Power Of Africa

The Tanzanian🇹🇿 port city of Dar es Salaam will host the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit on 28 January 2025, an event organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy. The summit aims to align African countries towards achieving “universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030,” a goal consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. The event follows a pledge made in April 2024 by the AfDB and the World Bank to bring electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030. The upcoming summit will gather heads of state, ministers, and key stakeholders from international and regional organisations, including private sector representatives, to establish a unified set of reforms. These reforms aim to facilitate Africa’s broader energy agenda, enhancing access to modern energy services and stimulating sustainable development. ••• [Further Africa]

Nigerian🇳🇬 neobank Moniepoint has secured US$110 million in equity financing to expand its integrated financial platform and overall growth across its continental markets. This latest funding brings Moniepoint’s valuation to over $1 billion, making it Africa’s newest unicorn. During the company’s 2022 funding cycle when it raised $50 million, its valuation stood at $400 million. With this new valuation, Moniepoint has joined the ‘top-tier’ league of startups such as MNT-Halan, Interswitch, Flutterwave, Chipper, OPay, Wave, and Andela. Moniepoint plans to use the funds to scale seamless digital payments, banking, foreign exchange (FX), and credit facilities. According to reports, Moniepoint grew its transaction value by over 205 percent in 2023. In the same year, it processed 5.2 billion transactions worth over US$150 billion. ••• [CIO Africa]

#ThisDayInHistory October 30 🗓️ On this day in 1974, after a month’s postponement that added to frenzied anticipation, Africa’s biggest boxing match, "The Rumble in the Jungle", is watched by a record one billion television viewers worldwide. The heavyweight championship boxing match was held at the 20th of May Stadium (now the Stade Tata Raphaël) in Kinshasa, Zaire (now DR Congo 🇨🇩) between the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Ali won by knockout in the eighth round, in what was described as a major upset, with Ali coming in as a 4–1 underdog against the unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. "The Rumble In The Jungle" has been called "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century".

October 29, 1938 🗓️ - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who is an economist, politician and a two term president of Liberia🇱🇷 (between 2006-2018) is born. She was the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country. Sirleaf was one of three recipients, along with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts to further women’s rights. After obtaining a master’s degree (1971) in public administration from Harvard University, she entered government service in Liberia. In the 1985 national election, she campaigned for a seat in the Senate and openly criticized the military government (at the time), which led to her arrest and a 10-year prison sentence. She was released after a short time and allowed to leave the country. During 12 years of exile in Kenya and the United States, during which time Liberia collapsed into civil war, Sirleaf became an influential economist for the World Bank, Citibank, and other international financial institutions. She ran for President for the first time in 1997, and finished second to Charles Taylor. She ran again in 2005, and this time, she defeated the football legend George Weah in the second round of voting. Sirleaf was sworn in as President of Liberia on January 16, 2006 and re-elected for a second term in 2011.

Air Tanzania (TC) has announced plans to resume service to Johannesburg, South Africa, in the fourth quarter of 2024. The airline will commence flights five times weekly between Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR) in Dar es Salaam and O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) in Johannesburg, starting on November 30, 2024. #powerofafrica #africa

GET READY TO TUNE IN! The Power of Africa podcast is coming soon! Join us as we explore the vibrant stories, innovators, and changemakers shaping the continent. From inspiring entrepreneurs to thought leaders, we’ll dive into the issues and ideas that matter. Stay tuned for captivating conversations, fresh perspectives, and a healthy dose of African pride! ••• #PowerOfAfrica #Podcast #ComingSoon #Africa

As popular music from Africa widely referred to as Afrobeats continues to expand into new territories and remain a global phenomenon, a lack of proper structure and organisation to protect the "original ingredients" of the genre that was birthed on the continent remains a growing concern. Music critic Joey Akan of Nigeria🇳🇬 has stressed in an explainer on X that Afrobeats to the world has brought us [Africans] great fortune but it has altered our self image. "An inadvertent side-effect of 'Afrobeats to the world' is how much our colonial mentality, negative self-image and self-hate has found expression via music and the ecosystem that supports it.", he said. "Our music [has] became the flavour of the global pop circuit, and we experienced an initial gust of success that announced our culture and it's stars. By satisfying home. We could increase our blast radius. But today, we've lost that vision, inverting our creative focus by making music geared for outsiders, with the hope that there's an off-chance that we might like it. Our biggest stars make music for foreigners to enjoy, ignoring home while making a play for lands where they are bit-part players.", he added. How do you react to this submission from Mr. Akan? What must African music, arts and culture industry start to do as a collective to address this rather unpalatable trend?

GET READY TO TUNE IN! The Power of Africa podcast is coming soon! Join us as we explore the vibrant stories, innovators, and changemakers shaping the continent. From inspiring entrepreneurs to thought leaders, we’ll dive into the issues and ideas that matter. Stay tuned for captivating conversations, fresh perspectives, and a healthy dose of African pride! #PowerOfAfrica #Podcast #ComingSoon #Africa

#poafacts The world’s closest cities are in Africa. Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have just one mile separating them. #africa #powerofafrica

The Commonwealth has named Shirley Botchwey, Ghana’s minister of foreign affairs, as its secretary-general. Botchwey’s appointment was announced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa. Botchwey has been serving as a minister in Ghana for the past seven years. As Commonwealth secretary-general, she will be responsible for running the London-based secretariat. The secretary-general position is rotated around the four blocs in the Commonwealth — the Pacific, Asia, Europe, and Africa. It is now Africa’s turn to produce the secretary-general for the organization. #powerofafrica #africa