NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia, Africa’s top coffee producer, is expected to export a record-high 4 million 60-kg bags of coffee in 2019/20, the U.S. Department of Agriculture attache in Addis Ababa said, as yields improve and the area dedicated to coffee farming increase.



Production of coffee is expected to rise to 7.35 million tonnes in 2019/20, an 1.4% increase from the 2018/19 season. Exports account for just over half of overall production, and are forecast to grow 0.5% in 2019/20 from the previous year to reach 4 million bags. Coffee is Ethiopia’s most important export.



Exporters in the country are facing increased regulation, the USDA said, with the government banning several exporters in recent months for defaulting on their contracts and hoarding beans.



While supplies are greater this year thanks to higher yields due to better rains and the reduced prevalence of disease, the USDA’s forecasted yield of 0.82 tonnes per hectare comes in well below the government’s target of 1.1 tonnes per hectare, the report noted.



And production continues to face the broader threat of farmers switching to other crops.



“One of the major challenges the Ethiopian coffee sector is facing is that many coffee producers, mostly from the eastern part of the country are tearing out the coffee bushes and replacing them with khat, a plant with stimulant properties,” the USDA said.



Meanwhile, domestic demand in Africa’s top coffee consumer is expected to remain robust, with the USDA expecting Ethiopian consumption to rise by 2.4% in 2019/20 compared to 2018/19.



To read the full report, click:&nbsp;<a href="https://bit.ly/2EWvzWP">bit.ly/2EWvzWP</a>



Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; editing by Diane Craft

The 2019/20 coffee exports in this East African country to rise to a record high

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JOHANNESBURG,
22 May 2019: Africa’s leading business
awards, the All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA™) in Partnership with
CNBC Africa, make a return for a 9th year, with their commitment to
recognizing remarkable business leadership on the continent.



Organisations
and business leaders from across the continent, can now submit their nomination
via the AABLA™ website in one or more of the following categories:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Young
 Business Leader of the Year</li><li>Business
 Woman of the Year</li><li>Industrialist
 of the Year</li><li>Innovator
 of the Year</li><li>Entrepreneur
 of the Year</li><li>Company
 of the Year</li><li>Business
 Leader of the Year</li><li>Philanthropist
 of the Year</li></ul>



The
2019 AABLA™ will see an additional category join an already distinguished
line-up of recognitions, namely ‘CFO of the Year’.



The categories
‘African of the Year’ and the celebrated ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ will be
selected by the 2019 AABLA™ Judging Committee.



As so many who have gone before can attest, an AABLA recognition is truly the pinnacle of any business leaders career, as the award embodies accomplishment, triumph of the odds and a first among peers, characteristic of the marque.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AABLA-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-337825"/></figure>



“I’m
just delighted and I appreciate this award so much,” said an emotional Sol
Kerzner, recipient of the 2018 AABLA™ All Africa Lifetime Achievement Award at
the All Africa Grand Finale. “I am just so happy to be here today to receive
this award. It means just so much to me to receive this, right here in South
Africa, where it began for me,” he concluded.



The
full list of 2018 AABLA™ All Africa Winners include:



All
Africa Business Leader of the Year 



Peter
Mountford&nbsp; 



Super
Group, CEO



All
Africa Business Woman of the Year&nbsp; 



Nomkhita
Nqweni 



ABSA
Wealth, Investment Management and Insurance, CEO 



All
Africa Entrepreneur of the Year 



Thembalihle
Baloyi 



Discovery
Insure, Founder and Executive Director



All
Africa Industrialist of the Year 



Quinton
Uren Jendamark Automation, Managing Director



All
Africa Company of the Year 



Ethiopian
Airlines 



All
Africa Young Business Leader of the Year&nbsp; 



Dr.
Elikem Tamaklo 



Nyaho
Medical Centre, Managing Director



All
Africa Innovator of the Year 



James
Paterson &amp; Benjamin Meltzer



Aerobotics,
Co-Founders



All
Africa Philanthropist of the Year&nbsp; 



Sir
Donald Gordon&nbsp; 



Donald
Gordon Foundation, Founder



All
Africa Lifetime Achievement Award 



Solomon
Kerzner 



All
Africa African of the Year



His
Excellency Paul Kagame 



President
of the Republic of Rwanda



The
2019 AABLA™ Grand Finale on December 5 will embody true luxury and epicurean
pleasure for those wanting to indulge in an extravagant gala dinner, whilst
networking with some of Africa’s most notable business pioneers, celebrities
and public sector leaders.



Nominations
will close on 15 July 2019 at midnight. For more information and to submit a
nomination, visit <a href="http://www.aablawards.com/">www.aablawards.com</a>
and follow the 9th All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA™) in
Partnership with CNBC Africa on Social Media: @aablawards and #AABLA2019. 



Tables
to the main event are available to acquire, with prices starting from R50’000
for seating of 10 guests. Booking details available at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aablawards.com/">www.aablawards.com</a>



The
AABLA™ are proudly produced and managed by ABN Event Productions.

#AABLA2019: Nominations open for the 2019 All Africa Business Leaders Awards

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a> 



Pop star Rihanna was first discovered as a teen, when American record producer Evan Rogers was visiting her home country of Barbados. After hearing her sing, Rogers helped her record a demo, which eventually made its way to Jay-Z.



Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, flew to New York to audition in front of Jay-Z. “She was fierce, like Kobe Bryant,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rihanna-queen-of-pain-117943/" class="">he recalls in an interview with Rolling Stone</a>. “I knew she was a star.”



The 31-year-old music icon has won nine Grammy awards so far. Her makeup line, Fenty Beauty, generated a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/company/fenty-beauty" class="">reported $72 million</a>&nbsp;in sales in just its first full month in 2017 and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/05/10/business/10reuters-lvmh-rihanna.html" class="">nearly $562 million in sales</a>&nbsp;by the end of 2018. She’s launching a luxury fashion label, also called Fenty, in May 2019.



Though she has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/07/16/rihannas-net-worth-210-million-in-2018/#a3fcb274548c" class="">made millions of dollars,&nbsp;</a>Rihanna doesn’t plan on slowing down. “I never thought I’d make this much money, so a number is not going to stop me from working,” she tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/20/t-magazine/rihanna-fenty-louis-vuitton.html" class="">T: The New York Times Style Magazine</a>.



Now “I’m working out of what I love to do, what I’m passionate about,” she says.



Lady Gaga has a similar mindset. Pursuing a career as a pop star has never been about the money,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0cca76f0-873a-11e0-b983-00144feabdc0" class="">she told the Financial Times in 2011</a>: “The beauty for me about being an artist is that the dream will never die, because I’m not obsessed with material things and don’t care about the money &#8230; but only the love of my fans, so for me it’s about how much more devoted, how much better an artist can I become.”



In short, she said, “it’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.”



Money may not be driving her career, or Lady Gaga’s, but profit is still “happening along the way,” Rihanna tells T Magazine. And it has opened up opportunities: “The money means that I can take care of my family. The money means that I can facilitate the businesses that I want to.”



It also means that “I can create jobs for other people. My money is not for me; it’s always the thought that I can help someone else,” says Rihanna. She founded the&nbsp;<a href="https://claralionelfoundation.org/" class="">Clara Lionel Foundation</a>&nbsp;in 2012 to help improve the quality of education and health care for children in impoverished communities.



“The world can really make you believe that the wrong things are priority, and it makes you really miss the core of life, what it means to be alive,” she continues. “It could literally be walking outside in the sun. That makes me happy.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/rihanna-i-never-thought-id-make-this-much-money.html?&amp;qsearchterm=rihanna">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/rihanna-i-never-thought-id-make-this-much-money.html?&amp;qsearchterm=rihanna</a> and is republished with its permission.

Rihanna: ‘I never thought I’d make this much money’—here’s what it means to her

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe and the European Union began political talks on Wednesday aimed at turning the page on hostile relations during Robert Mugabe’s rule, a step that could enable a resumption of direct financial aid for the ailing economy.



During Mugabe’s four-decade rule until 2017, he would routinely blame European “colonialists” for Zimbabwe’s problems, and snarled at EU and U.S. sanctions for rights and vote abuses.



The EU has only kept sanctions on Mugabe, his wife and the state arms manufacturer, but is yet to resume direct funding to the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, preferring to channel money through local charities and U.N. agencies.



With the economy afflicted by dollar shortages, fuel queues, power-cuts, and soaring prices, Mnangagwa has said restoring ties with the West and multilateral lenders like International Monetary Fund is one of his major priorities.



At the start of the open-ended talks between diplomats and officials in Harare, EU Zimbabwe delegation head Timo Olkkonen said they would discuss issues including economic development, trade, investment, rights, rule of law and good governance.



The government has already signed up to an IMF monitoring programme where it has committed to political and economic reforms in a bid to set a track record of fiscal discipline that could earn it debt forgiveness and future financing.



At a separate event in a Harare hotel, Mnangagwa signed a new bill creating a tripartite negotiating forum intended to bring labour, business and government together to shape policy.



The 76-year-old leader is under pressure to deliver on pre-election promises and wants to avert a repeat of violent protests over a steep fuel price hike in January.



Later on Wednesday, the government is expected to start wage negotiations with public sector unions, who say a pay rise of up to 29% they received in April had already been eroded by inflation, now at a 10-year high of 75.86 %.



Mnangagwa has promised to break with his predecessor and says his “open for business” mantra will woo foreign investors. But critics say under his rule the economy shows no signs of improving while security forces have continued to crush dissent.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

What you need to know about Zimbabwe and EU’s political talks to ease tensions created in Mugabe-era

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/alicia-adamczyk/">Alicia Adamczyk</a> 



Pour one out for your high school mix tapes: <a class="" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-previews-macos-catalina/">Apple announced Monday</a> at its annual <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/apple-mac-pro-look.html">Worldwide Developers Conference</a> (WWDC) that it’s shutting down iTunes, its 18-year-old digital media software. In its place, Mac users will have three individual, dedicated apps for music, podcasts and TV, similar to the current iPhone setup.



The transition will take place when the macOS Catalina, the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system, debuts in the fall. While the news initially alarmed users, you can rest easy: Apple confirmed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;that your iTunes content isn’t going to just disappear into the digital ether.



“Users will have access to their entire music library, whether they downloaded the songs, purchased them or ripped them from a CD,” reads a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-previews-macos-catalina/" class="">press release</a>.



The company confirmed that when Mac users update their software, music currently in your library will transfer to the Apple Music app and TV and movie purchases will migrate to the Apple TV app. Mac users will be able to access the iTunes Music Store within the Music app, and buy movies and TV shows in the TV app. Windows users will see no change in their iTunes experience, and&nbsp;iTunes Store gift cards are still valid.How to ‘own’ your digital files



While the company promises that users won’t lose content, it’s a good reminder that digital files can come with quirky ownership rules.



When you lawfully buy a physical CD, DVD or book, for example, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#109" class="">Copyright Act</a>&nbsp;allows you to sell, lend or give away your copy, because you own it. But that’s not the case for digital copies, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html" class="">Apple’s terms and conditions</a>&nbsp;explicitly states.



So if you buy a movie via the iTunes store or to stream on Amazon, for example, you’re essentially buying a license to watch the film as long as it remains on the platform — you’re not buying ownership of the file itself.



As for music, as Apple states, you “may burn an audio playlist of purchased music to disc for listening purposes up to seven times &#8230; Other Content may not be burned to disc.”



In order to keep your digital files forever, you can download them onto an <a class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/technology/personaltech/moving-your-music-out-of-itunes.html">external hard drive or upload them to a cloud service</a>.Of course, you could always go the old-fashioned route and buy physical copies of your favorite books, albums, movies and TV shows.



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/apple-is-shutting-down-itunesheres-what-will-happen-to-your-music.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/apple-is-shutting-down-itunesheres-what-will-happen-to-your-music.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Apple is shutting down iTunes—here’s what will happen to your music

KEY POINTS
<ul>
<li>Naspers, a South African consumer internet company, owns a 31% stake valued at roughly $126 billion in Chinese tech giant Tencent.</li>
<li>In an interview at the Money20/20 Europe conference on Monday, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk said China’s tech scene has been a “bloodbath” in recent months.</li>
<li>Van Dijk blamed trade tensions between the U.S. and China but said he’s not worried about Tencent.</li>
</ul>
<div class="Author-authorNameAndSocial"><a class="Author-authorName" tabindex="" title="" role="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-schulze/" target="" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-type="" aria-label="">Elizabeth Schulze</a> 
<a class="Author-authorTwitter" tabindex="" title="" role="" href="https://twitter.com/eschulze9" target="" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-type="" aria-label="">@ESCHULZE9</a></div>
Chinese tech stocks have been in a ‘bloodbath’ but the future is bright: Naspers CEO 
Tencent’s biggest shareholder is bullish on Chinese tech stocks despite the trade war between the U.S. and China. 
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="349" src="https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&amp;byGuid=7000082606" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen=""></iframe> 
Naspers, a South African consumer internet company, owns a 31% stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent. In an interview at the Money20/20 Europe conference on Monday, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk said tech stocks in China, including Tencent, have fallen victim to the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
But, he added, the fundamentals of China’s economy remain “very, very strong.”
“The China tech stock scene has been a bloodbath in the last few months,” he said. “I think it has everything to do with trade tensions and that affects everybody. It’s not good, it’s not good for anybody, but in the end if you take a 10-year view, which is what we typically do, the market is there, the innovation is there, so I think the long-term future is bright.”
The KraneShares CSI China Internet exchange-traded fund, which tracks Chinese tech stocks including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, has tumbled 14% in the past three months as the U.S and China have ratcheted up tariffs on each others’ goods. Technology has emerged as a heated battleground in the trade conflict as both countries seek to dominate new areas like 5G and artificial intelligence.
Shares of Tencent have fared better this year than in 2018 after Chinese regulators restarted approving video games, a key source of the company’s revenue. In addition to gaming and messaging, Tencent is also growing its payments and cloud services.
Naspers’ van Dijk said he expects tech companies will continue to be targeted in the trade war but added he was “not so worried about Tencent” thanks to its domestic business model.
Naspers made a $32 million investment in Tencent in 2001, betting on what was then a little-known company. That stake is now worth roughly $126 billion as of Tencent’s market close Monday.
“It’s been probably the best investment ever done by a company so we’re quite lucky to be associated with them, but if I look forward, the best is yet to come,” van Dijk said.

Chinese tech stocks have been in a ‘bloodbath’ but the future is bright: Naspers CEO

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">Courtney Connley</a>



Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter can officially add “billionaire” to his growing list of titles.



According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/#78a8b84e3a5f" class="">Forbes</a>, the Brooklyn-born artist-turned-entrepreneur’s business empire is now worth $1 billion, making him “one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire — and the first hip-hop artist to do so.”



Together, he and his wife Beyoncé — who has an estimated net worth of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/self-made-women/list/2/#tab:overall" class="">$355 million</a>&nbsp;— became a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/05/17/beyonce-and-jay-z-are-officially-a-billion-dollar-couple/#6e84f639478e" class="">billion-dollar couple</a>&nbsp;in 2017. The short list of other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/12/18/americas-wealthiest-celebrities-2018-george-lucas-leads-with-5-4-billion-net-worth/#77d61c421d8e" class="">billionaires in the entertainment</a>&nbsp;industry includes “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and basketball legend Michael Jordan.



In 1996, Jay-Z became a household name when he released his debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” on his independent label, Roc-A-Fella Records. Since then, the 49-year-old — who has rapped about his unconventional rise from Brooklyn street corners to corporate boardrooms — has continued to expand his portfolio to include smart investments inside and outside of music.



In 1999, he launched clothing line Rocawear, which sold for a reported&nbsp;<a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/jay-z-cashes-in-with-200-million-rocawear-deal/" class="">$204 million</a>&nbsp;in 2007 to apparel company Iconix. A year later, Jay-Z launched entertainment company Roc Nation, which is now worth an estimated $75 million. In 2015, he submitted a bid to purchase the parent company of Scandinavian streaming service Tidal for a little less than $60 million. The service, which he relaunched later that year, is now worth $100 million, according to Forbes.



On his 13th studio album “4:44,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/30/3-money-lessons-from-jay-zs-444.html" class="">Carter detailed</a>&nbsp;some of his investments, including artwork that he purchased years ago for $1 million. Today, Forbes estimates that his art collection is worth roughly $70 million.



Aside from investments in art and music, the hip-hop mogul has also expanded his empire to include investments in Uber, real estate and liquor. Forbes reports that his stake in Uber is worth an estimated $70 million, his real estate investments are worth an estimated $50 million and his cognac, D’Ussé, sells almost 200,000 cases annually and is worth $100 million. His investment in the champagne company Armand de Brignac is worth an estimated $310 million.



Warren Buffett, who appeared on the cover of Forbes with Jay-Z in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html#781c47036480" class="">2010</a>, said that Carter was “teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in,” and explained that “for a young person growing up, [Jay-Z] is the guy to learn from.”



“Jay-Z’s journey is the modern-day embodiment of the American dream,” Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Forbes editor and author of ”<a class="" href="https://www.amazon.com/Empire-State-Mind-Street-Corner/dp/B004S8NFW0/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=jay-z&amp;qid=1559320482&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-3">Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office</a>, ” tells <a class="" href="https://www.vibe.com/2019/06/jay-z-officially-named-hip-hop-first-billionaire?utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_medium=referral">Vibe</a>. “His ascent offers an invaluable blueprint and inspiration to the next generation of entrepreneurs.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/forbes-jay-z-is-now-hip-hops-first-billionaire.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/forbes-jay-z-is-now-hip-hops-first-billionaire.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Jay-Z is now hip-hop’s first billionaire, here’s how he created his fortune

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a> 



Investing is one of the most effective ways&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/early-retiree-chris-reining-quit-saving-your-money-and-put-it-to-work.html" class="">to build wealth</a>. Some experts even say that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/ramit-sethi-saving-isnt-the-key-to-building-wealth.html" class="">the only way to “truly grow” your money</a>&nbsp;is to put it to work.



If you have an extra $500 to $1,000 and are ready to dip your toe into the markets, “you should put your money in just one thing: the S&amp;P 500,” certified financial planner&nbsp;<a href="https://creativeplanning.com/peter-mallouk/" class="">Peter Mallouk</a>&nbsp;tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>.



The S&amp;P 500 index fund holds 500 of the largest companies in the U.S., from Google to Disney to ExxonMobil. It allows you to take advantage of the success of major corporations without the risks associated with buying individual stocks.



“It’s the lowest cost investment that exists,” says Mallouk, who is the president of wealth management firm Creative Planning. “You can buy it at a discount custodian, like a TD Ameritrade, Fidelity or Charles Schwab, where the trading fees are exceptionally low. And with those 500 stocks, you now own about 80% of the market capitalization of the entire United States.” In other words, an S&amp;P 500 fund covers about 80% of the U.S. stock market, so it’s an easy and affordable way for investors to capture core U.S. stock market performance.



Plus, “you have global exposure,” Mallouk says, “because these companies get a lot of their earnings overseas: McDonald’s has shops in China, and Walmart has locations in Europe. So you wind up with a low cost, diversified portfolio that’s invested in the global economy.”



Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett agrees with Mallouk’s recommendation.



“It has been a tough time to beat the S&amp;P,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/buffett-says-investors-would-be-served-equally-well-by-sp-or-berkshire.html" class="">he told CNBC earlier this year</a>, adding: “I think it’s the best investment — because most people don’t know how to pick stocks. And, most of the time I don’t know how to pick stocks.”



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/09/mark-cuban-index-funds-are-the-best-way-to-invest-your-money.html" class="">Mark Cuban also champions index funds</a>: In a 2017 interview with Hayman Capital Management founder Kyle Bass, the business titan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mark-cuban-tells-kyle-bass-ai-will-change-everything-weighs-in-on-bitcoin-2017-11-04" class="">said</a>that if you don’t know much about markets, the best way to invest your money is to put it in a cheap S&amp;P 500 fund.



At the end of the day, an extra $1,000, if managed correctly, can go a long way, Mallouk says: “If you put $1,000 in the S&amp;P a little over 10 years ago, today, you’d have more than $3,000. Even if we go back before the 2008 crisis — if we go back 11 years — still, you’d have more than tripled your money.”



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/wealth-manager-invest-your-money-in-the-sp-500.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/wealth-manager-invest-your-money-in-the-sp-500.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

The smartest way to invest your first $1,000, according to a wealth manager

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/janos-besenyo-737388">János Besenyő</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/obuda-university-4010">Óbuda University </a>

Russia has never had an African colony. It stayed out of the scramble for Africa, only engaging with African states in the <a href="http://risingpowersproject.com/quarterly/russias-renewed-interests-in-the-horn-of-africa-as-a-traditional-and-rising-power/">19th Century</a>. In 1869, for instance, the Russians gave Ethiopia military support to threaten the position of the British in their quest to control the Suez Canal. They did this because Britain was one of their main European rivals.

It wasn’t until the <a href="https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7881&amp;context=nwc-review">Cold War</a> started in 1947 that Russia began to <a href="http://www.acarindex.com/dosyalar/makale/acarindex-1423873158.pdf">develop diplomatic relations</a> with several African countries. This was a way to counter the influence of its rivals such as the US. 

The Cold War dictated the former USSR’s relations with many African countries for decades. This was followed by a period of relative inactivity. But more recently, relations have become increasingly important for Russia as well as some African countries. 

The result is that some African countries no longer need to choose between the American and the Chinese way of development.

Ostensibly, China has the most pragmatic engagement with Africa. Its policy is <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJPSIR/article-full-text-pdf/335D4CC65846">not to interfere</a> with the internal workings of nation states or play geopolitics by pitting countries against each other. But it has become increasingly difficult for the country to resist using its military power to <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/chinas-non-interference-dilemma/">protect its economic interests</a>. 

For its part, the US’s ultimate aim is to <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/havent-we-done-lessons-and-recommendations-strategic-competition-sub-saharan-africa">tip the regional balance of power</a> in its favour while also gaining access to Africa’s resources. 

My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1555976">research</a> explores Russia’s current relationship with the continent. The research examines Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy to redress the global balance of power by countering America’s influence in Africa and trying to match China’s large economic footprint on the continent. 

I conclude that Russia’s primary goal is political influence. This is achieved by gaining control of natural resources and providing military support and intelligence. Yet, despite making massive inroads, the Russian Federation is still less influential than the US and China on the continent. 

From the African point of view, Russia offers a strategic alternative to America’s global hegemony, China’s economic diplomacy, and the lingering influence of Africa’s former colonial masters. 

<h2>The history</h2>

During the Cold War the Russians provided diplomatic, economic, military, and educational support for <a href="https://espionagehistoryarchive.com/2015/08/28/the-kgb-in-africa/">numerous African liberation movements</a>. These included Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Madagascar, Sao Tome &amp; Principe, and Tanzania. As a result many young Africans were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/sep/11/russias-scramble-for-influence-in-africa-catches-western-officials-off-guard">educated in Moscow</a>.

Russia began to trade and interact with these states routinely. It sent in <a href="https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/anotes_0992.pdf">military intelligence officers</a> to establish a strong presence and ensure that Africa was not purely influenced by the West. The Russians developed relations with Africa so intensely that for the 10 years between 1950 and 1960 it <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203387740/chapters/10.4324/9780203387740-26">surpassed the influence</a> of colonising powers. 

That influence would remain more or less intact until the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/russia/boris-yeltsin">Boris Yeltsin era</a>. Between 1990 and 1999 Russia’s impact on the continent was spectacularly lowered. Nine embassies and three consulates were closed. The number of personnel subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was drastically reduced. Russian cultural institutions were closed, and economic relations were unilaterally terminated. Previously generous aid programmes were scrapped.

This all changed when Putin came to power in 1999. Under his leadership Russia has started to <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1546037/russia-is-expanding-its-strategic-influence-in-africa/">regain its economic and political clout</a> in Africa. Putin <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/85/Strategic%20Review/Vol%2037%20(2)/olivier-suchkov-pp146-167.zp74611.pdf">has jumpstarted</a> Russia’s diplomatic, economic, and military ties with its former African allies.

<h2>Russian interests in Africa</h2>

From my research I can conclude that Russia’s primary intent is to <a href="https://saiia.org.za/research/russias-africa-policy/">build political alliances</a> by supporting nation states economically and militarily while remaining non-judgemental about their internal governance structures. 

Its long-term goal is to become a political, economic and military mediator that can stand behind Africa’s global interests and count on the continent’s support in return. Here are some of the areas where Russia are mainly active:

Economic interests: Russia is now seeking to exploit conventional gas and oil fields in Africa and elsewhere. Part of its <a href="http://www.energystrategy.ru/projects/docs/ES-2030_(Eng).pdf">long term energy strategy</a> is to use Russian companies to create new streams of energy supply. For example, <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/articles/russia-s-return-to-africa">Russian companies</a> have made significant investments in Algeria’s oil and gas industries. They have <a href="http://www.lukoil.be/pdf/Lukoil_AR_2013_eng.pdf">also invested</a> in Libya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Egypt.

Russia is also expanding its African interests in <a href="https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/pubblicazioni/analysis_168_2013.pdf">minerals</a>. <a href="https://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/how-putin-conquered-south-africa-2/">Uranium</a> – which is key to the nuclear power industry – is at the top of its list. 

In addition, Russian companies are producing <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/85/Strategic%20Review/Vol%2037%20(2)/olivier-suchkov-pp146-167.zp74611.pdf">aluminium in Nigeria</a>, and have <a href="https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/pubblicazioni/analysis_168_2013.pdf">constructed hydropower stations</a> in Angola, Namibia, Botswana. 

Russia is also on track to build nuclear plants in <a href="http://www.nti.org/media/pdfs/egypt_nuclear_1.pdf?_=1316474849">Egypt</a>, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigeria-signs-pactrussias-rosatom-build-4-nuclear-power-plants-1496292">Nigeria</a> and <a href="https://nbn.media/russia-steps-in-algeria-nuclear-program/">Algeria</a>. These investments are a means to becoming an integral part of Africa’s energy sector.

Russia has also improved its <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/articles/russia-s-return-to-africa">commercial relations</a> with its African partners. In 2009, it established the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa to assist in <a href="http://www.afrocom.ru/en">promoting Russian business interests</a>. 

Defence interests: Russia has traditionally been one of Africa’s main arms suppliers. During the Cold War many armed liberation organisations and African countries – among them Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Guinea –<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682740600795469?journalCode=fcwh20">bought military equipment</a> from Russia. More recently Russia has made significant arms deals with <a href="https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/anotes_0992.pdf">Angola</a> and <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180720-algeria-has-bought-half-of-the-russian-weapons-sold-in-africa/">Algeria</a>. <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/18/russia-secures-2bln-fighter-jet-contract-with-egypt-reports-a64842">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2013/12/31/russia-africa/">Tanzania</a>, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-10-17/russia-expands-its-military-and-business-ties-africa">Somalia, Mali, Sudan and Libya</a> have also bought arms from Russia. The Russians also provide military training and support.

Aid: Under Putin Russia has made <a href="http://arts.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/17380/1/MA_1661485_PA_Bannink.pdf">sizeable aid donations</a> to a variety of African countries averaging about $400 million per year. Around 60% of Russian aid is delivered through international organisations; <a href="https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/dp-russia-humanitarian-donor-150713-en_0.pdf">global humanitarian organisations</a> like the World Food Programme and the UN refugee agency. The remaining 40% gets to Africa in a framework of bilateral cooperation. It also makes donations <a href="https://www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_downloads/prif123.pdf">to support</a> education, health care, agriculture, environment and energy.

The danger for Moscow is that, the more progress it makes with African governments, the more likely it is that its interests will collide with those of either China or the US – or both.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117764/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/janos-besenyo-737388">János Besenyő</a>, Associate Professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/obuda-university-4010">Óbuda University </a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-in-africa-can-it-offer-an-alternative-to-the-us-and-china-117764">original article</a>.

With Russia expanding its interests in Africa, can it serve as an alternative to the US and China?

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/"> By Catherine Clifford </a><a href="https://twitter.com/CatClifford">@CATCLIFFORD</a>



<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a> is running electric vehicle company <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TSLA">Tesla</a>, aerospace company SpaceX and tunneling venture The Boring Company.



He’s even been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/elon-musk-talks-to-gayle-king-about-meeting-tesla-goals.html" class="">sleeping at the Tesla factory</a>&nbsp;to ensure ramped up production of his Model 3 electric car.



As it turns out, Musk has some ruthless productivity tricks, and he shared them&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/elon-musk-internal-email-6000-model-3s-per-week-by-june.html" class="">in a letter to Tesla employees</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday.



Here are Musk’s six tips:



1. Nix big meetings



“Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get [out] of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.”



2. Ditch frequent meetings too



“Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.”



3. Leave a meeting if you’re not contributing



“Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”



4. Drop jargon



“Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.”



5. Communicate directly, irrespective of hierarchy



“Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘chain of command’. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere. “A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.”



6. Follow logic, not rules



“In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.”



The email, obtained by <a class="" href="https://electrek.co/2018/04/17/tesla-model-3-production-goal-6000-units-per-week/#disqus_thread">electric vehicle website Electrek</a> and <a class="" href="https://jalopnik.com/tesla-switching-to-24-7-shifts-to-push-for-6-000-model-1825335216">car news and opinion site Jalopnik</a>, also explained to employees that Tesla would be halting production for several days to upgrade equipment with the goal of <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/elon-musk-internal-email-6000-model-3s-per-week-by-june.html">producing 6,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of June</a>. Its authenticity was <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/105138447">confirmed by CNBC</a>.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/elon-musks-productivity-rules-according-to-tesla-email.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/elon-musks-productivity-rules-according-to-tesla-email.html</a><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/elon-musks-productivity-rules-according-to-tesla-email.html"> and is republished with its permission</a>

African born-billionaire Elon Musk’s 6 productivity rules, including walk out of meetings that waste your time

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL" class="">Google</a>&nbsp;has severed business ties with Huawei, in a stunning move that could threaten the smartphone maker’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/google-stops-some-business-with-huawei-could-hit-its-global-smartphone-ambitions.html" class="">global ambitions</a>.



The U.S. tech giant has decided to stop licensing its Android operating system to the Chinese telecommunications firm, in order to comply with a U.S. trade blacklist.



It can however continue to use an open-source version of Android, but won’t be able to integrate key Google services like the Play app store.



CNBC runs through what that means if you own a Huawei phone right now, or are looking to buy one in the future.Longer term impact?



Reuters reported Sunday that Huawei will now lose access to Android updates. That’s pretty significant considering all Huawei phones operate on Android. The operating system powers more than 80% of the world’s smartphones.



Huawei’s new phones will also reportedly lose access to proprietary apps like the Google Play app store, Gmail and YouTube.



But Google said people with existing Huawei devices will still be able to use Google apps and download updates for them.



However the problem could be longer term. Peter Richardson, a research director of tech strategies at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC via email that Huawei will not have access to the new version of Android, code-named Q, that will be launched later in the year.



“The revocation of its Android license will mean that it won’t be able to provide core Google services to its smartphones,” Richardson said.No impact in China



Huawei said in a statement that it will “continue to provide security updates” to all of its existing phones. Meanwhile, there’s also talk of Huawei&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/huawei-has-built-its-own-operating-system-for-smartphones-laptops.html" class="">developing its own operating system</a>&nbsp;for smartphones and computers.



Experts predict the impact will likely be limited in the short term. The consensus view is that anyone with a Huawei and Honor handset should be safe for now.



“The current devices will continue to support Google services and Google updates,” Francisco Jeronimo, associate vice president for European devices at IDC, told CNBC by telephone. “I think it’s more of a long-term impact than very short term.”



In China, the story is a little different. Consumers there have access to a more limited version of the operating system, which doesn’t come pre-installed with Google services that are blocked there.



“For Chinese consumers, definitely there’s no impact,” Jeronimo says.



International shipments accounted for almost half of Huawei’s overall smartphone sales in the first quarter, according to Canalys data.‘Bad news for Huawei’



For the most part, IDC’s Jeronimo thinks the U.S. and China will reach a trade deal, and Google will be able to resume its licensing arrangement with Huawei. In that case, Huawei customers shouldn’t be impacted.



However, “if this is a real security threat, then it’s a long-term impact,” he said. “The biggest impact will be end of the year for Huawei because that’s the biggest sales season of the year.”



Huawei is yet to launch its latest flagship phone, the Huawei Mate X, which will be its first foray into the world of foldable phones.



The bottom line? “This is bad news for Huawei,” Richardson says, “which has been one of the strongest Android players.”



The Shenzhen-based firm is the second-largest smartphone maker in the world, and the top globally when it comes to telecommunications equipment. But it’s been under intense pressure from Washington amid the U.S.-Sino trade battle.



Most recently, the Trump administration added Huawei to a trade blacklist that blocks it from buying U.S. technology without special approval. And Google hasn’t been the only company distancing itself from Huawei — top chipmakers <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=INTC">Intel</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=QCOM">Qualcomm</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AVGO">Broadcom</a> and <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=IFX-DE">Infineon</a> have also reportedly cut ties with the firm.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/what-google-android-move-means-if-you-own-a-huawei-phone.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/what-google-android-move-means-if-you-own-a-huawei-phone.html</a> and is republished with its permission

What Google’s decision to cut ties with Huawei means if you own one of its phones

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/alexandra-gibbs/"> Alexandra Gibbs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/alexgibbsy">@ALEXGIBBSY</a> When it comes to building a business from scratch, every entrepreneur is bound to face some form of rejection along the way.



And if they want to keep pushing forward, they’re going to have to get accustomed to receiving these negative responses, says the lead founder of Chinese e-commerce behemoth, Alibaba.



“As an entrepreneur, you have got to get used to being challenged. Having to get used to being said ‘no’ to by the other people, by the investors, by your customers, by people,” said Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE9qrsm0-YY" class="">on Thursday.</a>



Yet, rejection should be treated as an opportunity, Ma said, as if everybody initially agrees with your vision or service, then “there is no opportunity.”



“When everybody believes (in) it, you have no chance. When only few people believe it, you believe it, you prove it — that’s your chance.”



Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group (L), speaks during a fireside interview with Maurice Levy, chairman of Publicis Group (R), at the Viva Technology conference in Paris, on May 16, 2019.Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images



During a fireside chat with Publicis Chairman Maurice Levy at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE9qrsm0-YY" class="">Viva Technology conference in Paris</a>, the business magnate explained how when he and the other founders started Alibaba in 1999, they had “almost nothing.”



“I talked to the 18 founders, (and) one of the things we wanted to prove: If Jack Ma and his team can be successful, 80% of people in the world can be successful, because we don’t have money, we don’t have technology, we have almost nothing.”



“The only thing is that we believe in future, and we started to do little by little,” Ma said, adding that he believes that anyone can be successful, if they “really try hard.”



“So, people like us, we are getting used to being criticized. We are getting used to being said ‘no’, people saying ‘no’ to you. When people say ‘yes’ to you, we really appreciate it. (I mean,) why should people say ‘yes’ to you? You have to prove (yourself),” said Ma, adding that the main two groups that you should focus on convincing is your own business team and your customers.



Of course, Ma is no stranger to setback. Over the years, the tycoon has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/lesson-alibabas-jack-ma-learned-after-being-rejected-for-a-job-at-kfc.html" class="">talked openly about his encounters with rejection</a>, whether that’s failing to secure any of the 30 jobs he applied for after college,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/lesson-alibabas-jack-ma-learned-after-being-rejected-for-a-job-at-kfc.html" class="">including one at KFC</a>, or being turned down by Harvard 10 times.



Yet, with persistence comes growth, and in Ma’s case, success and recognition for his work on Alibaba.



Today, Alibaba is one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/overview" class="">world’s leading wholesale and e-commerce marketplaces</a>, with it serving millions of people around the globe, and having&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/history" class="">expanded from retail</a>, into other industries including entertainment, cloud computing and marketing technology.



Alibaba also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/22/alibaba-is-much-more-than-just-chinas-e-commerce-platform.html" class="">became the first company in Asia to surpass</a>&nbsp;the $400 billion valuation level back in 2017.



“Of course, you’re not happy when people say ‘no’,” he said, adding that you should go and “have a good sleep, wake up and try again.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/jack-ma-discussing-entrepreneurship-and-rejection.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/jack-ma-discussing-entrepreneurship-and-rejection.html</a> and is republished with its permission

Billionaire Jack Ma’s advice to African entrepreneurs on how to deal with rejection

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/dave-schools/">Dave Schools, Contributor</a><a href="https://twitter.com/DaveSchoools">@DAVESCHOOOLS</a> 



“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” For most of my life, I’ve found this idea impossible to justify. Anyone who says a million dollars won’t make them happier must be delusional.



Money gives you more control over your life; the freedom to retire early, the security to support yourself and your family, the comfort of buying things and experiences that excite you, the option of saying “yes” when your friends invite you to dinner&#8230;I could go on and on.



So when Yale <a class="" href="https://news.yale.edu/2018/02/20/yales-most-popular-class-ever-be-available-coursera">released</a> its happiness class for <a class="" href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being">free online</a>, I decided to give it a try. <a class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/nyregion/at-yale-class-on-happiness-draws-huge-crowd-laurie-santos.html">The New York Times</a> called it the university’s “most popular class ever” — and the <a class="" href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being/reviews">hundreds of people</a> who reported life-changing improvements after taking the class were enough to convince me. Maybe it will change how I spend and think about money, I thought.



The 10-week class, called “The Science of Well-Being,” is taught by Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology and cognitive science. She starts the class by addressing why the things we want in life don’t actually make us happy.



The culprit is a phenomenon called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2004/04/pelham" class="">“miswantings,”</a>&nbsp;and it refers to the idea that people sometimes “mispredict” how much they’ll enjoy something in the future.Money ≠ happiness. Really?



Santos references several “annoying features of the mind” that influence us to chase after things that don’t really make us happy. Many of the materialistic goals we strive for make little to no lasting impact on our overall life satisfaction, Santos argues. One of the the main misconceptions she addresses is money.



To prove her point, Santos cites a famous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloads/deaton_kahneman_high_income_improves_evaluation_August2010.pdf" class="">2010 Princeton study</a>. Researchers analyzed the responses of 450,000 Americans who were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sharecare.com/static/well-being-index" class="">surveyed</a>&nbsp;about things like their income and whether they were living the best possible life for them. The data showed that while happiness does rise with one’s income, the correlation peaks at about $75,000 per year.



The problem with this study, however, is that it was published nearly a decade ago. Since then, the idea that money doesn’t buy happiness has been disproved by a number of researchers. A 2012 survey by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a13528013/how-much-money-you-need-to-be-happy/" class="">Skandia International’s Wealth Sentiment Monitor</a>, for instance, found the global “happiness income” to be much higher, at $160,000.



And a more recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/donnelly%20zheng%20haisley%20norton_26bec744-c924-4a28-8439-5a74abe9c8da.pdf" class="">Harvard study</a>&nbsp;from 2018 suggested that “great wealth does predict greater happiness” — for millionaires. Researchers found “consistent evidence that somewhat higher levels of wealth are not associated with higher well-being, but substantially higher levels (net worth of $8 million or more) are linked to modestly greater well-being.” (While the majority of us aren’t millionaires, there’s still a good amount of data to imply that happiness, to some degree,&nbsp;is&nbsp;tied to money.)



When I asked Santos what she thought of the studies, she replied, “They’re important, but I don’t think they change the message of the class, which is that high wealth has a teeny effect on happiness. The key is that it’s&nbsp;way&nbsp;less than what we predict, and it’s a lot less effective than the other practices we suggest. ”



Practices like meditation, gratitude and making time for social connections have the biggest effect on our well-being, she says, adding that they’re much easier to attain than trying to bump past the $10 million mark.



Santos continues: “Money doesn’t increase happiness in the way that we think. Our minds are lying to us about how much of an impact extra cash will have on our happiness.”Be more mindful about how you spend money



Later in the class, Santos interviews Elizabeth Dunn, a happiness researcher and the co-author of&nbsp;<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Happy_Money.html?id=DSWylrWYrYgC" class="">“Happy Money.”</a>&nbsp;They discuss why spending money on experiences, rather than things, is what makes us happy.



But don’t things generate experiences? And don’t you need money to buy those things? (The experience of driving down a scenic highway makes me happy, so I’ve spent thousands on a car. The experience of traveling makes me happy, so I’ve spent thousands on tickets — not to mention the hotel, food and sightseeing expenses.)



Santos’ response to my point is, “It depends. If you can be mindful of how the new car feels when you drive it — by taking into account the music, how well it drives and so on — a new car can feel like an experience.”



Okay, that makes a little more sense: It’s more about the trade-off. Money can make me happy if I focus on buying things that generate the same positive experience over and over.Our minds are lying to us about how much of an impact extra cash will have on our well-being.



Novel and often short experiences, like an expensive shirt that I’m not going to wear everyday, are less subject to hedonic adaptation. The objective is to keep happiness from fading.New goal: Change my lifestyle and mindset



Santos ends the class this way: “So does money really make us happier? Maybe a little bit. Maybe if you’re in the U.S. and you only earn $10,000 a year, then yes, more money would make you happier.” For the rest of us, however, more money won’t make much of a difference.



Overall, the class changed how I think about money, particularly how I spend it and how much I prioritize it. I’m also working on changing my lifestyle and mindset. While there isn’t a single panacea for happiness, what helps the most is taking action where I’m personally deficient.



Santos advised us to experiment with different practices to see what works best. It’s been a few months since I completed the class, and so far, I’ve found these practices and mindset changes to be surprisingly life-changing:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Learning new skills for a more positive life outcome, not just for money or “advancement” in my career.</li><li>Being kinder by spending money on others, instead of myself.</li><li>Making more time for friends and family, instead of working (on weekends, especially).</li><li>Spending less money on things that aren’t long-lasting, like extravagant gadgets and more bedsheets that I actually need.</li><li>Incorporating healthy habits into my day, such as exercising, journaling and meditation.</li></ul>



Am I fully convinced that money won’t make me happy? Not entirely. It’ll take a lot of effort on my end, but I’m working on it — and that’s a pretty significant leap if you were to compare Old Dave with New Dave.



Dave Schools is a freelance editor and brand storyteller. He is the founding editor of <a class="" href="https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/">Entrepreneur’s Handbook</a>, a top-50 Medium publication, and the co-founder of Party Qs app. His work has appeared in Axios, Inc., Smashing Magazine, The Next Web, Business Insider, Quartz and Crunchbase.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/i-took-yales-most-popular-class-ever-and-it-completely-changed-how-i-spend-my-money.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/i-took-yales-most-popular-class-ever-and-it-completely-changed-how-i-spend-my-money.html</a> and is republished with its permission

How Yale’s ‘most popular class ever’— completely changed how I spend my money

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Microsoft Corp will invest $100 million to open an Africa technology development centre with sites in Kenya and Nigeria over the next five years, the company said on Tuesday.



Global tech giants, including Alphabet Inc and Facebook, have been increasing investment on the continent in recent years to take advantage of growing economies with rising access rates to the internet by a youthful population.



Microsoft will hire more than 100 local engineers to work in the new Africa facility in both countries to customise its applications for the African market and to develop new ones for the continent and beyond, it said in a statement.



“In addition, it is an opportunity to collaborate with partners, academia, governments and developers, driving impact and innovation in sectors important to the continent,” the company said, citing financial technology, farming technology and off grid energy.



Engineers at the new Africa development centre will build applications using artificial intelligence, mixed reality and machine learning, Microsoft said.



The company already has six other development hubs located elsewhere in the world. The new Africa development hub will also support Microsoft’s established businesses such as Office, Azure and Windows, the company said.



Reporting by Duncan Miriri, editing by Louise Heavens

Microsoft is planning on spending $100 million on Kenya, Nigeria tech development hub, what you need to know

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/emmie-martin/">Emmie Martin</a> 



The stock market&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/05/traders-brace-for-sharp-sell-off-on-trumps-tariff-threat.html" class="">dropped sharply Monday</a>, following comments from President Donald Trump that the U.S. will increase tariffs on goods imported from China. But although Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett says that an escalation of the U.S.-China trade dispute&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/06/warren-buffett-if-we-have-a-trade-war-it-could-be-very-bad-for-the-whole-world.html" class="">&nbsp;“would be bad for the whole world,”</a>&nbsp;he doesn’t plan to change his investing practices based on the news. No matter what happens, “we will buy the same stocks today that we were buying last week,” he told CNBC’s Becky Quick during an interview Monday on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/squawk-box-us/" class="">“Squawk Box.”</a>



“The cheaper they get, the more I buy,” Buffett said. “I’m not buying them because I think they’re going to go up the next day or the next week. We watch the prices of things we do more than current events.”



That’s because Buffett prefers to invest in companies that he believes will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/warren-buffett-invests-for-the-long-term.html" class="">hold their value for the long term</a>. “In the end, we aren’t buying them because of what’s going to happen next month or next quarter,” he explains. “We’re really buying them because we think they’ll be good business 10 years down.”



Regardless of the tariff situation, “if somebody came to us with a good business today, we’d buy it,” Buffett says.



Buffett decides a company is worth investing in because it will last, not because it’s doing well right now. He purchased See’s Candies with longtime business partner Charlie Munger in 1972 and spent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/19851070" class="">more than $1 billion on Coca-Cola stock</a>&nbsp;in 1988 — both of which turned out to be good bets and both of which he still owns today.



“Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio’s market value,” Buffett wrote&nbsp;<a href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1996.html" class="">in his 1996 letter to shareholders.</a>&nbsp;“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”



Even when the legendary investor gets bad news about a company he’s invested in, he doesn’t immediately sell his stock. “The stock market is not there to instruct me, it’s there to serve me,” Buffett told Quick during an interview on “Squawk Box” in February.



The topic arose when Quick asked Buffett a viewer’s question about Kraft Heinz. A few days before their conversation, Kraft Heinz, one of Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holdings, had missed on its <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/kraft-heinz-tanks-after-disclosing-it-was-subpoenaed-by-sec-over-accounting-policies.html">earnings expectations and disclosed that it had received a subpoena</a> from the SEC. After that news broke, the company’s stock plunged 30% and Berkshire Hathaway’s stake <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/23/warren-buffett-spun-riches-out-of-chocolate-was-burned-by-kraft-heinz.html">dropped in value by more than $4 billion</a>.



But although Buffett has admitted that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/buffett-says-berkshire-hathaway-overpaid-for-kraft-following-last-weeks-stock-plunge.html" class="">“we overpaid for Kraft,”</a>&nbsp;he told Quick he had no plans to sell his stake. His practice is to keep his focus on, and evaluate, the company overall. “If there’s bad news and the stock goes down, the question I have is: Is the long-term valuation changed?” he says.



It’s possible to recover from a setback. The key thing, according to Buffett in February, is “you gotta make sure that it’s still a fundamentally good business.”



As Buffett told Quick on Monday, “If you think about stocks as businesses that you own little pieces of, why in the world should you sell it based on headlines of any sort?”



“If you expect that business to be a good business over 10 years, its nonsense to get feeling good or bad about what stock prices do in a day,” he added.



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/06/warren-buffett-doesnt-pay-attention-to-the-news-when-he-invests.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/06/warren-buffett-doesnt-pay-attention-to-the-news-when-he-invests.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

What Billionaire Warren Buffett pays attention to when investing instead of ‘current events’

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/shawn-m-carter/">Shawn M. Carter</a>



Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/reuters-america-apple-results-beat-sets-eyes-back-on-1-trillion.html" class="">shares gained almost 5%</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, following the release of its&nbsp;<a href="https://grow.acorns.com/stock-market-outlook-for-may/" class="">earnings report</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, with the company’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AAPL&amp;amp;qsearchterm=app" class="">current share price</a>hovering around $210.



If you invested in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AAPL" class="">Apple</a>&nbsp;10 years ago, that decision would have paid off. According to CNBC calculations, a $1,000 investment made on May 1, 2009, would be worth more than $13,000 as of midday May 1, 2019, for a total return of more than 1,200%.



Over the same period, the S&amp;P 500 returned just over 300%.



And, thanks to trade-ins,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/apple-slashes-iphone-prices-in-china-by-as-much-as-5percent.html" class="">lower prices on iPhones</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/tim-cook-says-the-improved-tone-in-trade-talks-is-boosting-apples-china-business.html" class="">improved trade talks between the United States and China</a>, some analysts seemed optimistic about the company’s stock overall.



“We believe Apple has locked up strong share of the premium tier market and will continue to dominate high-end smartphones sales and capture the vast majority of smartphone profits for the next several years,” according to<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/reuters-america-apple-results-beat-sets-eyes-back-on-1-trillion.html"> financial services firm Canaccord Genuity</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cnbc-apple.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-335595"/><figcaption> CNBC: Apple stock as of May 1, 2019. </figcaption></figure>



Still, while Apple’s stock has ticked up recently and done mostly well over the years,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/how-amazon-became-one-of-warren-buffetts-biggest-investment-regrets.html" class="">any individual stock can over- or underperform</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/03/avoid-these-4-investing-mistakes.html" class="">past returns do not predict future results</a>. And even though the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/stocks-making-the-biggest-moves-premarket-boeing-wynn-resorts-cvs-apple-estee-lauder-more.html" class="">reported earnings of $2.46 per share</a>&nbsp;for its most recent quarter, beating estimates by 10 cents a share, it saw its second consecutive overall quarterly revenue decline.



Apple is looking outside of smartphones to increase sales. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/apple-earnings-show-company-moving-beyond-iphone.html" class="">underlined two growing businesses</a>&nbsp;during his call with analysts: Apple Services, which includes things like Apple Music and iCloud, and Apple Wearables, which includes AirPods and the Apple Watch.



“It was our best quarter ever for services, with revenue reaching $11.5 billion,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/tim-cook/" class="">Cook</a>&nbsp;said. Services revenue was up 16% from $9.19 billion in sales from a year earlier.



If you’re&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/when-the-stock-market-tank-dont-do-these-3-things.html" class="">looking to get into investing</a>, seasoned investors such as Warren Buffett&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/17/warren-buffett-and-tony-robbins-agree-on-the-best-way-to-invest-your-money.html" class="">suggest you start with index funds</a>, which hold every stock in an index, meaning they’re automatically diversified and tend to be low cost. Plus, because they fluctuate with the market, they’re typically less risky than picking individual stocks.



Here’s a <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/markets/">snapshot of how the markets look now</a>.



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/what-a-1000-in-apple-in-2009-would-be-worth-now.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/what-a-1000-in-apple-in-2009-would-be-worth-now.html </a>and is republished with its permission.

If you invested $1,000 in Apple in 2009, here’s how much you’d have now

PARIS (Reuters) &#8211; French energy major Total said on Sunday it had reached a binding agreement with Occidental to acquire Anadarko assets in Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa for a consideration of $8.8 billion. 



The firm said the transaction was contingent upon Occidental entering into and completing its proposed acquisition of Anadarko and approval of relevant authorities. The deal is expected to close in 2020.



Total said the assets represented around 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of 2P reserves, of which 70 percent is gas, plus 2 billion boe of long term natural gas resources in Mozambique.



It added that despite the capital investment in Mozambique LNG, the acquisition is expected to be free cashflow positive from 2020 even at a Brent price of less than $50 per barrel and to generate more than $1 billion a year of free cashflow from 2025 onwards after start-up of Mozambique LNG.



The firm confirmed its previously announced shareholder return policy from 2018 to 2020.



Reporting by Bate Felix, editing by Sybille de La Hamaide

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The 2019/20 coffee exports in this East African country to rise to a record high

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African born-billionaire Elon Musk’s 6 productivity rules, including walk out of meetings that waste your time

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Billionaire Jack Ma’s advice to African entrepreneurs on how to deal with rejection

How Yale’s ‘most popular class ever’— completely changed how I spend my money

Microsoft is planning on spending $100 million on Kenya, Nigeria tech development hub, what you need to know

What Billionaire Warren Buffett pays attention to when investing instead of ‘current events’

If you invested $1,000 in Apple in 2009, here’s how much you’d have now

What you need to know about Total’s $8.8 billion deal with Occidental for Anadarko’s Africa assets

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