African Free Trade Area now the largest free trade zone in the world ‘by participation’
The start of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement on January 1 has created the largest free trade zone in the world by country following the ratification of the agreement by 34 countries. After years of haggling, suspicion and uncertainty the realisation ACFTA has been hailed...
Africa braces for a digital storm as industries reset their operations
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the move to digital, as large proportions of the population work, learn and entertain themselves remotely, while others have trialled services such as remote healthcare for the first time. These were amongst the findings of a recent Amdocs survey of 1,000 consumers in the United...
Bright side of Covid: Carbon emissions dipped in 2020 as energy use dropped
After rising steadily for decades, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4 per cent or 2.3 billion tonnes in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic squelched economic and social activities worldwide, according to new data on daily fossil fuel emissions. The decline is significant – roughly double Japan’s yearly emissions –...
Private sector invests in new ideas only after regimes make risky investments
The World Health Organisation appointed economist Mariana Mazzucato to head its Council on the Economics of Health for All in 2020. Ms Mazzucato is one of the architects of the biggest international research-funding scheme in the world, Horizon Europe, which launched this month. Her book Mission Economy is a timely...
How police, spies and hackers get around your smartphone’s encryption
Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have increasingly called for backdoors in the encryption schemes that protect your data, arguing that national security is at stake. But new research indicates governments already have methods and tools that, for better or worse, let them...
Honey laundering is one of the mega food trades in the world today
In 2020, 13 honeys were subjected to another battery of tests. Nine of the products contained psicose, the rare sugar which would not typically be found in honey. Ten of the 13 honeys tested positive for the presence of enzymes indicating that they may be “adulterated with syrup”. All of...
Google’s new workers’ union is already addressing political and racism issues
The Alphabet Workers Union is not seeking better pay and benefits. It wants to influence the company’s policies on social and other issues. On January 4, a group of workers at Google parent company Alphabet said they had formed a union to influence the company’s approach to political and social...
Mauritius and Morocco are new members of ADB Bloomberg bond index
Mauritius and Morocco have joined the African Development Bank’s Bloomberg African Bond Indices, further expanding the bank’s portfolio on the continent. The addition of Mauritius and Morocco to the fold marked a steady progress in ADB’s efforts in deepening the continent’s local currency bond market. The African Development Bank administers...
‘Most of honey exported by China is blended with syrup’
Shortly before dawn most days, José Eduardo Moo Pat sets out from his home in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with a protective suit and his metal smoker for calming honey bees. He drives six miles through low-lying tropical jungle to tend to his 30 hives nestled in a clearing. His work...
HRW: Fighting inequality central to post-coronavirus economic recovery
Coronavirus has widened inequalities further in countries and societies that were already grappling with the social and economic vice, which for long time has been a trigger of inter-class hostility, Human Rights Watch has documented in its December 2020 report. Based on data collected in some of world’s megacities like...
