Senegal is experiencing Internet and social media service interruptions as protests over the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko continue. Users of Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram and other services found their access restricted beginning Thursday, according to digital rights monitor NetBlocks. Data for mobile provider Orange (Sonatel) as…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Melvyn Lubega is the founder of the online education business Go1, South Africa’s first unicorn tech company valued at over $1 billion, and a Partner at venture capital firm Breega. He shares his thoughts on the future growth of Africa’s tech ecosystem. Breega has invested in early-stage tech companies across…
South Africa is moving forward with plans to produce mRNA vaccines at a facility in Cape Town, where leaders including Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization were on hand for a ribbon-cutting at the technology hub facility launched by biotech firm Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines. Afrigen has…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The Africa Fintech Summit will be held Wednesday in Washington D.C., with speakers from top African startups like Flutterwave and a keynote address from Ethiopian investor and summit co-founder Zekarias Amsalu. The event, the latest of the Africa Fintech Summit series launched in 2018, will place partnership with U.S. officials…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
French President Emmanuel Macron continues his African tour through Sunday, completing stops in Angola and Congo Brazzaville on Friday as he seeks to reassure leaders of France’s commitment to Africa while acknowledging that the vestiges of the colonial era are forever in the past. Macron met with his Angolan counterpart,…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
An observatory station in South Africa is one of the last two to be installed in a now-completed network that allows scientists across the world to monitor the night sky around the clock. The Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System (BOOTES) system relies on automated robotic stations to detect…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
South Africa is facing a shortage of more than 23 million houses, and Dr. Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, says 3-D printed houses—built entirely in just eight hours— may be the solution to help meet demand. “It is a quick way to build good quality…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Along the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe, researchers are using computer model simulations to understand the impacts of human-wildlife conflict and how to reduce its costs to both the community and the surrounding ecosystem. Still a pilot program funded by the European Union, the approach is used in the Hwange-Kazuma-Chobe…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The European Union failed to fully consider the potential for surveillance-related human rights violations as it equipped African nations with technologies and surveillance training through its EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTFA). That’s the decision of the EU Commission Ombudsman, following a formal complaint filed by a group of…
The West African nation of Togo is set to become the home of a new African Center for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity. The central hub, to be located in Lomé, will serve to collect cybersecurity information and intelligence for the region, in an effort to support a “true African…
The African nation of Chad has one of the world’s lowest rates for electricity access, but new investment in renewables is expected to reverse the situation, beginning with a solar plant expected to be fully operational in early 2023. Just 8% of Chad’s population had electricity in 2019, with access…
The Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Uganda is home to some 270,000 refugees, largely from South Sudan. It’s now the site of a new program to safely remove e-waste from solar lanterns and their batteries, in what the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says will also provide training and jobs to…
The Chinese government has pushed back over remarks about telecom firm Huawei and its presence on the African continent, made by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman of the United States. Sherman made her comments during a just-concluded diplomatic swing through South Africa, Angola and Gabon. In Angola, she visited…
The Central African Republic has become the first nation in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency, saying the move will put the C.A.R. “on the map of the most courageous and visionary countries in the world.” President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced the decision in a statement, welcoming the news…
Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, a native of Burkina Faso, was awarded this years top prize in architecture for his climate-focused work, much of it in West Africa and in Kenya, Sudan and other parts of the continent. Kéré was named this year’s recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for pioneering…