THE LOCAL

  A project in Morocco is looking at  how parabolic troughs could help make solar energy cheaper. Young Moroccan enterprise Alto Solution aims to come up with solutions for improving access to both clean water and renewable energy. One such project, Parabolic Trough for Solar Energy involves the design and manufacture of cylindro-parabolic solar concentrators.  These troughs are capable of meeting the needs of industry in place of traditional fossil fuels, explains Mehdi Berrada, the founder of Alto Solution. “Our aim is to promote new types of industrial zone that are powered largely by solar energy.” The basic principle lies in mechanically bending the mirror plates and holding them in position, so as to create a perfect parabola. This technology reduces optical error and increases energy production, while also guaranteeing a very high resistance to wind.  The cost of this technology – around $75 per square metre – is consistent with the objectives of t...

Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries. Dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, it will be Africa's biggest dam and will depend on water from the 6,700-km Nile River, the world's longest river. But Ethiopia must first resolve matters with Egypt, which, along with Sudan, claims the rights to the river following a 1929 agreement. That agreement excluded other countries along the Nile River trajectory, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Egypt fears that the dam will suck up water flows to the country and severely affect its domestic consumption. About 86% of the Nile River's water actually originates from Ethiopia, a point the country is underscoring to press its case. In addition, it says that independent experts believ...

Recently, the President of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki urged African financial institutions to focus on assisting African countries to address the disadvantages arising from the underdevelopment of the continent’s economy.  The president made this known in Asmara when he received a delegation of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) led by Dr Benedict Oramah. President Afwerki said that despite the fact that Africa is endowed with 60 percent of the world’s resources, the continent continues to be disadvantaged because of the underdeveloped economy, which saw it exporting mainly raw materials and primary products. “Eritrea believes in working with financial institutions that can help in transforming the African economy,” said Afwerki. President Afwerki expressed Eritrea’s willingness to join Afreximbank as a Member State. He said that Eritrea would aim to be an effective contributor to encourage and ensure the creation of the environment for the delivery of the services ...

It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda. The Rwandan government has set a target of 90 percent financial inclusion by 2020 and the evidence of progress toward this goal is everywhere, according to World Bank research analyst Douglas Randall, who is "impressed by the financial inclusion landscape in this country." Advertisements for mobile-money products are painted and plastered onto almost every available surface in Rwanda. And, if you know what to look for, it does not take long to spot an Umurenge Savings and Credit Cooperative (Umurenge SACCO) - Rwanda's signature financial inclusion initiative. Six years ago, the 2008 Fin Scope survey found that that 47 percent of Rwandan adults used some type of financi...

Every profession needs thought leaders to challenge the status quo and set the bar to enable the rest of us to be better versions of our professional selves. To help put this into perspective let’s look at my profession, the world of corporate finance.  Over the last decade, finance has experienced incremental improvements in technology, leading to innovative advances in financial processes. Finance leaders that are ahead of the pack are starting to see the exponential benefits of not thinking incrementally.  A recent  study by  the SAP Center for Business Insight, conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics, indicates that when it comes to digital transformation, companies that fail to get beyond an incremental mindset – and view technology merely as a tool, rather than an integrated part of their business – risk their very survival. The survey found that a large majority of companies understand the importance of digital transformation, but just three...