What the fourth industrial revolution means for Africa - CNBC Africa. By: Alpha Condé, President of Guinea Last Updated: 18 January 2016|11:25 GMT Some of our biggest challenges can become unique opportunities. Photo: Pixabay The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting starts this week from 20-23 January 2016 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. This is why Africa should care. (WEF) Talk of a fourth, technology-driven industrial revolution may seem like something a million miles from the minds of developing countries like Guinea. The reality, however, is that this often bewildering new world offers huge opportunities to countries like our own. Some of the things western countries take for granted, like street lighting or power to charge the laptop or smartphone you’re reading this article on, are too often luxuries in developing countries.
“We don’t need to repeat the mistakes of western countries” Rapidly changing technology also means emerging nations like Guinea can make better choices about how they develop. How clean energy transforms lives. Want jobs? Here's where Africa can get them, plus a 5-point smart plan from those who've cracked it. MICROSOFT last week announced plans to create over 100,000 jobs and reach over seven million people across Africa and the Middle East by the end of the year through its YouthSpark Employability Platform.
The Platform is designed to provide end-to-end career guidance, skills improvement, job-matching and mentorship – all centred on a free online hub that brings public and private resources together in an attempt to address unemployment and underemployment. It’s a small drop in the ocean, but every bit helps – the global jobs challenge is disproportionately an African one; two-thirds of the 13 million young people who join Africa’s labour force every year end up becoming part of the working poor – defined as those in some kind of work, but earning less than $2 a day.
We look at some of the sectors, industries and places jobs can be created in the next decade and a half: Agriculture – but not the usual stuff Non-food agro-processing: Leather, wood, textiles Light export manufacturing 1. 2. 3. Classement économique et financier de 14 pays d’Afrique. Le Africa Performance Index (API) est un outil de recherche, d’évaluation, de notation et de classement des institutions du secteur public en Afrique à base d’une gamme d’indicateurs quantitatifs.
Développé par IMANI Francophone, le projet s’effectue dans un cadre sectoriel avec pour objectif de susciter des réformes dans des domaines bien précis en matière de gestion des institutions du secteur public au profit du développement du secteur privé et de l’efficacité des prestations. Le ministère de l’Économie et des Finances de la Côte d’Ivoire affiche une performance nettement au-dessus de celle des ministères des autres pays avec un score de 74%.
Ce résultat est dû à une distinction au niveau du cadre institutionnel où le corpus chargé de la politique économique et financière totalise 90%. Il faut noter que cette performance est imputable à une vision économique clairement articulée et communiquée, notamment par le ministère auprès du Premier ministre chargé du budget du pays. Largest Wildlife Census in History Makes Waves in Conservation. Early findings from the largest ever aerial survey of African wildlife—the Great Elephant Census (GEC)—are proving that big data can make a big difference when it comes to saving the world’s largest land mammal. The Africa-wide census, funded by Microsoft billionaire Paul G. Allen, took off in February 2014 with the objective of gaining a better understanding of elephant numbers across the continent. Since then, 90 researchers from various organizations have joined aerial teams flying survey transects in 18 elephant range countries.
From the sparkling desert floodplains of the Okavango Delta to the boundless savannas of Chad, the teams have racked up a combined distance of 285,000 miles (460,000 kilometers). That’s like flying to the moon and a quarter of the way back—or circling the globe eleven and a half times. Schmitt’s a tech guy from Seattle, Washington, not far from Microsoft’s headquarters, and he gets visibly excited when talking about data. 18 Africans who won our hearts in 2015; from Magufuli, Malak, Teklehaimanot, Jega to Yego.
THE New Year is here, so goodbye 2015. It was a real roller coaster of events but one thing that has been a constant is the unveiling of individuals who have proved themselves to be remarkable, enigmatic, brave, amusing and endearing in a way that was won the hearts of Africans and people across the globe. Be it through actions they’ve taken or feats that they’ve conquered, here are 15 Africans who stole our hearts over the past year. Macky Sall Over the past year this West African president has put many of his African counterparts to shame with his even temperament, sheer enthusiasm, vision and commitment to better his nation. He singled out higher education as an area for investment, putting himself out as a champion for the cause and pushing for more heads of state to follow suit.
Garmai Sumo Garmai Sumo is one of the very few Liberians who bravely removed the bodies of the deceased during the height of the Ebola outbreak. She made it her quest to help these orphaned children. Rida Essa. Why it pays to be small in Africa: Rwanda, Botswana, The Gambia and Lesotho can strut proudly. MANY African countries are currently battling a deep currency plunge and slashing their budgets with a collapse in the prices of several main export commodities including oil, gold and copper. It looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better. A few weeks ago, however, financial analysts Citi proposed reforming public sector management by simply paying attention of long-forgotten assets, observing that governments around the world have an estimated $75 trillion in public assets ranging from corporations to forests, which are often badly managed and often not even accounted for on their balance sheets.
The analysts say that much of the policy focus of most governments is on managing debt and reducing deficits, while a long-term sustainable solution would just be prudently managing the assets that already exist. But these are hardly the countries that are best positioned to manage their assets properly. There’s even a stronger correlation with land area. INTERVIEW: Peering into the crystal ball; Africa in the next 85 years, according to a leading economist. CARLOS Lopes is the executive secretary of the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). A development economist, author and educator, Lopes is from Guinea Bissau, and holds a PhD in history from the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne and a research master from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Mail & Guardian Africa’s Editor Charles Onyango-Obbo - digitally - “sat” down with Lopes to send out feelers about Africa’s future – where the continent is likely to go in the next 85 years.
How big is Nollywood likely to be by 2030? Will South Africa re-take the top spot as Africa’s biggest economy? And what would Africa look like if it totally eliminated malaria, HIV and tuberculosis? And why is Cape Town University’s Department of Astronomy so fascinating? MAIL & GUARDIAN AFRICA: Kenya topped the August 2015 Beijing World Championships, the first time for an African country to do so. By 2028 an African country is likely to win the World Cup. This is why Africa needs to be ‘borderless’ The rest of Africa might follow Rwanda and Mauritius’s lead of free entry into their respective borders soon. An ‘African passport’ is the AU’s 2063 agenda, and according to AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha Abdullah, it will ensure that “our people will not have to carry a visa to gain access to other African states.” In 2013, at the 50th anniversary and the 21st summit of the African Union (AU) that held in partnership with the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development(NEPAD) in Ethiopia, stakeholders in attendance advocated for the revival of unity by all the inhabitants of the African continent.
At the 2013 summit which was themed “Pan Africanism and African renaissance”, the Agenda 2063 was born. According to the AU, the goal of the Agenda 2063, which will promote self reliance, is to enable Africa to finance its own development. Ventures Africa (VA): What could this passport mean for Africa? How Long Have Africa’s Presidents Held Office? | VOA Special Report. Africa has some of the world’s longest-serving heads of state.
Leaders such as Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and José Eduardo dos Santos have been in power for over 30 years. It’s also a continent of change. Across Africa, 25 presidents have held office for five years or less. A dozen presidents have assumed office in the last two years. Use this map and chart to explore how long each sitting president has held power. Researched and produced by: Salem Solomon, Web Producer, Voice of AmericaCasey Frechette, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida St. Decade Office Was Assumed Click or tap a decade to update the map. '70s'80s'90s'00s'10s The average number of years sitting African presidents have held office The number of years Africa’s longest-serving sitting president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, has held office The number of African presidents who have served for five years or less The average age of sitting African presidents Angola - José Eduardo dos Santos.
Letter from Africa: Predictions for Africa's 2016. Image copyright AFP In our series of letters from African journalists, film-maker and columnist Farai Sevenzo looks at what could be in store for the continent in the next 12 months. 2015, with its many elections and third-term bids and violent encounters of the terrorist kind, is behind us. What, then, can Africa hope to find in 2016? President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that Boko Haram has been driven into hiding and is a shadow of its former self. We are told by the Nigerian president that his army has "technically" defeated the Islamist militant group, that they have now been reduced to fighting with improvised "explosive devices and indoctrinating young guys to carry out suicide missions in churches and mosques".
To those on the receiving end of such attacks, this does not seem much of a reduction of the insurgents' activities but rather examples of their usual modus operandi. Image copyright AP 'Third-term fever continues' Image copyright Getty Images Key events to look out for. Next 35 Years: Nigeria, South Africa may not be Africa's biggest economies. Who will? - Business. SOUTH Africa has had a very tough 2015, as global – and local – forces seemingly conspired to knock the wind out of the country’s lungs. First, the global commodity price collapse linked to a slowdown in the Chinese economy has made a big dent in South Africa’s export revenues.
China is a major consumer of South Africa’s mining exports, but has had to cut down its order book as it tries to rebalance its economy. Making things worse is the worst drought in more than three decades. Some parts of the country have been declared disaster areas, thousands of livestock may have to be killed, and the government is spending about 350 million rand ($25 million) on emergency measures. And internally, social unrest has gripped the country in 2015, from the student protests that begun at Rhodes University early in the year and culminated in the #FeesMustFall protests, to a spate of xenophobic attacks in April.
The reason for this possibly is two-fold, according to Mail & Guardian Africa analysis. Les personnalités marquantes de l’année 2015 sur la scène économique africaine. Le magazine Jeune Afrique a établi un classement des personnalités qui ont marqué l’actualité économique africaine de l’année 2015. Il s’agit, en effet, de 11 hommes et 3 femmes de différents secteurs d’activité : la finance, l’industrie, le public, la médecine etc. En voici une sélection. Akinwumi Adesina, président de la Banque africaine de développement Il est ancien ministre de l’Agriculture nigérian et élu à la direction de l’institution panafricaine multilatérale en 2015. Il soutient des convictions liées à la transformation économique par l’agriculture et l’agroalimentaire.
Il doit soutenir la maîtrise des coûts de fonctionnement de la banque panafricaine. Ade Ayeyemi prend les commandes du groupe EcobankIl a fait ses armes à la Citigroup Afrique en se spécialisant en la banque d’entreprise. Héla Cheikhrouhou : elle donne forme au Fonds vertLa tunisienne a été nommée à la tête du Fonds vert en été 2013 pour trois ans. Africa: Behind the Scary Headlines, 2015 Gives Reason for Optimism. InterviewBy Joseph d'Urso London — This year may be remembered for barrel bombs, beheadings and the Bataclan massacre, but according to a Harvard psychologist, a remarkable long term downward trend in violence is continuing.
Wars are far less common and deadly than in the recent past, terrorism is rare, and the European refugee crisis is nothing new, said Steven Pinker, a bestselling science author. "The news is a systematically misleading way to understand the world," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. In the past five years alone, conflicts have ended in Chad, Peru, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, India, and Angola, and if peace talks currently under way in Colombia are a success, war will have vanished from the Western hemisphere, he said. In his 2011 book "The Better Angels of Our Nature," Pinker called the decline in violence "the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species". But he says the geographical reach of wars is shrinking. Les corollaires de la corruption dans lentreprise en Afrique disséqués. Tunis (© 2015 Afriquinfos) - L'Institut africain de développement économique et de planification (IDEP) veut lutter contre le phénomène de la corruption qui pille l'économie africaine.
L’institut a organisé un séminaire à cet effet en fin de semaine dernière à Tunis. L’IDEP entend ainsi amener le secteur privé à adopter de nouveaux mécanismes de gestion basés sur l'intégrité. La rencontre a vu la participation des autorités tunisiennes et de chefs d’entreprises venus d’Afrique et d’ailleurs. De récentes études menées par l'Ong Tranparency international ont révélé que la corruption fait perdre jusqu'à 25% du Produit intérieur brut (Pib) africain. Les secteurs les plus touchés sont la Police et celui des affaires. Pour l'Institut africain de développement économique et de planification, il ya donc lieu de prendre des décisions fermes pour combattre le phénomène. Ce séminaire destiné aux entreprises privées est l’un des moyens pour arriver à ces fins.
Larissa AGBENOU. Identifier les classes moyennes africaines. Diversité, spécificités et pratiques de consommation sous contrainte | IFRI. Les grands événements qui ont marqué l'économie africaine en 2015. L'actualité économique du continent a été marquée, en 2015, par des événements majeurs qui, bien que limités géographiquement, ont souvent eu une portée significative au-delà des pays concernés. Heureux, à l'image de la découverte géante de gaz au large de l'Égypte, ou plus malheureux, à l'instar des fermetures des mines de cuivre en RDC et en Zambie, ils signalent le dynamisme mais aussi les fragilités des économies africaines. Rétrospective. Janvier – Maroc Telecom finalise l’acquisition de six filiales subsahariennes d’Etisalat Maroc Telecom a finalisé en janvier l’acquisition des filiales d’Etisalat (Moov) au Bénin, en Côte d’Ivoire, au Gabon, au Niger, en Centrafrique et au Togo.
L’opérateur chérifien a ainsi doublé son empreinte géographique au sud du Sahara et est désormais implanté dans 10 pays africains. Février – La balance commerciale de l’Algérie passe dans le rouge Fini la discorde entre l’Éthiopie, l’Égypte et le Soudan. Juin – Débuts d’un marché commercial continental.
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