Business

So far Spotify is only available in South Africa and North African states, but the music streaming service has announced it will launch in another 39 countries on the continent in the coming days. They are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Capo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, …

The new American President Joe Biden will attend his first meeting with Group of Seven leaders on Friday to discuss plans to defeat the coronavirus, reopen the battered world economy and counter challenges posed by China. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only killed 2.4 million people but also trigged an …

Newly appointed head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says having “early wins and successes” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic will help restore trust in the organisation. She said that the priority was to look at how WTO can help make access to vaccines, therapeutics and …

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of social media platform Twitter, has announced he and US rapper-turned-businessman Jay-Z are investing a chunk of their own money into bitcoin development in Africa and India. Mr Dorsey says they are putting a total of 500 bitcoin, worth around $23.6m, in the endowment fund called …

Namibia’s national carrier Air Namibia has decided to suspend all operations, cancelling all of its flights and grounding its aircraft with immediate effect. The airline urged all customers to cancel reservations and request refunds. According to the state-owned New Era newspaper, the announcement leaves more than 600 employees without jobs. …

The path has been cleared for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to become the first woman and the first African to lead the World Trade Organization after South Korea’s candidate pulled out of the race for the job. Ms Okonja-Iweala said there was vital work ahead, and called on everybody to pull …

Hundreds of shops and stalls have been completely burnt in an overnight at a market in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. One person sleeping in the market was burnt to death in the incident at the Tippa Garage Market in the Gwarinpa district. Assorted goods including food, building materials and clothing …

Governments and developers around the world are exploring the potential use of “vaccine passports” as a way of reopening the economy by identifying those protected against the coronavirus. The travel and entertainment industries, which have struggled to operate at a profit while imposing social distancing regulations, are particularly interested in …

The Rwandan airline company ‘RwandAir’ has launched its new route to the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, amidst rebels closing in on the city. The airline says as part of efforts to “recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”, it will be flying to Bangui twice a week. Rwanda …

On Monday, the American laboratory ModernaTherapeutics, claimed that its vaccine would protect against the British and South African variants. Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna added that this announcement would not have been made without excessive caution and without a battery of preliminary tests having been carried out in the laboratory. …