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Business News

Web3 Calls For Africa

Web 3 is the new paradigm in web interaction and will mark a fundamental change. Simply put, it is the new phase of the internet’s evolution.

According to Africa Report, the continent’s cryptocurrency sector reached a critical milestone in September last year, when sub-Saharan users accumulated over $80 million in digital asset holdings. African countries embraced mobile money before cryptocurrency. M-Pesa, the first mobile money company, generated significant change in people’s spending habits in 2007. When you consider the monetary framework’s currency stability issues, cryptocurrency’s popularity in Africa is unsurprising.

With its concentration of cryptocurrency organizations, one may think that North America is the second-largest Bitcoin market after Europe. Or in Latin America, where countries like El Salvador have accepted Bitcoin as legal cash. Or perhaps it’s Asia, where the digital asset industry is rapidly expanding. However, Africa is the answer!

According to a report published in 2016, the continent’s cryptocurrency market had over $80 million in virtual asset holdings, which was more than the total number of users in the United States combined.

Morocco, a North African country with a GDP that ranks outside the top 50 in the world with The United States being first, has one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency populations, with 2.5 percent of the population possessing some form of digital currency.

The continent saw a staggering 12 times rise in bitcoin transactions from 2020 to 2021. The AZA financial team is not surprised by this growth. During the preceding 9 years of working on the continent, people have seen massive increases in the adoption of new technologies, thanks in large part to a young and mobile population eager to enter the virtual world.

African nations admired mobile money before cryptocurrency. M-Pesa, Africa’s first mobile money company, created a change in the way people on the continent keep and spend money in 2007. In Kenya, the introduction of mobile money was a major success, with M-Pesa controlling 99 percent of the market.

As a result of this win, mobile money has gained universal acceptance. Africa now accounts for more than 60% of all international mobile money transactions. The continent’s population has demonstrated that it is eager to absorb new technology.

When considering the monetary framework and currency stability concerns in Africa, cryptocurrency’s popularity is inevitable. Even strong currencies on the continent, such as the South African Rand, are among the world’s most undervalued. Therefore, cryptocurrency provides a more reliable method of sending and storing money.

Moving forward, Africa becoming a powerhouse for Web3 and bitcoin adoption is a logical step. Because of the destructive, outdated thinking of chiefs of global firms, monetary institutions, and other foreign companies, Africa is waiting to benefit from crypto assets technologies.

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Blockchain Coins Learn

What Makes the Bitcoin Blockchain Secure?

Name a company and, odds are, it’s been hacked. With 71% of hacks being financially motivated, it begs the question: can the Bitcoin network be hacked, too? After all, it’s a tempting target, with a market cap of nearly $335 billion. The answer is: pretty much no. Indeed, Bitcoin has proven remarkably resilient to shocks and stresses in its decade-plus history. And while crypto exchanges have been hacked with depressing frequency and their stores of Bitcoin redistributed, actually compromising and taking control of the Bitcoin network itself is a far more daunting prospect. 

Here is why Bitcoin Blockchain is safe and stable:

Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. “Crypto” is short for cryptography; more specifically, “public-key cryptography”. That means it uses a private and a public key to ensure the authenticity and integrity of transactions. Bitcoin’s digital signatures are signed using something called the Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).

The only way for someone to derive a private key from a given public key would be by brute-force search i.e. trying every possible value for a private key and seeing if it generated the corresponding public key. In practical terms, that’s impossible, since there are 1077 possible combinations.

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible

The clever thing about Bitcoin is that it’s run on a blockchain. A “block” is just a batch of newly processed transactions. Each block is connected to the previous batch of transactions by a one-way cryptographic function, forming a “chain.”

Blockchains are write-only ledgers. You can add information to them, but the blocks, once written, can’t be modified. It’s as if all the transactions are buried beneath the weight of the other blocks.

That means people can’t simply reverse a transaction from a week ago like your credit card company might have after you “accidentally” bought that dog wig on Amazon.

Bitcoin uses a distributed ledger

The traditional finance ecosystem relies on centralized parties like banks to keep a record of transactions and prevent fraudulent transactions. But that means that you’re reliant on those parties to act in good faith because any one of those parties could adjust the ledger of transactions to fake or reverse a transaction.

Blockchains are different due to the fact that they’re a type of distributed ledger technology. Instead of your money sitting in a centralized database, vulnerable to a single point of failure, it’s kind of everywhere (or, more accurately, the record of transactions is distributed among many separate parties).

That may sound like a bad thing, but it’s not. Everyone running the Bitcoin software with a “node” , that is to say a computer, is responsible for verifying transactions. The majority of nodes must more or less agree that the record of transactions is accurate before they can be approved. (Don’t worry, it’s automated, so no one’s clicking “Agree” every 10 minutes a new block is made.)

For the Bitcoin blockchain, to carry out such an attack one requires the acquisition and coordination of resources beyond even the most powerful countries.

With so many different people running the software—and a collective interest in keeping the valuable coin secure—that’s not likely to happen. It’s simply too expensive and difficult to coordinate.

The Bitcoin blockchain is public

Everyone can see the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s a public ledger. While that means someone can see what’s in your wallet, they don’t know it belongs to you because your funds are in a pseudonymous address. Moreover, they can’t take your money because only the person who holds the private key to a Bitcoin address can move the funds.

Crucially, because of this transparency, everyone can see the ledger of transactions and verify everything is on the up and up. Anyone is able to audit the system, which breeds trust.
Conclusively, the Bitcoin blockchain has proven highly resilient over time and the strength lies in the high degree of trust, confidence, and transparency of all transactions.

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Reviews

Cryptocurrency Trading Risks: What You Should Know

Cryptocurrencies have made the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) list of top digital trends for 2022,  supported by research from the Thomson Reuters Foundation that defines it as advancing from the “fringes of finance to the mainstream.”

Several nations have adopted cryptocurrencies as legal cash and people are putting their assets in crypto wallets rather than traditional financial institutions.

Countries are exploring or have begun to use Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which enables businesses and consumers to make payments directly utilizing digital currencies rather than more traditional ways of payment. There are, however, risks, as Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa points out:

“The cryptocurrency ecosystem is still very much the Wild West,” she says. 

DeFi users and investors have lost over $12 billion due to theft and fraud through malicious exploitation of flaws in decentralized applications (DApps), decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending protocols, and asset management offerings, according to Elliptic’s report, DeFi: Risk, Regulation, and the Rise of DeCrime.

Cryptocurrency vulnerabilities have long been a source of concern. China, Bangladesh, Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt, and Morocco are among the countries that have imposed increasingly sophisticated prohibitions on them, while others are exploring tightening controls on how these currencies are stored and accessible.

“Crypto platforms and services use websites and third-party service providers that are off the blockchain to interact with their customers. They host websites, other providers’ APIs and use email or chat services, like Discord, and every one of these opens up a new loophole for criminals,” says Collard.

“This could be used to phish their customers, scam them, hijack accounts and steal data, or gain user trust so they can steal their information. These are just some of the opportunities that are ripe for fraud, and people need to be prepared for these risks and take steps to protect their funds.”

Moving cash from a hot wallet to a cold wallet or cold storage quickly is a reasonable move. Since they are not directly connected to the internet, they store users’ private keys offline, ensuring that no one on the internet can tamper with them.

Cold storage adds a new layer of security to your computer, reducing the risk of your secret key being stolen by malware. This provides some protection, but it won’t keep you safe from phishing scams that try to trick you into authorizing payments, handing over your private key to scammers, or falling for any of the other fraudulent crypto investment schemes.

That is why it is critical to completely comprehend the complexity and dangers associated with cryptocurrencies in order to wisely protect yourself while using them.

There are also difficulties with the platforms and marketplaces themselves, many of which are plagued with scammers that engage in fraudulent trade, defraud consumers, and conduct scams. They haven’t vanished just because the currency has been relocated to digital channels.

“Smart contracts are pieces of code that are used by crypto platforms, exchanges, and other players to transact on the blockchain. These pieces of code are written by software engineers who, like any other human, make mistakes. So what cybercriminals do is sift through GitHub and look for known or reported vulnerabilities that they can use often to steal from the platforms directly,” concludes Collard.

“If the world really wants to move towards cryptocurrencies as a more accepted mainstream form of finance, the ecosystem has to sort out its security (and sustainability) challenges first. And investors or potential users need to understand the inherent risks in this market, do their best to protect their wallets, remain aware of social engineering, and stay ahead of the scams.”

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Business News

NFT of Mandela’s arrest warrant up for grabs

An NFT version of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela’s arrest warrant raised US$130,550 at an auction, with funds going to a museum dedicated to the history of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle.

On August 5, 1962, South Africa’s first democratically elected black president was arrested and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The non-fungible tokens, or NFT, “sold for 1.9 million ($130,550) via a buyer online,” according to Ahren Posthumus, CEO of the digital auctioneer Momint. The reserve price at the auction last night in Cape Town was 900,000 rand (US$61,800).

The buyer was a foreigner, based in the UAE.

“Proceeds for the Mandela NFT will go to Liliesleaf museum, to keep their doors open and stay afloat,” Posthumus told AFP.

Due to financial issues, Liliesleaf closed its doors in September 2021.

The same technology as crypto-currencies like bitcoin is used to sell art as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

The buyer is given a validated digital token as proof that the artwork is genuine.

“This is really a unique and novel way of generating income,” Liliesleaf Farm museum founder Nicholas Wolpe told AFP.

The original document, dated 1961, is handwritten in both English and Afrikaans and is now yellowed, with gnarled edges and staple holes on one side.

Since roughly 2006, it has been housed at the Liliesleaf Farm historic site archives in Johannesburg, according to Wolpe.

The famous property in an upmarket northern Johannesburg suburb served as the hidden headquarters and nerve center of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), which led the fight against white minority rule, between 1961 and 1963.

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Business News

Crypto education is still a game-changer in Africa.

In developing countries, cryptocurrency is getting a lot of traction. Young Africans, who only have access to cellphones rather than traditional banking, are driving this growth.

For the first time, the cryptocurrency market has attracted the attention of millennials, who have the capacity to further reinvigorate it. TikTok accounts, memetic crypto marketing, and other cutting-edge community activities have elevated crypto behavior to new heights.

The crypto sector is making a mistake by assuming that the bulk of the populace is properly versed with cryptography. Cryptocurrency does not yet play a substantial role in the majority of people’s daily lives.

Outlook on Crypto in Africa

  1. A large percentage of Africans are ignorant about cryptocurrencies, which is why they are unwilling to invest in them.
  2. A recent Luno survey found that 55% of Nigerians knew nothing about crypto, whereas that number was 56% in South Africa and 64% in Kenya.
  3. Moreover, according to a Kucoin report, crypto transactions in Africa account for roughly 2.8% of global volumes, suggesting there is still a long way to go to boost adoption
  4. Economies in Africa are undergoing a revolution. It appears that the trend toward everyday commerce continues. Whereas cryptocurrencies are often considered financial speculation in Africa,  they are becoming increasingly popular in developing nations.

An outstanding example of cryptocurrencies in development demonstrates how they might assist the African continent.

It’s crucial to note that, thanks to blockchain technology, many Africans can now open their own bank accounts. 

To ensure that Africa and Africans do not fall behind, it is critical to overcome the knowledge gap and integrate future web3 professionals.

Platforms like Bloomone aim to increase acceptance through educating a large number of Africans through educational blockchain initiatives, in addition to increasing adoption and developing an ecosystem.

As a result, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is at the forefront of cryptocurrency education, ensuring that cryptocurrency aficionados have access to the most up-to-date knowledge.

The Binance Masterclass program, which teaches everything from cryptocurrency trading to blockchain employment options, debuted in January 2020 with the goal of raising crypto literacy in Africa. Since then, Binance has provided free crypto education to over 541,000 Africans.

Such programs are especially critical, given that the blockchain industry is opening up new possibilities for Africans to escape poverty, obtain skills, find work, and access financial services that were previously unavailable to them.

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Business News

Morocco Central Bank Discusses Crypto Regulation Best Practices With IMF and World Bank

Morocco’s Central Bank Governor, Abdul Latif Al Jawhari, has stated that his institution is now discussing crypto regulatory best practices with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The Central Bank of Morocco (CBM) is in talks with central banks from France, Sweden, and Switzerland about the same issue, in addition to the two international financial organizations.

Al Jawhari’s comments about cryptocurrency come in the aftermath of rising calls for authorities to regulate the crypto business. Despite recognizing that Moroccans will undoubtedly accept cryptocurrencies in the future, the CBM governor insists that this will only happen after a regulatory framework is in place. Al Jawhari elaborated:

“Currently, we cannot adopt cryptocurrencies given the lack of regulatory and legislative frameworks both nationally and internationally. The G20 and many countries stress the importance of having a crypto regulatory framework as well as a regulatory framework for Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC].”

In order to prepare Morocco for the inevitable adoption of cryptocurrencies, Al Jawhari is quoted stating that the CBM has since created a council that will “oversee the required regulations for both cryptocurrencies and CBDCs.”

The council was established in February 2021 and is led by Al Jawhari. Its purpose was to look into the ramifications for Morocco if the country decided to adopt cryptocurrency.

Morocco just became North Africa’s top peer-to-peer crypto trading location, despite the government’s anti-crypto position. Morocco also boasts the fifth-highest proportion of the population in Africa who owns cryptocurrencies, according to Bitcoin.com News.

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Business News

Tarina Patel is the first South African actress to delve into the NFT world

Patel is the first actress from South Africa to engage in the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) business. It’s crucial to highlight that the NFT isn’t merely a picture or a GIF. It’s a stunning sculpture of her face. She is also leveraging the power of NFTs to support a good cause in this year’s Momint NFT auction, in addition to becoming the first actress in South Africa to be involved in NFTs.

Patel discussed how important it is for her to make a name for herself as an actress in the fascinating realm of NFTs.

“I was racing against time to be the first South African actress to be involved in NFTs. I didn’t want it to just be anything – like a photo, because that can be made in five minutes. I wanted it to be really remarkable and iconic.”

And it is remarkable. The sculpture was constructed by Marco Olivier, who, according to Patel, went “all-out” and worked on it for months..

So why her face?

“As a person, my self-expression is storytelling and leaving behind a legacy. This face has been through so much and I have done so much.”

Patel has appeared in and produced films both in South Africa and overseas. As the founder and director of the Dr. Ramanbhai Patel Foundation, she is also involved in humanitarian work.

Patel believes that assisting others is an important element of leaving a legacy since her work for disadvantaged people carries on.

Think NFTs are not something for an actress to be part of? Reconsider.

“NFTs are not typically in this space but it kind of is because it is art and it will be around for hundreds of years.”

Patel lauded the NFT business as the way of the future.

“I think NFT is the future. It is moving away from traditional banking and the NFT industry has really exploded.”

But what’s all the excitement about NFTs in general, and most especially in the art world?

Because fraud is so common in the art world, art must have some kind of paperwork that outlines the piece’s ownership history.

“Verifying an artwork is a long and expensive process – so why is it done? The answer seems obvious – because art buyers want to know they’re getting the real deal. Buyers pay for more than just the artwork – they’re paying for a spot in the chain of ownership of the piece,” said Momint on their website.

This is where the art world’s fondness for NFT comes into play. You can’t merely screenshot an image and call it a day because NFT technology gives a file an undeniable ownership history.

“Further to that, because NFTs aren’t fungible (are unique and cannot be replaced), the buyer has proof that they are the sole owner of an art piece, issued by the artist. That means that NFT technology could place digital artworks in the same spot of cultural significance as real-world art: many people can see and enjoy them and they can even get hold of free copies of them, but we know that the original copy linked to the artist is owned by an individual,” said Momint.

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News Social Good

Hedgie Fund NFT collection aims to support autism awareness

With the growing popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to promote artists’ work, Matt Landon created The Hedgie Fund to raise autism awareness.

The Hedgie Fund is a trait-based NFT collection of “Hedgies” that makes use of the sets, props, and characters developed for Sam the Hedgehog, an animated short film advocating autism acceptance. Maan Creative in Johannesburg is putting it together.

For 0.05 ETH each, Maan has algorithmically designed 8,128 Sam ‘Hedgies’ for NFT beginners and aficionados to mint. All revenues from The Hedgie Fund will be used to finish the film and provide grants to autism-related charities and causes, with the goal of promoting global autism acceptance.

“NFTs are digital representations of ownership of various items, with one of the most popular use-cases being to represent art. Purchasers buy, sell and 

trade for a number of reasons, but rarely do NFTs fund real projects with real purpose. By purchasing a Sam ‘Hedgie’, collectors can become part of something meaningful that has intent and that raises awareness and funds for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD),” explains Landon.

ASD affects about 1 out of every 68 persons. Sam the Hedgehog was created in 2014 to increase autism acceptance awareness. The film, however, is only partially completed due to the incredibly high expense of animation. After observing how popular NFT trading has recently become, the project’s producers saw an opportunity to finish it and have it displayed at film festivals throughout the world.

“We realized that we could use the existing assets from the film, a mixture of hand-drawn characters and practical, hand-crafted sets, and engage those who are interested in NFTs and wish to support autism acceptance. Not only will the owners who mint our NFTs own a beautiful image, but they will also be linked to a real project and cause,” says Michael Clark, co-director at Maan Creative.

Aiming to have an impact

Owners of a Sam Crypto ‘Hedgie’ for 0.05 ETH will contribute to the funding of the Sam the Hedgehog short film and have early access to the film while it is being submitted to independent film festivals – before it is made available to the public as a free resource. They can also have their name, pseudonym,  .eth name, Twitter handle, or Ethereum public address mentioned or thanked in the film’s closing credits, and they might even get a cameo appearance.

The NFTs will be available to mint from 2 April – World Autism Awareness Day.

“While only 8,128 NFTs will be available to mint, we could have had up to 1.9 million different variations. This, as we have created a host of different traits such as Sam’s ears, the props, glasses, etc, and each will be mixed and matched after assigning various rarity values to each trait,” says Landon

“While we are not the first to consider how to use NFTs beyond just owning a piece of artwork, we do believe we will be the first to finish an actual animated short film funded by NFT minting. Of course, we considered alternative forms of crowdsourcing, and even traditional finance, but that only gets one so far.”

“Using the popularity of NFTs just felt right, as we are creating unique pieces of art for collectors to own and trade while also becoming part of a far larger effort to raise awareness for Autism acceptance and do good,” says Landon.

“The film project has such a rich world with so many thoughtful details and the NFT project provides another avenue for us to showcase this world that will probably get lost in the film. For example, the way Sam arranges his building blocks meticulously by the color – a subtle clue to his autistic nature,” says Clark.
To get involved visit the Hedgie Fund website or follow The Hedgie Fund on Twitter.

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Coins Learn

Should You Trade in Tether? Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Tether is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, which is tied to another asset such as the US Dollar.1 Tether is designed to be worth $1. It is one of the most popular kinds of digitized currencies in the financial markets. A company called Tether Limited controls Tether and is responsible for managing the Tether supply, keeping reserves to back the Tether tokens it issues, and maintaining a stable price.

Due to  its highly volatile nature, Tether is very unpredictable. It made its debut in the financial investment industry as a Real coin in 2014, but it was the first token to be launched on the Cryptocurrency scene in 2015. More specifically, this particular cryptocurrency has a long list of reputable developers, with Brock Pierce at the top of the list.

Should you buyTether

Despite the emergence of challengers throughout time, based on certain important parameters, it can be stated that Tether would be the biggest stablecoin and is frequently used for transactions, borrowing, and generating payments. 

When planning to invest in Tether, you should note that it is available on most main bitcoin exchanges. For the most part, Tether has maintained a price of $1. Even when the price has fluctuated, it has corrected back to $1 fairly quickly. Tether Limited has had its share of controversies and some have caused its price to drop as low as $0.90. Conversely, when cryptocurrency prices are falling, demand for stablecoins can rise and push up Tether’s price.

Stability, alone, doesn’t define a good investment. In fact, investors need their assets to appreciate in value so that they can make profits. 

On the flip side, Tether may be considered one of the weaker digital currencies owing to its disclosure difficulties, while it is highly substantial in the bitcoin market.

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Business News

KuCoin Reports State a Whooping 2500% Increase of Crypto Users in Africa


The adoption of cryptocurrencies in Africa has sparked the curiosity of the cryptocurrency community, with various estimates on how much Africans are using these new asset classes available from various bitcoin analytic firms.

Cryptocurrency transactions surged by over 2,500 percent in 2021, according to a positive report from cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin. However, according to the research, crypto transactions in Africa account for roughly 2.8 percent of global volumes.

According to the report, both commercial and governmental entities are boosting their research and development (R&D) efforts in order to establish the circumstances for asset class acceptance, “Local public and private enterprises are increasing their investments in R&D, while creating the necessary bedrock for the establishment of the next generation of information and communication technologies. Most African countries have adopted bold policies aimed at building economies centered around modern technologies, including blockchain and cryptocurrencies.”

What you should know

The average number of monthly transactions across African countries increased by 1,386.7 percent from January 2021 to January 2022, according to the research.

The number of users has also increased dramatically, according to the data, with a 2,467.2 percent increase over the same time period.

The average transaction size has fallen, indicating, according to the research, “that the adoption of this technology is taking place not only for large transfers, but for small payments as well.”

The report attributed the massive growth in adoption to the high level of inflation seen in African countries. It states, “the adoption of crypto technologies in Africa were preceded by the availability of the technology and the presence of several motivating factors. These include the desire of the population to react quickly to any changes in the exchange rate of national currencies in countries with high rates of inflation and devaluation.”

It further reads, “The possibility of quickly transferring investments across assets mitigates the chance of savings depreciation. Not all countries are as inflationary as those of Sudan (260%) or Ethiopia (66%). Still, the desire to preserve the purchasing power, even under 6.4% inflation (Tunisia), is natural for those seeking to preserve the value of their savings.”

According to the survey, more than 88.5 percent of African bitcoin transactions are cross-border transfers, and they use cryptocurrencies because of the low transaction fees. “In many circumstances, users pay less than 0.01 percent of the total amount of the transaction sent in cryptocurrencies,” it goes on to say, “This simultaneously solves several issues associated with crypto transaction restrictions that are in place in countries like Nigeria and Kenya. End-users of services can conduct transactions in a matter of milliseconds without fear of temporary freezes of transferred funds, as is often the case with conventional payment systems.”

According to the survey, Cape Town and Lagos are the driving forces behind Africa’s digitalization. “Cairo, Cape Town, and Lagos might be regarded as the region’s engines of digitization,” it says. Kenya has a distinct focus in East Africa, with 64 percent more bitcoin transactions in Nairobi, the country’s capital, than the rest of the region.”

The population’s readiness for such changes is demonstrated by soaring demand and an almost 25-fold increase in user numbers in the preceding year.

In the age of globalization, detaching from outmoded payment methods would help attract investments, minimize government spending, relieve the administrative burden on the banking industry, and build business relations with other countries without harming individuals’ financial well-being.

The report concluded by stating, “With the proper legislative attention and acceptance of the need for such digital technologies by the authorities, crypto platforms could be an effective steppingstone for the overall growth of Africa’s GDP.”