Niger Puts its Best Foot Forward with Exhibition
The National Museum of Niger is a 24-hectare gem and boasts a multitude of displays. From dinosaurs to living animals in its zoo and there are also nuclear energy, craftwork and history exhibitions. “We are dealing with a public that has a thirst for knowledge. A public that hasn’t been to school and that comes […]
Africa Should Use the Next Decade to Go Green
Renewable energy is expected to account for less than 10% of Africa’s electricity generation by 2030, showing huge investment is needed to unlock the continent’s wind and solar power potential, researchers said on Monday. Drastic policy change and investment will also be needed if the notion of Africa “leapfrogging to renewables” is plausible, according to […]
Mali’s Mobile-based Crop Insurer
Malian fintech startup OKO Finance has distributed US$70,000 in payouts to farmers affected by floods through its new insurance service. Founded in 2017, OKO develops affordable mobile-based crop insurance products to provide smallholder farmers with the financial security they need, regardless of unstable climate trends. “We use the latest satellite observations to develop precise weather […]
Five Steps Back for Talks on Grand Ethiopian Dam
Negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, in a long-running dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, have reached a new impasse. “We cannot continue this vicious cycle of circular talks indefinitely,” Sudanese irrigation minister Yasir Abbas said in a statement. However, Egypt and Ethiopia, in separate statements, blamed Sudanese objections […]
Lagos’ Waste Economy is Huge
It is well connected with the domestic formal economy and has also established links into trans-border trade with neighbouring and distant countries. But managing the city’s solid waste remains an intractable problem. While there have been some improvements, for example in solid waste policies, investment and management practices, these have mainly benefited the formal waste […]
Ms Campbell Becomes the Face of Kenya Travel
The appointment of British supermodel Naomi Campbell as Kenya’s tourism ambassador has caused a Twitter storm in the East African nation. Many queried why it had not been given to a prominent Kenyan like Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o. Others leapt to her defence, saying the debate already justified her role. Kenya’s tourism sector has been […]
Africa’s Green Wall Intitative Gets Cash Injection
The World Bank plans to invest over $5 billion over the next five years to help restore degraded landscapes, improve agriculture productivity, and promote livelihoods across 11 African countries on a swathe of land stretching from Senegal to Djibouti. The more than $5 billion in financing will support agriculture, biodiversity, community development, food security, landscape restoration, job […]
Recurrent Drought and COVID-19 have Brought Southern Madagascar to its Knees
Lack of rain and poor harvests have left more than one-third of southern Madagascar’s population short of food, not knowing from where their next meal will come. The World Food Program says 1.3 million people are going hungry, nearly double what it was in the same period last year. The World Food Program is providing […]
The State of Egypt’s Hospital Supplies in Pandemic Fight
Filming on his phone inside Egypt’s Hussainiya hospital, Ahmed Mamdouh pans around the ward to show beds occupied by motionless bodies. “All the people are dead,” he says. Mamdouh’s own relative had just died, for which he blames a lack of medical oxygen. In another video, a screaming woman at Zeftah hospital in Gharbiyeh governorate […]
Covid-19 Deals Heavy Blow in Lilongwe
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has declared a state of disaster in an address to the nation delivered hours after two cabinet ministers died from COVID-19 amid a spike in coronavirus infections. Transport Minister Sidik Mia and Local Government Minister Lingson Berekanyama both succumbed to the disease in the early hours of Tuesday, the government spokesman […]
