Movemeback Pulse

Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalise relations, adding to US President Trump’s legacy as the fourth Arab-Israeli agreement in four months. As part of the deal, US has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the long-disputed Western Sahara region, and will sell $1bn of drones and precision-guided weapons to Morocco. Fears of instability in the region are now mounting, as neighbouring Algeria are the key foreign backers to the Polisario Front (who have fought for independence over the region for years). With the African Union recognising Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory, the US's decision may also increase pressure on the AU’s member states to now take sides. 

Access to financial services and products

Global online payments system, PayPal, is partnering with Africa’s largest mobile money hub, MFS Africa, to expand its money transfer service, Xoom, into underbanked segments of Africa. Remittances to Africa are more expensive than to anywhere in the world - averaging 9% in the last quarter of 2019 (based on the cost of sending $200) vs. the global average of 6.8%, and well above the Sustainable Development Goal 10 target of 3%. The partnership will allow customers in the US, UK, Canada and Europe to send money to mobile wallets across the Continent, reducing the average remittance fee in some regions to 2-4% (according to Xoom). With SSA registering $48bn in remittances in 2019, but expecting a 23% decline in 2020, reducing the cost of remittances could help support a post-Covid economic recovery.

Exporting culture & identity

Disney Animation and pan-African entertainment company Kugali, have partnered to create a new science-fiction series launching on DisneyPlus in 2022 called Iwaju (roughly translated as “The Future” in the Yoruba language). Iwaju is adapted from Kugali’s comic book collection of the same name, and appears to be set in a Wakanda-like futuristic Lagos. Kugali was created by three friends from Nigeria and Uganda, apparently fed up with non-Africans telling African stories. This watershed moment marks the first time Disney has partnered with a comic studio outside of Marvel. With Disney announcing they will not recast Chadwick Boseman’s role as T'Challa in Black Panther 2, it seems the search for new authentic African heroes and stories has started.

Scaleable energy access

Amazon will generate its own electricity for its data centers in South Africa, through new wind and solar projects. The project is part of Amazon’s expansion from 127 to 153 global solar and wind projects, making it the largest-ever corporate purchaser of renewable energy. Amazon will generate electricity in South Africa through the grid of struggling state-owned power utility, Eskom - whose power cuts cost South African an estimated $8.3bn last year alone. Data centers are energy consuming - using up to 1% of the world’s electricity. With Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft all aggressively competing to own the Cloud, this approach may give Amazon a competitive advantage for scaling effectively in Africa.

End-to-end value chain capture

Rwanda has launched the African Centre of Excellence of Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) to advance sustainable cooling and cold chain systems across the Continent. The collaboration between the governments of Rwanda and UK, plus commercial and university partners, comes at a time when the world is preparing cold supply chains required for the safe transportation of Covid-19 vaccines (25% of vaccines are thrown away due to problems in cold chain logistics). ACES will not only support Covid vaccine deliveries, but also help reduce the estimated 30% of food produce that is lost due to poor post-harvest handling. 

Intra-continental connectivity, collaboration & trade

Construction of the $4.5bn Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric Scheme (BGHES) in Southern Africa is set to begin after the recent completion of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. The dam and power plant project along the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, will be constructed by USA’s General Electric and China’s Power China. 2,400MW of expected generated power will be equally distributed between the neighbours - a considerable amount given Zambia’s current 2,800MW and Zimbabwe’s ~2,000MW of installed electricity generation capacity. However, with the reservoir extending ~1km along the Victoria Falls basin (a UNESCO World Heritage Site that attracted ~1mn tourists in 2019), there will be a cost to local populations who rely on tourism. 

Essential infrastructure, personal living-space & utilities

New South African airline, Lift, has completed its first domestic flight, launching just in time for the South African summer season. The airline took advantage of a thinning in competition (with the grounding of South African Airways), and an apparent 40% decline in airline cost structures due to an oversupply of idle planes and lower oil prices. Bringing to life South Africa’s domestic and international aviation will be critical to its post-Covid recovery, as prior to the pandemic, the sector supported 472,000 jobs (across aviation, tourism, supply chain and employee spending), facilitated $150bn in foreign direct investment and $104bn in exports, and contributed $5.2bn to GDP in South Africa. 

High value skills development and talent repatriation

Nigeria saw the highest growth in the number of contributors to tech code hosting platform, GitHub, in 2020. Global collaboration among developers on the platform reached an all-time high of over 60mn, 35% more than the year prior. With over 25 companies in Nigeria focused on growing technical talent, the rise of developer internships in 2020, and a growing youth bulge (40% of the population are under 14 years old), Nigeria is a potential hotspot for global tech talent. As Nigerian developers are showing an appetite to collaborate to advance their skills and find solutions to problems that arise, it falls on policy makers to invest in continuous education and infrastructure to create an enabling environment for their continued development.

Baseline healthcare & disease protection

Scientists have seen promising results from studies using gene editing to cure Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). 10 participants who were given the one-time treatment several months ago have since not needed hospitalisation or blood transfusions, and are crisis-free (intermittent extreme body pain). Currently disease management is the most likely option for sufferers, as the only known cure is a bone marrow transplant from a closely matched donor without the disease (e.g. a sibling), which most people don’t have. With 20-25mn people globally suffering from SCD, 12-15mn of which live in Africa, and 50–80% of the infants born with SCD in Africa dying before the age of 5 years, the result of a planned wider study could be considerable for the Continent, and sufferers globally.

Home-grown digital infrastructure & platforms

African leaders under the Smart Africa Alliance (with 31 participating countries) have committed to reduce internet cost by 50%, in a virtual board meeting chaired by President Kagame of Rwanda. Africa’s Internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2% of the Continent’s GDP by 2025, contributing nearly $180bn to its economy (according to Google & IFC). However, internet access and affordability remain constraints to the economic benefit that could be derived from the internet, as the average cost of 1GB of data in a majority of countries is prices above the UN Broadband Commission’s target of 2%. The project could therefore be a crucial move towards this. With a framework for implementation due to be complete before year end, we await to hear about the deadline of the 50% reduction target.

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