Author: NLM Correspondent

By Jackie Bischof The Sh10 billion investment from global payments giant Mastercard in the mobile money business arm of Airtel Africa announced last week is a sign of the rapid growth and optimism in Africa’s digital payment sector. The transaction values the subsidiary, Airtel Mobile Commerce, at Sh286 billion. It follows a Sh20 billion million investment in the company by TPG’s Rise Fund just two weeks ago. Both TPG and Mastercard now have minority stakes in the company. More than half of the world’s mobile money services are located in Africa, according to a recent report by GSMA, making it a fertile market…

By Zawadi Onyango In early 2020, a press release statement announcing a book deal co-signed by Adelle Onyango, to co-author a book with Lanji Ouko-Awori stirred an online conversation around gender, the law and violence in Kenya and East Africa. The authors recently revealed the cover of the latest book titled “Our Broken Silence”. Published by the internationally-acclaimed publishing firm, Goye Publishers, “Our Broken Silence” was recently awarded the Writer’s Guild of Kenya Impact Literature Award. In the form of diary entries, the book explores the murky journey and plight rape survivors, observers, family members, activists, nurses, and lawyers, among…

Media mogul and billionaire Samuel Kamau Macharia is in court seeking orders to become his grandson’s guardian, to take over the management of the seventeen-year old’s multi-million inheritance. At stake is a Sh389 million life insurance, a pension payout whose beneficiary is the grandson, Adam Kamau Macharia as per the deceased father’s wish, and a multi-million estate left behind by S.K’s late son John Gichia Macharia who according to court documents had no relationship with the tycoon at the time of his death.   SK, who owns Royal Media Services (RMS), in the originating summons, asks the court to appoint him as…

By Mohamed F. Ahmed The political tables in Jubaland are turning. President Ahmed Madobe, in power since 2009, who came to power as a terrorist-turned-reformer with the promise to crush Al-Shabaab in Jubaland and support the broader Somalia agenda of regaining control of swathes of the country has failed to do so. The last two years have been particularly problematic for relations between Jubaland and Villa Somalia – the seat of Somalia’s federal government. Madobe has been working in overdrive to frustrate the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and thwart President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s chances of reelection. Pundits point out…

Recently released filings in Nigeria and Kenya show assets under management for banks, insurers, and pension funds have grown 17 percent in the past year. This is despite a global backdrop of protectionism and the politicisation of development institutions investing in emerging markets. The administration of US president Joe Biden is set to change these conditions, with multilateral policy aimed at cooperation and growth for low- and middle-income countries. African asset managers should prepare for greater flows of capital from abroad into African banks, increased capacity-building support for local financial and insurance institutions, and larger government balance sheets. It is…

By Tancrede Chambraud It’s Africa’s lesser known elephant. Hidden deep in the jungle, the Forest elephants remain no less in danger. In their latest updated “Red List”, which regroupes all at risk species, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature labled them as ‘critically endangered’. Previously, elephants on the continent were assessed as a single species considered vulnerable, but not endangered. “Today’s new IUCN Red List assessments of both African elephant species underline the persistent pressures faced by these iconic animals,” IUCN chief Bruno Oberle said in a statement. Benson Okita, IUCN”s African Elephant Commissioner. explains it’s much harder…

E-commerce in Africa is at the tipping point and ready for massive growth. This is according to a recent report titled E-commerce Like Never Before conducted by Dentsu advertising agency. The report brings to light the industry’s growth with insights and trends into the African landscape. The African Internet economy is one of the most overlooked commercial and impactful developmental opportunities of the past decade. The mobile internet is transforming life in Africa; it is supported by growing local connectivity and mobility, and a dynamic, young urban population. With a 28.5% compound annual growth rate of the African internet population since 2000,…

By Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and robotic technologies bear great promise for improving our lives through safer products and new medical technologies. Driverless cars reduce accidents caused by human errors. Robot-assisted surgeries require minimal incisions and allow for faster recoveries. Smart products connected to the internet enable producers to communicate safety hazards to users and possibly fix the problems in real-time. At the same time, these novel technologies may also impose new risks of harm: connectivity may render the systems vulnerable to cyberattacks, the self-learning and opaque nature of machine-learning algorithms may make…

By Rashawn Ray On March 16, 2021, Robert Aaron Long opened fire on businesses in the Atlanta area that employ a large number of Asians. Six of his eight murder victims were Asian women. Similar to Dylan Roof who murdered nine Black parishioners inside an African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina and Patrick Wood Crusius who murdered 23 people in Texas in the deadliest anti-Latino attack in recent history, prosecutors should consider hate crime charges for Long. Yet, some people are actually buying that Long’s actions were solely over an alleged sex addiction. There are a ton of massage places in the Atlanta area.…

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has for the first time admitted that atrocities were committed during the military offensive in the northern Tigray region. “Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in Tigray region,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in an address before MPs in the capital, Addis Ababa. He said soldiers who were found to have raped women or committed other war crimes would be held responsible. The Ethiopian leader also said in his first public acknowledgment that troops from neighbouring Eritrea were present in the conflict and suggested they may have been involved in abuses against civilians. “Eritrean…