Main Archives - Page 5 of 19 - AfricaBusiness.com

1Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Benin News, Business, Egypt News, Libya News, Main

The growing US dollar weighs down on African economies

By Pitamber Kaushik As the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, continues to hike its lending rates aggressively in order to rein in persistent inflation, the stress exerted by the bulking US Dollar continues to send ripples throughout the world. Being the predominant medium of international exchange, serving as the world’s principal reserve currency, and being the official or de facto primary currency in some 16 countries, the American dollar wields sizable influence on the global economy. Most African countries are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and some are going through its aftershocks. High inflation pervades the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, is experiencing severe inflationary pressure given its overwhelming reliance on imports fo...

1Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

COP27 lays foundations for long-term investment opportunities in Africa

By Philippa Owen, ESG Lead at GraySwan After several days of focused negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, this year’s COP27 closed with a sense of comfort that the needs of emerging and developing markets have not been overlooked. The agreement to create and implement a loss and damage fund to rescue and rebuild physical and social infrastructure comes years after questions were first raised about the non-delivery of promised finance to facilitate the developing world’s transition to a greener economy and the move away from fossil fuels. Yet, it is seen as a first crucial step that places the onus on the countries most responsible for the effects of climate change to contribute to those countries worst affected (and the least responsible). From a local perspective, South Africa’s request f...

Africa’s industrialization progress in the past decade highlighted in new report

27Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main

Africa’s industrialization progress in the past decade highlighted in new report

Africa is making progress towards industrialization, with 37 of 52 countries becoming more industrialized over the past eleven years, according to a recent report. The African Development Bank, African Union, and United Nations Industrial Development Organization teamed up to produce the report, which shows that some African countries are making significant strides in developing their industrial sectors. The Africa Industrialization Index (AII) report provides a country-level assessment of 52 African countries’ progress across 19 key indicators. The report will enable African governments to identify comparator countries to benchmark their own industrial performance and identify best practices more effectively. The African Development Bank, the African Union and UNIDO jointly launched the...

27Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Main

New Research Suggests That Mobile Finance Can Help To Boost A Nation’s GDP

In countries where mobile money adoption is successful, GDP per capita growth could reduce poverty by around 2.6%. Successful deployment and adoption of mobile financial services is associated with positive GDP growth in developing markets, according to new research from Vodafone Group, Vodacom Group, Safaricom, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mobile financial services help businesses reduce costs, access credit for investment, and connect with previously excluded consumers, all of which contribute to economic growth. The econometric modelling research [1] – which examined 49 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America – found that countries with successful mobile money services had an annual GDP per capita growth rate up to 1 percentage point higher than countries ...

How AI is Transforming Paediatric Radiology in Africa

21Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main, Medicine, South Africa News

How AI is Transforming Paediatric Radiology in Africa

The 10th annual AFRICA HEALTH CONGRESS will be held at Gallagher Estate from 26-28 October. This year's Congress is expected to include representatives from 56 countries and offer free CPD conferences. A possible topic of interest at this year's event is discussed in the content below. This article looks at the reasons why African radiology professionals may be reluctant to make use of artificial intelligence in their field, including a lack of funding for AI-powered equipment and lack of training and education in the era of transformation. Concepts like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning algorithms, deep learning, and convolutional neural networks, previously the forte of the IT world, are now being applied across many sectors of the medical world as well[i]. Radiology has ...

20Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

Local is really lekker: The secret to streaming success is authentically African content

Ever think that a series shot in Korean and overlaid with questionable dubbing – with no famous actors to speak off – would achieve global cult status and go on to become one of Netflix’s most-watched shows ever? Well, that is exactly what happened in the case of Squid Games, Netflix’s 2021 series about a fatal contest centred around popular children’s games such as Red Light, Green Light. Leslie Adams, Sales Director at Reach Africa, says that the tale resonated with both a local and international audience facing a turbulent post-pandemic global economy, which served to ratify Netflix’s strategy of investing in local content. While the massive global success of local content, as in the case of Squid Games, is admittedly rare, he highlights that for advertisers, local content creates a p...

3Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Main

How Companies Can Leverage Linguistic Talent in Africa as Part of a Corporate Social Responsibility Program

(NEW YORK) – The future of business, and how businesses run, is always evolving. An Aflac CSR survey shows that 77% of consumers prefer to buy from socially responsible brands, and 73% of investors say corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts contribute to their investment decisions. One area where organizations can make a positive social impact is talent acquisition, particularly impact sourcing. Impact sourcing creates opportunities for global brands to hire talent from disadvantaged sectors as part of their CSR. Benefits of Impact Sourcing Impact sourcing provides job opportunities, professional development, and higher wages to disenfranchised workers, moving them and their families to middle-income status. Some of the business benefits include: Lower costs. According t...

4Jul

By Jana BothaNo Comments

Ghana News, Kenya News, Main, Namibia News, Nigeria News, South Africa News, Tanzania News, Zambia News, Zimbabwe News

Indirect tax developments in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Jana Botha, VAT Consultant, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg There have been significant developments in indirect tax within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the past year. The vast majority of developments have been based around VAT amendments and policies, as well as general budget updates for 2022 across SSA. This article includes key developments from Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ghana The Parliament of Ghana passed the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Act 1072) to bring VAT proposals into effect. The Amendment Act came into force 1 January, 2022. The policy includes a revision of the VAT flat rate scheme (VFRS). Act 1072 has now revised the application of VFRS to only cover retailers of goods where the value of taxable supply is betw...

China’s trade ties with Africa continue to strengthen

9Jun

By Virusha SubbanNo Comments

Main

China’s trade ties with Africa continue to strengthen

While challenges remain, continental free trade will further boost Africa’s trade partners By Virusha Subban, Partner specialising in Customs and Trade, and Head of the Tax Practice, Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg Trade between China and Africa is growing. The General Administration of Customs of China recently noted that bilateral trade between China and Africa amounted to USD 254.3 in 2021, an increase of 35.3% from 2020. In the first quarter of 2022, China's Customs Data confirmed that trade between the two regions increased by 23%, to USD 64. 8 million. Africa exported goods worth USD 105.9 billion to China, an increase of 43.7% from the previous year. China is increasingly importing agricultural products and manufacturing goods from Africa, in addition to its continued strong focu...

How tracking methane helps fight climate change

9Jun

By Antoine RostandNo Comments

Algeria News, Energy, Main, Nigeria News, Rwanda News

How tracking methane helps fight climate change

By Antoine Rostand, President and Founder of Kayrros The need to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions has never been more urgent. According to the IPCC, “without increased and urgent mitigation in the coming years, leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will surpass 1.5C in the following decades, leading to irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems, and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies.” And yet they continue to increase. However, while much attention is paid to CO2, which accounts for 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions, less is paid to a far more potent gas. Methane (20% of global emissions) is considered a “short-term climate forcer”, with a lifespan of about 12 years compared with CO2’s 300 to 1,00...