The MTN Group on Thursday said it has been named the most valuable African brand in the Brand Finance Africa 150 ranking in 2020. Its Group Executive, Corporate Affairs, Nompilo Morafo, said the award was ascribed a brand value of 3.3 billion dollars to the group. Brand value is the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licencing the brand in the open market. In its survey by Brand Finance, it said, “Over the last...
Eight armed robbers stormed the Bulawayo High Court in Zimbabwe on Sunday and injured two police officers as they tried to break open the registry safe using a grinder, state media reported on Monday. The robbers gained entry into the court’s criminal registry after attacking and disarming police officers manning the premises. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident and said investigations are underway. The incident occurred at about 4 a.m. and the suspects were...
Mainstream U.S. media is characterizing the September 29 debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as a disaster. The moderator was never able to establish control. President Trump, especially, constantly interrupted former Vice President Biden. Rather than a discussion about policy and ideas, the debate was a rant or a temper tantrum. In Africa, the debate will hardly burnish the image of democracy or the United States. However, the October 2 news that President Trump and the...
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a September 22 UN General Assembly (UNGA) speech, made continued French military involvement contingent upon Mali’s restoration of civilian rule. He was blunt: “They (the junta) must put Mali on the irreversible path of returning to civilian power and organize rapid elections.” And, “France […] can only remain engaged on this condition.” As he has in the past, Macron was also clear that France has a low tolerance level for popular demonstrations against...
Mwazulu Diyabanza, a Congolese-origin activist in France, first attracted social media attention by seeming to steal an artifact from the Quai Branly Museum in Paris to protest slavery, colonialism and the alleged French theft of Africa’s cultural patrimony. The attempted theft was carefully staged for live streaming. The museum authorities stopped the theft. In July, he repeated his protest at a museum in Marseilles. It was also live-streamed. Diyabanza is now back in the news because he, along...
The Nigerian Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has met with speakers of parliaments in other African countries to discuss ways to seek from external debts. The Speaker announced the meeting on his verified Twitter handle, @FemiGbaja, on Thursday night. Gbajabiamila tweeted, “Today, I engaged with my colleagues from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa to discuss how African speakers can collaborate in the joint task of loosening the stranglehold of...
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of First Bank Nigeria Limited, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, has been announced as the Forbes Best of Africa Award. The presentation of the award was held by Forbes, in conjunction with the Foreign Investment Network (FIN). The online roundtable discussion was themed, “Harnessing the Financial Resources and Social Capital of Philanthropy to Making a Lasting Impact.” The award was supported by the World Philanthropy Network and featured a keynote address by...
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved 27.33 million dollars in grants to boost the African Union’s efforts to mobilise a continental response to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a statement from the AfDB, the approval is made by the organisation’s Board of Directors on Wednesday. The approval followed a meeting of the extended Bureau of the Conference of Heads of State and Government with Africa’s private sector on April 22 April. The meeting was...
South Africans have long feared that corruption would move from “retail,” small-scale and individualistic, to “structural,” as it is in some other African countries, where corruption infuses the political economy. Those fears accelerated during the 2009-2018 presidency of Jacob Zuma, which was characterized by nepotism, cronyism, and patronage networks, altogether labeled “state capture,” and blatant corruption within some state-owned enterprises fully reported by the media. Corruption also fueled Zuma’s efforts to remain in power and to undermine...
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) is making the news again as the Trump administration continues its efforts to diminish the program. DACA protects eligible immigrant youth who came to the United States when they were children from deportation and allows them to apply for jobs. Recipients of the DACA program are often referred to as “Dreamers.” Since 2017, there has been an ongoing legal battle to save the program, which shields approximately...
