AU currently heavily relies on donor funding at 91 per cent. Member States contribute only 9 per cent of the budget needed to carry out its activities. This has a bearing on its independence.
Current data extraction trend has been linked to both the legal loopholes and lack of infrastructure such as data centres on the continent to act as repository for data generated locally.
The Pan-African Media Lawyers Union (PALU) is a network that brings together the lawyers interested in defending journalists across the African Union member States.
With common trade rules, movement of people and transport connectivity, Africa becomes a market large enough to attract investors from across the world, and a vehicle for industrialization, analysts say.
In absence of a platform like CEP and other avenues for citizen participation, it would act as a stumbling block in the quest to achieve Africa’s future, one that rest with its estimated 1.3 billion people.
In one case in 2017, a local telecommunication company with footprint on the continent was handed a hefty fine ($8.5 million) after it emerged that the former was hosting its IT services outside the country.
States in Africa ought to promote a conducive economic environment in which all media can flourish, including through provision of financial or other public support.
PAPSS rollout is planned to reach five regions of Africa before the end of 2023, while all central banks and commercial banks are projected to be signed up by end of 2024 and 2025 respectively.
Ongoing crisis left countries with little to show for many years of pledged investment in the agriculture transformation to boost local supply of key food items and agriculture commodities.
Tunisian President Kais Saied called for urgent measures to stop influx of sub-Saharan Africa migrants whom he linked to crimes and claimed are part of a plan to alter his country’s demographic makeup.
African authorities still owe us a different, better version — one wrapped up in the free-movement-of-people envelope with a visa-free tag visible at the back.
