Thursday, November 28African Digital Business Magazine

South Africa News

South Africa News

Medicine, South Africa News

There is a third way to minimise COVID exposure –Let’s start using it

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 SARS-Co-2 spreads, in fact the way most coronaviruses spread, is through the air. An infected person coughs or sneezes and aerosolised droplets are inhaled by an otherwise healthy person. There are two primary methods for minimising exposure to the virus recommended by the various Centres for Disease Control: wearing a mask or face covering over your mouth and nose, and social distancing. In addition to these two widely publicised methods is a third, fairly new, yet rarely mentio...
South Africa News

SA’s Transport sector in the age of Covid: A Roadmap to Economic Recovery

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. Covid-19 has both highlighted and exacerbated these hurdles and must force the industry out of complacency.  The challenges it faces must be viewed as opportunities with the problem areas providing a guide as to the solutions that can be delivered with maximum impact, where they’re most needed. A study conducted in partnership by Business for SA and global management consultancy firm, Kearney found that the already beleague...
Events, South Africa News

Leading financial firms call on governments to step up action on climate risk reporting, boost adaptation finance

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 adapt to climate change but they need to first understand and measure the risks and opportunities for their businesses. Ten financial institutions convened by UNEP FI are calling on governments to encourage adaptation finance by making climate risk disclosures mandatory, ensuring the availability of robust data, and developing standards to guide the finance industry. The financial institutions are the European Bank for Reconstruct...
SMMEs primed for growth as economy slowly takes steps to recover
African News, South Africa News

SMMEs primed for growth as economy slowly takes steps to recover

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 and CEO of Lulalend, a large part of the country’s growth this year will be dependent on SMMEs. “Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the remarkable ability of these businesses to adapt to change has helped them evolve and ultimately survive. Companies were resilient, optimistic and innovative, trusting that, although the situation will not improve considerably in 2021, it will be able to at least start stabilizing.” Gosling says that t...
African News, Business, South Africa News

High-Impact Entrepreneurs Raise 4x Capital Year-On-Year

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 to R1.3bn combined during 2018-2019. A number of these businesses delivered strong results, one of which achieved a 300% uptick in volume. Capital Markets Lead Antonia Bothner attributes this acceleration in capital raising due to the growth stage nature of these businesses and the strong underlying performance of the businesses in the tech or tech-enabled space. The portfolio is...
The Role Of Painting Robots
South Africa News, Tech

The Role Of Painting Robots

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, and money. Today, advancements in the world of industrial robotic solutions have paved the way for painting robots. These sophisticated machines offer large-scale manufacturing operations, a customised automation solution that boasts precision, efficiency, programmability, and safety, particularly in the automotive industry. Globally, the implementation of painting robots is well-established and still steadily growing. In South Africa, we have seen t...
Business, South Africa News

How to make your business more ‘circular’

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 sounds absolutely nonsensical, doesn’t it? But that’s what has traditionally happened to the things we buy. They come to the end of their useful life (to us!) and are simply thrown away. However, the good news is that this can and will change – organisations and businesses all over the globe are thinking differently and taking a new approach to their operations as a means to being more ‘circular’; looking at the goods and services they provide and innovating for sustainable suc...
Fighting Fraud in 2021
Fintech, South Africa News

Fighting Fraud in 2021

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 fraudsters looking to capitalise on the confusion. In fact, South Africa has the third most cyber victims worldwide, losing R2.2 billion a year, with low investment in cybersecurity and immature cybercrime legislation making the country the ideal target.[i] So, what can companies do to ensure that their business is safe from cyber-fraud in 2021? “The first step towards insulating your business from cyber-crime and fraud is to make sure you’re using...
Development Trend of African Startups and Fintech
Fintech, Kenya News, South Africa News, Startups

Development Trend of African Startups and Fintech

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 regions progress with time accepting change. Consequently, poverty is going down and the African society promises a safe future and a solid education system for generations to come. Amidst this progress, the number of fintech companies in South Africa is emerging at a rather very fast pace. As the country is starting to embrace digital payment and banking systems instead of the traditional banking system, it has become easy for African tech startups to grab a hold of ...
Main, South Africa News

Environmental, Social and Governance takes centre stage in a post-pandemic Africa

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 build robust sustainability strategies that comply with global and local mandatory and voluntary ESG standards and codes, and which fit in with their overall strategic priorities. The definition of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) encompasses a broad range of issues across the spectrum of Environmental (climate change, biodiversity, waste, water and resource use, pollution), Social (human rights, labour pract...