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<p>The 2024 edition of the Africa Business Forum invited the public and private sector to have an open dialogue about Africa’s efforts to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the agenda 2063, the Africa we want. This Focus On brings key voices to highlight what needs to be done to boost Africa’s transformation through education, technology, and innovation.</p>


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Focus On ABF: Boosting Africa’s Transformation through Education, Science, Technology & Innovation

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<p>The Africa Business Forum 2024, a pivotal event which recently took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Spearheaded by Claver Gatete, the UN Deputy Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, this gathering marks a significant milestone in shaping the continent&#8217;s future. Under the overarching theme of &#8220;Boosting Africa’s Transformation through Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation,&#8221; leaders, innovators, and visionaries converge to explore pathways for sustainable growth and development.</p>


ABF 2024: Boosting Africa’s Transformation through Education, Science, Technology & Innovation

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<p>Africa Business Forum will be held under the theme, Boosting Africa’s transformation through education, science, technology, and innovation. The goal of the Africa Business Forum is to promote an on-going dialogue between the private and the public sectors in Africa to accelerate collective efforts towards realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, of the African Union. This segment will interrogate what it will take to realise the &#8220;Africa We Want&#8221; and reimagine Africa&#8217;s Tech and STEM future.</p>


Africa Business Forum 2024: Reimagining Africa’s Tech & STEM Future

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<p>A joint report by Appsflyer and Google shows that African mobile app market showed strong growth, with overall installs increasing by 41per cent.</p>


African mobile market records 41% rise in overall installations

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<p>In recently published data, Google says the search for survival funds for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria rose over five thousand per cent in the past 12 months as businesses explore ways to support their post-pandemic recovery. Olumide Balogun, Head of Consumer Apps for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Google: Search for MSME survival funds jumps 5000% in Nigeria

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<p>Google and the International Finance Corporation estimate that Africa’s internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2per cent of the continent’s GDP by 2025. This would contribute nearly $180 billion to the economy. Driving this growth is a combination of factors; including a vibrant start-up ecosystem, and Africa’s commitment to creating the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. Joining CNBC Africa to unpack the latest report from Google &#038; the IFC is Nitin Gajria, Director at Google Africa.</p>


Africa’s internet economy projected to grow to $180bn by 2025

Coronavirus updates: China reports 8 new cases, wife of Canadian PM tests positive

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Google has cancelled plans to buy a 12.5 per cent stake in Africa&#8217;s largest wind farm after delays to the project. The 310 megawatt (MW) Lake Turkana wind farm in Kenya was initially set for completion 2017, after which Google had committed to buy the stake from Danish wind turbine maker Vestas. Also the country set up two new facilities to test for the coronavirus. Initially, all samples taken from individuals suspected to have the virus were sent to South Africa. Rodney Omukhulu, Assistant Investments Analyst at Cytonn joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Why Google is opting out of Kenyan wind plant investment


<p>By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kate-rooney/">Kate Rooney</a><br><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Kr00ney" target="_blank">@KR00NEY</a> </p>



<p>

KEY POINTS</p>



<ul><li>The Square and Twitter CEO says he plans on spending up to six months in Africa and that “Africa will define the future.”</li><li>Microsoft, Facebook and Google are all involved in the continent with accelerator programs — Visa, Mastercard and Salesforce are making venture investments in African start-ups.</li><li>Early Facebook investor Jim Breyer says Africa “presents some fundamental leapfrog opportunities” that have been unlocked through the rise in mobile phones and other platforms.</li></ul>



<p>Jack Dorsey is in good company when it comes to Africa.</p>



<p>The CEO of <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TWTR">Twitter</a> and <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SQ">Square</a> <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/02/jack-dorseys-move-to-africa-raises-questions-for-investors.html">announced</a> in November that he would spend up to six months in the continent in 2020, with few specifics. But he’s one of dozens of U.S. CEOs and global venture capital investors seeing potential for technology disruption — and returns — throughout the continent.</p>



<p>“We’re seeing a lot of the investment opportunity and growth happening in the tech sector,” said Witney Schneidman, a Brookings fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative and former deputy secretary of state Clinton administration.</p>



<p>“Jack Dorsey is in the right place at the right time and investing the appropriate amount of time to begin to understand the complexity of the African market.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://twitter.com/jack"><img decoding="async" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1115644092329758721/AFjOr-K8_normal.jpg" alt=""/></a></figure>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jack"><strong>jack&nbsp;</strong><strong>✔</strong>@jack</a><a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1199774792917929984"></a></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f30d.png" alt="🌍"/></figure>



<p>Sad to be leaving the continent…for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1199774792917929984/photo/1"><img decoding="async" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKZ0osqXYAcLsMk?format=jpg&amp;name=small" alt="View image on Twitter"/></a></figure>



<p></p>



<p>Africa has a young and booming population, which Schneidman said makes it a “natural market for any tech entrepreneur.” The 54 countries in Africa have a combined population of 1.3 billion people with an average age of 19, and more than half of global population growth over the next 30 years will happen there, according to a recent UN report. Africa also has the largest population of underbanked and unbanked people in the world, making it appealing for companies in financial tech and payments.</p>



<p>Jim Breyer, an early Facebook investor and partner at Accel Partners, likened the investment opportunity to China in the early 2000s. Breyer, who’s now the founder of Breyer Capital and Co-Chairman of IDG Capital based in Beijing, said promising businesses in Africa haven’t necessarily invented something new — they’re finding “novel ways to leverage technology.”</p>



<p>“Africa similarly presents some fundamental leapfrog opportunities that have been unlocked through the use of mobile phones and other technology platforms,” said Breyer. “We’re seeing some of the smartest individuals from top academic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere return to the African continent, thereby contributing to a growing talent pool of entrepreneurs and developers.”</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Venture bets</h2>



<p>Major tech companies are taking notice and have launched start-up accelerator program to help get more companies off the ground.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT" class="">Microsoft</a>&nbsp;said in May that it will spend $100 million over five years on its first African development center, starting in Kenya and Nigeria.&nbsp;<a href="https://cchubnigeria.com/fbstart/" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL" class="">Google</a>&nbsp;both have African accelerator&nbsp;<a href="https://developers.google.com/community/launchpad/accelerators" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">programs</a>&nbsp;for local start-ups.</p>



<p>Chinese conglomerate Alibaba has a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/startup" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">program</a>. In December, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma published an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/opinion/jack-ma-africa-digital-economy.html" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">op-ed</a>&nbsp;in the New York Times outlining the “next digital revolution” driven by African entrepreneurs.</p>



<p>Some companies are going the venture capital route and placing strategic investments in African start-ups. Visa, for example, announced a 20% stake in African consumer-payments product PalmPay.</p>



<p>Online payment processor Flutterwave, based in Lagos and San Francisco, is another popular bet. It has partnerships with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>&nbsp;and Alipay and has raised money from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=CRM" class="">Salesforce</a>&nbsp;Ventures, Mastercard, and Google Developers Launchpad, among others, according to Pitchbook.</p>



<p>Breyer backed Ghanian healthcare company mPharma in 2017, which earlier this year acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain. He has also backed e-commerce company Sokowatch, Africa Health Holdings, Jetstream, and Apollo Agriculture.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Infrastructure opportunity</h2>



<p>Part of the opportunity is a lack of existing, legacy systems. Ben Lynett, another early investor in Sokowatch and founder of Lynett Capital, said that’s often an opportunity, not an obstacle.</p>



<p>“What we’re now seeing is missing infrastructure that tech can solve,” said Lynett, who began investing in Africa in 2016. “You have a lack of infrastructure and a potential leap-frog effect where things haven’t been build, but 2019 technology can come in and figure out what makes sense and apply it in a unique way.”</p>



<p>Valuations are also more “reasonable,” Lynett said. Of the more than 400 start-ups worth $1 billion or more only two are based in Africa, according to CB Insights.</p>



<p>Chinese venture investors have been upping their bets in the region. Two Nigerian fintech firms — Opay and PalmPay — raised more than $220 million from Chinese venture capital investors in the fourth quarter of 2019.</p>



<p>With those opportunities come headwinds. Lynett said scaling and finding enough technology-focused talent can be a challenge. Brookings’ Schneidman said knowing the rules and “ensuring the rules are consistent” across the 54 countries in Africa “can be a challenge” as well as finding local partners in that market can also be a headwind. But as valuations skyrocket in the U.S., there may be increased interest abroad.</p>



<p>“The venture capital world and Africa are still working hard to find each other,” he said. “The returns aren’t what investors are used to in the U.S. and Western Europe so we don’t see a flood at this point — but we do see people who understand the market.”</p>



<p><em>This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/jack-dorsey-follows-tech-companies-investors-in-africa-interest.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/jack-dorsey-follows-tech-companies-investors-in-africa-interest.html</a> and is republished with its permission </em></p>



<p></p>


Why Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and other major tech figures are suddenly interested in Africa

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<p>Google&#8217;s Country Manager for Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor says emerging technological innovations provide growth acceleration opportunities for Nigeria as well as solutions to Africa’s problems in radically different ways. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole caught up with her on the side-lines of Zenith Bank’s Tech Fair in Lagos.</p>


Google’s Ehimuan-Chiazor on how technology affects everyday life in Nigeria

Here’s what to expect from the third #GoogleforNigeria event


<p>By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/">Arjun Kharpal</a></p>



<p><a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL">Google</a> and its operations in <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/china/">China</a> have come under the spotlight in the past few days.</p>



<p>Billionaire investor Peter Thiel this week accused the U.S. technology giant of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/peter-thiel-reportedly-says-the-fbi-and-cia-should-investigate-google.html" class="">working with the Chinese military</a>&nbsp;and called for the U.S. government to investigate Google. In response,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" class="">President Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;said his administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/16/trump-administration-will-take-a-look-into-peter-thiels-claims-of-google-working-with-china.html" class="">will “take a look” into Google</a>.</p>



<p>The tech giant has denied working with the Chinese military.</p>



<p>Still, the controversy has sparked interest in what Google is doing in China. CNBC took a closer look at Google’s business dealings in China.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘Project Dragonfly’</h2>



<p>Google ended its search product in China in 2010 and is effectively blocked in the country. However, a report emerged last year that the search giant was looking to launch a censored version of its search app in China. The initiative,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-discusses-censored-search-app-in-china.html" class="">which the company acknowledged publicly</a>, was in its early stages. In China, all internet services are required to censor information which the government deems sensitive.</p>



<p>However, Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy at the company, Karan Bhatia, said this week that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/16/ted-cruz-confronts-google-with-internal-presentation-on-censorship.html" class="">Google had abandoned plans</a>&nbsp;for “Project Dragonfly,” the name of its China search product initiative.</p>



<p>So right now, Google is still blocked in China and can only be accessed via a virtual private network (VPN), which helps mask a user’s internet location.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A.I. research</h2>



<p>One of Thiel’s accusations is that Chinese spies have infiltrated Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) projects, but he did not provide any evidence.</p>



<p>Google does have AI projects in China though. In 2017, the company opened up an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/alphabets-google-opens-china-ai-centre.html" class="">AI research center in China</a>.</p>



<p>On its website, Google says AI research in China is focused on education and so-called natural language understanding — which refers to an AI technique focused on getting machines to understand human language. Google is looking to apply AI to auctioning so that the bidding process for ads can be more efficient. This could be important for Google, which operates an advertising marketplace.</p>



<p>In China, the work is also contributing to AI products that Google makes available globally, such as TensorFlow. This is an open source library that can help other companies develop AI products.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cloud computing</h2>



<p>Technology giants such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BABA" class="">Alibaba</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=700-HK" class="">Tencent</a>&nbsp;dominate the cloud market in China. So Google’s tactic is to try to sell its cloud products to Chinese firms that have international operations in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.</p>



<p>A search of Google job postings in China showed the company is looking for cloud computing engineers, data managers, sales and business development roles across Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.</p>



<p>The company is also hiring people to target customers in specific industries — from media and entertainment to manufacturing.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hardware</h2>



<p>Google sells a number of hardware products including smartphones, smart speakers and thermostats, under the Nest brand that it owns. Some of that is manufactured in China.</p>



<p>The company is currently advertising roles for engineers to test products and for manufacturing and supply chain managers. On LinkedIn, a number of Google employees in Shenzhen, a key technology hub in China, listed their jobs as hardware-related.</p>



<p>However, Bloomberg reported in June that Google was moving the production of some Nest thermostats and server hardware out of China to avoid tariffs from the U.S.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">App developers and the Google Play Store</h2>



<p>The Google Play Store, the company’s app store, is blocked in China. So Google is trying to work with app developers in China to help them bring their products onto the Play Store in international markets.</p>



<p>Under its job listings, Google advertised for two roles for a business development manager related to the play store.</p>



<p>“As a Business Development Manager of Google Play, you will empower developers to build successful businesses on Play/Android globally, and inspire the ecosystem to innovate on/invest in Android and Play,” the job description reads.</p>



<p>Google also has individual roles for the gaming section of the Google Play store. Games are a huge part of its app store.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Advertising</h2>



<p>Advertising is a core part of Google’s revenue but because its services are blocked in China, it can’t really sell ads on those platforms there. So the company focuses on Chinese businesses looking to advertise on Google platforms abroad, whether that is on its search engine, YouTube or something else.</p>



<p>One job that’s being advertised is for a business development consultant in Shanghai who will be “responsible for driving business growth and attracting new medium to large size advertisers for Google.” There are also people focused on getting advertisers from specific industries like retail or entertainment.</p>



<p>Overall, Google’s business in China is mostly aimed at getting Chinese companies to use its products outside of China.</p>



<p><em>This article first appeared on CNBC </em><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/google-china-what-businesses-the-search-giant-has-in-the-country.html"><em>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/google-china-what-businesses-the-search-giant-has-in-the-country.html</em></a><em> and is republished with its permission</em>.</p>


Google has been accused of working with China. Here’s what they’ve been doing there


<p>By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jade-scipioni/">Jade Scipioni</a></p>



<p>You might assume that as the second richest person in world with a net worth of <a class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">$107 billion</a>, Bill Gates doesn’t have a lot of <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/bill-gates-this-is-a-great-way-to-use-your-tech-skills.html">regrets</a>. But there is a big one that still eats away at him, he says.</p>



<p>Gates admitted his “greatest mistake ever” was allowing Google to develop Android — one of Apple’s biggest smartphone competitors — before Microsoft could develop a competing mobile operating system, he told Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Julia Hartz&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&amp;amp;v=W5g4sPi1wd4" class="">Thursday</a>&nbsp;at a Village Global event.</p>



<p>“That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win,” he said.</p>



<p>Gates said he blames his own poor “mismanagement,” since he didn’t guide his team to jump on the opportunity. He also partially blames Microsoft’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/technology/antitrust-tech-microsoft-lessons.html" class="">antitrust problems</a>&nbsp;in the early 2000′s for allowing Google to get ahead.</p>



<p>Google moved on mobile shortly after Apple did, when it acquired Android in 2005. Google later released it first Android device in September 2008, a little more than a year after Apple released its first iPhone on June 29,&nbsp;<a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/14/04/14/exclusive-android-docs-reveal-before-iphone-googles-plan-was-a-java-button-phone" class="">2007</a>.</p>



<p>“These are winner-takes-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is,” he said.</p>



<p>Gates added that there is now only room for one “non-Apple” operating system, and that market is worth $400 billion, he said.</p>



<p>He added that if Microsoft would have “got that one right,” Microsoft would be the top technology company in the game right now.</p>



<p>“We would be&nbsp;<em>the&nbsp;</em>company. But oh well, ” he said.</p>



<p>Despite Gates’ blunder, Microsoft still currently has the highest market cap of the contenders at&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT?p=MSFT&amp;amp;.tsrc=fin-srch" class="">$1 trillion</a>; Apple currently has a market cap of&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL?p=AAPL&amp;amp;.tsrc=fin-srch" class="">$918 billion</a>, with Alphabet Inc. (the conglomerate which owns Google since 2015) coming in at&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/" class="">$776 billion</a>.</p>



<p>“It’s amazing to me, having made one of the greatest mistakes of all time&#8230;our other assets — Windows, Office — are still very strong. So we are a leading company,” he said.</p>



<p><em>Correction: This story has been revised to correct that Google acquired Android in 2005.</em></p>



<p><em>This article first appeared on CNBC </em><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/bill-gates-says-his-biggest-mistake-was-not-beating-google-on-android.html"><em>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/bill-gates-says-his-biggest-mistake-was-not-beating-google-on-android.html</em></a><em> and is republished with its permission.</em></p>


Bill Gates reveals his ‘greatest mistake’ that potentially cost Microsoft $400 billion


<p>By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/lucy-handley/">Lucy Handley</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AMZN" class="">Amazon</a>&nbsp;has overtaken&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL" class="">Google</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AAPL" class="">Apple</a>&nbsp;to become the world’s most valuable brand at $315.5 billion, according to a ranking of global companies, up 52% on last year.</p>



<p>Apple comes second, valued at $309.5 billion, with Google in third place, at $309 billion, according to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking 2019, compiled by WPP research agency Kantar and released Tuesday.</p>



<p>Google and Apple had spent a combined 12 years at the top of the list, with Google taking the top spot in 2018.</p>



<p>Doreen Wang, Kantar’s global head of BrandZ, said Amazon’s jump was due to it selling a variety of services. “Amazon’s phenomenal brand value growth of almost $108 billion in the last year demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions. The boundaries are blurring as technology fluency allow brands, such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba, to offer a range of services across multiple consumer touchpoints,” she said in a statement emailed to CNBC.</p>



<p><a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/amazon-makes-several-start-up-investments-revenue-growth-slows.html">Amazon has been increasing investments in a range of companies</a> as its core business slows, including self-driving car start-up Aurora and electric truck company Rivian, as well as expanding <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/amazon-will-compete-with-fedex-and-ups-to-become-logistics-company.html">Amazon Air</a>, its airplane business. It bought online pharmacy PillPack for $753 million in 2018 and last month led a $575 million funding round into food delivery company Deliveroo.</p>



<p>Four of the BrandZ top ten were made up of more traditional brands including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MCD" class="">McDonald’s</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=T" class="">AT&amp;T</a>. Microsoft comes in at fourth place, as it did in 2018.</p>



<p>Technology companies have always dominated the ranking, with <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT">Microsoft</a> taking the top spot when BrandZ began in 2006. This year, Alibaba (valued at $131.2 billion) overtook Tencent ($130.9 billion) to become the most valuable Chinese brand. There is a total of 15 Chinese brands in the list of 100 companies, including mobile handset company Xiaomi (valued at $19.8 billion) and Meituan ($18.8 billion), a tech platform people can use to order food deliveries, book hotel rooms and arrange bike rentals.</p>



<p>David Roth, chair of BrandZ, said the companies that did well were those that mastered this new model of different services. “Brands need to understand the value this type of model can create and should embrace its approach to be successful in the future,” he said in an emailed statement.</p>



<p>Tech, finance and retail brands dominate the overall ranking, making up more than two-thirds of its value, while&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/the-luxury-sector-is-growing-faster-than-many-others-and-gucci-leads.html" class="">luxury is the fastest-growing category</a>.</p>



<p>To qualify for the ranking, brands must be publicly traded, or publish their financial results. BrandZ’s list combines measures of brand equity based on interviews with more than 3 million consumers about thousands of brands, with analysis of each company’s business and financial performance, using data from Kantar Worldpanel.</p>



<p><strong>The world’s most valuable brands 2019</strong></p>



<ol><li>Amazon $315.5 billion</li><li>Apple $309.5 billion</li><li>Google $309 billion</li><li>Microsoft $251.2 billion</li><li>Visa $177.9 billion</li><li>Facebook $159 billion</li><li>Alibaba $131.2 billion</li><li>Tencent $130.9 billion</li><li>McDonald’s $130.4 billion</li><li>AT&amp;T $108.4 billion</li></ol>



<p>Source: BrandZ</p>



<p><em>This article first appeared on CNBC </em><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/amazon-beats-apple-and-google-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-brand.html"><em>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/amazon-beats-apple-and-google-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-brand.html</em></a><em> and is republished with its permission.</em><br></p>


Amazon beats Apple and Google to become the world’s most valuable brand

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<p>U.S president Donald Trump spoke with CNBC in an exclusive interview about the country’s economic reforms and the role of the US in the global economy. Joining CNBC Africa to give analysis is Nadir Thokan, Investment Analyst at 27Four.</p>


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<p>This week Google acquired a business intelligence platform for $2.6 billion to support its cloud computing service. World leading organisations frequently use cloud services for decision making and product development, making it an important asset for businesses. In South Africa, Deloitte is encouraging CFO’S to leverage and learn about cloud in order optimize its use. Phillip Hechter, Leader of Finance and Enterprise Performance at Deloitte South Africa joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Why CFOs should being thinking about the cloud

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<p>Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services. This after the Trump administration added Huawei to a trade blacklist, restricting the company from effectively doing business with US companies. Phillip de Wet, Journalist at Business Insider joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


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