The London Evening Post BU

Climate change could have a significant impact on African agriculture over the coming decades. In a report last year, the African Development Bank even speculated that the continent’s economic growth will decline by around three per cent per year due to the effect of climate change on rain-fed farming. Can cassava beat climate change in Africa? While it is impossible to accurately predict the impact of climate change, one crop could potentially guarantee Africa’s food security, regardless of the weather. Scientists have found that cassava, the rugged root crop that looks like a sweet potato, will brush off expected temperature rises of up to 2°C in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. … Continue reading →

Speaking at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum in Cape Town last week, managers from both DHL and Engen identified Africa’s weak transport infrastructure as a major challenge of operating on the continent. Both, however, said that managing this and the continent’s other difficulties are not impossible. Charles Brewer has been managing director for sub-Saharan Africa at logistics company DHL Express for little over one year. He described the past year as “52 weeks of smiles and tears. There is not a single week that goes by where you don’t have an enthusiastic and very positive experience, but equally there is not a single week that goes by where … Continue reading →

African farmers have a chance to start making big money by selling their products to Yum Brands! the American-bases owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Chicken farmers in countries like Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Angola and Tanzania, to name a few, may be encouraged by the fact that if they developed their chicken farms, chances are that they now have a customer willing to buy their produce in big numbers.  Yum Brands! plans to expand its KFC fast-food chain into seven more countries across Africa in 2012 and add 100 stores on the continent, as it seeks to tap into a rising middle class and strong economic … Continue reading →

Much has been written about the stunning growth of mobile telephony in Africa. It is estimated that the continent will have more than 735 million subscribers by the end of 2012. However, a large percentage of the mobile phones in Africa are very basic models with no internet connectivity, and subsequently no access to social networks such as Facebook. This is set to change. Mobile operator Orange has launched a service that will allow users to access Facebook from even the simplest handsets. “Facebook is already well established in Africa, since it already has 40 million users. On the other hand, most of these users are on fixed connections. And … Continue reading →