Are you a 4IR Start-up? Have you been in operation for 3-7 years? Are you a company developing Smart City technologies and/or innovative solutions? Do you have a pilot-ready solution for a challenge faced by our city? The City of Johannesburg’s Smart City Office, in collaboration with Tshimologong Innovation Precinct, invites you to submit proposals for […]
Category Archives: South Africa News
South Africa News
South Africa News, Tech
AURA builds world’s first WhatsApp security chatbot in partnership with Tracker
AURA, South Africa’s leading security and medical response platform has launched the world’s first WhatsApp security chatbot in partnership with Tracker, one of the country’s most trusted names in stolen vehicle recovery. Powered by AURA, Tracker’s unique Tracker CareGuard service offers rapid mobile emergency response anywhere, anytime within South Africa. The new cutting-edge solution enables subscribers to […]
IG, a global leader in online trading, has had a long commitment to South Africa which is set to increase further. The company has operated in South Africa for ten years playing a key role in the growth of online trading in this sophisticated and growing market. IG is committed to robust local governance, and […]
Ethiopia News, Ghana News, Kenya News, Main, Mauritius News, Mozambique News, Nigeria News, South Africa News
Deal making slows across Africa but post-pandemic opportunities look interesting
Deal making activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) dropped in the second half of 2020 (H2 2020), when compared to the second half of 2019 (H2 2019) and year-on-year, deals were also down in both volume and value compared to 2019. As the continent gears up for post-pandemic recovery in 2021, the opportunities presented by free […]
Pork producers in South Africa are forging ahead with innovation and optimism in uncertain times. The industry has changed drastically over the last few decades – with dietary concerns, disease outbreaks, climate change and other factors all playing a role. Brent Fairlie, CEO at one of South Africa’s largest pork producers, Lynca Meats, lets us […]
Dealmaking activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) dropped in the second half of 2020 (H2 2020), when compared to the second half of 2019 (H2 2019) and year-on-year, deals were also down in both volume and value when compared to 2019. According to Baker McKenzie’s analysis of Refinitiv data, M&A transactions dropped in SSA in H2 […]
by FAR UVC AFRICA There is nothing normal about what some people are calling the “new normal“. Humans are gregarious. For millions of years, we have eaten together, celebrated together, and played together. It’s time to get back to that “old normal“. And there are certainly safe ways to go back there. The main way […]
The South African transport sector entered the age of Covid already beset by several major challenges. Ageing infrastructure; a lack of impartial regulatory bodies; an unfriendly environment for private sector collaboration; over-reliance on roads for both public transport and freight; and a skewered subsidy model are a few of the structural obstacles that were present. […]
UNEP’s Adaptation Gap 2020 report released last week found that with annual adaptation costs in developing countries alone estimated to reach $130-300 billion per year by 2030, public and private finance for climate change adaptation must be stepped up urgently. Financial institutions have the power to direct investment and project finance to help the world […]
While South Africa’s economy took a series of blows over the last year, business owners remain confident that things will slowly start to stabilise in 2021. This was reaffirmed with South Africa’s SACCI business confidence index rising to 93.4 in November of 2020 from 92 in October, above pre-pandemic levels. According to Trevor Gosling, Co-founder […]
Endeavor empowers entrepreneurs for business growth Despite prolonged global market uncertainty, Endeavor South Africa has reported significant growth in their portfolio of disruptive tech businesses. The local chapter of the global non-profit organisation, which supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets, reported collective raises of R2bn in 2020 alone amongst the portfolio of 29 businesses, compared […]
For a long time, the most common form of industrial painting required the use of human specialist coating teams, and typically, these jobs included the painting of warehouses, machinery or automobiles. It is a large-scale process that demands high levels of safety measures and protective gear and is prone to errors that waste resources, time, […]
Something is made, it’s used and then disposed of. Read that again. Something is made, it’s used and then disposed of. We go to all the effort of manufacturing objects, only to discard them as rubbish. Worse still, they end up as trash in landfill or incinerated. After some thought and repetition, the entire process […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a drastic impact not only on people’s health and wellbeing, but on that of businesses too. This was especially poignant for many companies that had to venture into the online world for the first time. Unsurprisingly, the uncertainty that coincided with the sudden digital migration created the perfect opportunity for […]
Africa is a land of opportunity long neglected. It is unique and the diversity in cultures may make it difficult for something new to be accepted in society. However, the scenario has changed and African markets have started to gain attention from the past couple of years. Therefore, we can see the rise of African startups as […]
By Wildu du Plessis, Head of Africa, Baker McKenzie As African businesses begin to recover and build the necessary resilience to successfully navigate COVID-19 disruption, a focus on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) strategies is proving essential for long-term success. In order to stay competitive, organisations based in Africa are engaging meaningfully with ESG to […]
Main, Nigeria News, South Africa News
Commitment to sustainability opening doors to post-pandemic capital in Africa
By Wildu du Plessis, Head of Africa, Baker McKenzie The industrials, manufacturing and transport (IMT) sector is being hit hard by COVID-19 disruption, but commitment to sustainability could very well lead the sector to recovery. This is according to Baker McKenzie’s report “Sustainable Success: Exploring environmental, social and governance priorities for industrials through COVID-19 and beyond” which […]
South Africa News
South Africa on a clear path to benefit from trade in manufactured goods with other African countries
By Virusha Subban, Partner Specialising in Customs and Trade, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined the country’s Economic Recovery Plan on Thursday 15 October 202o, during which he explained that South Africa imported goods (excluding oil) are worth around ZAR1.1 trillion annually, and that if just 10% of these were manufactured locally, the country would add 2% to its Gross Domestic […]
In years gone by, manufacturing processes consisted of a line of workers being solely responsible for all the material-handling functions. Whether it was assembly, picking or packaging, it was largely a manual, laborious process. The detrimental effects to the workers’ health have been well documented in the history books, as many employees were subjected to […]
The African continent is bound to become increasingly more dependent on the space industry for job creation, poverty alleviation and sustainable resource management. These were some of the findings in a paper recently published by an expert in the field of Earth Observation and Geo-Information Sciences. The paper titled “The status of Earth Observation (EO) […]
Kenya News, Main, Science, Senegal News, South Africa News, Tech
It’s Time For Africa To Invest In Education, Science And Technology
Africa produces just 1.1% of global scientific knowledge. There are 79 scientists per million Africans. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) estimate for 2019 Africa’s funding for Research and Development is 0.4% of the continents GDP which is far below the global average of 1.7% and the lowest in the world. In 2006, […]
Main, Medicine, Science, South Africa News, Startups
Telemedicine in Africa as a concrete way to solve some problems
Tools for innovation: mobile applications, medical specialized websites for medical personnel, scientists, and for educating people in the field of medicine, crowdfunding fundraising campaigns, mobile medical cars and other innovations The use of telemedicine can greatly help in solving the problems of medicine in African countries. The creation of special telemedicine websites within a specific […]