Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa, UNDP called Africa’s steady progress on the SDGs is commendable. This calls for accelerated efforts to ensure that Africa achieves the global goals by the 2030 deadline, the latest Africa Sustainable Development report has stated. Africa also needs scaled-up concessional financing to regain momentum on the SDGs and the Agenda 2063.”The report assessed Africa’s progress in implementing five main SDGs, highlighting progress, the challenges, and the numerous opportunities for improving Africa’s development prospects. The report calls on African countries to invest in water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and to strengthen integrated water resource management capacity. The report calls for higher domestic resource mobilisation and efforts to address debt vulnerabilities.

German government-funded initiative Make-IT in Africa and mobile operator Orange have opened applications for the GreenAPI: Smart Agriculture Programme, which aims to help agri-tech startups in Senegal scale more quickly. The GreenAPI: Smart Agriculture Programme is jointly implemented by Make-IT in Africa and Orange, and aims to improve agricultural practices in Africa by creating wider and better access to smart agriculture services for smallholder farmers, companies and other value chain actors. It leverages digital agricultural platforms (DAPs) to bundle smart agricultural products and services and thereby allow smallholder farmers to access a full range of services with the potential to improve their productivity and livelihood through a one-stop shop. The GreenAPI: Smart Agriculture Programme facilitates business partnerships between smart agriculture startups and DAPs, empowering startups to integrate their products and services with DAPs by providing them with all the skills required to plan and implement the integration and offering them a unique opportunity to be matched with a DAP to design and pilot a joint service offering with a long-term viable business partnership as a result. Applications are open here until October 16.

Noum has developed and maintains key strategic relationships and accounts for diagnostic testing with sleep physicians, sleep centers, hospitals and other healthcare providers across the MENA region. Under the terms of the agreement, Noum has been given exclusive distribution rights for Vivos products and services in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. The parties expected that Vivos products will eventually be manufactured locally in the region under a future license agreement currently being finalized between Vivos and Noum. Vivos also markets and distributes SleepImage diagnostic technology under its VivoScore program for home sleep testing in adults and children. The Vivos Integrated Practice (VIP) program offers dentists training and other value-added services in connection with using The Vivos Method.

Migration, terrorism and energy — three 'crisis' topics — have preoccupied EU policy and their societies' view of their neighbourhood in northern Africa for a long time. For too long, keeping the problems — literally — at bay has been left to southern European member countries of the EU. The following thoughts outline some dimensions, which are crucial in opening a new chapter with our north African neighbours. Now, European policy is in danger of turning towards a 'super-realist' mode of engagement, forgetting all lessons about conditionality and, at the same time, laying the groundwork for future failures. For the moment, Europe has no convincing story it could tell our neighbours in northern Africa.

A solar powered battery service project in Nigeria will provide electricity access to up to 300,000 people and create local jobs. The project is a collaboration between CrossBoundary Access and Mobile Power. For Mobile Power, this new partnership allows the company to accelerate deployment of its technology in Nigeria. For CrossBoundary Access, MOPO Hubs complement its mini-grid portfolio by allowing faster, lower cost deployment. Creating energy access across Africa, one battery at a timeCrossBoundary Access will finance the development and construction activities and will own the projects.

Of interestVodacom to secure IPPs after virtual wheeling deal with EskomThe virtual wheeling platform will be able to aggregate energy generation and consumption data into Eskom time-of-use periods (standard, peak, and off-peak) in hourly intervals. According to Eskom, to participate in virtual wheeling, buyers will be required to conclude a Virtual Wheeling Agreement and a back-to-back Virtual Wheeling Platform Agreement with a virtual wheeling platform vendor, who is appointed by the buyer and certified by Eskom to inter-operate with Eskom’s systems. Under virtual wheeling, these documents remain in place and are referenced in the Virtual Wheeling Agreements. In addition to the Virtual Wheeling Agreements mentioned above, buyers will be required to establish meter access for Eskom and the virtual wheeling platform with generators under their existing power purchase agreements. Of referenceCape Town wheeling pilot project starts generating clean powerWhen will virtual wheeling be rolled out by Eskom?

Morocco’s bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal is “a message of peace, tolerance, and inclusion,” emphasized FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The FIFA Executive Committee announced it unanimously selected the joint Morocco-Spain-Portugal bid to host the 2030 World Cup since it was the only bid in the race for hosting the 2030 event. King Mohammed VI “is pleased to announce to the Moroccan people that the FIFA Executive Committee has unanimously selected the Morocco-Spain-Portugal bid as the sole candidacy for hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup,” the statement said. “I am confident that together with Morocco and Portugal, we will host the best World Cup in history,” he added. However, a novelty of the 2030 World Cup will be that the opening three matches of the tournament will be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, to mark the centenary of the very first World Cup.

A pipeline is necessary for a sustainable wind sector. Of the 83 installed wind farm projects identified in the study, more than a third are located in South Africa. “The report identifies 114 wind projects planned across Africa, representing a pipeline of 86GW expected over the next seven years,” said Govender. Energy mix driven through the ERA BillKgopisho Mahunonyane, Key Customer Accounts Manager at Eskom, said wind power has been a strong component of the REIPPP programme. He added that Eskom believes it is important all the renewable energy sectors work together to ensure good grid integration as well as a well-balanced energy mix.

Tractor sales figures – presented today in Bari by FederUnacoma president Mariateresa Maschio – indicate a positive trend in southern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East. The Agrilevante exhibition as a vector of innovation for the entire Mediterranean region. The agricultural machinery market is growing throughout the Mediterranean area, and promises strong development in the coming years. This was the picture described by Mariateresa Maschio, the President of the Italian manufacturers’ association FederUnacoma, during the press conference held this afternoon at the Bari exhibition centre, on the eve of Agrilevante, the major exhibition of agricultural machinery for the Mediterranean area. In southern European countries (Spain, France, Greece and Italy) tractor sales have maintained high levels in recent years.

There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman…There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. “I have a double life all the time,” said the 27-year-old Tunisian woman. The Tunisian woman said she fasts to avoid being found out by her Muslim family. “We have an unspoken agreement: I don’t criticize religion and you don’t criticize my lack of religion,” he said.

(Bloomberg) -- Losses on longer-dated Treasuries are beginning to rival some of the most notorious market meltdowns in US history. That’s just shy of the 49% plunge in US stocks in the aftermath of the dot-com bust at the turn of the century. The rout in 30-year bonds has been even worse, tumbling 53%, nearing the 57% slump in equities during the depths of the financial crisis. “It’s quite something,” said Thomas di Galoma, co-head of global rates trading at BTIG and a four-decade market veteran. It’s kind of like defying gravity here.”Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Egypt's current account deficit dropped to $4.7 billion in the fiscal year 2022/23 from $16.6 billion in the previous year, central bank said in a statement on Wednesday. Egypt's net foreign direct investment inflows reached $10 billion in the same period, the central bank added. (Reporting by Yomna Ehab and Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Alison Williams)

Shingai Samudzi, Asoba CEO, spoke to ESI Africa at Enlit Africa about their virtual power plants service offering and the derisking of projects. He sees Asoba playing the role of controller to allow connections to multiple energy sources for greater control of cost pricing and cost. Find out more about Asoba.

Morocco, Portugal and Spain will jointly host the World Cup in 2030, the first time that matches in the most famous international football competition will be held in North Africa. “Having taken into account the historical context of the first-ever FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Council further unanimously agreed to host a unique centenary celebration ceremony in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo,” the organization said. “We will do our best to host the best World Cup in history.”Spain and Morocco have a very close but complex diplomatic relationship. On the pitch, Morocco became the first North African side to reach the semifinals of the World Cup, in Qatar in 2022. The award of the 2030 version is also symbolic for Spain, which in August won the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time.

South African fintech startup Stitch has announced a US$25 million Series A extension round led by Ribbit Capital, which will be used to continue building out its end-to-end payments solutions, and expand to additional markets. The Stitch payments API and tools reduce the effort required for businesses across sectors to connect to the financial system and deliver delightful experiences for their users. The startup raised US$6 million seed funding in 2021, and quickly moved on to Series A with a US$21 million round in February of last year. Since then it has expanded its offering, launching the Stitch payments suite, and WigWag, a no code payment links platform for small businesses. Stitch has now announced a US$25 million extension to that Series A round, taking total funding secured by the company to US$52 million.