The world’s largest law firm to combine with an elite firm in Tanzania

In 2020, Dentons has added 20 new offices

Dentons’ combination with East African Law Chambers (EALC) in Tanzania further strengthens the foundation for Dentons to become the leading Pan-African law firm owned and controlled by Africans across 14 locations on the continent.

September 22, 2020 – Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, is announcing today a proposed combination with leading Tanzanian law firm, East African Law Chambers (EALC). Prior to this announcement, in 2020, Dentons has added 20 new offices around the world in an environment where other law firms are standing still, contracting or withdrawing from key markets.

Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has published its 2020 Risk Maps report, which finds that the novel coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic will likely transform the geopolitical landscape. Extraordinary public health measures and a precipitous drop in global trade will continue to exert significant pressure on economies and governments and will reshape long-standing geopolitical norms.

Cape Town, 9 September 2020: The Covid-19 pandemic is paving the way for a new era of collaboration between business, government and labour as they seek solutions for South Africa’s dire economic and fiscal outlook. “Never before have we seen this much collaboration between government and the private sector; it is the first time since 1994 that a meaningful social compact is becoming a reality,” said Elias Masilela, Chairman of recently-established Impact Investing South Africa (IISA) and Chairman of DNA Economics. Collaboration was among the key themes that emerged amongst panellists during a webinar hosted by Sanlam Investments on 4 September 2020. The panel reflected on what optimal capital allocation should be in a post-pandemic South Africa.

Mediterrania Capital Partners’ portfolio company Groupe Scolaire René Descartes establishes a financial partnership with Banque Zitouna to support students’ families

Tunis. Mediterrania Capital Partners, the Private Equity firm focused on growth investments for SMEs and mid-cap companies in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, announces the signing by its portfolio company Groupe Scolaire René Descartes of an agreement with Banque Zitouna to financially support families impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.

I would like to take this opportunity to step back and take stock of all that has occurred in the last three to four months. With colleagues from across PIDG, I have been reflecting upon the huge effort that has taken place to keep originating new infrastructure projects and to continue developing those already in our varied pipelines. We have also examined the impact of our coordinated response to COVID-19 and our efforts to ensure the health and welfare of our teams, partners and of people living in the communities close to where we work.

Knight Frank has released the Africa Residential and Office Dashboards that provides occupiers, landlords, and investors with regular analysis of the rental performance and trends of prime residential and office markets across Africa.

The H1 2020 dashboards examined the residential and office market performance in 29 African cities during the COVID – 19 pandemic.

This month’s theme is the impact of the recent petroleum price developments on the sector in Africa. We’ve included an article that examines options for African Governments to engage with international oil companies and to respond to the potential long term impact triggered by the COVID crisis. We’ve also included articles from some of our preferred law firm partners in Africa and guest authors with operations in Africa.

Bboxx makes solar energy accessible at scale in Africa with the launch of the bPower20 product

Tuesday 25th August 2020 – Bboxx, a next generation utility that manufactures, distributes and finances decentralised solar powered systems in developing countries, has launched the bPower20 product, to make solar energy more accessible at scale.

Designed for customers who are at the beginning of the energy ladder, the new bPower20 product has been created to power rural households and micro-businesses. Bboxx’s research identified a gap in the market to better serve the significant proportion of the population in the developing world with lower energy requirements, but who still demand a superior customer experience and the provision of reliable, high quality electricity. The product will be rolled out initially in key markets Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Togo, with further markets lined up for 2021.

In the face of delayed or belated GDP releases, PMIs give us a sense of how the crisis is affecting some of Africa’s key economies. They also give us a sense of the health of private sectors coming into the crisis. Indications are that Kenya, Ghana and South Africa will see strong GDP recoveries in Q3 following deep contractions Q2. In turn, the latest readings show that Nigeria and Egypt did not enter the third quarter with strong momentum. While all these economies are expected to record some form of mechanical bounce-back in Q3, the recoveries in Egypt and Nigeria could disappoint.

DEG promotes authenticity proof for pharmaceuticals in Africa

• German tech company authentic.network develops digital authenticity proof

• Pilot project to be launched in Côte d’Ivoire

• DEG contributes around EUR 340,000 from develoPPP.de funds

Counterfeit medicine is a problem in many developing countries. This also applies to Côte d’Ivoire, where, according to the World Health Organization, 30 to 60 per cent of medicine offered is counterfeit, including ineffective medicine as cure for COVID-19. Chemnitz-based start-up authentic.network developed a digital authenticity proof that is to make medicine and protective equipment counterfeit-proof via blockchain technology. DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH is co-financing a pilot project to introduce this technology in Côte d’Ivoire contributing around EUR 340,000 from funds from the develoPPP.de programme of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). authentic.network and its partners contribute the same amount.

The “new normal.” It’s a term that we first started using after the Global Financial Crisis of 2007. Then again in the wake of the 2008 – 2012 global recession. And once again now, as we’re trying to make sense of life with the COVID-19 pandemic.

To labour the point – earlier this month authorities have locked down Beijing over a new COVID-19 outbreak linked to a seafood supermarket in the world’s most populous capital city. Just as the world started taking comfort in the thought that the country at the centre of the pandemic was settling into the “new normal.”

ABIDJAN, Cote D’Ivoire – August 11, 2020 – Agility, a leading global logistics and warehousing provider, has leased warehouse space in the Agility Logistics Park (ALP) in Abidjan to CDCI, Cote D’Ivoire’s top retailer, for a new nationwide warehousing and distribution centre.

CDCI, which operates supermarkets in Cote D’Ivoire, will use the ALP facility as a central distribution centre to hold stock and distribute a wide range of food and non-food consumer products to support its retail operations across Cote D’Ivoire.

CDCI chose to lease at the Agility Logistics Park because of it offers secure, international-standard warehousing and facilities and services available to support CDCI’s expanding business across the country.

We are pleased to present the latest edition of our Africa newsletter.

This month’s newsletter focuses on technology and innovation across the African continent. Technology and connectivity are transforming and developing at incredible pace, a trend which presents great opportunities for economic growth, commercialisation and upwards social mobility. This includes the roll-out of 5G in parts of South Africa and of 4G in sub-Saharan Africa (with the help of hot air balloons no less!), such as Eldoret and Nakuru in Kenya, where the editor’s parents were born. With thanks, as always, to our contributors – if you would like to contribute content to our next newsletter, please get in touch.

YPO Africa and Invest Africa Partner to Further Scale YPO’s Lead COVID-19 Response Impact Initiatives

Cape Town, 5 August 2020 ‒ Today, YPO Africa, a global leadership community of chief executives, and Invest Africa, the leading trade and investment platform for Africa, announced that they have entered into a unique bilateral alliance. The key aim of this groundbreaking agreement is for YPO Africa and Invest Africa to support each other in their African impact efforts, with an initial focus on YPO’s Lead COVID-19 Response to begin making the right connections between organisations to start conversations and drive investment.

Due to this unprecedented situation, many institutions in our correspondent network are facing staffing issues, reduced working hours and consequently may be slow to respond. We are working to get responses as quickly as possible, and we appreciate your understanding. The following are countries with specific current limitation due to the fluidity of the situation, this list may not be exhaustive. IFL remains in constant contact with local correspondents across a vast network and strives to update clients on any market changes as quickly as possible.

London and Cape Town, 3 August 2020: African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), a member of Old Mutual Alternative Investments and Africa’s most experienced infrastructure manager, has appointed two joint-managing directors to be based in Cape Town and Lagos, following the retirement of the company’s previous CEO.

Vuyo Ntoi and Sola Lawson, have been appointed from within the business, and will continue to sit in their South Africa and Nigeria offices respectively, as two of AIIM’s key markets in sub Saharan Africa. As AIIM’s new joint-MD’s, they take over from Jurie Swart, who has been CEO of AIIM since 2014 and recently elected to take early retirement to focus on a new challenge outside the AIIM business.

COVID-19

The first case of COVID-19 was reported on 12th December, 2019 in Wuhan, China thereafter the disease has rapidly spread and dominated world affairs throughout 2020. The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed COVID-19 as a pandemic in March. As at 30th June, WHO had confirmed circa 10.5 million cases, 5.7 million recoveries and 511,000 fatalities globally. Across the East African region, the pandemic has been accelerating across various countries. As at 30th June, Kenya was the second highest country with confirmed cases, after Sudan.