SWIFT will hold an open API hackathon at its annual African Regional Conference (ARC), taking place on 21-23 April in Cape Town, South Africa. The hackathon aims to identify new solutions to reduce cost in cross-border payments into and within Africa. The hackathon is open to developers and engineers working in the financial sector who […]
53% of Africans surveyed think that trusting emails from people they know is good enough; 28% have fallen for a phishing email and 50% have had a malware infection; 64% don’t know what ransomware is and yet believe they can easily identify a security threat; 52% don’t know what multi-factor authentication is. The 2019 KnowBe4 […]
Somaliland is uncomfortable with a push by Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to visit the country alongside Somalia president Mohamed Abdilahi Farmajo. Abiy Ahmed had late last week requested to visit Somaliland capital Hargeisa alongside Farmajo. This came days after the Ethiopian PM had succeeded in having Somaliland leader Musa Bihi and Farmajo meet at […]
DP World Ltd.’s parent company Port and Free Zone World has offered to acquire the 19.55 per cent of the port operator’s shares traded on Nasdaq Dubai, returning the company to private ownership. DP World stated the disadvantages of staying listed on the stock exchange outweigh the benefits. The move will enable DP World to […]
In my 2010 book, Crisis Economics, I defined financial crises not as the “black swan” events that Nassim Nicholas Taleb described in his eponymous bestseller, but as “white swans.” According to Taleb, black swans are events that emerge unpredictably, like a tornado, from a fat-tailed statistical distribution. But I argued that financial crises, at least, […]
It used to be an unwritten rule of US politics that a socialist could never qualify for high national office. But now a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist,” US Senator Bernie Sanders, is the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Should America embrace the change? Democrats have made the primaries about much more than US President […]
Butabika National Psychiatric Hospital is in an advanced stage of acquiring a modern Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI )X-ray machine. The new machine will support the hospital in improving its capacity to carry out specialized diagnostic services to their clients. According to Dr David Basangwa, the Hospital’s Executive Director, the machine is expected to cost UGX […]
Around the world, governments are succumbing to the allure of biometric identification systems. To some extent, this may be inevitable, given the burden of demands and expectations placed on modern states. But no one should underestimate the risks these technologies pose. Biometric identification systems use individuals’ unique intrinsic physical characteristics – fingerprints or handprints, facial […]
In the face of climate change, providing reliable supplies of renewable energy to all who need it has become one of the biggest development challenges of our time. Meeting the international community’s commitment to keeping global warming below 1.5-2°C, relative to preindustrial levels, will require expanded use of bioenergy, carbon storage and capture, land-based mitigation […]
Overwhelmed by the coronavirus panic, US President Donald Trump’s impeachment folderol, and the chaotic Iowa Democratic caucuses, few took notice of the Trump administration’s announcement that it will expand its controversial 2017 travel ban to six more countries, including four in Africa. It is a politically expedient move that will do nothing to make Americans […]
The coronavirus outbreak that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has spread across the country and beyond its borders, leaving governments at all levels in China scrambling to limit further person-to-person transmission of the virus, now known as COVID-19. Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, is under lockdown. Many provinces have postponed the […]
The expansion of the Somaliland Port of Berbera and the meeting between Somaliland and Somalia leaders will be among the discussions points between Ethiopia Prime Minister Aby Ahmed and the United Arab Emirates leadership this weekend. Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed landed in Abu Dhabi on Thursday evening for a round of talks with the […]
Uganda’s economy grew by 6.5 per cent in FY18/19, maintaining the rebound in economic activity over the last two years, according to the latest edition of the Uganda Economic Update released by the World Bank. The fourteenth Uganda Economic Update report, “Strengthening Social Protection Investments to Reduce Vulnerability and Promote Inclusive Growth” shows that the […]