IRENA penned formal partnerships with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), US Aid’s Power Africa and Enel Foundation, to further its long-standing commitment to cooperative energy transformation action.

Mastercard is furthering its commitment to create a more sustainable and inclusive digital economy, with a pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

SAP SE and Microsoft Corp. announced plans to integrate Microsoft Teams with SAP’s intelligent suite of solutions.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina has announced the launch of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) to mobilize $25 billion to scale up and accelerate climate change adaptation actions across Africa.

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, was recognized as Top Employer for 2021 in Middle East and Africa.

ChemPoint.com announced that allnex has chosen ChemPoint for marketing, sales, and distribution of the UVEKOL glass laminating system in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Forty governments, leading global institutions and local and international NGOs, including UN Development Programme, Climate Investment Funds, Zurich Investment Group, BRAC and Slum Dwellers International, have committed a new set of principles to ensure climate adaptation is led by local people.

Agtech company XAG has proposed that agricultural drones, through more targeted night spraying application, can strongly support the current ground and aerial control measures.

The competition which is open to students and young professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 encourages the youth to explore nuclear technologies.

CDC Group, the UK’s impact investor and development finance institution (DFI), announced a commitment to invest over $1 billion again in African businesses in 2021.

With a rapidly growing, increasingly urbanized population – and associated needs for energy and infrastructure development – the African continent should be at the forefront of a U.S. investment agenda.

The current global trend towards more meaningful, purpose-led investment – otherwise known as Impact Investing – has shown there are real opportunities for a stable, growing investment portfolio that also reflects your beliefs.

Africa’s mobile fraud losses will continue to rise above last year’s USD 4 billion to peak at a record USD 5 billion by the end of 2021 if nothing is done to prevent global cybercriminals from looting the continent’s wealth.

Wari, a global platform offering digital financial services, and Lycaremit, a world player in remittance and part of the multinational Lyca Group, have signed a strategic partnership that will strengthen and expand their global networks to provide access to money transfer services worldwide.

Kaspersky shares its vision on what we could face in terms of cyberthreats in such areas as healthcare, education and ICS attacks in 2021.

The African Development Bank, AfDB, and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a joint partnership action plan highlighting their strengthened cooperation and mutual development priorities and a strong shared emphasis on boosting public and private sector investment in Africa.

Kaspersky has now introduced its tailored threat intelligence (TI) reporting for organisations working in the automotive industry, which was previously available for a selected range of customers.

Whatever state a business finds itself in this year, it cannot afford to ignore data privacy as a key priority especially, now that global and local news networks are covering online privacy quite extensively.

Africa's tech industry is still at an infant stage, with an industry wide revolution dubbed the fourth industrial revolution. Africa to some extent missed the first, second and third revolution and is yet to miss the fourth industrial revolution (4lR) which is mixed up with industry 4.0.

Bango, the data-driven commerce company, and Tpay Mobile, the full-service digital payments platform for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, have formed a strategic partnership to increase access to digital commerce.

Funds advised by Kasada Capital Management announced the first transaction made through the debut fund, Kasada Hospitality Fund LP, acquiring a portfolio of Sub-Saharan African Hotels from AccorInvest.

ayoba, the African messaging app, has reiterated its focus on protecting their users’ privacy and security.

The worldwide Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband services market has been growing rapidly, supplying broadband access to homes and businesses.

CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, announced a $100 million debt commitment to the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB).

The 2020 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) has once again ranked Uganda (39.6%), Botswana (38.5%) and Ghana (36.5%) as the world’s three leading economies having the most women business owners.

An international team of scientists, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has demonstrated how better nutrient management using digital tools, such as the Nutrient Expert decision support tool, can boost rice and wheat productivity.

IITA has been at the forefront of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for research management and knowledge sharing, including extension, scaling out, e-learning, collaboration, and agricultural services enhancement.

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has commenced the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States

Clir Renewables has partnered with Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) to enhance wind farm performance tracking and support its Kenya-based team in realizing potential opportunities for optimization.

In 2020, the world changed overnight in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As more organisations adopted and accelerated digital strategies, cybercriminals were presented with a huge range of new opportunities to exploit.

The African Development Bank announced the addition of Mauritius and Morocco to its Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI), marking a steady progress in the Bank’s efforts to deepen the continent’s local currency bond market.

GSK and Novartis announced the launch of a collaboration to support high-quality scientific research investigating the link between genetic diversity across different regions in Africa and its potential impact on response to drug therapeutics.

The cloud, the endpoint, the edge and now 5G are converging and changing the way we collaborate, connect and communicate.

There continues to be a wide misalignment between traditional venture capital models and the African market, this is according to a new White Paper published by East African venture advisory firm Kinyungu Ventures.

Zambia has become the latest country to deposit its instruments of ratification for the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) Agreement with the COMESA Secretariat.

NBS Bank, a commercial bank in Malawi, launched its state of the art e-commerce platform, powered by Network International, an enabler of digital commerce across Africa and the Middle East.

A Nigerian man Adeyinka Adegoke has created MelaninPeople, a social networking app designed to connect a range of Black and brown businesses, individuals and professionals.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) appointed Paula Santos Da Costa as Acting Director, Office of Integrity and Anticorruption, effective 14 January 2021.

Electroneum has so far has 4.12 million registered users after a week that saw an average of just over 1,200 new sign-ups per day, reported Ellen MacPherson, the project's Data Analyst Manager.

The role of the chief financial officer (CFO) has expanded beyond the traditional gatekeeper to financial resources, chief accounting officer and head recordkeeper.

New research from the University of Oxford predicts that total electricity generation across the African continent will double by 2030, with fossil fuels continuing to dominate the energy mix, posing potential risk to global climate change commitments.

Globally, the number of outbreaks of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, fell by two-thirds in recent years.

atingi, the digital learning platform of The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has exceeded expectations in its first year.

In 2020, the future of digital transformation arrived faster than anyone could have predicted. Cisco expects this will continue into 2021, with trends initially projected for 2024 becoming a reality much sooner.

THE JUA Kickstarter Fund has doubled to $2-million to become the biggest African capital venture fund launched by private individuals.

The U.S.Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to bring high-quality infrastructure solutions to sub-Saharan Africa.

With the rise of Kenya’s digitally enabled start-ups, developing local entrepreneurship is pivotal to the success of an inclusive digital transformation journey.

Knowledge Officer has announced the launch of the Tech Fellowship, a comprehensive and fully funded program for most in-demand specializations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

AI has crept into systems and solutions with determined, algorithmic intensity, and it has layered its capabilities onto chatbots, APIs, neural networks, and business processes.

Cost reduction strategy in the oil industry is now being adopted by oil firms as a core strategy. With global economies facing recession and wide fluctuations in energy demands, it seems low costs is becoming the safety valve for oil firms.

In 2020, the entire world knew what it was to be hungry. Millions of people went without enough to eat, with the most desperate now facing famine.

Wetherby Real Estate, which has been created to source and acquire luxury Serviced Accommodation in Prime Central London on behalf of global investors, has announced its launch.

Daystar Power, provider of hybrid solar power solutions to businesses in West Africa, announced a Series B investment of $38 million led by the Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), the Danish development finance institution.

Boehringer Ingelheim, Teleperformance, Comdata Group, Dell and Lundbeck are among the top best places to work for in Africa according to the prestigious “Best Places To Work” certification program.

The World Bank plans to invest over $5 billion over the next five years to help restore degraded landscapes, improve agriculture productivity, and promote livelihoods across 11 African countries on a swathe of land stretching from Senegal to Djibouti.

International health and humanitarian organizations UNICEF, WHO, IFRC and MSF announced announced the establishment of a global Ebola vaccine stockpile to ensure outbreak response.

Reganosa has been awarded the contract to operate and maintain a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in Tema, Ghana.

A new investment programme is planned to support Sahelian governments through a partnership between the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to boost climate finance.

Hi-Fly Marketing, a South Africa-based company that provides consultancy services throughout Africa’s aviation industry, has launched Africa’s first dedicated aviation industry personnel agency, Hi-Fly Talent & Resourcing.

Orange has announced that its venture capital arm, Orange Ventures has become a separate legal entity with an increased allocation of 350 million euros.

More than 100 European and African actors have signed a charter of commitment to the development of the agro-pastoral sectors in Africa, particularly in the Sahel.

Global pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer has appointed Patrick van der Loo as Regional President for Africa and the Middle East (AfME) region.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in Africa, its impact on trade was already being felt.In an ordinary year, Africa imports more than US$70 billion in food and agricultural products.

Mastercard has partnered with NMI and Global Payments Inc. to launch its first live Cloud Tap on Phone pilot with Computer Engineering Group (CEG), a Napa, Calif.-based independent IT Services provider.

The Africa Blockchain Institute says applications are open for the Africa Blockchain Campus Hackathon 2021. The Hackathon will take place from February 1st, 2021 – April 8th, 2021,

AVEVA, a global engineering and industrial software firm today announced it has attained a Gold Application Development competency and Silver Cloud Platform, Data Analytics, and Data Centercompetencies.

The covid-19 pandemic altered the usual way of doing things and we should therefore expect a number of innovations on new emerging technologies to adapt to this new normal, mostly from African tech startups.

Kaspersky experts expect growing economic turbulence along with the impact of COVID-19 to contribute to an increase in cybercrime across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria this year.

Enel Green Power (EGP), signed an agreement with a subsidiary of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for a joint venture partnership aimed at financing, building and operating renewable projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Knowing the context of different countries in the region, we can see that the continent is still full of asymmetries, and the same occurs looking at the at the companies operating in the market.

Schneider Electric has announced two leadership appointments for the Anglo African region. The company say the appointments are part of the continuation of their mission to provide cutting-edge technological solutions to the African content.

The COVID-19 crisis, and the impact which it has had on learning across the world, has highlighted many of the digital disparities which exist in today’s world.

Asset management and investment banking platform Shuaa Capital has announced that its managed funds platform has invested in Anghami, a music streaming service in the Middle East and North Africa.

The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and Minbos Resources signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Cabinda Phosphate project that seeks to develop the fertilizer market for smallholder farmers in Angola.

The Afreximbank together with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and FCI announced the creation of a special purpose Grant authorized and funded by the AfDB’s Trust Fund to support the capacity building of emerging factoring firms in Africa.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will designate the Kingdom of Morocco as a regional hub for the new, continent-wide Trade and Investment Program funded by USAID under Prosper Africa.

2020 was a difficult for everyone, but businesses faced an especially tough time. A few startups have, however, risen above the storm, managing to continue on their upward growth trajectory.

The increased participation of women in manufacturing is the inevitable change we need to achieve our industrialization goals.

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) appointed Raphael Kuuchi as Director Government, Legal and Industry Affairs in Consulting capacity effective 01 January 2021.

While it looks like this current behaviour is creating a new norm, a question still remains: what should businesses do about shadow IT? Let’s elaborate on the risks, rewards and possible solutions.

Mobile-phone-based crypto app startup Electroneum has expanded to four more African countries. The new countries are Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast.

The African Development Bank Group, AfDB, has announced the appointment of Directors General for the East, Central and Southern Africa regions

There is a correlation between the way a data breach is disclosed and the total financial losses an organisation experiences following a cybersecurity incident.

Globally, there are three key predictions that could shape success in the year to come. From Cloud to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital supply chains, here’s what you need to know

Inspired Evolution led a $35 million equity investment by its Evolution II Fund and coinvestors, Norfund and Sagemcom, to establish and finance ESCOTEL, an energy services company currently focused on Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Kaspersky Innovation Hub (iHub) and edge cloud provider G-Core Labs have joined forces to search for and support promising gaming startups.

FirstWave Group, Africa's largest tilapia fish producer recently signed a partnership agreement with Xelect, specialists in aquaculture genetics and breeding programmes, to develop local high-performance tilapia breeds.

CARMA is an African-based startup that offers proprietary decentralized technology allowing lenders to get more value by accessing data on a real-time basis.

The digital economy is changing both our lives and the ways we do business. It's driven by data and information, and we’re starting to see more startups exploit digitally enabled opportunities.

Kuzi is free AI-powered tool that will help farmers and pastoralists across Africa to predict and control locust behaviour

Blue Prism has announced a new offering of Blue Prism intelligent automation software on Microsoft’s AppSource and Azure Marketplaces.

Sunil Kaushal is the CEO Africa & Middle East at Standard Chartered PLC. Sunil has nearly 30 years of banking experience in diverse markets.

A free tool that will help farmers and pastoralists across Africa to predict and control locust behaviour has been launched. Dubbed, Kuzi, it is an AI-powered tool that generates a real-time heatmap of locusts across Africa, shows all potential migration routes, and gives a real-time locust breeding index.

What does the impending US presidential transition mean for Africa’s oil and gas sector? By virtue of my role at the African Energy Chamber, I simply have to ask: How will the Biden administration approach African oil and gas?

SunFunder, a recurring partner of InspiraFarms has confirmed a new $500k loan which will provide working capital to deploy our agricultural first-mile cold chain installations in Africa.

Siemens Gamesa signed its first wind power project in Ethiopia with state-owned electricity company Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), strengthening its leadership in Africa as the country begins to expand its green energy capacity.

Africa Finance Corporation, AFC, the infrastructure solutions provider in Africa, today announces it has successfully secured a $250 million tier-2 capital loan from U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Rapid growth of users and the strain on companies to quickly develop and expand the capabilities of their online platform also come with cybersecurity and data privacy risks.

American tech giant Google is expanding its startup accelerator programme to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Agriculture has been categorized as the largest economic sector in most African countries, offering opportunities for poverty alleviation for youth, yet there is still a low percentage of youth involvement in the sector.