Category Archives: Uncategorized

Online spending in Africa exposes huge gap e-commerce companies still have to do.

In the early 2010s, African tech ecosystems were defined by the promise of e-commerce with a simple mission: getting hundreds of millions of young Africans to make online purchases. A decade on, the mission still remains a work in progress with question marks lingering around logistics and last mile delivery problems—and that’s reflected in the level of spending among African shoppers. Across the continent, recently released data shows South African shoppers spent an average of $109 on…

You can now be jailed for littering in Uganda.

Uganda has enacted a new law that bans littering in the country, with convicted offenders liable to a $540 fine or jail term for a period not exceeding one year. According to the Physical Planning Amendment Act No 2 of 2020 passed by the parliament on Tuesday, dropping or littering rubbish outside the litter bin will be an offense. It’s therefore mandatory for all premises to have a litter or garbage bin. The new law…

Screen reading is ruining your attention! Here’s what to do.

For Maryanne Wolf, it began “innocently enough.” As her work became more and more digital, emails shortened. She dropped magazine subscriptions. She started leaning on Google searches and weekly summaries for her reading — plenty of time to read more deeply over the weekend. Then leftover tasks took the weekends, too. If anyone should have been prepared for the change, it would have been Wolf, a scholar and literacy advocate who recorded her experience in…

Big brands look beyond South Africa to the rest of the continent.

As South Africa contends with reforms to jumpstart its faltering economy, the country’s peers on the continent are reaping the benefits of Africa’s growth narrative. Business is booming in the region. And with optics so important in the quest for for investors, homegrown and global businesses are thinking up ways to capitalise on the African growth story. Executives from Standard Bank Group CEO Sim Tshabalala and Coca Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) CEO Jacques Vermeulen to…

How reading the ‘air’ keeps japan running.

In “high-context” countries where communication is indirect and messages are inferred – like Japan – situational awareness is king. This story is part of Gen J, a new BBC Worklife series that spotlights Japan as the country heads into 2020. This is the third story in that series, looking at a societal expectation that even the youngest generation must be prepared to manage. When you step on an escalator, do you stand to one side…