June - July 2021

Forbes Africa

Africa's most influential business magazine

Forbes Africa1 min readLeadership
Forbes Africa
Chairman: Zafar Siddiqi Founder & Publisher: Rakesh Wahi Managing Director: Roberta Naicker Executive Director: Sid Wahi Non-Executive Director: Sam Bhembe Renuka Methil Lucy Nkosi Chanel Retief Peace Hyde Simone Umraw Sikona Cibini BUSINESS Patri
Forbes Africa2 min read
The Continent’s Talent Pipeline
I WAS IN MY IMPRESSIONABLE TWENTIES WHEN I first watched James Cameron’s magnum opus Titanic. Among the many clever quotable quotes sprinkled throughout the film that made it iconic, there was one particular line by Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack
Forbes Africa5 min read
Lessons From India’s Covid Carnage And Need For Preemptive Action
WE ALL BECOME PHILOSOPHICAL at some point in our lives; every time we go through a crisis, some aspect of philosophy becomes my default setting. I look at purpose, reason, truth and all the fine things that are the critical ingredients of our lives.
Forbes Africa2 min read
On Afrobeats, Davido And Beer
“FOR ME, CHALLENGES ARE LIKE THE work itself,” says 28-year-old Nigerian recording producer, songwriter and artist, Ayoola Oladapo Agboola. “So I don’t really see them as challenges, I just ask myself ‘ok what’s next?’ So, when I have situations wher
Forbes Africa1 min read
A Trip To The Moon Next Year?
South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to launch a mission to the moon in the first quarter of next year. According to Forbes, this mission, known as DOGE-1, is being entirely paid for with the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. In
Forbes Africa1 min read
South Africa Takes Home Gold
In a spectacular performance by South African relay runners on May 2, it was 27-year-old Akani Simbine who led the country to victory. South Africa won gold in the Men’s 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Relays in Silesia, Poland. According to Supe
Forbes Africa1 min read
An Oscar Too For Uganda?
Making his Ugandan mother proud, British actor Daniel Kaluuya took home his first Oscar on April 25. Although he played the lead in the drama Judas and the Black Messiah, Kaluuya won best supporting actor at the Academy Awards. In his acceptance spee
Forbes Africa1 min read
Burna Boy Goes Gold
Grammy award-winning African singer, Burna Boy’s single Ye has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The certification was announced on May 3 by the Nigerian artist on Twitter with the caption “still striving”. Accordi
Forbes Africa1 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
The Billion-dollar Wealth Tax Raise
The net worth of South Africa’s richest people could raise as much as R160 billion (about $11 billion). A study done by the World Inequality Lab, which French economist Thomas Piketty is co-director of, assessed the personal wealth in South Africa. A
Forbes Africa1 min read
No More Captive Lions
After a two-year study was published into the controversial practice of captive lion breeding, it has been decided by the South African government to put a stop to breeding lions for hunting or for tourists to pet cubs. “What the majority report says
Forbes Africa1 min readInternational Relations
What Travel Freedom Looks Like In The Pandemic World
As per this year’s latest Henley Passport Index — the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa – Japanese passport holders theoretically are able to access a r
Forbes Africa1 min read
Kim Kardashian West In Billion-dollar Club
From her shapewear line to her beauty business and the TV screen she shared with her family for 20 seasons, it’s not difficult to believe 40-year-old Kim Kardashian West has become a billionaire. Forbes estimated in April that West is now worth $1 bi
Forbes Africa1 min read
End Of Latest Ebola Outbreak In The Drc
The World Health Organization (WHO) was happy to congratulate all involved in bringing an end to the 12th Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “Today’s declaration of an end to the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democra
Forbes Africa2 min read
Wiphold’s Louisa Mojela On Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities
One of South Africa's most accomplished leaders in business, Louisa Mojela, the Group CEO and co-founder of Wiphold, was recently awarded a doctorate degree by the faculty of economic and management sciences at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town fo
Forbes Africa2 min read
Virus Scan
Tracking Covid-19 on the African continent: • As of May 16, the total number of active cases in Africa is 4,684,638; the death toll is at 126,138. • The total number of recoveries in Africa is 4,238,692 and the total number of tests conducted is over
Forbes Africa1 min read
Davido’s Fall Rises To Best
Multi-award-winning Nigerian Davido’s hit single Fall is now the best-selling Afrobeats song of all time. According to a report on Twitter in April, Fall has sold over “1.5 million units worldwide and in doing so, it becomes the first Afrobeat song t
Forbes Africa3 min read
Fit-for-future Healthcare In Africa
Access is still the greatest challenge to health care delivery in Africa. Fewer than 50% of Africans have access to modern health facilities. Many African countries spend less than 10% of their GDP on health care. As a land-linked country with a youn
Forbes Africa3 min readGender Studies
‘A Risky Time For Gender Parity’
PATIENCE MASUA, 22, RECENTLY MADE HISTORY in Namibia when she became the youngest member of parliament. If anything, it affirms Namibia’s newfound status as the sixth most gender-equal country in the world, a step ahead of even globally-renowned Rwan
Forbes Africa5 min read
A Story Of Reconciliation, Healing And Hope
IT’S ONE THING TO FORGIVE a person who has committed a crime against you, and quite another to reconcile, live next to and even cultivate a strong friendship with the person, especially when he has horrifically claimed the lives of your entire family
Forbes Africa36 min read
CLASS OF 2021 Change-Makers In A Historic Year
CHANGE-MAKERS versus Covid! That’s what we were looking for when curating FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 list-makers this year. After all, 2021 marks an entire year that has disrupted the world. Businesses pivoted and so did our lives as we navigated th
Forbes Africa2 min read
Learning In A Pandemic. Learning For Success.
When Covid hit, Jacqui Luhlanga was just beginning the final year of her diploma at UJ. Forced to return home to Nkomazi, she spent the next five months juggling her academic and household responsibilities, studying online and writing her exams late
Forbes Africa3 min read
Small Ball Biotech
EVERY TIME YOU’RE INFECTED BY BACTERIA OR a virus, your immune system works to create treatments to defeat it. Molecularly unique to each person, these tiny cells, or antibodies, either destroy these invaders or mark them for other killer cells to tr
Forbes Africa2 min read
Pps Resilience Produces Sound Performance In Unprecedented Year
Johannesburg, 14 April 2021 – Professional Provident Society (PPS), the financial services company focused solely on providing financial solutions for graduate professionals, produced a resilient 2020 performance. This was amid a year in which COVID-
Forbes Africa4 min read
Driving Feminist Data For Change
ARE GENDER DIFFERENCES AS RIFE on the world wide web as in the real world? When technologist Neema Iyer returned home to Africa after graduating from Emory University in the United States with a degree in epidemiology and statistics, she was bent on
Forbes Africa5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Palate Pleaser
FAR, FAR FROM THE PADDY FIELDS OF HER hometown in Surin, a verdant province in northeastern Thailand also known for its temples and elephant festivals, young Thitiporn Liu flew into Johannesburg one bright promising day in 2004, with nothing more tha
Forbes Africa3 min read
Creating A Renewable And Sustainable Lifestyle The Novarick Way
In that famous line from the 1967 film “The Graduate,” an older man gives Benjamin Braddock that one word of advice. Now, the economic future belongs to “sustainable” because of consumer demand driven by an overwhelming desire to do right by society,
Forbes Africa6 min read
Oil Vulture
JOHN GOFF MADE HIS FIRST fortune more than a decade ago, teaming up with his mentor, legendary investor Richard Rain water, to buy up empty “see-through” office buildings for pennies on the dollar in the wake of the S&L crisis that began in the late
Forbes Africa7 min read
The Other ‘C’That Has Dominated News From Last Year
EVEN AT THE HEIGHT OF THE GREATEST lockdown in human history, there was one industry that did not break a sweat. One that did not buckle even a little under the crushing economic downturn. The cryptocurrency industry. With assets like Bitcoin sitting
Forbes Africa1 min readSecurity
Cryptomania
• Over the past year, the crypto market has skyrocketed in value about 920%. • Mark Zuckerberg has a goat named Bitcoin. • Ethereum, Dogecoin and other surging cryptocurrencies are propelling the market to $2.5 trillion.(Source: forbes.com) • Self-pr
Forbes Africa1 min readSecurity
If You Are Interested In Buying Bitcoin, But Do Not Know How To Do It Safely, Here Is A Step-by-step Guide On How You May Go About It.
STEP 1: Get a Bitcoin wallet. This can be downloaded onto either a PC or smartphone. The wallet is there to store your Bitcoin in the same way you would keep cash in the wallet in your back pocket. STEP 2: Buy Bitcoin. You’ll need to go to a cryptoc
Forbes Africa4 min read
Why NFTs Are Having An Arty Moment
“THE FIRST THING I TELL PEOPLE when I’m talking to them about NFTs and cryptoart is ‘don’t overthink it’. When I first entered the space, I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. I had to learn by doing,” says Nigerian-born Prince Jacon Osinachi,
Forbes Africa3 min read
Education: What We Can Do Better
AS COVID-19 SWEPT THROUGH THE WORLD, SOME AREAS OF OUR lives were more deeply affected than others, one of them being education. Before the pandemic, technology had started taking a more prominent place in education, and online learning was being int
Forbes Africa5 min read
Model Entrepreneur
COVID-19 MAY HAVE SHAKEN the very foundation of global fashion, but the one thing that has stayed is the focus on Africa as the world’s resource hub for the creative industry, with its surging youth dividend and gifted talent pool. Nigerian entrepre
Forbes Africa6 min read
Daddy Cool
SOUTH AFRICAN MEN ARE MAKING HISTORY, choosing to become single fathers by choice. In March, Wesley Hayes, a 35-year-old divorce attorney won a year-long battle to legally register his daughter, Justine Filly – her second name reflects Hayes’ love of
Forbes Africa2 min read
Third Consecutive Level 1 B-BBEE Rating For Samsung South Africa
Samsung continues to play an active role in the government’s vision for a more inclusive society. The electronics giant has achieved a remarkable third successive Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Level 1 Contribution Status. It is alig
Forbes Africa5 min read
Fashion On The Coast
DURBAN, IN THE KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa, is known for many things – the sun, the sea and the food, but certainly not for its fashion. But that landscape seems to be changing now, and the coastal town seems to be making a splash on
Forbes Africa5 min read
Hollywood. Hustle. And Hair Love
WHEN MATTHEW A. CHERRY decided to make the transition from being a wide receiver for the National Football League (NFL) to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, he had no idea he would become “one of only 39 people of color to ever win the m
Forbes Africa6 min read
Whatever Clicks For Business
WHEN THE iconic Ghanaian photographer Emmanuel Bobbie, known widely by the moniker ‘Bob Pixel’, tragically passed away in February this year, the news sent shockwaves through the creative industry in Ghana. Bobbie had become a hero to a battery of yo
Forbes Africa3 min read
On The Ball
THE BOTSWANA FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (BFA) recently took the historic step of appointing Goabaone Taylor as Chief Executive Officer of the organization, the first woman to hold the position in what is a critical time for the governing body of the sport
Forbes Africa3 min read
Fully On Board
SOUTH AFRICAN JORDY SMITH has an eye on a gold medal in the inaugural surfing event at the Olympic Games in Tokyo later this year (if the event happens), but he has also been riding a wave of a different kind having extensively branched out into the
Forbes Africa3 min readPoverty & Homelessness
‘Where Not Given A Seat At The Table, Women Have Always Brought A Folding Chair Just To Be Heard’
DESPITE THE Covid-19 pandemic, there has never been a more exciting time to be an entrepreneur in Africa, the planet’s youngest continent and one must believe it has its best years ahead. However, this depends on much more. African entrepreneurs have
Forbes Africa3 min read
Why Science Is Essential, Especially Now, For The Development Of Nations
ONE OF THE MOST important aspects of development is industrialization. For industrialization to happen, it is important for us to understand the principles of scientific advancements. Scientific advancements have been instrumental in the advancement
Forbes Africa3 min readWorld
The Lone Soldier On A Mission Far Away
WHEN YOU SIT DOWN FOR COFFEE WITH Ruth Wasserman Lande, her warm brown eyes lock onto yours and before we even start the interview, she’s interested in learning more about me. It’s heart-warming and not every day a diplomat asks the questions she doe

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