The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week has sent shockwaves through the tech industry as the largest lender to venture capital funds suddenly seized up.

Ever since its establishment in the early 1980s, SVB – the 16th largest bank in America – has played a fundamental role in the development of the influential Silicon Valley ecosystem by providing crucial financial support to start-ups and investors alike.

What really led to the SVB’s downfall?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, SVB found itself inundated with deposits, which it invested in US bonds and mortgage-backed securities with a fixed return. However, the recent rise in interest rates led to a decline in the value of its assets.

As economic conditions worsened, Silicon Valley firms began to withdraw their deposits from the bank, leading SVB to sell off its bonds at a significant loss and dilute its stock. That ultimately led to a run on the bank as clients withdrew their funds in fear of the bank’s stability. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was forced to step in and seize SVB’s assets, leaving many in the tech industry reeling from the sudden collapse.

What effects does the collapse have on Africa’s start-up ecosystem?

There appears to be a mixed impact on Africa’s tech ecosystem due to the collapse. As Nigerian tech journalist Frank Eleanya noted in a recent article for BusinessDay, “Nigerian start-up founders say the impact on the local ecosystem will be minimal,” mainly due to the fact that only a small number banked with SVB.

However, there are some firms that have had dealings with the stricken bank. Chipper Cash, one of Africa’s start-up unicorns (start-ups valued at more than $1bn), is one that might be directly impacted, having received a $100m SVB-led investment in May 2021. No official statement has been released by Chipper Cash regarding how much of that funding is banked in SVB.

Other businesses appear immune. Future Africa, one of the largest Africa-focused venture capital funds, recently assured that its funds have minimal exposure to Silicon Valley Bank. The fund noted, nonetheless, that its team is “working very quickly to build new account relationships with established global banking institutions as soon as funds are available”.

In an interview with BBC Focus on Africa, Tanzanian start-up founder Benjamin Fernandes, founder of cross-border payments firm NALA, said that he managed to withdraw the firm’s money prior to the collapse after hearing of the bank’s struggles. Nevertheless, he bemoaned that some industry contacts in the US had not managed to move their funds in time.

However, he believed that the impact on Africa’s tech sector may be limited given the small number who bank with SVB. Indeed, the difficulty that African start-ups face in opening US bank accounts may have protected the continent from the worst of the fallout, he said.

But if ripple effects are not yet fully apparent, observers believe that the long-term implications could be more significant. Venture capital funds, in particular, may be less willing to take risks in the wake of SVB’s collapse, potentially slowing down start-up funding across the continent after a record-breaking year of $4.8bn raised by the end of 2022.

In a blogpost, Ngozie Dozie the founder of digital finance platform Carbon cautioned of a possible slowdown in investments on the continent, more pulled term-sheets and delays in getting that critical follow-on funding.

A key opportunity to boost local funding for start-ups.

In the wake of the bank’s collapse, founders in Africa have been forced to review their banking options to cushion their start-ups from such eventualities.

As with every financial external shock, calls to protect African businesses through reduced reliance on foreign capital have since emerged.

Expert Investment analyst view SVB’s collapse as an opportunity to strengthen Africa’s start-up ecosystem and encourage greater investment from local sources.

“When we rely on foreign investors, then we expose ourselves to imported problems,” said Dozie, highlighting the need for more local investment in Africa’s burgeoning start-up scene.

Max Cuvellier, founder of the start-up deals database Africa The Big Deal, has reported that 1,400 investors were involved in at least one start-up deal in Africa in 2021-2022. Among them, 36% were from North America, 27% from Africa and 21% from Europe.

As the tech industry grapples with the aftermath of SVB’s collapse, it is clear that the lessons learned from this event will have far-reaching consequences for start-ups and investors across the continent.

A group of 20 South African teenagers have built their country’s first fully solar-powered train. The students of Soshanguve Technical School were led to undertake this remarkable innovation after watching their parents’ struggle to use trains for daily commutes over the years, owing to load shedding and cable thefts.

Trains are the cheapest mode of transport in the country, making it the choice option for the poor and working class.

“Our parents, the mode of transport that they normally use is train [sic]. They use train to go from home to work and they use train to go from work to home, but then the issue is that they no longer use trains as part of their main source of transport. So that’s why we came across the solution that why don’t we actually create and build a solar-powered train”, said 18-year-old Ronnie Masindi, one of the student-innovators.

The angular blue-and-white test train has photovoltaic panels fitted to its roof, and moves on an 18-metre track on the school ground in Soshanguve township north of the capital Pretoria.

The train is fitted with car seats and a flat screen TV for entertainment purposes. It can travel at 30 km/h (18.6 mph) – a decent speed compared to the 100mph South Africa’s high speed trains can undertake. It was showcased at a recent universities’ innovation event.

Currently, the test train can run for 10 return trips on the test track, but improvements may still be made as more research is conducted. The prototype will later be presented to the government. If scaled, the invention could revolutionise railway travel in South Africa.

“And why trains? We looked also in the automotive space to say many people are interested in electric cars and other types of transport modes. No one was particularly looking at application of solar technology in locomotives”, explained Kgomotso Maimane, the project’s supervising teacher.

The innovation is not entirely new as solar-powered trains are currently being used in some parts of India, London and Australia, although the former two are not fully solar-powered. The applications in all three countries are still in the early stages.

The 2-year journey to complete the “Shoshanguve Automotive SOS” project was riddled with challenges including a lack of funding, however the S. African government later contributed. “It was not a straight line. It was like taking a hike to the highest peak of the mountain,” said 17-year-old Lethabo Nkadimeng, another student-innovator.

Nonetheless, the students soldiered on and arrived at this excellent result. “What we have realised is, if we you give township learners space, resources and a little mentorship they can do anything that any learner can do around the world,” Maimane said with pride.

The state power utility Eskom had imposed power rationing in South Africa for the past 15 years as a way to curb total blackouts. These power outages, otherwise called load shedding, have worsened over the years and caused major disruptions to commercial and industrial operations, including rail services.

The railway operator Transnet has been unable to maintain the smooth flow of rail traffic since the economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a surge in cable theft.

In 2020, the use of trains among public transport users had reduced by over 60% compared to 2013, according to the National Households Travel Survey. The survey revealed that more commuters were turning to more expensive minibus taxis.

The adoption of the solar train on a national scale just may be a solution to the rail mobility issues caused by South Africa’s looming power issues.

The leaders of France and Algeria took an important step during the weekend toward mending relations scarred by disputes over migration and the legacy of colonial crimes, agreeing to cooperate on energy, security and reassessing their joint history.

French President, Emmanuel Macron, wrapped up a three-day visit to Algeria with a raft of accords that France hopes will smooth ties with Africa’s largest country, a major gas and oil supplier to Europe and an influential regional military player.

According to the Elysée palace, President Macron has “made the choice to orientate this visit towards the future and lay down the basis for a relaunching of the relationship”.

In their joint declaration, the two leaders said, “France and Algeria have decided to open a new era … laying the foundation for a renewed partnership expressed through a concrete and constructive approach, focused on future projects and youth.”

At the signing ceremony, President Tebboune addressed his guest in French, gushing over an “excellent, successful visit which allowed for a rapprochement which would not have been possible without the personality of President Macron himself.”

Macron’s visit comes after a long period of tension over conflicting memories of Algeria’s bloody war of independence. Algeria recalled its ambassador to Paris late last year over it. But both countries have since signalled their desire for a reset.

Diplomatic tensions frayed last October when he accused the “politico-military system” in power in Algiers of “cashing in on memories” of the war to justify its existence.

A month earlier, France had angered Algeria, as well as neighbouring Morocco, by sharply reducing the number of travel visas it issues. This was in response to claims that both North African countries were obstructing the repatriation of nationals found to be in France illegally.

This visit comes as as European powers scrambled to replace Russian energy imports with supplies from Algeria, Africa’s top gas exporter, which in turn is seeking to expand its clout in North Africa and the Sahel.

With its vast reserves of oil and gas, much of it still untapped, and with pipelines linking it to Italy and Spain, Algeria is in a position not to replace Russia but certainly to help Europe with its energy supplies in the medium term.

In May, President Tebboune signed a major contract in Rome under which Algeria will sharply increase gas and electricity exports to Italy, and experts say the deal shocked France into re-assessing Algeria’s importance.

The countries also agreed to cooperate on gas and hydrogen development and medical research and create a joint commission to examine archives from the 130 years when Algeria was the crown jewel in France’s empire.

The study will include the fallout from French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara, unsettled questions about the remains of slain resistance fighters and other dark chapters of Algeria’s eight-year war for independence.

But the French President’s visit was not universally welcomed by Algerians. Macron was met by a crowd protesting and shouting “long live Algeria” while he visited Disco Maghreb.

“History can’t be written with lies…like the one that Algeria was created by France,” read an editorial in the French-language, Le Soir newspaper.

“We expected Macron to erase this gross untruth during this visit,” it said, criticising him for a “lack of courage…to recognise his own faults and those of his country”.

South Africa is set to update its immigration policies and plans to abolish the majority of special visas for foreigners in order to manage an influx of economic migrants.

In a recent announcement, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stated that a special dispensation allowing Zimbabweans to live and work in South Africa will expire at the end of this year and the government will not extend it.

In addition, similar concessions for about 90,000 people from neighboring Lesotho will expire in 2023 and will not be extended by the South African government. Residents of Angola no longer had access to permits as of August 2021.

In a recent interview, Motsoaledi stated that “we are not targeting any certain nationality.” He claimed that many economic migrants abused the Southern African country’s asylum laws by inventing justifications for leaving their home countries, and that upholding sovereign laws wasn’t anti-immigrant.

In the past two decades, people from all over the continent, especially those from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, have been drawn to the country in search of economic opportunities.

According to Motsoaledi, arrivals skyrocketed in 2008 as a result of a combination of the Zimbabwean economic collapse and the global financial crisis that drove mass migration. More than 300,000 people from Zimbabwe relocated to South Africa that year. Many received licenses that were renewed up to 2021.

South Africa is home to 60.6 million people including 4 million migrants. The country is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of 2022, the country has been experiencing its highest unemployment rate in decades.

The high rate of unemployment has led many local South Africans to resent foreigners whom they regard as rivals for scarce employment, medical care, and housing. As a result, the country has experienced sporadic xenophobic violence.

In a video that went viral on social media this week, Phophi Ramathuba, the chief of the health department in the bordering Zimbabwean province of Limpopo, chastised a Zimbabwean patient for seeking care in South Africa. According to her in the video, citizens of the neighboring nation place a “great load” on Limpopo’s medical services.

Ramathuba, a member of the ruling African National Congress, later told News24 that “nobody will be denied medical service” and reiterated that she stood by her remarks. However, the South African Medical Association expressed its dissatisfaction with the way Ramathuba treated the Zimbabwean patient.

In a statement in response to Ramathuba’s remarks, the South African Department of Health claimed that public hospitals and clinics are struggling to provide for the needs of locals due to an unpredictably high number of undocumented migrants seeking medical attention in the country.

The presence of foreign nationals in the country has become a contentious issue as South Africa prepares for the general elections of 2024, with political parties basing their campaigns on the issue. During a recent African National Congress policy conference, it was suggested that South Africa withdraw from the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees. The party claimed that the convention limits the government’s power to address the migration situation and that a new instrument needed to be created.

In the meantime, legal action has been taken against the government to challenge the legitimacy of the Zimbabwean exemption permit following its expiration. Approximately 178,000 recipients of the permits have until December 31 to either apply for a regular visa or depart South Africa.

According to the Daily Maverick, 6,000 holders of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits have so far petitioned the Department of Home Affairs not to revoke their documents.

These ten countries have exhibited growth over the past year and have earned their spot as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

The COVID-19 virus sent the entire world into a spiral, and for two years life was at a standstill. Economies suffered immensely from the lack of activity beyond borders, new and old businesses crashed, and many people lost their livelihoods. However, with the administration of vaccines in Africa, many nations could open borders and resume trade.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released its 2022 projections for Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Africa’s overall GDP is projected to increase by 3.8% this year. In addition, sectors such as travel and tourism will rebound due to the easing of travel restrictions.

These ten countries exhibited growth over the past year and have earned their spot as one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.

1. Seychelles

Due to the pandemic, Seychelles’ economy took a knock as the tourism and fishery sectors suffered disruptions to supply chains and less external demand. However, as economic activity gears up again, the country’s GDP will increase steadily. Seychelles’ 2020 elections also strengthened investor confidence as a smooth transfer of power was a hallmark in the country’s history.

GDP 2022: 7.7%

2. Rwanda

Trade including investment and exports, transportation, and tourism services were most affected by the global pandemic. The introduction of the African Continental Free Trade Area has boosted interregional trade.

GDP 2022: 7.0%

3. Mauritius

Mauritius’s swift yet drastic lockdown and isolation response to COVID-19 impacted the economy negatively. The tourism and hospitality sector suffered a sharp decline, contributing about 24% of the GDP. However, the ease of restrictions has allowed these sectors to build up again.

GDP 2022: 6.7%

4. Niger

Niger’s economy in the past two years saw a dip due to the health crisis, rising security issues including terrorist activity, and the closure of borders. As a result, the service and extractive industry sectors were affected, and consumption and foreign investments (from China and Europe) declined. However, the sharp increase in the GDP results from a boom in oil production.

GDP 2022: 6.6%

5. Benin

Benin’s economy, driven by trade, transport, and agriculture, saw an increase to 4.8% in 2021 after the country stabilized the effects of COVID-19 by mid-year.

GDP 2022: 6.5%

6. Cabo Verde

To offset the impact of COVID-19, the government implemented fiscal and stimulus measures, which were unfortunately insufficient as the vital economic sectors like transport, tourism, construction, and retail trade, suffered a sharp decline. However, fewer global supply chain disruptions have ensured Cabo Verde’s GDP is on the mend.

GDP 2022: 6.5%

7. South Sudan

The reopening of borders with Kenya and Uganda has helped recover South Sudan’s economy severely affected by COVID-19 restrictions, locust invasions, and floods by facilitating imports and other essential resources.

2022: 6.5%

8. Côte d’Ivoire

Growing from 6.2% in 2021, Côte d’Ivoire’s implementation of the National Development Plan to maintain a stable socio-political environment and increase the mobilisation of local resources successfully increased the country’s GDP by 0.3%. As a result, sectors including agriculture, construction, petroleum products, transport, and trade will drive up investments and consumption.

GDP 2022: 6.5%

9. Guinea

Guinea’s mining sector has been steadily carrying the GDP since the country displaced Australia as China’s supplier of bauxite and aluminium. Moreover, Guinea’s new mining projects have continued to increase exports.

GDP 2022: 6.3%

10. Ghana

Recovery in the manufacturing and construction sectors has sustained Ghana’s economy post-pandemic, including favourable cocoa and gold prices which have met the increasing demand. Furthermore, implementing the Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprise Support System has assisted businesses negatively affected by the pandemic.

GDP 2022: 6.2%

The reports – which have come as shocking to many, reveal that an estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery.” Releasing the report, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, noted that this is not any form of modern slavery – but slavery as we know it.

You will recall that it is on record that Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. But it appears that although the announcement that slavery was abolished in 1981, this was not the case, as it continued in full force in the country.

There have been numerous reports that slavery was never abolished in the country and that it remains completely technically legal to date. Slavery was criminalized for the time in Mauritania in 2007, and the second case was in 2015. The new reports reveal that the practice is now worse than ever in the country, and abolition is rarely enforced.

It is estimated that 160,000 enslaved people reached Mauritius and Réunion between 1670 and 1810, of which 87% came from various regions in Africa and 13% from India. In 1787, Port Louis was made into a free port, open to ships of all nations. It appears that this has remained unchanged in the country to date.

Tomoya Obokata has called on the authorities in Mauritania to take urgent measures to implement an anti-slavery law that was passed in 2015.

Following a visit to the West African country, Tomoya Obokata – the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, warned that there is a lot of work to be done to address the issue of slavery in the country.

He said people were still being born into slavery, and people affected by the practice needed help to seek justice and achieve equality.

Mr. Obokata said people were now more willing to discuss the issue openly. But he said caste-based slavery and chattel slavery – where one person owns another – were still happening.

He warned that a change in the mindset of the country’s leaders was needed – because even though laws had been passed, they were not being implemented. The Japanese scholar said enslaved people in Mauritania – particularly women and children – were subject to violence and sexual abuse.

Mauritius is known as a honeymooner’s paradise, a luxury destination, and a haven for water sports. But there is more to this beautiful island than holidays; its history is soaked in stories of immigration, subjugation, slavery, exploitation, and indenture, and it is a story of human perseverance and triumph. Critics say that it is sad to note that nothing has changed to date, and the people are still faced with harsh realities such as slavery and forced labour.

Many critics believe that this could be one of the reasons why the Arabic-speaking African nation decided to pull out of ECOWAS in December 2000, despite being one of its founding members in 1975.

They urged the African Union to act fast rather than wait for foreign intervention – which they claim will never come.