TAR107 TOP 100 Influential Africans - Extract by The Africa Report

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THE AFRICA REPORT

The

N° 107 • APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

In this issue:

PROFILE Ramaphosa’s agenda

QUARTERLY EDITION • N° 107 • APRIL - MAI - JUNE 2019

DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? INVESTIGATION Nigeria’s OPL 245 net widens DOSSIERS Bayelsa, East Africa, Logistics

most influential Africans

A constellation of the celebrated: barrier-busting business folk and power players on the continent. From the stars of the moment to those imagining Africa’s tomorrow JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Algeria 610 DA • Belgium €7.90 • Canada CA$ 12 • Denmark 80 DK • Ethiopia 200 Birr • France €7.90 • Germany €7.90 • Ghana GH¢ 35 • Kenya KES 900 • Morocco 45 DH • Netherlands €7.90 • Nigeria 2000 NGN • Norway NK 95 • Rwanda RWF 7,500 • Sierra Leone LE 67,000 • South Africa R75 (tax incl.) • Sweden SEK 100 • Switzerland 10.90 FS • Tanzania TZS 20,000 • Tunisia 15 DT • Uganda UGX 30,000 • UK £7.2 • United States US$ 15.99 • Zambia 80 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 6.20 • CFA Countries 3,900 F.CFA • Euro Zone €7.90

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EDITORIAL

SIGNS OF AN AFRICAN SPRING By PATRICK SMITH editorial@theafricareport.com The mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of young people on streets across the continent demanding economic and political rights challenges traditional oppositionists as much as incumbent regimes. In each case, the demonstrators in Algiers, Bamenda, Harare, Kampala, Khartoum and Kinshasa are taking on systems of vested interests and dysfunctional politics that are holding them back. They are calling for sweeping change, not just different party colours in the presidency. Even in South Africa and Nigeria or countries where politics seems quiescent or dominated by competition between ideologically identical parties, these new movements send important messages. First is that the economic downturn has exposed the jobless growth of Africa’s boom years. The demographic reality of the world’s youngest continent means this issue will dominate African politics for the next three decades. Although most policymakers talk of structural reform, very few have a strategy and can implement it. Second, when regimes try to reform after years of stasis, they are at their weakest point. They have neither the legitimacy nor the resources to change the policy course. The protesters’ grievances run the gamut

of economic and social demands. The main targets are the spiral in youth unemployment, stagnant economies held prisoner by international commodity markets, together with deteriorating provision of education and training – a key ingredient to revive dynamism. Activists are finding new ways to organise and avoid the attentions of the police. They have brought together students, professionals, and trade unionists of all ages – even feuding family members – into a sprawling movement. Innovation is key to the organisational power of the new groups. Activists in Algeria are using WhatsApp groups of football fans to mobilise support. It worked. On the evening of 3 March, hundreds of thousands marched through the streets to call on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to refrain from standing for a fifth mandate in April’s elections. In Sudan and Zimbabwe, the governments have tried to shut down services like WhatsApp, so activists use virtual private networks to share information and send messages to the outside world. All this has prompted easy comparisons with the rebellions that swept across North Africa in 2011. The protest movements in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia started that way, so the argument goes, but ended in a new autocracy, bloody chaos or frustration and disappointment. There are parallels between today and 2011 but more importantly there are lessons. Above all, demonstrate in peace, is the message circulating relentlessly among activists in Algeria and Sudan. Many hope the form of the demonstrations themselves, heterogenous with a strong, sometimes majority, participation by women, can shape the political transitions. This may prove the hardest task: for a popular movement to take on the responsibilities and limitations of political power without betraying its supporters.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

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CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER BÉCHIR BEN YAHMED

Ramaphosa is working on his image as ‘an enigma’

MOELETSI MABE/SUNDAY TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

PUBLISHER DANIELLE BEN YAHMED publisher@theafricareport.com EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER YVES BIYAH EDITOR IN CHIEF PATRICK SMITH MANAGING EDITOR NICHOLAS NORBROOK editorial@theafricareport.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR MARSHALL VAN VALEN PRODUCTION EDITOR OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI To find the full editorial team, all our correspondents, and much more on our new digital platform, please visit: www.theafricareport.com SALES A JUSTE TITRE

03 EDITORIAL 06 MAILBAG 08 COFFEE WITH THE AFRICA REPORT / Bob Collymore 10 THE QUESTION 12 Q2 / April 14 Q2 / May 18 Q2 / June

63 EAST AFRICA FOCUS Policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects

FEATURES 22 PROFILE / Ramaphosa’s destiny Ahead of 8 May’s general elections The Africa Report talks to close contacts of the president over the years to build a picture of the man who says he can get South Africa out of its current mess

86 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars

122 INSIDE BAYELSA New projects are taking root in the Nigerian state after years of despoliation

36 INVESTIGATION / Nigeria’s billion-dollar oil scandal An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case, with nine executives from Eni and Shell now on trial in Milan

146 LOGISTICS DOSSIER

48 WIDE ANGLE / The youth wave

Ethiopia has high hopes for exports, and has made improving logistics a priority

Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall and #NotTooYoungToRun – a demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?

56 DEBATE / Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will revolutionise the economy or scare away investors

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

156 ART & LIFE African designers are in the limelight when Black Hollywood stars choose their labels for red carpet ceremonies

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MAILBAG

Introducing a more technical curriculum doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the failing education system, as technology alone won’t fix our public schools [‘Yemi Osinbajo: Selling our crown jewels isn’t the solution’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. What ails our educational system ranges from poverty in early childhood to underfunded districts and poorly designed incentives for an overburdened faculty, all of which feeds the unequal access to quality education for the teeming population of schoolage children. Recruiting more qualified teachers into service requires more funding than the sector currently gets. The proposed reform of the school curriculum will level the playing field of access, but level fields do not necessarily translate to improved player skills, which is the entire point of education. Maryam Bello, Ibadan, Nigeria

62 COUNTRY FOCUS | NIGERIA

NIGERIA’S OBY RAISES CRUCIAL QUESTIONS

Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili

Presidential candidate, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria

The old order has delivered misery

STEPHEN LOVEKIN/SHUTTER/SIPA

THE POINT OF EDUCATION

For all your comments, suggestions and queries, please write to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis rue d’Auteuil Paris 75016 - France or editorial@theafricareport.com

The Nigerian presidential candidate talks to The Africa Report about the education crisis and the need for the politics of ideas rather than personality

lunt-speaking and a passionate advocate for women’s r ights, Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili has launched a groundbreaking run for the presidency, which looks like a logical stepin her professional and political career. Standing for the small Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), she is shaking up the election by running a grassroots campaign with a dedicated band of young volunteer helpers. Oby, as she is widely known in Nigeria, should not be underestimated as a campaigner. What she lacks in establishment backers and corporate donors, she could make up for in her own enthusiasm and that of her young supporters. She shot to global fame as one of the founders of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in 2014 demanding

that the government of Goodluck Jonathan find and rescue the more than 270 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok in Borno State by the Islamist Boko Haram militia. Oby and Hadiza Bala Usman, co-founder of the campaign, used social media to get the message around the world, and even US First Lady Michelle Obama was

“I would do a much better job than [Atiku] because government is not monolithic” pictured on social media brandishing a #BringBackOurGirls placard. That campaign was a major reason why Jonathan lost the 2015 election. An accountant by training, with amaster’sinpublicadministration from Harvard University, Oby has worked on development projects THE AFRICA REPORT

DOUBTFUL DOUBLING FOR MAURITIUS

•

for much of her career. She joined then-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in 1999 as head of its Budget Monitoring Unit, where she earned the sobriquet ‘Madame Due Process.’ She later served as minister of mines and then of education before leaving government to join the World Bank as vice-president for Africa. Oby is a fiercely independent campaigner. At the launching of the now governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, she warned its members that they should stand for more than chasing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) out of power. But she is also critical of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, with whom she clashed in government. She tells The Africa Report that Atiku did “everything to undermine due process” when he was in government. N ° 10 6

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D E C E M B E R 2 018 - J A N U A R Y 2 019

Mauritius is keen to double the size of its financial sector in 12 years, but how will it find the growth strategies to achieve its dream in today’s global economic turmoil? [‘Mauritius: Offshore on the radar’, TAR105 Nov. 2018]. Various forecasts against a backdrop of new US government measures to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium have resulted in Turkey’s currency significantly

Oby not only has the educational qualification, she also has enough professional experience to be president [‘Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili: The old order has delivered misery’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. It is sad that Oby was not seen as a major contender. Instead, Nigerians were focused on two men who have been in power before and have shown that they have nothing to offer. Is it because Nigerians cannot yet wrap their heads around a female president? Lucia Edafioka, Feminist and brand communications manager, Nigeria

losing its value. Four countries – Egypt, Jordan, Argentina and Barbados – have suffered from high debt and deficits. Will Mauritius be successful in its expansion of its financial sector with new international investments when the general global economic outlook seems negative? Kokil Shah, Kenya

HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN ZIMBABWE It surely never rains in Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s

attempts to turn the economy around are yet to bear fruit [‘Zimbabwe 2019 Country Report’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. Fuel shortages have loomed, doctors are going on strike, teachers are going to work twice a week and there has been a sharp increase in the prices of basic goods and services. New uncorrupt blood is needed, human rights laws need to be respected and in a nutshell, a new government is needed. Jeff K. Chakanyuka, Zimbabwe

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THE QUESTION

SELORM BRANTTIE

MICHAEL K. SERCHIE

Global Strategy Director, mPedigree Network

Project Manager, Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation

YES

The National Cathedral serves an aesthetic and Ghana’s National Cathedral offers more than a house of prayer. It is a critical avenue for social superfluous purpose. It does not directly reflect the nation’s founding goals. It is a piece of architecture transformation in enhancing the prophetic, advocacy and educational role of the church as a corporate body. For that is just going to change the skyline. In a country which has a majority Christian religious orientation, there are a country with an estimated 70% Christian population, the National Cathedral would serve as a sacred space for already mega-auditoria that seat, in some cases, three governance of the nation, host times the proposed capacity of the cathedral. These auditoria state and religious functions, serve as a convening centre for have hosted and still have capacity to host events of a national interfaith dialogue to improve nature. To date, there has been the cohesive relationship beno explanation for the cost of retween government and religious placement of structures that will leaders and create a visible and be demolished for this edifice, organic unity of the different which will cost tens of millions Christian denominations in the of dollars at least. While the country. Our commitment to somega-pastors are running around cial justice in encouraging social with statesmen to raise funds, no integration requires initiatives to building the needed various inGhanaian even knows the cost of the whole project, and the govfrastructures at all levels – local, ernment itself is not disclosing regional and national – so that Ghana’s government-backed its interests. For a monument our nation can develop faster multimillion-dollar project has to a religion that has truth and than it is currently. Building the received backlash for being transparency as its core virtues, cathedral and tackling the other a misplaced priority in the face this cathedral’s very foundations socio-economic challenges in show a contradictory attitude. the country are not mutually of harsh economic conditions exclusive. Monuments like the Ghana has done very little to protect its heritage, and yet revels National Cathedral, in addition in the imposition of a foreign religion, whose main propoto its tourism potential and socio-economic revitalisation nents shackled our forefathers and condemned our ways of the city, will create jobs, revitalise the landscape of as barbaric. So while the national museum steadily breaks Accra, serve as a catalyst for technology and skills transfer down in ruins just five kilometres away, a monument that into our country, and will play an important cultural role celebrates our mental slavery rises in its wake. in cultivating pride for our heritage and past.

Are national cathedrals a waste of resources?

No!! These resources in question are meant for the wellbeing of the citizens and the development of the nation. Religious beliefs are entrenched in Ghanaian society and form part of the national identity. Yes, a national cathedral may not be in the interests of the entire population, but it captures most of the citizen’s religious affiliation, which is Christianity.

It appears the project does not have universal appeal in Ghana, even among the Christian community. It is more a matter of political mobilisation for short-end electoral purposes rather than Christian ends. State support is not universally agreed, since many court cases are ongoing regarding the presidential donation of prime government land. Besides, all so-called national cathedrals are denomination-based or -owned.

Randolf B. Hackman, Email

Colin Essamuah, WhatsApp

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

It is a vanity project. It’s management will be chaotic and at the taxpayers’ expense. It is the height of misplaced priorities. Kobi Annan, Twitter

To respond to this month’s Question, visit www.theafricareport.com. You can also find The Africa Report on Facebook and on Twitter @theafricareport. Comments, suggestions and queries can also be sent to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis Rue d’Auteuil, Paris 75016, France or editorial@theafricareport.com

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FEATURES /

Ramaphosa is working on his image as ‘an enigma’

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

PROFILE

Ramaphosa’s destiny Does the formula that is Cyril Ramaphosa add up for South Africa? Ahead of 8 May’s general elections The Africa Report talks to close contacts of the president over the years to build a picture of the man who says he can get the country out of its current mess

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

MOELETSI MABE/SUNDAY TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

By CRYSTAL ORDERSON in Cape Town and Johannesburg

FEATURES /

INVESTIGATION

How Dan Etete’s billiondollar deal ended up in court An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case. Nine executives from Eni and Royal Dutch Shell, and Nigerian officials, face charges in Milan over how they won control of a rich oil block 36

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

By HONORÉ BANDA in Abuja and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa On a biting cold day in Milan in January, Ibrahim Ahmed, a Nigerian investigator, and Colonel Alessandro Ferri of Italy’s financial police, hustle into the city’s imposing, marbleclad palace of justice. Ahmed is in Milan to explain to prosecutors Fabio de Pasquale and

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP

Sergio Spadaro what Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered when it started to investigate the award of one of the richest oil blocks in Africa to an obscure company called Malabu Oil & Gas in April 1998, which had been incorporated just five days earlier. After chatting to local police, Ahmed is shown into the court. A tall, slender figure in

a dark suit, he expertly guides De Pasquale through the sheaves of documents about the disputes over ownership of Malabu and the oil block OPL 245. The story takes in more than 20 years of deal making and politics in Nigeria. It started in the era of military rule; now Italy’s Eni and Royal Dutch Shell face charges of corruption in the race to secure rights to the contested oil block.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

FEATURES /

The youth

WIDE ANGLE

Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall and #NotTooYoungToRun: A demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

By NAMATA SERUMAGA-MUSISI in Accra, JOSEPH BURITE in Kampala, CARIEN DU PLESSIS in Johannesburg, EROMO EGBEJULE in Lagos and BILLIE MCTERNAN Since the end of December 2018, the streets of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, have been in a state of unrest. Protests – initially against a tripling of the price of bread but now more widely against President Omar al-Bashir’s

wave

term said they would indefinitely postpone a meeting to draft the changes. And on 1 March the president delegated his position as head of the ruling party to its deputy chairman, Ahmed Harun. A dangerous combination of a lack of job opportunities, poor economic growth, a growing youth demographic and an authoritarian government have pushed a generation of people with decades of life ahead of them to the limit. According to the African Development Bank, more than 200 million of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are aged between 15-24, and that number is set to rise to 321 million by 2030. Sudan’s youth-led protest movement is one of several around the continent. Some coalesce around a figurehead; others around a cause. But – as was seen with the Arab Spring movements of 2011 – when and if they reach a tipping point depends on the various and complex circumstances of each country: the structure and health of its politics, the quality of youth leaders and the individual choices of millions and millions of young Africans

government – have sent tremors across the country. Bashir, who seized power in a military coup in 1989 and has ruled Sudan ever since, has declared a year-long state of emergency, replacing all state governors with military officials. However, there are signs that his grip may be weakening: on 16 February lawmakers tasked with amending Sudan’s constitution so that he could run for another

Bobi Wine went into politics to amplify the issues he was singing about and get youth actively involved

ROBIN LETELLIER/SIPA

Protest, disengage or leave

Africa is no exception to the rule that young people are less likely to be engaged with traditional politics than their older peers. While opinion polls (see page 54) show that young Africans discuss politics to the same extent, a lower percentage of them vote and a higher percentage participate in protests. But frustrations about poor public services and a lack of jobs can equally contribute to apathy or a desire to leave the country in search of brighter prospects somewhere else. As recent events in Sudan and Uganda show, countries that have autocratic governments and few jobs for young people have the hardest time engaging with youth. Thirty-seven-year-old Robert ‘Bobi Wine’ Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a musician and member of parliament for Kyadondo East in Kampala, wants to represent this youth demographic fed up with the 33-year rule of President Yoweri Museveni. In November 2018, he was in Accra to attend the 2018 All Africa Music Awards but offstage he addressed a gathering of supporters and listeners at Mmofra Park. Kyagulanyi engages the crowd, some of whom took part in the worldwide protests that erupted when he and more than 30 others were abducted and brutalised by the Ugandan armed forces

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

FEATURES /

THEAFRICAREPORT / NÂ° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will revolutionise the economy or scare away investors

President John Magufuli has a trademark ‘us against the world’ message

DANIEL HAYDUK/AFP

By NICHOLAS NORBROOK There was a certain optimism when John Magufuli became president in 2015. Here was a man, as the early skirmishes on social media revealed, who was not afraid to get his hands dirty to get things done: surprise visits on hospitals and government offices to reveal who was slacking off work; a push for discipline and austerity in public office; and an anti-corruption drive known as ‘lance the boils’. Even some of his most trenchant critics – like opposition politician Zitto Kabwe – say that Magufuli is making progress. Kabwe tells The Africa Report: Magufuli is doing the “right thing, but in the wrong way.” What is this ‘right thing’? At its core it concerns the role of government, the mediator between the interests of capital on the

one hand, and citizens on the other. “Let us stand as one. Tanzania belongs to us all and we should put interests of the country first,” Magufuli told parliament in 2015. It is also a political fault line of our time. And Magufuli has certainly changed the rules of the game in Tanzania. Passed in 2017, the Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts law allows officials to trawl back through two decades’ worth of contracts to see if any of the terms are unfavourable to the government. Equinor, which has invested more than $2bn in developing Block 2 off the coast, says that the production-sharing agreement it has with the government is still valid, but has been unable to get any further in negotiations over building a $30bn gas plant in Lindi. Other legislation pushed the royalty rate on gold from 4% to 6%, gave the government 16% of the stock of mining companies and

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

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FOCUS /

EAST AFRICA

EAC

The East African Community was formed two decades ago, but rivalry and diverging national interests threaten to curb progress

The trade ties that bind

The region has a long agenda for cooperation in the years ahead, but policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects THEAFRICAREPORT / NÂ° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

The

100

most influential The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars

By ALISON CULLIFORD, OLIVIA KONOTEY-AHULU, NICHOLAS NORBROOK, OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI and MARSHALL VAN VALEN 86

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

The Africa Report is transitioning to a quarterly magazine with a special focus on the decision makers, the money takers and the thought shakers who are not only in the spotlight for their skills and strategies today but will continue to be so for years to come. Our 2019 ranking is based on three criteria: global reach (40%), trajectory (30%) and influence (30%).

00 Africans Global reach takes into account how many countries their activities touch and how well known they are. Trajectory is defined to capture people whose careers are on the up and those involved in crucial industries of tomorrow, like manufacturing, fintech and the creative sectors. And finally, influence is measured as to how much their voices matter in local

and global debates, and how much they are able to change the political, economic and cultural playing fields. The names that follow – including a Nobel Peace Prize winner, officials helping to run global institutions, a highly sought-after architect and billionaires with hotly awaited stock IPOs – are examples of the heights

of African leadership in the world, both at home and in the diaspora. They are coming up with innovations to spur financial inclusion and leapfrog technological stages, tackling climate change and human rights abuses in Africa and across the world, and telling heartbreaking and beautifully imagined stories that make the world a richer place.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Aliko Dangote

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Money talks

The sun keeps rising PLANET PIX/ZUMA-REA

Nigeria

He’s the richest black man in the world and Africa’s richest man, with an estimated wealth of $10.3bn. Within Nigeria, Senator Ben-Murray Bruce called him “more influential and powerful than (President Muhammadu) Buhari”. The billionaire’s latest project is a $10.5bn oil refinery that will be Africa’s largest, so Dangote will not be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to oilsector reform debates there. He is investing in the continent’s manufacturing and agribusiness capacity, and plans to launch the long-awaited London IPO of Dangote Cement in late 2019. Meanwhile, his philanthropy is taking flight.

Elon Musk

Rocket man

South Africa

The yo-yoing of his company shares, his hirings and firings and off-the-wall tweets keep Musk in the headlines. He may be a maverick but his ideas are shaping the future, from reducing global warming with his electric cars to urban transportation on a cushion of air and plans to establish a colony on Mars. His Boring Company could help a boom in urban public transportation, and he is a big pessimist about the impact of AI. He donates to both the Democratic and Republican parties in the US, saying it is necessary to pay up in order to have a voice.

Koos Bekker

Go-getter in Asia South Africa

When China-based Tencent sneezed in August 2018, Naspers share price caught a cold. It didn’t last long, but it showed how tied the fortunes of the South African media and entertainment behemoth are to its largest holding (Naspers owns 31% of the Chinese internet giant). Buying a stake in Tencent in 2001 makes Bekker the Buffett of Africa: the initial $32m investment has grown to $116bn since then, and Bekker famously waived a salary to get paid in stock options when he was CEO. With the bulk of South African pension funds invested heavily in Naspers and allegations of Gupta-style influencing in a 2017 broadcasting deal, Bekker said the company would work on its transparency at the 2018 annual general meeting.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Nigeria

The Nigerian author-cum-public intellectual continues her stratospheric ascent and is as often seen behind a mic as in print these days – engaging audiences about racism, sexism and the human condition. She started the year 2018 slaying a French journalist for her lack of knowledge about Nigeria and ended it on stage with former US first lady Michelle Obama. Who’s next?

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Trevor Noah

Mic wrecker

South Africa

Davido

Naija pop idol Nigeria

S. DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY

He has riches (he’s worth $16m), good looks, fast cars and political clout. Using his music to inspire Nigerians to vote in the 2019 elections, he also lent his star appeal to presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s campaign, seriously upstaging the 72-year-old politician. His next act will be to crack the tough US market, with his eyes set on a gig at Madison Square Garden, having filled the 15,000-seat O2 Arena in London in January.

Tidjane Thiam

Master strategist Côte d’Ivoire

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TAYLOR HILL/WIREIMAGE/GETTY

One of the US’s most prominent voices critiquing the presidency of Donald Trump, Noah has brought millennial-inspired thinking and an astute outsider’s view to The Daily Show and taught some Americans that Africa is not a country. With the renewal of his contract in 2017 his job is secure until 2022, which will carry him through the febrile US election season. He is also quite funny.

Thiam’s turnaround of Credit Suisse since 2016 has left bankers and analysts awestruck. Ignoring naysayers, the Ivorian CEO relegated the derivatives traders and recast the bank as a wealth-management operation focusing on emerging markets. He explained his view to Euromoney: “This is a fabulous bank. Or let me be more precise: it has always had a fabulous bank within it.” But it faces big blowback for its role in the Mozambique tuna bond scandal.

Enoch Adeboye Sacred networker Nigeria

In 2017 Pastor Adeboye’s resignation from leading his five-million-member church in Nigeria was greeted with dismay by congregations around the country. Nigeria’s highest-profile pastor, who numbers the Nigerian vice-president Yemi Osinbajo among his followers, had to step down from running the domestic operations of the church he had built up almost from scratch after a new law put a 20-year cap and 70-yearold age limit on the leadership of non-profit organisations. Adeboye could have argued that The Redeemed Christian Church of God was not, strictly speaking, “non-profit”, with Forbes quoting the net worth of the man born into poverty at €39m, but he chose not to.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

S.DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Mark Bristow RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT VIA GETTY IMAGES

Golden boy

Kumi Naidoo Crime fighter

South Africa

Appointed as secretary general of Amnesty International in August 2018, Naidoo was a youth activist in apartheid South Africa and the first African head of Greenpeace. By making clear the link between environmental crimes and human rights abuses, Naidoo heralds a new era for Amnesty, widening its focus from political prisoners to indigenous peoples and everyone in between. “We need to redefine what it means to be a strong leader. Because strong leaders don’t bully activists. Yet that is exactly what is happening with a global crackdown on NGOs. We need to see less vitriol and more compassion from our leaders,” he explained on Twitter.

Abiy Ahmed

Change agent Ethiopia

PICTURE ALLIANCE/SVENSIMON/MAXPPP

Catapulted into office in April 2018 by the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Abiy has made a huge splash at home and internationally. In 11 months, he has made peace with Eritrea, released 60,000 political prisoners, calmed ethnic tensions, signed multimillion-dollar infrastructure deals with China, started liberalising the economy, persuaded diaspora Ethiopians to contribute $2.4m to a trust fund, filled his cabinet with women, diffused a potential military coup by doing press-ups with soldiers… and the list goes on.

THEAFRICAREPORT

South Africa

In September 2018, Bristow’s Randgold Resources signed a $6.5bn merger with Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. When the opening bell rang on the New York Stock Exchange on 2 January, GOLD – the new stock for the merged company – was worth $23.75bn and Bristow was CEO of the world’s biggest gold miner by market cap. Now, a fresh challenge: the proposed hostile takeover of Newmont Mining, to create the world’s largest gold miner. He faces challenges by Acacia Mining, a Barrick subsidiary in Tanzania, where the government has been using various tools to try to get a better deal from foreign mining giants (see page 56).

Strive Masiyiwa

The connector Zimbabwe

If Masiyiwa stands out as a Zimbabwean success story – he is the country’s first billionaire and now worth $2.3bn – today it is his philanthropy that matters. He has provided scholarships for more than 100,000 young Africans; funded education, health and agriculture initiatives; and mentors on Facebook. Now he has entered the third phase: as thought leader he is on boards including the Africa Progress Panel, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Adebayo Ogunlesi Nigeria

A lawyer and banker, Ogunlesi formed the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2006 and earned the nickname “the man who bought Gatwick Airport”. Ogunlesi, a quiet billionaire, has still not been able to keep out of the headlines – first by being part of Donald Trump’s ill-fated Strategic and Policy Forum, which disbanded after Twitter sackings in 2017, and second by luring World Bank president Jim Yong Kim to summarily leave his job and join GIP as vice-chairman in February. Insiders say Ogunlesi made Jim an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Sitting pretty Egypt

Naguib Sawiris

Opinionated investor Egypt

After the Arab Spring the Egyptian telecoms billionaire founded the Free Egyptians Party, promoting a liberal, secular agenda. He got sidelined in politics and now mainly uses TV interviews as a soapbox – recently declaring that Trump was right over China, and that he was ready to invest in Venezuela as soon as President Nicolás Maduro was gone. People listen when Sawiris talks, as his capacity to invest can help a country’s fortunes: he says no to Saudi Arabia, but may put $300m into the Italian economy. On 25 February his investment bank, Beltone Financial, was allowed to resume trading on the Egyptian bourse after being suspended over irregularities in an IPO.

Cyril Ramaphosa CHARLES PLATIAU/POOL/REA

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

In 2014 Egypt was suspended from the African Union (AU) due to its “unconstitutional” ousting of President Mohamed Morsi. Five years later the country’s strongman president is chairing the organisation. His predecessor, Rwandan president Paul Kagame, showed the potential for AU chairmanship in furthering his own and his country’s interests and Sisi is sure to follow his example, though his focus will be on security rather than internal reform. Sisi supports the Continental Free Trade Area but faces a battle with South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa (#16) to get it ratified. Meanwhile, at home Sisi is pushing forward with a constitutional change that would allow him to remain president until 2034.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Mountain climber South Africa

A lot more influential than he was a year ago – when he had just taken on an ailing South Africa and the controversial cabinet of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, which was mired in corruption – Ramaphosa has doggedly worked at untangling the country’s political and economic problems. He explained the situation when launching the African National Congress’ (ANC) 2019 election manifesto: “After a period of doubt and uncertainty, we have arrived at a moment of hope and renewal”. At 60%, his approval rating is higher than that of the ANC itself. South Africa has significantly more clout than its continental peers on the global diplomatic scene: it is the only African country in the G20 and became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2019-2020. Ramaphosa will further widen his sphere internationally when he becomes the chair of the African Union in 2020.

SHAWN BALDWIN/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Plane enthusiast

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Iyinoluwa ‘E’ Aboyeji ‘E’ for excellence

Wizkid Starboy

Nigeria

He and Davido (#7) are Nigeria’s two biggest musical megastars, but unlike his former rival – now friend – who comes from one of Nigeria’s wealthiest business families, Wizkid (alias Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun) was a street-style hustler from Ojuelegba before becoming the original ‘Starboy’. These days he charges around $12m to appear in concert; signs up rising stars to his label, Starboy Entertainment; and, of course, went platinum with his collaboration with Drake.

Denis Mukwege

Nobel cause

DRC

The reknowned surgeon, who has devoted his life to helping the victims of sexual assault in the DRC, spoke out to the United Nations in 2012 and was later a victim of an assassination attempt. Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, he has used this recognition to hold governments and international organisations to account for not doing enough to stop rape being used as a strategy of war. “All [the Nobel Prize]’s importance will be in its capacity to change the situation of victims in conflict zones.”

Winnie Byanyima

Rising to a challenge Uganda

Amidst a storm of scandals affecting the aid sector, Byanyima – who is married to Ugandan oppositionist Kizza Besigye – kept a firm hand on the tiller from the new headquarters in Nairobi, but 2019 will be another tough year for Oxfam. Byanyima also serves on numerous global advisory bodies, including the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development. In 2016, when asked if she would ever stand for president in Uganda, she told the Forum for Women in Democracy: “If one day there is an opportunity and a team that shares my vision and wants me to lead it, I will rise.” With the popular movement around Bobi Wine whipping the population up to fever pitch, Byanyima could offer a real policy platform for the opposition.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

PAKOB POLACSEK/WEF

Aboyeji gave his first TED-talk when he was still a teenager and changes jobs so often his LinkedIn profile simply reads ‘Entrepreneur in the Public Interest’. Everything he does is designed to maximise the talent and potential of African youth. In two years, Andela grew from nothing to a network of more than 1,000 software engineers; payment platform Flutterwave processes more than $2bn a year. Aboyeji’s new thing, as of November 2018, is Street Capital, connecting global investors and philanthropists with “missionary entrepreneurs” in Africa to empower them and the next generation after that.

BRUNO LEVY FOR JA

Nigeria

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Mo Ibrahim

Idris Elba

Truth teller

Storyteller

Sudan

Ghana/Sierra Leone

Muhoho Kenyatta

Mike Adenuga

Alliance builder Nigeria

As the second-richest entrepreneur on the continent, Adenuga has been breaking out of traditional relationships. He recently funded the building of the Alliance Française in Lagos and was rewarded with a Légion d’Honneur by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Kenya

The Londoner, whose parents are Sierra Leonean and Ghanaian, has had a global reach via his starring role in cult HBO series The Wire. Since then his illustrious career has repeatedly taken him to the continent for films including Sometimes in April, about the Rwandan genocide; The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, filmed in Botswana; Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination; and Beasts of No Nation, shot in Ghana and based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala. In 2019 audiences in the UK will be able to see his stage play Tree about life in South Africa after Nelson Mandela, co-written with Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director at the Young Vic Theatre. But many are waiting to see if he will end up being the next James Bond.

ARMANDO GALLO/ZUMA STUDIO/REA

JACQUES WITT/SIPA

Family business

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

Through the four pillars of his foundation – a prize, an event, a report and fellowships – the Sudanese businessman-turned-philanthropist keeps people thinking about governance on the continent. The Mo Ibrahim Index, now in its 13th year, parlays more than a decade’s worth of data on governance in Africa into specific and practical recommendations for African leaders. He is working hard to raise a commotion about the climate, democratic and technological changes about to hit the continent.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s bespectacled younger brother is so self-effacing he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry. But he is the engine that drives the vast Kenyatta business empire. Industrious and dilligent, behind the scenes, he has been orchestrating the Kenyattas’ expansion across agribusiness, logistics and finance sectors, including the recent merger of NIC Group and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). CBA, owned by the Kenyatta family, is growing fast, spurred by the vast take-off in mobile-money loans in Kenya. The Kenyatta-owned dairy company Brookside is keen on expanding outside of Kenya and is looking for an opening in the Ethiopian market. Kenyan political insiders also say it was Muhoho who brokered the famous 9 March 2018 handshake between his brother and political rival Raila Odinga. This put paid to a long stretch of political acrimony that spilled over into violently contested elections.

Disruptor

THEAFR RICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Anas Aremeyaw Anas Truth teller Ghana

CRISTINA ALDEHUELA/AFP

Known simply as “Anas”, his relentless exposure of corruption in Ghana and beyond has spawned many imitators and won him collaborations with major broadcasters including the BBC and Al Jazeera. The murder, in January, of Ahmed Husein, who worked with Anas on an exposé that led to the dismantling of the Ghana Football Association and sacking of a FIFA referee was a grim confirmation of the importance of his undercover work. His groundbreaking investigation into corruption in Ghana’s legal system led to the suspension and idictment of several judges.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

World Banker Nigeria

Sharp-eyed Kenya

By spotting potential at the bottom of Kenya’s economic pyramid, Mwangi has taken Equity Bank from bit-player to market maker in the thriving financial sector. Not stopping there, Mwangi used this momentum to turn Equity Bank into a leading player in the mobile-money space, as well as expanding into regional markets, like South Sudan and the DRC, becoming Kenya’s most international bank in the process.

Following the surprise resignation of Jim Yong Kim, all eyes are on who will be the next World Bank president. Okonjo-Iweala, a former deputy president who worked at the Bank for 25 years, is eminently qualified and, crucially, is now a US citizen. She is interested in the position: “If the right person were to nominate, and if the circumstances are right and people feel I can do the job, yes!” she told CNN at Davos. Who President Donald Trump’s administration decides to nominate will say a lot about how he wishes to conduct relations with the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the former Nigerian finance minister was appointed to Twitter’s board of directors in January. Her vast experience would be a big asset at the World Bank. She had a ‘super-minister’ role under the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan when it rolled out crucial reforms of the power sector and introduced legislation to support local companies in breaking into the value chains of the oil and natural gas sector. But Jonathan’s government was also infamous for the graft and opaque deals that took place at the time. Her time in government gave her enough material to write a book about corruption, and that is what she did, calling it Reforming the Unreformable. Okonjo-Iweala remains a booster of good governance, arguing that countries need to improve the way that they handle and spend money before committing more money to, say, a big new drive to improve healthcare.

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HAMILTON/REA

James Mwangi

Mining money South Africa

The billionaire magnate founded diversified miner African Rainbow Minerals, which is in the market for new copper mining opportunities. Motsepe is also pushing into finance with TymeBank – the country’s first fully digital bank – and into politics, pledging $250m towards furthering South Africa’s land reform programme. The champion of black economic empowerment made the announcement at December’s Global Citizen Festival, which he hosted, where companies, governments and foundations pledged $7.5bn to end extreme poverty to the sounds of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Wizkid (#18) et al. “We are coming together in unity as leaders and are committed to working together to ensure that the current land reform process will result in land with the requisite support and skills being made available to black people living in rural areas,” Motsepe explained.

Disruptor

A-grade fixer

Egypt

Power player

Olusegun Obasanjo

Knight in white

From his penalty that qualified Egypt for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years to his hat-trick that took Liverpool to the top of the Premier League, Salah brings delight every time he steps onto a football field. His goals have brought him a slew of awards and he has been immortalised in statues and street art, but Salah is loved not just for his prodigious footwork. He is socially engaged on and off the pitch: refusing to celebrate a goal against Chelsea out of respect to the victims of the Sinai mosque attack, he forced fans to think beyond rivalries, and he has given away millions to his home village, Basyoun, and more widely to fight poverty and drug addiction.

Entertainer

Nigeria

“OBJ” is Africa’s most famous backseat driver. The doyen of Nigerian politics has had an impact on every presidential election of the past 40 years and his blessing makes or breaks political careers. His choices defy party alliances: having backed the All Progressives Congress’ Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, in 2019 he switched to the People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar – who was once his own vice-president. He is also one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen.

Tewolde GebreMariam High flyer

Ethiopia

The winner of the Africa CEO Forum’s CEO of the Year award in 2012 is still Africa’s most successful aviation executive. He turned the national airline into a profitable tool of Ethiopian economic expansion, successfully battling Middle Eastern carriers for African routes. In February GebreMariam upped the stakes on transatlantic routes, announcing that Ethiopian Airlines would be flying three times a week to New York’s JFK.

Maria Ramos Finance supreme South Africa

Having stepped down from managing one of Africa’s largest banks, the decorated Maria Ramos is no doubt looking for a fresh challenge. Many in South Africa speculate she will play a key role back in government, when President Cyril Ramaphosa puts together his post-May election cabinet.

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Patrice Motsepe

Mohamed Salah

MARK CHILVERS FOR TAR

PRENSA INTERNACIONAL/ZUMA/REA

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Tope Lawani Private eye

Nigeria

In 15 years Helios has grown to be Africa’s largest private-equity firm, with $3.6bn under management. After buying a 49% stake in Nigerian oil and gas company Oando in 2017, its push into South Africa, where it plans to build 1,000 telecom towers in the next three years, marks its transformation into a genuine pan-African platform. It also offers direct lending to African businesses. Lawani’s influence extends to the board of EMPEA industry association and MIT’s board of trustees.

33 David Adjaye

Raising the roof

Nicky Oppenheimer Still at the table South Africa

The scion of the De Beers diamond family retired from mining in 2012 saying he wanted to invest in African entrepreneurs. Insiders say he’s really interested in the health of South African politics. Often held up by radical activists on the left as embodying white monopoly capital (he still owns 1% of Anglo American), he set up the Brenthurst Foundation think tank, which numbers many African presidents on its advisory board. He donates $6m a year to education causes and stopped big game hunting on his reserve.

Ghana

Mitchell Elegbe

Fintech frontiersman

Interswitch could become Africa’s fourth unicorn (a tech company valued over $1bn) if its delayed IPO in London and Lagos goes through by the end of this year. Having started the integrated payment and transaction company in Nigeria in 2002, disruptor Elegbe is now partnering with one of its international rivals, Visa, to drive digital payments across Africa.

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KALPESH LATHIGA FOR JA

Nigeria

Adjaye was selected to join a team of architects to design the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC in 2009… and he has been in demand ever since. After a decade of globetrotting, partaking in art collaborations and designing private homes for celebrities, other American museums, the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo and a Russian business school, Adjaye has returned to his fatherland, Ghana, to build its high-profile new national cathedral. He has also been tapped to design the new UK Holocaust Memorial in London close to the Houses of Parliament.

RICHARD CANNON/GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT BY GETTY IMAGES FOR THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Business

Acha Leke Consulted

McKinsey can depend on the fresh-faced Cameroonian high-flyer to rescue its image after being tainted by association with the Gupta scandal in South Africa. He found a way for pharma companies in Uganda to slash the price of antiretrovirals; co-authored ‘Lions on the Move’ to bring more investment to African economies; helped open

the continent for visa-free travel; and in his spare time partnered with entrepreneur Fred Swaniker to set up the African Leadership Academy, a pan-African uber high school with 85% of its students on full scholarships. The project has expanded to encompass a university and a Davos-style forum, and Leke has been intimating that he may devote himself full-time to enlarging it.

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

Cameroon

Entertainer

Power player

Aziz Akhannouch Fishing for business Morocco

One of Morocco’s richest men, Akhannouch inherited the family conglomerate with interests primarily in oil and gas. He straddles the worlds of business and politics through his position as agriculture minister and president of the Rassemblement National des Indépendants party. Akhannouch’s visits to Europe and, recently, Australia to seek cooperation for his agriculture and fisheries strategies make him a leader in soft diplomacy. He has, however, courted controversy in the pricing strategies of his petrol stations.

Herbert Wigwe

Minnow-cum-whale Nigeria

Mohamed El Kettani

Expedition leader

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

Morocco

Over his 12 years in charge of Attijariwafa Bank he’s consolidated the Moroccan lender to make it a market leader – the top bank in the region and seventh-largest in Africa with a presence in 15 countries on the continent and 26 worldwide. A member of King Mohammed VI’s close circle of advisers, El Kettani is an intelligent strategist. Next on his list is a push beyond francophone Africa, for which he acknowledges a “cultural and mental revolution” is needed.

Disruptor

Wigwe and his business partner bought Nigeria’s 65th-largest bank in 2002 and turned it into one of the top five. He’s not stopping there: Access is currently merging with Diamond Bank to form “the largest bank in Africa’s largest economy”. On 1 March Wigwe also launched Africa’s first corporate green bond, worth $41.4m. Recounting the story of his success takes him on public speaking engagements around the world, and he invites global leaders back every two years to the Access Conference, a forum on solving humanity’s major challenges. He sums up his strategy: “History will only favour the brave. If you don’t try something, you won’t get it.”

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STANDARD BANK

Sim Tshabalala Class topper

Lupita Nyong’o

South Africa

Screen idol

Onyeka Akumah

Seed capital Nigeria

Akumah started Farmcrowdy in 2016 and has empowered small farmers all over Nigeria via the feel-good crowdfunding platform. He’s now a mentor and investor, sitting on the boards of start-ups from New York to Lagos, and is one of the youngest members of the Honorary Council of Abuja’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Kenya/US

EMMA MCINTYRE/GETTY IMAGES FOR TURNER/AFP

Tshabalala became Standard Bank’s first black CEO when his job-share ended in September 2017 and his “quiet but very influential leadership” earned him $3.5m that year. The South African lender faces challenges though, from disruptors Discovery Bank and Patrice Motsepe’s TymeBank. He’s one of a group of CEOs supportive of President Cyril Ramaphosa who banded together as the CEO Initiative and took a pledge to restore investor confidence.

It’s going to be a great year for Lupita. The Kenyan-Mexican actress takes her place on the Walk of Fame in 2019, and – after her voyage to Wakanda last year – will once again time-travel in a new Star Wars film, as well as starring in a social drama, Us, with Black Panther co-star Winston Duke. She already has an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, so what is there left to do? Well, collaborate with Chimamanda (#4) for one thing – she will act in and co-produce (with Brad Pitt) the adaptation of Americanah, whose author she first contacted when she was a complete unknown!

Ory Okolloh Impact investor Kenya

Tech activist Okolloh founded Mzalendo (for tracking representatives in the Kenyan parliament) and Ushahidi (for crowdsourcing crisis information) before working for Google and then joining impact investor Omidyar Network. Luminate, the new philanthropic entity formed out of Omidyar’s Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative, is the ideal place to pool her exceptional skills.

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Tayo Oviosu Bill payer

Nigeria

In the headlong sprint to become the African fintech giant that goes global, Paga is some way behind Kenya’s M-Pesa – partly because of the latter’s head start and its telecoms company owner. The terrain is different, too, with traditional banks in Nigeria putting up a bigger fight by investing in their own mobile-payment platforms, which already makes Paga’s growth there impressive. Licensed in 2011, it quickly went from a mobile-money operator to a full-blown payments system including e-commerce solutions. The gap between them may close if Paga co-founder Oviosu gets his way; another $10m in the bank in 2018 is being used to fund expansion to Ethiopia, Mexico and the Philippines. Nearly $4bn in payments have already been crunched in Nigeria. He will have to be quick in Ethiopia, however, as he will come face to face with… M-Pesa.

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Mohamed Aly El-Erian

Word to the wise Egypt

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

Son of an Egyptian diplomat, US-based El-Erian has carved out a niche as one of the most influential economists of the post-global-financial-crisis era. While at PIMCO, the world’s largest bond-trading specialist, he came up with the concept of the ‘New Normal’ which went viral. His investment guide to the ‘age of global economic change’, When Markets Collide, was a New York Times bestseller, as was The Only Game in Town. He now serves as chief economic adviser to the board at Allianz, PIMCO’s parent company, among a plethora of other engagements.

Kamel Daoud Acid pen Algeria

By writing Meursault as a counterpoint to French literary icon Albert Camus’s L’Étranger, Daoud struck deep at the rotten ties that join France and Algeria. A writer, editor and journalist, he has helped bridge the generations, from the old guard to the angry youth, and has made many enemies by his unsparing positions on Islamists and politicians. An imam who passed a fatwa on him in December 2014 was perhaps surprised to see the pushback; Daoud got him jailed for six months.

Kola Masha King of yield

DOREO PARTNERS

Nigeria

Having worked as chief of staff to the minister of agriculture, Kola Masha is acutely aware of the broad challenges faced by Nigeria’s smallholder farmers, the backbone of the country that is often languishing in feudal levels of productivity. His company, Babban Gona, aggregates farmers into groups, gives them cheap seeds and fertiliser, and plugs them into markets. It is a bottom-up approach to national wealth with results that

are bearing fruit. Babban Gona had worked with some 20,000 farmers by the middle of 2018, with its long-term goal of improving the performance of 1 million people. And Masha is no stranger to the sector. His other company Doreo Partners is an impact investment firm in agriculture. And his work has now been recognised by the Skoll Foundation award for social entrepreneurship. He is encouraging the government to look to examples like Brazil to see how to get more capital and better technology to smallholder farmers.

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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Ngugi wa Thiong’o Voice master Kenya

Akinwumi Adesina

A life without compromise has cost Ngugi; imprisoned, forced to flee Kenya after writing and putting on a play that disturbed the powers that be – at that time, President Daniel Arap Moi. Championing his native tongue Gikuyu rather than write in colonial English, he has campaigned to strengthen writing in various African languages over the course of his career: “'To starve or kill a language is to starve and kill a people’s memory bank,” he said. And if this seems abstract, consider that Africa’s nations are colonial fictions; Africa’s economies will not be fixed before her politics are consolidated and native languages can be building blocks of that consolidation.

Green gold Nigeria

As president of the AfDB, Adesina has thrown his passion and weight into agriculture. His vision is that, as the continent’s number one employer, the sector can solve the jobs and migration crisis. Fixing the bottom of the pyramid requires the financing to match: Adesina is in a race to get the soft-loan wing of the Bank replenished this year.

Zimbabwe/US

BEN CURTIS/AP/SIPA

Danai Gurira

Cutting edge

Sauti Sol

Groove riders Kenya

52 ALEJANDRO GARCIA/SIPA

When Gurira isn’t destroying the enemies of the Kingdom of Wakanda as Okoye in the film Black Panther, Marvel-adapted hit or chopping people up with her katana blades as Michonne in The Walking Dead, she is crushing the red carpet at the Oscars ceremony. Her playwriting is acclaimed too: Eclipsed won prizes in 2016, while Letitia Wright starred in The Convert. In December 2018, Gurira became a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Her project Almasi Collaborative Arts builds ties between artists in the US and Africa.

Business

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The exceptional afro-pop sensations from Nairobi are politically conscious, laid-back and on point. Like any band scraping a living in the era of skinflint streaming platforms, Sauti Sol are on the road a lot, headlining at the Lake of Stars festival in Malawi in September 2018, and at various US festivals. And they are award scoopers, too, picking up best African group at the All Africa Music Awards, the MTV Africa Music Awards and the Soundcity MVP Awards. But their lasting influence will be their Sol Generation Records, a label the band are using to launch new talents into the East African music stratosphere.

THE YEAR OF REFUGEES, RETURNEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS: TOWARDS DURABLE SOLUTIONS TO FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN AFRICA. Every year, the Heads of State and Government of The African Union decide upon a theme which focuses on a key issue facing the continent and which constitutes a focal area upon which the key activities and messages of the African Union will be anchored. In 2019 the annual theme of the African Union will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards durable solutions to forced displacement in Africa. The 2019 AU Theme is driven by the need for greater commitment by Africa to address the plight of its citizens in forced migration situations, by implementing strategic and relevant programmes and working towards the ratification of the various AU treaties and legal instruments addressing the plight of refugees and displaced persons to ensure we achieve the goal of Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063 to provide a peaceful and secure environment for all Africans on the continent. Various AU treaties governing issues related to refugees, human rights, governance and promoting peace on the continent include the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, African Charter on Human and Peoplesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Rights, OAU Convention for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa, OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Find out more about these treaties as well and their status of ratification by African states by visiting www.au.int About the 2019 Theme Logo: The logo for the Theme of the Year has been built around the crisis facing refugees in Africa. Whereas migration is a common phenomenon as people have always relocated for various reasons, in the case of Africa the continent is often painted as a miserable place because migration is as a result of civil strife, poverty and a myriad of other factors thereby promoting the narrative that Africa cannot care for its people. Africans and their governments have always opened their borders and welcomed into their communities their brothers and sister fleeing their homes for various reasons providing a safe haven as long as it is required. The 2019 AU theme logo shows a mother embracing Africa with its child which encompasses love and affection. Africa knows how to take care of its own in each regard no matter what.

www.au.int

African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243, Roosvelt Street W21K19, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 (0) 11 551 77 00 Fax: +251 (0) 11 551 78 44

THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Shamila Batohi Jail filler

What a time to get the top job: the National Prosecuting Authority had been manned by Shaun Abrahams, whose critics believe was close to corrupt networks around Jacob Zuma. Now, as the first woman to get the post, Batohi has an opportunity to go after the dozens of individuals who dragged South Africa’s proud institutions into the mire. She is no stranger to the task, having already served as director of public prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal from 2002-2009 – and in the 1990s was asked by President Nelson Mandela to investigate hit squads within the police.

Disruptor

Pravin Gordhan Bomb proof

Sword and shield

South Africa

Egypt

Power player

Mona Eltahawy A courageous activist, journalist and writer, Eltahawy speaks for those who lack a voice across the Middle East and beyond. Her 2015 book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution tried to break through the wall of silence that surrounds the sexual violence women in the region deal with on a daily basis. Putting her finger on the hyper-conservative Saudi interpretations of Islam, the headscarf is for her the symbol of oppression, and the hymen the strange guarantor of virginity for layers of male family and religious bureaucracy. Last year, she launched the #MosqueMeToo social media campaign to ensure that the Middle East and North Africa is not spared from the benefits of the #MeToo movement.

Entertainer

Jim Ovia

Money magnet Nigeria

Creating Zenith Bank in a period of economic and political instability, Ovia has guided the institution through choppy waters. But he has retained his belief in the Nigerian economy. Speaking at the launch of a new book, he explained how he started the bank in 1990 with $4m: “We now have a total asset base of $16bn. If you look at the arithmetic, there has been over 1,000% growth. You can’t get that anywhere, even in the best economies in the world.”

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The former pharmacist turned activist turned tax authority chief turned finance minister multiple times is a testament to the cadre of personalities moulded in the fires of apartheid South Africa. The group Gordhan created at the South African Revenue Service was the only one that pushed back hard against corruption at the height of the Zuma era, as the South African judicial, police and security forces were slowly gutted or hamstrung. At 69, he has put a desire for a quieter and more relaxed life on the back burner to clean up South Africa’s troubled parastatals – like electricity utility Eskom and South African Airways – as the minister for public enterprises.

LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP

JAIRUS MMUTLE /EPA/MAXPPP

South Africa

Business

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Moussa Faki Mahamat Top diplomat

Chad

T.B. Joshua

Herding cats may suddenly seem a more attractive career path for the African Union Commission head. The current job for Chad’s former prime minister entails corralling Africa’s fractious presidents into a unified position on difficult topics such as the recent elections in the

Prophesy and power

DRC, the continental free trade zone and big internal AU reforms. While the year did not start well - with the AU speaking loudly on the DRC election before retreating into silence - plenty of challenges await: Sudan, Libya and Central African Republic will all clamour for the AU to act.

Nigeria

Joshua has a huge following across the continent, but especially in his home country. Though he only founded The Synagogue, Church of All Nations in Lagos in 2006, it has expanded rapidly, and the faithful flock there from many African countries for healing and counsel. Joshua is not always popular - the government of Cameroon warned its citizens about attending his church in 2010. But it is his influence with members of the continent’s celebrity and political elite that bumps him up the list.

Julius Malema

Agent of change South Africa

Albert Yuma Diamond geezer DRC

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP

As a key part of former president Joseph Kabila’s inner team, Yuma controls the regime’s access to the DRC’s mineral wealth as chairman of Gécamines. The state-owned mining company – one of the continent’s largest – controls strategic reserves of the minerals of our electric future: copper and cobalt. Yuma is central to ongoing efforts by the Congolese to get a bigger slice of royalties from mining companies. Yuma’s name was also on a shortlist of candidates to become prime minister in the new government of President Felix Tshisekedi.

The controversial leftist politician is the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a political party he launched in 2013 after his heavily publicised breakaway from the ruling African National Congress (ANC). A year after, the EFF won 25 seats in the 2014 general elections, securing more than 1.1m votes, and has since played an important role of kingmaker in the Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane councils. As Malema’s popularity keeps rising, the EFF is tipped to make inroads into the electorate when South Africa goes to the polls in May.

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Business

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Ghana

The formerly white bastion of British Vogue has been shaken up by Enninful, who took over the coveted editor’s chair in April 2017. A model at 16 and fashion director of the magazine i-D at 18, the Ghana-born influencer thrust diversity into the spotlight back in 2008 when he organised the “Black Issue” of Vogue Italia to combat the "white-out that dominates the catwalks and magazines" (the magazine sold out and had to print an extra 40,000 copies). He is pushing for much more empathy in an industry that is not well known for that skill. The Queen of England awarded him an OBE in 2016; the Queen of New York, Anna Wintour, may favour him as her successor, if what the rumour mill is saying turns out to be true.

Cameroon

WAYNE TIPPETTS/REX/SIPA

Public intellectual

Disruptor

Voguing!

Ghana/US

Achille Mbembe

Power player

Edward Enninful

Contemporary questioner Engaging with ideas of race and identity, the New York Universitybased thinker is tackling questions of a global nature in times when nativist forces are questioning the global infrastructure of the post-Second World War period. He argues that local attachment and cosmopolitanism can be reconciled, saying in a recent Foreign Affairs article: “Forgetting that we are all citizens of the world – a small, warming, intensely vulnerable world – would be a reckless relaxation of vigilance.”

Entertainer

64 SYLVAIN CHERKAOUI FOR JA

The South Africa-based Cameroonian academic is a revered voice across the continent, and not only influential in academia, but also in other public bodies. His ideas on postcolonialism, gathered in a collection of critical essays continue to shape the thinking on democracy. He explained: “Postcolonial thinking stresses humanity-in-the-making, the humanity that will emerge once the colonial figures of the inhuman and of racial difference have been swept away.”

Vera Songwe

Adding it up Cameroon

Armed with a wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa, Songwe has been working to shake up institutions and buttress economic growth, first as the regional director of the International Finance Corporation covering West and Central Africa and now in her current position as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. A respected voice on development and economic issues in Africa, the Cameroonian economist and former World Bank director has certainly earned her stripes.

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Louise Mushikiwabo Diplomat extraordinaire Rwanda

FRANCES F. DENNY/NYT-REDUX-REA

Securing the support of both France and the African Union in her bid to lead the 84-member Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie in October last year was a remarkable achievement for Mushikiwabo, who had to face off against Québécois Canadian Michaëlle Jean, the incumbent secretary general at the time, who was seeking re-election. Formerly Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, the diplomat-cum-gender advocate is at the top echelons of the Rwandan government and is a well-known member of President Kagame’s inner circle.

Akwaeke Emezi Poetry in emotion Nigeria/Malaysia

James Mworia

Meteoric rise Kenya

BRUNO LEVY FOR JA

Not many people rise from intern to CEO in seven years but such is the atypical career path of Mworia. At age 30, the multipleaward-winning lawyer and businessman was appointed CEO of Centum Investments, the largest publicly-traded private capital firm in East Africa, and has since restructured the company into a powerful investor in the East African economy. In his first six years as CEO, Centum’s asset base increased exponentially, from KSh6bn ($69m) to close to KSh30bn.

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Emezi’s highly acclaimed début autobiographical novel, Freshwater, has been hailed as “one of the decade’s most intriguing works of fiction”. The novel which forces readers to confront their views on issues such as mental illness and mysticism, tells the coming-of-age story of Ada, and her struggle with several inner voices in a multiple self. The Igbo and Tamil writer, who identifies as a “nonbinary trans and plural person”, is set to have an exciting year in 2019, with the publication of two new novels; a second adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji and a children’s book, Pet.

Mohammed Dewji

Youthful gains Tanzania

It came as no surprise when Dewji’s kidnapping by armed gunmen in Tanzania’s economic capital made international headlines in October 2018. The 43-year old Tanzanian businessman and former politician is considered Africa’s youngest billionaire, with a net worth estimated at $1.9bn as of January 2019. Dewji, who was released unharmed a week later, is the owner of his father’s company MeTL Group, a conglomerate active in product manufacturing and logistics in 11 countries across Eastern, Southern and Central Africa.

Business

Tony Attah

Engaging entrepreneur

Riding on

Nigeria

With a branch network that spreads across 20 African countries and three global financial centres, United Bank for Africa brings Elumelu insights into the growth potential of African markets. And his networking is truly international – he brought the French President Emmanuel Macron to an event in Lagos in July 2018, and was at the heart of former president Obama's PowerAfrica initiative. But alongside this top-down strategy of conquest, there is also a bottom-up approach. His foundation brings in promising young entrepreneurs for training and cash. If the next Uber happens under his watch, Elumelu will be plugged into the next generation of wealth creation.

Nigeria

The CEO of Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is at the forefront of one of the most promising liquefied natural gas projects in Africa. The $7bn Train 7 project will ensure sustainable feed gas supply to NLNG’s six existing trains and the new Train 7 when completed, and is expected to boost foreign direct investment in the country. When he’s not focused on Train 7, Attah dedicates his efforts to eliminating gas flaring in Nigeria, with NLNG having helped reduce flaring from about 65% to 20%.

Power player

Disruptor

Fatou Bensouda

Prosecutor under pressure Gambia

This next era of the International Criminal Court is being shaped by its chief prosecutor, as with the previous. With the international winds blowing against many multilateral institutions and the collapse of the court’s cases against former president Laurent Gbagbo and the release of former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, there is now a crucial window for international justice to demonstrate its relevance and competence.

WIEBE KIESTRA FOR JA

Tony Elumelu

Entertainer

Moustapha Cissé

Natural and artificial intelligence Senegal

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“We need a pan-African strategy: a set of ambitious goals for AI education, research and development and industrialisation.” Artificial intelligence and robotics in Africa have a champion in the boss of Google’s AI centre in Ghana’s capital Accra. The outfit’s focus is on machine learning and the use of technology in medicine. He is committed to ensuring that technology addresses the lives of people who need its impact the most.

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73 Ibrahim Mahama Going places Ghana

THOMAS LOHNES/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

The Ghanaian artist has given new value to jute sacks, and it is paying off. His use of the tattered material – a popular object used to transport cocoa beans in Ghana – in large-scale installations has been recognised beyond national borders, making him the youngest Ghana-based artist to show at the Venice Biennale in Italy. This is just the beginning for Mahama, who is preparing to open an artist-run space called SCCA-Tamale in his birthplace of Tamale in northern Ghana that will serve as a project and exhibition space, artist residency and research hub.

Connecting the continent South Africa

Facebook’s outsized pop ularity as a communication tool in Africa gives the social media network’s continental boss a crucial role. With a background in marketing, she aims to get millions more of Africa’s youth on the platform. A champion of equality, she complained: “Today, as we sit in South Africa, only 2.4% of women are CEOs. That is absolutely nothing.”

Khalifa Haftar

Stubborn strongman Libya

It is improbable that a peace plan for Libya will be agreed without the buy-in of Libyan National Army leader Haftar. The anti-Islamist leader has the backing of allies including Russia and Egypt, but he does not currently have enough strength to exert his influence much further than his base in the east. Peace talks in 2019 will show whether he can parlay his position into something bigger.

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Ken Njoroge

On the fintech frontier Kenya

Scoring a $47.5m investment from US firm TPG in May 2018 puts the fintech firm Cellulant at the forefront of Africa’s fitech space, with its drive to digitise payments and other services. The backing will help Cellulant to expand its operations on the continent. Njoroge has been at the helm of the Nairobi-based company since he co-founded it with Bolaji Akinboro in 2003.

STEVE JENNINGS/GETTY/AFP

Nunu Ntshingila

Business

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Wanuri Kahiu

Concerned creator Kenya

Amina J Mohammed

Goal-oriented Nigeria

ZACHARIAS ABUBKER FOR JA

Mohammed has shepherded the UN’s development goals for almost two decades. In Nigeria, she coordinated programmes worth $1bn annually as a special adviser on the Millennium Development Goals, then she crossed over to Washington DC to advise Ban Ki-Moon on the Sustainable Development Goals. After a spell as Nigeria’s environment minister in 2016-17 she was back as UN deputy secretary-general. Mohammed teaches at Columbia University, and is a prolific board member.

DAMIEN GRENON/PHOTO12/AFP

The banning of Kahiu’s film Rafiki in Kenya could not have come at a better time: happening just as the film premièred at Cannes Film Festival in 2018, it exposed the perils faced by many LBGTQ people on the continent. Prior to this, her short film Pumzi used the Afrofuturism genre as a way to express ecological and political concerns. A master storyteller, she has turned her hand to children’s books and recently signed to direct a film, Covers, for Working Title and Universal.

Mostafa Terrab

Renaissance man of phosphates Morocco

Before he took over at Morocco’s largest company, the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the engineer spent many years in the US, including teaching at the MIT and leading the World Bank’s Information for Development programme. His adoption of American-style management is partly what has helped transform the phosphate miner since 2008, selling largely into the US. Terrab is now leading a push into the continent, signing deals in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana to build fertiliser plants.

Mahmood Mamdani

Provocative scholar Uganda

A leading academic with a foot on both sides of the Atlantic (he directs the Makerere Institute of Social Research and is a professor at Columbia University, New York), Mamdani’s reputation was made by Citizen and Subject, a book which reignited debate around the legacy of colonialism. He is providing some of the critical thinking that has been lacking in reactions to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s sweeping reforms in Ethiopia, warning in the New York Times that Abiy’s policies could lead to “Africa’s next inter ethnic conflict”.

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Abdulsamad Rabiu Cementing progress Nigeria

The merger of Kalambaina Cement and the Cement Company of Nigeria this year makes Rabiu’s BUA Cement the second-largest cement manufacturer in Nigeria. BUA is planning a new production line for its base of operations in Sokoto. Rabiu is also investing big in sectors where he thinks Nigerian firms should outperform imports, like sugar and steel. If his big bets pay off, he will soon be climbing the ranks of Nigeria’s rich list.

81 Genevieve Nnaji Ace actress

GARETH CATTERMOLE/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

Nigeria

Ilhan Omar

The veteran acting star made her directorial debut last year with Lionheart, in which she starred and which was streaming service Netflix’s first original Nigerian film. Nollywood watchers say that she is in talks with Hollywood studios in order to break into the US market.

Representative of a new generation Somalia/US

João Lourenço In with the new...

Angola’s new broom is still sweeping away the remnants of the corrupt previous regime, but will he be able to give the country a clean slate? The jury is out on that, and the ruling MPLA seems too intent on maintaining its iron grip to allow much transparency or free political competition. There is still a lot of hard work to be done to put the oil-dependent economy on sounder footing, so there are plenty more challenges that will show if JLo is up to the task of ringing in an new era.

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TIKSA NEGERI/REUTERS

Angola

When she became the first SomaliAmerican elected to the House of Representatives last year, Omar joined an incoming class with outspoken young women pushing progressive ideas in Congress and on social media. After some initial stumbles talking about the relationship between Washington and Israel, she was one of the first representatives to sign a pledge to impeach President Donald Trump. While she wants to score points against the Republicans in Washington, her Minnesota constituents will be looking for her to score points at home before the next election.

Business

Entertainer

Carlos Lopes

Pushing policy makers Guinea-Bissau

DAVIDE BELLUCCA

Africa needs more intellectual leaders. Economist Carlos Lopes fits the bill. The former head of the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa is now teaching about governance at the University of Cape Town. After his work pushing the continental free trade area, he has turned to how a ‘New Green Deal’, might be applied in Africa, trying to push policy makers on how to adapt to climate change and drive industrialisation at the same time.

86 Simon Njami Critical curator

CYRILLE CHOUPAS FOR JA

Cameroon

Njami, a writer and curator, is a forceful voice at the forefront of African art. He argues foremost for its power, telling an interviewer: “The Dakar biennale does ten times more than the pseudo African Union for African integration.” Njami was the chief curator of the Dak’Art Biennale in 2016 and 2018 while editing the Revue Noire, which he founded. He is a sceptic about Western promises to return looted and other ill-gotten African art.

Power player

Disruptor

Ashitey TrebiOllennu

Star gazer Ghana

“Humans always look to the heavens to gain knowledge and use that knowledge to make life a little better”, Trebi-Ollennu told CNN. The Ghanaian robotics expert managed the team that designed an arm for the InSight rover that landed on Mars in late 2018 so that it can bring back samples that will allow scientists to study how planets are formed. Through the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation, he is sharing his love of science and exploration with a new generation of those with stars in their eyes.

Mamadou Biteye Digital donor Senegal

Backing the creation of digital jobs on the continent and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa head is overseeing the channelling of crucial resources to priority areas. The Coding for Employment Programme, managed by the AfDB and funded by philanthropists and tech companies, is setting up 130 coding training outfits so that more African young people will have the skills needed for the jobs of the future.

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Oluseun Onigbinde Transparent ambition Nigeria

You might think it would be hard to have transparency gain traction in Nigeria, but the founder of NGO BudgIT does not back down from tough challenges. His drive to hold the government accountable and to get information

into the public’s hands has helped put pressure on recalcitrant politicians in Abuja and throughout Nigeria. Now an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University, he is aiming to return to Nigeria this year with new projects in mind and tools at hand.

Issad Rebrab Business baron Algeria

ONS ABID POUR JA

Despite being outside the orbit of Algeria’s heavy backing for state-owned industry, Rebrab has become a billionaire and one of the continent’s richest men. And to boot, his company Cevital mostly steers clear of the rich oil and gas sector, instead focusing on agribusiness and consumer goods. Rebrab is not only looking at his home market, but announced last year that one of Cevital’s companies will invest in a factory to produce water filtration devices in France.

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Moulay Hafid Elalamy

Industrious planner Morocco

Morocco’s trade and industry minister is one of a small group of politicians who combine political power and business acumen. Elalamy founded the insurance company Saham, which South African insurer Sanlam bought a majority stake in for about $1bn last year. In his day job, Elalamy is overseeing plans for Morocco to strengthen its position in higher-value manufacturing projects, which have taken off in the automobile and aeronautics sectors.

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu

Power to the people! Uganda

Rallying the youth of Kampala with his ‘People Power’ message (see page 48), the singer and parliamentarian known as Bobi Wine has quickly become the most serious threat – other than the ravages of time – on the regime of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. He has yet to show that he can rattle the government’s foundations or if he will be able to transform his popularity into a long-term political force.

Business

Entertainer

Power player

93 Black gold Ghana

Adomakoh, a former banker at JPMorgan Chase, is helping Norwegian start-up Aker Energy to make it big. It is planning a potential IPO this year on the back of its drilling success at the Pecan field. He is also a director at Kagiso Tiso Holdings, a South Africabased investment firm that has big ambitions, and owns South Africa’s Business Day newspaper.

Clare Akamanzi

Building brand Rwanda Rwanda

African governments wanting to copy Rwanda’s success in attracting investment go straight to the government-run Rwanda Development Board. Akamanzi got the world talking last year when Rwanda signed a threeyear sponsorship deal with Premier League side Arsenal. She is now working with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to help Rwandan companies to access the Chinese market.

Caster Semenya

Pushing forward on and off the track South Africa

The middle-distance speedster is again in the spotlight as she takes on international sports authorities for their outdated takes on gender. Starring in popular Nike ads, she is an icon in the LGBT community. After winning three Diamond League titles in the 800m in 201 8, she is in fine form for the races ahead in 2019 and her case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the IAAF, which wants to force her to take drugs to reduce her testosterone levels.

Sahle-Work Zewde Soft spoken soft power Ethiopia

While reformist premier Ahmed Abiy has Ethiopia’s hard power tools, President SahleWork is known for her soft-power politics. At her October 2018 inuguration, she explained her goal simply: “If the changes currently being made in Ethiopia are led by both men and women, their momentum will lead to an Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic or gender discrimination.”

BRITTA PEDERSEN/ZUMA PRESS/REA

David Adomakoh

Disruptor

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Njideka Akunyili Crosby Million-dollar marvel Nigeria/US

A rising star on the art scene, Enugu-born artist Akunyili Crosby has grabbed the limelight for selling a painting last year for more than $3m. A late 2018 exhibition called ‘Counterparts’ highlighted her hybrid upbringing in Nigeria and later life in the United States. Her beautiful portraits bridge the gap between nostalgia for the present and living in the now.

Bola Tinubu Lagos legend Nigeria

Carlos Saturnino

Crude prospects Angola

The oil industry veteran has been back in control of Angola’s economic engine room. With Saturnino in charge, state oil company Sonangol reported a turnover of $17.7bn in 2018. The powerful firm has stakes in other businesses, like telecoms operator UNITEL, giving Saturnino an oversized influence on the country’s growth trajectory. His new focus on marginal fields is boosting lagging production at a time when it is needed most.

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100 Bridgette Radebe

Mining might

South Africa

Radebe is one of South Africa’s bright lights in the mining sector and a deal-maker who opts to stay out of the spotlight. She also forms a power couple with her husband Jeff Radebe, who is energy minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government. She took over as chair of the Black Business Council in August of last year and serves as the president of the South African Mining Development Association.

ESA ALEXANDER/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

With President Muhammadu Buhari having stormed to re-election in February, governing All Progressives Congress godfather Tinubu is planning out his next chapter. Lagos, the commercial capital, is his bastion in the south-west. The Abuja rumour mill is already talking about the potential for Tinubu, 66, to run in 2023 when Buhari ends his second term. Young guns are pushing for younger people to get more involved in politics, but the old guard is putting up a fight.

INSIDE BAYELSA /

BAYELSA

Change comes to the

STATE An auditorium at the University of Africa campus in Toru-Orua is taking shape

Delta

New projects are taking root in Bayelsa State, but the years of despoliation and false promises from governments and oil companies have left a legacy that will take generations to shake By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Photo reportage by KC NWAKALOR for TAR In the heart of the Niger Delta at Oloibiri there is an oil well – now rusting, with a steel cap screwed tightly over its head – that changed history. Oloibiri, in present day Bayelsa State, is the place where the Shell-British Petroleum consortium struck oil in 1956 after half a century of trying. Two years later, Nigeria’s first oil field came on-stream, gushing out 5,000 barrels per day. Within a couple of decades, the country was producing 2m barrels a day. In many ways, Oloibiri symbolises what went wrong with Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Today, the place has shrunk back into obscurity. A promise by oil companies and the central government to build a museum there has never been honoured. More importantly, the living conditions of many people around Oloibiri have scarcely improved although an industry that has generated more than $1trn started life in their community. Worse still, pollution caused by oil leaking into the creeks and swamplands has hobbled farming and fishing.

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LOGISTICS DOSSIER

Landlocked

blues

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Ethiopia has high hopes for manufacturing and exports, but the country will not be competitive until it solves its logistical problems. To that end, the state is starting to liberalise the sector

Hawassa Industrial Park is a flagship facility for the textile industry

NICHOLE SOBECKI/VII/REDUX-REA

By TOM GARDNER in Addis Ababa In January, it emerged that Ethiopian exports had once again disappointed, undershooting the government’s six-month target of $1.96bn by nearly 40%. It was a sobering reminder that, for all Ethiopia’s rapid, state-led growth over the past decade, exports have consistently shown few signs of improvement. “Logistics is the number-one bugbear for anyone in exports and manufacturing,” says Graham Parrott, head of strategy at Ethiopia Investments Limited, which invests in local businesses. His words are echoed by many exporters, who say this challenge is rivalled only by the shortage of foreign exchange. The figures are telling. To trans port a 20ft container of garments from Ethiopia to Germany costs 247% more than from Vietnam and 72% more than from Bangladesh. In 2016, Ethiopia scored 2.37 in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index – significantly lower than neighbouring Uganda, which is also landlocked. The country ranked 159th out of 190 in the World Bank’s Doing Business index in 2018; Uganda came 127th. In key export sectors, such as textiles, speed is essential to competitiveness. Slow and expensive imports, meanwhile, are bad for all businesses. According to Daniel Zemichael, chief executive

of Freighters International, a local logistics company, goods take an average of 20-30 days to reach an Ethiopian customer from the port in neighbouring Djibouti. A 20ft container costs an average of $2,660 to import from its source to Ethiopia. “This is probably one of the most expensive corridors in the world,” says Serge Tiran of Massida Group, another logistics firm.

Mojo rising

The government has made improving logistics a priority. A $2.5bn, 750km railway connecting Addis Ababa with the port in Djibouti launched last year and should cut a three-day journey down to 12 hours. In an ambitious road-building programme flagship projects include a 200km expressway connecting Hawassa, home to the country’s largest industrial park, with the capital. Two years ago, the government signed a $150m World Bank project to transform Mojo, a poorly equipped and heavily congested dry port near Addis Ababa that processes more than 70% of imported containers, into a state-ofthe-art logistics facility. Meanwhile, Addis is helping a Dutch consortium, Flying Swans, to set up a cold chain along the railway to the coast. With the appointment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last April, logistics reform shifted up a gear. The new administration’s roadmap,

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SELORM (JAY) ATTIKPO/FULLISH ART FOR TAR

DAY IN THE LIFE

MOSHOOD BALOGUN in Accra I was born in Lagos in 1981. I got all of my formal education in the same city. Unfortunately, I did not get to complete my university education because I got into a series of troubles with the authorities and I eventually had to leave. My mother provided me with some money, and I travelled to Denmark in 2002. Over there, I got into a relationship with a Danish woman and lived with her for close to a year. We’d made plans to get married, but she betrayed me one day; she called the police on me and had me deported. Back in Nigeria, I reunited with my family: my parents, my children and their mother. Me and her are divorced now. We have five children in total. Two have passed. The eldest was born in the year 2000, on the ninth of July. In 2007, when my then wife was pregnant with our last child, I was involved in a very serious accident. I was seated behind a friend on a motorbike and […]

Searching for the right path Adebayo Hammed Ajibade’s passions and hopes have kept him going through lifechanging moments I don’t even know how the accident happened, but my friend lost his life in it. I came out of it with a broken leg. Although my life was spared, a lifelong dream of mine was killed. I could no longer play football. It had always been my dream to be a footballer. My father spent a lot of his money in pursuit of this dream of mine. After a few years, when things were not going so well in my life, my mother suggested once again

162 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

that I travel elsewhere. So I came to Ghana in 2013. In my very early days here, I was robbed. My bag, which contained the little money I had, my passport and a few other essentials, was stolen. I had to hustle to get back on my feet. I sold pure water in traffic – dusters, too. And then I got into working as a labourer, but the work was so hard. I reasoned that I’d die young if I continued with it. So I stopped. For a while, I had nothing to do. Until a fellow Nigerian living here in Ghana introduced me to selling books in traffic. I choose to sell solely African books because I’m proud to be African. These books I sell help me manage myself quite well financially. I get them from a wholesaler with whom I split the profits after I’ve sold the books. I’ve suffered a lot, and things are still not easy. But I thank God for my life because when there is life, there is hope. My dream now is to be a musician because I believe I’ve got a message to deliver. I just pray to God to point the right path for me soon.