By Valerie Volcovici, Gloria Dickie and William James

DUBAI, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, signalling the eventual end of the oil age.

The deal struck in Dubai after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations was meant to send a powerful message to investors and policy-makers that the world is united in its desire to break with fossil fuels, something scientists say is the last best hope to stave off climate catastrophe.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber called the deal “historic” but added that its true success would be in its implementation.

“We are what we do, not what we say,” he told the crowded plenary at the summit. “We must take the steps necessary to turn this agreement into tangible actions.”

Several countries cheered the deal for accomplishing something that until now eluded decades of climate talks.

“It is the first time that the world unites around such a clear text on the need to transition away from fossil fuels,” Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide said.

More than 100 countries had lobbied hard for strong language in the COP28 agreement to “phase out” oil, gas and coal use, but came up against powerful opposition from the Saudi Arabia-led oil producer group OPEC, which said the world can cut emissions without shunning specific fuels.

That battle pushed the summit a full day into overtime on Wednesday, and had some observers worried the negotiations would end at an impasse.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries control nearly 80% of the world’s proven oil reserves along with about a third of global oil output, and their governments rely heavily on those revenues.

Small climate-vulnerable island states, meanwhile, were among the most vocal supporters of language to phase out fossil fuels and had the backing of major oil and gas producers such as the United States, Canada and Norway, as well as the European Union and scores of other governments.

“This is a moment where multilateralism has actually come together and people have taken individual interests and attempted to define the common good,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said after the deal was adopted.

The lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, Anne Rasmussen, criticised the deal as unambitious.

“We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual, when what we really need is an exponential step change in our actions,” she said.

But she did not formally object to the pact, and her speech drew a standing ovation that lasted nearly two minutes.

Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Dan Jorgensen marvelled at the circumstances of the deal: “We’re standing here in an oil country, surrounded by oil countries, and we made the decision saying let’s move away from oil and gas.”

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

The deal calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner … so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

To some extent, that language describes what has already begun to happen, with some governments enacting policies in recent years to transition to a greener economy.

Europe and the U.S. have retired fleets of coal-fired power plants; global installation of renewable power capacity is at record levels and many countries have policies to encourage sales of electric vehicles.

The deal calls on governments to accelerate that – specifically by tripling of renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, speeding up efforts to reduce coal use, and accelerating technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up hard-to-decarbonise industries.

A source familiar with Saudi Arabia’s position described the deal as “a menu where every country can follow its own pathway,” saying it “shows the various tracks that will allow us to maintain the objective of 1.5 (degrees Celsius) in accordance with the characteristics of every nation and in the context of sustainable development.”

Several other oil producer countries, including the summit host UAE, had advocated for a role for carbon capture in the pact. Critics say the technology remains expensive and unproven at scale, and say it can be used to justify continued drilling.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also welcomed the deal, but said: “The influence of petrostates is still evident in the half measures and loopholes included in the final agreement.”

Now that the deal is struck, countries are responsible for delivering through national policies and investments.

China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter today, suggested that industrialised countries should lead the way.

“Developed countries have unshirkable historical responsibilities for climate change,” the country’s vice environment minister Zhao Yingmin said after the pact was approved.

In the United States, the world’s top producer of oil and gas and the biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, climate-conscious administrations have struggled to pass laws aligned with their climate vows through a divided Congress.

U.S. President Joe Biden scored a major victory last year with passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies.

Mounting public support for renewables and electric vehicles from Brussels to Beijing in recent years, along with improving technology, sliding costs, and rising private investment have also driven rapid growth in their deployments.

Even so, oil, gas, and coal account for about 80% of the world’s energy, and projections vary widely about when global demand will finally hit its peak.

Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, praised the climate deal, but said it does not commit rich countries to offer more financing to help developing countries pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.

“The finance and equity provisions… are seriously insufficient and must be improved in the time ahead in order to ensure low- and middle-income countries can transition to clean energy and close the energy poverty gap,” she said.

For daily comprehensive coverage on COP28 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Gloria Dickie, William James, Sarah McFarlane, Kate Abnett, Jake Spring, Elizabeth Piper, David Stanway and Simon Jessop; Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Katy Daigle, Gerry Doyle, Sharon Singleton and Barbara Lewis

Lagos-based fin-tech startup Flutterwave has partnered with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba’s Alipay to offer digital payments between Africa and China.

Flutterwave is a Nigerian-founded B2B payments service (primarily) for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad.

Alipay is Alibaba’s digital wallet and payments platform. In 2013, Alipay surpassed PayPal in payments volume and currently claims a global network of more than 1 billion active users, per Alibaba’s latest earnings report.

A large portion of Alipay’s network is in China, which makes the Flutterwave integration significant to capturing payments activity around the estimated $200 billion in China-Africa trade.

“This means that all our merchants can accept or install Alipay as a payment type to accept payments from its billion users,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola — aka GB — told TechCrunch.

“There’s a lot of trade between Africa and China and this integration makes it easier for African merchants to accept Chinese customer payments.”

A Flutterwave company release added, “We’ve managed to connect African countries…to each other so it was about time we connected Africa to the world. We started with the U.S. … but you can’t connect Africa to the world without China.”

An Alipay spokesperson confirmed with TechCrunch the Flutterwave collaboration. Flutterwave will earn revenue from the partnership by charging its standard 3.8% on international transactions. The company currently has more than 60,000 merchants on its platform, according to Agboola.

The Flutterwave-Alipay alliance developed out of Agboola’s acceptance in Alibaba’s Africa eFounders Fellowship.

“Because of that I was in China to do meetings with Jack Ma and the only ask I had from that trip is ‘I want to be the Africa payment infrastructure that plugs directly into Alipay,’ ” Agboola said.

The Alipay partnership follows one between Flutterwave and Visa earlier this year to launch a consumer payment product for Africa, called GetBarter.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber, Booking.com, and e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com. Flutterwave has processed 100 million transactions worth $2.6 billion since inception, according to company data.

In a recent Extra Crunch feature, TechCrunch tracked Flutterwave as one of several Africa-focused fintech companies that have established headquarters in San Francisco and operations in Africa to tap the best of both worlds in VC, developers, clients and digital finance.

Flutterwave’s Alipay collaboration also tracks a trend of increased presence of Chinese companies in African tech.

China’s engagement with African startups has been light compared to the country’s deal-making on infrastructure and commodities. That looks to be shifting.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has made several trips to the continent and this March announced the $1 million Africa Netpreneur Prize for African startups and founders. Chinese company Transsion—a top-seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand—operates an assembly facility in Ethiopia and announced its IPO this year.

And this month Chinese owned Opera raised $50 million in venture spending to support its growing West African digital commercial network, which includes browser, payments and ride-hail services. 

Written by Jake Bright

Agriculture and agribusiness are projected to become a trillion-dollar industry in Africa by 2030. Dr. Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry at the African Development Bank, outlines the opportunities this presents for Africa’s youth.

At 23 years old, Aboubacar Karim is CEO and founder of INVESTIV, an Ivorian startup established in 2017 specialized in precision agriculture.

INVESTIV uses drones to provide farmers with information on soil quality, plant health conditions, spraying crops with pesticides and fertiliser, and measurement and monitoring of crop development through an online platform.

The company has mapped and monitored over 8,000 hectares of land and created more than 20 jobs.

Bright young Africans like Karim are the reason why the African Development Bank is investing millions of dollars in Africa’s agriculture sector – with a focus on youth.

Karim won the Bank’s 2018 African Youth Agripreneur Forum and AgriPitch Competition – an annual event instilling a culture of innovation and nurturing technology-led agribusiness innovations to create jobs and improve livelihoods among youth.

In addition, the Bank is working with its member countries and other development partners through implementation of the Enable Youth Program, one of the Bank’s flagship initiatives addressing Africa’s youth employment challenges.

Enable Youth empowers young men and women at each stage of the agribusiness value chain as agripreneurs. To date, the Bank has committed over $350m to Enable Youth investments in 12 countries on the continent.

The goal of the Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy is to create 25m jobs by 2025.

Of the various economic sectors that can engage youth, the agribusiness sector is best placed to provide significant employment and economic opportunities.

Despite rural urban migration, about 70% of youth in Africa still reside in rural areas and most work in the agriculture sector where they account for 65% of the workforce.

In addition, the agriculture and agribusiness sectors are projected to become a one trillion-dollar industry in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

According to the FAO, the food import bill for sub-Saharan Africa in 2017 was $47bn – a clear market opportunity. There is phenomenal growth in global and regional agri-food markets and agro-based industries in Africa – responding to this demand can provide jobs and income to youth.

Africa’s youth must be ready to take advantage of these fast-growing agricultural markets. The Bank is committed to empowering a new generation of young commercial farmers who will make African agriculture more productive, more efficient and more competitive.

Kenyan agripreneur Yvonne Otieno is part of this new generation. The CEO and co-founder of Miyonga Fresh Greens, which focuses on improving small holder fruit and vegetable farmer access to global markets, participated in a Bank-organised SME training in Korea that exposed her to new innovative technologies. Miyonga Fresh Greens started as a 1.5 acre family farm growing French beans and baby corn, and has since grown to 10 acres, exporting directly to Europe. It has expanded from two product lines to six product lines and from trading just in raw agricultural products like fresh vegetables and fruits to value addition products including dried fruits and fruit powder for export.

The company now works with a network of 5,000 small-holder farmers who have over 200 hectares of land and has created employment for 100 women and youth. It is currently in discussions with a distributor who has over 1,000 retail outlets across Europe as well as a strong online presence.

There are clear opportunities for drawing youth to the agriculture sector as agripreneurs. With the right entrepreneurship ecosystem, skills, technologies and improved access to finance, young African men and women will approach agriculture as a business and can become the proud owners of viable and profitable agribusiness enterprises.

The result of investing in youth will be more jobs created, increased food production for a growing population, less reliance on food imports and a healthier trade balance for African countries.

The Bank is committed to working with Africa’s private and public sector actors to enable Africa’s youth to lead and succeed in agricultural sectors not just across the continent, but also around the world.

The African Development Bank is hosting the third edition of the African Youth Agripreneur Forum and AgriPitch Competition from 24-28 June in Cape Town.

Source: African Business Magazine

Ethiopia will host the 2021 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC), as approved by the International Telecommunication Union, ITU, at the request of the African nation.
The event takes place in 2021 and will be the first time an African country is hosting it.

The International Telecommunication Union Council meeting in Geneva (2019) approved the choice of Ethiopia unanimously according to Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Innovation and Technology, who was in Geneva.

WTDC happens every 4 years and since its establishment in 1994, it will see for the first time an African country as host in 2021.

Ethiopia has in the past few months been beneficiary to major international meetings increasing the diplomatic and hospitality profile of its capital Addis Ababa, which is seat of the African Union and other United Nations offices.

In May, Addis Ababa hosted the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event which brought together major stakeholders over a three-day period.

Before May, the Prime Minister had announced that Ethiopia had been awarded hosting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, on Africa meeting for 2020. Abiy attended his first WEF meeting in Davos early this year.

Addis Ababa was earlier this month chosen to host the next gathering of world football governing body’s supreme legislative body, the FIFA Congress.

The announcement of the 70th FIFA Congress taking place in Addis Ababa was made at the end of the 69th Congress which took place in the French capital, Paris.

According to Chief of Staff of the AU Chairperson, Congress will take place at the Union’s headquarters in May 2020.

Credits to Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Jumia Technologies AG,  the leading pan-African e-commerce platform is experiencing a successful rise after it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), seeing the price of its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs, representing shares) more than double and then crash back.

The ADR price had climbed as high as $46.99 on 1 May, up by a massive 224% since its initial public offering (IPO) at $14.50 each, and up by 180% since they started trading two weeks earlier on 12 April at $18.95. The ADRs had started to slip back and when the report came out there were two days of heavy trading and the price crashed nearly 25% to $24.50 on 10 May before sliding back to $19.92 by 17 May.

Jumia countered by releasing its first quarter results early on 13 May, showing 58% growth in gross merchandise value (GMV), representing the total value of merchandise sold before deducting fees, and a 102% increase in revenue.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-CEOs of Jumia, said there was “year-on-year improvement of 356 basis points of operating loss as a percentage of GMV and further development of JumiaPay, highlighted by the investment by and partnership with Mastercard. We believe that Jumia is increasingly relevant for consumers and sellers in Africa.”

The listing raised $196m for the e-commerce firm, which issued 13.5m ADRs, representing shares accounting for 17.6% of the company. It is the first African start-up IPO on a major global exchange.

The company was launched at Africa Internet Group in 2012, backed by Germany’s Rocket Internet, an incubator and venture capital fund based in Berlin which still owns 20.6% of the shares.

In 2016 it was valued at $1bn – earning the title “tech unicorn” – in a funding round involving South Africa’s MTN, which owns 29.7% of the shares, investment bank Goldman Sachs, French insurer AXA and French telco Orange. Mastercard Europe snapped up $50m in Jumia ordinary shares before the New York IPO.

Jumia operates in 14 African countries, offering goods and services including online takeaway food, travel bookings, and classified advertisements.

In Nigeria it operates the JumiaPay payment platform and a delivery service of leased warehouses, trucks and motorcycles, and allows African traders to sell online with more than 81,000 active sellers (defined as a retailer who received an order on Jumia in the last 12 months). The prospectus said there were 4m active shoppers, up from 2.7m a year before.

Hodara and Poignonnec are French, both former employees of consultancy firm McKinsey, and the company is incorporated in Berlin. However it has corporate presence and pays taxes in Africa, has its headquarters in Lagos, and employs more than 5,000 people in Africa.

Juliet Anammah, the Nigerian CEO of the main country operation rang the NYSE ceremonial trading bell. Two Nigerian tech entrepreneurs, Tunde Kehinde, and Raphael Afaedor, were co-founders but both left in 2015 to create other companies.

A McKinsey report suggests African consumers will spend $2.1trn by 2025, and e-commerce could be 10% of that. Many tech firms take years to reach profitability and Jumia’s track record greatly encouraged New York buyers.

Visit the official website of Jumia Technologies AG: https://investor.jumia.com/CorporateProfile

The African Chamber of Commerce (AFCHAM) is an aspiring leading international business association whose aim is to promote a healthy environment in China. They encourage beneficial connections and enable a platform to help building opportunities between African and Chinese businesses.

AFCHAM also takes very seriously its role in assisting Chinese and African companies to expand their businesses across both continents by providing guidelines, updating with the last businesses and opportunities trends, but also with our strong team of consultants ready to provide you advice and walk with you through all the expansion of your business.

Since its creation, AFCHAM has been focusing on partnering and collaborating with institutions, organizations and individuals who have a deep understanding of African societies and cultures and that are committed to bring positives changes together with Africans. Recently on the 24th of May 2019, AFCHAM has celebrated the second edition of the Annual Gala Dinner for the Africa Day. The theme this year was “Empowering the Youths” to award all the companies, organizations and individuals that have contributed to the development of Africa.

During the event, the African Chamber of Commerce has particularly thanked Alibaba Global Initiatives for their commitment to the development of African societies and for their projects aimed for African youths and entrepreneurs. During AFCHAM Gala Dinner, Alibaba Global Initiative received “Youth Empowerment Award” who was delivered to Vice President Mr. Brian Wong.

Alibaba Global Initiative has launched in February the Alibaba Netpreneur Training program whose goal is to bring Africans entrepreneurs and business leaders together to explore digital innovations that have the power to positively transform their local economies. This program is a valuable opportunity for Africans entrepreneurs who will have a unique chance to learn from one of the best e-commerce leaders in the world.

Partnering with the AFCHAM, Alibaba gives the opportunity to Africans traders and entrepreneurs to access directly to Alibaba Platform and benefit from the digital market showcasing their products and selling them to the Chinese market even without living in China.

AFCHAM through Alibaba Global Initiative will provide African youths the chance to take part of e-commerce training programs and participate to Alibaba Fellowship program enriching their knowledge in fintech, logistics and e-commerce.

This partnership between AFCHAM and Alibaba Global Initiatives is only the beginning of a long and durable history.

Written by Maëla Bough – Edited by Khaoula Houssini

The African Chamber of Commerce today celebrates the World Environment Day with one of its partners that it is taking meaningful action towards the environment and wildlife protection: African Parks.

Being aware that the protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue, which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world, the United Nations have designed the 5th of June as World Environment Day. The celebration of this day is aimed to create awareness towards the environment protection and to bring the basis for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by individuals, enterprises, and communities in preserving and enhancing the environment.

The African Chamber of Commerce believes that the development of Africa can be successful only if it is inclusive for society and if it is sustainable towards the environment.

We were pleased to award during our Annual Gala Dinner for the Africa Day 2019, that took place on the 24th of May, African Parks for their impactful work for the protection of the wildlife and environment.

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities.

African Parks Annual Report ” Unlocking The Value Of Protected Areas” is available now. Click here to access it.

China and Kenya avocado deal.

The Chinese and the Kenyan government have signed recently a deal that will make the Chinese market absorb over 40 percent of Kenya’s avocado produce, thus being one of the largest importers of the fruit.

Kenyan farmers will now export their popular avocados to China following a trade deal signed when President Uhuru Kenyatta met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing during a visit in April 2019. The signing of the agreement which makes Kenya the first African nation to export avocados to the Asian nation with a market of over 1.4 billion consumers comes after a long and comprehensive approval process that included Chinese experts visiting Kenyan farmers.

It is estimated that when the agreement is fully implemented, the Chinese market will absorb over 40 percent of Kenya’s avocado produce, making it one of the largest importers of the fruit. Other famous destinations of Kenyan avocado include Europe and the US. The signing of the protocol on sanitary and phytosanitary (an agreement relating to the health of plants, especially with respect to the rules of international trade) requirements for the export of frozen avocado was the last major hurdle for the Kenyan crop to be accepted in the highly regulated but lucrative Chinese market.

The meeting between Presidents Kenyatta and Xi Jinping and their delegations focused on promoting economic and trade exchange in 8 key initiatives identified during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting held in Beijing last year. These initiatives include industrial promotion, trade facilitation, infrastructure connectivity, green development and people-to-people exchange. Others are capacity building, healthcare, and peace and security.