South Africa Archives - Page 20 of 30

R500k up for grabs in the 2021 Joburg Smart City Innovation Challenge

16Feb

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

R500k up for grabs in the 2021 Joburg Smart City Innovation Challenge

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 smart city innovative solutions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to share your innovative ideas on how we can go into the future together. The lockdown protocols have ignited new thinking about the future of our City and its residents. Therefore, the aim of the Smart City Innovation Challenge is to find and develop digital technology solutions that respond to urban and community challenges faced by the City in the new normal result...

Deal making slows across Africa but post-pandemic opportunities look interesting

6Feb

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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 trade across the continent, foreign investment opportunities due to new partnerships and trade relationships, as well as the post-pandemic focus on technology, healthcare and renewable energy, will be key factors in attracting valuable mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity to the region. Further, South Africa’s deal volume and value both dropped in 2020, with the industrials and healthcare sector attracting the biggest investments. Ghana stood out as a country that...

3Feb

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Agriculture, South Africa News

South Africa’s Pork Industry is Set for a Revolution

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 in on why, in a country where chicken has always been a firm favourite, pork is poised to make a strong comeback. 1South Africa’s pork industry is relatively large, contributing around 2.15% to the local agricultural sector as a whole but accounting for only 7% of the country’s total meat consumption. However, recent trends indicate that there is plenty of room for expansion, and South African producers are leading the way. “The pork industry has ha...

Inclusive design is transforming the customer journey as digital accelerates and expectations skyrocket

29Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

Inclusive design is transforming the customer journey as digital accelerates and expectations skyrocket

Embracing inclusive design is a pathway to innovation that organisations ignore at their peril says Reynhardt Uys, Chief Experience Officer, Immersion Group. “Before now, it was common for the industry to see accessibility and inclusion as a box to tick somewhere within the design or process, but as Covid-19 has accelerated the digital world, inclusive design has now moved up the list of priorities for many organisations. We’re still seeing a huge emphasis on USSD functionality for customers with feature phones or phones that don’t have an active internet connection. Whilst services are made available on other channels like an app or a website, the functionality also exists on USSD to create an omni-channel experience to different user types. Something as simple as changing the font size a...

27Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

25Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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

23Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

23Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

20Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

10Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...