By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/">Catherine Clifford</a>* 



“I think it’s important to have a future that is inspiring and appealing. I just think there have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Like, why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future?” <a class="" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_future_we_re_building_and_boring/transcript">so says billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his 2017 TED talk</a>.



For Musk, that means building a reality where humans live on multiple planets. “And if we’re not out there, if the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multiplanet species, I find that it’s incredibly depressing if that’s not the future that we’re going to have,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_future_we_re_building_and_boring/transcript" class="">Musk says</a>.



And when Musk thinks about the future, he does so like an engineer — practically, carefully and with a flow chart of probable outcomes.



“I look at the future from the standpoint of probabilities. It’s like a branching stream of probabilities, and there are actions that we can take that affect those probabilities or that accelerate one thing or slow down another thing,” he says.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Indeed, with his electric car company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TSLA" class="">Tesla</a>, his spacecraft company SpaceX and his tunneling venture The Boring Company, the tech entrepreneur is says he’s helping shape the future.



As everyone looks toward 2019, here are three predictions for the future from the entrepreneur.&nbsp;In 7 to 10 years, the first humans will colonize Mars



In November, Musk said it will be seven to 10 years until the first group of humans colonize Mars.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">How soon will the first group go to colonize Mars?</blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">7 to 10 years</blockquote>



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In the same Twitter conversation, he said he imagines it will be “engineers, artists and creatives of all kinds” who will go to Mars first.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">A human landing on Mars is now not far away. I only hope the first wave of explorers will be poets &amp; not real estate developers&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/pvlFIQ936m" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-46351114?__twitter_impression=true&nbsp;…</a>The US space agency&#8217;s robot is the first mission aiming to study the Red Planet&#8217;s deep interior.</blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Engineers, artists &amp; creators of all kinds. There is so much to build.</blockquote>



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The SpaceX founder and CEO said there is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/26/elon-musk-says-there-is-a-70percent-probability-he-will-go-to-mars.html" class="">“70 percent” chance that he himself will go to Mars</a>, and that his space company “recently made a number of breakthroughs that I am just really fired up about,” he told Axios in November.



It will be incredibly risky for those who go first to Mars, Musk said.



“It’s gonna be hard, there’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space, you might land successfully, once you land successfully you’ll be working non-stop to build the base&nbsp;— so not much time for leisure&nbsp;— and once you get there, even after all this, there’s a very harsh environment, so there’s a good chance you’ll die there. We think you can come back but we’re not sure,” Musk told Axios.



SpaceX aims to get an unmanned cargo rocket to Mars in 2024, according to Musk. “Hopefully, there are people on board. But I think there’s a pretty good chance of at least having an unmanned craft go to Mars. I think we will try to do this,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/11/2/18053428/recode-decode-full-podcast-transcript-elon-musk-tesla-spacex-boring-company-kara-swisher" class="">Musk told Kara Swisher in</a>&nbsp;October.You will be able to connect your brain to computers in 10 years



As if Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company weren’t enough to keep Musk busy, he also has a company,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" class="">Neuralink</a>, that is “developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers,” as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" class="">the company’s website explains</a>.



“The long-term aspiration with Neuralink would be to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence…to achieve a sort of democratization of intelligence, such that it is not monopolistically held in a purely digital form by governments and large corporations,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-neuralink-9d351dbb-987b-4b63-9fdc-617182922c33.html" class="">Musk told Axios in November</a>.



That will be done by connecting computer electrodes to neurons in your brain — “a chip and a bunch of tiny wires” that will be “implanted in your skull,” Musk said.



“I believe this can be done. &#8230; It’s probably on the order of a decade,” he said.&nbsp;



If the idea of your intelligence being enhanced by computers seems wild, Musk says it’s starting now: “And by the way, you kind of have this already in a weird way: You have a digital tertiary layer in the form of your phone, your computers, your watch. You basically have these computing devices that form a tertiary layer on your cognition already,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-neuralink-9d351dbb-987b-4b63-9fdc-617182922c33.html" class="">Musk said, according to Axios</a>.Tesla’s ‘cyberpunk’ pickup truck prototype could be here in 2019



Musk has been pulling an insane schedule, working as many as 120 hours in a week, to get the Model 3 Tesla production ramped up, but he’s already touting new products.



“I’m dying to make a pickup truck so bad … we might have a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/elon-musk-tweets-about-tesla-pickup-truck-prototype-for-2019.html" class="">prototype to unveil next year</a>, ” he tweeted in December.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">When can I order my pickup truck?</blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">I’m dying to make a pickup truck so bad … we might have a prototype to unveil next year</blockquote>



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Musk has been relatively vague about the specifics of the truck — “Well I can’t talk about the details,” he told Swisher — but he was unabashed in expressing his own excitement.



“We’ve got the pickup truck, which — actually, I’m personally most excited about the pickup truck,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/11/2/18053428/recode-decode-full-podcast-transcript-elon-musk-tesla-spacex-boring-company-kara-swisher" class="">Musk told Swisher</a>&nbsp;in October. “It’s gonna be like a really futuristic like cyberpunk, ‘Blade Runner’ pickup truck.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105549329-1546278263071preview.png?v=1546278276&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="Tesla pickup truck sketch"/></figure>



A sketch of a Tesla pickup truck concept, revealed at the firm’s Semi truck and Roadster event in Hawthorne, California on November 16, 2017.Tesla



He continued: “It’s gonna be awesome, it’s gonna be amazing. … This will be heart-stopping. It stops my heart. It’s like, oh, it’s great.”



The Tesla boss says he isn’t particularly confident that there will be a large number of people who want to buy the first, ultra-futuristic version of the truck he has been dreaming about. If his design is not popular, then Tesla will make a more traditional truck body, he says.



“It’s like I really wanted something that’s like super-futuristic cyberpunk. Which, if it doesn’t &#8230; if I’m weirdly like &#8230; if there’s only a small number of people that like that truck, I guess we’ll make a more conventional truck in the future. But it’s the thing that I am personally most fired up about. It’s gonna have a lot of titanium,” Musk told Swisher.



*This article was first published on CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musks-predictions-for-the-future.html and is republished with its permission

African-born billionaire Elon Musk 3 predictions for the future

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/emma-newburger/">Emma Newburger*</a> 



We all have big goals for the new year, but with packed schedules, we often need to meet those goals while on the go.  



To keep you on track, motivated and inspired, CNBC Make It has collected the best self-improvement apps for Android phones and iPhones. These apps, recently named among the top tools by&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=campaign_editorial_bestof2018_best_self_improvement" class="">Google</a>and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/12/apple-presents-the-best-of-2018/" class="">Apple</a>, can help you get fit or even learn a new skill in the year ahead.



Download these seven apps now and get a head start on your goals for 2019.Mimo



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608553-1543949617937mimo.jpg?v=1543949645&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="Mimo"/></figure>



<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=campaign_editorial_bestof2018_best_self_improvement" class="">Mimo</a>, an app that helps you learn to write code, was named one of the best self improvement apps by Google Play. The app, available for iPhones or Android phones, offers colorful bite-sized lessons to make learning to code less daunting. Its simple exercises can help you fit learning this new skill into any routine.10% Happier



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105640480-154533654145510happier.png?v=1545336607&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="10% happier"/></figure>



<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/10-happier-meditation/id992210239?mt=8" class="">The 10% Happier</a>&nbsp;app, listed as one of Google Play’s best self improvement apps, makes meditation accessible and simple through daily videos, guided experiences and practical advice. It offers a clear, simple approach to meditation with a two-week class taught by Dan Harris (a former meditation skeptic and&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;bestselling author) and Joseph Goldstein (a renowned meditation teacher). The app is available for iPhones or Android phones.MasterClass



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608558-1543949929658capture.png?v=1543949959&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="MasterClass"/></figure>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yanka.mc" class="">MasterClass</a>&nbsp;app offers more than 45 classes taught by top personalities in their field allowing you an expert look at philosophies, processes and techniques for everything from writing to game design. You can learn to cook with Gordon Ramsay or take pictures with Annie Leibovitz on the app, which is available for iPhones or Android phones.Keep Trainer



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608564-1545327493975trainerapp2018.png?v=1545327529&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="Trainer"/></figure>



If it’s an at-home fitness app you’re looking for,&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gotokeep.keep.intl" class="">Keep Trainer</a>&nbsp;is free and requires no equipment. It has a range of workout plans complete with step-by-step instructions to help you reach your training goals. It is available for iPhones or Android phones.Language Drops



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608566-1543950159281capture5.png?v=1543950180&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="drops"/></figure>



<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.languagedrops.drops.international&amp;amp;hl=en_US" class="">Language Drops</a>, a free app that Google Play ranked as a top self improvement tool, offers the chance to learn 31 languages using short word games that make the process fun. After each session you’ll see your daily progress with a detailed report of all the words that you studied. The app is available for iPhones or Android phones.Fabulous



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608568-15439502476211200x630wa.png?v=1543950273&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="Fabulous"/></figure>



<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fabulous-motivate-me/id1203637303" class="">Fabulous</a>&nbsp;was ranked as one of Apple’s best apps of the year for self-care. The tool taps principles from behavioral economics to reset your habits and help you make lasting change in your life whether you’re looking to feel more energized, lose weight or sleep better. The app is available for iPhones or Android phones.Shine



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105608588-1543951232229capture6.png?v=1543951254&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="Shine"/></figure>



Apple presented <a class="" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shine-self-care-meditation/id1293721589">Shine</a> as one of the best apps for self-care in 2018. Features such as daily texts or motivational messages can give you a boost in the morning, a break in the afternoon or help you wind down before bedtime. The app covers topics like self-love, anxiety and burnout, and is available for the iPhone.



*This article first appeared on CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/20/apple-iphone-android-7-top-rated-self-improvement-apps.html and is republished with its permission

These 7 top-rated apps will make you smarter, calmer and healthier in 2019

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/">Todd Haselton*</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;knows an awful lot about you. In my research digging into what Facebook knows about me, I’ve found that it has a copy of every comment I’ve ever posted, every message I’ve sent, anything I’ve ever searched for, a log of exactly where and when I logged into my account and much more. It’s an astounding amount of data.



There’s good reason to worry about your private information being left in the company’s hands. Facebook hasn’t managed to keep its user’s info secure. A security breach just last month, for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/12/facebook-security-breach-details.html" class="">exposed the private information of 30 million accounts</a>. Of those 30 million, hackers gained access to 14 million accounts’ phone numbers, email addresses, gender, relationship statuses, recent check-ins and more.



Since I last&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/how-to-download-a-copy-of-facebook-data-about-you.html" class="">reported on the topic in May</a>, Facebook has made it easier for users to get a copy of their data. And lots of people seem to be doing so.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/11/20/18105541/facebook-user-data-request-download-delays-high-volume" class="">Recode</a>&nbsp;reported this week that users are experiencing delays while requesting their data, since so many people are asking for it at once. It suggests that people want to know what Facebook has, and that they may want to download all of that data before they delete their accounts.



Here’s how to download a copy of everything Facebook knows about you



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Visit Facebook’s website and log into your account.</li><li>Tap the arrow on the top-right of the page and select “Settings.”</li><li>On the left-side of the screen, select “Your Facebook Information.” It’s third down from the top.</li><li>Select “Download Your Information.”</li></ul>



You’ll see a screen that lets you download a copy of everything you’ve ever posted to Facebook: photos, videos, comments, likes and reactions, friends, people and businesses you follow, messages you’ve sent and received, groups you belong to, events and parties you’ve attended or received invites to, a copy of your profile information, your check-ins and more.



Make sure you check the box next to each item so that you’ve selected everything. The page looks like this:



That’s it. Facebook will then grab a copy of everything you’ve asked for and will send you a link to download the file to your email address. It might take a couple of days to get the full file, so be patient.



It knows a lot about me. When I&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/facebook-knows-a-lot-about-me.html" class="">downloaded my file earlier this year</a>&nbsp;I found:Facebook knew every social event I was invited to or attended through Facebook



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092316-social-events.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook social events"/></figure>



A list of every contact in my phone book



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092297-blur-contacts.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook Contacts"/></figure>



Advertisers with my contact information



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092295-advertisers-with-contact.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook Ads with contacts"/></figure>



Every ad topic I’d ever clicked



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092293-ad-topics.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook ad topics"/></figure>



Every time I logged into Facebook



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092310-log-in-times.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook log-in times"/></figure>



A copy of my timeline going back to when I joined in 2005



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092299-blur-timeline.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook Timeline history"/></figure>



Major life events like when I graduated from college in 2007



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092305-life-events.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook life events"/></figure>



Every video I’d ever watched on Facebook



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092349-videos-ive-watched.JPG?v=1522165574&amp;w=740&amp;h=" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook video history"/></figure>



Exactly where I was



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092308-location-history.JPG?v=1529477857" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook location history"/></figure>



A copy of every photo I’d ever uploaded



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105092321-facebook-photos.JPG?v=1529477858" alt="CNBC Tech: Facebook photos"/></figure>



And more&#8230;



There’s a lot to dig through. But, now that you have your information, you can take it and store it somewhere else. Then, you can delete your account from Facebook.How to delete your Facebook account



If you want to delete your Facebook account entirely, you can do that.



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Just visit this link:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account" class="">http://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account</a>.</li><li>Then, select “Delete Account.”</li><li>You’ll have to enter in your password one more time to confirm that it’s you.</li></ul>



Once you delete your account, everything you’ve posted “will be permanently deleted,” according to Facebook, and you won’t be able to get it back. That’s why you should download everything first. Also, you won’t be able to use Facebook login if you’ve set it up for Spotify or other apps that let you use your Facebook username and password to log in.



If you want to save all of that and temporarily deactivate your account, you can do that, too.How to temporarily deactivate your Facebook account



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Visit Facebook’s website.</li><li>Tap the arrow on the top-right of the screen.</li><li>Tap “Settings.”</li><li>Tap “Manage Account.”</li><li>Tap “Deactivate your account.”</li><li>Enter in your password to confirm.</li><li></li></ul>



This article first appeared on CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/21/how-to-download-your-facebook-data.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain and is republished with its permission

Want to know what Facebook knows about you? Here’s how to download a copy

By Sebuh Haileleul, Country General Manager, Microsoft East Africa 



Digital transformation is the adoption of advanced technologies and the rise of innovations as companies and individuals reorganise to be mobile- and digital-first, multimodal, and intelligence-driven. It is a catalyst for engendering agility, and has become crucial for organisations to stay competitive, achieve successes, and even survive. 



A key enabler of this is artificial intelligence,which has been dubbed a ‘great transformer’. Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems that change their behaviours without being explicitly programmed to do so – simply put, they learn. These systems use things like aggregated data, usage analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive analytics to deliver intuitive insights or make choices, improving efficiency and even shifting business models across all sectors. It is also expected to ultimately boost overall economic growth, and create jobs not yet imagined. 



Transforming
organisations and industry



AI, machine learning, and automation are expected to provide organisations with new means to overcome typical challenges like time constraints, limited skilled resources, and bottlenecks to overall business processes. It can also be used to support security and safety systems,to spot anomalies and patterns. 



AI platforms will support critical systems to run securely and reliably and extract the right information. That’s why we want to see AI embraced in Africa, bringing AI to every application, business process, and every employee. AI technology from Microsoft, for example, is enabling accident prevention through computer vision – scanning video inputs for potential risk, and using this information to improve organisational safety going forward. 



Empowering societies



We believe that AI has the potential to empower people – making the world a better place and Africa will not be left behind. Microsoft has invested $115 million over five years into initiatives that provide funding, technology and expertise to nonprofits and organisations so that they can tackle pressing issues within their own societies. Examples of this exists in <a href="https://www.cio.co.ke/news/little-boosts-platform-security-face-api-part-microsoft-cognitive-services/">Little Cab</a> – a Kenyan cab hailing service. In 2017, LittleCab partnered with Microsoft to launch a driver login verification feature on its app, using facial recognition technology provided by <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/face/">Microsoft Cognitive API</a> and selfies. A smart African-grown system like this ensures that riders have peace of mind while using the service, as it eliminates the opportunity for non-registered drivers to pose as Little Cab drivers.



Within the financial services industry, AI is the underlying tech that helped Finserve launched <a href="https://techweez.com/2018/09/03/finserve-mkey-launch/">mKey</a> – Africa’s first keyboard app that converges social,and financial services into an integrated lifestyle. Operating on MicrosoftAzure technology, it also rewards users the more they transact, blending the best of social conversations with the full breadth of financial services,capturing that entire world on your keyboard, giving users the opportunity to make more possible.



Transforming economies



It is said that by 2050, the need to produce food globally will become crucial. With water levels receding and arable land already limited, the agriculture industry has been placed in the spotlight for needing to adopt innovative technologies crucial to long-term survival. At a time where resources and crops need to be tracked – AI enabled data-driven insights are able to boost agricultural productivity through increasing yields and reducing losses. Through <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/farmbeats-iot-agriculture/">Farmbeats</a>,seamless data collection is collected from various sensors, drones and cameras. The solution also accounts for weather-related power and Internet outages. 



Clearly the potential inherent in AI is huge, but the emergence of AI in combination with automation has also prompted fears – specifically about its long-term impact on employment. Opponents caution that many people may stand to lose their jobs to machines fitted with AI capabilities, particularly at the lower-skill end of the spectrum.



Proponents, on the other hand, argue that new or refreshed industries will benefit from AI, which according to some research will actually create more jobs than it makes obsolete. Additionally Gartner reports that AI augmentation will generate about $2.9 trillion in business value and recover about $6.2 billion in worker productivity by 2021. Others argue that AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030,more than the current output of China and India combined. 



At Microsoft, we do not foresee AI fully replacing humans in the workforce, but rather functioning as a tool that augments human abilities, freeing up people from routine, repetitive tasks, to focus instead on higher reasoning, creativity, and relationship-building –skills that remain uniquely human. 



Microsoft’s vision for AI is one of empowerment – technology providing organisations and individuals with the tools required to innovate and perform to the best of their ability. Our approach of making AI accessible through infusing it in everything we do will only add and streamline the greater agenda of governments, forging the way forward to an all encompassed digital society.

Op-Ed: How artificial intelligence is spearheading unprecedented change in Africa

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/camaren-peter-605380">Camaren Peter</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>


In 1967 one gigabyte of hard drive storage space <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3182207/data-storage/cw50-data-storage-goes-from-1m-to-2-cents-per-gigabyte.html">cost US$ 1m</a>. Today it’s around two US cents. Computer processing power has also increased exponentially: it <a href="https://www.offgridweb.com/preparation/infographic-the-growth-of-computer-processing-power/">doubles</a> every two years. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to technological progress in the 21st century.

There have also been tremendous advances in communication technology; robotics; nanotechnology; genetics and artificial intelligence, among other things. This merging of digital, physical and biological worlds has come to be known as the “<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/">fourth industrial revolution</a>”.

So far, relatively little attention has been paid to the overwhelming potential of the fourth industrial revolution to catalyse much needed transitions to a more sustainable society – particularly in the developing world.

This is slowly starting to shift. The World Economic Forum recently published a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/projects/fourth-industrial-revolution-and-environment-the-stanford-dialogues">set of briefs</a> as part of its “Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security System Initiative”. These documents have begun to address some key questions around the potential role of the fourth industrial revolution in supporting a sustainable development agenda.

There are many compelling reasons for combining the offerings of the fourth industrial revolution with new green technologies, infrastructures and systems to tackle the developing world’s challenges. Multiple benefits can be realised through introducing these offerings in new, <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-11-20-changing-the-system-for-sustainable-development/">innovative ways that are customised for local contexts</a>.

These green technologies <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_098484.pdf">can generate employment</a>, <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/state-of-african-cities-2014-re-imagining-sustainable-urban-transitions/">ease pressure</a> on infrastructure in rapidly growing cities and <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/state-of-african-cities-2014-re-imagining-sustainable-urban-transitions/">lower energy costs</a>, especially for poorer households.

<h2>Chance for change</h2>

Unplanned slums and informal settlements present <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/state-of-african-cities-2014-re-imagining-sustainable-urban-transitions/">systemic problems</a> in most developing world cities. This is particularly the case in both large, established and smaller, emerging African cities. Municipalities are under strain. They simply don’t have enough bulk infrastructure – water, sanitation, electricity and waste management facilities – to cater for growing populations.

The value of green technologies and systems is that they are largely decentralised or semi-decentralised. Examples include solar panels, energy saving devices, and small-scale wind and hydro energy technologies. These don’t require major infrastructure investment. And their decentralised nature enables them to keep up with cities as they change. 

The introduction of green technology solutions and systems can also <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/state-of-african-cities-2014-re-imagining-sustainable-urban-transitions/">bring down household costs</a>. Between 50 and 70% of poor African households’ budgets are spent on <a href="http://r-santaeulalia.net/pdfs/CrossSecSSA.pdf">food, water, energy</a> and <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/967821470756082684/pdf/WPS7789.pdf">transport</a>. This makes them vulnerable to external shocks such as sharp rises in the costs of electricity, oil and petroleum, food and water. 

These factors are also interlinked: for example, if oil prices rise, so do the costs of transport and food. That places extra pressure on already struggling households.

Green technologies can buffer poor households from these shocks by decoupling them from their dependence on local grids and provincial, national or global supply systems.

That’s at a household level. Then there’s the bigger picture. Absorbing green and sustainable technologies can help seed small to medium enterprises on <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecoap/news/world-bank-smes-have-16tr-clean-tech-opportunity_en">a large scale</a> and <a href="http://www.g20-insights.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/05_Climate_Innovative-green-technology....pdf">increase their investment appeal</a>.

This, in turn, can drive economic growth and get cash circulating at the levels where it’s most needed.

Introducing new technologies to a city is a great job creator. People are needed to install solar panels, solar water heaters, biogas digesters, energy savings devices; or to set up urban agriculture and permaculture operations. There are already <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/state-of-african-cities-2014-re-imagining-sustainable-urban-transitions/">examples of this</a> in several African cities.

<h2>Unlocking opportunities</h2>

And, perhaps the biggest boon of them all: the fourth industrial revolution presents a massive opportunity to leapfrog African countries’ productive economies into a wholly new space.

Economic diversification and development on the continent could benefit considerably from harnessing the opportunities emerging in the green technology and fourth industrial revolution spaces. This will shift them onto a significantly new economic growth and developmental trajectory. It will also go a long way towards ensuring that as emerging economies develop, they will do so in a manner that doesn’t exacerbate climate change and environmental degradation. 

A number of African countries are already positioning themselves to harness this opportunity. Both <a href="http://gggi.org/is-rwanda-heading-towards-green-growth-pathway/">Rwanda</a> and <a href="http://www.greengrowthknowledge.org/national-documents/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-climate-resilient-green-economy-green-economy-strategy">Ethiopia</a>, for example, have placed green economic development and sustainability at the heart of their national economic development strategies and plans. More recently, Kenya <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Kenya-to-move-to-green-energy-by-2020--says-President/1056-4848856-pc34xi/index.html">has committed</a> to actualising a 100% transition to green energy by 2020.

Other African countries would do well to follow these nations’ examples. The fourth industrial revolution is here. Combining it with green technology is a way for the continent to benefit at all levels.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107722/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/camaren-peter-605380">Camaren Peter</a>, Associate Professor, Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership, GSB, UCT; Executive Head,Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-african-cities-can-harness-green-technologies-for-growth-and-jobs-107722">original article</a>.

Green technologies can generate growth and employment, here’s how African cities can utilize them

South Africa&#8217;s former President Jacob Zuma almost brought down Twitter this morning when he opened an account, a day after he was ordered to pay his own legal fees. By 12pm he had 22 000 followers and uBaba was trending. 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Welcome Msholozi&#8230;let&#39;s get to the business. What were the reasons outlined to you by ANC <a href="https://twitter.com/MYANC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MYANC</a> to remove you from office?? Bathi wenzeni.&mdash; Phistomshini (@Phistomshini1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Phistomshini1/status/1073488680910766080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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He is sure to spice up the Twittersphere.





<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Good morning Mzansi Thank you for the warm welcome, I look forward to engaging with you. <a href="https://t.co/sr1MhSNf0F">pic.twitter.com/sr1MhSNf0F</a>&mdash; Jacob G Zuma (@PresJGZuma) <a href="https://twitter.com/PresJGZuma/status/1073474576334635008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Thousands of tweeps welcomed him:



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Welcome Baba! ? please don’t forget to hit us with your singing video once in a while?&mdash; Mmadikgosi Matshego (@Mmadikgosi_23) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mmadikgosi_23/status/1073485123646095360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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SA’s former President Jacob Zuma joins Twitter as ordered to pay own legal fees

By Oluyede Ajayi, Senior Programme Coordinator at the ACP-EU Technical Center for Agriculture (CTA) based in the Netherlands
Walmart. Amazon. Tesla. Many of the world’s biggest businesses started small &#8211; and would not be where they are today without the help of start-up loans.
But in sub-Saharan Africa, the small businesses providing on average <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/what-is-africas-agriculture-potential/">24 per cent of GDP</a> across the continent are receiving a meagre one percent of bank lending.
These are Africa’s smallholder farmers, who constitute over half the continent’s population, and are tasked with feeding an ever-expanding and increasingly hungry population.
One reason funds are so hard to come by, is the inherent risk involved in farming that is so subject to erratic weather.
Sufficient investment will never be unlocked while farmers’ future profits remain so uncertain. Yet the African food and beverage market is projected to be worth $1 <a href="http://www.farmingfirst.org/africanag">trillion dollars</a> by 2030, if the right investments are made. We need to find ways to open up African agriculture to this investment, even in the face of a changing climate.
READ: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2018/11/16/autonomous-farming-has-arrived-what-africans-should-know/">Autonomous farming has arrived, what Africans should know</a>
Over 4,000 farmers in Uganda’s mountainous south-western region of Butare are one step closer to achieving this. They have set up <a href="https://www.cta.int/en/article/all-eyes-on-the-sky-sid0b22d7569-15c0-4a7f-b07b-638524d829c1">digital profiles</a>, which map the location, size and productivity and their farms.  Unmanned aerial vehicles have been surveying the skies to collect complementary information. When combined, this data is able to act as collateral for these farmers to receive fertilizer and credit to grow their business. The data gives a credible forecast of what farmers need, and whether they will be able to repay loans.
This approach of digitally profiling farmers is among our best bets to strengthen their operations, and unlock financing.
Centralizing data on farmers’ needs makes it easier to deliver bespoke advice, and services like weather forecasting to help improve resilience to weather shocks. In southern Africa, 74,000 farmers have been digitally profiled in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi to this end.
<a href="https://www.cta.int/en/blog/article/climate-change-in-southern-africa-information-is-power-sid0a9c9e9aa-dc94-4172-9078-9cc0044b2fa6">Phineas Muyabi</a> is living proof that this works. When he retired from the Zambian army in 2001, he invested his lump sum payment in seeds and other agricultural inputs. But drought destroyed his crops and over the next few years his family had to rely on food aid.
Now, he receives weather alerts and farming tips via SMS, as part of a regional project to improve the resilience of cereal and livestock farmers in Southern Africa, led by CTA. A digital platform hosted by the Zambia Open University collates data collected by the Zambia National Agricultural Information Service.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, this alert system is offered together with a weather insurance product, known as the <a href="https://www.ecofarmer.co.zw/subscription-services/zfu-ecofarmer-combo">EcoFarmer</a> “combo”, which allows farmers to insure their crops against the risk of excessive rainfall and excessive dry days for as little as $1 per month.
These digital innovations will be the key to unlocking the investment that African agriculture needs to reach its potential. What will be the key to ensuring their uptake?
Some technology roll-out programmes rely on the appeal of their products alone. For cash-poor, risk-averse farmers, this is rarely enough to entice them on board. This is why the EcoFarmer combo is a “bundled” solution. It provides access to agronomic advice, seeds, and weather insurance (a relatively new concept for farmers) as well as funeral insurance (a product that is well known to farmers). This offers farmers multiple layers of protection, and creates an entry point for new technological approaches to take hold.
Funding to improve telecommunications infrastructure is also going to be extremely important. Between 1998 and 2008, total private sector investment in telecoms in sub-Saharan Africa reached <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/AFRICAEXT/Resources/258643-1271798012256/ICT-19.pdf">$49 billion</a>, mainly in the mobile market. To ensure this type of investment can continue, African governments need to pave the way for telecoms markets to thrive, by providing the necessary investment-friendly policies, and well-functioning regulatory institutional frameworks to ensure this type of private sector investment can continue into the future.
Encouraging countries with similar climatic conditions to come together and pool resources, will also reduce the risk involved in setting up systems for something as complex and technical as weather-based insurance. The seeds have already been sown for this type of collaboration in southern Africa and will allow significantly more farmers to benefit from the technology.
The United Nations climate change conference in Poland is an important moment to make this case. While actors <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/agriculture-advantage-20-event-series-cop24">debate how to transform our food system</a> under a changing climate, boosting investment in the region that is home to six of the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change must be a priority.
Back in Uganda, a newly trained 25-year-old air-to-ground surveillance expert summed up the potential digital innovations present for African farming as he flew a drone over the Igara tea factory plantation. “With this technology,” he said, “the sky is the limit.”

Op:Ed: These digital innovations will be the key to unlocking the investment that African agriculture needs…

Leah Olson (42), CEO of SeedMaster, Mfg and DOT Technologies is not your typical woman CEO. She is a farmer, hails for Saskatoon, the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, has an MBA, she is a level two certified rugby coach and is not afraid to apply the principles of rugby in her leadership style. Just like in rugby where you often have the right person in the wrong role and have to move them around, so she does this in the corporate world, Olson tells CNBC Africa during the 2018 Farms.com Precision Agriculture Conference, where she is speaking, a week after getting married. But what is most remarkable about Olson is she is heading up a revolution in farming that will likely have the same impact Ford Motor Company, had on the horse-drawn carriage. She is spearheading the charge into autonomous farming and Olson says she will do so safely.
With Africa on the precipice of its own agriculture revolution technologies like these could speed up the process of putting the continent’s 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land to use, watch the video for more on what Olson had to say on this.
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Olson’s startup DOT is the only autonomous equipment manufacturer in the world. It provides farmers with an autonomous mobile diesel-powered platform designed to handle a large variety of implements, see video. According to DOT’s brochure, the “U-shaped frame facilitates the direct loading of implements, so that once loaded the implements becomes one with the mobile powered platform”.
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One such implement that has already been designed is a 30’ air seeded 60’ spray with 1000 gallon tank, 41’ land roller and a 500 bushel grain cart.
Both will be commercially available by the first half of next year.
Africans have the opportunity to build their own implements that could be added to DOT.
Olson reckons DOT will help farmers reduce their soil compaction, CO2 emissions, use less fuel, and labour, reduce equipment capital costs, help them become more efficient and more profitable.
The daughter of an inventor, calls Dot the tip of the iceberg
She asks “When you take the farmer out of cab what decisions are you going to make?”
*Monique Vanek was hosted in Saskatoon by Global Affairs Canada

Autonomous farming has arrived, what Africans should know

ZURICH, Oct 26 (Reuters) &#8211; Swiss luxury group Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA and Chinese group Alibaba are joining forces to target the Chinese retail market, Richemont said on Friday.
The strategic partnership will feature retail offerings of Yoox Net-a-Porter Group S.p.A. (YNAP), the online luxury retailer, to Chinese consumers.
Under the partnership, YNAP and Alibaba will establish a joint venture to launch two mobile apps for the Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter multi-brand, in-season online stores for consumers in China.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

What you need to know about Richemont and Alibaba’s strategic partnership

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238442/original/file-20180928-48653-n3qtif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20180928 48653 n3qtif.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>A humanities degree can open people’s minds in the fourth industrial revolution. 
Shutterstock&nbsp;
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ruksana-osman-170385">Ruksana Osman</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>
The term “<a href="https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab">fourth industrial revolution</a>” is understood in various ways. Some people are excited about it. Others are cautious. Some assume it means that technology and robots will take over every human activity. And still others imagine that this “revolution” will lead only to joblessness and automation.
There are also those who are sceptical and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/there-s-no-such-thing-as-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-a7441966.html%20and%20insist%20that">insist</a> it’s no revolution at all. They argue that it’s just an improvement and fusion of various technologies – like artificial intelligence and 3D printing – and acceleration in productivity.
In all these instances, the interaction of technology with humans and humans with technology is underestimated. The emphasis on interaction is key to understanding the fourth industrial revolution. And this epoch will, like all times of change, require universities to push the boundaries of teaching and learning.
Universities will need to ensure that students are equipped with approaches to learning that involve agility, adaptability and curiosity. It will be a challenge for us all.
The fourth industrial revolution will also raise many questions for universities to consider. What needs to shift in how lecturers teach and how students learn and will be learning? What does the blurring of the lines between the physical, digital and technological mean for social relationships and for student learning? What do these shifts mean for different countries? Is learning in an environment with peers (virtually or in a class) better than learning online?
In seeking answers, societies must create the space to have conversations across social, academic, industry and community boundaries. The purpose of these conversations is to determine priority areas that need to be improved by the rapid technological changes we are currently experiencing as well as thinking about how we redefine the human condition.
Universities have a crucial role to play in these conversations. And a humanities education has a lot to offer when it comes to preparing students for the fourth industrial revolution.
<h2>Harnessing the humanities</h2>
A humanities education inculcates the importance of reflecting on the vast array of methodological and societal issues that arise from any practices. These include the technological and computational practices that underpin the fourth industrial revolution.
Critical thinking, debating and creative problem solving are taught in the humanities. This kind of critical orientation allows students to explore the complex human-to-human relations and the <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-09/human-vs-machine.html">human to robotic relations</a> that we are already encountering and that will become ever more common.
This isn’t to suggest that only the humanities are relevant. Cross-disciplinary communities of researchers and educators matter and will matter now more than ever.
This is particularly true in South Africa where the education system hasn’t provided for the breaking down of boundaries between the sciences, let alone between the disciplines in the humanities. Collectively we will need to do more when it comes to drawing on approaches from various disciplines, which will allow for quantitative reasoning, problem solving and systems thinking that are socially relevant.
Such partnerships are already happening in small pockets, and are yielding promising results.
<h2>Collaborating and mutuality</h2>
For instance, the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg collaborates with the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment to offer a <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/wsoa/digital-arts/undergraduate/game-design-/">joint undergraduate programme</a> that meshes engineering with arts to make a programme in game design and digital arts.
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Engineering students work alongside each other in courses that are team-taught to design innovative high tech games. It’s not all fun: games, after all, are a means of challenging ourselves, controlling outcomes, competing, and figuring out successful strategies of doing things.
Students from this programme draw on a variety of skills like problem solving, inferential thinking and visualisation. They have produced games that are frequently downloaded from various app stores.
Similarly, the university’s faculties of science and humanities offer a postgraduate programme on <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/course-finder/postgraduate/humanities/e-science/">e-Science</a> or Data Science. The programme brings together science and humanities students and staff to work on complex, big data problems. They’re also taught to think of ways to visualise and communicate this information and to question the predictive powers of big data.
Students are exposed to various interdisciplinary approaches like statistical computing and modelling, data visualisation, text analysis, and geographical information systems. Master of Arts students take courses in data privacy and ethics alongside MSc students. This course is team-taught and students engage with complex problems from two or more science and humanities disciplines.
These and other examples of innovative teaching and learning help to disrupt the current techno talk that dominates conversations about the fourth industrial revolution. It’s essential that we bring our ideas to the fore and reshape the conversations in ways that resonate with who we are, where we are located and what this means for us and our futures.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103925/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ruksana-osman-170385">Ruksana Osman</a>, Professor and Dean of Humanities, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-humanities-can-equip-students-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-103925">original article</a>.

Can the humanities prepare African students for the fourth industrial revolution?

<a href="https://platform.younoodle.com/competition/africas_top_30_tech_startups"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-317893" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/12005_ACC_Forbes-Top30_Emailer_Man_800x610-e1536511592214.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="610" /></a>
Accenture is on the hunt to find Africa’s top tech start-up superstars – the digital pioneers solving critical challenges with technology across the continent. It’s a search for Africa’s big thinkers and big doers – visionaries who fearlessly push the boundaries of progress to shift African innovation to the next level.
Around the world, diverse players are coming together – forming new ecosystems to solve social and business problems. Africa is no exception. Some of the most pivotal parts within these ecosystems are the disruptive tech solution providers – those creating new ways of solving problems, supplying innovative products and offering faster development times and cost-effective delivery.
The Africa top 30 tech start-ups initiative, powered by Accenture Africa alongside publication partner Forbes, runs as part of Accenture’s market-leading focus on open innovation. “Open innovation allows a path for collaboration between established businesses and innovative start-ups with great products, but no direct route to market,” says Sandiso Sibisi, Open Innovation Africa Lead at Accenture South Africa. “African start-ups often struggle to find an opportunity to plug their great technologies into established client value chains. Yet, with the right support, this all becomes possible, opening the doors to amazing opportunities for value creation, benefiting Africa and its people.”
About the initiative
The initiative is open to start-ups from across Africa who are solving the continent’s challenges in business, government, civil society and more. All qualifying entrants are welcome (see rules below). Accenture is also particularly interested in entrants working in the spheres of artificial intelligence, blockchain and security, big data and analytics capabilities, Industry X.0, DevTech and Automation as well as extended reality.
Through careful research and field surveying, Africa’s Top 30 tech start-ups will list and fairly reward Africa’s best. The judging panel will include directors of VCs, tech incubators and accelerators from across the continent, academics as well as corporate sector specialists familiar with open innovation and the integration of start-up technologies into established value chains.
In addition to media exposure, listed companies will also participate in the Accenture Africa led Corporate Market Access Week taking place in Johannesburg in February 2019, where they will have an opportunity to showcase their offerings, sell their ideas to corporates, learn how to pitch for new business, and co-create solutions based on issues faced by Accenture clients. They will also get a chance to display their offerings within the Accenture South Africa’s Liquid Studio for a year and be part of the global Accenture Open Innovation network.
The judging process
Entrants will undergo two rounds of judging. Round 1 will involve quantitative assessments and questionnaires, after which a longlist of top candidates will be decided upon.
Round 2 will identify the final top 30, with judging including a set of qualitative survey questions and analysis of key business metrics, among others.
Rules, important information and how to enter
Applications for Africa’s Top 30 start-ups opened 07 September and will close 07 October 2018.
List of top start-ups will be finalised November 30th and announced alongside the survey results in the Feb/Mar 2019 edition of Forbes Magazine.
Highlights and results of the research process will be published alongside the Africa’s top 30 tech start-ups.
To qualify, start-ups must:
<ul>
<li>Be an African start-up, founded by an African</li>
<li>Be a registered business</li>
<li>Have been in operation for less than 9 years</li>
<li>Demonstrate innovation</li>
<li>Target and fill a significant market gap</li>
<li>Demonstrate exponential growth</li>
<li>Provide a product or service unconstrained by geography</li>
</ul>
Additional evaluation criteria will include, but not be limited to, businesses’ financial metrics and performance, innovation measures, team experience, knowledge and media attention. Number of employees, impact creation, representation of diversity, patents, business models and more will also be factored into the judges’ final decision.
To enter, visit <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__platform.younoodle.com_competition_africas-5Ftop-5F30-5Ftech-5Fstartups&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=eIGjsITfXP_y-DLLX0uEHXJvU8nOHrUK8IrwNKOtkVU&amp;r=O_d6gfGZe3omUngrk9mlhituvBHT9ju2h9DEa9g5Cz0&amp;m=nM3PXdtowo-SBRBnVFCCn4XtlFK2k3XKKVannZYiWZg&amp;s=-c_g_4vPlaGntyIhl__p_gXbqJW076fRaPXJOQWBqeQ&amp;e=">https://platform.younoodle.com/competition/africas_top_30_tech_startups</a> and follow the instructions.
Fire Starters don’t wait in line. They see further and reach further, always going beyond to solve the challenges they know they can find unique solutions to. Accenture seeks to recognise these unique start-ups and accelerate the transformation of how Africans everywhere work and live.
&nbsp;

In search of Africa’s Top 30 tech start-ups is open for entries

<ul>
<li>Alibaba said on Monday that CEO Daniel Zhang will take over as chairman of the board in a year, succeeding current executive chairman Jack Ma.</li>
<li>Ma will remain in his role as executive chairman for the next 12 months to ensure a smooth transition.</li>
<li>Ma, a former English teacher, co-founded Alibaba, which started as an e-commerce marketplace and has expanded to become a global tech juggernaut.</li>
</ul>
By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a>
<a class="inline_quotes" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/10/alibaba-jack-ma-succession-plan-daniel-zhang-to-take-over-as-chairman.html" data-gdsid="">Alibaba</a> on Monday said that chief executive officer Daniel Zhang will succeed <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jack-ma/">Jack Ma</a> as chairman of the board, starting September 10, 2019.
Ma will continue as executive chairman at Alibaba over the next 12 months for a smooth transition of the chairmanship to Zhang, the company said in a statement. After that, he intends to stay on the Alibaba board of directors until the 2020 annual shareholders meeting.
In a letter to Alibaba&#8217;s customers and shareholders, Ma said the transition &#8220;demonstrates that Alibaba has stepped up to the next level of corporate governance from a company that relies on individuals, to one built on systems of organizational excellence and a culture of talent development.&#8221;
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&#8220;Starting the process of passing the Alibaba torch to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time, because I know from working with them that they are ready, and I have complete confidence in our next generation of leaders,&#8221; Ma wrote. He added that he plans to continue his role as the founding partner in the Alibaba Partnership, which is a group made up of 36 senior leaders entrusted with the company&#8217;s mission, vision and values.
&#8220;I also want to return to education, which excites me with so much blessing because this is what I love to do,&#8221; he said.
The move to appoint Zhang as a successor to Ma was not at all surprising, Gil Luria, director of research at financial services firm D.A. Davidson &amp; Co, told CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/asia-squawk-box/">Squawk Box</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;(Ma) stepped back five years ago to become chairman,&#8221; Luria said, adding that Ma had left the stage for Zhang, Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai, Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu and others to take over. &#8220;He&#8217;s done, he&#8217;s already worked on the succession for years. It seems to be going in a fairly orderly fashion.&#8221;
Luria also said not to expect too many changes as a result of the leadership succession.
&#8220;The communication to the outside world beyond the investment community may be a little different without Jack Ma. He&#8217;s a very colorful, charismatic figure, and that aspect of communication may go away,&#8221; he said. But the strategies put in place at the tech giant, including <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/18/alibaba-hema-stores-blend-online-and-offline-retail.html">an online-to-offline new retail strategy</a>, belong to Zhang, Luria added. &#8220;It&#8217;s his company now and as chairman, (Zhang) would most likely continue those strategies.&#8221;
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Last week, <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/technology/alibaba-jack-ma-retiring.html">a report by The New York Times</a> said that the billionaire was retiring on Monday from the company he helped found, and that it would&#8217;ve made him one of the first founders among a generation of prominent Chinese internet entrepreneurs to step down. On Saturday, the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, quoted a spokesman saying the Times&#8217; report was <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack-ma-remain-alibabas-chairman-succession-plan-younger-talent">factually inaccurate, and taken out of context.</a>
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<h4 class="subtitle">Read Jack Ma&#8217;s full letter to Alibaba shareholders and customers below:</h4>
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<blockquote>Dear Alibaba customers, Aliren, and shareholders,
Today, as we mark the 19th anniversary of Alibaba, I am excited to share some news with you: 
with the approval of our board of directors, one year from today on September 10, 2019 which also falls on Alibaba&#8217;s 20th anniversary, Group CEO Daniel Zhang will succeed me as chairman of the board of Alibaba Group. While remaining as executive chairman in the next 12 months, I will work closely with Daniel to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Thereafter, I will stay on the Alibaba board of directors until our annual shareholders meeting in 2020.
I have put a lot of thought and preparation into this succession plan for ten years. I am delighted to announce the plan today thanks to the support of the Alibaba Partnership and our board of directors. I also want to offer special thanks to all Alibaba colleagues and your families, because your trust, support and our joint enterprise over the past 19 years have prepared us for this day with confidence and strength.
This transition demonstrates that Alibaba has stepped up to the next level of corporate governance from a company that relies on individuals, to one built on systems of organizational excellence and a culture of talent development.
When Alibaba was founded in 1999, our goal was to build a company that could make China and the world proud and one that could cross three centuries to last 102 years. However, we all knew that no one could stay with the company for 102 years. A sustainable Alibaba would have to be built on sound governance, culture-centric philosophy, and consistency in developing talent. No company can rely solely on its founders. Of all people, I should know that. Because of physical limits on one&#8217;s ability and energy, no one can shoulder the responsibilities of chairman and CEO forever.
We asked ourselves this question 10 years ago – how could Alibaba achieve sustainable growth after Jack Ma leaves the company? We believed the only way to solve the problem of corporate leadership succession was to develop a system of governance based on a unique culture and mechanisms for developing consistent talent and successors. For the last 10 years, we kept working on these ingredients.
Having been trained as a teacher, I feel extremely proud of what I have achieved. Teachers always want their students to exceed them, so the responsible thing to do for me and the company to do is to let younger, more talented people take over in leadership roles so that they inherit our mission &#8220;to make it easy to do business anywhere.&#8221; Carrying out this mission in order to help small businesses, young people and women around the world is my passion. This is not only our intent from day one but I feel blessed to have this opportunity. To realize the dream behind this mission requires participation by a lot more people than just Jack Ma and persistent effort by generations of Aliren.
Alibaba is amazing not because of our business or scale or accomplishments. The best thing about Alibaba is that we come together under a common mission and vision. Our partnership system, unique culture and talented team have laid a strong foundation for the legacy of our company. In fact, since I handed over the CEO&#8217;s responsibilities in 2013, the company has run smoothly for five years on the back of these institutional ingredients.
The partnership system we developed is a creative solution to good governance and sustainability, as it overcomes several challenges faced by companies of scale: continuous innovation, leadership succession, accountability and cultural continuity. Over the years, in iterating our management model, we have experimented with and improved on the right balance between systems and individuals. Simply relying on individuals or blindly following a system will not solve our problems. To achieve long-term sustainable growth, you need the right balance among system, people and culture. I have full confidence that our partnership system and efforts to safeguard our culture will in time win over the love and support from customers, employees and shareholders.
Since the founding of the company in 1999, we have been of the view that Alibaba&#8217;s future will need to depend on &#8220;droves of talent&#8221; to enable us to iterate on our management succession plans. After years of hard work, today&#8217;s Alibaba has a world-class talent pool in quality and quantity. The teacher in me feels extremely proud of our team, our leadership and our unique mission-driven culture, as well as the fact that we continue to develop exceptional business leaders and professional talent like Daniel Zhang.
Daniel has been with Alibaba Group for 11 years. Since he took over as CEO, he has demonstrated his superb talent, business acumen and determined leadership. Under his stewardship, Alibaba has seen consistent and sustainable growth for 13 consecutive quarters. His analytical mind is unparalleled, he holds dear our mission and vision, he embraces responsibility with passion, and he has the guts to innovate and test creative business models. Deservedly, China&#8217;s business news media has named him the No.1 CEO in 2018. For these reasons, he and his team have won the trust and support of customers, employees and shareholders. Starting the process of passing the Alibaba torch to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time, because I know from working with them that they are ready, and I have complete confidence in our next generation of leaders.
As for myself, I still have lots of dreams to pursue. Those who know me know that I do not like to sit idle. I plan on continuing my role as the founding partner in the Alibaba Partnership and contribute to the work of the partnership. I also want to return to education, which excites me with so much blessing because this is what I love to do. The world is big, and I am still young, so I want to try new things – because what if new dreams can be realized?!
The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba.
Jack Ma 
September 10, 2018</blockquote>
Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that the New York Times originally reported that Jack Ma said he would be stepping down as Alibaba chairman on Monday.
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<div class="reporter-info"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a>Reporter, CNBC.com</div>
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Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma reveals succession plan

(Reuters) &#8211; Amazon.com Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O">AMZN.O</a>) on Tuesday joined Apple Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O">AAPL.O</a>) in the $1 trillion club, becoming the second member of the group after its stock price doubled in 15 months.
If the online retailer’s share price continues at its recent pace, it will be a matter of when, not if, Amazon’s market valuation eclipses that of iPhone maker Apple, which reached $1 trillion on Aug. 2.
Apple took almost 38 years as a public company to achieve the trillion dollar milestone, while Amazon got there in 21 years. While Apple’s iPhone and other devices remain popular and its revenues are growing, it is not keeping up with Amazon’s blistering sales growth.
Amazon has impressed investors by successfully diversifying its business into virtually every corner of the retail industry, altering how consumers buy products and putting major pressure on many brick-and-mortar stores.
It also provides video streaming services and bought upscale supermarket Whole Foods. And its cloud computing services for companies have become a major driver of earnings and revenue.
“Amazon’s a little bit more dynamic than Apple because the iPhone has become more mature. Amazon’s cloud business is an extra growth driver that Apple doesn’t have,” said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, Georgia who describes Amazon’s cloud services as its “crown jewel.”
In the second quarter the unit accounted for 55 percent of Amazon’s operating income and 20 percent of total revenue, according to Morgan.
Apple started trading in December 1980 but its stock did not truly start to take flight for another 25 years, spurred by the iPhone, the breakthrough device that left competitors in the dust.
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Amazon &#8211; founded as an online book-retailer in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994 &#8211; started trading on May 15 1997 at $1.50 on a split-adjusted basis.
By October 2009 it had risen to $100 and the stock hit $1,000 for the first time on May 30, 2017. It has held above that level since October 27, 2017.
Just 10 months later, on Aug. 30, Amazon shares hit $2,000 for the first time, just $50 per share away from giving the company a $1 trillion market value. That milestone, just a month after it reached a $900 billion valuation threshold.
Amazon shares were last up 1.1 percent at $2,035.69, pulling back slightly from the milestone level of $2050.2677.
Amazon currently trades up 74.0 percent for the year to date. In comparison, Apple has risen about34.7 percent year to date.
Analysts expect Apple’s revenue to jump 14.9 percent in its fiscal year ending in September, according to Thomson Reuters data, a hefty rise but still far short of Amazon’s expected revenue growth of 32 percent for 2018.
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Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli
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Amazon becomes second publicly traded U.S. company to reach $1 trillion market value, why it could pass Apple

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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/patrick-byrne-520375">Patrick Byrne</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/liverpool-john-moores-university-1319">Liverpool John Moores University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-hudson-edwards-538369">Karen Hudson-Edwards</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-exeter-1190">University of Exeter</a>
Nearly <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Phone-Smartphone-Usage-Varies-Globally/1014738">five billion people</a> worldwide will use a smartphone by 2020. Each device is made up of numerous precious metals and many of the key technological features wouldn’t be possible without them. Some, like gold, will be familiar. Others, such as terbium, are less well-known.
Mining these metals is a vital activity that underpins the modern global economy. But the environmental cost can be enormous and is probably far greater than you realise. Let’s walk through some of the key metals in smartphones, what they do, and the environmental cost of getting them out of the ground.
<h2>Catastrophic mine waste spills</h2>
Iron (20%), aluminium (14%) and copper (7%) are the three <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/270454/top-10-materials-in-a-smartphone/">most common metals</a> by weight in your average smartphone. Iron is used in speakers and microphones and in stainless steel frames. Aluminium is used as a lightweight alternative to stainless steel and also in the manufacture of the strong glass used in smartphone screens. Copper is used in electric wiring.
However, enormous volumes of solid and liquid waste (termed mine “tailings”) are produced when extracting these metals from the earth. Typically, mine tailings are stored in vast impoundment structures that can be several square kilometres in area. Recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883292718300246">catastrophic mine tailings spills</a> highlight the danger of improper construction methods and lax safety monitoring.
The largest spill on record occurred in November 2015 when a <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-should-we-blame-for-the-brazil-mining-dam-disaster-50521">dam collapsed</a> at an iron ore mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil, releasing approximately 33m cubic metres (enough to fill 23,000 Olympic swimming pools) of iron-rich waste into the River Doce. The waste inundated local villages killing 19 people and travelled 650km until it reached the Atlantic Ocean 17 days later.
This was just one of <a href="http://www.grida.no/publications/383">40 mine tailings spills</a> that have occurred in the past decade and the long-term ecological and human health impacts remain largely unknown. One thing is clear though – as our thirst for technology increases, mine tailings dams are increasing in number and size, and so is their risk of failure.
<h2>Ecosystem destruction</h2>
Gold and tin are common in smartphones. But mining of these metals is responsible for ecological devastation from the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/gold-mining-shifts-course-peruvian-river-will-destroy-ecosystems/">Peruvian Amazon</a> to the tropical islands of Indonesia.
Gold in smartphones is used primarily to make connectors and wires but gold mining is a major cause of <a href="https://www.brilliantearth.com/gold-mining-environment/">deforestation</a> in the Amazon. Furthermore, extraction of gold from the earth generates waste rich in <a href="https://theconversation.com/acid-drainage-the-global-environmental-crisis-youve-never-heard-of-83515">cyanide and mercury</a> – two highly toxic substances that can contaminate drinking water and fish, with serious implications for human health.
Tin is used for soldering in electronics. Indium-tin oxide is applied to smartphone screens as a thin, transparent and conductive coating that gives touchscreen functionality. The seas surrounding Indonesia’s Bangka and Belitung Islands supplies about a third of the world’s supply. However, large-scale dredging of the seabed for the tin-rich sand has <a href="https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/tin_mining.pdf">destroyed the precious coral ecosystem</a> while the decline of the fishing industry has led to economic and social problems.
<h2>The most polluted place on the planet?</h2>
What makes your smartphone smart? That’ll be the rare earth elements – a group of 17 metals with weird names like praseodymium that are mined mostly in <a href="https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2018/mcs2018.pdf">China, Russia and Australia</a>.
Often dubbed “technology metals”, rare earths are fundamental to smartphone design and function. Crystal clear smartphone speakers, microphones and phone vibration are possible due to small yet powerful motors and magnets manufactured using neodymium, dysprosium and praseodymium. Terbium and dysprosium are also used to produce the vibrant colours of a smartphone screen.
Extracting rare earths is a difficult and dirty business, typically involving the use of sulphuric and hydrofluoric acids and the production of vast amounts of highly toxic waste. Perhaps the most disturbing and thought provoking example of the environmental cost of our smartphone thirst is the “world’s tech waste lake” in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth">Baotou, China</a>. Created in 1958, this artificial lake collects the toxic sludge from rare earth processing operations.
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The valuable metals used to manufacture smartphones are a finite resource. Recent estimates indicate we will run out of some rare earths in the next <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/14/4257">20 to 50 years</a>, which makes you wonder if smartphones will still be around then. Reducing the environmental impact of smartphone use requires manufacturers to increase product lifetimes, make recycling more straightforward and be open about where they source their metals and the environmental impact. Around the world mining companies have made huge strides in practising more sustainable mining. But we as consumers also need to consider smartphones as less of a throwaway item and more of a precious resource that carries an enormous environmental burden.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102148/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/patrick-byrne-520375">Patrick Byrne</a>, Senior Lecturer in Geography, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/liverpool-john-moores-university-1319">Liverpool John Moores University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-hudson-edwards-538369">Karen Hudson-Edwards</a>, Professor in Sustainable Mining, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-exeter-1190">University of Exeter</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-making-a-smartphone-can-harm-the-environment-102148">original article</a>.

Here’s how smartphones are hurting the environment

By Camillus Eboh and Chijioke Ohuocha
ABUJA, Aug 29 (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria’s central bank said on Wednesday it had ordered South African telecoms firm MTN and four banks to bring $8.134 billion back into the country that MTN had illegally sent abroad in breach of foreign exchange regulations. The news sent MTN&#8217;s share price down over 21 per cent on Thursday to R84.50 at 10.12am CAT.
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Standard Chartered PLC was fined 2.4 billion naira ($7.86 million), Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC 1.8 billion naira, Citibank 1.2 billion naira and Diamond Bank PLC 250 million naira.
The Nigerian telecommunications regulator, Citibank, Standard Chartered and Diamond Bank were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for MTN declined to comment, while a Stanbic IBTC spokesman said a statement would be issued shortly.
The central bank said in a statement that MTN had not obtained approval before transfering the funds and the banks had also breached foreign exchange rules by failing to verify that the telecoms firm had met all the requirements.
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/4735792/us.reuters/markets/article_4__container__">Last November, Nigeria’s Senate approved a report largely exonerating MTN, following an investigation after the business was accused of illegally repatriating $14 billion to its parent company.
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At the time, the Senate also asked Nigeria’s central bank to sanction Stanbic IBTC “for improper documentations in respect of capital repatriation and loan repayments” on behalf of MTN.
Parliament’s upper house agreed in 2016 to investigate whether Africa’s biggest telecoms firm unlawfully repatriated $13.92 billion from Nigeria, its most lucrative market which generates a third of its revenue, between 2006 and 2016.
Africa’s biggest telecoms firm was fined $5.2 billion in 2015 by the Nigerian government for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM cards on its network. The fine was later reduced to $1.7 billion with an option to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The company plans to launch the IPO, which has since been delayed due to market conditions, this year. (Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Chijioke Ohuocha)
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MTN share price clobbered as Nigeria central bank orders it, banks to bring back $8.1bln sent abroad

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229846/original/file-20180730-106505-c7vieb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20180730 106505 c7vieb.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>Cybersecurity is everyone’s problem, all over the world. 
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-renaud-517005">Karen Renaud</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/abertay-university-1525">Abertay University</a>
Cyber criminals are <a href="https://threatmap.fortiguard.com/">extremely active</a> across the globe – and, unfortunately, also very successful. In Africa, too, businesses are losing billions to <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1303532/cybercrime-costs-businesses-in-kenya-south-africa-nigeria-billions/">cybercrime</a>.
A quick Internet search shows that governments in the Southern African Development Community aren’t really prioritising cybersecurity.
<a href="http://www.gov.bw/contentassets/1c5907f150d144fa81fef3f1cbb72b8d/2018-19_draft_budget_strategy_paper.pdf">Botswana</a> doesn’t name cyber security as one of its national priorities. Nor does <a href="http://www.gov.bw/contentassets/1c5907f150d144fa81fef3f1cbb72b8d/2018-19_draft_budget_strategy_paper.pdf">Mozambique</a>. <a href="http://www.parliament.gov.zm/sites/default/files/images/publication_docs/2018%20Budget.pdf">Zambia’s</a> 2018 budget doesn’t mention cybersecurity; nor does <a href="http://www.mof.gov.na/documents/27827/506801/Budget+Speech+2018.pdf/3f0b42f6-2c2d-4502-bca8-b84f5d6951cc?version=1.0">Namibia’s</a>. Yet African countries are not immune to cybercrime, as recent reports from <a href="https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/botswana-businesses-hit-by-cybercrime">Botswana</a>, <a href="https://www.techzim.co.zw/2017/11/underestimated-cybercrime-zimbabwe-time-woke-now/">Zimbabwe</a> and <a href="http://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-govt-worried-about-rising-cybercrime-more-than-200-cyberattacks-in-2-years-incm/">Mozambique</a> show.
South Africa appears to be especially vulnerable. The <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/cybercrime-becoming-a-major-threat-in-south-africa-2017-09-19/rep_id:4136">US Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> ranks the country sixth and seventh on its different types of cybercrime predator list. The global WannaCry malware attack of May 2017 <a href="http://www.itwebafrica.com/security/513-africa/237876-south-africa-ivory-coast-top-list-of-african-wannacry-ransomware-targets">hit South Africa harder</a> than any other African country. It has been estimated that South African companies on average lose <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/heres-just-how-much-sa-companies-are-losing-the-cyber-war-to-crooks-20180712">R36 million</a> when they fall victim to an attack. Small businesses will often not be able to sustain such heavy losses, and could stop trading after an attack.
South Africa published a <a href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/149547-cybersecurity-policy-framework-for-south-africa-finally-published.html">national cybersecurity policy framework</a> in 2012. But it’s not obvious what measures have been put in place to help private individuals to become more resilient to cybercrime. This is important because, as big businesses become more proficient in repelling cyber attacks, criminals are turning their attention to <a href="https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/how-cybercriminals-change-tactics-during-their-cyber-attacks/">small businesses and individual home users</a>.
When it comes to the individual citizen, whose responsibility is it to guard against cybercrime? <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1XSN%7Ec43ukeaU">Research we’ve conducted</a> suggests that governments have a crucial role to play. They need to support individual citizens, as well as businesses, in a more practical and proactive way, to manage this particular society risk.
For instance, they could provide individuals with free face-to-face assistance and cybersecurity support. They could give clear guidelines and provide government sanctioned security software for people to install, and make sure it’s easy to get hold of. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/nyc-secure-new-york-cybersecurity-app-de-blasio/">New York</a> has recently started providing this kind of support to its residents. Based on our research, we believe there’s scope for all governments, including those in Southern Africa, to do the same.
<h2>Managing risk</h2>
Governments have different approaches to helping their citizens manage risk. For some kinds, such as smoking in private, they issue advice and leave citizens to manage the risk themselves. These can be referred to as “solo risks”.
In other cases, governments create supportive systems so that the management of a particular risk is shared between citizen and state. The split is determined by the nature of the risk and the stance adopted by the government in power. These kinds of risks can be referred to as “society risks”. Road safety is a good example of this: people have to pass tests to be permitted to drive, the authorities fine and prosecute those who drive badly, and drivers pay a yearly licence to fund the road infrastructure.
A solo risk can generally be mitigated by disseminating advice to citizens. This approach is justified if only the person who does not follow the advice is harmed. However, when a failure to manage a risk harms the community at large, advice, on its own, might be insufficient.
It’s fair to say that the cybersecurity risk is currently managed by governments in the same way as they treat private smoking &#8211; as if it were a solo risk. By and large, governments provide advice about cybersecurity risks and then leave citizens either to take security precautions, or not. This seems to be based on the assumption that only the individual computer or device owner suffers loss or harm if they fall victim to an attack.
In reality, cybersecurity attacks are like fire and disease. They seldom affect only one individual. Data that’s stolen from one person’s device is likely to include the personal details of many other people, potentially endangering the wider community. Malware and viruses also spread from one person’s device to another, much like contagious diseases.
Moreover, this is not just about financial loss; it impacts privacy too. Privacy, once lost, can never be regained. South Africa has experienced two serious privacy violations <a href="http://www.702.co.za/articles/276925/almost-30-million-sa-id-numbers-compromised-after-site-hacked,https://www.biznews.com/global-citizen/2017/10/20/biggest-ever-sa-data-breach">recently</a>, because the data had seemingly not been secured properly. Those who steal leaked personal identification data can steal identities, a <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/no-help-for-victim-of-identity-theft-20180117">harrowing experience</a> that is very difficult to recover from.
We can conclude that the cyber risk is manifestly not a solo risk, but rather a society risk. Leaving citizens alone and unaided to deal with cybersecurity threats is clearly not the best long-term strategy.
<h2>Helping home users</h2>
Every country needs to formulate a behavioural intervention programme. This means that interventions are formulated according to scientifically-proven <a href="https://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/publications/east-four-simple-ways-to-apply-behavioural-insights/">behavioural principles</a> to maximise uptake. This would provide support so that everyone – whether they’re business owners or home users – is able to repel and resist attacks. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/nyc-secure-new-york-cybersecurity-app-de-blasio/">New York</a> has made a good start, and other governments will hopefully follow suit.
Governments could work with mobile phone providers so that security-related software updates can be batched and issued via their trusted channels. They could prompt people to install these by disseminating the need for the updates using carefully crafted text messages, and also publicise this via other media outlets.
Community leaders can also be taught about cybersecurity risks and mitigations so they can become evangelists and spread the word widely throughout rural and urban centres.
Cybercrime is not going to evaporate. It’s crucial for governments to help their citizens manage this social risk. This will protect incomes, reputations, personal and sensitive information and generally improve resilience across the board.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100771/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-renaud-517005">Karen Renaud</a>, Professor of Cybersecurity, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/abertay-university-1525">Abertay University</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-governments-to-help-their-citizens-deal-with-cybersecurity-100771">original article</a>.

cybersecurity_shutterstock

Are governments doing enough to help their citizens deal with cybersecurity?

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232652/original/file-20180820-30596-199dq81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20180820 30596 199dq81.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>Genetic data holds a wealth of health information. 
CI Photos/Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shane-c-quinonez-516128">Shane C Quinonez</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a>
Genetic technologies are poised to change the world. Want to eradicate a human disease such as cystic fibrosis or improve a person’s ability to run impossible distances or lift unimaginable weights? This may be possible in the future by using something called <a href="https://www.livescience.com/58790-crispr-explained.html">CRISPR to edit</a> an organism’s genetic makeup. How about rapidly sequencing a newborn’s genome, similar to an early scene in the 1997 movie <a href="https://nerdist.com/20-year-anniversary-gattaca-genetics/">Gattaca</a>? Next-generation sequencing may make this fiction a reality.
As these technologies continue to increase in ability and decrease in cost, we may soon be living in an age of genomics-informed health care.
Unfortunately, the “we” in the previous sentence only applies to at best 7% of the world’s population. For everyone else technologies such as next-generation sequencing and CRISPR gene editing are more science fiction than nonfiction.
Low or middle-income countries are where this technology is needed the most as they harbor the largest <a href="https://www.marchofdimes.org/global-report-on-birth-defects-the-hidden-toll-of-dying-and-disabled-children-full-report.pdf">burden of birth defects</a> and genetic diseases. Yet almost all low-income countries and many middle-income countries <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241501149_eng.pdf">lack</a> the necessary personnel, technology, infrastructure, and public and medical education capabilities needed to introduce medical genetics services.
To address this gap, my colleagues and I created the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">MiGene Family History App</a>. It’s an Android-based mobile application that aims to introduce medical genetics services into low and middle-income countries.
The app is used by health care providers and collects and stores patient and family histories. It generates personalised genetic counselling information that can be delivered to patients and their families. And the data can also be used for epidemiologic analysis.
The app has already been piloted in an Ethiopian hospital and has since been rolled out to a teaching hospital in Ghana.
It’s important to point out that the technology the app uses is far from what’s required to perform genome sequencing or gene editing in Ethiopia. But our work is one of the many preliminary steps needed to bring attention to the need for genetic services in low and middle-income countries.
<h2>Pilot project in Ethiopia</h2>
The MiGene Family History App was designed jointly by teams at the University of Michigan and St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa. It was then programmed by xHub, a technology group in Ethiopia’s capital.
The first version of the app focuses on paediatric birth defects and genetic diseases. These include heart malformations, Down Syndrome, and neural tube defects. So we launched the app in the Paediatric and Obstetrics and Gynaecology departments at St. Paul’s. We also conducted <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">a study</a> about the app’s value and ease of use.
MiGene was loaded onto physicians’ and nurses’ tablets. It was then used to collect data in both departments, but with a focus on the general paediatrics ward. The staff told us they found the app easy to use. The app allowed us to provide the hospital with data on the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases in the institution. For instance, we found that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">approximately 12%</a> of all admitted patients were affected with a birth defect or genetic disease. Heart malformations and Down Syndrome were the most common conditions present.
Having this data will help to inform future decisions taken by Ethiopia’s ministry of health. For instance, it can assess the success of interventions such as the country’s <a href="https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-017-1506-2">folic acid</a> supplementation efforts, which were introduced as a strategy to decrease the incidence of birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord.
While our study was intentionally small in scope, if use of the MiGene Family History App is expanded to other regions within Ethiopia it will provide more representative population data.
One of our most interesting <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">findings</a> was that the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases at St. Paul’s was nearly identical to the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">previously studied</a> children’s hospitals in high-income countries.
This confirms something that geneticists have long known: genetic disease affects everyone and doesn’t discriminate. That’s why it’s so crucial that the benefits of genetic technology are not limited to only those individuals fortunate enough to have been born into a rich country.
<h2>Taking the tech further</h2>
After the success of the pilot study in Ethiopia, MiGene Family History App has been expanded to include adult-onset non-communicable diseases such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It’s still in use at St. Paul’s and is now also being used at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana.
Our future plans include improving the genetic testing capabilities available at St. Paul’s and launching a genetic counselling training curriculum at the hospital. This focus on patient and health care provider education is vital when introducing a new medical technology, such as genetic testing, into a country or region.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101702/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shane-c-quinonez-516128">Shane C Quinonez</a>, Biochemical Geneticist, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-app-is-helping-to-collect-genetic-data-in-ethiopia-and-ghana-101702">original article</a>.

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