ARTS & CULTURE
Actor Samuel L. Jackson and footballer Samuel Eto’o pay tribute to art collector Sindika Dokolo during six-hour televised memorial
The Congolese businessman and art collector Sindika Dokolo, who died aged 48 in a free-diving accident in Dubai last month, was buried at Brompton Cemetery yesterday during a six-hour televised memorial held in Luanda, Kinshasa and London. Full article
Live broadcast of the memorial is available on YouTube
Africa’s art market grows even amid adversity
While many European and US art fairs, biennials and other larger cultural events have been—and continue to be—cancelled or postponed well into 2021 due to concerns related to Covid-19, their African counterparts are going ahead—with caution. Full article
Capacity-building project in disaster risk management for site managers in Africa
On November 9 2020, the Africa Unit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and ICCROM experts met online to develop a project that will contribute to capacity-building in disaster risk management and protection systems for World Heritage sites in Africa. Full article
ECONOMY
Lockdowns Have Pushed South Africa’s Economy to the Brink
In more developed economies, there is a higher chance that those who lost their jobs earlier this year will return to employment once lockdowns are lifted. However, in South Africa, the data are telling a different story—again reinforcing the idea that government should have acted with more caution before implementing a hard lockdown. Full article
How African countries can create a political economy of care post COVID-19
In many African countries, exploitation of minerals without beneficiation, or value addition, has contributed to mass poverty. This compromises people’s health and ability to cope with the outbreak of a pandemic of the magnitude of COVID-19. Full article
Africa’s internet economy is booming but it needs more homegrown software developers
Africa is on course to add $180 billion or 5.2% of aggregate GDP by 2025 thanks to the rapid growth of its internet economy, says a report from the World Bank’s IFC and Google. In 2012, the continent’s internet economy (iGDP) was estimated at just $30 billion, or 1.1% of its GDP. Full article
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Jeff Bezos just became the latest big tech name to invest in an African fintech start up
Chipper Cash, a cross-border, peer to peer payments service, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos’s personal venture capital fund. It’s the first investment in an African startup for Bezos’ fund which has also backed global tech brands including Uber, Twitter, and AirBnB. Full article
Why women-led businesses are still less likely to secure funding
The rise of small and medium scale entrepreneurship is now ever evident with mushrooming business incubation and accelerator programmes. The Government is also placing focus on women. Nevertheless, funding of women-led enterprises remains scarce. Women entrepreneurs in Africa, according to the African Development Bank, face a funding shortfall of $42 billion. Full article
5 Reasons Why Investment in African Youth Is a Smart Bet
According to several studies, investments in youth entrepreneurship are crucial in unlocking opportunities in the world’s fastest-growing economy. New businesses that very young entrepreneurs create have the potential to drive and shape innovation, speed up structural changes in the economy, and introduce new competition into existing markets. Investors and business leaders considering to enter Africa remain sceptical about making bets on the continent. Full article
INNOVATION
ActInSpace 2020: Nigeria Rewards Winning Innovation
Nigeria Communication Satellite (NigComSat) hosted the 2020 edition of ActInSpace, a two-day hackathon for space enthusiasts, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The hackathon is an international brainchild of the European Space Agency (ESA), National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), and ActInSpace. Full article
African scientists root for research, innovation to hasten pandemic recovery
The African scientists and policymakers who attended a virtual summit in Nairobi agreed that leveraging home-based research and innovation has the potential to boost pandemic recovery in the continent. Hamadi Boga, principal secretary in Kenya’s ministry of agriculture in his opening remarks said that COVID-19 offers a chance for African countries to re-imagine policies and ensure they promote inclusive growth, climate resilience and food security. Full article
4th edition World Financial Innovation Series #WFIS 2020: LIVE – Africa
Africa is the second largest banking market in the world in terms of growth and profitability. While in most parts of the world, the banking sector is facing poor performance and sluggish growth, the African banking sector is in stark contrast as it is growing rapidly and is profitable at twice the global average. The banking sector’s revenues on a continental scale are expected to increase from $86 billion in 2017 to $129 billion in 2022. Full article
LEADERSHIP
African leaders must continue to press for talks: Ethiopia is too big to fail
In the days following the start of the conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray region’s leadership, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, as head of East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Agency for Development (Igad), called his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed, offering to mediate. But the Ethiopian leader resisted Hamdok’s offer and similar ones from Kenya and Uganda, with both parties ignoring calls for restraint and dialogue from Igad and the African Union. Full article
Yale panel amplifies the voices of female African leaders
On Monday, Stephanie Busari — a Nigerian Yale World Fellow and journalist and editor for CNN Worldwide — moderated a discussion among three prominent female African leaders on how COVID-19 has caused disproportionate economic harm to women across the continent. The hourlong event was titled “African Women as Pillars of Resilience: Mitigating the Economic Impacts of the Pandemic on African Women” and was held via Zoom at 11 a.m. on Nov. 16. Full article
How This Cisco Youth Leadership Award Finalist Is Fighting to End Africa’s Water Crisis
Christelle Kwizera is on a mission to eradicate water scarcity in Africa and, at just 26 years old, she’s already changed thousands of lives for the better. In 2014, Kwizera founded Water Access Rwanda, a social enterprise that aims to eliminate water scarcity and provide communities with safe and easily accessible water. Today her company successfully supplies over 70,000 people with water daily. However, Kwizera says it’s still just the beginning. Full article
LIFESTYLE
Farfetch is Banking on 10 Chic Brands from Africa and the African diaspora
The chosen designers are Nigeria-based brands Andrea Iyamah, Clan, Fruché, Lisa Folawiyo, Onalaja, Orange Culture, and Tokyo James; and New York–based labels William Okpo, EDAS, and Third Crown. Although they might not yet have global name recognition, all have distinct points of view and offer forward-thinking collections that enrich the fashion industry. Full article
South Africa ranked among unsafest countries in the world – as citizens live in fear
Global polling group, Gallup, has published the results of its latest survey probing perceptions of crime and policing among 144 countries.The group conducted over 1,000 face-to-face and telephonic interviews in each country – 152,000 responses – asking people about levels of crime in their area, how safe they felt walking the streets, and how much confidence they have in their local police force. Full article
Africa: Multichoice to Roll Out New Lifestyle Channel in 2021
The new TV channel, Honey will be launched next year on DStv Compact, Compact Plus and Premium which will be part of an ongoing effort to enhance its customer’s viewing experience. Honey is about a bold, unscripted lifestyle TV channel for curious and connected Africans. The channel is about celebrating and exploring African lives and loves, and the content is focused on lifestyle, fashion, food, weddings, dating, as well as reality. Full article