Much has been written about the importance of advancing digital literacy on the African continent, especially among its younger citizens. With more than half of the world’s under-25s expected to live in Africa by 2050, mobilising and inspiring this youthful population to be active participants of the global digital economy is central to the continent’s future.
For Soliyana Gizaw Hunde, ten year-old coder and recent winner of the inaugural AfriCANCode Challenge, a love of math and science and a strong community spirit inspired her to develop a fun and engaging way to practice math and raise awareness of COVID-19 related health protocols.
“Being part of the AfriCANCode Challenge has been fun, and winning the national and overall competition was very exciting,” says Soliyana, who lives with her parents in Addis Ababa. “It has motivated me to do more and dream big.”
The AfriCANcode Challenge was introduced after the 2020 SAP Africa Code Week programme shifted to an all-virtual format in the wake of the global pandemic. The competition challenged youth aged 8 to 16 to develop a game using the Scratch coding language to reimagine school and education, or answer the question “How will your tech change the future of education?”.
Participants from 22 countries made it to the final round of the competition, and the winner was announced in early 2021. All of the top three winners were girls, with Soliyana crowned overall winner at a virtual prize-giving ceremony in February.
Ethiopia’s ten year-old coding champion
Afreximbank closes historic US$1.3 billion bond
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on 10 May 2021 successfully closed a US$1.3 billion dual tenor bond issuance, the Bank’s largest-ever transaction in the international debt capital markets.
Afreximbank printed a US$600 million 5-year note at a spread of T+185bps and a US$700 million 10-year note at a spread of T+220bps, after achieving a final order book of US$4.5 billion.
The Initial Pricing Thoughts (IPTS) were announced at T+220bps area and T+250bps area for the 5-year and 10-year tranches, respectively. Backed by strong demand, the combined books peaked at US$5 billion, with a slight skew towards the 5-year tranche, seeing pricing set at T+185 bps to a re-offer yield of 2.634% and T+220bps to a re-offer yield of 3.798%, respectively. The 10-year tranche was finally priced at only a 5bps New Issue Premium (NIP), while the 5 year was priced flat to fair value.
SheInvest: EIB doubles its commitment to mobilise €2 billion for women across Africa
One year after the launch of its SheInvest initiative at the end of 2019, the European Investment Bank (EIB) reached its initial target to mobilise a total of €1 billion in gender-lensinvestment that is set to boost gender equality and female economic empowerment across Africa. Given the success of its initiative, the EIB now commits to double its ambition and mobilise €2 billion of gender-responsive investment across the continent.
Building on its experience in northern and sub-Saharan African countries as well as in gender focused lending, the EIB is further stepping-up its efforts over the past year to increase investment in projects, sectors and markets that have a transformative effect on gender equality and can enhance the capacity of women to participate in the economy.
Novartis reaches milestone delivery of 1 billion courses of antimalarial treatment
ACTs are the standard of care for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease, responsible for over 99% of cases in Africa and half of cases in Asia [2]. Since the turn of the century, ACTs have transformed malaria treatment and contributed to the dramatic reduction in malaria deaths.
Working with Chinese partners, Novartis launched the first fixed-dose ACT (artemether-lumefantrine) in 1999. Artemisinin is a natural compound found in the plant Artemisia annua, or sweet wormwood, and has shown to clear malaria parasites in the blood. ACTs combine an artemisinin derivative with a partner drug to reduce the risk of resistance if artemisinin is given alone.
