Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — In the runup to Guinea’s elections on Oct. 18, voters are grappling with a familiar-sounding problem: disinformation and a lack of transparency over who’s providing the news they’re getting. In the U.S., similar complaints led to a crackdown on campaigns such as those staged by Russia during the 2016 presidential vote, won by Donald Trump. This election cycle, Facebook has banned new political ads in the week before Election Day on…

The Africa Energy Forum 2020 joins forces with the African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa and Oil & Gas Council’s Africa Assembly this October to host a ‘Digital Africa Energy Festival’ – the largest ever energy event for the African continent.  A month-long digital platform featuring a vast array of content & networking offerings, delivering critical information at a time when the industry needs it most.  Learn more: https://bit.ly/3gRSUKk #DEF2020 #aef20 https://youtu.be/c5f_vuwEBak

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — World Trade Organization members selected two final candidates — Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee– to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body, according to people familiar with the matter. By advancing two women to the final round of the selection process, the WTO will likely have the first female director-general in its 25-year history. Okonjo-Iweala served two stints as…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ministers have blamed technical blunders after almost 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases became lost in their various aged computer systems.  The fiasco occurred when an Excel spreadsheet, used in outdated software being employed by Public Health England (PHE), was unable to cope with high numbers of cases.  As a result – and as infection numbers soared – thousands of positive cases were automatically thrown off the database when they should have been…

New York (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump’s return from three days of hospital treatment for Covid-19 left unanswered questions about his condition and doubts about his willingness to abide by constraints needed to keep a virus outbreak at the White House from worsening. Ahead of Trump’s release on Monday evening, his physician, Sean Conley, said that while the president was fit enough to go home, he “may not be entirely out of the…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Britain is at a “critical point” in the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be told on Monday, as concern mounts that a second lockdown may be needed to stop the renewed spread of the disease. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty plans to sound the alert, saying U.K. data are heading in the “wrong direction,” according to a preview of remarks prepared for a public briefing. The warning comes amid…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The TikTok video-sharing app was already under U.S. scrutiny when users pranked President Donald Trump’s campaign by pretending to reserve thousands of tickets to a June re-election rally in Oklahoma. For Trump administration hardliners who wanted a tougher stance toward Beijing and viewed the Chinese-owned app as a national security threat, it was the perfect moment to pounce. The president, furious over the Covid-19 pandemic and embarrassed by empty seats…