Africa Prize Selects 2021 Shortlist Of Entrepreneurial Innovators Shaping The Continent
Sixteen talented entrepreneurs have been selected from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia Shortlist will compete for the £25,000 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation This year’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation shortlist includes the creators of a low-cost ventilator powered by water instead of electricity, a digital financial services […]
Dozens of Crocodiles Escape Enclosure in South Africa
Traps have been set in the Breede River after an unknown number of Nile crocodiles escaped from a commercial breeding farm in Bonnievale in the Cape Winelands. Local government officials say that the police and landowners in the area would also patrol the river at night. “They are subadults and not at breeding age yet. […]
Growing the Maghreb’s Property Portfolio
Morocco-based real estate portal Mubawab has received a US$10 million cash injection to accelerate its expansion in the Maghreb region and develop its technology. Founded in 2011 by current chief executive officer Kevin Gormand, Mubawab allows sellers and landlords to advertise their properties in Morocco and Tunisia, and has two million visits to its site […]
Kenyan Fisherman Swap Out Old Boats for Greener Ones
Fishermen on Lake Victoria in Kenya have begun using some of Africa’s first electric fishing boats. A Kenya-based start-up, ASOBO is offering battery-powered engines to some of the tens of thousands of boats which go out onto the water each night, as a cheaper and greener alternative to petrol ones. ASOBO started business operations in […]
How the Lack of Proper Infrastructure has Affected Food Prices in Africa
Investments in infrastructure – such as roads – typically aim to reduce transport costs, stimulate trade and make new production activities viable. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the need for such investments is widely acknowledged. Researchers typically focus on so-called “exogenous shocks”, where neither the location nor timing of changes to infrastructure can be explained by existing […]
An Egyptian’s Self-funded Project to Develop Scorpion Venom for Medicinal Purposes
Surrounded by thousands of live scorpions in a laboratory deep in Egypt’s Western Desert, Ahmed Abu al-Seoud is a mechanical engineer who worked in the oil sector for almost two decades, Abu al-Seoud decided in 2018 to strike a different path — producing scorpion venom for pharmaceutical research purposes. “I was surfing the internet and […]
Dangerous New Trend Emerges in the Quest by African Migrants
Smugglers threw 80 migrants into the sea between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula on Wednesday, and at least 20 of them are believed to have drowned, in the third incident of its kind in less than six months, United Nations migration officials said. The smugglers had packed about 200 migrants, including children, […]
New Data on How the Coronavirus Has Affected African Women
A preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization in 28 African countries shows that women account for a slightly smaller proportion of COVID-19 infections and deaths compared with men. The analysis based on COVID-19 gender specific epidemiological data provided by countries found that although women account for around 41% of COVID-19 cases, this ranges from […]
The Unintended Benefits of East Africa’s Locust Invasion
Kenya is facing its worst plagues of locusts in decades. Since December 2019, huge swarms have caused devastation across east Africa. Erratic weather patterns aggravated by the climate crisis have caused locust numbers to surge. Crops and grazing land have been stripped, leaving countries battling to avoid a food crisis. The Bug Picture, a pioneering […]
What Really Went On in Tigray?
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has called for an independent investigation into human rights violations that may amount to war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, days after CNN published an exclusive report about a massacre in a village there. A CNN investigation published on Friday revealed a massacre which took place […]
