Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[Poitier]

African leaders urge West to act on Libya

Regional leaders say West has obligation to help after toppling Muammar Gaddafi and leaving country to fend for itself.

Last updated: 17 Dec 2014 02:54

Libya has been wracked by violence since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 [AP]
African leaders have urged the West to intervene in crisis-hit Libya and prevent instability from spreading across the Sahel and destabilising fragile regional governments.

Speaking at an African security summit in Senegal on Tuesday, leaders from Libya's neighbours called on NATO to help stem the flow of weapons to armed groups in the region.

Fighting between forces loyal to Libya's western recognised prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, and self-declared Islamist groups threatens nations including Chad, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

As long as we haven't resolved the problem on southern Libya, there will be no peace on the region

- Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Mali's president

"The solution to the crisis that is shaking this country is not in African hands, but in the hands of the West, notably NATO," Chadian President, Idriss Deby, told the security forum in Dakar.

"Now Libya is fertile ground for terrorism and all sorts of criminals," Deby said, adding that NATO had an obligation to finish what it started.

African states have accused the West of ignoring their concerns and say that once longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed they left the country to fend for itself.

Libya has been embroiled in political infighting and violence, with two rival governments trying to fill the political void in the country.

"As long as we haven't resolved the problem on southern Libya, there will be no peace on the region," Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said.

Mali became one of the first collateral victims of the chaos that erupted following the toppling of Gaddafi, when armed groups, some with links to al-Qaeda and armed with weapons seized from Libyan government arsenals, overran the country's north in 2012.

A French-led military intervention drove the groups out of cities and towns, but they mount regular attacks mainly on Malian soldiers and UN peacekeepers deployed to the country.

Senegal's President Macky Sall said the region's poorly equipped militaries needed more material support from the West.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, whose country has deployed some 3,200 troops in the Sahel to tackle armed groups, said the problems in southern Libya would not be settled until a solution was found for the political crisis.

Libya has slid into chaos after Gaddafi was overthrown and killed three years ago, as interim authorities failed to confront powerful militias which fought to oust the veteran leader.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...s-urge-west-act-libya-201412171306708936.html

 

[Poitier]

Africa for pessimists: 2014 in review
Let’s be honest, it has not been a great year for Africa. Rocked by disease, terrorism and civil war Simon Allison highlights this year’s worst moments


A Liberian Red Cross worker in Monrovia, Liberia.

Ebola, and the governance failures which let it spread
Ebola is a nasty disease, one of the worst, there’s no doubt about it. As of writing, the number of deaths in West Africa has reached 6331, and shows no sign of slowing down. But Ebola is not the real problem.

Despite the paranoia around it, Ebola is not a particularly infectious disease. To get it, you’ve got to get up close and personal with the bodily fluids of someone who has it, which should make it relatively easy to contain. And in countries with an even moderately functional health system, it could have been contained.

Unfortunately Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone don’t fall into that category. These are countries with few clinics, fewer hospitals, no public health information services and a woefully low number of doctors. According to the more generous estimates, prior to the outbreak there were just 200 doctors in Liberia, for a population of 3.5 million – that’s roughly one doctor for every 175,000 people.

Ebola spread not because of the disease itself, but because these countries could not provide their citizens with even the most basic health requirements; and, crucially, the governments in question had so little credibility that people simply refused to trust its health and safety warnings. Ultimately, the Ebola outbreak is a failure of governance.

The consequences of this failure will be felt for generations to come. The Ebola body count is just one of the costs. Even more serious – albeit very difficult to quantify – is the effect that Ebola has had on other public health crises. With almost every health facility in the affected countries now dedicated to Ebola, other patients in need are left to fend for themselves. This year the death tolls from HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and maternal mortality will probably rise.

The economic impact is also devastating. These are already poor countries, and Ebola has crushed whatever economic progress there was. According to the World Bank, Sierra Leone’s growth rate this year will be 4% (compared to 11.4% pre-crisis); Liberia’s will be 2.2% (compared to 5.5%); and Guinea’s will be 0.5% (compared to 4.5%). These are not just numbers: they are the difference between millions of people rising out of poverty, and not.


Anarchy in Libya

Libya Dawn militants pose at the gate of Tripoli International Airport. Photograph: Hamza Turkia/Hamza Turkia/Xinhua Press/Corbis
It seemed like a good idea at the time. At least that’s what the western powers that agitated for the removal of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 will be telling themselves now, because, in retrospect, it was a terrible idea. Since Gaddafi’s death, Libya has slowly disintegrated, until this year when the only word that adequately describes the situation is anarchy.

No one is in charge of the country, which has divided into fiefdoms run by a motley assortment of ragtag militias, renegade army units and Islamist movements. Relegated to a tiny patch of territory near the Egyptian border – an easy escape route when required – is Libya’s official government, completely powerless in the country it is supposed to rule.

As far as western powers are concerned, the worst outcome is the foothold that the Islamic State (Isis), through its Libyan affiliate Ansar al-Sharia, is establishing in and around Benghazi. It is a tragic irony that western airstrikes ultimately opened the political space for the expansion of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s caliphate, in the form of Islamic State.

The African Union, meanwhile, might feel vindicated. At the time it argued strongly for a slow, mediated political transition, which would have seen Gaddafi retain some power but would have pushed him into significant reforms. This considered position was dismissed as typical AU waffle, but it now looks a whole lot more sensible than the bomb-them-and-to-hell-with-the-consequences approach.

The metamorphosis of Boko Haram

A still from a video by Boko Haram featuring Abubakar Shekau. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
Boko Haram has always been dangerous. The Islamist militant group has caused chaos in north-eastern Nigeria for the last five years, pushing its Sharia law agenda through the barrel of the gun and the explosives vest of the suicide bomber, and killing thousands of innocent people in the process.

This year, however, it has begun to behave a little differently. Throwing down the gauntlet to the hapless Nigerian security forces, Boko Haram has supplemented its guerrilla tactics with the more traditional tactics of a secessionist movement: the seizure and occupation of territory. In the process it is turning its fight against the Nigerian government into a de facto civil war.

It is unquestionably inspired in this by the successes enjoyed in Iraq and Syria by Isis. It is no coincidence that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared the territory controlled by Boko Haram to be part of an “Islamic Caliphate”, even if he did not pledge allegiance directly to the Islamic State.

Given the difficulties with access to the area, and the propensity of both Boko Haram and the Nigerian government to exaggerate their successes, it’s difficult to know exactly how much territory the group controls. But it’s substantial, with the north-east’s biggest city Maiduguri likely to be the next major target.

The question now is what Nigeria can do about it. There’s no easy answer, but it seems safe to conclude that the current military-led strategy is failing. Dispiritingly, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have no other ideas as he demands more men and equipment for his armed forces.

South Sudan’s civil war

Rebel soldiers patrol near the town of Bentiu, South Sudan. Photograph: Matthew Abbott/AP
It didn’t take long for Africa’s newest country to turn in on itself. Achieving independence from Sudan in 2011, it was just two-and-a-half years later, on 15 December 2013, that fighting erupted in the capital Juba. The main protagonists were the two most powerful men in the country: Salva Kiir, the president, and his deputy Riek Machar, who were also rivals during the long war for secession.

This year, that divide has hardened into a fully-fledged civil war between the government on one side and Machar’s loose band of militia groups, known as the Nuer White Armies. There are messy tribal dimensions to the split – Kiir’s Dinka and Machar’s Nuer are the two largest tribes – but the dispute ultimately boils down to a personal battle for power and resources between Kiir and Machar.

Ultimately though, everybody loses. South Sudan was born poor and fragile, and this fighting has wiped out any chance of progress in the near future. Tens of thousands of people have already died, while an estimated 1.9 million have been forced from their homes (that’s more than 10% of the population). Millions more are on the edge of starvation as the political turmoil has devastated crops.

There’s no sign of the fighting easing up anytime soon. If anything, it’s going to get worse before it gets better as South Sudan enters its dry season, the traditional fighting season (most roads are impassable when it’s wet, making it difficult for armies to move around). Meanwhile, peace talks in Addis Ababa appear to be going nowhere.

Band Aid and #BringBackOurGirls

Band Aid: the “gargantuan world-swallowing holier-than-thou desire of the famous to help while simultaneously increasing their fame.” Photograph: James Shaw/REX/James Shaw/REX
Surprise, surprise – half a century after the colonial era and the western world continues to define Africa on its own terms. Aside from the mass misplaced hysteria over Ebola, Africa made international headlines this year thanks to not one but two misguided publicity campaigns.

The first was the notorious #BringBackOurGirls, a social media drive that evenroped in Michelle Obama. The girls in question were the more than 200 school girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by Boko Haram, and the hashtag was designed to both raise awareness of their plight and pressure the Nigerian government – and, more disturbingly, western governments – to do something.

It raised awareness, certainly, but hasn’t come close to bringing back any of the kidnap victims. If anything, the massive international publicity generated by the hashtag forced both Boko Haram and Nigeria to dig in their heels, and made any kind of negotiated settlement politically impossible. It also reinforced perceptions, once again, that Africa can’t look after itself, that it requires external intervention to solve our problems.

The second was the re-release by Bob Geldof and assorted celebrities of the Band Aid single, Do They Know It’s Christmas? to raise funds to fight Ebola. As the Daily Maverick’s Richard Poplak commented: “And while this Band Aid is a more muted, carefully politically correct affair - I doubt mountains of coke were consumed as they were after the initial recording in 1984 - that does nothing to dim its essential evil: the gargantuan world-swallowing holier-than-thou desire of the famous to help while simultaneously increasing their fame.”

It’s hard to know where to start in explaining the problems with the original Band Aid: the patronising, borderline racist lyrics; the perpetuation of negative and incredibly damaging stereotypes about Africa; or the genuinely terrible melody. Thirty years later, all those problems remain in the updated version.

More troubling, however, is the lack of alternative narratives. The torrent of criticism directed at Geldof & co was heartening (and largely absent in the 1980s), but nonetheless revealed this continent’s deep insecurities. The truth is, Africa is still far too reliant on foreigners to tell our stories, which is why it’s a problem when they get it so badly wrong.

 

[Poitier]

Africa for optimists: 2014 in review
While Ebola and civil war may have dominated the headlines Simon Allison finds plenty to celebrate from the continent in 2014

Africa for optimists, 2014 Photograph: David Levene/David Levene
Nigeria gets its financial house in order
This was the year that Nigeria finally lived up to its potential and became thelargest economy in Africa – and by quite some distance too. As of April this year, Nigeria’s GDP was worth $510bn, an astonishing 89% increase on the year before. In contrast, South Africa, last year’s number one, trails far behind at just $370bn.

It’s not that the Nigerian economy fundamentally changed overnight. It’s just that, for the first time in two decades, the country’s statisticians calculated its size correctly (or, at least, more correctly – the trouble with African statistics is that even the best of them are unreliable). By failing to rebase the GDP calculation since 1990 – ie failing to update the basket of goods and costs from which it is extrapolated – the country had worked with a grossly distorted picture of its economy for far too long.

That’s not to say the new figure, larger though it may be, is proof that the economy is healthy. It is far too reliant on oil, and taking a pummelling from the drop in global oil prices.

Still, it’s progress. Now the Nigerian government and investors know what they are dealing with. The new figure does cement Nigeria’s reputation as the most attractive investment destination on the continent, and also gives it a huge diplomatic advantage: as Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria can make a compelling argument for continental leadership positions such as membership of BRICS (five major emerging national economies) and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, should UN reform ever happen.

Burkina Faso dispatches its dictator

Mourners attend a memorial service for the six people who died during the popular uprising of October 30 and 31 in Ouagadougou. Photograph: five major emerging national economies/Reuters
Over the course of a couple of days in late October an awe-inspiring display of people power in Burkina Faso forced President Blaise Compaoré to scuttle into exile, his tail firmly between his legs. It was a humiliating exit for the man who had ruled Burkina Faso since 1987, and was angling for even more time in the presidential palace.

It was this manoeuvering – Compaoré wanted to change the constitution to allow himself to run for yet another term – that proved to be the final straw.Spontaneous protests erupted on the streets of Ouagadougou, and, crucially, the army rallied on the people’s side.

In a continent where dictators and presidents-for-life are all too common, with devastating consequences for the countries they rule, this was a magnificent example that power is not immutable and people can be in control of their own destinies.

The big question, though, is what happens next. It’s a question that Egypt and Libya – who went through a similar political upheaval – are largely failing to answer (Tunisia might be a better model).

At the moment, there’s an interim government in place that is largely dominated by military men. They are promising a democratic transition. It remains to be seen, however, if they can be trusted.

Southern African elections

A man votes at the Orlando West High School in South Africa’s general elections, in Soweto, South Africa, on 7 May 2014. Photograph: Ihsaan Haffejee/EPA
It was a busy, busy year for election monitors from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with no less than six presidential polls in the region.

Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa all chose heads of state. Remarkably, all these elections were relatively free, relatively fair, and almost entirely peaceful.

Southern Africa is getting the hang of this democracy thing.

This record is even more impressive given that some of these elections were seriously contentious, with potential to go wrong. Malawi, for instance, was voting for the first time since the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, pitting incumbent Joyce Banda against Mutharika’s brother Peter; while by voting day Mozambiquehad only just concluded a peace deal with RENAMO, the opposition movement which had threatened to reignite the country’s civil war.

Interestingly, at least four of these six countries returned the incumbent president or party into office – Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. It’s notable that all those countries have only ever had one party in power since their respective independences, suggesting that electorates put a large premium on stability over change. Not necessarily a bad thing: as this successful round of elections confirms, southern Africa is the continent’s most stable region.

The Ebola containment operation

A 43-year-old security consultant named Christopher, goes through the discharge process in Monrovia after surviving Ebola. Photograph: Marcus DiPaola/NurPhoto/REX/Marcus DiPaola/NurPhoto/REX
By the time the continent and the world finally took notice of Doctors Without Borders’ increasingly frantic appeals to deal with the Ebola situation, it was too late to prevent the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Those three countries have been devastated by the disease.

But, remarkably, Ebola has not spread further in West Africa. This was a real danger. With the region’s porous borders, poor health systems and dense populations, all the conditions for a region-wide epidemic were present. That it didn’t happen reflects very well on the various governments and international organisations involved.

It was a close thing. Perhaps the biggest scare came in Lagos, Africa’s largest city, when a man infected with Ebola arrived at the airport from Liberia. He died a few days later, but infected several others before he did so. The Nigerian government reacted swiftly: they traced and quarantined anyone the man had come into contact with, and launched a nation-wide publicity blitz urging people to avoid physical contact. It worked. The virus was contained.

The danger isn’t over yet. Mali is currently battling a small outbreak in the capital Bamako, just weeks after declaring the country Ebola-free. The early signs suggest though that West African governments have learnt from the failures in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and are taking rapid and effective action.
It’s the economy, stupid

An employee uses a mobile phone inside an M-Pesa store in Nairobi, Kenya. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
While it’s easy to get lost in the gory details of viruses and civil wars, it’s also important to remember the big picture, especially when it comes to Africa’s very encouraging economic prospects.

According to Forbes, sub-Saharan Africa will have experienced economic growth of around 6% in 2014, which is slightly higher than last year. The continent as a whole is also home to seven of the world’s ten fastest growing economies, and has a collective GDP in excess of $2,000bn.

Real income, meanwhile, has risen by more than 30% over the last ten years. This means more and more people escaping poverty. It is no coincidence that this economic progress has been coupled with serious improvements in health issues (Ebola excepting). Malaria is a particularly striking example: since 2000, the number of deaths from malaria in Africa has declined by 54%, saving hundreds of thousands of lives in the process.

The numbers don’t lie: this is a continent that’s only moving in one direction, and it’s a very positive one.

 

[thaKEAF]

I have to get there. I'm applying for study abroad next month for the summer

 

[Poitier]

The Most Essential Nigerian Afropop Tracks of 2014
By David Drake, December 17, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. EST

Here’s what has become readily apparent in 2014: Nigeria has one of the most exciting music scenes on the planet. Technically, that's not a new development, yet for most American music consumers, contemporary African music remains out of range. Nigerian Afropop, as it is often called, feels at this moment particularly bold, diverse, outward-facing—and well shaped to find success in the United States.

Formed in the shadow of Western hip-hop and R&B of the early 1990s with the arrival of the rapping duo Junior & Pretty, early Nigerian Afropop incorporated pidgen English, a dynamic that remains today. What has changed in the interim is that Nigeria has quickly provided a center of gravity all its own. Afropop is a broad, omnivorous movement that incorporates the influences from dancehall to soca to hip-hop to the music of Ghana and South Africa. But it's all sublimated into a final product that has a sound all its own. These diverse influences are unified through the complex grooves that differentiate West African music from the rest of the world, particularly in the West. By relying on a clave rhythm—this is the name for it in latin music—West African records offer more rhythmic variation from dancers.

When it comes to a potential U.S. crossover, it might be a long shot—even though WizKid reportedly has a record with Rihanna, and T.I. is currently charting in Africa on P Square's retro "Ejeajo". Even Jamaican music has faced a continual uphill struggle to get recognition within the United States. For Nigerian music, the language barrier could prove similarly tough to overcome. But after an hour listening to Nigeria's intricate rhythms, traditional U.S. R&B and EDM beats can begin to feel staid and conservative. This is how Nigeria's scene points a way forward for the world's pop music—and suggests that if an American takeover doesn't happen, America may just have to play catch-up down the line.

Spend even a cursory amount of time on YouTube and you'll find hundreds of popular Nigerian Afropop records from the past few years. What follows are a few essentials from 2014, records that defined the year's sound. Obviously, there's no way to sum up an entire flourishing genre in just five pieces; if you want to hear more, DJ Neptizzle from the UK put together a strong overview called Ultimate Afrobeats 2014 earlier this year. But for just a taste, check the five songs below.



WizKid: "Show You the Money"

Along with Davido, WizKid is currently one of the continent's biggest stars, a superstar whose charismatic presence and melodic approach have helped to churn out hit after hit after hit. "Show You the Money" is perhaps his most American-friendly record to date: the galloping groove gives it a dancefloor-ready urgency, while WizKid's circumspect melodies are casually understated.




Dr. SID: "Surulere" [ft. Don Jazzy]

Don Jazzy is one of Nigeria's most important producers, and "Surulere" was one of the year's most acclaimed songs. Nominated for Song of the Year at MTV Africa's 2014 Music Awards (it lost out to South African group Mafikizola's "Khona"), "Surulere"—which translates from Yoruba to "Patience is Rewarding"—doesn't seem so immediate at first blush. It also isn't the most rhythmically demonstrative of Nigeria's big records this year. But there's something novel about the way its build-and-release snare rolls in the lead-in to the chorus that imprints the record on the brain. For a well-written exploration of the song and its lyrics, Prince Oreshade wrote an interesting piece over at Citrus Live.




Yemi Alade: "Johnny"

Women do play an important role in Nigeria's music scene. Tiwa Savage is probably the country's biggest name, and she's written behind the scenes for American recording artists like Fantasia. Her biggest solo record, the incredible "Eminado", was released in late 2013, unfortunately for our purposes—but you should probably hear it anyway. This summer, though, Yemi Alade's "Johnny" was far and away one of the biggest records—and the only Nigerian record I heard out in Brooklyn.






Lil Kesh: "Shoki (Remix)" [ft. Davido and Olamide]

If you want an example of the incredible potential for rhythmic complexity within Nigeria's music scene, the dizzying network of cross-rhythms in Lil Kesh's "Shoki" is perhaps the best example. Their video swag is reminiscent of American hip-hop artists, and the content isn't far from it either, but the rush of the beat will have your heart subdividing in your chest.






Mavins: "Dorobucci" [ft. Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr. SID, D'Prince, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello, and Di'Ja]

While not the first song liable to catch American ears, for a period this summer "Dorobucci" was Nigeria's biggest record by all accounts. It's a reminder that while what appeals to American ears is the intriguing mix of the unknown and the familiar, experiencing it from a remove still means that pieces of the puzzle are always missing. Experiencing Afropop is not about replacing your current pop diet with Nigerian counterparts; it's important to recognize that the dynamics, pressures, and cultural values can be very different in a country of 177 million people.



Davido: "Aye"

Perhaps the sweetest song of devotion yet written, Davido's "Aye" boils over with sincerity, its thicket of rhythms eventually taking shape as clean, piercing guitar lines cut through to provide a melodic counterpoint. Davido is one of Africa's biggest pop stars, on par with WizKid, but when he performed in New York in late summer, he was before a smaller, entranced audience of Nigerian-American immigrants. Nonetheless, when he closed with this record, the entire audience sang the chorus back to him word for word with a stadium's worth of energy.

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/603-the-most-essential-nigerian-afropop-tracks-of-2014/

 

[CASHAPP]

^That Johnny song kind of goes hard

 

[lenfantdelacapitale]

Track of the year

 

[TheProfessor]

Lagos, Nigeria

That's a pretty awesome marketplace. All that food from the vendors

 

[Poitier]

This Company Is Paying Nigerians To Learn Computer Programming

• BY KLINT FINLEY
• 

Yetunde Sanni, Nadayar Enegesi (standing), Kosi Anyanwu, and other participants of
Andela’s female-only Boot Camp.

Mohini Ufeli

Chibuzor Obiora was an out-of-work TV news anchor in Lagos, Nigera when he came across a curious link on Twitter: a company was offering money to people willing to take a course in computer programming.

For Obiora, it sounded too good to be true. “I was always interested in learning [to code] because of the problem solving aspect of it,” he says, “and here was a firm that promised to pay you to learn.” But it turned out to be a very real opportunity.

The company is called Andela. It’s based in New York City, and it pays Nigerians to learn programming skills before putting them to work on projects that serve businesses back in the States. After about four months of training, Obiora now works under Andela as a web development contractor for an (unnamed) U.S. based organization—all without leaving Nigeria.

The ultimate aim is to tap the vast pool of talent found in countries that aren’t exactly known as technology hubs, including not only Nigeria but other parts of Africa. “We know that brilliance is relatively evenly distributed across the human population,” says Andela co-founder Jeremy Johnson. “In terms of pure aptitude, there are genius level people across the world. But what there’s not is equal opportunity.”

‘WE KNOW THAT BRILLIANCE IS RELATIVELY EVENLY DISTRIBUTED ACROSS THE HUMAN POPULATION’
Today, U.S. tech companies aren’t shy about saying they have trouble finding programming talent. Critics argue this talent shortage has more to do with stinginess and selective hiring practices than a real lack of qualified programmers, but regardless of the reasons, the need is there. As a result, a new wave of services are working to train enormous numbers of new programmers.

The operations range from online tutorial services like Codecademy to the dozens of “code bootcamps” that promise to get people job-ready in a matter of months. Andela puts a new twist on the bootcamp idea by moving them overseas—and paying people to participate.

The Test
Johnson, who previously founded the online education company 2U, launched Andela earlier this year, alongside Christina Sass, who has a background in non-government organizations, and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, a Nigerian entrepreneur who previously co-founded the online education companies Bookneto and Fora.


Blessing Orazulume and other participants of Andela’s female-only Boot Camp.

Mohini Ufeli

To find good students, Andela gives people like Obiora an online aptitude test that gauges their reasoning and logic skills. Then it interviews the top 10 percent, accessing their “soft skills,” such as interpersonal communication. Those that pass this phase go on to a several-month training program, not unlike the code bootcamps in the U.S. But not many make it this far. “It’s the most selective training program on the African continent,” Johnson boasts, saying the company only accepts about 0.8 percent of applicants.

Those who are accepted get access to educational resources that are scarce in Nigeria. One student, Tolulope Komolafe, says her computer science courses in university didn’t involve any actual programming. The teachers just wrote code on a chalk board. “During the first two weeks of training I discovered that I actually knew nothing about coding,” she says.

The Guild Analogy
Students who finish at least 1,000 hours of training are then eligible to work as web developers for Andela’s clients, but they continue to learn new skills. Johnson says most students will spend about two-thirds of their time working for clients, and the remaining time on education. All told, both the students and staff work about sixty hours a week.

“It’s very similar to the way that guilds worked in the middle ages,” Johnson says. “You get paid a small amount as an apprentice, then you work as a journeyman with lots of other craftspeople, and eventually become a master.”

Johnson says the company charges clients about half of what they would pay a domestic developer, and that students are payed a middle class income in their home countries throughout the program, including during the training period. But he declined to provide specifics. Obiora says that the compensation is fair and that it’s more than he made at his previous job as a news anchor at a local television station.

A New Kind of Off-Shoring
Offshoring development work is nothing new. But Andela does things a bit differently. Instead of its students handling a client’s project on their own, they work hand-and-hand with workers inside the client company. Obiora, for example, participates in his client’s Slack chat room, uses the same project management tools they do, and he’s part of the same email conversations that drive those projects. Like other Andela students, he works the same hours as his U.S. counterparts.

As for the quality of the work, Andela’s developers are on par with local junior-level web developers, says Scott Gerber, founder of Young Entrepreneur Council, an invitation-only organization for entrepreneurs under 40 that hired Andela to help build new features for its web-based member services. “I was skeptical at first,” he says. “I thought: ‘Outsourcing development? I’ve seen this before, I know how it turns out.’ But I can’t speak highly enough of them.”

He says that he prefers to hire locally, and that he does have many developers in the U.S. But ultimately, he can’t find enough coders. “It’s very difficult to get developers at the caliber we need at a price we can afford,” he says. “We’re a multimillion dollar organization, but we still can’t compete with Google or Facebook for hiring.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/andela?mbid=social_twitter

 

[King Ming]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/18/business/africa-prosperity-rankings-2014/

 

[Poitier]

Tanzania joins Africa’s great GDP revision
Katrina Manson Comment | also this month).

Together, the trio’s economies, which have a combined population of 84m people, are $24bn larger than previously thought – the equivalent of an extra $285 per person.

But no Tanzanian’s pocket will feel $285 fuller following the revision, which comes thanks to a statistical exercise. The country remains largely agrarian and poverty levels are high. Nevertheless, the exercise reveals the impact of the country’s prodigious gas discoveries as well as an explosion in mobile phone services – including a step-up in money transfer services – that finance minister Saada Mkuya referred to on Friday as an “ongoing… revolution”.

The economic upswing is a boost that may attract investors to a post-socialist country whose status as donor darling has finally come unstuck. In past months, Tanzania has been subsumed by a mounting corruption scandal over energy deals in a country that experiences frequent blackouts that severely hold back productive output.

Parliamentarians late this year determined that officials approved $122m in illegal payments of public funds to a private energy company last year. Donors froze nearly $500m in aid payments in the light of the scandal that has, this week, elicited the resignation of Attorney General Frederick Werema.

It is another blight ahead of elections expected next October, when president Jakaya Kikwete is due to stand down at a moment the country finds itself in flux – the constitution and the relationship between the mainland and archipelago Zanzibar is also under the microscope, in part because of the prospect of gas windfalls and how to divvy up the potential spoils.

The country, which has been growing at an average of 7 per cent for the past decade, has previously relied on gold exports for sustained growth, but gas offers a more significant boost.

Even so, international gas companies are yet to reach decision point on whether to build multi-billion-dollar gas facilities after finding more than 53tn cubic feet of gas. Although the earliest they could start to export gas is 2020, the impact on the economy is already felt in extensive imports to facilitate exploration drilling, as well as establishing offices and housing, operations and support services.

Following the revision, annual growth remains almost constant, at 7.3 per cent for last year. The revisions follow a decision by the National Bureau of Statistics to update its base year for determining GDP calculations to 2007, from an earlier baseline of 2001.

 

[Poitier]

 

[Poitier]

19 December 2014 Last updated at 08:34 ET

Nigeria makes further efforts to defend currency

Nigeria's central bank has brought in further measures to support its currency, the naira.

Buyers of foreign currency must use that money within 48 hours or be forced to sell it back at the rate set by the central bank.

The naira hit record lows this week of more than 187 against the dollar.

The prolonged fall in the oil price is causing serious problems for Nigeria, which is heavily dependent on the commodity.

Nigeria, which is Africa's largest oil producer, receives 70% of government revenue and 90% of all foreign exchange earnings from oil.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned it would impose sanctions on anyone who did not follow its new rules.

Bet
Speculators are betting on further falls in the naira by buying foreign currency in the hope that they will be able to buy more when they reconvert their money back.

In November, the CBN devalued the naira to 168 against the dollar, but its action has not stopped it falling further.

Earlier this week, Nigeria was forced to revise its budget because of the dramatic fall in the price of oil.

Its finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said its economy will now grow at 5.5% this year, rather than 6.4%.

In a separate development, Nigerian oil workers agreed to call off a strike that started on Monday.

A spokesman for one of the unions involved, Pengassan, said the government had given assurances that it would address union concerns over refinery maintenance.

This includes a renewed push to get a long-delayed bill passed in parliament, aimed at overhauling the industry and improving maintenance.

 

[NoMorePie]

Of course you slipped in some pictures of KFC in the op..

 

[Poitier]