An increasing number of African countries are beginning to step away from aid dependency, as the domestic private sector becomes the engine of growth across much of Africa.

Currently, at least a third of African countries receive aid that is equivalent to less than 10 percent of their tax revenue. They include Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Libya. This is a significant change from years of high dependency on aid.

These are countries that have made the most progress towards replacing aid with domestically mobilised resources. On average, Africa has managed to raise an estimated 441 dollars in taxes per person per year while receiving 41 dollars per person per year in aid, according to a comprehensive look at African resource mobilisation by the African Economic Outlook 2011.

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19 African countries and Jamaica were represented by 24 teams at the 1st Annual Arican Community Soccer Tournament (ACST) in Los Angeles, California which wrapped up with  Sierra Leone’s ‘Leone Stars’ taking the ACST Cup Title  after defeating Cameroon’s ‘L.A. Lions’ team 2 to 1. The other African countries who participated include Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Morrocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania and Uganda.

The tournament’s organizer, Vuvuzela Media and Marketing, a niche marketing group that focuses on Los Angeles’ African and West Indian communities, believes that the ACST is paving the way for the recognition and contribution of Blacks in soccer in Los Angeles.

“The African Community Soccer Tournament is an event that puts a face on our community and puts on display our love and passion for soccer while bringing us all together to celebrate our common bonds—Africa, soccer, and the city of Los Angeles” says Charlotte Kouassi, company co-founder and Republic of Côte d’Ivoire native.

For all of the 2011 African Community Soccer Tournament highlights including scores, photos, and videos, you can visit www.africansoccerla.com

Ebay Billionaire, Pierre Omidyar’ Omidyar Network has awarded a $200,000 grant to fund the Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space. The hub has also received a $45,000 grant from the Indigo Trust, a unit of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts of the U.K.

According to a press release, the Co-creation Hub is a “non-profit, social enterprise centered around a shared work space where stakeholders from multiple walks of Nigerian life come together to collaboratively create tech-based solutions that address social challenges facing Nigerian society” …

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The 2011 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards finalists (Credit: Hush at Jade Photo)

The top prize at this year’s CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2011 Awards Ceremony was scooped by Fatuma Noor, an investigative journalist from Kenya.

Noor, who works for Kenyan newspaper The Star, won the award for her three-part series on “Al-Shabaab,” an Islamic insurgent group in Somalia.

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Africa’s Billionaires on the Forbes list made records this year with a few surprises. 6 new Billionaires added to last year’s list of 11 bringing them to 17 Billionaires. Topping the list is Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote who displaced Ethiopian Self Made Billionaire, Mohammed Al Amoudi as Africa’s Richest man.

Although no other countries from Africa added to the list this year, Egypt managed to double its Billionaires from 4 to 8. Nigeria and South Africa also gained 1 new billionaire addition to the list. Overall African Billionaires on this year’s list are worth a combined 71 Billion, with last year’s billionaires alone increasing their wealth by a combined 18 Billion. The biggest increase was experience by our new Richest man, Dangote who made 10.7 Billion, putting him at the top of the list making him number 51 on the World’s Richest list.

	Name	Africa Rank	Forbes Rank	Net Worth	Age	Source	Country of Citizenship/HomeTown
	Aliko Dangote	1	51	$13.8 B	53	sugar, flour, cement	Nigeria
	Mohammed Al Amoudi	2	63	$12.3 B	66	oil	Saudi Arabia/Ethiopia
	Nicky Oppenheimer & family	3	136	$7 B	65	De Beers	South Africa
	Nassef Sawiris	4	182	$5.6 B	50	construction	Egypt
	Patrick Soon-Shiong	5	196	$5.2 B	59	generic drugs	United States/South Africa
	Johann Rupert & family	6	219	$4.8 B	60	luxury goods	South Africa
	Naguib Sawiris	7	310	$3.5 B	56	telecom	Egypt
	Patrice Motsepe	8	336	$3.3 B	49	Mining	South Africa
	Onsi Sawiris	9	393	$2.9 B	81	construction	Egypt
	Mohamed Mansour	10	595	$2 B	63	Diversified	Egypt
	Mike Adenuga	10	595	$2 B	57	telcom, banking, oil	Nigeria
	Yasseen Mansour	11	692	$1.8 B	49	Diversified	Egypt
	Youssef Mansour	11	692	$1.8 B	65	Diversified	Egypt
	Mo Ibrahim	11	692	$1.8 B	64	communications	United Kingdom/Sudan
	Christoffel Wiese	12	782	$1.6 B	69	consumer retail	South Africa
	Samih Sawiris	13	879	$1.4 B	54	hotels	Egypt
	Mohamed Al Fayed & family	14	993	$1.2 B	78	Retail	Egypt

A standard 7 boy Justine Mungune of Arumeru, Tanzania has invented and produced a tractor by using a motorcycle engine.

The tractor was in display at the Nane Nane show grounds this week at Themi where it attracted many enthusiastic viewers.

Mungune said he had produced the tiller using scrap parts. He carried out his work two months before the Nane Nane show and said he would make bigger things if empowered.

[READ THE STORY ON SHWARI.COM]

The United Nations has mobilized some of the foremost artists of Africa and the airwaves of the world in launching a song and music video to drum up support for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of combating hunger and poverty across the continent.

With a catchy tune and rhythm, the song is sung by eight artists reflecting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the targets for reducing extreme poverty, hunger and disease, while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability – that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

Between the verses a chorus declaims the iconic cry for freedom from the wars of liberation against Portuguese colonialism in Africa: a luta continua, the struggle goes on – only this time against each of the evils that deprive Africans of their human rights to a decent life.

The song, entitled “8 Goals for Africa,” has also been recorded as a video to be screened across all fan parks and public viewing areas at soccer’s World Cup in South Africa next month, an event expected to be watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It will be disseminated free of charge locally and internationally.

“There can be no spectators in the fight against poverty,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark said at the song’s launch ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.

UN Information Centres (UNICs) around the world are already calling on media in their regions to report on and air the song and video now.

“This is a great opportunity to raise popular awareness of the MDGs, with the potential to reach millions of people,” UNIC South Africa said. “The organizers are hoping that when the song is played during the World Cup matches, audiences will already recognize the song and be able to sing along with key phrases.”

The eight artists are: Yvonne Chaka Chaka (South Africa), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Oliver Mutukudzi (Zimbabwe), Mingas (Mozambique), Eric Wainaina (Kenya), HHP (South Africa), Baba Maal (Senegal), and the Soweto Gospel Choir (South Africa).

Hugh Masekela and Jimmy Dludlu (both South Africans) are two of the instrumentalists and the song was produced by world-renowned music producer, Arthur Baker. The music was composed by Mr. Dludlu, with lyrics by Mr. Wainaina.

Some of the world’s best and brightest minds are migrants. What if they could return home – at least “virtually” – to mentor young scientists in the countries they have left? Could brain drain be turned into brain gain?

UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and HP believe it is possible thanks to cutting-edge information technology and the willingness of talented members of the African and Middle Eastern diaspora to get involved. The UNESCO-HP “Brain Gain Initiative” uses grid and cloud computing to empower university faculty and students who have stayed in their home countries to engage in real-time scientific collaboration with those who have left.

Many countries in Africa and some in the Middle East are struggling to slow a loss of “human capital.” According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the International Organization for Migration, at least 20,000 qualified people – skilled professionals, scientists, academics and researchers – leave Africa every year.

“The long term goal is to strengthen capacity in African and Arab states so they have access to knowledge around the world, “explains Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, Chief of the Section for Reform, Innovation and Quality Assurance, Division of Higher Education, UNESCO. “Not only through information technology but also through the goodwill and commitment of the diaspora communities. They want to promote research and advance progress in their own countries and we want to give them that opportunity.” [READ MORE]

You could be responsibly green and take your old TV to Best Buy to be recycled. Or, like Sam Todo, you could be responsibly geeky, taking the telly apart and turning it into a walking humanoid robot!

Todo, a student from Africa’s Togolese Republic, constructed “Sam10″ almost entirely from old television sets, as you’ll note from the antenna popping up behind the little guy’s head. Todo aims to make the robot fully automatic, so it can greet people, avoid objects, and calculate the distance in front of it. [READ MORE]

It must be nice to be Ethiopian Self Made Billionaire, Mohammed Al Amoudi, Africa’s Richest man. His wealth grew by a billion despite the economic downturn. It is that time of year again and Forbes has put together a list of the World’s richest. On it are 11 Africans 4 from one family in Egypt, 4 from South Africa, 1 from Sudan, 1 from Nigeria and 1 from Ethiopia.

There was 1 new addition to the list this year, Samih Sawiris, son of Egyptian billionaire, Onsi Sawiris whose other 2 sons are on the list as well. Nigeria did loose a billionaire this year, Femi Otedola who had a bitter disagreement with fellow billionaire Aliko Dangote last year. Despite some major challenges, Dangote still made it on the list as the 9th richest man in Africa.

Photo By Hans Berggren

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 1)

• Name: Mohammed Al Amoudi
• Net Worth: 10 Billion
• Origin: Ethiopia
• Age: 65
• Fortune: Self Made
• Source: Oil
• Education: N/A
  Forbes World Ranking #64

AP Photo

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 2)

• Name: Nassef Sawiris
• Net Worth: 5.9 Billion
• Origin: Egypt
• Age: 48
• Fortune: Inherited and Growing
• Source: Construction
• Education: Bachelor of Science

Forbes World Ranking #127

AP Photo

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 3)

• Name: Nicky Oppenheimer & Family
• Net Worth: 5 Billion
• Origin: South Africa
• Age: 65
• Fortune: Inherited
• Source: Metals and Mining
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science and Master of Arts

Forbes World Ranking #154

Photo from Forbes.com

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 4)

• Name: Patrick Shoo-Shiong
• Net Worth: 5 Billion
• Origin: South Africa
• Age: 58
• Fortune: Self Made
• Source: Generic Drugs
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science; Medical Doctor

Forbes World Ranking #154

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 5)

• Name: Onsi Sawiris
• Net Worth: 3.1 Billion
• Origin: Egypt
• Age: 80
• Fortune: Self Made
• Source: Construction
• Education: N/A

Forbes World Ranking #307

AP Photo

Africa’s Billionaires (No. 6)

• Name: Naguib Sawiris
• Net Worth: 2.5 Billion
• Origin: Egypt
• Age: 55
• Fortune: Inherited
• Source: Telecom
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science; Master of Science

Forbes World Ranking #374

Photo by 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa/Getty Images