News — africa economy

Multiple reports have acknowledged the positive effect of inclusiveness on the human and economic growth of a nation. For instance, a report by Citigroup reveals that reversing discriminatory practices against Blacks could boost the US economy by $5 trillion in the next five years.

In Africa, women tend to be on the fringes of leadership and economic participation. Although in recent times, African women are playing leading roles in their various nations and multinational organizations, they are still marginalized.

Achieving gender parity on the continent is slowly but gradually gaining policy attention. Many analysts have attributed the slow pace to toxic traditional cultures that are simply refusing to go away.

Countries such as Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Uganda, and Tanzania have been praised by the World Economic Forum for their role in promoting gender parity.

In recent times, high-profile appointments on the continent and the world has gone to African women. The African Union recently appointed the deputy central bank governor of Rwanda, Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, as deputy chairperson of the AU Commission.

And the former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, 66, was also appointed as the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, making her the first Black woman and African to occupy the global organization.

According to the World Economic Forum, “gender parity has a fundamental bearing on whether or not economies and societies thrive.” This buttresses a report by McKinsey Global Institute that achieving gender parity can significantly improve Africa’s economy or the economies of African countries.

The report notes that improving women’s participation in governance and economic activity could boost African economies by $316 billion or the equivalent of 10 percent of their collective GDP by 2025.

The report examined the “power of parity” for Africa, exploring ways accelerating gender parity could have an effect on economic growth. The women population in Africa is more than 50% but accounts for only 33% of the continent’s collective GDP. “This reinforces and fuels inequality and compromises Africa’s long-term economic health,” the report said.

At its current pace, it will take Africa more than 140 years to achieve gender parity as most African countries rank low on many gender indicators except for progress made in legal protection and political representation, according to the report.

On country-by-country progress, the McKinsey report noted that Rwanda and South Africa have increased women’s representation in middle-management roles by 27 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

The report also acknowledged Algeria’s effort in cutting maternal mortality rates by around 9 percent while Egypt has tripled its score. Guinea and Liberia doubled their scores on the legal protection of women, according to the report.

“These examples of rapid progress should inspire others to forge ahead with actions to advance gender equality,” it said.

“Art is all I’ve ever known” are the words of the new record holder for the world’s largest drawing by an individual. Dyymond Whipper-Young’s artwork covers 6,507 square feet, beating the previous record held by Italy’s FRA! by 400 square feet.

The Philadelphia-based artist told RNBPhilly that she was recommended by a substitute art teacher in her school for the Crayola-sponsored art project. This project was meant to hype and be a prelude to the company’s new installment titled, “Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition” housed at the Mandell Center at The Franklin Institute. The organizers specifically looked for a Philadelphia based artist to work with.

It took five days, a whopping 63 hours, and only one type of marker; Whipper-Young started with the black Crayola Project XL Markers and used 57 of them to create the giant-sized doodle art piece.

“I believe that creativity is in all of us and with this exhibition and the drawing, the purpose is to inspire people to find their creative pulse,” Whipper-Young said in a video sent to the press.

FRA!’s drawing was in 2020 and it covered 6,100 square feet. Whipper-Young’s work covering the floor of the Franklin Institute has now made history covering 6,507 square feet.

“Everything you see in this drawing is a reflection of what’s in Crayola IDEAworks,” Whipper-Young said in the video. “It has sea, it has land, it has space. You’ll really get to experience those things once you’re in IDEAworks.”

The immersive exhibition, which originally covers 17,000 square feet, allows visitors to do “interactive challenges that hone their skills,” Crayola IDEAworks writes on its website. “The four sections in this area, I, D, E, and A, will feature questions and puzzles that will determine creative strengths.”

Crayola collaborated with the Franklin Institute as the latter aims to “inspire and empower” everyone no matter their age to get in tune with their creativity and feed their curiosity.

On how she got the gig, Whipper-Young said it all started with a direct message from one of the organizers of the exhibition. After a conference call with the Franklin Institute and Crayola executives, the young artist got the gig. She admits she would not have otherwise tried out for such a project if she had to audition for it because she thought “it was too big” for her.

“I always told everybody that if I saw that opportunity, I would never have applied, God dropped that thing right in my lap because I would have thought it was too big.”

According to Whipper-Young, she later realized the size was not even an issue because everything worked out perfectly.

The Temple alum who is originally from Baltimore went straight to art school after elementary school. She was 11 years old at the time. She trained in fine arts in high school and studied all forms of art and now works as an art teacher and freelance artist.

The art teacher is currently working on a sculpture that will feature her famous ‘twerking sculpture’ which she made when she was in high school. She is all for making museum-worthy art but according to her, hers is a cross-section between fine art and Black culture.

One of the challenges confronting Africans in the diaspora is the ability to remit to their relatives through safe and cheaper means. Despite the existence of many banking solutions, Africans in the diaspora continue to face multiple challenges sending money home, particularly, irregular migrants.

A Tanzanian entrepreneur created a hassle-free, offline mobile money payment platform to make sending money to the continent cheaper. Benjamin Fernandes co-founded Nala following the frustrations of some Africans in the diaspora with mobile money payment services.

The app, which is live in Tanzania and other African countries including Uganda, has over 250,000 users. The app makes it easier for users to send money to anyone on any device. All one has to do is download the app to start transacting. 

In Tanzania, Uganda and other East African states, internet penetration is low. Nala’s offline solution mode allows users to send money without data or internet services and at no extra cost.

Prior to starting Nala, Fernandes was a television host of youth talk shows and sports shows in Tanzania. He migrated to the U.S. for his first degree at the evangelical Christian University of Northwestern in St. Paul. At the university, the former TV host took interest in economics. He received a full scholarship to school at Stanford through the school’s Africa MBA Fellowship in 2014 and moved back to America.

“I took the two years at Stanford to learn everything I can about fintech,” Fernandes recalled. “In the summer I started working at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and that’s where I met Sam Castle. He was a PhD student at Washington doing research in mobile payments in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.

After Fernandes’ studies, he returned home and started working on Nala while convincing Castle to come on board. Fernandes was a previous winner of the Seedstars Tanzania and the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.

Nala announced in January that it was planning to roll out its beta app targeting UK customers sending back remittances to Uganda and Kenya this year, according to Tech in Africa. This payment option will also be available to Tanzanian customers.

Fernandes said Nala does not only make it easy for people to transact, but also provides users with insight into their accounts. “The offline application allows us to build trust, which is the backbone for any company in the financial services industry,” he said, according to cardrates.com. “As we build that trust, we can enable and leverage other services to layer on top of what we’re already doing.”

His goal is to operate in at least 30 countries. Since the app was launched in Tanzania and expanded to Uganda, it has seen a massive subscription. “I wish I could build 15 different fintech companies in Africa because there’s so much that needs to be done,” he said. “Most people think it’s easy, but it’s not. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

Fernandes attributes the success of his business to building trust. “That means we always have to let users know what we’re doing and what security measures we’re taking with our application,” he said.

One of the aspirations of Africans in the diaspora is to eventually return to Africa and among other things, contribute to the socio-economic development of the continent. Although a number of factors turn to hinder their return, a considerable number of them have returned home.

One of the things many of them do upon return is to establish a business venture to serve as a source of livelihood and a job creation avenue. Face2Face Africa has documented the entrepreneurial journey of some of them and their success stories.

Today, we highlight the success story of Nana Ama Serwaa. Born in Ghana, Serwaa has lived in Atlanta, United States, for over 35 years. She returned home to establish Ike’s Cafe and Grill, the biggest traditional restaurant in Ghana located in the nation’s Ashanti Region.

The restaurant is built with a touch of Ashanti culture and other side attractions such as a live band, Karaoke, a continental bar and a local bar (that serves local Ghanaian wines and gins), a VIP section and a range of delicious local and continental dishes.

Serwaa tells vlogger Wode Maya she was inspired to open her restaurant so that other Ghanaians living abroad who have been away for long can come and experience Ashanti and Ghanaian culture and how beautiful it is to live in an African environment.

She projects Africa as the next big investment destination, adding that the continent has virtually everything to make one’s investment worthwhile. “I want my brothers and sisters to know that the way Africa use to be is not so anymore. Right now, the way things are going, Africa is a place to be,” Serwaa tells Ghanaians in the diaspora. “And that is where our roots are. We have to come and build our motherland.”

Serwaa’s project had a sad beginning. Stories of entrepreneurs who turned their tragedies into success abound. Serwaa is one of such people. The initial project got burnt and she had to rebuild. Although she was distressed, she did not allow the unfortunate incident to discourage her but it rather propelled her to start again.

She also recounts how her Spa company, located in Ghana’s capital, Accra, collapsed due to the poor work ethics of her employees. She revealed that she pumped $150,000 into the business. “So that was my first time I tried in Ghana and I failed,” she said.

She is now transforming her restaurant into a “village” where tourists and other visitors can come and stay and enjoy the wide range of services she is providing. As part of the village, she is building a hotel and other tourist attraction sites. The whole idea behind the village is to bring back the “community feel” Africans had in the past.

She reiterated her call for Ghanaians in the diaspora to return home and contribute to the economy of Ghana. While acknowledging structural challenges in establishing a business in Ghana, Serwaa underscores the fact that they are surmountable and should not discourage anyone from returning home to establish a business.

Seasoned comedian Cedric The Entertainer is adamant Bill Cosby deserves to be honored for his contributions to the Black community both on and off the set despite being convicted for aggravated sexual assault.

The 56-year-old initially paid homage to Cosby in an Instagram post on February 26 where he said the disgraced comedian “did a lot for the culture and the community.”

“The controversy of his current situation is not what these [sic] post are about!,” he clarified before adding: “He was one of the first Black Men we saw on TV that was truly his own boss. He taught us to know our worth in this business, He showed us how to give back to our communities and institutions.”

Cedric continued: “He was/ is Prolific, Funny and Audacious! He ruled on damn near every platform. Thursday nights became must see TV because of him, Film, Stage, Books, Animation, Recordings, all were places he reigned supreme. So he had to be shouted out, for his contribution to the Black History of Comedy. Show the Legend some Recognition!!”

In a follow-up interview with TMZ on Wednesday, Cedric re-echoed his initial sentiments, saying Cosby’s transgressions shouldn’t overshadow his influence and the good he has done for the Black community.

“We all live a full life with a lot of good things and some bad things. You pay the cost for all of it. If you get convicted, people wanna wipe out the [good] things that you did,” he said.

He added: “What I wanted to say was that for so many years of our lives Bill Cosby was the litmus…. Everything he did, the way he contributed and showed love to black people, the way he taught us how to do that for ourselves, the way we all learned to take pride in our culture and our history.”

Cedric also lauded Cosby’s media acumen, saying he laid the groundwork and foundation for the likes of Jay-Z and Tyler Perry to thrive.

Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in 2018 on three counts of aggravated assault for drugging and sexually assaulting former basketball player Andrea Constand in his home in 2004. The comedian and actor’s case was the first high-profile celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era which was initiated to raise awareness of sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace. Cosby also had several other women coming out to accuse him of sexual misconduct going back to almost 30 years.

The allegations against the actor and his eventual conviction were also followed by him losing several honors and business partnerships as well as people shelving his sitcom and anything that has to do with him.

Asked if Cosby could be forgiven for the crimes he committed, Cedric replied: “Redemption for certain crimes are going to be hard to come by. Abuse of the ladies, taking advantage of people that are unaware of their circumstance, I don’t know how much redemption you deserve for that.”

That notwithstanding, it appeared Cedric’s sentiments caught the ears of Cosby as he responded to his Instagram post in a tweet on Wednesday. “I plan to do more, too. Thank you very much for feeling, knowing & keeping the legacy alive through your great work,” Cosby’s Twitter account posted. “Thank You, Thank You & Thank You.”

The 17th-century English political philosopher, John Locke, once said,” to understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men naturally in.” Locke, who is widely regarded as an inspirer of European Enlightenment, argued in his Two Treatise of Government that government is obligated to serve the people. He was rather eloquently talking about the state of nature which is crucial to us as human beings, in order to make sense of political power.

Four years ago, Somalia was swept by a contagious fever of Farmaajo-Mania largely driven by huge public dissatisfaction with his predecessor’s dysfunctional and inept government. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration was accused of being ridden with systematic corruption, political patronage and deeply-structured nepotistic culture that can only be defined as a transactional quid pro quo for political support.

Farmaajo, who was a presidential candidate then with undisclosed Qatari financial backing, tapped into the public’s broader frustration and used it as a primary weapon to mobilize his political base. Soon after he was chosen as president in February 2017, Farmaajo said, “this is victory for Somalia and Somalis” to Somalis MPs packed like sardines inside a hangar at Aden Adde Airport in Mogadishu for precautionary security reasons.

During his 2017 presidential campaign, Farmaajo promised to comprehensively dismantle Somalis highly kleptocratic system which permeates all levels of the country’s governmental institutions, closely work with Somalis federal member states, and liberate areas still controlled by Al-Shabaab terrorist organization in south and central Somalia. Weary Somalis exhausted by decades-old political conflict greeted these noble promises with tremendous optimism and hope.

Unfortunately, the president, perhaps overwhelmed by his unreasonably sycophantic supporters, developed a grandiose view of himself and saw himself as Somalis latter-day Siad Barre. The man hailed as a prudent statesman with almost panacea powers to remedy the nation’s illness has waged a war against the country’s adopted federal system that is enshrined into Somalis provisional constitution.

His blatant anti-federalist political doctrine has soon put him at loggerheads with Puntland state which is one of Somalis powerful member states that lies in the north-eastern part of the country. The semi-autonomous region of Puntland has won a chorus of praises for its locally-led reconciliatory conferences, its bottom-up built governance system coupled with its tangible institutional reforms by harmonizing the role of influential tribal leaders with modern state mechanisms. Puntland sees federalism not only as its own brainchild innovation but also as an effective form of government for a country acutely traumatized by prolonged armed conflict.

Farmaajo’s popularity upsurge has often been linked to his apparent populist politics that pits the federal government against not only its member states but also against neighboring countries with often far-reaching political consequences. He sees Somalia largely through the eyes of his role model Siad Barre whose dictatorial and repressive regime crumpled under the pressure of tribal militia in 1991. While it’s abundantly clear that Kenya has been the most flagrant violator of the good neighborly relations between the two countries, nonetheless, the president’s inner-circle clique deliberately politicized the Kenya-Somalia maritime delimitation dispute to rally his hardcore followers sucked in by his cult personality. 

Due to his fanciful aspirations to mold this already fractured nation into his own image, there’s a genuine risk of a new explosion of the Somali civil war and the president’s utter refusal to hold the country’s elections that were scheduled for three weeks ago makes this risk even riskier. The president’s official term in office expired on Feb 8 with new elections expected to be held within the timeframe mandated by the country’s provisional constitution in order to prevent Somalia from descending into unchartered waters. Strong emotional allegiance to the opposing political factions exacerbated by the fact that Somalis are more divided along ideological lines than ever before, makes this election enormously sensitive.

A president who came to power on a string of promises including that he would eradicate the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization which still retains control over vast swathes of southern Somalia, unite a profoundly polarised country, restore Somalis pride and build democratic institutions is determined to cling on power at almost any cost. But, as English historian John Dalberg-Acton better known as Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The recent brute force against a peaceful protest organized by opposition parties including two former presidents and a prime minister has once again shown that president Farmaajo is not afraid to deploy security forces to remain in power at any cost. The Ankara-trained Turkish-speaking Somali Special Forces have been propping up his administration with the brutal force since the expiration of his official term.

Turkey has the biggest overseas military base in Somalia which reportedly cost $45 million with 400 hectares for training new Somali cadets in an intensive Turkish language course before they’re flown to Turkey for further military training. While the vast majority of Somalis support Turkey’s involvement in training the Somali army and equipping them with modern Turkish made MPT-76 assault rifles and armored personnel carriers to defeat the Al-Shabaab terrorist group, there’s however a growing concern that the incumbent’s continued army deployment to suppress the opposition parties for his own benefit, may potentially split the newly-trained army along clan lines when the existential threat of Al-Shabaab is omnipresent.

The president has a serious legitimacy crisis which could possibly, if not wisely managed, plunge the nascent state institutions into a political abyss. Somalia’s historical relationship with the Arab world is at its lowest point ever since Somalia implicitly sided with Qatar on the Gulf political crisis to reciprocate Qatar’s financial backing during the 2017 election that saw Farmaajo getting elected. His obsequious gatekeepers keep portraying anyone who doesn’t fall into their fake patriotism orbit as traitors seeking to sell out Somalia. This alarmingly belligerent narrative has become the dominant political discourse since Farmaajo began cozying up to dictators including Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea while at the same time, undermining the historic relationship between the sister countries of Somalia and the Republic of Djibouti.

If Somalia is to be saved from sliding back into political instability again, the country’s opposition parties must come up with a master plan on how best to dislodge him from office. Unfortunately, the opposition parties seem to be lacking clearly defined exercisable strategy that can set the stage for radical change. There’s one man however who can mount a serious challenge to Farmaajo’s re-election aspirations with broad-based public support and well-oiled ideological state apparatuses. Said Abdullahi Deni, better known as Deni, is the president of a relatively peaceful semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the north-eastern part of Somalia. Unlike the rest of south and central Somalia whereby decades of communal conflict deeply eroded the cherished interwoven social fabric, in Puntland, communities and their successive local administrations used indigenous methods of traditional conflict resolution to bring peace, stability and social harmony.

Somali political observers and those familiar with Mogadishu’s intricately complex dynamics consider Said Deni as a masterful strategist who has already drawn Farmaajo into spider’s web during the recent political discussions between the Federal and Member State leaders in Dhusamareb to resolve the electoral impasse. Deni has not made his electoral intentions clear as yet, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that he’s the only potential candidate with strategic brilliance to outmaneuver Farmaajo’s grand plan to cling to power.

If opposition parties want to unseat Farmaajo and salvage the fledgling federal institutions, then they must form a credible coalition of hope which not only attracts people of different political persuasion but also the wisdom to withstand the Qatari financial backing for Farmaajo. Once dubbed Somalia’s most powerful post-conflict president, Farmaajo is now being left looking like a salmon gasping on a riverbank in diminished figure after he has been disowned by powerful regional leaders and having run out of fresh air of legitimacy. If this is not a spectacular failure of Somalia’s tarnished jewel, then frankly, the true definition escapes me. 

Leparua, Isiolo County, Kenya – it takes three hours to snake downhill on a motorbike, skirting gingerly around mud puddles, but for Salome, it feels like days.

Riding side-saddle, she exhales sharply over each bump on the track and rubs her heavily pregnant belly protectively.

In the driver’s seat is traditional birth attendant, or TBA, Afro. He squints through the monsoon rainclouds, carefully inching the motorbike forward. His gaze remains fixed on the horizon until, at last, the hospital comes into view.

Deep in Kenya’s interior, health facilities are sparse, with some located up to 100 kilometres from the communities they service. For pregnant women like Salome, reaching it can be perilous, particularly during the rainy season, when dirt roads flood and bridges become submerged.

“I know many women who went into labour and started to walk to the hospital alone,” she says, slumping down on a plastic stool at the hospital entrance. “But it is too far to walk with labour pains, so they had to deliver the baby in a bush.”

Fortunately, Salome is in safe hands, thanks to birth attendant Afro and his motorbike, or piki-piki, as it is known locally.

As she goes in to register, Afro leans heavily on a curved crook outside, exhausted. He explains why traditional birth attendants continue to play a central role within the Masai’s tribal structure.

“It is a great honour for us to deliver the new members of our tribe. This role gives us status within our communities.”

But with the arrival of the motorbike, he says, the role of the traditional birth attendant may be changing.

“In the past, I had to deliver the baby at the woman’s home with no medical knowledge. When there were complications, there was nothing I could do. Now I can bring the mothers here on my piki-piki and take the tiny babies back home when they arrive. So, we still play a significant role.”

Unfortunately, many women in Kenya do not have access to the same level of medical care as Salome. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation, more than 6,300 women died in childbirth last year, one of the highest in East Africa. It is estimated that more than 800 of those deaths occurred in Isiolo County.

Traditional birth attendant Afro, Leparua, Isiolo County, Kenya, 2016 Photograph: Nicola Kelly

With long distances, poor infrastructure and no licenced medical professionals nearby, women in this part of the country have relied on TBAs for generations.

In 2005, Kenya’s Ministry of Health banned traditional midwifery practices, saying TBAs had adopted increasingly risky methods of delivery. They focused their investment instead on training and equipment.

Nurse Julia describes how the ban further entrenched high-risk practices in Masai culture. “Many TBAs felt abandoned at that time. They felt they had no choice, so they continue to use these natural remedies. For example, they take a part of a tree commonly found here, boil the root and give the liquid to the pregnant woman to encourage the uterus to contract.

“But many midwives give the mother too much of the liquid. Sometimes, the ladies overdose, start fainting during labour and even lose their babies. It is traditions like this that we must prevent.”

She points to a small plastic bag filled with blood on a tray nearby and explains that this had been extracted from a goat by another TBA to increase the haemoglobin levels of an 18-year-old mother.

“Clearly, she needed a blood transfusion, but the TBA saw no alternative,” she adds. “This is how tetanus, hepatitis B, HIV and many other infections are being spread.” Afro says that, while these traditions will endure, he encourages his fellow TBAs to integrate their practices with skilled medical care.

“We used to deliver the babies with no protective gloves, but a lot of birth attendants contracted HIV. Now we know that it is not safe to do this. We have agreed not to assist women at home anymore.”

International development agencies believe that providing funding for motorbikes as part of the Rural Transport Network scheme, rates of maternal mortality in Isiolo County will improve. “By giving motorbikes to rural communities, we can ensure emergencies are quickly referred for specialised obstetric care,” Samuel Nyutu, Health Programme Officer for Christian Aid in Kenya, says.

“They allow TBAs to reach areas it would be difficult for an ambulance to get to and they are easy and cheap to run.”

Alongside the health benefits for the mother, there are a number of other incentives for the traditional birth attendants. They receive a small stipend, protective clothing and some also undergo midwifery training, working alongside nurses like Julia.

Afro hopes that more vehicles will be supplied to TBAs in the surrounding villages to ensure women in rural areas make the arduous journey to their local health facility.

“I see that my motorbike has helped to save lives. It helps the mother and the baby – and it also helps me!” he says, patting the saddle of his piki-piki fondly.

Access to capital and insurance are some of the factors affecting not only peasant farmers but commercial farmers in Africa. A large majority of farmers in Africa still use hoe and cutlass and farm largely to feed their households and sell the surplus for cash.

This makes private capital injection into the sector unattractive. Aside from that, the sector remains unattractive to a large majority of educated African youths, despite the sector being the second-largest employer, after the services sector, in Africa.

In Ghana, the government launched an agriculture program called Planting for Food and Jobs to increase youth participation in agriculture through the provision of subsidized fertilizers and other incentives but the flow of rural folks to urban areas for jobs suggests the program is not achieving its intended purpose.

For rural farmers, part of the reasons for migrating to urban centers is to work menial jobs so as to accumulate some capital to serve as insurance for crop failure which could be occasioned by flood, poor weather conditions, among others.

The risks African farmers face have widely been documented but steps taken by African governments to assist them remain lackadaisical. An insurtech startup called Pula is providing small-scale farmers with assistance to help them mitigate hard farming conditions.

The company specializes in digital and agricultural insurance to derisk millions of smallholder farmers across Africa. It recently closed a Series A investment of $6 million led by Pan-African early-stage venture capital firm, TLcom Capital, with participation from nonprofit Women’s World Banking.

According to Techcrunch, the raise comes after Pula closed $1 million in seed investment from Rocher Participations with support from Accion Venture Lab, Omidyar Network and several angel investors in 2018.

The new financing will scale up operations in its existing 13 markets across Africa, where it has insured over 4.3 million farmers. They include Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, Techcrunch reported.

Founded in 2015 by Rose Goslinga and Thomas Njeru, the Kenyan agricultural insurance company is now looking at expanding to Asia and Latin America. The startup has an average subscription of $4 for farmers in Africa.

“We are able to work in 13 countries not because we have insurance licenses in all these countries but because in every one of those countries there are insurance companies that are willing if enabled by a company like ours,” co-founder Goslinga told.

Pula’s expansion to Asia and Latin America will focus on countries such as Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Pakistan. “What we’ve realized is that African solutions are in no way inferior to Asian, European solutions,” said Goslinga.

The federal government of Nigeria says it will have to sell as many as 36 properties to fund its 2021 national budget as a result of challenges in raising funds and expectation of further encumbrances in the international financial markets.

A number of the properties will also be available for concession. The process of sale and concessions began at the beginning of this year and expected to be wrapped up by November 2022.

The Abuja International Conference Centre (ICC), a major venue for local and international programs is part of the properties put on the market. Some oil refineries have also reportedly been listed. A building belonging to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board in the capital, as well as Abuja Water Board and Nigerian Film Corporation properties are up for sale.

Nigeria is also prepared to sell or list for concession some 29 ongoing projects under different federal departments including Energy, Natural Resources, and Industries. Some of these would only be available for partial ownership and for sale in shares and they will be available to foreign investors.

It is not known how much Africa‘s largest economy expects to generate from the fundraising drive but the country’s Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, has already hinted that Nigeria may borrow up to $14.69 billion from international and local lenders.

Between $1.3 billion and $8.65 is reserved for debt servicing in this fiscal year. Nigeria’s quest to raise money in a very difficult period across the world has been met with challenges of different kinds, including a religious row.

Toward the end of last year, the government announced that it was going to fund some projects using Sukuk, an Islamic financial practice.

Under a Sukuk, an issuer sells an investor group a certificate, which then rents it back to the issuer for a predetermined rental fee, while the issuer also makes a contractual promise to buy back the bonds at a future date at par value.

But the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) accused the federal government headed by a Muslim, of trying to “Islamize” Nigeria.

Ulta Beauty wants to invest in Black-owned beauty brands. The beauty retailer announced that it will invest $25 million into driving more access to the industry for BIPOC brands as well as provide more Black-owned brands on the store shelves.

The company has also appointed Tracee Ellis Ross to serve as its new Diversity and Inclusion Advisor. In her new role, the actress and hair entrepreneur will “provide counsel and insight, and drive accountability to Ulta Beauty–with a specific focus on BIPOC brand development, diverse leadership development, and supplier diversity.”

“I look forward to formalizing an already existing dialogue and partnership around diversity and inclusion with Mary Dillon and the Ulta Beauty team,” the black-ish star said in a press statement. “This work requires commitment and accountability from Ulta Beauty to ensure measurable goals are achieved. I am hopeful and optimistic our work together will create foundational change.”

Ulta also announced that it will feature more inclusive branding in its marketing campaigns with dedicated beauty initiatives geared toward different marginalized communities.

“As the country’s beauty retail leader, we believe we have the power to shape how the world sees beauty and as such, we have a responsibility to inspire positive change and drive greater diversity, inclusivity, and equity. We are deeply committed to leading purposefully with and for underrepresented voices across retail and beauty on our D&I journey,” said Mary Dillon, CEO, Ulta Beauty in the statement.

“Authenticity as an inclusive brand with welcoming experiences for all and an approachable assortment are tenets of how we champion diversity at Ulta Beauty,” continued Dillon. “We have mapped these commitments to impact every facet of our work. We look forward to sharing more as we continue on this journey with steadfast commitment from our teams and our newly established advisory Tracee Ellis Ross, who brings passion, experience, and perspective to this important work.”

Dr. Charis Chambers idolizes her big brother, Dr. Wesley C. Chambers. Recently, the pair finally got to perform surgery together at their family practice headed by their father, Dr. Crandall Chambers. The brother-sister duo took sibling goals to the next level as they performed a laparoscopic hysterectomy on a patient together.

An ecstatic Dr. Charis shared the moment on Instagram, saying, “Getting to do surgery on any day is an amazing experience. Getting to do surgery with my brother- even more amazing!”

The family practice, Chambers OBGYN in Columbus, GA., is where the three work. Their mother, Charlette Chambers, who passed away in 2017 from cancer, managed the office for 15 years before her passing. The family practically share the same passion and are there to support one another at work and at home.

“This week I got to perform a complex laparoscopic procedure with my brother, Dr. Wesley C. Chambers,” Dr. Charis wrote after the surgery with her brother. “His presence, partnership, and support throughout the case were literally the best gift that he has ever given me as his sister.

“I thank God for the opportunity to surgically treat my patients in need, and especially for the opportunity to do so with family by my side,”  she added.

According to BOTWC, Dr. Charis, Dr. Wesley and Dr. Crandall are all Board certified OBGYNs. Dr. Charis gives all the credit to her father for inspiring her and her brother to follow in his footsteps.

“My father was the first physician that I ever knew and he spoke to us often about his work. I loved how passionate he was about serving his patients and improving their lives with medical or surgical treatment”, she said.

Dr. Charis said this family legacy was made possible by their alma matters.

“We literally wouldn’t be here without our HBCUs. After graduating from Morehouse College, my Dad went on to attend Meharry College of Medicine. It was there that he decided to pursue a career in Obstetrics and Gynecology,” she wrote on Instagram.

As the home is the first place of socialization for every child and the formative years most often determine the outcome of the child, it is a delight to see Black families making waves for all the right reasons. Black parents ought to be the best role models for their children.  

Zambia has formally requested a financing arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with its debt crisis, the Fund said in a statement on Tuesday. The IMF is “currently assessing this request,” it said.

The administration of President Edgar Lungu released a photo showing him in a meeting with officials of the IMF in the capital, Lusaka. According to Reuters, Zambia officials have been tight-lipped on what was discussed at the meeting.

The request for assistance from the IMF follows a rocky relationship between the Fund and the Zambia government. However, Reuters cited the country’s finance minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, as saying that the government had been in talks with the Bretton Wood institution over an “appropriate policy instrument” to help manage its debt.

The copper-producing nation became the first African country to default on its loan repayment, totaling $3 billion, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Zambia issued three sovereign debt instruments before COVID-19; the first being a $750 million debt instrument with a 5.375% interest, the second being a $1 billion debt instrument with 8.5%, and the third being 1.25 billion with 8.9% interest.

The suspension of the loan repayment covered three upcoming interest payments on debts due on October 14 this year, January 30 and March 20 next year. The country says its inability to honor its debt commitment is because of challenging macroeconomic and fiscal situations “aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis that has severely affected the country’s public finances.”

The Finance Ministry added that a combination of declining revenues and increased unbudgeted costs caused by the COVID-19 has affected its available resources to make timely payments on its indebtedness leading to increasing debt-servicing difficulties.

Zambia, Africa’s second-largest producer of copper, has accumulated foreign debt of $10 billion over the past decade. The drastic fall in copper price has strained the country’s finances and stalled economic growth, which grew at an average of 6.8% between 2000 and 2014. The country’s public debt reached 80 percent of GDP in 2019 from 35 percent at the end of 2014.

The South African country is not the only nation taking steps to default on loan payments. Argentina reached an agreement with its creditors to restructure $65 billion of its foreign debt.

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the imposition of restrictions on movement, African Finance Ministers have called for the suspension of debt interest payments so as to free fiscal space for critical investment in health to contain the spread of the virus.

Some African Heads of State have even called for the complete forgiveness of all bilateral and multilateral debt.

According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, calls for debt relief are complicated by Africa’s range of creditors. Of all Africa’s external interest payments, 55% are made to private creditors while only 17% are made to multilateral institutions, with the same figure going to China.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation further noted that before COVID-19, as many as 30 African countries spent more on repaying public debt than on healthcare. The Gambia, for example, spends as much as nine times its health budget on debt servicing, while Angola and Congo spend six times. 

Nigeria, damaged by the collapse in oil prices, has secured a $3.4 billion loan from the IMF, having resisted borrowing from the organization for years. It has also requested a further $3.5 billion from the World Bank. 

Egypt, hurt by a lack of tourism revenue and decreased trading through the Suez Canal, has received $2.8 billion from the IMF and is seeking a further $5 billion to account for the coronavirus-induced budget shortfall.