Nigeria: Fuel Shortages Paralyze Africa’s Largest Oil Producer
May 22, 2015 Watch video HERE Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but fuel shortages have paralyzed the country that just a year ago was declared Africa’s largest economy. At one gas station in Lagos, crowds push at the gates waving empty jerry cans. Cars queue for a kilometre down the road creating gridlock. Similar
Shaky Patent Laws Keeping Investors Away From African Inventors
May 22, 2015 Ineffective patent laws in Africa are keeping investors from supporting local innovators leaving them to struggle with their ideas that eventual collapse due to lack of funding. Heavy legal costs, arbitrary red-tape procedures and mismatch in legislation has made it difficult for many African inventors to patent their products making it even
Africa In Perspective: How Big is Africa?
May 22, 2015 One way to measure the size of Africa is from the North—the coast of Tunisia—to the South—the tip of South Africa, which is a total of 4, 989 miles. The distance from East to West, Somalia to Gabon, is 4,655 miles. The total population of the continent is about one billion. A
Nigerian graphic designer stumbles onto the world’s art stage
May 21, 2015 When Karo Akpokiere received news in January that his work would appear on the Venice Biennale, this Lagos-born draughtsman and artist only had a vague sense of the exhibition’s importance. Months later, standing alongside a wall-hung display of 50 of his new drawings, Akpokiere explained how it was only when the artist
Tough Luck For Immigrants In Africa As ‘Xenophobia’ Goes Regional
May 21, 2015 IT probably has never been a more inopportune time to be an immigrant in Africa than now. All around the continent countries are pushing back guests from other African nations, suggesting the integration dream has many kinks to iron out. While the contribution of immigrants to host economies is relatively unchallenged, they are
How Long Before Transactional Banking Is Dead In Africa?
May 21, 2015 The mobile money revolution that has encapsulated sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade is expected to disrupt the region’s financial sector further by totally wiping out brick and mortar transactional banking. In an interview with This Is Africa, Econet Wireless Group founder and chairman Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwean, said traditional transactional banking is
Why Some Nigerian Banks May Go Bust By 2016
May 21, 2015 Africa’s largest privately-owned investment management company, Allan Gray Group, has raised fears over the liquidity of some Nigerian banks and said it expects the next one year to be tough for the lenders unless they shore up their capital. In a March report named ‘Gray Issue: The Sentiment Pendulum’, the Group said
Buhari meets petrol marketers over fuel scarcity
May 21, 2015 Nigeria’s president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari may have been holding discrete talks with petrol importers on how to resolve the lingering scarcity confronting the nation. News of the meeting was broken today by Tokunbo Korodo, the south west chairman of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). He said he had
Ghana to promote renewable energy agenda as electricity crisis deepens
May 21, 2015 Once revered as West Africa’s most stable power providing nation, Ghana’s has been quick to rid itself of all envy by plunging a significant portion of its citizen into darkness, a situation that has instigated pockets of protests and social unrest. Efforts have been made to remedy the situation, one of which
China Used Ebola Crisis For Systematic Pillaging Of W. Africa Fisheries, Greenpeace Says
May 20, 2015 Chinese fishing companies are engaged in systematic pillaging of West African fisheries on a huge scale, according to a new report from Greenpeace, which also says the companies took advantage of weak and chaotic governance resulting from last year’s Ebola outbreak in the region. A two-year investigation by the environmental group Greenpeace found that