1Morocco Inaugurates Africa’s Fastest Train

The train will halve travelling time between the commercial and industrial hubs of Casablanca and Tangier to two hours. King Mohammed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron boarded the train for the inaugural trip from Tangier to the capital Rabat. The train is planned to run at 320km, it’s about twice as fast as South Africa’s high-speed Gautrain and cost $2.4bn.

SOURCES: The East African, Al Jazeera

2How can Africa Boost Tax Revenues?

The IMF predicts that African countries can mobilise a further 5% of GDP from taxes over the next few years. It identified six countries that have pursued effective resource mobilisation strategies at various stages: Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

SOURCES: African Business Magazine

3Africa Code Week Drives Inclusive Education with Coding Workshops

Africa Code Week’s coding workshops for hearing-impaired children in Mozambique are part of SAP’s broader commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically Goal 4, which aims to ensure quality and inclusive education for all. The programme also gives credence to SDG goal 17 through sustainable partnerships with its Africa -wide partnership network.

SOURCES: Africa.com

4First Made-in-Africa Full-scale Smartphone Launched at the Africa Investment Forum

The Maraphone phone, a first-of-its-kind in the history of Africa, will produce high quality and affordable smartphones to primarily serve the population of Africa and also with the aim to export to other continents such as Europe.

SOURCES: Ventures Africa

5Everyone Wants a Piece of the Djibouti Pie

In July, Djibouti started the first phase of a $3.5 billion free trade zone. China, the U.S. and France together with Japan and Saudi Arabia, have military bases in Djibouti, ostensibly for fighting near-endemic piracy. In the future, Djibouti could cater to the rising volume of exports from Ethiopia’s manufacturing zones. Djibouti could also beef up its role as a transshipment hub to terminals farther down the African coast, such as Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Maputo in gas-rich Mozambique and Durban in South Africa.

SOURCES: Ozy, VOA

6Zimbabwe’s Hyperinflation Days Loom a Year after Mugabe’s Departure

Statistics agency Zimstat said the annual inflation rate shot up 20.85% in October from 5.39% in September after the dollar shortage led to a collapse in Zimbabwe’s parallel currency called the bond note, triggering sharp price hikes in many goods and services. This is the highest level since 2008.

SOURCES: Business Day Live

7A New Farming Technique that’s Changed the Way Kenya Does Things

Tree hopping involves digging up mature trees where they grow close together and relocating them to areas in the forest where there is less. The technique is gaining popularity with Kenyan farmers who are trying to produce more food on limited amounts of arable land without further damaging the environment. Putting some more space between trees can let in more sunlight and make an area’s micro-climate more suitable for farming. Tree hopping allows farmers to legally thin out their forests while helping others boost the number of trees on their land, experts say.

SOURCES: VOA

8Nigeria’s Former Oil Minister to Face the Music

Three years after she was first arrested in London on money laundering charges, Nigeria is finally looking to bring home its former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to face corruption charges. Alison-Madueke has been London since 2015 after being released on bail and having her passport seized following the arrest. She served as minister of petroleum—a key role in Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy—from 2010 to 2015.

SOURCES: Quartz Africa

9SA President Irons out the Land Issue

The land reforms in South Africa will not violate the country’s constitution says President Cyril Ramaphosa. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress aims to change the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation to address racial disparities in ownership that persist more than two decades after apartheid’s demise in 1994.

SOURCES: CGTN Africa

10Bleisure in Ghana

Traveling on business can be a big chore, especially if you are scrambling to get work done on a deadline. And it is at these times you need far more than just a good location and free coffee. Hotels in the capital, Accra give far beyond that and focus on meeting the needs of the most demanding business travellers.

SOURCES: AFK Travel

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