Category Archives: Africa

New GIBS article: Home country (in)stability and the locational portfolio construction of emerging market multinational enterprise by Helena Bernard and John Luiz

Emerging markets often experience instability due to rapid changes to the institutional environment, social changes like rapid urbanization, or even unrest. We argue that emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) manage such instability by constructing and changing locational portfolios, and qualitatively analyze six cases in South Africa over a period that included the entrenchment of Apartheid, increasing […]
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Energy business trends start blowing in Africa’s favor (CGTN)

For the moment, Africa stands poised for stronger economic growth, despite the headwinds. The European Union (EU) member states and United Kingdom (UK) have urgency to find energy resources from other countries, while they transition away from Russian energy imports after Russian President Vladimir Putin had launched the ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine starting on […]
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This investor wants to invest R290m into 20 SA businesses. But they must be ‘revolutionary’(BI)

SA does not take startups seriously Though Akindele wants to do deals across the globe – as long as they benefit Africa – he is keen to invest in South African ventures. Platform Capital set up offices in Johannesburg nine months ago and aims to invest $20m in 20 South African businesses a year. The […]
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Stricter transformation and BEE rules planned for South Africa’s banking and finance sector (BT)

The financial sector is a key contributor to the South African economy and is an important component in driving a transformation of the economy and ensuring greater inclusivity in economic activities, the regulator said. Since democracy, there has been some progress made toward both economic transformation in general and financial sector transformation specifically. However, it […]
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How SA’s education institutions can beat the digital transformation challenge (IT WEB)

South African education has never been more pressured to perform. Digital transformation, often touted as the solution, can just as quickly become the challenge. One of the problems is that it’s an all-encompassing phrase. In the past two years it has come to symbolise distance learning, remote learning, home schooling and online education. All of […]
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Brenthurst report charts SA’s stark economic decline (DM)

Every year the Economist publishes a book called Pocket World in Figures, which ranks economies on size and a host of other items. In 1993 the third edition was published and ranked South Africa as the 28th largest economy in the world. Last year the same ranking showed that South Africa was now the 38th […]
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What businesses in South Africa are most worried about in 2022 (BT)

Cyber incidents, business interruption and critical infrastructure blackouts are the top three business risks in South Africa in 2022, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2022. However, the country is not alone in this worry, as cyber perils are also the biggest concern for companies globally. The threats of ransomware attacks, data breaches or major […]
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Government stance will discourage agribusiness’ use of new plant-breeding technology (BL)

Innovative technology such as new breeding techniques must be allowed to be part of the solution to help meet national commitments to food security. SA’s agricultural sector has thrived on productivity improvement, which has partially benefited from better breeding techniques over the years. Breeding on its own has been part of human history for thousands […]
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SA is the leader in digitalisation across the MEA: Mastercard white paper on SMEs

The findings show that digitalisation is essential to unlocking a small business’s growth potential.  BUSINESS SA is the leader in digitalisation across the MEA: Mastercard white paper on SMEs (BL) The findings show that digitalization is essential to unlocking a small business’s growth potential More than 60% of SA SMEs believe e-commerce will have a […]
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Why business cannot afford to ignore tech ethics (FT)

From one angle, the pandemic looks like a vindication of “techno-solutionism”. From the more everyday developments of teleconferencing to systems exploiting advanced artificial intelligence, platitudes to the power of innovation abound. Such optimism smacks of short-termism. Desperate times often call for swift and sweeping solutions, but implementing technologies without regard for their impact is risky […]
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