The pan-African magazine of choice since 2009
Julius Neequaye Kotey has headed Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority for a little over one year, but has already made a significant impact, digitizing the vehicle licensing system. Kotey says he envisions “a DVLA where everything is digitized.” He tells Africawatch he believes that will “improve efficiency, curb avoidable infractions, reduce revenue leakages, and …
If American star Megan Rapinoe’s short pink hair was the lasting image of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, Nigerian Rasheedat Ajibade’s close-cropped blue might be an omen of the future. The 23-year-old forward has already played in two World Cups and on the teams that won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2018 and …
Africa’s economies have been battered by external shocks over the past three years, and several countries are in debt trouble. That gives governments a dilemma: Austerity measures can help attract foreign investment that improves the economy, but at the price of raising the cost of living and provoking popular backlash. Menzi Ndhlovu and Ronak Gopaldas …
Last year, thousands of Russian prison inmates were offered pardons if they served for six months in the war against Ukraine, fighting in the Wagner Group’s mercenary army. Three of those who did were Africans, from Tanzania, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, who’d migrated to Russia and run afoul of its harsh drug laws. Two of …
The tales of 3 Africans who fought with Russia’s Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine Read More »
Efforts to reunite Libya have been stalled by disputes over whether the country should hold elections and then form a government, or first form an interim unity government that would set the rules for elections. The legislative bodies of both the Tripoli and Tobruk parallel governments are backing the interim plan, but the UN wants …
Former Ghana President John Dramani Mahama has bared his soul in a special interview with Africawatch. From politics to the economy to agriculture to education to the banking and oil sectors to the country’s current sorry state to his personal feelings and religion, he was happy to field the questions and discuss them at length. …
Ghana: Special interview with former President John Mahama Read More »
Nigeria President Bola Tinubu took office while the nation was experiencing a multi-dimensional crisis. From raging inflation to widespread poverty, from large numbers of children not in schools to broken-down oil refineries and frequent mass shootings, almost every facet of Nigerian national life appears to be in trouble. Will President Tinubu be up to the …
Nigeria: Bola Tinubu ‘He has a chance to determine how history will remember his time.’ Read More »
Quietly but surely, Equatorial Guinea, with the benefit of oil revenues, is transforming itself into a modern country. Between 2009 and 2011, it built a new gleaming and beautiful city, called Sipopo. The country has set itself the target of 2020 for transforming itself into an emerging nation. With eight years to go, the government …
Libya’s first presidential elections since the 2011 ouster of Muammar al-Qaddafi, scheduled for Dec. 24, have been postponed indefinitely. That outcome was not surprising, as the country’s two competing parliaments couldn’t agree on a framework for the vote. One major faction argued that it would premature to elect a president before a constitution was ratified, …
William Ruto, once a roadside chicken-seller in the rural Rift Valley, took office as president in September after narrowly defeating Raila Odinga in the August election. The vote was not settled until the Supreme Court dismissed Odinga’s claims of fraud, but the post-election period was relatively peaceful. Now, can Ruto’s government deliver prosperity to the …