🔅 What COP27 means for Africa`
Today’s Issue: Equatorial Guinea to extend his 43-year rule, Isabel dos Santos' arrest warrant, Jacob Zuma is sent back to jail, and a new World Bank fund worth $225m for African startups... ☕
Markets
🔺 Nigerian SE: 44,662.96 (+0.38%)
🔻 Johannesburg SE: 71,923.30 (-0.90%)
🔻 Ghana SE: 2,463.91 (+0.03%)
🔻 Nairobi SE: 128.89 (-0.10%)
🔻 US S&P 500: 3,948.95 (-0.40%)
🔻 Shanghai Composite: 3,085.04 (-0.39%)
*Data accurate as of close of markets across the continent
Zimbabwe: The collapse of the economy and a lack of essential resources has seen Zimbabwe’s health sector lose 4,000 health workers in the last year alone. Most health workers have left to find work in Britain, leaving hospitals understaffed and the health sector struggling.
Global Markets: U.S. stocks continued their downward trend after the Fed reminded everyone that dollar rate hikes were not over. Meanwhile, in a move that sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry, Bob Iger, the man who led Disney through some of its most successful years, is returning to the company less than a year after he retired. Iger, who stepped down as CEO in February 2020, has been brought back by the company to navigate its current troubles, which include a plummeting share price and heavy losses from its streaming service, Disney+.
CLIMATE CHANGE
What COP27 means for Africa
How did it Conclude?
The U.N.'s COP27 summit resulted in a historic deal that will see rich nations pay poorer countries for the damage caused by climate change. The agreement ends almost 30 years of waiting by nations facing huge climate impacts.
The loss and damage fund is a hugely symbolic and political statement from developed nations that long resisted such a fund.
The final overarching deal did not include commitments to reduce the use of fossil fuels, however. It also included ambiguous new language about "low emissions energy", which experts here say could open the door to some fossil fuels being considered part of a green energy future.
How high were expectations?
Expectations were low at the beginning of COP27, but the loss and damage deal could be the most significant development since the Paris Agreement.
For almost as long as the U.N. has discussed climate change, developed nations worried about signing a blank cheque for climate impacts. Now they have committed to payments - though the details remain to be worked out.
Is it a win or a loss for Africa?
In a way, this is a big win for Africa. Some view the agreement as reparations because the continent is often worse affected by climate change (think droughts, heat waves, famines, storms) despite contributing little to the pollution that heats the globe.
On the flip side, however, nations that supported the fund signalled they would walk away if there was any backsliding in language on the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Early Sunday morning, delegates approved the compensation fund but had not dealt with the contentious issues of an overall temperature goal, emissions-cutting and the desire to target all fossil fuels for phase-down.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT
Other Headlines
🇬🇶 President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is extending his 43-year rule in the oil-rich country amid accusations of voting irregularities from the opposition. He is currently the longest serving president in the world. Over 99% of the votes have been counted. In previous elections, Obiang has never gotten less than 90% of the vote, and one of the two opposition candidates said Sunday that the ruling party appeared to be again committing electoral fraud. Andres Esono told journalists that his party had been receiving complaints all day from across the Central African nation, with many voters saying they were forced to cast ballots publicly rather than in secret. “What he is doing is massive fraud, even worse than on previous occasions,” Esono said of the 80-year-old incumbent. Esono was one of only two candidates running against Obiang in Sunday’s election. Fourteen of the country’s opposition parties joined an alliance with the authoritarian regime, which critics have long accused of intimidation, torture and corruption. The incumbent president expressed optimism about the election’s outcome after voting alongside his wife, Constancia Mangue de Obiang.
🇨🇩 Uganda's army said on Monday it would send 1,000 troops to join a regional force in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of this month, in a move that some activist groups and officials have opposed. Uganda will be the third country to deploy troops after contingents from Kenya and Burundi. Some have opposed Uganda's involvement because of the country's role in Congo's previous civil wars. Eastern Congo already hosts hundreds of Ugandan troops, deployed nearly a year ago under a separate bilateral arrangement to help hunt down the Islamic State-allied group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Despite billions of dollars spent on one of the United Nation's largest peacekeeping forces, more than 120 armed groups continue to operate across large swathes of eastern Congo, including M23 rebels, which Congo has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting. On Friday, Kenya's former president Uhuru Kenyatta and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame called on M23 rebels to cease fire and withdraw from captured territory.
🇿🇦 South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled on Monday that the decision to release former President Jacob Zuma on early medical parole was “unlawful” and that he should return to prison to finish his sentence. Zuma was sentenced last year to 15 months imprisonment after ignoring a court order to testify at a government inquiry into widespread corruption during his almost decade as president. He was released on medical parole in September 2021 after only serving a fraction of the sentence.
🇦🇴Angolan authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for billionaire Isabel dos Santos, according to a report by Portuguese news agency Lusa. Lusa cited an official document which said the 49-year-old businesswoman was wanted for alleged offences, including embezzlement, fraud, influence-peddling and money laundering. Dos Santos has faced accusations of corruption for years, including a 2020 allegation by Angola that during her father's presidency, she and her husband steered $1 billion in state funds to companies they held stakes in. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Dos Santos' official source said her lawyers had consulted the Interpol database and could not find a reference to the warrant. Dos Santos' father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in July, ruled Angola for almost four decades until 2017.
IN TECH
$225m World Bank investment fund to include African startups
The World Bank has launched a $225 million venture capital platform to invest in tech startups in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Pakistan. The platform will make investments in startups with the goal of helping them grow into scalable ventures that can attract mainstream equity and debt financing. The World Bank will also use the platform to work with other members to champion for regulatory reforms, sector analyses and other changes that can grow the venture capital ecosystems in these regions. So far, the World Bank has received an additional $50 million backing from the Blended Finance Facility of the International Development Association’s Private Sector Window.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
“When the roots of a majestic tree begin to decay, it spreads death to the branches.”
— Nigerian Proverb.