Innovation Ecosystems in Southern Africa

We are entering an economic cycle with a changing nature of consumption focusing on necessities. It seems like the times of luxury, entertainment and vacations are over, at least until the discovery of a vaccine for COVID-19. The unfolding of the health crisis that we have been witnessing in Italy, Spain and other advanced economies will not be as severe as the economic crisis that the Coronavirus will unleash. The International Monetary Fund has been warning us that the financial ...

Alors que les prix du baril de Brent, à Londres, varient entre 20 et 35 dollars depuis plusieurs semaines, et que le pétrole américain côté à New York, a même atteint des valeurs négatives le 20 avril, la plupart des Etats pétroliers africains ont fait voter, fin 2019, leur budget 2020 en se basant sur des prévisions, plutôt optimistes, et en pariant parfois sur une croissance des dépenses, financée par de l'emprunt (Nigeria). Certains de ces Etats s'attendaient à des cours du Brent ...

As with the rest of the World, the impact of COVID-19 in Kenya has stretched beyond the sphere of healthcare and the spread of the actual virus, as economic development outcomes are expected to be seriously affected by the disruption caused both globally and locally. In fact, one of the working hypotheses of the impact of COVID-19 on African nations is that the substantive impact of the virus on livelihoods will occur less from health-related issues than the economic shock, disrupt ...

50 African intellectuals including Kako Nubukpo, Alioune Sall, Carlos Lopes, Cristina Duarte, Felwine Sarr, Achille Mbembe, Reckya Madougou, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Franck Hermann Ekra and Hakim Ben Hammouda co-signed this call to mobilize the intelligence, resources and creativity of Africans to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Severe Acute Respiratory Ryndrome Coronavirus 2, (SARS-CoV-2), is the scientific name for the virus responsible for a highly contagious and potentially fata ...

Vingt-cinq intellectuels africains dont Kako Nubukpo, Alioune Sall, Felwine Sarr, Achille Mbembe, Reckya Madougou, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Franck Hermann Ekra et Hakim Ben Hammouda cosignent cet appel à la mobilisation des intelligences, des ressources et de la créativité des Africains pour vaincre la pandémie de Covid-19. Covid-19 est le nom scientifique du virus responsable d’une maladie respiratoire très contagieuse pouvant devenir mortelle. Épidémie puis reclassée pandémie pa ...

Alors que le coronavirus se propage à travers le monde, la capacité d’atténuer son impact est liée aux ressources disponibles et à l’efficacité des autorités publiques. Voilà pourquoi il nous paraît primordial que les dirigeants internationaux se concentrent sur les conséquences de la pandémie sur les plus vulnérables, en particulier en Afrique. Il y a trois mois, le 31 décembre, les autorités chinoises informaient le bureau de Pékin de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) d’u ...

Covid-19 has a far-reaching impact and is imposing a slowdown on the world economy, raising fears of the worst consequences on production, jobs and the immediate future of developing economies. Fiscal and monetary authorities around the world are engaging in policies to support their economies with unprecedented funds and initiatives. The African continent, also affected by the pandemic, is pursuing courageous economic (fiscal and monetary) policies, but the main question is what ne ...

Depuis l'entrée en vigueur de l'Accord de libre-échange (ALE) entre le Maroc et l'Union européenne (UE), il y a près de deux décennies, les performances des exportations marocaines vers les marchés de l'UE ont été plutôt décevantes, tandis que le déficit commercial du Maroc avec l'UE a augmenté de manière significative. Cela a conduit de nombreux observateurs à percevoir l'accord d'un oeil critique. Cependant, les balances commerciales bilatérales ne sont pas toujours suffisantes po ...

The Mara Group, producer of the Mara smartphone, has set up manufacturing facilities in two key strategic countries, Rwanda and South Africa, with a total estimated investment of $100 million. On the back of political shifts in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa embarked on an investment drive, announced in his state of the nation address in 2018. This was followed up with an investment conference, at which Ashish Thakkar, CEO of Mara Group, announced a $100 million investment ...

Using a Structural vector auto-regression analysis, this paper attempts to answer the question of the feasibility of a currency union in the Economic community of West African states (ECOWAS). The study focuses on a particular criterion of the theory of optimum currency area (OCA) i.e. the similarity of business cycles. The main results suggest important discrepancies between countries that are already within the WAEMU (CFA Franc) arrangement and countries that have their own arrang ...