Africa First Network

🌍 💻 IT #outsourcing to Cameroon: Interesting interview by Ulrich Binkert with Francis Pouatcha, founder and co-owner of the software developer adorsys in Nuremberg.   Francis believes ‘that the emerging continent of #Africa will play a major role and will gradually enter into direct competition with other established offshore locations such as India’. After around two years of experience, he adds, employees in #Cameroon delivered the same quality as colleagues in Germany 💪 #Entrepreneurship #Fachkräftemangel Germany Trade & Invest Africa Business Guide     https://lnkd.in/eJNBpQ8d

The next poll question is primarily aimed at our followers from #Africa 👇 Feel free to give reasons and add remarks in the comments! #Infrastructure #RealDevelopment #Discuss 

🌍🛣️ Roads for the Rich? The #Nairobi Expressway is a classic project of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative: it was built in just 18 months by a Chinese company and partly financed with a loan from #China. However, a single ride costs the equivalent of €3.60 - unaffordable for many Kenyans.   With its #GlobalGateway initiative, the #EU has taken up the cause of offering African partner countries fairer infrastructure financing than China: Projects should go hand in hand with contracts for local companies, create jobs and not lead countries into the debt trap.   And the odds are not bad: Inge Herbert & Alexander Knipperts from Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom see opportunities for more European involvement: "Many African countries are currently reassessing their existing economic and #trade relations", they argue.    German companies therefore can position themselves "as responsible partners". Also important is "a clever mix of risk protection for private sector initiatives and accompanying government support". We agree and add: European Policymakers have meanwhile done a number of things to pave the way. Even if it's not enough: Now the ball is in the business community's court, too 🚀 #Africa #Europe Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Sub-Saharan Africa https://lnkd.in/eWUWtcDE

🌍 Compliance support for African #SME 🚀 Food for thought from Gunther Beger & Hannah Grupp: “The billions of dollars companies spend on #compliance would be better invested in improving the environmental and social conditions at the beginning of the supply chain.”   The key to #RealDevelopment, they argue, is to “produce and trade higher value-added goods and services”. Countries like #Morocco & Cote d’Ivoire have made significant advances in this area. BUT:   “The complexity and associated costs of #sustainability requirements” make it harder to establish & expand value chains. This applies in particular to sub-Saharan #Africa, “where 96% of firms are micro enterprises” – lacking traceability technology, “but also awareness of new regulations” in Europe.   Beger and Grupp therefore recommend: International organisations should provide de-risking tools & technical assistance to SME and smallholders in low-income-countries. “In this way, compliance with #ESG regulations need not be a burden, but rather a stimulus for creating better jobs.” 💡#EUDR #FairTrade UNIDO UNIDO ITPO Germany Martin Alexander Schoeller Ulrich Konstantin Rieger https://lnkd.in/gHRRdZkV

🌍 More #trade between North & South. Spot-on statement by Thomas Fischermann in DIE ZEIT: ‘Unfortunately, if you don't have a trade agreement, you have even less influence on the shortcomings in South American agriculture and nature conservation. Because others are the partners.’   This applies not only to South America, but also to #Africa and South Asia. It is therefore high time that the EU abandons excessive #ESG demands. Otherwise, countries will not be trading with us, but with China - and then probably without any significant environmental and social standards #FairTrade #FreeTrade #Mercosur     https://lnkd.in/giyNAvHQ

🌍 🌞 ⚡#ImpactInvesting in #Ghana: Today at 5 pm Wolf-Dietrich Fugger, Ralph Schneider and Timo Schäfer from EWIA Green Investments GmbH talk about their solar project for the recycling company Zablikani in #Ghana. It involves a 7 kWp solar system and a 61 kWh battery storage system 🔋 #Africa #GreenEnergy #EnergyStorage https://lnkd.in/e9Bsy3p5

🌍🎄Every year, two questions arise in the run-up to #Christmas: Where do I find presents for my loved ones? And who should I donate to? We have a few suggestions for you:   🎁 #Gifts: Do you know the platform Manuyoo? You will find great products from impressive African entrepreneurs such as Navalayo Osembo, Arnold Leon Mugagga, Adja Sembene FALL, papama ramogase, Awura Abena Agyeman or Angorkor Nai-Kwade - from fashion to jewellery to gin!   🤝#Donations: We at the AFN team appreciate, for example, the great work of Stiftung Menschen für Menschen - Karlheinz Böhms Äthiopienhilfe, Mary's Meals Deutschland e.V. and Save the Grain.   🚀 #ImpactInvesting. We are also fans of Impacc: The team around Till Wahnbaeck turns donations into #investments in African #startups - true to the motto: The key to #RealDevelopment is entrepreneurs who create decently paid jobs and expand value chains.   Other interesting #impact investments are offered by AVCO Foods and EWIA Green Investments GmbH, among others. Please feel free to leave further suggestions for gifts, donations and investments in the comments! 👇 🙏 #Africa   

🙏 Thanks a lot to all participants – this is the result, and the majority is right. Probably too easy for the AFN-Community 😉 Next question will be a bit more difficult - stay tuned. Further information can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ewcsDg2F #Africa #Narratives Transparency International https://lnkd.in/ej9Ss7uu

🌍 💪 "#Africa is the answer to many developments that worry us globally and in trade. Many young people, new dynamic markets and rewarding opportunities." 👇 Our Managing Director Ulrich Konstantin Rieger met many partners and new acquaintances at the German-African Business Summit (GABS) 2024 in Nairobi and also discussed specific projects. A big thank you to the hosts 🙏 #GABS2024 #GABS #ImpactInvesting #RealDevelopment Subsahara-Afrika Initiative der Deutschen Wirtschaft (SAFRI) Delegation of German Industry and Commerce for Eastern Africa (AHK Eastern Africa)

🌍 🤔 "The continent is stagnating in #poverty and debt." Despite all sympathy for Moritz Kraemer's proposal to mobilise private capital for #climate protection in developing countries:   With such phrasing, the LBBW chief economist is making exactly that more difficult. After all, blanket statements like this conceal the fact that progress is being made in a number of countries. And they support the distorted image of the continent of crises and disasters that scares off investors.   What is true is that it is "in our own interests" and also "economically efficient" to support developing countries in leaving the fossil fuelled growth path ✅ #Africa #Leapfrogging Handelsblatt https://lnkd.in/enB3E8rf