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<p>Renaissance Capital says trends seen from different brewery results suggests that the premium lager segment in Nigeria may be witnessing a rebound. Dayo Ayeni, Vice President and Sub-Saharan Africa Consumer Analyst at Renaissance Capital joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Nigeria beer wars: Premium segment rebounds

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<p>Scalability and having bankable ventures is still a challenge for many African start-ups but with more connectivity, intra-Africa trade, comes the opportunity of a digital economy that they can take advantage of. Raghav Prasad, Mastercard Division President for Sub Saharan Africa joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


How Mastercard is creating efficient intra-Africa payment systems

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<p>There&#8217;s no doubt that the rise of mobile financial services have transformed the way that many people around the region do business and handle money. Now hot off the heels of the inaugural Afro-Asia Fintech Festival that just took place in Nairobi, Kenya. Kennedy Mubita Head of Standard Chartered Ventures, Africa joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Standard Chartered Bank sees opportunities in Africa’s Fintech industry

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<p>Africa’s mobile economy has experienced significant growth in the recent years and is expected to generate almost $185 billion or 9.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the region by 2023. However, insufficient infrastructure, affordability and political uncertainty could hinder the attainment of the desired targets. Akinwale Goodluck, Head of Sub Saharan Africa at GSMA joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


The challenges of Africa’s mobile growth & how they can be overcome

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<p>According to GSMA Mobile Economy Sub Saharan Africa report 2019, half the population in Sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025. The region still lags behind in 4G adoption. By the end of 2018, 4G accounted for 7 per cent of total connections, compared to the global average of 44 per cent. Jean Francois Le Bihan, Policy Director SSA Government and Regulatory Affairs joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


SSA mobile services subscription to hit 600 million by 2025

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<p>Dominique Migisha, Special advisor in charge of digital to the Presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo says financial Inclusion is a serious challenge in the country as only 5 million of the 85 million persons are banked. He discussed this and more with CNBC Africa’s Christy Cole on the side-lines of First Bank of Nigeria&#8217;s joint seminar for financial and telecom regulators in Sub-Saharan Africa.</p>


Improving Financial Inclusion in DRC

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<p>First Bank of Nigeria’s (FBN) joint seminar for financial and telecom regulators in Sub-Saharan Africa was an opportunity for stakeholders to explore avenues for collaboration. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole caught up with Musa Itopa Jimoh, Deputy Director for the Payment System Management Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


First Bank of Nigeria holds seminar to enhance cross-border fintech collaborations

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<p>On the side-lines of First Bank of Nigeria&#8217;s (FBN) joint seminar for financial and telecom regulators in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bashirat Odunewu, Group Executive for the International Banking Group at First Bank joined CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole for more.</p>


First Bank’s Bashirat Odunewu on closing the financial inclusion gap

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<p>The CEO of Verve International, Mike Ogbalu says although sub-Saharan Africa shares similar challenges across the Fintech industry, other countries within the continent might benefit by emulating Nigeria&#8217;s strategies. He joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Verve CEO Mike Ogbalu on fintech trends in SSA

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<p>About 48 per cent of children in the sub-Saharan Africa are deficient in Vitamin A and orange fleshed sweet potato contains high levels of Vitamin A. The BioInnovate Africa Project through the International Potato Center (CIP) has launched a $750 thousand project that will expand the value chain of Orange Fleshed Sweet potato across the region. Tawanda Muzhingi, Food Scientist and Nutritional Biochemist at the International Potato Center joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


International Potato Center launches initiative to tackle Vitamin A deficiency in East Africa

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<p>New York based firm, Segal Family Foundation is currently working in 20 sub Saharan African countries and has entered in Rwanda, to launch a social impact incubator to help young innovators across the continent connect and share their stories. CNBC Africa Zwena Bachoo has more.</p>


Segal Family Foundation launches innovation incubator to nurture Africa’s young inventors

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<p>Asoko Insight says Nigeria imported approximately 5.2 million metric tons of wheat in 2018. Meanwhile, Nigeria is the second largest importer of Sugar in Sub-Saharan Africa with an annual import of 620.6 million dollars as at 2017. Damilare Adesola, Research Analyst at Asoko Insight joins CNBC Africa to discuss the cost of Nigeria’s rising sugar and wheat imports.</p>


The cost of Nigeria’s rising sugar and wheat imports

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<p>Sub-Saharan Africa spent nearly $60 billion in 2012 from its national budget, although this falls short of the estimated $93 billion needed to close the region’s infrastructure gap, a lot needs to be done to accelerate development. CNBC Africa’s Fiona Muthoni spoke to Corneille Karekezi, Group Managing Director and CEO of African Reinsurance Corporation on this.</p>


How and what needs to be done to close the infrastructure gap in Africa


<p class="has-background has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting">This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
</a></p>



<p>As global leaders gathered this week the World Economic Forum to discuss some of the world’s most pressing issues, including inequality and poverty, many will share data to illustrate a phenomenon. However, countries that focus on creating prosperity and not just merely eradicating poverty react differently to data on poverty.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Alleviating poverty is not the same as creating prosperity </h2>



<p>Hard as it may be to believe, decades ago Singapore was very impoverished, and one of the main initiatives of the government was to educate its citizens. But when Dr. Goh Keng Swee, one of Singapore’s ministers, would see hundreds of children streaming out of school at the end of the day, instead of being happy, he was heartbroken. He and the Singaporean government understood that simply attending school wasn’t enough. What would the students do after they graduated? How would the economy create and sustain jobs for all these newly educated children? Those were the questions that Dr. Keng Swee was asking.</p>



<p>Focusing on creating prosperity – in contrast to focusing on alleviating poverty – compelled Dr. Keng Swee and the government to ask entirely different questions, pursue different activities and emphasize different metrics. Instead of mostly focusing on the data, they focused on the deeper underlying phenomena. And so, instead of primarily building schools, Singapore prioritized investments and innovation and attracted companies that created jobs. This decision increased the need for education.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/PgJhPxcQ_F0Wr8be8gWCr4ml-my97hhUyAuyaEzHdMo.jpg" alt="         "/></figure>



<p>As a result, Singapore has become one of the richest nations in the world with a GDP per capita of approximately $57,714. And today, not only do approximately 99% of people attend secondary school, but more than half go on to get a post-secondary school diploma. What would have happened if – as many nations do today – Singapore focused primarily on the data of how many children were educated? It might not be as successful today. The phenomena – the realities on the ground – drive the data.</p>



<p>With trillions of dollars spent in official development assistance over the past several decades, and hundreds of billions spent annually, we believe that if more nations focused on realities underlying the data, we would not only eradicate poverty in the next couple of decades, but we set nations on a path to creating long-term economic prosperity. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">
  What the data hides
</h2>



<p>Over the past three <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/19/decline-of-global-extreme-poverty-continues-but-has-slowed-world-bank">decades</a>, more than 1 billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty. The rate of global poverty is down from 37% in 1990 to approximately 10% <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/World-Poverty-Since-1820.png">today</a>. But a vast majority of the people who have escaped poverty are from China (approximately <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-social-mobility.html">800 million</a> people) and to a lesser extent, India (approximately 200 million). </p>



<p>Poverty in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa is actually on the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/19/decline-of-global-extreme-poverty-continues-but-has-slowed-world-bank">rise</a>, with no signs of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/extreme-poverty-concentrates-in-sub-saharan-africa-1537243201">slowing</a> down. In addition, nearly half the world’s population – 3.4 billion people – live on less than $5.50 a day and struggle to meet their basic needs. The problem is that this data can be deceptive. We are awash in data, and we do need this information. But data, metrics and statistics are simply representations of particular phenomena and are not the phenomena themselves. </p>



<p>Consider another example. The data shows that primary and secondary school enrolment rates are now almost on par with rates in high-income countries. That’s a good thing. However, what the data doesn’t illustrate as clearly is that the quality of education couldn’t be more different. In low- and middle-income countries, for instance, more than half the students in school (over 617 million) are not achieving minimum proficiency levels, according to a United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/09/more-than-half-of-children-and-youth-worldwide-not-learning-unesco/">study</a>. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number is about 90%. In addition, international assessments of literacy and numeracy show that the average student in a low-income country performs worse than 95% of the students in high-income countries. What this ultimately means is that students are attending school, but are not learning. This is important because programs, laws and investments can cause the statistics to nominally improve, even when reality is going in a different direction. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"> The importance of understanding the phenomena </h2>



<p>In most corporations, a very common measure of success for a firm is the return on net assets (RONA), which is the ratio of income divided by its assets. In essence, RONA tells us how well a company utilizes its assets. If the firm’s RONA goes up, one interpretation might be that customers are willing to pay higher prices for the company’s products. </p>



<p>But RONA can hide the real story. Managers, for instance, can manipulate the ratio by outsourcing as many activities as possible, thereby reducing the assets on their balance sheets. This causes RONA to go up as well. When a company outsources, say, the manufacturing, testing or distribution activity, the company is able to remove assets from its balance sheet, thereby increasing its RONA. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but it matters because it could be masking something far more worrying. In essence, what might seem to be, on paper, the story of a company that is thriving, could be more complex. A company might be able to operate with these inflated RONA numbers for years, but eventually the chickens come home to roost. By then, it is usually too late. Fewer corporations illustrate this better than Dell Computer.</p>



<p>Dell Computer hit its stride in the 1990s and quickly became one of the most successful and profitable computer companies in the world. But over time, in an attempt to continually improve its efficiency metrics and financial ratios such as RONA, the company outsourced many of its operations to a Taiwanese company, Asus. Profitability skyrocketed, and Dell analysts rewarded the company accordingly. The data looked good, but the phenomena behind the data – the innovative prowess of the company – didn’t. In 2005, after Dell had outsourced enough activities to Asus, effectively putting the company into business, Asus announced the creation of its own brand of computers. And the rest, as they say, became history. All along, the numbers had looked good to Dell. But what the numbers had not shown was the impact these decisions would have on Dell’s future.</p>



<p>In a similar way, the metrics of poverty might improve, but that doesn’t mean that the phenomena of poverty are getting better. It might even be getting worse. But it need not be this way. Countries can reliably and sustainably overcome poverty and, indeed many have; however, they did not do it mainly by trying to eradicate poverty. They did it by focusing on creating prosperity. On the surface, the difference between the two strategies may seem like mere semantics, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.</p>



<p>• <em>Clayton M Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon are the co-authors of  </em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062851829/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0">The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty</a> <em>(Harper Collins, January 15, 2019). </em>                                     <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weforum.org%2Fagenda%2F2019%2F01%2Fpoverty-data-never-tells-the-whole-story%2F" target="_blank"></a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=wef&amp;text=Poverty%20data%20never%20tells%20the%20whole%20story&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weforum.org%2Fagenda%2F2019%2F01%2Fpoverty-data-never-tells-the-whole-story%2F" target="_blank"></a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;source=WEF&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weforum.org%2Fagenda%2F2019%2F01%2Fpoverty-data-never-tells-the-whole-story%2F" target="_blank"></a></p>



<p class="has-background has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color">Written by</p>



<p>
                  <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/claytonchristensen">Clayton Christensen</a>, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
                </p>



<p>
                  <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/efosa-ojomo">Efosa Ojomo</a>, Senior Research Fellow, Global Prosperity, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
                </p>



<p>
                  <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/karen-dillon">Karen  Dillon</a>, Senior Researcher, Global Prosperity, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
                </p>



<p> <em>This article was originally published in the WEForum Agenda newsletter. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.</em></p>


Op-Ed: Why Africa should stop focusing on alleviating poverty but on creating prosperity

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<p>Moody’s has given a negative outlook for sovereigns in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. The ratings agency says its outlook is anchored on the persistent credit challenges on on-going fiscal and external vulnerabilities in these economies. Daniela Re Franschini, Assistant Vice President in Sovereign Group at Moody’s joins CNBC Africa to discuss the details.</p>


Moody’s gives negative outlook for sub-Saharan economies in 2019

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<p>Renaissance Capital says the struggle by cement players in Nigeria to retain market share will see cement prices reduce to an average floor 110 dollars per tonne. Temilade Aduroja, Sub-Saharan Africa Analyst at Renaissance Capital joins CNBC Africa to discuss the outlook for Nigeria&#8217;s cement industry.</p>


Renaissance Capital forecasts drop in cement prices in Nigeria

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<p>With trade tensions high and international trade investment low, the World Bank is predicting slowed economic growth for emerging markets this year. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the number is set at 3.4 per cent. Joining CNBC Africa for more is Rudi Steinbach, Senior Economist, World Bank Prospects Group.</p>


Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria beer wars: Premium segment rebounds

How Mastercard is creating efficient intra-Africa payment systems

Standard Chartered Bank sees opportunities in Africa’s Fintech industry

The challenges of Africa’s mobile growth & how they can be overcome

SSA mobile services subscription to hit 600 million by 2025

Improving Financial Inclusion in DRC

First Bank of Nigeria holds seminar to enhance cross-border fintech collaborations

First Bank’s Bashirat Odunewu on closing the financial inclusion gap

Verve CEO Mike Ogbalu on fintech trends in SSA

International Potato Center launches initiative to tackle Vitamin A deficiency in East Africa

Segal Family Foundation launches innovation incubator to nurture Africa’s young inventors

The cost of Nigeria’s rising sugar and wheat imports

How and what needs to be done to close the infrastructure gap in Africa

Op-Ed: Why Africa should stop focusing on alleviating poverty but on creating prosperity

Moody’s gives negative outlook for sub-Saharan economies in 2019

Renaissance Capital forecasts drop in cement prices in Nigeria

World Bank predicts slower global growth in 2019

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria beer wars: Premium segment rebounds

How Mastercard is creating efficient intra-Africa payment systems

Standard Chartered Bank sees opportunities in Africa’s Fintech industry

The challenges of Africa’s mobile growth & how they can be overcome

SSA mobile services subscription to hit 600 million by 2025

Improving Financial Inclusion in DRC

First Bank of Nigeria holds seminar to enhance cross-border fintech collaborations

First Bank’s Bashirat Odunewu on closing the financial inclusion gap

Verve CEO Mike Ogbalu on fintech trends in SSA

International Potato Center launches initiative to tackle Vitamin A deficiency in East Africa

Segal Family Foundation launches innovation incubator to nurture Africa’s young inventors

The cost of Nigeria’s rising sugar and wheat imports

How and what needs to be done to close the infrastructure gap in Africa

Op-Ed: Why Africa should stop focusing on alleviating poverty but on creating prosperity

Moody’s gives negative outlook for sub-Saharan economies in 2019

Renaissance Capital forecasts drop in cement prices in Nigeria

World Bank predicts slower global growth in 2019

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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