The monetisation of its B2B e-commerce platform has been described as part of a growth strategy by the Zambian startup Zambezii. Zambezii’s B2B e-commerce platform leverages technology to give manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors exposure across markets all over the continent of African.. Because it is a very simplified solution that reduces the barriers to entry, Zambezii is open to all companies from across Africa, and allows users to set up a virtual store and list products. Buyers can place orders and pay via digital payments and bank transfers.
zambazii
The platform is aimed at businesses interested in showcasing their products in African markets, but do not want to handle the process of digitisation themselves. “African businesses are highly reliant on physical trade and are restricted to the countries they physically operate in. We want to change how they do business with each other and the world,” said Ali Karnib, co-founder and managing director of Zambezii.
“We provide a digital platform that empowers local businesses on their quest to reach out to the continent as a whole, bridging the gap between business suppliers and buyers by providing a localized digital solution to boost regional trade, enhance procurement, and assist businesses to trade online.”
Zambezi was formed as e-commerce on the continent is highly focused on B2C, with the B2B market underserved. “When looking at our target market, we identified the following: a heavy reliance on physical interactions, the need to travel distances for multiple quotations, close to no online presence, operating in single markets, products shared via WhatsApp images, lack of product information and specifications, orders are made physically or by phone, orders are either logged on Excel or written on paper,” said Karnib. Zambezii claims itself to be the solution to all these pain-points, and has onboarded 200 suppliers and 240 buyers under a freemium model it ran under for its first 18 months. “We’ve seen our daily visitors jump from an average of 200 users a day in 2019 to 2,000 users a day in 2020,” Karnib said.
The startup recently launched its subscriptions model having run a freemium version for the first 18 months of its life, and has now seen three months of revenues. It also charges for a “concierge service” through which it procures certain products on behalf of its clients, design services that help businesses with no brand identity, photography services, and advertisements. Zambezii also recently partnered with MTN Zambia to assist MTN business clients in digitising and trading online. Self-funded and based in Lusaka, it plans on expanding to new markets in 2021.
“We have identified two countries in Eastern Africa that we would like to move into. Our end-goal is to expand all over Africa to connect businesses on the continent with one another,” said Karnib.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Autochek, the newly established automotive technology startup has taken the market by surprise by acquiring the platforms of established firms like Cheki.com in both Nigeria, and in Ghana. Autocheck which was recently founded by former Cars45 chief executive officer (CEO) Etop Ikpe announced the acquisition of automotive marketplaces Cheki Nigeria and Cheki Ghana, previously part of ROAM Africa’s portfolio of leading online marketplaces. With these acquisitions, Autochek aims to build digital solutions that will enhance and enable a seamless and safe automotive commerce experience across Africa, starting with Nigeria and Ghana.
former Cars45 chief executive officer (CEO) Etop Ikpe
It plans to use technology to transform the automotive buying and selling experience for African consumers, by creating a single marketplace for consumers’ automotive needs, from sourcing and financing to after sales support and warranties. ROAM Africa, Cheki’s parent company, has transferred ownership and operational control to Autochek, and all Cheki Nigeria and Cheki Ghana outlets will now be rebranded as Autochek. The new platform will relaunch by the end of 2020. Leading cars marketplace Cheki Kenya remains fully owned and operated by ROAM Africa.
“We are really excited by this new opportunity to drive the African automotive space forward. Our aim is to create a one-stop shop for consumers’ automotive needs, embedding technology at every stage of the process, thereby making the journey of car ownership easier for everyone. The Cheki brand is well established in Nigeria and Ghana, and we look forward to building on the solid work that the Cheki team has done over the last ten years in reinventing how car purchases are made. Our goal is to continue the great work, as well as expand operations into other African territories from 2021 onwards,” Ikpe said.
Clemens Weitz, CEO of ROAM Africa, said his company believed Autochek would carry on the “incredible results” Cheki has achieved in Nigeria and Ghana over the last decade in developing a specialist car marketplace. “Etop and his team have an outstanding record of success in the African automotive market and we are excited to be handing over these assets to them, ensuring continuity of service as we migrate the platforms over. We are also pleased that the Autochek team is committed to working collaboratively with the existing Cheki team and long-term partners. We look forward to seeing all the success they will achieve together,” he said.
Disrupt Africa quizzed Ikpe on the reasons behind his departure from Cars45, which raised US$5 million in funding from the Berlin-based Frontier Car Group (FCG) in 2017 and expanded into Ghana and Kenya last year. He said the Autochek idea was one that he had been thinking about for some time. “This just felt like the right time to bring that dream to life. The team at Cars45 remains close to my heart and I will always appreciate everyone past and present at Cars45 and FCG for all the great things we did together. Autochek will focus on developing technology solutions that will help dealerships, auto workshops and financial institutions to service their consumers better and we hope to do business with Cars45 in the nearest future,” he said.
“Leaving Cars45 was not an easy decision, but sometimes in life you have to make tough decisions. Life is about journeys and as one journey has ended, I have begun another journey which I am very passionate about. My passion for the industry transcends brands and I am focused on using the opportunities I have to create employment opportunities and wealth for participants in the automotive industry. The automotive sector holds a lot of untapped potential to create employment and wealth for Africans. I believe we are a catalyst to the market and we sit in an area that enables us to work with every single participant in the industry.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Evidence has emerged on how Kenyan based innovative startup was able to attract the backing of Silicon valley entrepreneurs such as Slack’s Stewart Butterfield, Box’s Aaron Levie and Craig Newmark of Craigslist all of whom provided donations to the Nairobi-based Impact Africa Network to help it absorb more people into its 12-month Innovation Fellowship programme. Impact Africa Network is a non-profit startup studio on a mission to ensure young talented Africans can participate in the digital transformation of Africa as creators and owners.
Mark Karake, CEO of Impact Africa Network
The organisation’s rigorous 12-month Innovation Fellowship gives talented college graduates the opportunity to work on well-vetted ideas with likeminded peers under the guidance of a strong leadership team and mentor network. The goal is to expand entrepreneurial capacity while at the same time develop fundamentally-sound early-stage startups. Impact Africa Network has now announced support from a number of Silicon Valley tech leaders, namely Slack chief executive officer (CEO) Stewart Butterfield, Box CEO Aaron Levie, and Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
The three entrepreneurs have joined the organisation’s 100 Founders’ Challenge, with their donations to be used to provide more young people with access to the fellowship programme. Since its inception in January 2019, Impact Africa Network has provided Innovation Fellowship opportunities to 40 young Africans, and played a part in the formation of STEM education startup Jenga School.
“When we launched Impact Africa Network I had no doubt that impact-oriented tech leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond would not hesitate to support the work we are doing. They are uniquely positioned to understand how critical support is to the development of young innovators early in their career. Most of them benefited from similar support when they were coming through the ranks,” said Mark Karake, CEO of Impact Africa Network.
Newmark said he chose to support the programme in order to stimulate Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurialism, in the best sense of that, in Africa. “It’s important because it creates employment and opens doors for advancement in careers and wealth creation,” he said.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Until African countries can tell their own stories and devise locally-grown policies to solve their problems, no one will take them seriously, writes Tamba François Koundouno.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a “global health emergency” on March 11, months after the viral bug had caused devastation in Wuhan, China, there was a lingering feeling that Africa, the perpetually needy adolescent of world affairs, would soon become the virus’s new home.
COVID-19 Lab
With a lethal, rapidly spreading disease wreaking havoc in some of the world’s most advanced economies, argued the high priests of the “Save Africa” gospel, what hope was there for a continent where some countries hardly have ICUs, many without a single ventilator?
Undeserved success?
Underpinning such rhetoric was the assumption that, with their traditional assistance providers desperately fighting to fend for themselves, African countries, supposedly lacking ingenuity and agency, were headed to a viral purgatory, where they would passively wait for Westerners to first weather the storm at home and then come to rescue their dying, eternally sick globalization relative.
By mid-April, however, as COVID-19 infection and death rates remained significantly low in most of Africa, the assurance of Africa’s coming catastrophe turned into a query. Why was Africa almost unscathed while hospitals in the developed world crumbled?
In most cases, the question came not from concerned Africa-watchers who genuinely wanted to understand. It came, to a considerable extent, from a place of surprise and shock. It aimed at unearthing — because Africa is synonymous with primitiveness and chronic lack — why it was taking so long for Africa’s under-resourced, ill-prepared health systems to be overwhelmed by an invisible enemy that had already forced to genuflection countries with state-of-the-art hospitals and well-trained medical personnel.
In the vertiginous scramble for an explanation, there emerged a few theories. These mainly included the continent’s youth and its generous climate. Sheer luck, then, was offered as the main reason Africa was doing well. The point was this: In no conceivable world can African governments, known for their ineffectiveness, be responsible for their relative success in dealing with COVID-19.
But what of Morocco, where the largely salutary measures — early lockdown and mass production of hand sanitizers and masks — have been life-saving? What about most of sub-Saharan Africa, where the situation is largely under control? What of Tunisia, Mauritius, and Rwanda, three countries that, by any standards, deserve to be in the high honor class in this “pandemic summer?”
Yet, the mainstream narrative decided that no one wanted to hear from a bunch of lucky African countries thought to be undeservedly, cluelessly winning their fight against the pandemic. Instead, we were told about the resourceful Japan, the convention-defying Sweden, the resilient China, and the ingenious South Korea and Singapore, among others.
Beneath this dismissal of positive stories from Africa is the deeply-rooted belief that, besides its natural resources and world-renowned athletes and entertainers, nothing enviable comes out of Africa. As Simukai Chigudu, professor of African politics at Oxford, has perceptively put it, as COVID-19 became a global concern, the well-established narrative about Africa as primordially poor and unresourceful quickly reinforced the belief that the continent was destined to be the “virus’s final frontier, where it will yield untold damage.”
Not over yet
While infection and death cases have worriedly jumped across Africa in recent weeks, igniting talks of a second lockdown in countries like South Africa and Morocco, the continent’s numbers so far are nowhere near the catastrophe that was announced.
Governments’ early and aggressive response, the widespread use of unproven but apparently effective treatments — chloroquine and locally-made herbal concoctions, for example — as well as a long history of epidemic outbreaks are (rightly) thought to account for Africa’s comparatively low COVID-19 figures.
But there is more to the story: Some African researchers have actually been working on finding a cure. And while research in Africa has not been as cutting-edge and as widely publicized as research from, say, China or South Korea, there have been considerable efforts on the innovation front, from the conception of local, cheaper ventilators to the development of alternative testing kits, to the quest for an effective cure or vaccine.
Still, African governments and public health experts are betting on caution, maintaining that there is no reason for a premature, misguided triumphalism. “We have won the battle… but we have not yet won the war,” Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said on May 18, even as he announced “zero active cases.” In Morocco, despite indications that the virus was largely under control by the end of June, most of the past weeks have been about extending the extension of emergency measures, with authorities rightly fearing a second, more severe wave of infections.
All this speaks volumes about the increasing awareness in the continent that while foreign aid is appreciated, it is suicidal to just sit around and wait for external succor. For enthusiastic pan-Africanists, meanwhile, this pandemic has shown the world that Africans are not waiting for saviors. That they are no Hegelian infants naively waiting to be rescued from “history’s waiting room” by Western altruism.
The new Africans
In another, related sense, this crisis has revealed that pan-Africanism comes in different guises. Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina, the chief promoter of the unproven herbal cure Covid-Organics, hit a traditional pan-Africanist argument on its nose when he argued that the pandemic has exposed the global community’s tendency to disparage ideas from Africa. Western countries, he suggested, cannot stomach the idea that, as the world faces an unprecedented crisis, salvation could come from Africa.
Elsewhere, Oby Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian minister and World Bank economist, has controversially called for China, where the virus first emerged, to redeem itself by paying reparations to African governments. And when an official at the Chinese embassy in Lagos responded that this was an “irresponsible” idea, Ezekwesili resorted to a more defensive pan-Africanist trope: “China must know that where our lives and livelihood are concerned, no country, regardless of how powerful it may be, can intimidate us Africans ever again.”
The two ideas, while obviously different, are premised on one foundational pan-Africanist narrative: That globalization has not been working for Africa. Increasingly emerging from this posture, however, is a type of clear-eyed pan-Africanism willing to “complicate” the very idea of Africa and do away with unhelpful buzzwords like Afro-pessimism, Afro-optimism, and “Africa rising.”
As adherents of this new cohort see it, postcolonial hubris solves very little, if anything at all. They are intent on deconstructing the domineering presence of the West in the postcolonial imaginary without idealizing pre-colonial Africa. As a young Moroccan environmental activist recently told me, they are interested in enacting palpable change, not reiterating throaty, feel-good slogans.Yet the original question lingers: Why are most African countries perpetually resorting to external financial assistance and debt relief pleas? Is Africa indeed the sick man of globalization?
A survey of contemporary African thought provides no straightforward answer, and responses vary according to the ideological inclination — clear-eyed pan-Africanism or radical Afrocentrism, Afropolitanism or cosmopolitan patriotism — of the responder. Beneath this fog of competing visions, however, there emerges one robust consensus: Until African countries can tell their own stories and devise locally-grown policies to solve their problems, no one will take them seriously.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Morocco successfully issued a €1 billion bond on the international financial market on Thursday, with two €500 million tranches. Morocco’s Ministry of Economy and Finance celebrated the bond issuance, emphasizing the success of the sales of the sovereign notes as demands hit €2.5 billion, according to Morocco’s state media. The bond issuance comes after Morocco’s economy minister promoted the country’s political stability and the resilience of its macroeconomic framework to international investors. Morocco Issues €1 Billion Bond on International Financial Market.
Economy Minister Mohamed Benchaaboun
The first tranche of Morocco’s €1 billion bond has a maturity of 5.5 years, a price of 99.374%, and a rate of return of 1.495%, or a coupon of 1.375%. The bond’s second tranche has a 10-year maturity, a price of 98.434%, and a rate of return of 2.176%, or a coupon of 2%. In a press release, the Ministry of Economy stressed that the bond issuance occurred “in a difficult context” amid the uncertainties of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the credit quality of bond issuers. However, Morocco’s €1 billion bond issuance was “a resounding success among international investors,” according to the ministry.
The press release reports the bond enjoyed an order book grossing €2.5 billion from 197 investors. This success, the statement added, confirms international bond investors’ and rating agencies’ confidence in Morocco. The bond issuance followed Economy Minister Mohamed Benchaaboun’s “NetRoadshow” with the international investor community. The minister led the initiative in partnership with teams from the Department of the Treasury and External Finances (DTFE).
Morocco’s “NetRoadshow” allowed Benchaaboun to promote the country’s political stability and the resilience of its macroeconomic framework. He underlined, in particular, Morocco’s “Investment Grade” from S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
The minister also highlighted the scope of reforms Morocco has implemented under the leadership of King Mohammed VI. Bechaaboun stressed these reforms have “put Morocco on the path of sustainable development,” strengthened the rule of law, and consolidated the country as democratic, modern, and open. The “NetRoadshow” also enabled Benchaaboun to inform potential investors of Morocco’s economic and social measures aimed at mitigating the negative repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis and sparking the revival of the Moroccan economy.
Morocco issued the €1 billion bond in the 144A/RegS format, extending the scope of participation for investors across the globe.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Zambia has become the first African country to defy private creditors by temporarily suspending interest payments to private creditors as it struggles to contain the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The Zambian government says that it will suspend interest payments for six months, starting from October. But analysts say that the government’s action was not deliberate rather it was forced into a dead end due to its present cash crunch as a result of dwindling economic fortunes leading to a freeze due to a cash-crunch and not a cancellation, in the world of finance, it is being seen as a debt default.
President Edgar Lungu of Zambia
Zambian leaders were conflicted on the question of whether to continue paying wealthy foreign investors or take care of their people. This week they decided to focus on facing the coronavirus challenge. Over the past decade, Zambia has accumulated a foreign debt of more than $10 billion. It has become the first African country to stop payments on private debt, which now make up a major chunk of the loans that the countries in the region have taken.
Debt relief advocates have for months pushed indebted governments to default on their debt, insisting that spending money on healthcare and economic recovery is more important. The 73 most indebted countries have to pay around $45 billion in interest payments in 2020, and a major chunk of it will go to the private sector, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Wealthy countries, which are part of the G20, have announced a debt moratorium for their poor peers. However, private creditors have ganged up and refused to be part of such an initiative. Landlocked Zambia is Africa’s second largest producer of copper, which has seen a drastic drop in its price and strained the country’s finances.
It is not alone in taking the drastic step to default on its debt. Last month, Argentina reached an agreement with its creditors to restructure $65 billion of its foreign debt. Private lenders say that refusing to pay interest will make it difficult for poor and developing countries to secure future loans that they need to build roads, hospitals and schools.
But experts argue that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. In any case, banks and institutional investors had themselves lined up to loan funds to African countries because they were getting a higher return. Many African countries, already struggling with poverty and instability, don’t have additional resources to spend on equipping hospitals to deal with the expected increase in the number of patients who require ventilators and ICUs.
A recent study by Jubilee Debt Campaign, which advocates for debt relief, found that 63 impoverished countries were consuming 5.2 percent of revenues to pay foreign creditors in 2011. This average rose to 12 percent in 2019. In just five years between 2012 and 2017, the average external debt as a percentage of the GDP of low-income developing countries surged to 50 percent from 30.35 percent.
Countries like Ghana, which heavily depend on the export of gold, oil and cocoa, are particularly at risk of a crisis, as the price of commodities have plunged, and the cost of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic is rising. Jubilee and others have called for complete debt write-offs, something which is not unusual. In 2001, developed economies agreed to give debt service relief amounting to $34 billion to 23 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), 19 of which were in Africa. The initiative was meant to tackle poverty.
This becomes especially important in times of an infectious outbreak, which can be a severe burden on the limited resources of most impoverished countries. Out of the total debt of the African countries, around 32 percent is owed to private investors – this comes to approximately $132 billion, according to one study done two years back. Most of the debt of the developing and poor countries consist of loans, all borrowed to pay off previous loans – trapping them in a vicious debt cycle.
Between 2000 and 2014, Zambia saw rapid economic growth which averaged around 6.8 percent. However, since then, the country’s economic growth rate has stalled, mainly because of the drop in commodity prices. Its public debt increased to 80 percent of GDP in 2019 from 35 percent at the end of 2014.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Mobile telecommunications operator, MTN Ghana has indicated that it plans to roll out its Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to check Mobile Money (MoMo) fraud from the first quarter of 2020. This is part of additional measures being implemented by the telecoms operator to deal with this practice, which some say could threaten the subscriber confidence in the industry. CEO of MTN Selorm Adadevoh who disclosed this on PM Express Business Edition last Thursday said this is to complement existing structures and programs the company has already instituted to deal with this practice. Mr Adadevoh also added that they also see customer education as one of the tools that can be used to deal with this challenge.
CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh
“This is because a well-educated customer will ward off potential threats from these fraudsters,” he said. A recent Bank of Ghana report described the rising mobile money fraud as a “real” threat to the stability of the entire banking and financial sectors. Mr Adadevoh expressed hope that these measures that have already been implemented will help control the situation very soon.
He also said MTN has been working with the security agencies, a move which has seen the arrest of some fraudsters, with others awaiting prosecution. The MTN CEO noted that the role of Mobile Money services during the lockdown highlighted its importance. “This is something that can be described as a lifesaver. Depending on how you want to look at it, at the initial stage, the numbers were low, but picked up strongly later.”
Mr. Adadevoh also announced that they are working through the Telecom’s Chamber to establish a system that can help blacklist numbers used by these mobile money fraudsters in the country. He explained that “as an industry, we need to start coordinating on how we can create a centralised fraud management database so that when a subscriber reports a fraudster; their ID details are captured and blocked.”
The MTN CEO added that one network cannot just deal with it alone and that it needed concerted efforts by all telcos in the country. He also noted that, if a commercial bank for instance gets to know, through the MTN system that someone was blacklisted, that will make it difficult for them to operate in the financial space. Mobile Money still remains untapped despite huge flows. The MTN CEO noted that despite huge flows that had been recorded on the Mobile Money platforms of the various telcos, a lot more needs to be done arguing that the platform is still underutilised.
“If we get excited by volumes of cash being moved, then we will be blinded by the real opportunities that this platform holds,” he said. He added that there are a lot of things that can be done or developed to aid the country.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Bank’s long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) at ‘BBB-‘with a stable outlook. The agency also affirmed the Bank’s Short-Term IDR at ‘F3’ and senior unsecured debt at ‘BBB-‘. Fitch highlighted that Afreximbank’s ‘BBB-‘ rating is driven by its intrinsic features, including solvency and liquidity, and adding that the ongoing and expected capital increases support the resilience of the bank’s solvency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency noted that “the strong capitalization is underpinned by the equity to assets guarantees ratio at 18.1% in 2019, close to 2018 level (18.5%) as the bank’s expansion has been broadly matched by paid-in capital payments from the ongoing US$1 billion capital increase (targeted to be completed by end-2021, 91% had been raised by end-H1 2020) and internal capital generation”.
Fitch further noted that a high level of loan collateralization (88% of the facilities), credit insurances from ‘A’ rated insurers and hedging strategies on commodity backed facilities, have all helped the Bank maintain a low impairment ratio of 2.4% on a 10-year average, “despite its ‘high’ risk operating environment.” Fitch observes that the Bureau of African Union Heads of States and Governments recently endorsed a significant increase to Afreximbank’s subscribed capital, which will further support the resilience of the Bank’s solvency amid COVID-19 related pressures on asset quality. The agency expressed the view that Afreximbank’s PATIMFA facility, which is supporting African nations during the pandemic, will incentivize sovereigns to remain current on loan repayments with the Bank.
Reacting to the development, the Bank’s president Prof. Benedict Oramah, said that “Afreximbank is pleased to receive this positive affirmation from Fitch and we have full confidence in our resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through strong liquidity and robust risk management, we have ensured that we have the solid foundation needed to support Africa’s post-pandemic recovery and the continued expansion of intra-African trade. Our strategic response to COVID-19, and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, will only strengthen our position, reinforcing our role as a key driver of the continent’s economic development.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The Moroccan Minister of Justice Mohamed Ben Abdelkader has promised that the country will intesify efforts at tackling financial crimes adding that it recorded a total of 390 cases in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing between 2019 and 2020. He made this known during a meeting on Wednesday in Meknes, a city in northern Morocco, Ben Abdelkader specified that authorities detected 229 cases of terrorism financing and money laundering in 2019, as well as 161 cases in 2020. He said that some of the cases are still under criminal investigation. Ben Abdelkader said that the Ministry of Justice is preparing a draft resolution to intensify Morocco’s legal and judicial professions’ involvement in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. Morocco’s security services criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with international standards.
Moroccan Minister of Justice Mohamed Ben Abdelkader
Over the years, the Moroccan government has repeatedly vowed to strengthen its approach in combating money laundering and terror financing.Earlier this month, the minister said the country is putting in place a more effective approach. “This strategy aims to get the legal professionals — lawyers, notaries, and Adouls (religious notaries) — to adhere to national efforts in the fight against money laundering, especially when used to finance terrorism,” he said. He called on lawyers to increase efforts to implement measures to raise awareness against the issue. In July, Ben Abdelkader said that his department worked to promote commitment to international standards in this area.
In Morocco, the Supervisory Authority of Insurance and Social Welfare (ACAPS) is the body in charge of “ensuring” that institutions subject to its supervision abide by the provisions of the law relating to the fight against money laundering.ACAPS has said that it places money laundeing and the financing of terrorism among its priorities.The body noted that it has been working “to prevent the use of insurance companies and intermediaries in any financial crime related to money laundering or terrorism financing.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Based on official figures – which may be somewhat under reported – COVID-19 has not been as devastating in South Africa as initially feared. Back in March and April this year case numbers on the continent were still modest. But predictions and projections were sombre. There seemed to be consensus that African countries had weak public health systems and few testing facilities, and containment and social distancing were going to be problematic in poor communities.
COVID-19 Lab
More specifically, local and international organisations pointed to the fact that these areas typically have the highest incidence of immuno-compromised individuals. Experts feared that the tens of millions with HIV and tuberculosis would be disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
That did not bode well for South Africa, where well over seven million people are believed to have HIV. The immune systems of these individuals are notoriously weak, often unable to fight infections. Fears were that COVID-19 would be devastating to this community.
Those dire forecasts have, so far, not been realised. Around half of the COVID-19 cases on the continent were from South Africa. The country’s COVID-19 cases were around 653,400 as of mid-September. Some 15,705 people are estimated to have died from COVID-19; a tragic number, but not nearly as many as predicted by some. Early predictions were that symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in South Africa could surpass a million by July with 30,000 deaths by November 2020.
These comparatively “low” numbers have come as a surprise. Many possible explanations for this modest-by-comparison outbreak are being floated.
Some insights into previous outbreaks of human coronaviruses may be useful in this regard. My laboratory recently reviewed what is known at this stage – and what is still unknown – about co-infections of HIV and coronaviruses.
Human coronaviruses
There are currently seven known human coronaviruses.
Of these, the four most common and still circulating are reported to cause about 10%-30% of all common colds globally. Fortunately, research shows that they cause no more than mild to moderate cold symptoms. In rare cases, these human coronaviruses can cause more serious respiratory disease in children, the elderly, the immuno-compromised such as people with HIV and people with underlying illness. But, as far as we know, deaths as a result of infections from the “common” human coronaviruses are quite rare.
Then there are three more pathogenic or life-threatening coronaviruses. The first among these to appear among humans is the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed around 10% of the just-over 8,000 people who were infected.
The next was the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which causes the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that killed an estimated 34% of about 2,494 people known to have been infected.
Morgan Morris, a freelance writer for the WHO, and filmmaker is based in Cape Town
We have learned that there are a number of factors linked to severe disease and death from SARS-CoV-2. These include advanced age; being a male; and the presence of other pre-existing medical conditions including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease and kidney disease. This doesn’t mean that the young and women are immune to the disease. They can catch the virus, and pass it on to others.
Of particular interest in South Africa is the risk of COVID-19 and HIV co-infections.
The HIV and CoV interactions
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lack of published academic work on HIV and coronavirus co-infections. This is, in part, why the spectre of COVID-19 running amok in countries with large numbers of people living with HIV – like South Africa – raised anxiety levels. Particularly because, as early as the late 1980s, coronaviruses had been shown to be agents of opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts, and were linked to diarrhoeal disease among AIDS patients.
During the same period, another study reported on a connection between HIV and SARS. In this case, 19 HIV-positive patients shared a hospital ward with 95 patients confirmed positive for SARS. Somehow, none of the HIV-positive patients became infected with the SARS-CoV. Six of the 28 medical personnel who worked in the ward were infected. At the time, researchers began speculating that antiretroviral treatment was offering patients with HIV some protection against the SARS-CoV. But, since SARS-CoV disappeared so quickly from the human population, this was not positively established.
The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled the study of HIV-coronavirus co-infections.
My laboratory recently published an overview of studies that looked at COVID-19 infections among more than 11,000 HIV-positive individuals. The risk associated with coinfections is still a matter of debate. But the estimated COVID-19 prevalence reported in various studies does not suggest increased rates of hospitalisation or mortality in HIV-positive patient populations. Clinical characteristics and disease outcomes were comparable to those described for the general population with COVID-19.
The reasons for these infection and mortality rates are still unclear. But scientists have come up with several interesting hypotheses.
One is that antiretroviral treatments have anti-CoV properties and offer some level of protection against COVID-19 infection. Another is that the weakened immune system of people with HIV stops it from “overreacting” to the presence of the coronavirus. In this way it averts the elevated inflammation that is being associated with COVID-19. A related argument has been made that because the helper T-cells have been deactivated in HIV-positive patients, the response of the immune system is tempered, again limiting the risks of excessive inflammation.
A more intriguing hypothesis suggests that the original HIV infection changes the host cells so they no longer offer a favourable environment for other viruses. This phenomenon is called “viral interference”. And it’s been argued that some cold-causing viruses have stopped at least one flu pandemic in Europe in its tracks in 2009.
Moving forward
Concern over HIV-positive patients is understandable. But current data from the COVID-19 pandemic – and past experiences with SARS and MERS – suggest that they do not form an at-risk group. This raises the question of whether HIV serves as an immunological shield against more severe forms of the new disease.
What has been quite apparent from the start is that old age and co-morbidities such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes are more telling considerations in both general infections and HIV/SARS-CoV-2 co-infections.
Based on what we now know, should a second or even a third wave of COVID-19 be forthcoming, state and health officials should consider a more strategic and targeted approach to containment.
Morgan Morris, a freelance writer for the WHO, and filmmaker is based in Cape Town.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
