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Africa Fintech Summit

Benjamindada

Ajim Capital

According to a report by Oxford Insights, African countries rank lowest on the AI readiness index globally. However, Mauritius, South Africa, and Seychelles are leading the drive. Despite the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa being on the rise with governments formulating national strategies to drive the adoption, the readiness of countries on the continent is below the global average.

African countries rank the lowest on the global AI readiness index, as per a report by Oxford Insights. While artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is growing across the continent, the readiness of African countries remains below the global average. Notably, Mauritius, South Africa, and Seychelles are leading in AI readiness.
 
The Government AI Readiness Index 2022 ranks 181 countries based on three pillars: government, technology sector, and data and infrastructure. Mauritius ranks as the top African government ready for AI, with a score of 53.38 out of 100. Egypt follows as the second African country, ahead of South Africa, Tunisia, and others.
 
Mauritius and Egypt excel in the "government" pillar due to their national AI strategies, online services, data protection laws, and cybersecurity strategies. Data and infrastructure pillar leaders include South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, and others, driven by telecommunications infrastructure and data availability.
 
However, African countries struggle in the "technology sector" pillar due to factors like limited investment in software, STEM graduates, and digital skills. Overall, Sub-Saharan Africa's AI readiness average score is 29.38, below the global average of 44.61.
 
Despite challenges, many African nations are taking steps to push data protection, important for AI proliferation. The African Union's role in collaboration and generating model AI and data protection legislation is also emphasized. Although AI funding has recently decreased significantly in Africa, the technology holds the potential to boost the African economy by $1.5 trillion by 2030.
 
Efforts to address the AI skill gap are underway in various countries, such as Senegal's AI programming school and Microsoft's AI University Programme in South Africa. The Nigerian government has collaborated with Google Developers Group to train AI developers, aiming to leverage digital technologies for economic growth.
 
Oxford Insights suggests that Africa's slower AI adoption provides an opportunity for strong regulations and investment in digital literacy to shape the sector's future effectively.
 
Read more on <a href="https://www.benjamindada.com/nigeria-ranks-lowest-ai-readiness/">BenjaminDada</a>

African countries rank lowest on the AI readiness index globally 🧠

WazoPlus

A new study released as Africa hosts a major climate conference sees heightened awareness of climate issues, a strong shift towards eco-friendly alternatives and remarkably low levels of climate denial amongst respondents in 8 African countries.


The African Climate Awareness Report 2023, based on findings in the study, was released this week by bird story agency
 
Nairobi, September 5, 2023&nbsp;
 
Growing awareness of climate change in Africa is spurring household demand for eco-friendly packaging and mobility options on the continent, according to the Africa Climate Awareness Report 2023, a project of this agency.&nbsp;
 
It shows the continent is undergoing a shift in its attitudes to consumer staples like plastic and fossil fuels, as more people become aware of the environmental and health impacts of these products.&nbsp;
 
Based on surveys from almost 7,000 respondents across eight English-speaking African countries, the Stickybeak report, commissioned by Africa No Filter and written by a team at bird story agency, shows fossil-powered vehicles and plastic bags and bottles are losing their appeal.&nbsp;
 
The study was conducted over a period from August 2022 to April 2023 and involved two surveys.
 
Respondents to the study showed a strong inclination towards green solutions such as solar-PV and electric vehicles, which are slowly entering the market, especially in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and some Maghreb states.
 
Several African governments have already introduced tax cuts and other incentives to boost the e-mobility industry and drive the demand for EVs.
 
“Recognition of the benefits of renewable energy and sustainable practices not only increased between August 2022 and April 2023 but was generally high,” notes the report.
 
“Positive perceptions of solar power (64% in August 2022 and 67% in April 2023) and electric cars (53% and 54%) suggests a growing awareness of these options and their potential impact.”
 
Conversely, the positive attitudes to diesel and petrol vehicles, already low, showed a decline (to 22% and 19%, respectively). Attitudes to plastic bags and bottles (with positive attitudes down from 21% to 18%) was also low, indicating a growing understanding of the negative environmental impacts of those items.
 
The Africa Climate Awareness Report 2023 further revealed that climate denial amongst African respondents was low.
 
“With less than 20% of the population surveyed believing that climate change is not a natural occurrence or that human activities play no role in it, climate change scepticism is notably low” &nbsp;it notes.
 
Most of those surveyed attributed the negative impacts of climate change to human actions and inactions.&nbsp;
 
“The most commonly reported cause was the poor treatment of the environment by people, which stood at 75% and 76% in the two surveys,” the report states. The second most common cause was the lack of government intervention to stop the problems that are causing these issues, which climbed slightly from 57% to 60%," the report further notes.&nbsp;
 
The full report can be downloaded from www.aboutbird.africanofilter.org
 
bird story agency&nbsp;

Plastic and petrol-based vehicles losing appeal in Africa - report

A new insurance initiative aimed at safeguarding African farmers from climate-related shocks has been unveiled by the African Development Bank.


Africa's emerging insurance sector is taking proactive steps to shield farmers from the impacts of climate change, courtesy of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
 
"Extreme weather patterns negatively impact the livelihoods of many millions of farmers in Africa, the majority of those being women. One way we can tackle this issue is to be sure that farmers have access to crop and livestock insurance,” the bank's president, Akinwumi Adesina explained in a statement.
 
The initiative, known as the Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation (ACRIFA), plans to raise an initial US $1 billion of concessionary high-risk capital and grants.&nbsp;
 
The AfDB's move aligns with a broader commitment across the continent to advocate for and provide insurance solutions, particularly in critical sectors like agriculture and thereby cushion households from extreme weather patterns.
 
From government-led programs to initiatives led by multilateral organizations, insurance is proving to be an effective tool in shielding farmers from climate shocks.&nbsp;
 
This comes at a time when the insurance market in Africa is experiencing notable growth, reversing previous trends of stagnation.
 
IMARC Group data indicates that the Africa insurance market reached US $81 billion in 2022, from US$65 billion in 2017. Projections suggest it will reach US$123 &nbsp;billion by 2028.
 
Insurance penetration in Africa, as a percentage of GDP, is currently only half of the global average, offering substantial potential for growth.
 
Competition among market players and the difficulties of a fragmented market (with 54 countries offering 54 different legislative frameworks) has sparked innovation and disruption in Africa's insurance sector with insurers leveraging technology to target specific segments and reduce costs. The burgeoning insurtech sector, a significant driver of insurance uptake globally, is also contributing to growth in Africa.
 
"As private sector insurers, we have a key role to play in ensuring a sustainable future," said Phillip Lopokoiyit, group CEO of ICEA LION Group, underscoring the sector's role in bolstering resilience in sectors like agriculture.&nbsp;
 
In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, a World Bank-sponsored insurance project is targeting 1.6 million herders while in Tanzania, the Agriculture Insurance Consortium in collaboration with the Association of Tanzania Insurers is working to provide comprehensive insurance coverage for agricultural activities in the country.
 
This is in addition to an earlier initiative targeting crop insurance coverage for growers, a venture that brought together Yara Tanzania - a fertilizer manufacturing firm, Jubilee Insurance and Equity Bank Tanzania.
 
Regional initiatives like the African Risk Capacity, an agency of the African Union, are providing institutional support in the event of extreme weather.
 
The agency in July launched the first Flood Risk Insurance Product in Africa, a new insurance mechanism for African countries to cope with the devastating effects of flooding.
 
Partnering with JBA Risk Management, ARC, the flood insurance model is available to high flood-risk countries such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo, and will be extended to other countries in 2024.&nbsp;
 
The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance – a 2022 commitment by African insurance industry leaders to support UN Sustainable Development Goals – indicates that the insurance industry in Africa aims to underwrite US $14 billion in cover for climate risks, by 2030.
 
bird story agency
Links: https://afdb.africa-newsroom.com/press/african-development-bank-unveils-new-initiative-to-cushion-farmers-from-climate-change-effects?lang=en
https://farmersreviewafrica.com/360-million-programme-launched-to-cushion-horn-of-africa-livestock-farmers-against-drought-effects/
https://www.arc.int/news/african-risk-capacity-launches-first-flood-risk-insurance-product-africa

African farmers get more protection from extreme weather

In Africa's energy landscape, a game-changing strategy is taking shape: harnessing 'wheeling' to slash transmission costs by leveraging the national utility grid. According to an expert, this model will encourage more private power producers.

Bonface Orucho, bird story agency
&nbsp;
Wheeling, an innovative power transmission approach, can significantly alleviate Africa's power woes, according to energy sector expert Derick Coetzer during a recent webinar.
 
"The ability to wheel onto the grid has led to quite interesting opportunities for private power producing companies … As a continent, we are very well placed to take advantage of this model," said Coetzer during a webinar hosted by the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA).
 
Wheeling is the practice of allowing privately generated power to flow through the national grid to willing buyers in a seller-buyer model. Traditional wheeling models have centered on individual private power generators directly supplying a single off-taker linked to the national grid. However, recent iterations have evolved.
 
Coetzer, the co-founder and sales lead at NOA Group, emphasized that this model holds exceptional promise for Africa due to the continent’s abundant solar and wind resources.
 
Africa boasts of being home to 39% of the world's clean energy potential, according to IRENA, and the exploitation of renewable energy is on a rapid ascent across the continent.
 
In recent years, transmission and distribution infrastructure has received much less attention and investment than generation capacity. Yet both are necessary to achieve green industrialization in Africa.
 
The 2022 joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) reveals that the Transmission and Distribution (T&amp;D) sector in Africa receives less than 2% of total energy sector investment. The IEA emphasizes that an annual investment of approximately $4 billion is required for T&amp;D networks to adequately address Africa's escalating energy needs.
 
However, as Coetzer explains, wheeling has the potential to balance grid capacities while saving independent producers the burden of setting up new grids.
 
Establishing entirely new transmission lines is a costly endeavour, projected to escalate capital costs for a private producer by over 50%, according to the Africa Energy Portal.
 
Coetzer further explains that wheeling is especially executable on the continent given the rich renewable energy mixing potential, especially from solar and wind sources.
 
"While solar-only generation can cover approximately 30–40% of a client’s load, incorporating wind generation can boost that capacity to up to 70%," Coetzer revealed.
 
Already, the quest to leverage this transmission and distribution model is, in practice, gaining ground in different countries in Africa thanks to existing policies that have been in force for the past decade.
 
Several markets, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tanzania, Kenya, and Malawi, among others, all have policy frameworks that support wheeling.
 
The success story of wheeling is particularly evident in Egypt, whose Renewable Energy Law of 2014 opened up IPPs to use the national grid for transmission.
 
Between December 2015 and December 2018, a total of 28,229 MW was added to the grid, resulting in a total installed capacity of 55 GW, propelled mainly by renewables, whose transmission has been facilitated by the wheeling framework. Similar remarkable strides have been made in other successful markets in terms of electricity access, such as Algeria.
 
Power-hungry South Africa is hastily taking on this model to aid with the distribution of electricity to households, commercial, and industrial segments. The country has been hit hard by aging generation infrastructure and faulty new coal-burning stations that regularly dump users in the dark.
 
The national utility, Eskom, indicates on its website that it plans to introduce virtual wheeling. This advanced version of conventional wheeling will enable a third-party trader to aggregate power from various private generators and transmit it through the national utility grid to multiple off-takers.
 
Already, different parties have launched pilots seeking to identify any underlying gaps ahead of a full rollout in the future.
 
Telecom giant Vodacom, for example, recently inked a virtual wheeling agreement with Eskom enabling the telecom company to aggregate power from its 15,000 low-voltage generation sites and distribute it to various locations on the grid.
 
Cape Town Municipality also recently launched a pilot wheeling program as part of a set of measures to reduce load shedding by having private generators involved in meeting energy needs.
 
bird story agency

Benjamindada

African countries rank lowest on the AI readiness index globally 🧠

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