Main Archives - Page 8 of 19 - AfricaBusiness.com

1Oct

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Ethiopia News, Kingdom of Eswatini News, Main, Malawi News, Mozambique News, Namibia News, South Africa News

Increasing competition policy enforcement across Africa

By Angelo Tzarevski, Associate Director, and Zareenah Rasool, Candidate Attorney, Competition & Antitrust Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg Competition policy continues to be viewed by regulators as a key driver of economic growth globally. Across Africa, competition policy enforcement is increasingly being employed as a tool to boost economic performance and promote the revitalization of trade and industry following the devastating impact of COVID-19. The effects of the pandemic have led to negative economic growth in a number of African jurisdictions, and have given rise to opportunistic, anticompetitive behaviours such as unreasonable price increases and price gouging, coordination amongst competitors, and other unsavoury business practices that erode competition. Over the pas...

1Oct

By Ben GossageNo Comments

Main, Tech

Why the subscription economy is transforming B2B operating models forever

From Hello Fresh to the Spotify, subscription services are now so commonplace they’ve almost become the norm. Subscriptions started life in the media world, with newspaper and magazine subscriptions dating back centuries. But in the last ten years, the subscription business model has exploded in popularity across consumer industries including fashion, food and beauty, creating what has been dubbed, the ‘subscription economy.’ The model, which promotes a more convenient, cheaper way of accessing goods, has revolutionising the way we buy and sell consumer products. It should be no surprise then, that it’s now transforming B2B operating models. In the last few years, we’ve seen the proliferation of cloud-based ‘anything-as-a-service’ products, paid for on subscription. These new offerings ad...

22Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

Modernisation means more than simple mechanisation – it means people

By Arjen de Bruin, MD at OIM Consulting The latest figures from Statistics South Africa have revealed that in July 2021, there was a 10.3% year on year increase in mining production, which it has attributed to higher commodity prices and the recovery in the global economy. And while the sector appears to be on an upward trajectory after a crippling hard lockdown last year, the mining industry’s adoption of mechanisation and digitisation has also been attributed as having played a role in this renaissance. There’s no denying that the mining industry is a significant contributor to South Africa’s economy, with local mineral reserves boasting an estimated value of around $2.5 trillion (Mining Weekly 2016). It also plays a crucial role in creating employment within the country’s communities...

17Sep

By Dr. Ehud GachuguNo Comments

Kenya News, Main, Tech

Report shows young people earning livelihoods working in digital platforms

By Dr. Ehud Gachugu The digital economy is expanding largely in Kenya. Covid-19 has accelerated the growth since Kenyans, especially youth, have now recognized the potential to earn a living in digital platforms. The pandemic led not only to a health crisis but also an economic crisis. The measures imposed by the Ministry of health, such as physical distancing and cessation of movements, contributed to the increasing role of platform livelihoods. Those in logistics were considered as essential delivery agents and service providers. The small and medium enterprises switched to online shopping. Farming was also not left out as when complying with the set measures, a social and online farmer emerged. The offline gigs for musicians and creatives declined hence they focused on their digital p...

17Sep

By Katarzyna RybarczykNo Comments

African News, Burkina Faso News, Main, Mali News, Niger News

The Sahel faces further destabilisation from the jihadi gold rush

Africa’s Sahel, a region separating the Sahara Desert to the north and savannas to the south, is notorious for widespread poverty and persistent conflict. In fact, Western Sahel, especially Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, is the most unstable area on the continent. For years, terrorist attacks have been a frequent occurrence but recently the region has been facing a new threat - a wave of extremist violence targeting gold mines. Groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State have been taking over gold mines and becoming increasingly involved in the informal gold trade. ‘More than 2m people are involved in small-scale mining in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger’, reported the International Crisis Group. As the NGO explained, ‘in total they dig up 40-95 tonnes of gold a year, worth some $1.9bn-4.5...

17Sep

By Sir Ian CheshireNo Comments

Business, Main, Medicine, South Africa News

Collaborating for the benefit of employee mental health

Sir Ian Cheshire Chair, The Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health Before the Covid 19 pandemic hit, mental health was already an issue on the rise around the world, with an estimated 13% of the global population, just short of 1 billion people suffering from some kind of mental illness. In South Africa, according to statistics released by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), as many as one in six South Africans suffer from anxiety or depression. The pandemic experience has put additional pressure on the mental health of millions of people. This pressure has been felt in workplaces across the world in numerous ways, from the need to support employees with what they are dealing with outside of work to managing new and different ways of working...

17Sep

By Virusha SubbanNo Comments

Main

China’s trade with the continent grows to record highs

By Virusha Subban, Partner and Head of Indirect Tax at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, trade between China and Africa increased by 40.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2021, and was valued at a record high of USD 139.1 billion. The Ministry noted that African products were increasingly being recognised in the Chinese market, and that imports from Africa into China increased by 46.3% between January and July 2021. Further, the import of agricultural products, such as rubber, cotton and coffee from Africa into China doubled when compared to the first seven months of 2020. Data from the Ministry further revealed that over the last 20 years, China's trade with Africa has risen 20-fold, showing that China is Africa's biggest bilater...

4Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main

Connecting in a time of Covid: Redefining the human experience

Three YPO leaders share their learnings from a time of no-contact - and what other organisations need to know about retaining human connection It can be argued that the success of any organisation is based on the strength of its connection to its stakeholders, and the extent to which it can sustain that connection. Yet even before the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers were becoming increasingly jaded, with research from PwC revealing that almost 60% of global respondents felt that organisations had lost touch with the human element in its relationships with its customers. And while the digital transformation, accelerated by Covid, has brought with it many benefits in the form of increasing access to a multitude of services - from education (e-learning) to healthcare (telemedicine) - the fli...

31Aug

By Johan BotesNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

The economic cost of sexual harassment

By Johan Botes, Partner and Head of the Employment & Compensation Practice at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg Conservatively estimated, one in four women will experience sexual harassment in the workplace at some stage during their working lifespan. The personal toll on these women - and those around them who deal with the secondary effects - is immense. The psychological impact of such harassment and victimization cannot be overstated. A recent study has undertaken the mammoth task of calculating the financial cost to women who are victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. The findings are not only shocking but serve as a grim reminder that our quest for gender equality must incorporate actions aimed at eradicating sexual harassment as a main driver of workplace inequality. ...

12Aug

By Mike van RensburgNo Comments

African News, Business, Main

Massive increase in M&A deal value in Sub-Saharan Africa in the first half of 2021

There were 333 M&A deals announced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the first six months of 2021 (H1 2021), valued at USD 57.7 billion, according to Baker McKenzie's analysis of Refinitiv data. When compared to the same period last year (H1 2020) this amounted to a 14% increase in deal volume and an astounding 576% increase in deal value. H1 2020 recorded 293 M&A deals with a deal value of USD 8.5 billion. Last year was a relatively difficult year for investors in Africa, with considerable uncertainty. Pandemic impacts had a limiting effect on numerous sectors and many deals had to be postponed as a result. The boost in M&A deal value in 2021 is, in part, due to a post-COVID boom, where last year’s postponed and delayed transactions were able to proceed in the first half of 2021...