Singapore Signs Bilateral Agreements With Ethiopia, Mozambique and Nigeria

IE Singapore's initiatives strengthen economic ties between Singapore and Africa with bilateral agreements and the opening of a third office 

• IE Singapore moved to Nairobi, Kenya-his third overseas center in Africa Singapore sign bilateral agreements on tax, investment and air services with Ethiopia, Mozambique and Nigeria respectively

Top 10 Most Violent Cities in the World

 The Top-10 Most Violent Cities Worldwide 

~ By Niall McCarthy, Aug 31, 2016.

Which cities have the highest rates of murder worldwide? According to the The Mexico Citizens Council for Public Security, the very worst of them are concentrated in Mexico, Venezuela and Honduras. In 2015, Caracas in Venezuela topped the list with 119.87 murders per 100,000 people.

San Pedro Sula in Honduras came second with 111.03 homicides per 100,000 people while San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, rounded off the top three with 108.54 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Earlier this month, the US State Department issued a warning about Honduras to US citizens, saying that the level of kidnapping, crime and violence there remains critically high.

This chart shows homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015.

 Source Statsta.

Mark Zuckerberg in Nigeria to Witness Africa's Tech Revolution

PRESS RELEASE

Facebook CEO goes to Nigeria to witness Africa's tech revolution

Zuckerberg is in Nigeria to listen and learn and take ideas back to California on how Facebook can better support tech development and entrepreneurship across Africa.

Internet TV is Better than Linear TV - Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

In fact, speaking at their latest earnings call Netflix CEO Reed Hastings explicitly stated digital video's superiority to linear television:
"It’s fundamentally that internet TV is better than linear TV. The consumers can watch when they want, on what type of device they want, and the content has just got better and better."

"So the fundamental confidence about the large scale is because on-demand is a better experience than linear, and the entire market is going to move from linear to on-demand internet television over the next 10 to 20 years."

Source: The Media Briefing.

Screen Naija - YouTube

Nigeria Tops Global Ranking of Mobile Internet Traffic

The internet is mobile: Nigeria tops the global ranking of mobile generated internet traffic, with South Africa third. This is the well-known legacy of poor infrastructure investment combined with deregulated economies creating rapid mass adoption

Video is the content queen: In developed markets the ubiquity of devices and high-speed networks, plus declining costs of memory, storage and computing power clearly indicate a different, user-driven media landscape. Almost all large social platforms have/are migrating to video led content. Average total Facebook link shares dipped below 30, image shares declined below 150 while video shares averaged between 500 and 600 (Jan to Jun 2016, source Buzzsumo).

This is the primary reason Facebook has again rejigged its algorithms to favour video. Snapchat’s meteoric rise is yet another indicator.

Click here for the complete report with graphs.

Lagos' Economy is Nearly Twice the Size of Kenya

 
With a GDP of US$95 billion Lagos has an economy nearly twice the size of Kenya’s-East Africa’s biggest economy.

Lagos Apapa Port located in Tin Can Island is one of the biggest in Africa, generating over N3 trillion in annual revenue.

The Ikoyi Bridge is one of the most beautiful in Africa and the first Cable Suspension Bridge in West Africa. It took 3 years to build.

Lagos: Africa’s 5th Biggest Economy
Posted on March 8, 2016 by Perestroika
 https://ourtimeiscome.com/2016/03/08/lagos-africas-5th-biggest-economy/. 

Urban resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. 

Resilience is about surviving and thriving, regardless of the challenge. 

~ http://www.100resilientcities.org/#/-_/
 

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LAGOS in MOTION: A Photo Album of Africa's Largest Megacity (LAGOS: Africa's Largest Megacity) (Volume 1)
Paperback US$20.00

How Fashola Transformed Africa's Largest Megacity of Lagos - Financial Times

Fashola: The man who would tame Nigeria’s megacity
~ By Matthew Green (first published on August 7, 2009 3:25 pm, FT Magazine when Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, was Lagos State Governor from May 29, 2007 to May 29, 2015, He is currently the Federal Minister of Power, Works and Housing.)

One Sunday afternoon in Lagos, a man leapt out into Akin Adesola, the main street on Victoria Island, and flagged down my car. He yanked open the door, swung into the front passenger seat and barked “drive”.

Anger radiated from him like heat. He wore no uniform and carried no gun, but desperation imbued him with an iron authority. All the pent-up frustrations of the megacity seemed to flow through him like an electric current.
He whipped out a tattered paper and jabbed his finger at a list of violations – I had failed to stop at a white line. He said I had better pay the fine now or go to the station where his superior would be less inclined to leniency.

“What makes you think you can come to my country and break our laws?” he spat. His eyes bulged and beads of sweat glistened on his shaven head. He stared through the windshield at the passing cars. “I should not be out here directing traffic,” he said. “I am a graduate.”

Boko Haram Violence in Lake Chad Region Leaves Children Displaced and Trapped

 "Thank God we're alive, but we've lost everything, our camels, our jewels, our savings. Everything," says Fatime Saleh, 10, who was displaced from Chad alongside her family due to Boko Haram violence. "This is not ok for ...

TORONTO and DAKAR, Aug. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - Years of violence by Boko Haram in Africa's Lake Chad basin have led to a worsening humanitarian crisis that has displaced 1.4 million children and left at least one million still trapped in hard-to-reach areas, UNICEF said in a report released today.
"The Lake Chad crisis is a children's crisis that should rank high on the global migration and displacement agenda," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. "Humanitarian needs are outpacing the response, especially now that new areas previously unreachable in north-east Nigeria become accessible."

How British Companies and Others Control Over US$1Trillion of Africa's Resources

How British Companies and Others Control Over US$1Trillion of Africa's Resources

Give them their parliament but we will control the banks
Lusaka Times, August 26, 2016
~ By Mark Curtis

Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control $305billion worth of platinum, $276billion worth of oil and $216billion worth of coal at current market prices. The ‘Scramble for Africa’ is proceeding apace, with the result that African governments have largely handed over their treasure.

Click here to read the full report.

How President Buhari is Cracking Corruption in Nigeria

Nigeria: Cracking Corruption
Public Finance International, August 26, 2016
~ By Emma Rumney

Nigeria is one of the most “fantastically corrupt” countries in the world – that is, in the words of former prime minister David Cameron, who was caught boasting to the Queen in May that a delegation from Nigeria was to attend his flagship anti-corruption summit.