Looking at the housing situation in West Africa, architect Francis Kéré says that Africans should stop copying the Western way of building but adapt it to their own needs, the needs of the community and to cope with the weather patterns in the region. He also talks about his dream to make things better in his home country of Burkina Faso, uses traditional techniques and low-cost and environmentally friendly materials.

Watch his presentation HERE

It’s uncanny reading the article below side by side with the one written exactly 10 years ago (HERE)

It looks like the Economist, the world leader in Afro-pessimism is finally turning around and seeing the facts rather than pre-conceived notions about the continent

READ ARTICLE

Cheetahblog Commentary: For Africa to continue to succeed and grow economically, the world needs more access to business and investment information, local investment transparencies and business reporting on what is working on the continent and why. The Economist’s article is a good beginning but articles like it have to be more frequent. My complain is that we get a get a good report on Africa like this one once every five years or so, then nothing but just bad news in-between.
Just like business and investment news everywhere else in the world including, Latin America The Middle East and Asia, African business news and investment reporting should be included in the weekly new roundups of Western publications (including the Economist). This way, real positive business news on Africa would not be seen as a surprise or one, off but taken as just normal business reporting on opportunities on the ground in Africa.

READ MORE

Aureos Africa Health Fund invested $2.5 million in a Kenyan hospital and health insurance company, the Avenue Group , which offers affordable healthcare cover, integrated with quality healthcare provision. It has a 70-bed full-purpose hospital in Nairobi, 7 clinics through Kenya as well as in-house clinics for corporate clients, a home-based care service for elderly, terminally ill or otherwise dependent patients, rental and sale of wheelchairs and other rehabilitation equipment for home use, and First Aid training schemes. It combines healthcare cover with quality, affordable outpatient and inpatient medical services. The group’s corporate medical schemes are designed to be accessible to businesses with as few as 10 employees and around 70% of the staff covered are in non-managerial roles. With Aureos investment, Avenue Group will expand into other regions in Kenya, building 2 more clinics in smaller towns and expanding existing in-patient facilities in Kisumu and Mombasa. The funding will ensure the group can continue non-profit activities, such as free medical camps across Kenya and public health screening days at Avenue clinics

READ MORE

A group of 25 Ugandan students from Makerere University’s College of Engineering, Art and Design have built Uganda’s first electric car, the Kiira EV. Initially designed in 2009, the fabricated car was taken for a public test drive last week. Most of the parts of the two-seater, including the core body and combustion system, were designed and built locally.

LEARN MORE

The Firoz and Najma Lalji supported Programme for African Leadership

With the first session starting in March 2012, the Firoz and Najma Lalji supported Programme for African Leadership, stems from the shared vision of the Lalji family and LSE: to foster emerging leaders to promote best practices of economic and social development in their organisations and countries, so that they will be supported in their contributions to helping alleviating poverty in Africa.

So all of you memebers of the cheetah generation, apply

MORE INFORMATION

Making wine in Ethiopia, when the whole world has seen pictures of famine there, may seem absurd, if not indecent. But that would be to forget that this country of 88 million people is twice the size of France and that malnutrition is mainly in the far south, in the region bordering Kenya and Somalia.

This, however, is an entirely different project because it should be a money-earner for the country. Launched in 2007 by the Ethiopian government and the French group Castel (already active in beer and breweries), it is an attempt to diversify agriculture and promote the country’s products.

READ MORE

READ MORE

A historic agreement aimed at creating a free-trade zone uniting 26 African countries and establishing Africa’s biggest trading bloc was announced recently in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The proposed free-trade area would encompass the South African Development Community, the East African Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, with a population of more than 600 million people and a combined domestic product of $1 trillion.

At a time when only 10 per cent of Africa’s trade is within Africa, there is no question that the attempt will have huge benefits to the continent and the venture should be wholly supported. Currently, Africa is plagued with corruption at border posts, several barriers to free trade and different economies adopted by each country. Now, of course, it is also facing famine in the Horn of Africa. When the proposed free-trade area becomes a reality in three years, South African car manufacturers, for example, believe that their production will triple due to inter-African business.

READ MORE

Africa can feed not just itself but the world is a bold assertion to make at a time when famine stalks part of the continent.

But this is precisely the claim made by Kanayo Nwanze, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad), a specialised agency of the UN. Nwanze gave a forceful intervention at Monday’s emergency meeting in Rome to discuss the crisis in east Africa, where, according to the UN, an estimated 11.6 million people need humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

Nwanze drew a sharp contrast between Gansu province, in northwest China, and parts of Africa that cannot feed itself. He said like many parts of the world, Gansu suffers from frequent drought, limited water for irrigation and severe soil erosion. Yet despite the weather and the harsh environment, the farmers in the Gansu programme area are feeding themselves and increasing their incomes.

“I met one farmer whose income had risen from only $2 (£1.20) a day in 2006 to $35 a day last year,” he exclaimed.

So when asked why this could be done in China but not Africa, Nwanze said the vital difference was government policy.

READ MORE