The Land of the Pharaohs is Open
Egypt reopened its famed Giza pyramids to the public after a three-month closure. The reopening marked the restart of a vital tourism industry battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dozens of excited tourists snapped selfies as they wandered around Egypt’s most iconic ancient site. The pyramids were the country’s first tourist attraction to reopen, along with […]
At Your Door Laundry Services Pick Up in Abidjan
Tech-enabled laundry services are not the norm in Ivory Coast, but a startup called Easy2toofacil has seen strong early uptake of its on-demand solution. Founded in June 2018, Easy2toofacil allows users to arrange dry cleaning, laundry, ironing, retouching and shoemaking services by phone, WhatsApp, Messenger or mobile app. All services are completed within 48 hours, […]
Juba Provides Relief to Households
South Sudan’s central bank took steps to bolster the economy amid the COVID-19 lockdown, but an analyst warned the economy will only improve after the government restores peace and security. The central bank lowered interest rates from 13% to 10% and lowered the cash reserve ratio from 15% to 10% to reduce economic hardships on […]
Secretive Gorilla Society Spotted in Nigeria
In a rare sighting, conservationists have captured new images of the world’s rarest gorillas with several babies in southern Nigeria. The Cross River gorillas were spotted in the dense Mbe Mountains in Cross River state on a camera set up by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The subspecies is critically endangered and at one point only […]
The Matchmaker Who Brought African Content onto Netflix
As director of international original films for Netflix, Nigerian-American Funa Maduka built an Oscar-winning powerhouse. Last year she left Netflix to work on her own projects, likely aimed at lifting hidden voices. It started at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for underprivileged girls in South Africa, where Maduka rose to become dean and saw the […]
This Woman’s Home has Become a Safe House in the War against Boko Haram
Aisha Wakil knew many of Boko Haram’s fighters as children. Now she uses those ties to broker peace deals, mediate hostage negotiations and convince militants to put down their weapons – but as the violence escalates, her task is becoming impossible. Shortly after Wakil moved to her house in Maiduguri, she decided to start leaving […]
Tracking and Tracing East Africa’s Locust Outbreak
Vast numbers of locusts have been swarming across East Africa in recent months, devastating crops and threatening food security in the region. Now, authorities are hoping a new app could help them gain the upper hand in their battle against the pests. Called E-Locusts, the app allows a team of ‘locust scouts’ to track the […]
A Museum to Address a Largely Forgotten Part of Kenya’s Past
Using eye-witness accounts, documents and field visits, Kenyan and British historians from the Museum of British Colonialism are now building an online archive of the period when Britain ran prison camps in the decade before Kenya’s independence in 1963, complete with 3D recreations of some of the camps. They were set up to jail activists […]
Former African Head of State to Investigate the World’s Response to Covid-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s former president, and Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, are to head a panel to review the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mrs Sirleaf led Liberia during the Ebola epidemic that began in 2014, killing more than 11,000 people in West […]
FASTA and Mastercard join forces to launch FASTACard – South Africa’s first virtual credit card
Consumers can quickly and easily access FASTA’s credit facility at the point of purchase via a virtual Mastercard credit card, enabling them to pay for goods and services at millions of online and instore merchants globally FASTA, a digital lending fintech, has partnered with Mastercard to launch FASTACard, South Africa’s first virtual Mastercard credit card. […]
