US officials are talking to their counterparts in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul to find ways to coordinate policies and operations
United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson’s week-long trip to Asia in November reaffirmed Washington’s combative relationship with China and its desire t...
Vol 5 (AAC) No 2 |
- INDIA
- AFRICA
- BRIEFING
India’s resource-heavy trade with Africa may be poised to move into the service sector. Indian companies in banking, hotels, agriculture stand to benefit, but African companies wil...
Vol 5 (AAC) No 2 |
- JAPAN
- AFRICA
- BRIEFING
Twenty-five years after its foundation in response to devastating Ethiopian famines, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), a Japanese-funded non-governmental organisation, is look...
The United States Senate is again raising the alarm about Washington losing out to Beijing in Africa. On 1 November, the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs, chaired by Senator ...
Vol 52 No 24 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
Economic gloom in Europe and North America will slow African growth next year and may spark more challenges to incumbent regimes
For many African countries, the West’s economic travails will translate into spiralling food and fuel prices, higher unemployment and less state spending on education and health. T...
This year, for the first time, Africa’s two heavyweights, Nigeria and South Africa, were on the United Nations Security Council and both wanted to make their mark. The verdict is m...
The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Western Australia, at the end of October attracted 1,500 delegates, 80 of them from China. British Prime Minister Dav...
Vol 52 No 20 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
Asian demand for African agricultural and mineral commodities will not fully compensate the losses caused by the West’s economic slowdown
Africa has picked a really bad time to launch its economic boom, says one finance minister resignedly. In Washington for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeti...
It is the biggest economic success story in Africa. The growth of mobile telephony is phenomenal – in numbers, in jobs created and in the economic development it is driving. African software engineers are pioneering the development of payment systems over mobile telephones, first in Kenya, then Rwanda and South Africa, and now Nigeria. Until the late 1990s, few mobile phone operators regarded Africa as a viable mass market. They lacked accurate information about the continent’s spending power and a vision of how services could be developed. Initially, most companies – except for South Africa’s MTN – steered clear of Nigeria (AC Vol 43 No 20, Scrambling for Africa). Now it is one of the world’s biggest telecommunications markets
Between 1998 and 2008, the number of mobile phone subscribers in Africa increased from 4 million to 260 million while network coverage increased from 10% to over 60% of the contine...
Developed jointly by British software firm Sagentia and Kenya’s Safaricom with the help of a British grant, M-Pesa banking services are a success story. Pesa means ‘money’ in Kiswa...
