Forbes Africa December 2022 - January 2023

EDITOR'S NOTE AND 2022, A YEAR OF DISPARATE challenges, is also on its way out! Almost three years into this decade and it has been one of the most unforgettable in human history. 2022, the year the world stooped to war and the planet rose to climate chaos; the year that saw the phased exit of a virulent virus still threatening to rear its ugly spiked head if we are not mindful of the social science experiment it invoked; the year the world population became a milestone 8 billion and the year ‘homework’ became a well-entrenched word for adults too. And to speak of yet another word doing the rounds that has lately entered the global lexicon – polycrisis, popularized by English economic historian Adam Tooze as a period of…

IT WAS WONDERFUL TO SEE THE revival of the Forbes Global CEO conference that was held post Covid in Singapore in October this year. It was great to reconnect with global leaders as well as meet Forbes’ extended family from different parts of the world. The highlight of the event was the declaration from the organizers that the net worth in the hall of 400 delegates was $500 billion; it wasn't surprising to hear that number considering that 30% of the wealth came from the richest man in the room – and third richest in the world as of November according to Forbes – Gautam Adani, whose speech was a leaf from ‘Invest India’. The mood was buoyant in Asia and despite all the troubles around the world, there was…

BEING THE FIRST OF anything may always feel like an honor but there is a different sort of pressure that comes with that label. Just ask Nonkululeko Gobodo, who in 1987, became the first black female chartered accountant in South Africa. “When I completed my studies, I was really protesting,” Gobodo tells FORBES AFRICA. “I was saying, no, I did this for myself, I don't need all this attention. I'm a shy girl from the Transkei, please just leave me alone.” But it was a journalist from the national public broadcaster SABC who helped her come to terms with all the attention and nudged her to “awaken” to her lull potential. “He told me that it's not about me and that I am a role model to other women, to…

LEADERBOARD On November 15, as per the United Nations (UN), the world's population reached 8 billion, a milestone in human development. “While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years — until 2037 — for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing,” said the UN. Kathleen Mogelgaard, President and CEO of the Population Institute, says that the world's population will level off at around 10.4 billion in the 2080s. In a video on the website of the Population Institute, she says this is equivalent to about “250 New York Citys”. Population growth has significant implications for society, she explains; we'll need more of everything, with growth placing…

Ghana's Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta faced a vote of censure in November for his handling of the country's economy as annual inflation rate hit 40.4% for October. BBC Africa reported that the cost of essential commodities like staple food, fuel and utilities have all surged to push price increases to a record high. Ghana's economic prospects have been a mixed bag of emotions in recent years. Lauded globally for its handling of the Covid-19 virus which saw fewer fatalities in contrast to the rest of the world, Ghana's economy bounced back in a remarkable feat reaching 5.4% growth in 2021, a stark contrast from the 0.5% it recorded in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. “We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so,” said…

• Tropical Storm Ana In January, a deadly tropical cyclone affected Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, killing over 115 people, injuring hundreds more and displacing over 200,000. The disaster was named the third-deadliest tropical cyclone in 2022. According to AllAfrica, in the end, over 990,000 people were affected by the storm. • Burkina Faso coups Tensions have been high in Burkina Faso since January, with clashes occurring between protesters and security forces. At the beginning of the year, the army announced that it removed President Roch Kabore from office – after more than six years in power, following several days of unrest in the capital Ouagadougou. Then in September, according to Aljazeera, the country's military leader President Paul-Henri Damiba was deposed in the country's second coup in a year, as army…