The African Devolopment Bank has announced it plans to invest $12bn over the next five years under its new electrification program. The money will support its flagship New Deal on Energy for Africa Inititiative, which seeks to achieve universal access to power by 2025. More than 600m people in Africa are estimated to currently lack such access.
Source: African Business, May 2017
By Bill Gates:
In our networked world, inequality and poverty in one place inevitably trigger responses to another. Problems like diseases overcome every limit. Security and stability can only be achieved by deepening international cooperation. This begins with the obligation to eradicate poverty and inequality.
Germany shows us today that cooperation is a major step forward. We have defeated the smallpox and are about to eliminate child paralysis. In the past 25 years the rate of child mortality has been halved. The number of poor people in the world has more than halved.
This progress was made possible by the financial support and the know-how of Germany and other countries. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go. Hundreds of millions of people are sick, malnourished and unable to lead a life of dignity for a lifetime. Nearly 6 million children die each year – especially in poorer countries and primarily on preventable causes. However, I am optimistic that we can achieve even greater progress over the next 25 years. There are two crucial findings of the past quarter-century on which Germany and other countries can build.
Germany plays a central role
We must first invest further in innovation. Much of the progress that makes our lives so much better is the result of public investment in research labs and universities. This can be seen on the smartphone or the contents of today’s medicine cabinet – all innovations that have started in state laboratories or universities. Secondly, we must ensure that innovations reach people who can help themselves the least. This can not always be guaranteed by markets. Vaccines, for example, are a proven and highly effective tool to prevent childhood diseases and related deaths. Unfortunately, for many years, there was no market mechanism to make life-saving vaccines and medicines available to people in the world’s poorest countries, even if they had been available in the industry for decades. There was a gap between the ability of developing countries to pay and the need for a vaccine manufacturer to provide them at a reasonable price.
To solve this problem, Germany and other donors have launched a public-private partnership called “Gavi”. Gavi pooled the demand of dozens of the poorest countries for vital drugs. This results in the necessary quantity forecasts to be able to offer products more favorably. Just a few months ago, in collaboration with Unicef, Gavi managed to negotiate the lowest price ever for five vaccines each child needs.
Germany as one of the strongest economies and leading democracies is excellently positioned to help create a more just and stable world. As the host of the G-20 summit in 2017, Germany plays a central role in making the benefits of innovation available to more than two billion people still living in extreme poverty. Everyone is entitled to lead a healthy, fulfilling life, regardless of where he or she is born. It is only when we pursue a policy which is in harmony with this basic idea that we create the conditions for a secure world.
Source: faz.net, February 2017
The 5th financial investment services conference shows up in London on the 3rd May of 2017.
AFSIC has shown continued strong annual growth in delegate numbers with 500 delegates expected to attend in 2017, and welcomed over 100 speakers in solo and moderated panel sessions in 2016.
With companies from over 30 African countries expected to attend in 2017 this is your chance to develop and nurture a robust, extremely high quality network of friends, colleagues, investors and business contacts across the continent in preparation for Africa’s continued emergence as the most exciting investment destination in the world.
A preliminary Agenda for AFSIC 2017 is now available in pdf by clicking on the link below:
Is the worst of Africa’s downturn really over?
The president of the AfDB predicted that Africa’a economies will grow by 3,7 % in 2017, but some find this forecast overoptimistic.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) believes that Africa is over the worst of the economic downturn. As a big lender to African projects, it is obviously in the Bank’s best interests to talk up the continent’s economic prospects.
Speaking to Bloomberg in late September of 2016 AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina said “We have a situation of economic headwinds but African economies are quite resilient. We have 19 countries growing at 3- 5 % and 21 countries growing over 5 %. Afica isn’t falling apart. The ‘Africa Rising Story’ isn’t over”.
The AfDB forecasts continental growth of 3,5 % this year, rising to 3,7 % in 2017 and 4,2 % in 2018. There is therefore unlikely to be a return to the 6,8 % growth of sub-Saharan Africa averaged between 2003 and 2008 but the Bank does expect GDP to outpace the population rise, giving figures that can best be described as “modes”.
Whatever the rate of continental growth, the overall figure is almost certain to be dragged down by the two biggest economies in sub-Saharan Africa, with South-Africa stagnant and Nigeria in its first recession for a quarter of a century.
The IMF certainly does not agree with these projections. In October it cut its growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa for 2016 to 1,4 %, which would be the lowest rate this century. The IMF’s breakdown of growth rates is particularly interesting. It forecasts an average of 0,3 % this year for the resource rich countries, while those without such natural resources will grow by an average if 5,6 %.
Source: African Business, December 2016
The ongoing GSMA 360 Africa Mobile Conference holding in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, has predicted that mobile subscription in Africa would reach 725 million in 2020, up from its current penetration level of 500 million, with Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, topping the list of highest number of mobile subscription on the African continent.
Nigeria’s mobile subscription, which currently stands at over 160 million, has been adjudged as the fastest growing telecoms market in Africa and the world.
Director General, GSMA Mobile 360 Series, Mr. Mats Granryd, who announced the growth rate of mobile subscription in Africa, said the forecast to reach 725 million by 2020, accounted for 54 per cent of the expected population of Africa.
The prediction, he said was hinged on some trends that are currently driving mobile subscription in Africa.
“African mobile subscribers are rapidly migrating to mobile broadband networks and services, a result of ongoing network rollouts and the increasing availability of affordable mobile broadband devices and tariffs. Mobile broadband (3G/4G) accounted for just over a quarter of total connections at the end of 2015, but is expected to account for almost two-thirds by 2020,” Granryd said.
According to him, by mid2016, there were 72 live 4G networks in 32 countries across Africa, half of which have launched in the last two years. The number of smartphone connections in Africa is forecast to more than triple over the next five years, rising from 226 million in 2015 to 720 million by 2020, Granryd added.
The predictions were the outcome of a recent research carried out by GSMA 360 Africaand made public in Tanzania.
According to the report, mobile’s contribution to African GDP, Jobs and public funding, were expected to rise.
The use of mobile technologies and services across Africa, generated $153 billion in economic value last year, equivalent to 6.7 per cent of the region’s GDP. The contribution, according to Granryd, would increase to $214 billion by 2020, which is 7.6 per cent of expected GDP as countries in Africa continue to benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by increased take-up of mobile services. The report said Africa’s mobile ecosystem also supported 3.8 million jobs in 2015 and made a $17 billion contribution to the public sector via general taxation. The number of jobs supported is forecast to rise to 4.5 million by 2020, while the tax contribution is expected to increase to $20.5 billion.
The report also explains how mobile is powering innovation and entrepreneurship across Africa. It notes that there are now approximately 310 active tech hubs across the region, including 180 accelerators/ incubators. Mobile operators are supporting this ecosystem by opening up new services to third-party developers in areas such as messaging, billing, location and mobile money, which has allowed start-ups to scale quickly.
Source: Thisday, 28th July, 2016
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