExxonMobil, one of the founding members of the Rovuma LNG company based in Area 4, confirmed that the initial investment is budgeted for $500m and noted that production will start in 2025. The Mozambican government also endorsed Area 4’s 15,2mtpa sales contracts.

A portion of LNG output – which has yet to be determined as a result of discovery in the Rovuma basin – will be intended for industrial projects in Mozambique. Three are yet to be approved, which are a fertilizer factory owned by Norwegian company Yara, a fuel refinery managed by AngloDutch company Shell and a third plant run by GL Energy Africa, a British firm that will turn gas into electricity.

Many prospecting operations are being planned following the finalization of 2018 Mozambique licenses. Eni leads one consortium (34%), along with Qatar Petroleum (25.5%), South Africa’s Sasol (25.5%) and Mozambican state-owned corporation ENH – Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (15%), allocated prospect block A5-A, an area of 5,133km2, with depths ranging from 300 to 1,800 meters, in entirely unexplored o shore territories opposite the district of Angoche, Mozambique.

ExxonMobil owns half of another exploration consortium of state-owned company ENH, 20%, Russia’s Rosneft 20% and Qatar Petroleum 10%.

Three o shore blocks cover the contracts: Angoche A5-B, Zambeze Z5-C and Zambeze Z5-D. Onshore, South Africa’s Sasol will carry out prospect operations in region PT5-C covering 3,000Km2 in the center of Mozambique in the Pande-Temane district province of Inhambane, from which it has already mined 1,8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas since 2004, with the remainder mostly pipeline-driven to South Africa. Sasol is also pressing ahead with exploring the Inhassoro reserves in order to produce 5,000 barrels of light oil per day. www.africaoilandpower.com/2020/03/20/ mozambique-the-next-great-lng-player Image credit: usenergyassetts.net/Oil-Gas/ Investment

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Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if You’re Not African

By Larry Madowo

“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 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.

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G l o b a l heavyweights such as Goldman Sachs, Stanford University, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital have all invested in startups Jesse Ghansah: ‘The yardstick used t started by white white, so having a white founder on founders in Africa more frequently than they have invested in firms led by black Africans.

White privilege Advantages that white entrepreneurs have include having a safety net to take time o 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 (www.kiva. org) and Branch International (https://branch.co), 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

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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 (www.ratemyinvestor.com).

At 500 Startups (https:// pitchbook.com/news/reports/2019annual-global-league-tables) ,

“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 to judge African founders is really di erent. Most of the investors are invested in worldwide. “We n your team helps.’ Photograph: Jesse Ghansah look for companies that are globally focused and can scale beyond their home country,” Clayton Bryan, a black the east African region, only 10% of all funding for startups went to local founders, according to a 2017 Venture Partner at the firm said in a statement. 500 Startups had two African startups out of 29 in its study by Village Capital.

One exemplar is Twiga Foods (https://twiga.com), a most recent cohort. seven-year-old 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 Oxfordeducated 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 o 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 di erently.

I don’t even think that’s conscious, but they do it.”

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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 (www.iamthecode.org).

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 a ord to take o a year or two of their life and see page 82

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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 (www.viktoria.co.ke) 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.

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She quit her job and took a cosmetic formulation science course before launching her startup, Foi Science (https://foisciences.wordpress.com). 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 blames the structural issues with capital on the continent on local banks and 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 (https://flutterwave.com/us) and Andela (https://andela. com), 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 (www. 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 Technologies Inc. but the Ghanaian knows there is still work to DAWN

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do. “The yardstick used to judge African founders is really di erent. 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.

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by Maya Horgan Famodu, a 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 83

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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. www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/17/africanbusinesses-black-entrepreneurs-us-investors?utm_ medium=40digest.7days3.20200717.carousel&utm_ source=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=campaign Image credit: startup-netzwerk-bodensee.com

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It is Time to Fund the Future

By Iyinolowa Aboyeji community, it is possible to build an African future where prosperity and purpose is within everyone's reach. Even though we didn't see all of this coming, it feels like we were preparing for this moment.

S o m e Welcome to the Future!

I know that sounds like a really odd way to greet you all given the current wave of fear, uncertainty and doubt but look beyond all of that for a moment.

The future we have always imagined is unfolding right before our eyes. Zoom isn't the sound of a car leaving for work in the morning but the name of another critical tool for getting to work. Instagram Live is television except this time we can actually chat live with everyone else watching the show from Michelle Obama to Usher. E-commerce is not a nice to have subset of commerce but all of it. I'm no longer the crazy black guy investing in molecular lab diagnostics (www.54gene.com), my government is in on it too (https://nipc.gov.ng/2020/04/07/ncdc-nigeria-toget-four-additional-testing-labs). If even two months ago you showed me the world we woke up in today, I'd be asking you who's your dope dealer. But here we are.

At Future Africa, we partner with innovators turning our continent's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. We believe that by empowering innovators with capital, coaching and

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investors - even traditional venture capitalists whose one job is investing in innovators believe this is the worst time to invest in innovators. We disagree. Although I am pretty sure they are in the wrong business, I can understand their fear. Startups are small and risky. In a recession, perhaps even more so. There are no lofty valuations to chase or scores of investors writing checks to the next unicorn. Heck - many startups should be lucky to stay alive. Yet we believe that there is no better time to invest in innovators building the clear and present future we have just been accelerated into.

I say this only because I have lived this.

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Andela and Flutterwave - our best performing portfolio companies have one thing in common - they were both founded in the middle of grave economic recessions and a health pandemic just like this one.

We remember putting Andela's second class of intakes through a boot-camp right in the middle of the Ebola crisis. Flutterwave, on the other hand, was raising its seed round as the Naira was tanking and 40% of commercial bank deposits disappeared overnight to the Central Bank's treasury single account. Despite the turbulence, both companies delivered us triple-digit IRRs and cemented our reputation as the hit-makers of Africa's tech industry.

Again, there is no time like the present to invest in African innovators turning our myriad of oncoming challenges into global business opportunities.

However, it takes an experienced operator to land a plane in the midst of a storm. Since we began investing as angels in the Nigerian financial markets downturn of 2015, we've deployed $1.5 million dollars of our own money across 19 companies including some of Africa's fastest-growing tech startups such as Andela, Flutterwave, 54Gene, Kobo360, MAX, Stem Cafe, Eden, and Lori Systems, amongst several others. In that time we have grown our portfolio 8x to $12m in assets under management with an IRR of 51.6%, our startups have accumulated $1.2 billion in company value, gone on to raise $300 million in follow-on capital, made $120 million in annual revenue, and created 3,000 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs. That said, we know that our past results are not indicators of future returns and venture investing is a very risky proposition where you should only invest what you afford to lose. However your chances of successfully funding the future increase when you work with experienced partners like us who have been here before - building the future in good times and bad.

You see, before the crisis hit we too thought about playing the traditional venture capital game.

Hire our own grey-haired investment banker who knows the limited partners. Raise a big fund and sit easy on a pile of fees as we hand over our hardwon judgement and experience to bureaucracy and investment committees far from the madness we are innovating in. We too wanted to settle. But when the crisis hit, we naturally dove into action supporting our portfolio companies to respond appropriately.

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As we watched the traditional venture capitalists entrusted with the responsibility of funding the innovators that will get us through this crisis drop the ball on one innovator after another on account of scared Limited Partners and restrictive investment committees, we knew that couldn't be us. So we decided to focus our energy on innovating a new way to fund innovators through this pivotal moment of crisis and opportunity.

This is why today we are excited to announce the Future Africa Collective - our people-powered innovation fund that allows you co-invest with us. The Future Africa Collective offers qualified investors who apply and are admitted an opportunity to co-invest with us on a deal-by-deal basis through investment syndicates. While we source and run diligence on innovators, the entire process for each deal is managed on your behalf by a globally renowned and trusted institutional fund partner based in the US. In exchange for your capital, an annual subscription fee and a reasonable carry for the Future Africa team, you receive an opportunity to invest in groundbreaking innovators building the future today.

We need you, our community, to partner with us as we fund the next Andelas and Flutterwaves through this health and economic crisis. Like you, we believe that especially as far as Africa is concerned, capital is not just a tool for creating and preserving wealth, it is also a weapon of innovation and revolution.

As we stand at the precipice of this perfect storm, we see an opportunity to disrupt Venture Capital in Africa forever. There is no reason why limited partners and investor committees of investment bankers and aid workers who don't live here, don't understand our context, don't believe in our entrepreneurial talent and don't understand our challenges can determine which innovators help us make it through this crisis but you can't. You too can fund an African future.

If you would like to join the Future Africa Collective - our exclusive community of co-investors in African innovators building the future - please apply here: www.future.africa/collective. www.future.africa Image credit: continuitysa.com

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Technology/Science

Changing the African Narrative Africa’s story is not just about poverty and disease.

Those of us who grew up here know a di erent version exists, and it is about the potential of the continents irrepressible, abundant young talent.

But whose job is it to unlock that potential? More to the point, where could my suppressed 15 years of Silicon Valley experience be most useful?

At Impact Africa Network we do 3 things: • Develop innovation leaders • Launch startups • Build community

Impact Africa Network CEO Mark Karake Andrew Kendungu via Impact Africa Network

Startup studio in Nairobi on a mission to ensure young talented Africans can access Africa's digital transformation opportunity as creators and owners.

In March 2018, after much soul searching and anguished second guessing, I made the decision to repatriate back home to Africa to immerse myself in the economic development struggle. This is what I have dedicated the rest of my life to doing, my TED talk if you will.

I had finally come to my ‘two roads divided in a wood’ moment, and realized I could either let my life peter out in an unhappy, warmed over false sense of financial ‘security’ in the Bay Area, or, I could dive head and feet first into the adventure of making an impact.

In January 2019 I launched a non-profit startup studio in Nairobi with a mission is to ensure young talented Africans have a chance at participating in the digital transformation of Africa as creators and owners.

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We opened our doors (my apartment) in January of 2019 and so far we have provided the opportunity to 25 fellows and are working on 7 exciting projects including; a STEM school, a media platform, Gen Z fintech, Upwork for Africa, a documentary,…… there is so much to be done Impact Africa Network is a non profit charitable entity US 501(C)3 EIN 83–2020331. Why non profit?

Because it is the only financing model that can work for the patient, capacity building work that needs to be done at this very early stage. Don’t argue with me on this one.

This is hard, unglamorous work and only possible when one is truly in love with the process.

Make An Impact Despite the challenges we are facing the world is filled with individuals with amazing hearts, and I always knew we would find believers.

Most people are eager to be support causes they believe can make a di erence. Like every non profit we are always fund raising and we invite you to be part of our micro-donations support program. It works just like Netflix.

We are seeking 500 champions willing to give $20 a month until December 2021. For this, I will send you a signed copy of the book before the end of the year.

Je Weiner of LinkedIn has committed to match every donor who subscribes to our micro-donations support program via LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/feed/ update/urn:li:activity:6675813081085571072).

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Alternatively, you may go directly to our donation page (www.impactafrica.network/microdonation). Choose the ‘Give Monthly’ option and become part of the solution. Leave us a comment while at it.

We also need mentors in; product dev/design, software engineering, digital marketing, finance, hr, legal, writing, PR & comms, and leadership. If interested, add that to your comment.

Innovation Fellowship We provide twelve month Innovation Fellowships to talented college graduates, providing them with the opportunity to develop relevant professional skills, gain innovation experience, and the chance at being part of a startup founding team.

Product development Fellows Role for fellows with a technical background such as CS, IT or other engineering discipline where they get to work on internal projects with the intention of spinning them out into startups.

In-house professional services In-house professional services is a role for emerging professionals across design, finance, legal, research, marketing and business development Gain professional skills - College graduates are ill prepared for the professional world. Our fellows get the opportunity to develop their professional skills by being immersed in an environment that exposes them to real world projects and working with cross functional teams.

Startup experience The successful commercialization of innovation requires a distinct set of skills and experience. Our fellows are directly involved in the ideation and startup creation process gaining first hand experience on how to e ectively validate ideas and create startups.

Professional Marketability - The studio experience places our fellows on a promising career path. Upon emerging from the studio our fellows are extremely attractive to prospective employers. It is a powerful way to di erentiate themselves with hiring managers while providing them the confidence and

credibility in the job search process.

Be part of a founding team - The opportunity exists for fellows to be part of founding a startup.

Should the project they are working on develop into a startup they fellows are eligible to equity consideration in the company.

Resource Network We continually develop a network of key mentors, advisors, domain experts, donors and angel investors who provide the necessary support for the work we do.

Media platform Our media and events platform is designed to demystify, localize, and democratize startup building knowledge and best practices across the ecosystem to provide Silicon Savanna a voice, an identity, and community. The platform includes: Blog, Events, Podcasts, videos.

Projects Our ambitious 10-10-10 goal is to build 10 great companies with combined net worth of 10 billion and providing at least 10 thousand jobs by 2030.

1. Jenga School - A Data Science and AI school with a mission to unleash Africa's genius to help solve global problems.

We equip students with both soft and technical skills, whilst keeping up with the latest trends in order to meet global talent demands. https://jengaschool.com 2. Systematic Entrepreneurship - An online platform that equips innovators with the necessary knowledge, understanding and key resources to facilitate theit entrepeneurial journey and help them get unstuck see page 88

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Technology/Science from page 87

3. Launchpad - Launchpad is an innovation ampus, a collective world class space where the innovation community can aggregate its resources to coexist, collaborate and co-create. It is essentially the heartbeat and nerve center of the Nairobi ecosytem 4. Startbox This is a project that is designed to help young innovators successfully set up their ventures by providing well researched

information and guidance.

5. Done!

International - Done International is a platform where we help people living in the diaspora plan, organize, and execute projects back home.

We are on track!. https://medium.com/impact-africa-network/lastblack-man-in-san-francisco-552cd375e059 https://medium.com/impact-africa-network/greatstory-and-then-what-2ba0033c3cf3 www.zdnet.com/article/how-impact-africa-networkaims-to-change-society-via-entrepreneurship-steminnovation

Tesla Talent Call Out! Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims that his implantable computer interface Neuralink (www.neuralink.com) will be able to stream music directly to a person's brain.

Musk discussed the technology during an exchange with another user on Twitter, after tweeting that he was looking to recruit engineers for the project.

"If you’ve solved hard problems with phones / wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power mgmt, etc), please consider working at engineering@neuralink.com," Musk tweeted Friday. "Solving high-volume, high-reliability, low-cost production problems is especially valued."

During a livestream presentation in 2019, Musk said that Neuralink would implant flexible threads

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of electrodes into the brain, which are used to pick up signals from neurons and wirelessly transmit them to a computer nearby.

He noted that the process would be similar to LASIK, where a laser would create a tiny hole in the skull to implant the electrodes.

Musk believes that the technology could ultimately help treat brain disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia. He added that it is also essential for the human race's symbosis with artificial intelligence. www.foxnews.com/tech/elon-musk-neuralink-streammusic-brain?utm_medium=techboard.tue.20200721&utm_ source=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=campaign

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Technology/Science

Botswana: Lab Tests to Solve Mystery of Hundreds of Dead Elephants Botswana is investigating "completely unprecedented" deaths of hundreds of elephants since May. The government said three laboratories in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe would be asked to "process the samples taken from the dead elephants".

More than 350 elephant carcasses have been spotted in Botswana's Okavango Delta in the past two months.

No-onknows why the animals are dying in Botswana home to a third of Africa's declining elephant population.

In a report prepared for the government, conservation organisation Elephants Without Borders (EWB http://elephantswithoutborders.org) said its aerial surveys showed that elephants of all ages appeared to be dying, according to Reuters.

Dr Niall McCann, of the UK-based charity National Park Rescue (www.nationalparkrescue.org), earlier

this week told the BBC that local conservationists first alerted the government in early May, after they undertook a flight over the delta.

"They spotted 169 in a three-hour flight," he said. "To be able to see and count that many in a three-hour flight was extraordinary.

"A month later, further investigations identified many more carcasses, bringing the total to over 350."

"This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought," he added.

Back in May, Botswana's government ruled out poaching as a reason - noting the tusks had not been removed, according to Phys.org.

There are other things which point to something other than poaching.

"It is only elephants that are dying and nothing else," Dr McCann said. "If it was cyanide used by poachers, you would expect to see other deaths." Dr McCann has also tentatively ruled out natural anthrax poisoning, which killed at least 100 elephants in Botswana last year.

But they have been unable to rule out either poisoning or disease. The way the animals appear to be dying - many dropping on their faces - and sightings of other elephants walking in circles points to something potentially attacking their neurological systems, Dr McCann said.

Either way, without knowing the source, it is impossible to rule out the possibility of a disease crossing into the human population - especially if the cause is in either the water sources or the soil. Dr McCann points to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is believed to have started in animals.

"Yes, it is a conservation disaster - but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis," he said. www.bbc.com/news/ world-africa-53273361 Image credit: Elephants Without Borders,

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Technology/Science

Al Co By

ITelkom executives use the Loon service for the first time in Radad, Kenya Alphabet’s Loon division (https://loon.com/solutions/ which uses floating balloons to provide internet, has today launched its first commercial service in Kenya. In a blog post announcing the news (https://medium.com/loonfor-all/loon-is-live-in-kenya-259d81c75a7a), Loon’s CEO Alastair Westgarth said that the 4G LTE service will be provided to Telkom Kenya subscribers via a fleet of around 35 balloons, covering an area of around 50,000 square kilometers across western and central areas of the country, including its capital, Nairobi.

It’s a significant step for Loon, which started as a moonshot project in Alphabet’s X division before being spun out into its own company in 2018.

The company’s balloons have already provided internet connectivity in the wake of disasters, like in Puerto Rico in 2017 after Hurricane Maria (www. mobile-network-expansion),

theverge.com/2017/10/20/16512178/alphabet-project-loonpuerto-rico-lte-balloons-disaster-relief-connectivity) or in

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Peru after an earthquake in 2019 (https://medium. com/loon-for-all/loon-balloons-are-now-connecting-usersin-peru-8daa32db32b7), but never as part of a largescale commercial deployment.

Loon has been testing its balloons in Kenya for several months now (www.theverge. com/2020/4/22/21231205/alphabet-loon-internetballoons-commercial-launch-kenya), and it says that in

that time, it’s already connected 35,000 unique users to the internet, “although most didn’t realize it.” The company says that it achieved a downlink speed of 18.9Mbps back in June, along with an uplink speed of 4.74Mbps and a latency of 19ms, and that it’s tested a range of services — including email, voice and video calls, web browsing, WhatsApp, and YouTube viewing — on its service.

The company’s balloons (or “flight vehicles” as it calls them) hover at a height of roughly 20 km, analyzing the weather to ride around on

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lphabet’s Loon Balloons Provide their first ommercial Internet Service in Kenya Jon Porter

fiber optic cables, but to o er a “third layer” of connectivity to help get more people connected to the internet worldwide.

However, the Times reports that the company has been criticized for launching its balloons in parts of the country that already have developed internet infrastructure and that some people in poorer areas of Kenya can’t a ord the phones needed to connect to its 4G service.

Going forward, Loon says it hopes to o er internet connectivity as part of more commercial services around the world. It also has several other projects in the pipeline. It plans to o er internet access to remote parts of the Amazon this year via a partnership with Internet Para Todos Perú (www.theverge.com/2019/11/21/20976065/ alphabet-loon-internet-balloon-remote-parts-amazon-2020telefonica), and it’s also signed an agreement with

Telesat to use its networking software to manage the company’s low Earth orbit satellites (www. theverge.com/2019/1/31/18200879/alphabet-project-loonsdn-networking-technology-telesat-satellite-deal). Finally,

it’s partnered with AT&T in preparation to use its balloons to provide internet service to disasterstricken areas (www.theverge.com/2020/5/6/21249025/

stratospheric winds. Individual balloons can alternate between providing internet connectivity directly and acting as a link in the mesh network. loon-att-partnership-internet-balloons-disaster-responseThe New York Times notes that they stay up in global) and with Vodacom to provide internet to the air for over 100 days before coming back down Mozambique. to earth (www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/africa/ www.theverge.com/2020/7/7/21315961/alphabetloon-balloons-internet-kenya-telkom-4g-remotegoogle-loon-balloon-kenya.html). Loon says the aim of areas its balloons isn’t to replace satellite connectivity or ground-based technologies like cell towers or Image credit: Medium, standardmedia.co.ke

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Technology/Science

Kenya’s 3D Printing Community Making Covid-19 Equipment

By Neha Wadekar

As Kenya prepares for a rise in novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases, 3D printing companies are

designing and printing personal protective equipment (PPEs) and parts for medical devices to address the expected medical equipment deficit in the country.

Ultra Red Technologies, along with a coalition of other Kenyan-owned 3D printers, has borrowed from open source prototypes designed by 3DVerkstan, a company in Sweden, to print plastic face shields to fill a gap before established plastic manufacturers can create a mould and begin producing quickly at a ordable prices.

The Nairobi-based Ultra Red has also designed a 3D printed prototype for a ventilator adaptor that could allow doctors to treat either two or four patients at one time if necessary, working with established medical equipment distributor, Nairobi X-Ray Supplies, to administer testing on sets of artificial lungs.

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3D printing of high-end medical equipment is on the rise in Africa.

In Uganda, the Comprehensive Rehabilitations Services hospital worked with a consortium of Canadian organizations to trial 3D printing of prosthetic limbs for amputees.

Rather than being cast with plaster in the traditional way, this pilot digitally scanned and modeled the limbs before sending them for production, w h i c h appears to have produced better fitting limbs at a quarter of the usual production time Despite Kenya’s lead in digital technology on the continent its nascent 3D printing industry is relatively small compared to 3D printing capabilities even compared to other African countries, such as South Africa.

Like other Sub Saharan Africa countries, Kenya’s health system is at risk of being easily overwhelmed if the East African country saw a steep rise in coronavirus cases. As well as insu cient medical sta there is a shortage of equipment often because many countries rely on imports or donations from outside the country. While “just in time” 3D printing can help Kenya fill some temporary gaps in its medical supplies deficit, some caution against touting 3D printing as a perfect solution that can override industrialization hurdles in the country. www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/kenya/kenyas-3d-printingcommunity-making-covid-19-equipment/ar-BB12ISDT

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Banking On Thorium

The Thorium Energy Alliance has begun developing a pathway forward to licensing a Thorium Bank and has engaged a Washington, DC firm to assist in this e ort. With the increased focus and development on domestic Rare Earth Element (REE) mining projects, the Thorium Energy Alliance is aiming to integrate into the processing and handling of the naturally occurring Thorium and Uranium. These are consistently found within REE Minerals and when Thorium is extracted as a by-product of refining REE to metals and magnets the Thorium byproduct poses a liability hurdle to the revival of

domestic REE industry. Currently, nearly 100% of Rare Earths supply is controlled by China. By providing a regulated storage facility for Th, natural U and associated daughter products from the production of Rare Earth Metals, the Thorium Bank would assume the liability and create a National Stockpile of these critical source materials.

The Thorium Bank would also act as an actual bank, funding and financing the development of Thorium Technologies, much like the Chemical Bank did to promote the Chemical industry.

Future steps would include a research facility to develop advances in Thorium nuclear fuel processing and developing products for Thorium such as Super alloys, Nuclear medicines (Bismuth213, Actinium 255), Advanced Lighting and Electronics, Catalysts for the chemical industry, . . . there is so much more we can do than just fuel.

Help us to raise the profile of Thorium with organizations like DoE, DoD, NIH. We all must explain to them that Thorium is neglected and will be critical for an advanced economy, and how it will be the lynch-pin to a multitude of other carbon-clean technologies and industries. U.S. Sen. Rubio's Bill (www. congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senatebill/2093/text), provides the framework for

the Thorium Bank, especially Sec. 5.

PNNL Thorium Energy Alliance 3D Layout of Thorium Bank concept.

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https://thoriumenergyalliance.com

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Lifestyle/Culture

Ghana Library Showcases Black and African Literature

By Kent Mensah A small group of visitors waits eagerly at the entrance to a single-storey building in Ghana's capital Accra, looking to explore the literary treasure inside.

This is the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (www.facebook.com/loatad.org) -- a passion project launched by Ghanaian-British writer Sylvia Arthur.

Based around Arthur's personal book collection, the library provides a remarkable opportunity to bring literature from the global black community to a country considered a cradle of African civilisation, and which was once a hub of the transatlantic slave trade.

"Our work has been neglected, it's not been showcased, it's not been respected, it's not been archived and that's the purpose of this library," Arthur said as she guided her visitors around.

The library was founded in 2017 when Arthur moved to Ghana after working in Europe.

It was renamed and relaunched this year, welcoming its first guests again in July as restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus were eased in the West African nation.

The library boasts around 4,000 books, from almost every country on the African continent.

Many names will be familiar to those who have seen the growing international acclaim for African writers such as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri, Mariama Ba and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

But this collection is a rarity in Africa.

It not only spans the entire continent, including authors such as Assia Djebar from Algeria and Naguib Mahfouz from Egypt, as well as white authors from southern Africa such Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee -- it also includes black writers from across the world including the US, Caribbean and Europe.

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It also has a special collection of rare and outof-print books, drawing historical links between the works of African and diaspora writers, and o ers residences for authors from abroad.

"We started o in one room and now we are in a whole house," Arthur said.

- Black Lives Matter The library's aims have been made even more relevant by the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept the globe and sparked renewed debates on history and equality.

"I definitely think what we do is very empowering," said Arthur.

"It shows people that no matter what they've been taught in schools, and in Western schools, we actually come from a race of people who are intelligent, smart, literate."

Ghana -- a beacon in Africa's struggle for independence -- has long played a role as a hub of thought and memory for the broader black community.

American writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou lived in Accra in the early 1960s and the government has tried to attract black people to move to the country.

In 2019 the authorities staged the "Year of

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the black community.

Visitors said that the library, while small in the numbers of books it has compared with others, is a seed that can grow, filling those gaps.

For an annual fee of 600 cedi ($100, 90 euros), members can borrow books or simply peruse the shelves lined beneath portraits of renowned writers of African descent.

"I'm truly overwhelmed by the trove of materials I've seen here, especially such a brilliant and classical collection of pan-African writers," said Appiah Kusi Adomako, who works on regional Sylvia Arthur founded the library in integration.

2017 (AFP Photo/Nipah Dennis) "These are great materials everyone should come and read to add to their knowledge of African history so we don't lose our identity."

Young writer Nasirudeen Jabbaru agreed the collection o ered a fantastic window into an often-neglected area.

"Having all these books together in one place is Return" -- four special," he said. centuries after "Most of them are scarce the first slave on the market and this is a ship landed whole inspiration for me." in what is Researcher Je rey now the US -Boadu described the urging African library as a "good foundation for future writers".

Americans to "come home".

"I've really been inspired and I'll definitely come - 'Don't lose our identity' back to read some more," he said.

But despite those o cial e orts, there is often https://news.yahoo.com/ghana-library-showcaseslittle knowledge of writers from across Africa and black-african-literature-043021427.html 95

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Lifestyle/Culture

Beyoncé's "Black Is King" Trailer Features Lupita Nyong'o, Jay-Z, and More

By Natasha Mulenga

It is time to get in formation because a new Beyoncé masterwork is coming. On Sunday, July 19, the 24-time Grammy winner released a trailer for Black Is King, her new visual album that will premiered exclusively on Disney+ on July 31.

The film is an adaptation of the music from her album The Lion King: The Gift and is set to arrive two weeks after the one-year anniversary of The Lion King’s live-action release.

According to Disney, Black is King "reimagines the lessons from the 2019 blockbuster for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns."

Fans will easily be able to recognize quotes from

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Simba and Scar in the new trailer, and the vivid cinematography and styling mirrors Beyoncé’s “Spirit” and “BIGGER” music videos from the Lion King soundtrack.

According to the press release, the visual album was filmed in New York, Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London, and Belgium.

The trailer is a celebration of Black culture, hairstyles, and fashion, and it features guest appearances from Beyonce’s husband and collaborator Jay-Z; fellow Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland; producer and musician Pharrell Williams; Bey’s mother Tina

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Promoting Africa-focused Tourism Since 2011

Black Business News Knowles-Lawson; actor Lupita Nyong’o; and influential models Naomi Campbell, Aweng AdeChuol and Adut Akech.

The film will also feature artists who appeared on the album, including Yemi Alade, Busiswa Gqulu, and many more.

In addition to its July 31st premiere on Disney+, the film also secured a distribution deal with DStv (https://now.dstv.com) that will allow viewing for those on the African continent. This includes South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Somalia, Benin, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon, Cape Verde, and more.

At this point, Beyoncé’s music and her thoughtprovoking, cinematic visuals go hand-in-hand.

Following the success and impact of works like 2006’s B-Day video anthology, her self-titled surprise album in 2013, the massively-acclaimed Lemonade on HBO in 2016, and the exquisite 2019 Coachella documentary Homecoming, Black is King continues the epic saga she’s been building with The Lion King. The new visual album is about to take viewers on a journey, displaying

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Travel Africa www.Issuu.com/blackbusinessnews

Black resilience, excellence, and beauty — Beyoncé is basically throwing us a Black Parade.

Get ready to stream Black Is King here: www. disneyplus.com and https://now.dstv.com. https://theexchange.africa/economic-growth/coronavirus-andtourism Image credit: myjoyonline.com

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Lifestyle/Culture

Ethiopian Spiced Lamb Stew

Made with tender, boneless leg of lamb, this quick-cooking staple of Ethiopian home cooking is called Awaze Tibs and is flavored with awaze sauce, a kicky blend of berbere spices, smoked paprika, lemon juice and wine. Some cooks like it dry, but Hiyaw Gebreyohannes prefers it saucy— all the better for mopping up with Ethiopia's crêpelike bread, injera.

Ingredients • 2 tablespoons red wine • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice • 1 tablespoon berbere (see Notes) • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • 3 1/2 pounds trimmed boneless leg of lamb (see Note), cut into 1-inch cubes • Kosher salt • Freshly ground pepper • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil • 2 red onions, halved and thinly sliced • 6 garlic cloves, minced • 2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary • 2 teaspoons finely chopped thyme • 2 plum tomatoes, cut into 3/4-inch dice • 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice • 1 large shallot, thinly sliced Preparation 1. In a small bowl, whisk the wine with the lemon juice, berbere, paprika and mustard.

2. Season the lamb with salt and pepper. In a

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large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add half of the lamb to the casserole and cook over moderately high heat, turning, until browned all over, 6 to 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the lamb to a medium bowl. Repeat with the remaining lamb.

3. Add the onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper to the casserole and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened, about 8 minutes.

4. Add the lamb and any accumulated juices to the casserole along with the wine mixture, tomatoes, bell pepper and shallot. Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the tomatoes and bell pepper have softened and the lamb is just cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and serve.

5. Serve with Injera , naan, pita or other flatbread, or rice or couscous. Serves 6 to 8 Make Ahead: The lamb stew can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently, adding a little water if needed.

Notes: Beef can replace the lamb here. Try a quick-cooking cut, such as sirloin steak.

The spices used in Ethiopian cooking, such as ajwain, nigella seeds and berbere, are available from kalustyans.com and nirmalaskitchen.com.

Rich, red dende oil is a palm oil popular in Africa and Brazilian cooking. Look for it in African and Brazilian markets and online. In a pinch you can substitute peanut oil. https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/ethiopian-spiced-lamb-stew Image credits: houston.eater.com

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Pig’s TrottersZambian Food Pig’s Trotters are the feet of a pig. Just like beef hooves (cow feet), they are a delicious Zambian dish that can be enjoyed with nshima and vegetables. They are also sticky in texture and tend to make a thick gravy. You can serve with nshima and a side vegetable.

Ingredients • ½ kg of pork trotters (already cut in pieces) • 2 medium tomatoes, chopped • 1 onion, chopped • 3 tablespoons cooking oil • Salt • Water • Seasoning of your choice Preparation • Wash the trotters in cold water • Put them in a pot and add water, salt and a bit of cooking oil • Bring to a boil for about 3-4 hours adding more water when it evaporates • When the trotters are cooked, soft and tender, add tomato and onion • Add seasoning and stir well • Continue to cook until the tomatoes are cooked • The trotters will make a rich thick gravy • Simmer for a few minutes • It is now ready to serve Kalembula is Sweet Potato leaves. It is a Zambian Vegetable side dish.

Ingredients • 3 bundles of Kalembula • 1 medium onion, chopped • 1 tomato, chopped • 3 tablespoons cooking oil Preparation • Remove the leaves from the stalk, wash and allow water to drain • As an option, you can leave the kalembula outside in the sun to dry for a while • Put cooking oil in a heating pan, then add tomatoes, onion, salt and stir to make a gravy.

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dries out • Add the kalembula and cook, stirring frequently for 5-10 minutes • Ready to serve https://zambiankitchen.com

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Trade Shows/Exhibitions/Conferences

Events Around the African Continent and the World Africa Downunder

www.essencefestival2020.com

4-6 November 2020 Perth, Western Australia www.africadownunderconference.com

FILDA International Fair of Luanda

Africa's Big Seven 21-23 June 2021 Gallagher Convention Centre Johannesburg, South Africa www.africabig7.com/africa-trade-week

Africa Energy Indaba 2-3 March 2021 Capetown International Convention Centre Cape Town, South Africa www.africaenergyindaba.com

AkĂŠ Arts and Book Festival 22-25 October 2020 Alliance Francaise/ Mike Adenuga Centre Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria www.akefestival.org

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation 31 August - 2 October 2020 Annual Legislative Conference - All Digital Washington, DC USA www.cbcfinc.org/annual-legislativeconference/

Essence Festival 2020 Summer 2021 Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana USA

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(Angola) International Trade Fair 14 - 18 July 2020 Luanda, Angola http://filda.co.ao

Hotel & Hospitality Show 20-22 June 2021 Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa www.thehotelshowafrica.com

IFAT Africa 13 - 15 July 2021 Gallagher Convention Centre Johannesburg, South Africa www.ifat.de/en/trade-fair/ifat-impact/

International Fair of Algiers 14 - 19 June 2021 Palais des Expositions des Pins Maritimes Algiers, Algeria http://safex.dz

Lagos International Trade Fair 6-15 November 2020 Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos, Nigeria https://lagosinternationaltradefair.com

Mombasa International Show September 2020 ASK Jomo Kenyatta Showground DAWN

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Mombasa, Kenya www.eventseye.com/fairs/f-mombasainternational-show-(mis)-18868-1.html

2020 Ronald H. Brown African A airs Series (virtual)

01-05 July 2020 Saba Trade Fair Grounds Kilwa Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania www.eventseye.com/fairs/f-tanzaniainternational-trade-fair-7663-1.html

September 2020 http://ronaldbrownseries.org

Trade With Africa Business Summit 2020

South African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX)

8 August 2020 Online Only - Register www.twasummit.com

20-22 June 2021 Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa www.saitexafrica.com

Zimbabwe International Trade Fair POSTPONED 21-25 April 2020 https://zitf.co.zw

Tanzania International Trade Fair 2020

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Resource Vault

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe is the name of the stone ruins of an ancient city near modern day Masvingo, Zimbabwe. People lived in Great Zimbabwe beginning around 1100 C.E. but abandoned it in the 15th century. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which was a Shona (Bantu) trading empire. Zimbabwe means “stone houses” in Shona.

Archaeologists have found pottery from China and Persia, as well as Arab coins in the ruins there. The elite of the Zimbabwe Empire controlled trade up and down the east African coast.

The archaeological site at Great Zimbabwe consists tvmucho.com of several sections. The Hill Complex. This is generally believed to have been the religious center of the site. The Hill Complex is the oldest part of Great Zimbabwe, and shows signs of construction that date to around 900 C.E. The Great Enclosure is a walled, circular area below the Hill Complex dating to the 14th century. The walls are over 9.7 meters (32 feet) high in places, and the enclosure’s circumference is 250 meters (820 feet). The walls were built without mortar, relying on carefully shaped rocks to hold the wall’s shape on their own. Inside the enclosure is a second set of walls, following the same curve as the outside walls, which end in a stone tower 10 meters (33 feet) high. It is one of the largest existing structures from ancient sub-Saharan Africa.

The Valley Ruins consist of a significant number of houses made mostly of mud-brick (daga) near the Great Enclosure. The distribution and number of houses suggests that Great Zimbabwe boasted a large population, between 10,000–20,000 people.

The ruins of Great Zimbabwe were designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1986. The legacy of Great Zimbabwe lives on as one of the largest and most culturally important archaeological sites of its kind in Africa.

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Resource Vault Organizations 25 Black Women in Beauty -- www.25bwb.org Africa Business Association -www.africabusinessassociation Africa's Brain Bank -www.facebook.com/AFRICASBRAINBANK African Continental Free Trade Area -https://au.int/en/cfta African Diaspora Development Institute -www.ouraddi.org African Diaspora Network -www.africandiasporanetwork.org African Diaspora Political Action Committee -www.adpac.net African Leadership Forum -http://afrialeadership.org African Union -- www.au.int/en Africans in Boston (AiB) -- //africansinboston.org Black Business Association -- www.bbala.org Black Emergency Managers Association International -www. blackemergmanagersassociation.org CauseCast -- www.causecast.com www.causecastfornonprofits.com Color of Change -- www.colorofchange.org Colorintech -- www.colorintech.org Community Healing Network -www.communityhealingnet.org Love Our Girls -- http://logpledge.org/ National Black Marathoners Association -http://blackmarathoners.org Sable Assent -- www.sableassent.com State of the African Diaspora -www.stateofafricandiaspora.com StayWoke -- www.staywoke.org TimesUp -- www.timesupnow.com United African Organization -http://uniteafricans.org

Regional Economic Communities (REC) African Union Development Agency - New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD) -- www.nepad.org Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) -https://maghrebarabe.org/?q=en Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) -- www.comesa.int Community of Sahel–Saharan States (CEN–SAD) -- www.uneca.org/oria/pages/cen-sad-com-

munity-sahel-saharan-states East African Community (EAC) -- www.eac.int Economic Community of West African States 103

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(ECOWAS) -- www.ecowas.int Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) -- www.ceeac-eccas.org Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) -- https://igad.int Southern African Development Community (SADC) -- www.sadc.int

Information

Africa is a Country -- www.africasacountry.com\ Africa World Press Books -www.africaworldpressbooks.com Because Of Them We Can -www.becauseofthemwecan.com Black Children's Books and Authors -http://blackchildrensbooksandauthors.tumblr. com BlackPast.org -- www.blackpost.org Black Then -- https://blackthen.com Digital Assets Repository -http://dar.bibalex.org/webpages/dar.jsf Elders (The) -- https://theelders.org GhanaWeb -- www.ghanaweb.com iAfrica -- www.iafrica.com Most Influential People of African Descent -http://mipad.org Opportunities For Africans -www.opportunitiesforafricans.com World Library -- www.worldlibrary.org

Media

APO (Africa Wire®/MENA Wire®) -www.apo-opa.com Africa Business Communities -https://africabusinesscommunities.com Africa Interactive Multimedia Press/Content \ Agency in Africa -www.africa-interactive.com Africa News & Stories -- http://africatodaytv.com Africa Newsroom -- www.africa-newsroom.com Africa World Now Project -www.africaworldnowproject.org Africanews. -- www.africanews.com The Africapitalist -www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/africapitalisminstitute/africapitalist-magazine AfricaFocus -- www.africafocus.org The African World -- www.theafricanworld.tv African American Reports -www.africanamericanreports.com Afrikdiasponews -- www.afridiasponews.com www.facebook.com/Afrik-DiaspoNews-690569017737725 Afritorial -- www.afritorial.com www.facebook.com/Afritorial

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AllAfrica (news) -- http://allafrica.com Bibi-Writes -- https://bibiwrites.com Black Business Directory & Blog -www.blackbusiness.org BlackNews.com -- www.blacknews.com Black Press USA -- www.blackpressusa.com Blavity Inc. -- www.blavity.com The Chocolate Voice -www.thechocolatevoice.com Crisis Magazine (NAACP) -www.thecrisismagazine.com Cybrary -- www.cybrary.it Dogon Village -- www.dogonvillage.com Expat Divas -- www.expatdivas.com Face2Face Africa -- https://face2faceafrica.com The Immigrant Magazine -www.immigrantmagazine.com Informaza - www.infomaza.com Macauhub -- www.facebook.com/Macauhub N'Digo -- https://ndigo.com National Newspaper Publishers Association -https://nnpa.org ReachTV -- www.reachtv.com Red Media Africa -www.facebook.com/RedMedi aAfrica Rock Me Africa -- //rockmeafrica.com Roland Martin Unfiltered -#RolandMartinUnfiltered Savoy -- www.savoynetwork.com Second Opinion Publications Ltd (The) -www.facebook.com/thesecondopinion TONL -- https://tonl.co/ United Nations -- http://webtv.un.org

Media-Podcasts, Streams

2 Dope Queens -- www.wnycstudios.org/shows/ dopequeens African Literary Podcast -- www.jamesmurua.com/ category/african-literary-podcast Africast TV -- www.africast.tv Cape Up with Jonathan Capehart -- https://itunes. apple.com/us/podcast/cape-up-with-jonathancapehart/id1143265842?mt=2 Demand Africa -- www.demandafrica.com DiasporaVoice -www.blogtalkradio.com/diasporavoice Focus On Africa -- https://theafricachannel.com/ shows/bbc-focus-on-africa Into America -- www.radio.com/media/podcast/ america James Murua's Literary Blog -www.jamesmurua.com KweliTV -- www.facebook.com/kwelitv Levar Burton Reads -- www.levarburtonpodcast. com Paychecks and Balances -- https://paychecksand balances.com 104

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Point Noir -- www.instagram.com/pointnoirshow Popcorn Finance Podcast -https://popcornfinance.com/podcast The Stoop -- www.thestoop.org Talking Africa -- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/pod cast/talking-africa/id1232541405?mt=2 UN Video -- https://videos.un.org/en YouTube Educational Channels -- http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know

Media/Publications

African Trade Magazine -www.africantrademagazine.com African Vibes Magazine -- www.africanvibes.com Black Business News Group -www.issuu.com/blackbusinessnews Black Wall Street Times -- http://bwstimes.com BridesNoir -- www.bridesnoir.com CuisineNoir -- www.cuisinenoirmag.com Kolumn Magazine www.kolumnmagazine.com MahoganyBooks -http://blog.mahoganybooks.com/ New Black Magazine (The) -www.thenewblackmagazine.com Publish Africa -- http://wow.gm/publishafrica Travel Africa -- www.issuu.com/blackbusinessnews

Technology

Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) -www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee WikiHow -- www.wikihow.com

Culture/Arts Asako Afrikan Combat Capoeira -www.abibifahodie.com Africa Center (The) -- www.theafricacenter.org African Networks -http://afn.bibalex.org/MainPart/About_.aspx African Origins -- www.african-origins.org Almasi Arts -- www.almasiarts.org Because of Them We Can -www.becauseofthemwecan.com Black Cultural Events -www.blackculturalevents.com Cultural Events/Content -- www.okayafrica.com Fashion For All -- www.fashionforallnyc.org Freedom Park -- www.freedompark.co.za Hungry Black Man -https://thehungryblackman.com Infocus247 -- https://infocus247.com Information for Africa -see page 105

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Resource Vault http://bibalex.org/baifa/en/home/index Library of Alexandria -www.bibalex.org/en/default NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art -- www.nkajournal.org NMAAHC Digital Resources Guide -- https:// nmaahc.si.edu/explore/nmaahc-digitalresources-guide Pan African Film Festival -- www.pa .org Paradigm Grey -- www.paradigmgrey.com Shadow & Act -- //shadowandact.com/about-us Travel Noire -- https://travelnoire.com W.E.B. DuBois in Accra -https://webduboiscentreaccra.ghana-net.com

Commerce/Entrepreneurship

50 Million African Women Speak -www.womenconnect.org #IAMWANDA -www.facebook.com/IamWANDAorg African Success Stories -- www.risingafrica.org African Technology Foundation -www.thea25n.com Afrochampions Initiative -http://afrochampions.com BBurb -- https://bburb.com Black Business School -- https:// theblackbusinessschool.com Black CEO Tribe -- www.blackceotribe.com Black Female Founders -www.blackfemalefounders.org Black Girl Ventures -- www.blackgirlventures.org Black People Eats -- www.blackpeopleeats.com Black Wall Street -- www.blackwallstreet.org Black Wealth 2020 -- www.blackwealth2020.com ClickUrban -- www.theclickurban.com How We Made It In Africa -www.howwemadeitinafrica.com iBuyBlack.org -- www.ibuyblack.org Jumia -- https://group.jumia.com www.jumia.com.ng Nigeria (Africa) Financial News -//nairametrics.com She Leads Africa -- http://sheleadsafrica.org Shoppe Black -- https://shoppeblack.us Zambia Trade Portal -- https://zambiatradeportal.gov.

AfrigadgetTV -- www.afrigadget.com Ariel Investments -- www.arielinvestments.com Black Financial Channel -- www.youtube.com/ channel/UCHzCimqhvPhCH75h80pXM1Q BlackWallet -- www.blackwallet.org Breaux Capital -- www.breauxcapital.com Disrupt Africa -- http://disrupt-africa.com Exchange Magazine (The) -- www.nse.co.ke Harlem Capital -- http://harlem.capital Serena Ventures -- www.serenaventures.com Silicon Harlem -- http://event.siliconharlem.net Ventures -- www.ventures-africa.com

General Explore ideas -- https://ideas.ted.com The Undefeated -- https://theundefeated.com

U.S. Government Commerce Department -- www.doc.gov International Trade Administration -- http://trade. gov Power Africa -- www.usaid.gov/powerafrica Prosper Africa -- www.trade.gov/prosperafrica Trade Africa -- www.usaid.gov/tradeafrica

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Republic of Senegal

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Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce -www.zambiausachamber.org

Investment/Development Africa Reports -- www.africareports.com African Development Bank -- www.afdb.org African Export-Import Bank -//afreximbank.com/afrexim/en

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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.

Reserve Your Ad Space Today!

Call: +1 (571) 278-9441 or E-mail: DAWN@AFRICABUSINESSASSOCIATION.ORG

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

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