Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske Chinese companies have built their position in African technology one layer at a time – first phones and telecoms equipment, then fintech and now the AI models that local start-ups build on. American private capital, meanwhile, is pulling back. Lexi Novitske, general partner at Norrsken22, thinks US investors will regret…
Despite access to finance consistently ranking among the most significant barriers to business growth, FinMark Trust estimates that only 20% to 30% of SMMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa manage to access formal credit. For many business owners whose companies are trading, winning customers and meeting their financial obligations, a funding rejection can be difficult to understand. However,…
Twenty-five African and African-diasporan faith leaders, theologians, scholars and constitutional thinkers have launched the African Democratic Covenant, calling on African governments to pause legislation that criminalises sexual minorities and open broader dialogue on democracy, human dignity, sovereignty and constitutional rights. The Covenant was launched on Monday during a virtual press convening attended by journalists across…
Midrand, South Africa — Somalia’s Senate Secretary-General, Abdinasir Ibrahim Guled, has attended the seventh annual conference of the Association of Secretaries-General of African Parliaments, which opened in Midrand, South Africa, at the Pan-African Parliament. The two-day meeting is focused on modernising parliamentary institutions and strengthening their ability to respond to changing administrative and leadership demands….
Enterprises are moving beyond AI experimentation as executives demand clearer evidence of financial and operational returns. Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is increasingly delivering business value, but only about a quarter of enterprises are converting their investments into significant financial returns. This is one of the key findings of new research from Google Cloud, in partnership…
Forty African countries have endorsed a proposed charter on family, sovereignty and values aimed at strengthening families and protecting children from what its proponents describe as foreign ideologies considered inconsistent with African cultural and family values. The development was disclosed by the Executive Director of the Center for African Policy and Advisory, Segun Adebayo, at…
Arusha — THE African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) has handled 29 legal matters from across the continent, delivering six rulings and conducting 14 compliance reviews during its 82nd Ordinary Session, reinforcing member states’ accountability under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Court said the four-week session, held at its…
Nairobi, Kenya — I was born in Rwanda, but my family soon became refugees in Uganda during the conflict and unrest on the cusp of independence. My father was a teacher and went to great lengths to make sure I was well educated. My parents were also smallholder farmers, and I saw firsthand the challenges…
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have backed a permanent African seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), calling for urgent reform of the Council to reflect contemporary geopolitical realities. The four countries, under the Group of Four (G4), made their position known in a joint statement issued after their foreign ministers met in New…
For African governments, the significance of China’s humanoid-robotics programme is not that robots may one day appear on African battlefields. It is a diagnostic case of how a dual-use technology can move from commercial deployment to military relevance faster than the institutions responsible for assessing and governing it can adapt. Africa’s stake is therefore not…
