Welcome to The Journal of African Business, a unique guide to business and investment in Africa.
In this issue we cover a broad range of topics, ranging from energy and mining to tourism and skills development. In the news section of this issue, a significant first corporate deal by Investec in Rwanda is noted, something that may have an impact on the volume of manufacturing in the region.
Other news that has a regional impact is contained in the report on Engen and Vivo Energy combining their African businesses. This will create an entity with nearly 4 000 service stations and huge storage capability across 27 African nations.
Pinagare Mogodi, CEO of the Matsapa-A-Botshelo Group (MAB GROUP), reflects on the coal industry, where his company is increasingly making a big impact, and notes the remarkable strides being made by MAB Construction in building communities and creating jobs across a wide variety of projects.
Progressive rehabilitation is at the core of plans to protect biodiversity at Glencore’s two mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and we carry a report on the goals of this programme and the progress being made, in collaboration with a local university.
Solar power is coming to every part of Africa, and Togo is the latest country to expand its programme. AMEA Power has broken ground on phase 3 of the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Solar Power Plant. Once the expansion project in Togo is completed, the solar plant will be the largest of its kind in West Africa.
With COP28 behind us, Sandra Villars, Partner, Financial Services at Oliver Wyman, examines the concept of nature-related risk and stresses the need for financing for climate adaptation that is relevant to the African context. She argues that the continent’s regulators also need to play a role in making sure that solutions are found that resonate with local conditions.
The EU’s newest carbon tax could significantly harm African trade, according to African Development Bank Group President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina. Speaking at the Sustainable Trade Africa Conference held at the UAE Trade Centre in Dubai, the bank president put the negative figure at $25-billion annually and warned that several classes of trade and commodities could be affected.
A United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report on how important Africa is set to become in global supply chains is the basis for an article by Times 3 Technologies (T3T) on how important technology will be in taking advantage of that position.
One often hears references to “Africa” as though it is one place with one set of conditions. Bernard van der Walt and Roy Nkandau of BDO set out to change that mindset to one that looks at autonomous and independent markets that are worthy of research in themselves.
Read or download this issue of The Journal of African Business
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