Category: Uncategorized

valU, MENA’s leading Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) lifestyle-enabling fintech platform, announced today that it acquired 100% of Paynas, a full-fledged employee management and benefits company that provides financial services to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in a signing ceremony attended by Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation

The acquisition builds on valU’s mission to offer the wider society access to seamless financial solutions that facilitate their day-to-day activities and enhance their lifestyle; and reinforces Paynas’s mission to be MENA’s leading financial wellness and benefits platform, through offering access and convenience beyond employment. Joining forces with Paynas will act as a gateway for valU to reach micro, small and medium businesses who are considered to be the backbone of the economy, with the goal to unlock various opportunities to both employers and employees.

Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation said: “This pivotal transaction reflects the compelling investment opportunities and growth prospects presented by the start-up and fintech sectors in Egypt. It underscores the country’s efforts in becoming a leading entrepreneurial hub in the region given a set of unique advantages such as talented youth, significant economic opportunities, and the continued efforts undertaken by the public and private sectors to create a conducive business environment for start-ups that fosters the participation of the private sector in the country’s advancement. The transaction also showcases the success of Egypt Ventures, the first government-backed venture capital vehicle established in 2017, and its accelerator program EFG-EV Fintech that is jointly-owned with EFG Hermes Holding, in supporting start-ups on their journey for growth and expansion, in line with Egypt’s digital transformation and financial inclusion agenda, and their achievements in opening doors for entrepreneurs so they can deliver their role in supporting the growth of the Egyptian market.”

Walid Hassouna, CEO of valU said: “Paynas is a strategic fit for us, and the combination of our two companies will drive significant value for our shareholders and customers by delivering a 360° financial and lifestyle enabling solution, with the objective of addressing every aspect of people’s life and the goal of improving their overall quality of living. That, and the addition of exceptional talent to our team, firmly positions us as a leading fintech platform in the region. Since inception, our most important asset has been our people, and we targeted a company that puts people at the heart of everything they do. We are very excited and look forward to seeing new, big ideas come to life under the valU brand that can drive tech products and bring new conveniences to our customers while efficiently rolling out cross border initiatives in the region.”

By Maximilla Wafula

Kenya has thanked the Hungarian Government for providing scholarships to Kenyan students.

Amb. Simon Nabukwesi, Principal Secretary, State Department for University Education and Research said that this year’s award marks the highest number of Stipendium scholarship offered to Kenyans.

“In this academic year (2022/23), a total of 200 full scholarships have been awarded to Kenyan students at various education levels that include; Undergraduate, Masters and PhD.  This is significant increase from last year where a total of 100 scholarships were awarded; a clear indication of the strong alliance and partnership between Hungary and Kenya.” Nabukwesi said during the occasion of the farewell to the Kenyan students leaving to study in Hungary at the Embassy of Hungary in Kenya.

He also  thanked the Hungarian Government through the Ambassador for the support you have continued to offer Kenyan Government in her effort to develop a knowledge-based society.

Nabukwesi added that the government of Kenya will continue to support the program and ensure full uptake of all the slots provided. 

The Angaza Movement has  decried the unilateral announcement  of presidential results by IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati.

Betty Okero, Angaza Movement Coordinator said that the announcement of the presidential results at the national tallying centre left more questions than answers.

“It was done in the absence of the announcement of results from atleast 28 constituemcies, if not more,” Okero said.

Chebukati announced that Deputy President William Ruto as president elect having garnered 7.17 million or 50.49 percent of the total votes cast while 77-year-old Raila Odinga garnered 6.94 million or 48.85 percent of the 14.1 million votes cast during the hotly contested polls.

Odinga has since  rejected the presidential election results announced by the electoral body and vowed to challenge the decision at the supreme court.

Davis Mulandi Malombe Chief executive director, Kenya Human Rights Commission said that disunity of the IEBC was underscore by the most of the commissioners, who announced simultaneously at another venue in the city, that they had no confidence in the final tallied result.

Malombe also condemned the chaos by political actors towards the end of tallying in Bomas.

“Violence is never a solution and models unacceptable behavoiur by leaders to their followers,” Malombe added.

 19 August is World Humanitarian Day, an opportunity to honour the humanitarian community and the life-saving work they perform every day. This year’s theme, “it takes a village”, recognizes the importance of collective action in delivering humanitarian assistance—by professionals and volunteers, but also by crisis-affected people themselves.

When crises occur, women and girls disproportionately bear the impact. Their low participation in humanitarian response planning and decision making, however, limits their voices from being heard and their needs from being fully met. Empowering women to lead in crisis settings can help catalyse more robust humanitarian action that better addresses the needs of everyone.

Over the past several years, refugee settlements in two districts of Uganda have provided a real-world demonstration of this trend.

Though women and children make up to 81 per cent of the nearly 1.53 million refugees in Uganda, refugee settlement leadership has historically lacked women’s representation. Cultural barriers, coupled with  limited knowledge on rights and access to education, kept women from participating in decision-making processes. 

In 2018, UN Women began providing trainings for the women and youth of Adjumani and Yumbe districts, which host 30.1 per cent of Uganda’s total refugee population. The trainings included instruction in literacy, numeracy, women’s rights, leadership and life skills development, public speaking, debating and radio presentation. The results were striking.

“Before I participated in the leadership training, I was a shy person. I could not speak up because of fear”, says Joy Aiba, a South Sudanese refugee living in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe District. Now, she feels empowered to make her voice heard within settlement leadership.

Ugandan refugee settlements are governed by Refugee Welfare Committees (RWCs), with committee members directly elected by the refugee community under the supervision of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). Elections of RWCs take place every two years. While the guidelines for RWCs provide for 30 per cent refugee representation, women had not been coming forth to run in the elections and take up leadership positions.

Medi-science International Limited and Kenya-based startup Afya Rekod (AfyaRekod.com) have announced a strategic collaboration that seeks to transform healthcare delivery through improved access to personal health data in Africa and Europe. The partnership will give patients an accessible record of their own health history, by enabling patients, doctors and hospitals to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application.

Decentralization signifies the modification or change of our current Healthcare Systems. Our current Healthcare Systems have standard normalized processes and procedures. A person is sick; they visit a physician, they provide insurance or they pay out of pocket after being assessed. They then are given a prescription or medications conventionally appropriate to treating that effect. However, there are imperfections in this system. Many patients have to wait weeks to see a Doctor, some do not have the insurance or the financial resources to pay for a medical professional’s treatment. Others cannot afford prescriptions or are given drugs that do not treat the issue but that only make them become dependent on the drug.

Afya Rekod, a patient-driven platform, puts patients at the core of all healthcare services. They can capture, store, access and own their health records, which has multiple benefits including reducing the cost of repeating medical tests. Both patients and clinicians will be able to access imaging files and test results through an app on their phones or browser without having to go back to the health clinic to collect the files. To protect confidentiality, Afya Rekod uses various AI and blockchain modules, and the patient maintains the sovereign right of ownership to their health data.

John Kamara, CEO  Afya Rekod said, “Our vision is to put patients at the core of what we do. We want families to have access to their medical records virtually and access them any time, in a matter of seconds. The partnership with Medi-science International Limited will allow for a seamless flow of data between the patient and doctors.”

“Afya Rekod allows clinicians to view data and share with other experts, enabling them to make better informed diagnoses and decisions. An efficient proximity between Doctors and patients thereby diminishing long-line waiting times for consultations between physicians and patients; thus more efficiently affording a Patient-Prompt Service without the need for that patient to be at a physical hospital or Healthcare location.” added John Kamara, CEO  Afya Rekod.

Sunny Ahonsi, CEO Medi-science International Limited said, “Our world’s Healthcare Systems are going through what we would like to call a stage of awakening. For decades our demographically overloaded Healthcare Systems’ accessibility and effectiveness have been stagnating in their traditional forms of treatments and care for individuals. This is why the Decentralization of Healthcare is becoming increasingly imperative. At Medi-science International Limited we are working along with the current Healthcare Systems while at the same time decentralizing their conventional formalities to generate the most efficient, effective and economical standards of care.”

“Your health  is in the hands of our Innovative experts, MediLiVes is the care Connectors. In our collaboration with Afya Rekod, we will work on data accessibility to help create insights for better, more targeted, more individualized patient care. The health sector and the public must all come together to further the digital healthcare journey, to the benefit of millions of people, and this partnership supports that journey. Your health  is in the hands of our Innovative experts, MediLiVes  are the care Connectors!” added Sunny Ahonsi, CEO Medi-science International Limited

MediLiVes, a product of Medi-science International Limited, offers an Analytical telemedicine system to make medical examinations cost effective and quick. MediLiVes is an innovative initiative offering unique, new-generation telemedicine solutions. Telemedicine, based on technology that enables a patient’s health condition to be monitored from a distance, is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The versatile nature of our core product means that it can find abnormalities not only in cardiology, but also in diabetes, dietetics, civilization diseases, and chronic illnesses.

Recently positioned as the Gender Advisor of the UN Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), UN Women Sudan is working proactively with humanitarian actors to ensure gender-sensitive humanitarian response and action in the country. With over 1.2 million refugees, and nearly 3 million internally displaced people, Sudan is facing a huge humanitarian crisis, expected to escalate under the current political and economic crises.

To strengthen gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action, UN Women Sudan is conducting an assessment titled; “Rapid Gender Assessment of the Humanitarian Context, Crises and Response in Sudan.” The assessment is intended to identify how gender issues are integrated into humanitarian intervention, reflect on gender inequalities, challenges and barriers facing humanitarian action and actors and provide strategic recommendations to engender humanitarian action in Sudan. The study is expected to be published by the end of August 2022.

Despite the conclusion of the Juba Peace Agreement 2020, the humanitarian situation in Sudan continues to worsen. The number of security incidents is rising in Sudan, with inter-communal violence in West Darfur, West Kordofan, South Kordofan, Red Sea and recently in the Blue Nile State.

In July 2022, the Blue Nile Region witnessed inter-communal conflict between Hausa and Fong tribes. About 14,000 people were displaced between the 14th and the 17th of July 2022. The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) has so far registered 97 deaths related to the violence, according to the UNHCT in Sudan report. The crises affected over 1,985 women and girls. Currently living in IDP camps, the Blue Nile girls and women are facing food insecurity and remain in dire need of immediate hygiene and protection support as well as trauma counselling and treatment.

In response, UN Women Sudan has coordinated with Sudanese women groups to unite their efforts, and maximize the impact of their humanitarian response, and ensure that gender perspective is mainstreamed in all aspects of the humanitarian response; that women and girls are equally consulted to understand and address their needs and vulnerabilities; that women’s leadership is leveraged; that gender is integrated into humanitarian assessments, reporting and monitoring tools; and that gender experts are included in the humanitarian teams responding to the crisis.

“Although this conflict is between men, and no single woman is involved; The first and last victims in this conflict are women,” said Amina, a member of a leading women’s group in Blue Nile state.

Today on the occasion of World Humanitarian Day, the humanitarian community in north-east Nigeria honors all aid workers stepping up to respond each day to the crisis in the region by providing life-saving assistance to millions of women, children and men.

This year’s theme #ItTakesAVillage is built upon the metaphor, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ At an event commemorating World Humanitarian Day today in Maiduguri Mr. Matthias Schmale, United Nations (UN) Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria stated, “Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a whole community to help people in need; to provide urgent health care, shelter, food, protection, transportation, security, water and much more.”

He noted that the humanitarian ‘village’ in north-east Nigeria proudly includes volunteers and paid staff from civil society, national and international NGOs, government, the United Nations and crisis-affected people themselves. The vast majority of aid workers in Nigeria — including those who are exposed to the most risk — are Nigerians.

“Despite the many challenges in this crisis, we should all be immensely proud of the impact humanitarians have in north-east Nigeria. Through our combined effort our humanitarian ‘village’ delivered assistance to five million people last year. That assistance saved countless lives, improved living conditions, and protected the most vulnerable people,” said Mr. Schmale. Part of this assistance continues to be empowering affected people as part of this village to help themselves.

World Humanitarian Day also advocates for the safety and security of aid workers, who often work in volatile and unpredictable environments. Since 2016, 35 aid workers have been killed in north-east Nigeria, according to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD). Twenty-two have been wounded and 28 kidnapped. So far in 2022, six aid workers have been kidnapped and one has been killed in the region (AWSD). Globally, in 2021 some 460 aid workers were victims in 267 major attacks: 140 aid workers were killed, 203 seriously injured and 117 kidnapped. This marks the highest number of aid worker fatalities recorded since 2013, according to Humanitarian Outcomes.

The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms Candith Mashego-Dlamini, will embark on a Working Visit to the Levant region from 21-26 August 2022. The Deputy Minister will visit Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The Working Visit is intended to enhance and strengthen bilateral relations between South Africa and the Levant countries. This will include the formation of a Strategic Dialogue between Palestine and South Africa aimed at advancing the Palestinians’ desire to establish an independent, sovereign state.

It is expected that the visit will further provide the Deputy Minister an opportunity to exchange views on the most recent developments in South Africa, the SADC region and the African continent.

While in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, the Deputy Minister will hold meetings with her counterparts. The meetings will be aimed at deepening relations between South Africa and these countries.

Deputy Minister Mashego-Dlamini will be accompanied by the Director General of the Department, Mr Zane Dangor, and other officials.

The Director-General will co-chair the second round of the South Africa – Palestine Political Consultations, which will be held in Ramallah on 21 August 2022.

National Action Plans (NAPs) are essential tools used by governments to address the global threat posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR).   NAPs provide a framework of sequence of actions to align activities of different stakeholders in different sectors toward one large goal of mitigating AMR.

In 2017, the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ), with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) developed its first NAP for AMR (2017-2022)1.

The NAP for AMR (2017-2022) was implemented across the human and animal health, agriculture, and environment sectors.  A multi-sectoral coordinating committee was set up, with members from the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water & Rural Development (MoLAFWRD) and the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism & Hospitality Industry (MoECTHI) to oversee the implementation of the NAP for AMR (2017-2022).

Zimbabwe’s NAP for AMR (2017-2022) is concluding at the end of this year. Preparations for the new NAP for (2023-2027) are already underway.  FAO’s Progressive Management Pathway for AMR tool was used to evaluate the implementation progress, gaps and challenges of the first NAP. One of the gaps identified was poor costing and budgeting. Therefore, the WHO conducted a 3-day training of 14 National Costing Coordinators using the recently launched WHO costing and budgeting tool for the AMR NAP 2. The costing tool seeks to assist countries to coordinate and budget for the successful implementation of AMR NAPs. Costing coordinators are being trained to optimally use resources to achieve the best possible outcome for the implementation of the NAP.

In his welcoming remarks, MoHCC Chief Director of Public Health, Dr Munyaradzi Dobbie emphasized on the importance of planning, costing and budgeting NAPs on AMR.

The training took place in Kadoma from 21-23 June 2022, 14 costing coordinators from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water & Rural Development and the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism & Hospitality Industry now have the technical capacity to cost and budget for the new AMR NAP. The WHO AMR experts Dr Alessandro Patriarchi and Mr Paul Verboom, taught participants key components and functionalities of the tool and provided them with hands-on training of its usage through a series of practical exercises.

“This is one of the most robust, but simplest excel model costing tools that I have ever seen. I can now cost any project using this model, even animal health and welfare, and food safety projects” noted Dr Lawrence Dinginya, Acting Deputy Director of Veterinary Public Health who was one of the participants from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water & Rural Development.

 The African Energy Chamber (AEC) proud to announce that Rebecca Enonchong, Chair of the African Center for Technology Innovation and Ventures; founder and CEO of AppsTech and I/O Spaces; and Board Chair of AfriLabs, will be speaking at this year’s edition of the African Energy Week (AEW) (www.AECWeek.com) conference and exhibition, Africa’s premier event for the energy sector, which will take place from October 18-21, 2022, in Cape Town. With discussions during the conference largely centered on the need for an Africa-adapted energy transition; implementing Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) with large-scale energy projects; and the role technology plays in making energy poverty history, speaker confirmations made by industry experts such as Enonchong will be critical.

Describing herself as a tech fanatic, Enonchong represents one of Africa’s leading innovators, promoting the transformative potential of technology in Africa. Having founded several businesses, including her first, AfriLabs – a network organization of over 80 innovation centers across 27 African countries, serving as hubs for future entrepreneurs – Enonchong is committed to expanding the penetration of technological solutions across the African economy at large. Similarly, her business ActivSpaces also serves as an incubator, with centers based predominantly in rural areas in order to improve human capital development and expand technology innovation beyond urban borders. Through her businesses, various programs and outreach initiatives, Enonchong continues to drive the technology of the future in Africa.

Her success as an entrepreneur and tech innovator has also been recognized globally, having been listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 10 Female Tech Founders to Watch in Africa in 2014 and named as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans in Science, Tech & Innovation in 2017. As such, backed by a wealth of experience in the technology sector and with a commitment to developing a competitive and tech-driven economy in Africa, Enonchong represents a key speaker at the continent’s premier energy event, AEW 2022.

At a time when the African energy sector is on the cusp of a transformation, owing largely to new oil and gas discoveries translating into large-scale developments; the energy transition calling for the accelerated adoption of renewable energies; and recent commitments to reduce emissions across the entire energy value chain, technological innovation in energy is key. While climate change has become a growing concern, leading to stakeholders calling for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, over 600 million people in Africa are still without access to electricity and over 900 million people without access to clean cooking solutions. Therefore, unlocking new technology will not only ensure climate change is prevented and the energy transition is fast-tracked but that Africa’s socioeconomic development is accelerated.

“Industrializing Africa will require significant innovation within the technological space and stakeholders such as Enonchong are driving success in this regard. With a passion for technology and Africa, Enonchong has and continues to be instrumental in developing Africa’s economies through the widespread adoption of technological solutions. As AEW 2022 moves to make energy poverty history on the back of every energy resource in Africa, having African-led solutions will be key for unlocking a new era of growth and development. This is what AEW 2022 stands for and what experts such as Enonchong will drive at the event in Cape Town,” states NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber (AEC).