Google has announced the expansion of Bard, its conversational AI service, to 40 new languages, including Swahili, which is the first African language to be included, and 59 new countries and territories. This expansion brings new features that allow users to customize their experience, enhance their creativity, and be more productive.
With this expansion, Bard is now available in most parts of the world, including countries in the European Union (EU), and in the most widely spoken languages, such as Swahili, Chinese, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi. Bard now allows users to access it in their preferred language, and it enables text-to-speech in eight languages.
Dorothy Ooko, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, SSA, Google, expressed excitement about Bard’s global availability, seeing it as a great tool for democratizing knowledge. She said, “That’s why we created Bard: to help you explore your curiosity, expand your imagination, and ultimately bring your ideas to life—not just by answering your questions, but by helping you build upon them.”
UNESCO recognizes Swahili as one of the ten most widely spoken languages worldwide, with over 200 million speakers. The inclusion of more languages and territories will make Bard more inclusive and safer, thanks to feedback from a broader range of users.
Rachael Ndichu, Language Manager at Google, highlighted the significance of launching Bard in Swahili, as it allows Bard to reach even more people in Africa, where approximately 150 million people speak the language. This expansion makes Bard more accessible to everyone in the region, offering a powerful tool for creativity and learning.
As part of the expansion, several new updates have been launched. Users can listen to Bard’s responses in 40+ languages via the sound icon, aiding pronunciation and enjoyment of poems/scripts. Users can also adjust Bard’s responses by selecting from five different options: simple, long, short, professional, or casual. This feature is currently available in English and will expand to other languages soon.
Google has introduced four additional features to help users be more productive. Users can now pin and rename their conversations with Bard, making it easier to revisit important discussions or ideas later. The export code to more places feature allows users to export Python code to Replit, in addition to Google Colab, facilitating code sharing and collaboration. Users can share Bard’s responses with friends using shareable links, enhancing collaboration and feedback on projects. Lastly, users can now upload images with prompts to Bard, adding another dimension to their interactions.
Bard aims to combine the vast knowledge of the world with the power, intelligence, and creativity of Google’s language models. It utilizes information from the web to provide responses. As an experimental technology, Bard may occasionally produce inaccurate statements in response to user prompts. Google encourages users to provide feedback if they encounter any issues or inaccuracies in Bard’s responses.
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
There are reports that Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since July 2, 2023 to a remote, militarized buffer zone at the Tunisia-Libya border, Human Rights Watch said today. The group includes people with both regular and irregular legal status in Tunisia, expelled without due process. Many reported violence by authorities during arrest or expulsion.
“The Tunisian government should halt collective expulsions and urgently enable humanitarian access to the African migrants and asylum seekers already expelled to a dangerous area at the Tunisia-Libya border, with little food and no medical assistance,” said Lauren Seibert, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Not only is it unconscionable to abuse people and abandon them in the desert, but collective expulsions violate international law.”
Between July 2 and 6, Human Rights Watch interviewed five people by phone who had been expelled, including an Ivorian asylum seeker and four migrants: two Ivorian men, a Cameroonian man, and a 16-year-old Cameroonian girl. Interviewees’ names are not used for their protection. They could not give an exact number, but estimated that Tunisian authorities had expelled between 500 and 700 people since July 2 to the border area, around 35 kilometers east of the town Ben Guerdane. They arrived in at least four different groups, ranging in size.
The people expelled were of many African nationalities – Ivorian, Cameroonian, Malian, Guinean, Chadian, Sudanese, Senegalese, and others – and included at least 29 children and three pregnant women, interviewees said. At least six expelled people were asylum seekers registered with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), while at least two adults had consular cards identifying them as students in Tunisia.
People interviewed said they had been arrested in raids by police, National Guard, or military in and near Sfax, a port city southeast of the capital, Tunis. National Guard and military forces rapidly transported them 300 kilometers to Ben Guerdane, then to the Libya border, where they were effectively trapped in what they described as a buffer zone from which they could neither enter Libya nor return to Tunisia.
Tensions have been high in Sfax for months as Tunisian residents campaigned for African foreigners to leave, escalating to recent attacks against Black Africans and clashes with Tunisians. A man from Benin was killed in May by a Tunisian man on July 3. Videos circulating on social media in early July depicted groups of Tunisian men threatening Black Africans with batons and knives, and in other videos, security officers shoving Black Africans into vans while people cheered.
People interviewed said that Tunisian security forces had smashed nearly everyone’s phones prior to expulsion. They communicated with Human Rights Watch primarily through a phone that one man had managed to hide. They provided their GPS location on July 2 and July 4, as well as videos and photos of smashed phones; expelled people and their injuries, reportedly from security force beatings; and passports, consular cards, and asylum seeker cards.
Those interviewed alleged that several people died or were killed at the border area between July 2 and 5 – including, they said, some shot and others beaten by Tunisian military or National Guard. They also said that Libyan men carrying machetes or other weapons had robbed some people and raped several women, either in the buffer zone or after they managed to cross into Libya to look for food. No nongovernmental groups had access to the area, so Human Rights Watch could not independently confirm these accounts.
One video the migrants sent to Human Rights Watch showed a woman describing sexual assault apparently by Tunisian security forces. In another video, a woman says she had a miscarriage after the expulsion.
“We are at the Tunisia-Libya border, at the seaside,” said an Ivorian asylum seeker on July 4. “We were beaten [by Tunisian security forces].…We have many injured people here.…We have children who haven’t eaten for days … forced to drink sea water. We have a [Guinean] pregnant woman who went into labor … she died this morning … the baby died too.”
At the start of the expulsions, a group of 20 was dropped at the border the morning of July 2. Human Rights Watch interviewed two people in the group: a 29-year-old Ivorian man, and a 16-year-old Cameroonian girl.
The Ivorian man said that on July 1, police, National Guard, and military personnel raided the house where they were staying – arresting 48 people – in Jbeniana, 35 kilometers north of Sfax. He said the detained people had entered Tunisia at various times, some regularly and some irregularly, but none he knew had passed through Libya. Tunisian authorities took the 48 people to a police station, examined their documents, and recorded their information. Security forces divided them into two groups, and drove the man’s group to Ben Guerdane, he said.
The man said they made stops at three bases in Ben Guerdane, and military or national guard officers “beat us like animals … punching, kicking, slapping, hitting us with batons,” and sexually harassed and assaulted the women, including groping them. “They started to touch me everywhere,” said the Cameroonian girl in the same group. “They slammed my head against their vehicle.”
The security forces threw away their food, smashed their phones, and left them at the border, the Ivorian man said. Two armed men in uniform from Libya later approached them and ordered them to return to Tunisia, he said, while on the other side, Tunisian military beat several men who sought to cross back to Tunisia.
Two men in a second expelled group, Cameroonian and Ivorian, said they and others had been arrested during raids on their houses in Sfax, on July 3 between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., by police, National Guard, and military. They said that authorities did not ask for anyone’s documents or record their personal information, though some were in Tunisia legally; instead, they drove them swiftly overnight to Ben Guerdane.
“We are from different countries of origin … and they brought us 300 kilometers from Sfax [to expel us] … instead of bringing us to Tunis, to our embassies,” the Ivorian asylum seeker said. “It’s inhuman.”
On July 5 and 6, authorities expelled a third and fourth group, each an estimated 200-300 people, from Sfax. Videos interviewees shared showed many injured people among the arrivals, with open wounds, bandaged limbs, and one with an apparently broken leg.
As of July 5, no humanitarian aid from the Tunisian side had reached the group, though the Ivorian man from the first expelled group said some uniformed Libyan men arrived that evening to provide some water and cookies for the children. But then on July 6, “The [same] Libyans … started to shoot in the air, burn things, chase us.… The Libyans told us to leave the territory and go toward the Tunisian side. They started to take out their guns to threaten us.”
On July 6, Human Rights Watch contacted representatives of the Tunisian Interior, Defense and Foreign Affairs ministries by phone, but was unable to obtain information.
President Kais Saied, in an inflammatory February speech that triggered a surge of racist attacks against Black Africans, had linked undocumented African migrants to crime and a “plot” to alter Tunisia’s demographic makeup. In a July 4 statement, Saied referenced “the criminal operation that occurred yesterday” in Sfax, referring to the Tunisian man’s killing, and said, “Tunisia is a country that only accepts people residing on its territory in accordance with its laws, and does not accept to be a transit or settlement zone for people arriving from numerous African countries.”
Tunisia is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which prohibits collective expulsions, as well as the UN and African Refugee Conventions, the Convention Against Torture, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit refoulement – forced returns or expulsions to countries where people could face torture, threats to their lives or freedom, or other serious harm. All countries should suspend expulsions or forced returns to Libya, given the serious harm people may face there. Governments should also not expel asylum seekers whose refugee claims have not been fully examined.
The Tunisian government should respect international law and conduct individual legal status assessments in accordance with due process before deporting anyone, Human Rights Watch said. The government should also investigate and hold to account security forces implicated in abuses.
Diplomatic delegations of African countries should seek to locate and evacuate any of their nationals expelled to the Tunisia-Libya border who wish to voluntarily return to their countries of origin, while the African Union Commission should condemn the abusive expulsions and press Tunisia to provide immediate assistance to affected Africans.
“African migrants and asylum seekers, including children, are desperate to get out of the dangerous border zone and find food, medical care, and safety,” Seibert said. “There is no time to waste.”
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
Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over its new Threads app, which Mark Zuckerberg has openly billed as a rival, claiming the company has violated Twitter’s “intellectual property rights”.
In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, first published by the news outlet Semafor, a lawyer for Twitter said the company “has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Alex Spiro wrote in the letter.
Meta launched Threads, a text-based conversation app intended to rival Twitter, on Wednesday to a largely positive reception. The company said Threads garnered 30m sign-ups in less than 24 hours after launching.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Threads accounts are linked to Instagram profiles, making the process to sign up seamless between apps and giving the Twitter copycat a built-in user base.
Zuckerberg has said Threads is Meta’s attempt at taking a shot at building a “public conversations app with 1bn+ people” – an opportunity that Twitter had but “hasn’t nailed”.
Twitter claims in the cease-and-desist that Meta has poached dozens of former employees in the past year, some of whom “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” and “many” of whom have “improperly” kept Twitter documents or electronic devices.
“With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter,” the letter reads.
In response to the letter, Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, posted on Threads that there are no engineers on the team that used to work at Twitter.
It’s unclear what evidence Twitter has that former employees who now work at Meta continue to have access to Twitter intellectual property or trade secrets. Twitter responded to a request for comment with an automated email of a poop emoji.
Twitter also said Meta is “prohibited” from scraping data from any Twitter service. Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, has recently made several moves to purportedly curtail any efforts to scrape Twitter data, including limiting the number of tweets users can see in a day. At the time, Musk said it was in response to companies using Twitter to train their AI models.
A cursory search conducted by the Guardian of LinkedIn found several Meta employees hired in the last year who previously worked at Twitter.
However, it’s fairly common for tech employees to jump from one company to another, particularly if they’ve worked at a social media platform.
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 part of efforts aimed at growing its roots in Africa, Amazon Prime Video has appointed former SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane as director for Africa.
Khobane, who served as CEO of MultiChoice Group-owned SuperSport from 2016 to 2020 and as MultiChoice group executive for general entertainment until 2022, will oversee the development of Amazon’s video streaming platform on the continent.
It’s likely Amazon hopes that Khobane’s 15 years of experience as a television executive – he also worked at M-Net for eight years – will help it secure a stronger position in the highly contested African streaming market.
Gideon Khobane
Khobane joins Amazon with a remit to support the growth of the Prime Video service across sub-Saharan Africa
“Khobane joins Amazon with a remit to support the growth of the Prime Video service across sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa and Nigeria,” the company said .
Prime Video costs R79/month in South Africa, offering up to 4K video quality and viewable on up to two devices at the same time. That is aggressively priced next to similar offerings from Netflix, Disney+ and MultiChoice’s Showmax.
Content on Prime Video includes shows such as The Terminal List, The Boys and the record-breaking Lord of the Rings – Rings of Power. But the streaming service believes that international content alone is not enough of a differentiator as it starts to take the African market more seriously.
“Khobane’s new role signals Prime Video’s continued long-term investment in sub-Saharan Africa, and commitment to creating a service that is diverse, attractive and engaging to all Prime Video members in the region,” said an Amazon Studios spokesman.
Amazon Studios has established an Originals team for Africa and the Middle East. This unit has produced series including Gangs of Lagos, LOL: Last One Laughing Naija and LOL: Last One Laughing South Africa, hosted by comedian Trevor Noah.
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 world’s third most visited crypto exchange, Bybit, has successfully obtained a license to operate a crypto exchange and provide custody services in Cyprus. This milestone demonstrates Bybit’s commitment to working within regulatory frameworks and providing its users with secure and compliant trading solutions.
Bybit’s newly acquired license from the regulatory authorities in Cyprus allows the company to offer a full suite of services, including trading between crypto pairs and fiat currency pairs, financial services related to crypto assets, and custody solutions tailored to clients in Cyprus and E.U. member states. With this license, Bybit establishes itself as a trusted and regulated platform within the Cyprus cryptocurrency market.
Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit
Cyprus is recognized as a burgeoning hub for cryptocurrency activities, with a growing community of crypto enthusiasts and a favorable regulatory environment. Bybit recognizes the immense potential of the Cyprus market and is excited to bring its next-level reliability and opportunities to the local digital asset community.
“At Bybit, we wholeheartedly support the regulatory objective of building a cryptocurrency industry that is both compliant, secure, and transparent, ultimately benefiting all those seeking financial freedom,” said Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit. “This landmark is a testament to Bybit’s commitment to adhering to robust regulatory frameworks while expanding our global presence. We look forward to bringing the Crypto Ark to Cyprus.”
Bybit has a sterling reputation for digital asset security, compliance, and protection. Due in no small part to its enhanced KYC and AML procedures, successfully obtaining the ISO 27001:2013 certification for its robust security management system, and running real-time, on-chain, proof-of-reserves data with a purpose-built Merkle tree.
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
AstraZeneca has announced it will expand its existing AZ Forest project in Ghana by planting an additional 2.2 million trees, aiming to increase the total number of surviving trees to 4.7 million; In Rwanda, AstraZeneca has funded the pilot phase of an agroforestry project, to accelerate the development of one of the country’s largest forest restoration initiatives; To restore degraded lands, AZ Forest relies on a multi-stakeholder approach involving local communities, planting experts, and governments; Projects are part of the Company’s global commitment to plant 200 million trees by 2030, removing around 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over 30 years.
AstraZeneca has today announced the expansion of its global AZ Forest reforestation and biodiversity initiative, including new and expanded projects in Ghana and Rwanda. In Ghana, the expansion will see the total forest area of the Atebubu-Amantin and Sene West landscape restoration project grow to over 8,000 hectares, with an additional 2.2 million trees planted, bringing the total targeted number of surviving trees to 4.7 million. In Rwanda, AstraZeneca has funded a pilot phase of an agroforestry project that aims to plant more than 5.8 million trees over 30 years.
A collaboration between the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA), New Generation Plantation Technical Assistance (NGPTA), and other partners, the project in Atebubu-Amantin and Sene West is a unique partnership, combining natural forest restoration and community lead agroforestry, helping to improve the local economy and create nature-based business models for small-holder farmers. The project is part of a global network of “Living Labs”, which aim to catalyse the development of circular bioeconomy value chains through landscape restoration, while supporting biodiversity and local livelihoods.
To date, AZ Forest Ghana has recruited over 1,200 farmers from 23 communities, planted over 2 million trees and trained nearly 950 individuals in agroforestry and wildfire prevention and management.
AstraZeneca has also provided funding to accelerate the development of the “MuLaKiLa” project in Rwanda. “MuLaKiLa” aims to support local communities and livelihoods through agroforestry and restore the ecological balance of the Mukura Forest-Lake Kivu Catchment Landscape. With the aim to be another “Living Lab” the project will help more than 30,000 farming households, in what is one the largest forest restoration initiatives in Rwanda.
AZ Forest is AstraZeneca’s global initiative that, through collaboration with partners and local communities, will see 200 million trees planted and maintained by 2030 across six continents, removing an estimated 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next thirty years. AstraZeneca is the first healthcare company to make this level of commitment to reforestation, recognising that climate change is the biggest threat to human health and that reforestation brings important co-benefits. These include improving food security, combatting air pollution, improving local water quality, lowering surface and air temperatures, restoring habitats for biodiversity, and bringing social and economic benefits for communities.
Dr Pelin Incesu, Area Vice-President for the Middle East and Africa, AstraZeneca, stated: “AstraZeneca is committed to building a sustainable future for people, society and the planet, and the AZ Forest expansion in Ghana as well as the new project in Rwanda are a key part of that mission in Africa. By supporting communities to restore degraded lands, we are tackling climate change and fostering resilience and sustainability from the bottom up, creating a more sustainable and healthier future for everyone. This exciting project sits alongside numerous other sustainable healthcare initiatives that AstraZeneca supports across Africa, including Healthy Heart Africa and our Accelerate Change Together for Cancer Care Africa programme, which tackle some of the continent’s fastest-growing health threats.”
Marc Palahí, Chair, Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA), said, “I am thankful for AstraZeneca’s new commitments that allow the CBA to expand the land under restoration in Africa. This initiative and the pilot project in Rwanda are great examples of how corporations, scientists and local communities can work together for the benefit of nature and people.”
Honourable Anthony Owusu from Bantama community in Ghana, Multi-Stakeholder Platform Chair, said: “Our project’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform has created an avenue where both farmers and opinion leaders are brought together to take decisions that benefit themselves, their communities and the environment.”
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
Nigerians have reacted to the recent directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to banks and other financial institutions making the use of social media handles for KYC operations mandatory. The directive was contained in its Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 for all financial institutions under its regulatory purview.
Under the new regulations, the apex bank informed banks to deploy the use of social media in know-your-customer and other forms of identity verifications. To this end, it means that customers who need to be verified will have to enter their national identity number, phone number or email, physical address, and then social media handle.
CBN
Now, Section 6(iv) of the CBN’s new regulations will make it so that banks have to ask users to confirm their identities using social media—platforms that already have poor and troubling KYC policies. The requirements cover both individuals and businesses, all of whom will need to provide social media handles moving forward.
However, many Nigerians seem uncomfortable with the directive as there are already a slew of other options for KYC including its NIN and BVN services which many Nigerians still have trouble accessing. It’s questionable why social media handles would be necessary, given that only 31.6 million Nigerians—about 16% of the entire population—have access to social media.
Over the weekend, there were concerns within the social media space that this is another form of government control and it may get uglier than this. With several Nigerians imprisoned and targeted by government officials for their online presence, many Nigerians have tagged the move as yet another move by the government to curtail social media.
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
Kubik, an upcycling startup focused on plastic waste reuse and sustainability, recently closed a seed funding round, raising a total of $3.34 million. The investment was made by a diverse group of investors including Plug and Play, Bestseller Foundation, GIIG Africa Fund, Satgana, Unruly Capital, Savannah Fund, African Renaissance Partners, Kazana Fund, Princeton Alumni Angels, and Andav Capital.
The primary intention behind the investment in Kubik is to support the company’s mission of addressing the pressing issue of plastic waste in Africa. The amount invested will be utilized to scale up the production of affordable building materials from hard-to-recycle plastic waste in Ethiopia. By doing so, Kubik aims to remove approximately 45,000 kg of plastic waste from landfills every day.
Team Kubik
Why the Investors Invested
The investors were attracted to Kubik for several compelling reasons. The alarming projection that global plastic waste production is set to triple to over 1,000 million tons by 2060 created a sense of urgency to invest in innovative solutions like Kubik. The investors recognized the potential impact of the startup’s approach to upcycling plastic waste, which aligns with the need for a circular economy and the reduction of plastic pollution.
Kubik’s business model combines social impact, circular economy principles, and low-carbon construction. This unique blend appealed to the investors who were looking for opportunities to invest in companies that address Africa’s most pressing challenges, including environmental sustainability and affordable housing.
Additionally, Kubik’s products offer significant advantages over traditional construction materials. The interlocking building materials developed by Kubik, such as bricks, columns, beams, and jambs, allow for the construction of walls without the need for cement, aggregates, and steel. This innovative approach not only reduces construction costs by at least 40% per square meter but also contributes to lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to cement-based products. The investors recognized the potential of Kubik’s cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions to disrupt the construction industry.
A Look at Kubik
Kubik was founded in 2021 by Kidus Asfaw and Penda Marre. The startup operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, two countries in Africa that face significant challenges in managing plastic waste. Kubik’s primary markets are these regions, where it aims to lead the way in plastic waste reuse and sustainability efforts.
Kubik specializes in transforming hard-to-recycle plastic waste, including polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene, into affordable building materials. The startup’s manufacturing plant in Ethiopia has the capacity to build over a quarter million square meters of wall surface area annually, which can result in the construction of up to 10,000 affordable homes per year.
The recognition received by Kubik, including winning the Startup of the Year at the 2023 Global Startup Awards and being declared the leading climate tech startup in Africa at the VivaTech conference, highlights the company’s growing reputation and the significance of its mission.
By offering affordable and environmentally friendly building materials, Kubik aims to contribute to addressing the global deficit of affordable housing units, which currently exceeds 300 million. The startup’s vision extends beyond its current operations, with plans to scale production in Ethiopia and expand into other African countries in the future. Kubik sees itself as a driving force in accelerating the adoption of low-carbon, sustainable construction materials to combat plastic waste, improve housing affordability, and mitigate the impact of climate change on urban environments.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, has successfully installed the Mauritius Telecom T3 subsea cable connecting Mauritius to South Africa. This cable has been deployed at Liquid’s landing facility in Amanzimtoti, south of Durban. The move will bring a much-needed boost to the stability and redundancy around the connectivity that exists between the two countries.
The T3 cable consists of four fibre pairs, with a design capacity of 13.5 Tbps per fibre pair and 54 Tbps for the whole system. With this, Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa is bringing a critical increase in the availability of high-speed and reliable Internet connectivity for economies in the Indian Ocean islands to South Africa, leveraging on Liquid’s 110,000km of fibre backbone in Africa.
Nic Rudnick, Group Chief Executive Officer, Liquid Intelligent Technologies
“At Liquid South Africa, we are working towards building a digitally connected country that leaves no South African behind. Through our partnerships in multiple sea cables like Equiano, METISS, EASSy and even with the T3 cable system, we have ensured that South Africans and businesses alike can leverage their business needs using cost-effective, low-latency internet to serve their business-critical connectivity needs,” said Deon Geyser, CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa.
In addition to bringing reliable internet connectivity to South Africa, this partnership will also have a positive impact by stimulating economic growth and contributing to the overall development of the community by creating job opportunities. “This is yet another milestone achieved by Liquid SA as we continue to provide access to high-speed connectivity, the backbone for the country’s businesses to operate and succeed in this digitally transformed business environment,” concluded Geyser.
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
Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) need global support to turn around their social and economic fortunes to achieve sustainable development in line with the goals of the Vienna Programme of Action (VPoA).
A High-level Africa Regional Review of the Vienna Programme of Action for the Landlocked Developing Countries for the Decade 2014–2024 which ended in Gaborone, Botswana, concluded that African LLDCs should not be left behind in attaining sustainable development.
Speaking at the closure of a two day meeting convened in preparation of the Third United Nations Conference on LLDCs to be held in 2024, Botswana’s Acting Minister of Trade, Mabuse Pule said LLDCs should be part of an inclusive and sustainable future. He urged that current partnerships between LLDCs and transit countries should be further strengthened.
“I implore the transit countries, development partners, relevant UN agencies and other organizations to continue this pact in the lead up to the 3rd UN Conference on LLDCs. We really need to join forces to ensure that no LLDCs are left behind as we strive towards a future that is inclusive, sustainable and prosperous for all in the next decade,” said Mr. Pule.
Addressing the same meeting, Mr. Francis Ikome, Chief, Regional Integration Section in the Regional Integration and Trade Division at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said the high participation of LLDCs at the review meeting underscored the importance attached to challenges and realities faced by the 16 African landlocked countries.
The two-day meeting held under the theme, “From Vienna to Kigali: towards a new decade of partnerships for a transformative Programme of Action for LLDCs’ reviewed the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action in Africa. It discussed achievements, constraints, emerging challenges and opportunities for achieving sustainable development and SDGs and Agenda 2063 in LLDCs.
Mr. Ikome noted that the meeting had shared available opportunities that should be leveraged by African LLDCs so they are not left behind in the march towards the SDGs and Agenda 2063.
Admitting that the review of the implementation of the VPoA indicated a mix of progress and some regress, Mr. Ikome said there are many commonalities among the LLDCs but more work needs to be done.
“There was an agreement that in as much as the situation appears so dire there is no cause for despair,” he said, remarking that many times crises herald opportunities and a rethink in needed actions.
“The ECA will continue to support African LLDCs with alternative means of financing because we know that Overseas Development Assistance and other forms of financing are drying up and our partners have challenges of their own and a means of implementation is key,” said Mr. Ikome, noting that Africa’s hosting of the 3rd UN Conference on LLDCs was a lifetime opportunity and an occasion for Africa to influence and shape outcomes to advance the interests of African LLDCs.
The regional review meeting adopted the Gaborone Outcome Document, which called for the acceleration of SDG implementation to take LLDCs out of prolonged crisis while committing to implementing action at the national, regional and global levels to accelerate progress on agreed policies, programmes and investments.
High Representative and Under-Secretary-General, Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing State, Rabab Fatima, commended the meeting for successfully articulating key priorities to inform the next Programme of Action in the Gaborone Outcome Document. She said LLDCs had made notable progress in airports, sea ports and railways but that more progress was needed in trade facilitation, structural economic transformation, export diversification and in improving connectivity.
LLDCs have faced the challenges of adverse impacts of climate change, multiple and overlapping impacts of COVID-19, external debt and geopolitical tensions, Ms. Fatima noted.
“The combined impacts of these challenges have severely affected the progress on the implementation of the VPoA, 2030 Agenda and Africa’s own Agenda 2063,” said Ms. Fatima, highlighting that more than ever before it was imperative to develop “strategies and institution capacities within the LLDCs supported by their development partners to tackle these overlapping crises and embark on a resilience pathway to recovery and sustainable 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
