Former Portuguese colonies to get $490 million for economic stimulus
Portuguese-speaking African countries will receive $490.2 million for the Lusophone Compact Guarantee Programme (LCGP or the Compact) to boost business development initiatives in African Development Bank’s non-sovereign portfolio. The programme, which consists of former Portuguese colonies in Africa is designed for new non-sovereign operations (NSOs) in Lusophone countries of Africa....
African bank approves $7m for mini-grid investment
The African Development Bank has approved a $7 million grant from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) for countries to set up a mini-grid acceleration initiative to meet the needs of the continent’s fast-evolving renewable mini-grid industry. The Africa Mini-Grid Market Acceleration Programme (AMAP), which aims to boost energy...
Angola oil minister poised to take over Opec presidency
The election of Angola to the rotating presidency of the conference of ministers of Opec is expected to thrust Angola Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas Diamantino Pedro Azevedo to the forefront in the efforts to stabilise the volatile oil market in the new year. The assumption of the...
Mozambique on track to becoming a hub for natural gas development in Africa
Mozambique is a country full of amazing opportunities. I have had a chance to engage with the energy industry in the country and also with a lot of local companies, civil society and young people. It was exciting to talk with young people who understand that innovation and hard work...
Technology experts foresee utility-like criticality for data centres in 2021
As the world moved online seemingly overnight in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the criticality of data centres and the unrelenting reliance on them across all walks of life became an enduring storyline of the crisis. This reality will manifest in new ways in 2021 as the data centre...
20,000 activists petition Kenya to reject US plastics export deal
Despite publicly retreating on the push to force Kenya and by extension to allow trade plastics and petrochemical products, American Chemistry Council (ACC) is said to be quietly lobbying Washington to force concessions for exports during ongoing bilateral trade agreement negotiations between the two countries. The push by ACC has...
12 multilateral lenders team up with IMF to finance Africa’s SDGs
Twelve multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have teamed up to pool resources to finance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. Africa’s leading financier, the African Development Bank, announced in Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan, on Thursday this week that it had joined hands...
Dark side of Big Tech’s funding for Artificial Intelligence research
Last week, prominent Google artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru said she was fired by the company after managers asked her to retract or withdraw her name from a research paper, and she objected. Google maintains that she resigned, and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a company memo on...
Antitrust litigation isn’t enough, Biden will need to go beyond the law
On Wednesday this week, the Federal Trade Commission and 46 states, the District of Columbia and Guam filed parallel antitrust suits against Facebook for the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, and practices that excluded competitive threats in social networking and messaging. In October, the Department of Justice and 11 states...
Corporate Council on Africa launches US-Africa health resilience initiative
Corporate Council on Africa will launch the US-Africa health security and resilience initiative at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on December 15 formally. The two-year initiative brings together US and African opinion leaders, corporations, multilateral organisations, foundations and other players in the health sector to create strategic...
