The former Petroleum Minister of Niger Republic Mahaman Laouan Gaya has expressed his dissatisfactory following Africa’s Oil Week announcement of moving their flagship Cape Town event to Dubai. Gaya was quoted as saying that the decision is a “humiliating idea” adding that it sends a wrong message.
“Africans need to know that our dignity should not be given away. This is a clear sign of poor leadership. Africa will not reach its global potential if we continue to see supposedly investment promotion-focused organisations abandoning the continent at the smallest challenge” he said.
former Petroleum Minister of Niger Republic Mahaman Laouan Gaya
“The African Oil Industry is at a cross roads and going into COP26, we need to have an African Agenda on energy transition and energy poverty. These discussions cannot be had in Dubai. African Petroleum Producers and other energy producers should distance themselves from this initiative of taking Africans to Dubai.” He further added.
Gaya encourages the idea of bringing African representatives and its global strategic partners to an African location to debate and find solutions and synergies to address the continent’s challenges and showcase its opportunities. He condemns AOW’s lack of good leadership. With this in mind, he passionately suggests that governments and organisations alike should enforce a mandate of promotion and development of the oil and gas industry by standing up for it when it is necessary and lead the rest of the world by example.
In a dedicated approach, Mahaman Laouan Gaya rails behind the African Energy Chamber, the Mozambican Oil and Gas Chamber and many others against the move of the pan-African event and calls on the international community to support this cause.
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
As COVID-19 cases in Africa rise for the third week running and vaccines are increasingly scarce, 47 of Africa’s 54 countries—nearly 90%—are set to miss the September target of vaccinating 10% of their people unless Africa receives 225 million more doses. The new global targets were announced recently at the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body, and at today’s pace only seven African countries are set to meet them.
As Africa nears 5 million COVID-19 cases, numbers are rising week-on-week and increased by nearly 20% to over 88 000 in the week ending on 6 June. The pandemic is trending upwards in 10 African countries, with four nations recording a spike in new cases of over 30% in the past seven days, compared with the previous week. 72% of all new cases were reported in Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia and over half were recorded in nine southern African countries.
COVID-19 Lab
“As we close in on 5 million cases and a third wave in Africa looms, many of our most vulnerable people remain dangerously exposed to COVID-19. Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share COVID-19 vaccines. It’s do or die on dose sharing for Africa,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa.
At 32 million doses, Africa accounts for under 1% of the over 2.1 billion doses administered globally. Just 2% of the continent’s nearly 1.3 billion people have received one dose and only 9.4 million Africans are fully vaccinated.
However, United States President Joe Biden’s planned announcement that the US will purchase and donate half a billion Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries and the African Union is an important step forward. This comes as we see other countries such as France also making tangible deliveries via COVAX.
“The tide is starting to turn. We are now seeing wealthy nations beginning to turn promises into action,” said Dr Moeti.
While more vaccines are vital, some African countries must ramp up actions to swiftly roll out the vaccines they have. While 14 African countries have used from 80% to 100% of the doses they received through the COVAX Facility, 20 countries have used less than 50% of the doses received. Twelve countries have more than 10% of their AstraZeneca doses at risk of expiring by the end of August.
“We need to ensure that the vaccines that we have are not wasted because every dose is precious,” said Dr Moeti. “Countries that are lagging behind in their rollout need to step up vaccination efforts.”
Several African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire and Niger are seeing more success by adjusting their vaccine rollout strategies. Where possible, WHO recommends spreading vaccinations beyond large cities into rural areas, prioritizing vaccines that are close to expiring, tackling logistical and financial hurdles and working to boost public demand for vaccines.
Attitudes towards vaccines and acceptance of vaccination varies across countries and communities. According to the Risk Communication Community Engagement Collective, a joint WHO, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) initiative, confidence in vaccines in Africa ranges from just 38% in Cameroon to 86% in Guinea. On average, West and Central Africa has the lowest vaccine confidence at around 60%.
To combat mis-and-disinformation around vaccines, WHO and partners set up the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA), which leverages the reach and insights from a unique network of 14 organizations and pools resources to combat misinformation. Viral Facts Africa, the public face of the alliance, has created over 150 videos and social media posts to counter misinformation this year and they have been disseminated on almost 60 social media channels across the region and gained more than 100 million views.
Dr Moeti spoke during a virtual press conference today facilitated by APO Group. She was joined by Hon Mr Pierre N’Gou Dimba, Cote d’Ivoire Minister of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage, and Ms Luchen Foster, Director of Health Partnerships, Facebook. Also on hand to answer questions were Dr Phionah Atuhebwe, Vaccines Introduction Officer, WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Thierno Balde, Team Leader, Operational Partnerships, WHO Regional Office for Africa, and Dr Gilson Paluku, Routine Immunization and New Vaccines Introduction Officer, WHO Regional Office for Africa
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 emergence of renewable energy sources notwithstanding, about two billion dollars a day of petroleum is still traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item on the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. And petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers and will most likely command an important pride of place for the next half a century, thus the need for countries to efficiently deploy the resource for development.
A major impediment to Nigeria’s development has been the phenomenon of the resource curse whereby the nature of the state as a “rentier” dilutes accountability for development and political actors are able to manipulate institutions to sustain poor governance. Experts seem to be in agreement that the impact of the political elite’s resource-control and allocation of revenues on core democratic mechanisms is central to understand the obstacles to development and governance failure.
Although there have been efforts at reforming the petroleum sector, such reforms are still fragile thus the need to be deepened and institutionalized. This is basically behind the activities of the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC), a not for profit policy institute that has in the last decade been at the forefront championing for sustainable management of Nigeria’s natural resource wealth for the development of the country and good of the people.
Using its biennale Benchmarking Exercise Report (BER) since 2012, the NNRC analyses the governance of petroleum wealth in Nigeria and also identifies gaps within the sector. This is driven by the belief that a country that wants its future generations to benefit from an exhaustible resource, such as petroleum, must transform this non-renewable resource into a renewable one by investing in productive capital, such as energy and transportation infrastructures and water resources and sanitation and human resource capital.
To give further backing to the need to follow up on the findings of the BER, and the need to address some of the gaps discovered therein, especially as regards legislation and oversight of the sector, the NNRC collaborates with the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) to produce a toolkit which aims to improve capacity in the extractive sector governance in Nigeria. Both organizations had through a painstaking process which started a year ago developed a specialized toolkit aimed at helping stakeholders especially members of the national and state legislatures to fully understand the challenges of making laws and oversight functions in the extractive sectors.
The Extractive Industry Toolkit is designed to ensure that knowledge of the extractive industry is institutionalized and reposed within a credible and effective institution committed to ensuring current and future National Assemblies learn from the mistakes from the past, draw perspectives from more successful regions and are capable of charting an informed path forward for the extractive industry. It further highlights the contributions made by National Assemblies to improvements in Nigeria’s performance against global best practice indices and its competitors, providing practical examples on how the legislators may better enhance the benefits of resource extraction for Nigeria and her citizens.
Using the toolkit, existing legislators and those charged to govern within the relevant legislative committees, clerks, legislative aides and new entrants into the extractive industry legislature will gain deeper knowledge of the sector. It provides an avenue to better understand the findings of the NNRC’s Benchmarking Exercise Report (BER)’s which reveal governance gaps in extractive industry.Also, to understand the range of partnerships and collaborations with local and international actors in the industry available to foster improved governance of the sector. Laws and bills can be assessed using the methods within the toolkit for a better grasp of the issues and the available options for resolutions.
This toolkit couldn’t have come at a more opportune time as Nigeria resolves to consolidate its petroleum resource gains to diversify the economy amplifying the gains from solid minerals. The legislators, guided by the toolkit, will better understand the context of the resource control challenges being faced, address conflicts in those regions, embrace strategies that ensure greater management of Nigeria’s solid mineral assets and other key strategies and lessons gained from successful resource rich countries. It further provides a platform for the discourse, for the industry, MDA’s, civil society organizations and media to mainstream the natural resource charter approach and principles in better understanding issues and advocating for improvements in the extractive industry as a whole.
We anticipate that the curriculum developed using the Toolkit will entrench the principles within the Natural Resource Charter and will be used to deepen the understanding of extractive resource governance across the federal and sub-national parliaments for better resource management in Nigeria for the benefit of the public.
Feedbacks from industry stakeholders and experts points to the fact that the toolkit coming at a time when oil revenues are dwindling, will equally aid effective technical decision-making as well as transparency and accountability in the management of oil, gas and mineral wealth of Nigeria for the good of all Nigerians as it provides templates for conducting independent analysis of laws, sectors and issues within the natural resource space. It is hoped that if properly deployed the legislative interventions outlined in the toolkit have the potential to address some of the issues in Nigeria’s extractive sector. The measures identified can support lawmakers in developing legislations with ‘adequate safeguards, checks and quality controls to guard against conflicts of interest and undue discretion.
It not only seeks to build the capacity of legislators to understand the extractive sector but also outlines strategies that legislators can use to deepen oversight of the sector through mechanisms such as audits, oversight visits, as well as corporate transparency and monitoring. There is a general consensus that Nigeria might be able to get it right in this last quarter of its resource management by using its natural resource wealth to effectively diversify the economy and industrialise the country.
Kelechi Deca, a development journalist writes from Lagos.
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
Air Peace employees have foiled a pair of baby smugglers about to board a flight from Lagos to Asaba at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on Monday, June 7. The incident involved two babies making it the third time in three years alert Air Peace employees have disrupted the child trafficking trade.According to reports, an adult male and female attempted to check-in for a flight to Asaba at lunchtime on Monday. Asaba is a Nigerian city located some 273 miles (440 kilometers) east of Lagos. Air Peace offers several flights a day between Lagos and Asaba.
Air Peace
With the two adults were two babies aged around three months. Stanley Olisa, a spokesperson for Air Peace, says check-in staff asked about the infants and became suspicious. Initially, the two passengers said the infants belonged to them, and they were traveling only to Asaba.
“The two adults, who hinted that the babies were three months old each, were further questioned by another counter attendant and security personnel, but they gave a different narrative,”Mr Olisa is quoted as saying.
“The two adults gave conflicting explanations to different staff- that the babies were being taken to the United Kingdom to unite them with their parents, and later they said they were sending the babies to Zimbabwe for adoption.”
As suspicions intensified, Air Peace’s security staff intervened and brought in the police and during cross examination, the passengers admitted to police they were trafficking the babies for adoption. It could be recalled that this is not the first time Air Peace has foiled baby smugglers. In June 2018, alert flight attendants on a flight between Lagos and Banjul became suspicious when a female passenger declined to breastfeed an unsettled three-month-old child. Instead, she tried to give the little boy water. The female passenger was one of two adults traveling together
When the flight crew challenged the passengers, they claimed to be taking the baby to Banjul under a surrogacy deal. Dissatisfied, the flight crew notified Banjul, and security personnel met the flight on arrival.On the ground, the passengers were separated and questioned. Both gave conflicting accounts of who the baby boy was and their relationship with it. Later DNA testing proved no biological link. At the time, the Airline applauded its flight crew for intervening. Air Peace has a history of stepping in to stop the trafficking of children.
In January 2019, a flight crew again stepped in to rescue a baby about to board a flight from Port Harcourt to Lagos. This child was three days old. This time Air Peace did name the flight crew who saved the child. They were Captain Sinmisola Ajibola, Senior First Officer Onohi Agboighale, Mojoko Ewane, Taiye Abbey, Victoria Ukpiaifo, and Ngozi Ezeamaka.
The female passenger, again traveling with adult companions, provided varying accounts of her relationship with the baby and her reason for traveling. The Airline called in the police, and reports say the female passenger later confessed to trafficking the child. Only eight years old, Air Peace’s reputation as one of West Africa’s best airlines is growing fast. The willingness of their employees to intervene, ask questions, and disrupt the baby smuggling trade only adds to that reputation.
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
A recent Visa report has shown that the top market contributors to e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the last 3 years were South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, with Ghana also showing growth, having replaced Kenya in the top three contributors in 2020. SSA may be one of the smallest regions of e-commerce globally, but it shows steady growth potential. During lockdown, the region saw new e-commerce users rise by 5% when compared to the active base in SSA the previous year.
e-commerce
“The three leading markets in SSA are starting to mature, providing the region with an established foundation and when twinned with the growing penetration of e-commerce, it offers players in the payment space an opportunity they can capitalise on while helping to further accelerate the expansion of e-commerce in the region,” explains Lineshree Moodley, Head of Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Visa’s white paper, entitled E-commerce developments across Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), confirmed that, as the world becomes increasingly digital, e-commerce has been driving the acceleration of digital commerce.
It has experienced phenomenal growth rates around the world, and even recent setbacks as a result of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic haven’t stopped its rise. In fact, according to recent GroupM estimates, e-commerce sales are projected to grow to $7-trillion across the globe by 2024.
The Research
Cross-border transactions make up half of all e-commerce transaction volumes
E-commerce is driven by retail goods and professional services
Mobile phones are the main source of digital access
Payment facilitators are a critical catalyst for digital payments
Fraud protection is key to maintaining customer trust
In terms of the merchant categories driving e-commerce, for Kenya and Nigeria, there is a steady dedication to service-based merchants with a strong spread across services categories such as professional services, education, government, and business-to-business merchants.
Top Drivers in E-commerce
In South Africa, professional services and telecom/utilities merchants were the top drivers of e-commerce in 2020. The most important e-commerce enablers – the ability to access financial services, digital payment channels and digital infrastructure – are starting to take hold across SSA.
Although cash may remain the dominant payment instrument in the region, for now, there are signs that this will eventually change.
In Nigeria, for example, cash is still particularly prevalent, while in Kenya mobile money is most popular and many South Africans choose cards as their main payment methods.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed consumers towards digital payments in the key e-commerce markets for SSA.
Cash vs. Cashless
At a primary level of cash versus digital payment instruments, there has been a strong move away from the use of cash across the board. This is due to a shift to e-commerce behaviour that is mostly enabled by digital payments and a reduced preference for face-to-face interactions that involve handling common surfaces, such as cash.
When exploring digital payments usage, the use of cards has increased across the continent, with the highest uptick taking place in Kenya. However, the nature of this usage is interesting.
There has been a strong preference for contactless payments, a notable point for enabling safe card payments on delivery, as well as in the use of e-wallet services, as cash is seen as a vector for the virus.
Aldo Laubscher, Country Manager at Visa South Africa says that it is important that e-commerce platforms are designed with end-to-end mobile enablement in mind, and that online payments provide a strong user experience that is secure and appears seamless to the customer, both for local and cross-border transactions.
“Customers in SSA are making use of a wide range of digital payment instruments, so it is becoming increasingly important that e-commerce offers multi and even omnichannel experiences. At Visa, we continue to work with traditional and new financial services companies to develop new products and capabilities that deliver on this.”
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
Africa’s leading pay TV company, MultiChoice has launched a digital customer service through an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, the AI system which the company baptized “The Ultimate Master of Information”, or TUMI is an innovative service that will be available 24/7 to answer customer queries about products and services.
MultiChoice CEO in South Africa Nyiko Shiburi
The MultiChoice CEO in South Africa Nyiko Shiburi said that TUMI is an evolutionary leap in our service capability. Shiburi added that it was “Born and developed right here in Africa, TUMI is a tangible manifestation of our commitment to innovation. This is not innovation for its own sake; the focus is to continue to grow our capacity to give our customers an excellent service experience.”
Developed entirely in-house by the MultiChoice team, TUMI interacts in real-time with customers in an online, text-based conversation. It boasts advanced natural language capabilities, which means that TUMI can recognise user questions and provide responses with information related to DStv products and services.
Right now, customers can ask TUMI to clear decoder errors, check balances, reconnect products, make payments, manage holiday home viewing, and change packages.
However, TUMI is intelligent and is constantly learning and evolving, which means more functionalities will be added over time. Through feedback, customers can also help TUMI to learn.
If TUMI is unable to help customers resolve their queries, they will instantly be transferred to a knowledgeable and friendly customer service representative for further assistance.
TUMI currently lives on the DStv website and in time, it will live across MultiChoice’s digital ecosystem on DStv Now (website and app), Showmax (website and app), and Facebook Messenger. TUMI will also act as a concierge to onboard new customers to MultiChoice online-only service, DStv Streaming.
TUMI has already been hard at work helping customers since it launched on 5 May 2021.
“Thanks to TUMI, MultiChoice is in-step with international technology and customer-service trends. TUMI places us at the forefront of customer interaction providing DStv subscribers with another channel to connect with us,” adds Shiburi.
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
A new report from the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) has outlined how Islamic finance and artificial intelligence can enhance financial inclusion. The Report entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Islamic Finance: A Catalyst for Financial Inclusion”, provides a comprehensive Islamic finance framework for financial inclusion, identifies the major challenges hindering the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), and recommends solutions to leverage Islamic finance using AI to enhance financial inclusion.
IsDBI Acting Director General and IsDB Group Chief Economist, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem
The report recommends a holistic solution for financing small and medium enterprises with two pillars that provide easy access to capital more efficiently. The first pillar is forming a sustainable and inclusive framework consisting of a staggered approach that maps the need for microentrepreneurs at different business development levels to achieve financial inclusion. The proposed Islamic finance framework has the potential to build an inclusive national-level framework for access to finance, enabling all segments of society without increasing indebtedness.
The second pillar is developing a financial infrastructure that recognizes access to capital as a need of the economy. A resilient infrastructure helps with better and efficient delivery of financial services. The infrastructure in this context is built on both physical and intellectual capabilities. Financial technology’s intellectual contribution may include better storage, speedy analysis and use of alternative data and application of AI for decision making.
The financial pillar aims to capture, store, and make available all possible touchpoints necessary to reduce information asymmetry and increase access to capital. Digital infrastructure is the most critical element of the overall financial infrastructure, especially as data inclusion leads to financial inclusion.
In his remarks on the release of the report, IsDBI Acting Director General and IsDB Group Chief Economist, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, stated that the report is timely coming when the COVID-19 pandemic is causing serious economic disruptions worldwide.
He said, “The report’s central message is that Islamic finance, built on a foundation of social and economic justice, when leveraged with AI and related technologies, can be a major driver for sustainable development through inclusive participation and risk-sharing.”
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 discontent from the African Energy Chamber on the AOW decision has resonated with many Africans who are using diverse platforms to call for the prioritization of African venues. Initially scheduled for 1-5 November in Cape Town, South Africa, there is growing furor across the continent following the relocation of the 2021 edition of the Africa Oil Week (AOW) to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from 8-11 November 2021.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, CEO of pan-African corporate law conglomerate Centurion Law Group
“Delivering the event to the high standard to which our audience is accustomed and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our attendees has always been our top priority. We believe that hosting the 2021 edition in Dubai will enable us to ensure that the event experience is both safe and premium for our customers,” the AOW said in a statement posted on their website recently.
Reactions did not take long to come with the African Energy Chamber led by NJ Ayuk leading the charge in calling for a stronger commitment to conferences of African nature being held on African terrain.
Mothballing a conference in South Africa, an African nation that has handled the Covid-19 pandemic remarkably well, is a clear sign of opportunism and detachment from the pledge to support African venues and our continent, the Chamber lashed out.
“While Dubai is a fabulous venue in its own right, we do believe that events of African nature should show strong commitment to African communities, cities and the local workforce. An event of the magnitude of Africa Oil Week is a big local employer. Reneging on its long-standing partner, the African people and the continent, is a truly unfortunate sign of disinterest in African values of trust, loyalty and companionship, and is in fact very unscrupulous in nature,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chair of the African Energy Chamber.
“Keeping to Covid-19 travel restrictions and how they have particularly placed a strenuous burden on the conferencing industry, there are smart ways to hold hybrid conferences of both online and offline nature. Further, vaccination rates are increasing rapidly across the Northern hemisphere, which would allow business travelers to visit South Africa in a safe manner by November,” Ayuk added.
The discontent from the African Energy Chamber on the AOW decision has resonated with many Africans who are using diverse platforms to call for the prioritization of African venues for African events.
The event’s move from Cape Town to Dubai was wrong, short-term in its thinking, and sends a negative message about Africa, says Florival Mucave, President of Mozambican Oil and Gas Chamber (CPGM).
“The move underestimates our preparedness to host events that define our future economic and energy sector success. Imagine the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament being hosted in Dubai because one company says Africa is not the right place anymore because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mucave said in condemnation of the relocation.
The excuses and final decision to move the event are both unacceptable and wrong, and sends a message that when things are hard because of COVID-19, Africa should be abandoned for other locations irrespective of the loyalty and the sponsorship Africa has shown for more than two decades, Mucave charged.
“As a former Patron of the African Institute of Petroleum, I concur that a move of AOW from an African location to any other continent is not just disrespectful to Africans whose resources are being talked about but considerably delusional,” says Robin Vela, Chairman, Lonsa Group Limited, Mauritius.
“I thought I was the only one who saw something very wrong with this decision. Africa as a continent is the least affected by COVID in the whole world, we have lesser death rates, came up with several initiatives and innovations to tackle the scourge. In my opinion, Africa handled the pandemic even better than the rest of the world, so why should the continent be counted out on grounds of the global pandemic,?” Margaret Nongo -Okojokwu , a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow and social entrepreneur from Nigeria questions.
To the CEO of Turaco Aviation Group Abdul Bigirumwami from Rwanda, African events should stay in Africa, Rwanda has handled the COVID-19 pandemic well and can support such events.
For Senior Tax and Legal Counsel from Senegal Abdoulaye DIA, “we cannot make Africa without Africans and out of Africa.”
“This is so sad for our struggling South African Event/Expo Industry. It’s all about money and buggers everyone else. “Africa” Oil Week… Dubai has never been or will ever be in Africa. Change the name of the event,” Simon Aubrey Onsite, Project / Site Manager for Overlay of Exhibitions / Sport Events opines.
Given the relentless attack that the oil and gas industry is facing, there is no better time for the oil and gas industry to stand with Africa but now, says the African Energy Chamber as it pledges to continue pushing for discussions on energy transition, fiscal responsibility, free markets, upstream, midstream, downstream, renewables and petrochemicals in Africa.
Beyond the criticisms on moving the AOC to Dubai, the controversial decision has prompted the Africa Energy Chamber to start exploring other avenues on what is perceived as injustice.
“As a first step, the Chamber will encourage, advocate and provide support for an energy event in October or November this year with African ministries, entrepreneurs, NOC’s, IOC’s, Civil society and possibly four African heads of States. The Chamber will continue to be the voice of the sector and work towards building bridges that brings together governments and companies in the African energy industry to find a common ground,” a recent statement read.
Ajong Mbapndah L writes from Washington D.C. USA
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 diversification of ride-hailing platform Bolt has upped the ante with their on-demand transportation service which unveiled a series of new branded electric scooters, and e-motorbikes. The company is pushing for greener, more environmentally-minded transport as it hurls itself into Kenya’s food delivery market. This new initiative is geared towards reducing Bolt’s environmental footprint, according to company sources.
Hillary Miller-Wise, Regional Director, Bolt Africa
It likewise will also fulfill the demand for lighter, smarter modes of transport that are less expensive to maintain. The new move will eliminate challenges like fluctuating fuel prices, the most significant operating cost for drivers.
“This is a great step towards realizing environmentally conscious ways for people to move around in the city, reduce our ecological footprint, decrease air pollution and increase access to clean transportation modes,” says Hillary Miller-Wise, Regional Director, Bolt Africa.
“We also trust that this is a stride forward to mitigate the impacts of constant fluctuating fuel costs and will stabilize the growth and sustainability of driver earnings and cost of doing business. We believe that the future of urban transport is a network of on-demand services which include electric vehicles, tuk-tuks (scooters), bikes and other light vehicles.”
Currently, the electric vehicles are slated to only be used by drivers for Bolt’s on-demand food delivery service. The company has plans to begin introducing electric vehicles into its ride-hailing service as well in the near future.
Bolt diversified into Kenya’s food delivery business during the rise of a third COVID-19 wave in the country. The company’s food delivery has since seen significant growth with lauded receptions with Nairobi – likewise boosting the customer base for local restaurants, and giving customers more options for lunch.
“We will be making deliveries using the newly launched tuk-tuks (scooters) and bicycles within Nairobi as we expand into other towns across the country. Our customers will now have more eco-friendly and sustainable options to choose from while still enjoying the same great door-to door deliveries experience from Bolt Food,” says Edgar Kipngetich Kitur, Country Manager, Bolt Food.
“We are committed to transforming the food delivery sector in Kenya and we continue to invest in innovative products that enhance quality service delivery and great customer experiences at affordable costs.”
With Bolt Food, the company now offers the most diversified array of ride-hailing and on-demand delivery services in the country. Bolt is set to continue to deliver at affordable prices.
“Our core business is to provide reliable, safe and affordable transportation services to everyone and we are excited to make travel easier and smarter across the country. We are humbled to offer Kenyans more choices to move and conduct their businesses smartly in cities,” concludes Miller-Wise.
Kenya is now the first and only African market where Bolt has introduced green transport options. The company is planning to launch eco-transport in other African markets as well. With on-demand delivery services exploding, especially in markets such as South Africa, we should expect Bolt’s greener deliveries sooner rather than later.
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
It has been revealed that a massive undersea mudslide caused internet disruptions across Africa in recent times. This was contained in a recent study conducted by Professor Peter J. Talling and a team from the Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography, from the University of Durham in the UK, co-led by Angola Cables and supported by the Vodafone Group, British Telecom, NERC Environmental and others, has delivered important findings presenting valuable insights for the routing and protection of future subsea cables.
Undersea Mudslide
In January 2020, the South Atlantic 3/West Africa (SAT-3/Wasc) cable, linking Africa to Portugal and Spain was hit by a breakdown in Gabon, whilst the West Africa Cable System (Wacs) that connects South Africa to the United Kingdom saw an outage off the coast of the DRC Congo.
In March, the WACS cable experienced a further break affecting international bandwidth. Whilst many ISPs suffered extended outage periods, most of the major mobile operators were able to mitigate the impact on internet traffic due to their redundancy measures and were in a position to redirect data traffic to other subsea cable networks. Large telcos and mobile operators often employ a divergent strategy to ensure they have alternative routings in place should one of their data-carrying cables be affected.
The cable fault on the SAT-3 was likely caused by an exceptionally large and powerful submarine mudslide that originated at the mouth of the Congo River, just 10 days after the Congo River recorded its largest flood since the 1960s. Sand and mud from the river flood were presumably remobilised, triggering the submarine mudslide that flowed through the offshore Congo Canyon.
The canyon is one of the largest underwater canyons on earth, cutting across the continental shelf of West Africa for 85 kilometres until it reaches the shelf edge, then continues down the slope and ends 280 kilometres from its origin. At its deepest point, the V-shaped canyon walls are 1100 meters in height.
According to observations by Professor Talling and the team, “the data that we recovered from the seabed sensor and mooring data sets within the Congo Canyon have revealed that the undersea mudslide is possibly the longest recorded sediment flow yet measured in action on our planet.”
The January 2020 event caused 9 of the oceanographic moorings to surface. By combining the timings of when moorings reached the sea surface and the cable breaks, Professor Talling and his team were able to calculate the flow speed of the massive undersea avalanche.
It has been estimated that following the initial mudslide in the canyon, the moving sediment increased in speed from 5 m/s in Angolan waters in the upper canyon, to reach 8 m/s in the deep ocean, at water depths of 4-5 km – running out some 1,200 km from the river mouth.
“Depending on the proximity of cable repair vessels, outages can often take a number of weeks to repair resulting in costly losses to economies impacted by such breaks,” notes Talling, “Gathering evidence and the recorded data in studies such as these are critical to understanding the nature of such subterranean events, and how the subsea cable industry can better provide more durable solutions in keeping the cables – and the world connected.”
It is estimated that around 1.2-million kilometres of subsea cable carrying power and transmitting data currently transverse continents and geographies across the world. Most of these cables are either buried in the seabed or rest on the ocean floor.
Nearly 75% of the damage caused to these cables are the result of being snagged or damaged by the anchors of ships. Deep see cable faults in water depths of more than 1,000 metres below sea level, are almost always caused by natural events such as current abrasion, underwater landslides and underwater seismic activity.
Often the problem with deep water faults is that they are not as easy to detect and can impact multiple cables – making recovery and repair efforts both lengthy and costly to cable operators.
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
