Africa First Network

👁 Worth watching: Astrid Fronja from ntvNachrichten spoke with Julian Hilgers about the #Africa trip of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the importance of the continent for the German economy 🌍 #Senegal #IvoryCoast https://lnkd.in/eBqaq3Bv

🚀 🚀 🚀 Using public guarantees to mobilise private capital for investment in #Africa - that is one of the core ideas of the #AfricaFirst agenda. Because if it is done well, the public sector can trigger massive #investments without spending a cent of taxpayers' money.   It is therefore all the more encouraging that The World Bank Bank is now facilitating and accelerating the issuing of guarantees with the new online platform (“Private Capital for Public Good”):   „WBG #Guarantees will serve as a one-stop-shop for all WBG guarantee business, providing the best guarantee solutions for clients to meet project needs and development priorities. WBG clients can now choose from a simplified market-friendly menu of guarantee options.“   We are looking forward to the first field reports. #RealDevelopment #ImpactInvesting MIGA Martin Alexander Schoeller https://lnkd.in/eJG8JCpt

🤔 Food for thought: Is the #SocialMedia & #AI business of tech giants thriving on the backs of the poor? "Tech companies employ hundreds of people in #Africa to filter out criminal content. The work is extremely stressful," writes DER SPIEGEL.   One of those employees says: "I think #Facebook knows very well how drastic the work is that content moderators have to do. I believe that this is also why they have the work done from a place that is not looked at so closely in the West." Meta Google LinkedIn X https://lnkd.in/gRSwtasg

🌍 🛤 Investments in #Africa: Now it's up to the business community 💪 Together with the USA and other G7 partners, the #EU is financing important #railway projects in Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   This is a success for the European Commission and a clear indication that the #GlobalGateway infrastructure initiative has picked up speed and is increasingly competing with China's ‘new Silk Road’ (also called 'Belt-and-Road'-initiative).   But beware: it remains to be seen whether the investments will actually help to improve Europe's #commodity supply. This is because #China is pushing ahead with a rival project - and is ahead of the game when it comes to investing in African mines. https://lnkd.in/ghg5PfVT

🌍 "Looking the other way is very tempting in these times. Unfortunately, in the case of #Sudan, it's not an option. Even when it comes to a country that is supposedly far away." Andrea Böhm (DIE ZEIT) reports on the devastating war in Sudan and calls on #Europe to act.   What is needed is "finally a country-wide arms #embargo, massive pressure on the warring parties to allow humanitarian corridors, and airlifts", she writes. Above all, however, pressure must be increased on the #UnitedArabEmirates, which supports the paramilitary #RSF in Sudan.   In Europe, the Gulf state is "known for its skyline, its liquefied natural gas and its airline, whose name appears on the chest of the players of Real Madrid C.F. and Arsenal F.C". The least Europe could do, Andrea adds, "is dismantle the #UAE's image as a stable luxury oasis in a chaotic world". #Africa https://lnkd.in/eUh_nJUs

🎯 What Mo Ibrahim says: The #money is available and just waiting to be put to better use. However, the focus should not be solely on mobilising foreign capital. There is also considerable potential in #Africa itself:   „This means drying up illicit financial flows, strengthening #tax systems (we cannot afford tax holidays for foreign companies), leveraging #remittances, sovereign funds, pension #funds, and monetising Africa’s green assets.“ Mo Ibrahim Foundation #RealDevelopment https://lnkd.in/e_tv9q_T

☑ The #TopAfrica100 are complete now and our fellows Martin Alexander Schoeller and Daniel Schönwitz are in the very best of company*. Congrats to everyone - let's keep working to bring our neighbouring continent the attention it deserves 🌍 💪 #Africa #ImpactInvesting #RealDevelopment Table.Briefings Africa.Table https://lnkd.in/e9q8p9zj   *such as Alhaji Allie Bangura Ulrich Binkert Maren Diale-Schellschmidt Christoph Kannengiesser Robert Kappel Melanie Müller Tom Pause Helene Proelss Roland Siller Philipp von Carlowitz Stephan Willms

🌍 👍 They still exist: #Elections that bring good news. In #Mauretania, President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani was re-elected last weekend with over 56% of the vote. The German-African Business Association comments:   "During President #Ghazouani's first term, the country increasingly opened up to foreign – including German – #investments. Important reforms, such as new investment and green #hydrogen laws, were initiated to substantially improve the #business climate in this #Sahel country." #Africa #RealDevelopment https://lnkd.in/eSX2fqFv

🛤 🌉 🛣 🏗 The infrastructure boom in #Africa will massively increase demand for #steel. "In the coming decades, Africa will become a very interesting place for the steel industry," says Tata Steel CEO Thachat Viswanath Narendran in an interview with Handelsblatt.   The number of people on the continent will increase "fourfold". Africa will therefore "become just as interesting as #China and #India", Narendran adds. The decisive factor will be who then supplies Africa". We have two questions:   🤔 Do German executives also have an eye on the emerging #infrastructure boom or are the next quarterly figures more important?   🤔 Why should India or other countries "supply" Africa? Numerous regions there offer the best conditions for producing #greenenergy & green hydrogen - and are therefore also predestined for steel production.   #Entrepreneurship #CorpGov #GoSouth Isabelle Wermke Martin Alexander Schoeller Ulrich Konstantin Rieger https://lnkd.in/e-mKNsUx

🤔 ↗ Is #Rwanda a "developmental dictatorship" that first sets the course for economic growth and later matures into a #democracy? Such hopes have often been dashed, most recently in #Ethiopia.   It is clear to us that authoritarian #growth models eventually reach their limits because #democracy impedes the abuse of power in favour of the few and is therefore a driver of broad-based #prosperity. But it is also clear that Rwanda is still on a strong upward trajectory, at least economically 👇 #Africa #RealDevelopment https://lnkd.in/es4ZPUmB