Wednesday, November 20African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: Climate

Energy, Green Energy, Zimbabwe News

Air quality deteriorates in Zimbabwe’s main cities

by Wallace Mawire A report produced by the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) on  the proposed National Climate Change Response Strategy in Zimbabwe has revealed that there is increasing evidence of deteriorating air quality in the country's main cities. The IES, a department of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) was contracted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management to come up with a national climate change response strategy for Zimbabwe. The strategy report says that studies conducted by the Air Pollution Information Network for Africa show that carbon monoxide constituted 74% of Zimbabwe's total emissions using 2000 as the base year and was mostly from savanna and vegetation burning including forest fires. "The other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide c...
African News, Zimbabwe News

Zimbabwe formulating a national climate change response strategy

by Wallace Mawire Zimbabwe is in the process of formulating a comprehensive national climate change response strategy to help guide government on how to deal with climate change issues, according to Ms Florence Nhekairo, Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management. According to Nhekairo, the initiative is being carried out in an effort to ensure coordination and effectiveness in programmes aimed at addressing climate change. It is being spearheaded under the Zimbabwe government’s Climate Change office in the Ministry of Environment. It is understood that the strategy will help the government to determine whether there is need for a policy or another legal framework on climate change as well as provide a framework for a comprehensive and strategic approa...
African News

Former President of the African Development Bank Babacar Ndiaye to lead Investment Day at this year’s AgriBusiness Forum.

African expert calls on everyone involved in agriculture to step up to the fore for the sake of the entire continent’s development and in the fight against poverty. 12th November 2012, Brussels, Belgium With the AgriBusiness Forum 2012 just around the corner, Babacar Ndiaye, former President of the African Development Bank and founder of the African Business Roundtable (ABR), outlines his demands towards the African and international community to act and establish basic and fundamental financial policies to create real change, after years of debates and establishing potential visions and objectives. “Africa’s agricultural potential cannot induce people into a self-righteous optimism, but should instead incite a responsible and pro-active approach from the sector’s various players because ...
South Africa News

Standard Bank Group to scale back its international operations

  Given the challenging global economic climate and evolving regulatory regime for banks, Standard Bank Group's Corporate & Investment Banking business (CIB) is continuing to right size its international operations in a responsible and deliberate manner. As part of this process, CIB will be driving higher levels of efficiency in both its front and back offices, and is planning to scale back certain product lines and geographies. These actions will be focused on CIB's geographic footprint outside Africa excluding Latin America. Says David Munro, Chief Executive, CIB: "Our strategic positioning remains strong. However we continue to seek ways to simplify our business, reduc...
African News

International business must reach out to the global masses

  By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa An initiative aimed at mobilizing the Global business community to achieve sustainable prosperity must be taken seriously. A document released from Washington, D.C reveals that transnational corporations are now so numerous and in some cases so well capitalized that their global influence now rivals and in many cases exceeds that of governments, according to research published by the Worldwatch Institute. And that around 80,000 transnational corporations (TNCs) operate worldwide, a mere 147 of which control 40 percent of the total value of all these corporations' value. Any vision of a sustainable future must include full recognition of the role that TNCs play in shaping the planet's human and ecological destiny, authors argue in Institute's Stat...
Energy, Green Energy, Kenya News

Joju Solar aid electrification of hospital in Kenya

  Joju Solar have assisted in the installation of a 2.2 kW off grid solar PV system on a remote village clinic in Kenya, in association with the Sindicatum Climate Change Foundation The project has enabled the remote clinic, which is off the electricity grid, to be fitted with a solar/battery system to supply power to the clinic for the first time. The generated power is used to run energy efficient lighting and ceiling fans in the wards. And importantly, the project also provides a super insulated fridge for the storage of vaccines and medicines. The project has generated considerable interest locally, in particular from the Ministry of Health who met with Hope for Konya and other local partners to discuss the possibility of placing doctors permanently at the clinic instead of...
African News, Equatorial Guinea

American Businessman Talks About Investment In Equatorial Guinea

More than 25,000 Americans Work in Equatorial Guinea Today MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, Nov., 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Investing in Equatorial Guinea is a flexible and friendly process, according to American businessman John James. In a recent interview with Focus Washington, John James, founder and chairman of JD James & Company, an advisory firm serving governments, government sponsored enterprises and the global private sector in West and Central Africa, said that Equatorial Guinea offers more flexibility to establish a business than other African countries because the government has deeply focused on the country’s development. James has lived and worked in Africa for more than ten years. James said that Equatorial Guinea is one of the most dynamic stories in Afric...
African News, Kenya News

Deforestation Costing Kenyan Economy Millions of Dollars Each Year and Increasing Water Shortage Risk, UNEP and Kenya Forest Service Report Finds / Services from Kenya’s Water Towers Underpin Many Sectors of Economy

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 5, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Deforestation deprived Kenya’s economy of 5.8 billion shillings ($US 68 million) in 2010 and 6.6 billion shillings in 2009, far outstripping the roughly 1.3 billion shillings injected from forestry and logging each year, according to a joint Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.   The ongoing work of the KFS, together with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and international partners, says that the contribution of forests is undervalued by 2.5 per cent, putting the estimate of its annual contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at around 3.6 per cent.   Hon. Dr. Noah Wekesa, Kenya’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, said the report – entitled ‘The ...
African News, Rwanda News

Africa: Shared benefits require bold economic reforms

  The seventh African Economic Conference ended on November 2, 2012 in Kigali, Rwanda KIGALI, Rwanda, November 3, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Participants at the closing session of the seventh African Economic Conference (http://www.africaneconomicconference.org), on November 2, 2012 in Kigali, Rwanda, urged African leaders to put in place bold economic reforms, aimed at sustaining growth and boosting human development. Logo African Economic Conference: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/aec-logo.jpg Photo Donald Kaberuka: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/photos/donald-kaberuka—afdb-president.jpg The four-day conference highlighted the need for policy-makers to create diversified economies capable of generating e...
African News

Middle East and North Africa: Boosting support for women’s entrepreneurship will pay off in jobs and growth, says OECD

  PARIS, France, October 8, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) should create urgently needed jobs for the 2.5 million people entering the labour market each year and improve their policies to encourage women’s entrepreneurship in order to reduce structural unemployment, says a new OECD report. Women in Business: Policies to Support Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region notes that while MENA governments have made progress over the past decade in closing the gender gap in education, more needs to be done to tackle gender inequality in business. Today, only 27% of women in the region join the labour force, compared to 51% in other low, middle and high-income economies, and only 11% are self-employed, against...