ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Standing by a towering equatorial forest, Jean-Noel Kouame’s new breeze-block house may be beyond the reach of Ivory Coast’s power grid, but it’s perfectly located for solar power entrepreneurs. Buoyed by success in East Africa, off-grid solar power startups are pouring into West Africa, offering pay-as-you-go kits in a race to claim tens of millions of customers who lack reliable access to electricity. At least 11 companies, including leading East African players such as Greenlight Planet, d.light, Off-Grid Electric (OGE), M-KOPE Solar, Fenix International, and BBOXX, have moved into the region. Most within the last…
Author: aveditor
When we hear talks on DACA and the sometimes mischaracterization of immigrants. We have to remember that there are first and foremost human beings with stories and histories. One such person is an Ivorian Actor and Dreamer. Bambadjan Bamba came to the United States at age 10. Bambadjan Bamba is just one of nearly a million young immigrants who came to the US as children and received temporary status under the Obama era policy called DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. “When the administration says they wanted to cancel DACA, that’s when I decided I couldn’t stay quiet anymore,”…
Africa is poor, but we can try to help its people. It’s a simple statement, repeated through a thousand images, newspaper stories, and charity appeals each year. So that it takes on the weight of truth. When we read it, we reinforce assumptions and stories about Africa that we’ve heard throughout our lives. We reconfirm our image of Africa. ALSO READ: Ethiopian Prime Minister’s War On Corruption Results In Arrests Of 59 More Officials Try something different. Africa is rich, but we steal its wealth. That’s the essence of a report (pdf) from several campaign groups released today. Based on a…
Durban, South Africa – Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s embattled and controversial president, has announced his resignation in a televised address to the nation. “I have to come to a decision to resign with immediate effect,” he said late on Wednesday in Pretoria. Zuma’s resignation followed weeks of intense public pressure to step down amid long-standing corruption allegations. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) formally asked Zuma, 75, to resign on Tuesday. He initially refused, saying he did not understand why he was being told to step down. ALSO READ: COVID-19 Relief Fund Insufficient For South African Filmmakers The party later announced plans to…
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has resigned unexpectedly, saying he hoped to end years of unrest and political upheaval. In a televised address, he said his resignation was “vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy”. Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn, who has led the country since 2012, also stepped down as chairman of the ruling coalition. Hundreds of people have died in three years of anti-government protests. Demonstrations first spread across the country in 2015 amid calls for political and economic reform and an end to state corruption. Most of the unrest has…
Not only are the Obamas the first African-American presidential couple to be enshrined in the collection. The painters they picked to portray them are Nigerian-American Kehinde Wiley for Obama’s portrait and African American Amy Sherald, for Mrs. Obama’s portrait. Both artists have addressed the politics of race consistently in their past work, and both have done so in subtly savvy ways in these new commissions. Mr. Wiley depicts Mr. Obama not as a self-assured, standard-issue bureaucrat, but as an alert and troubled thinker. Ms. Sherald’s image of Mrs. Obama overemphasizes an element of couturial spectacle, but also projects a rock-solid cool. ALSO READ: Kehinde…
The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang is finally here and there Eight African countries are competing. This means more African flags flew at the opening ceremony of this year’s Winter Olympics than ever before. As one of the world’s hottest continents, Africa lacks the climate for winter sports such as skiing, bobsleigh, and snowboarding. But despite this disadvantage, competitors from a record number of nations (Nigeria, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, Morocco, and Togo) will be represented at Pyeongchang 2018. Most of the athletes will be breaking boundaries. These boundary-breakers could represent a changing look for the Winter Olympics, which,…
When Ghana’s President took to the podium at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) conference, his remarks sparked a strong reaction from Ghanaians and Non-Ghanaians. He started off to discuss his efforts to close the education gap in Ghana’s youth, however, he did not only end with Ghana. He expanded his talking points to touch on a broader issue – the advancement of the African continent. [bctt tweet=”‘We cannot depend on other people to finance the education of our continent. We cannot do it!’ – President Akufo-Addo (Ghana)” username=”africanvibes”] He went on to say: [bctt tweet=”‘If we make our policy…
Harare – South Africa has top ranking together with New Zealand on the transparency of its budget processes, according to the Open Budget Survey 2017. According to the survey, conducted by International Budget Partnership (IBP), South Africa provides the public with extensive budget information and scores 89 out of 100. While the country ranked highly in terms of transparency and budget oversight, scoring more than 80 out of 100, it has a low ranking in terms of public participation with a score of 24. IBP considers countries that score above 60 on the Open Budget Index (OBI) as providing sufficient…
The 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly concludes with decisions on (3) flagship projects of Agenda 2063 A summary of key decisions Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 29 January 2018- The 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Summit holding on the theme: ‘Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation’ ended on 29 January 2018, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the adoption of key decisions by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. The following is a summary of decisions made by the Assembly. Full decisions will be posted on…