insert_link Africa Can insurtech fix Africa’s low insurance penetration? By Conrad Onyango, via bird story agency Until recently, Africa’s legacy insurance market has been relying on an old agent-driven sales model, where agents physically scouts for clients in offices, malls and other business centers to market, sell and deliver insurance products. Under this model these agents have mostly been focusing on selling individual policies largely to wealthy clients who can buy expensive products to earn them […] today10 May, 2024
Africa South Africans are abandoning smallholder farming – history and policy can help explain why By Klara Fischer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences South African smallholders are abandoning farming. The decline in field cultivation is a problem, since many of these smallholder households struggle to make ends meet. If people were able to produce more of their own food this would improve their lives. The current situation is a combined effect of the country’s historical legacy and the negative impacts of recent […] today10 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Cement is a big carbon emitter and quality is costly: a civil engineer explains By Elsabe Kearsley, University of Pretoria Every year the world uses 4 billion tonnes of cement to make the concrete that goes into buildings and other infrastructure. It leaves a huge carbon footprint, and comes with other costs too. Civil engineering professor Elsabe Kearsley, who researches cement and concrete, tells us more about this basic ingredient of modern life and explains some of the work that’s being […] today10 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Off-grid solar sparks a lantern sales boom in Africa – report By Bonface Orucho, bird story agency A new report has highlighted the continued popularity of lanterns powered by off-grid solar alternatives as more people opt for cleaner lighting options in Africa. The report ‘Global Off-Grid Solar Market Data July-December 2023’ by the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA), the global association for off-grid solar energy industry, is based on sales reported by 32 solar energy kit manufacturers […] today10 May, 2024
insert_link Africa African sci-fi: body hopping, artificial wombs and angry ghosts in a future Botswana By Nedine Moonsamy, University of Johannesburg Tlotlo Tsamaase has already proved her talent for African science fiction. Her masterly short stories, one previously shortlisted for the Caine Prize, are helping put Botswana on the literary map. Her debut novel, Womb City, interweaves the mythological and digital expanses of Batswana culture in dystopian fashion. We encounter a distant future world in which women remain charged with ensuring their own […] today10 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Kenya floods: as the costs add up pressure mounts on a country in economic crisis By Timothy Njagi Njeru, Egerton University There were early warnings that Kenya’s long rain season – between March and May – was going to bring above-normal rainfall. The extreme intensity of the rain has resulted in devastating floods in many parts of the country. Forty of the country’s 47 counties have been affected. More than 230 people have died and about 40,000 households, so far, have been […] today10 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Nigeria offers oil blocks to global investors Nigeria is seeking investors for 17 of its oil blocks. The government offered 12 oil blocks and 5 deep offshore assets for sale as it marketed the assets to global oil sector investors at the ongoing 2024 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. today9 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Zimbabwe urges swift adoption of new but ‘scarce’ currency Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has ordered all government agencies to accept payments in the newly introduced gold-backed currency amid reports of acute shortage. Ncube in a statement said the Zimbabwe Gold, introduced last month, was now the official unit of exchange for transactions in the country. He the BBC that the government would soon introduce regulations to ensure businesses stick to the official rate. today9 May, 2024
insert_link Africa Kenya floods raise cholera risk as WHO records 44 cases At least 44 cholera cases have been reported in Kenya’s Tana River county, as flooding raises the risk of the spread of water-borne diseases. A statement by the World Health Organisation which cites the numbers, says Kenyan officials supported by WHO and other agencies have been monitoring the health situation and response around the country in the wake of the floods. The flooding, according to BBC Africa has affected more […] today9 May, 2024
