HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s commercial banks started trading the RTGS dollar on Monday, but authorities offered no indication as to how ordinary citizens would interact with the country’s new transitional currency five days after it was introduced. 



Zimbabwe ditched a dollar peg for its surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars on Wednesday, merging them into the RTGS dollar in an effort to revive a crippled economy and address a cash crunch that has undermined President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s efforts attract foreign investment.



The central bank sold U.S. dollars to banks at 2.5 RTGS dollars on Friday morning, and on Monday lenders began trading the currency with corporate customers and on an interbank market.



There had been indications that ordinary Zimbabweans would be able to buy U.S. dollars with bond notes or electronic dollars from Monday.



But a Standard Chartered bank teller in Harare said her branch was not selling dollars to individuals yet, and downtown bank queues were no longer than normal as people made their way to work.



Kudakwashe Mukora, an electrician who had just come out of the branch, said: “At the moment we’re just shooting in the dark. The government isn’t addressing the fundamental issue which is that the black market is in charge.”



On Monday one U.S. dollar was being sold on the black market for four electronic dollars &#8211; which have been locked in individuals’ accounts for months due to the chronic cash shortages &#8211; compared to 4.20 on Friday, currency traders said.



An employee at a Stanbic branch said the bank was offering U.S. dollars to corporate clients at 2.5625 RTGS dollars and buying dollars at 2.4 RTGS. She said the idea was that individuals would be able to buy and sell dollars at a later date, but she wasn’t sure when.



The central bank has promised a “managed float” of the RTGS &#8211; which stands for the real-time gross settlement system banks use to transfer money &#8211; but it is not clear how it will control the currency’s movements given that it does not have significant foreign exchange reserves.



“The big players are holding onto their money, that is what is holding rates at the moment. In the next week or two, it should be clear whether the interbank is working or not,” one trader at Harare’s Eastgate shopping centre said.



Zimbabwe’s currency problems date back to the hyperinflation era of post-independence leader Robert Mugabe, who Mnangagwa replaced after an army coup in November 2017.



International attitudes to Mnangagwa’s government have hardened since a violent security crackdown last summer on post-election protests and on demonstrations last month against a major fuel hike.



Reporting by Alexander Winning, Alfonce Mbizwo and MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by John Stonestreet

Zimbabwe banks start trading new currency, what you need to know

ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; As many as 39 people have been killed in election violence in Nigeria, civil society groups said on Sunday, as the country awaited the results of voting in what was forecast to be its tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999. 



The Situation Room &#8211; which represents more than 70 civil society groups &#8211; gave the death toll the day after voting, citing data from Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence. But authorities were braced for the possibility of further unrest after election results emerge later this week.



President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, a former military ruler who is seeking a second term on an anti-corruption platform, faces Atiku Abubakar, 72, a businessman and former vice president who has promised to expand the role of the private sector.



Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdulmajid Ali said police were still gathering information and could not provide figures on casualties. He said violence was greatest in the southern states of Rivers and Akwa Ibom.



The Nigeria Police Force said 128 people had been arrested nationwide for election-related offences including homicide, theft of ballot boxes and vote fraud. Thirty-eight weapons and a cache of explosives were also recovered.



The Situation Room said the worst incident was in Abonnema in Rivers State, around 14 km (9 miles) west of the main oil industry city of Port Harcourt, where the army said seven people died in a shoot-out between an unidentified gang and Nigerian soldiers.



A lieutenant and six gunmen died in the firefight, which broke out when the attackers barricaded a major road into the town and ambushed the troops, the acting director of army public relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said. Their motives were not known.



Nigerian security forces are stretched by an Islamist insurgency in the northeast along with communal violence and banditry in other areas. Previous elections have been marred by violence among supporters of different political parties that at times sparked sectarian clashes.



A credible and relatively calm poll would open a new chapter in the chequered political history of Nigeria, where nearly six decades of independence have been tarnished by military coups, endemic corruption and secessionist movements.



The number of deaths reported Sunday was below the final tolls in previous elections in Africa’s most populous country. However, most unrest typically occurs after results are announced.



Results are expected to start trickling in early on Monday with a “substantial number” likely on Tuesday, election commission official Festus Okoye said.



As many as 100 people were killed during and after the last election in 2015, according to the International Crisis Group.



Four years before that, in the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, 800 people died when fighting erupted between Muslims and the mainly Christian backers of then-President Goodluck Jonathan.



Islamist militants in the Northeast vowed to disrupt this year’s election. Hours before polls opened, explosions rang out in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state at the epicentre of the decade-long insurgency. In neighbouring Yobe state, residents of Geidam town fled an attack around the same time.



The election was postponed the previous Saturday just hours before it was due to begin, with the authorities citing problems in delivering ballot papers and results sheets in some parts of the country.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">VOTING EXTENDED IN A FEW PLACES</h3>



Despite the violence, some noted that it could have been worse.



“We didn’t expect that the election would be so smooth &#8230; we thought people might be dying,” said Henry Okalome, 55, a trader in Kano who voted for Atiku.



Violence and problems with electronic voting machines meant voting took place in a small number of places on Sunday.



Seventy-three million eligible voters chose from a pool of more than 70 presidential candidates, although only those from the two main parties &#8211; Buhari and Atiku &#8211; are seen as having a chance.



The contest between the two men hinges on revamping an economy struggling to recover from its first recession in 25 years, which it slipped into in 2016 and emerged from in 2017.



Nearly a quarter of the workforce is unemployed, while the cost of living has also risen rapidly.



Buhari has focused his campaign on rooting out corruption, but critics say there have not been any significant convictions in his first term. Atiku has said he would aim to double the size of the economy to $900 billion by 2025.



Additional reporting by Nneka Chile, Aaron Ross, Camillus Eboh and Felix OnuahWriting by James Macharia and Alexis AkwagyiramEditing by Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman

Dozens killed in election violence in Nigeria

Nigerians finally head to the polls for the keenly contested presidential and national assembly elections. 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Dear Nigerians, The slogan for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides</a> is “We must vote” It’s your right!<a href="https://t.co/mCXK2esWI3">pic.twitter.com/mCXK2esWI3</a>&mdash; Uchenna (@Demoore90210) <a href="https://twitter.com/Demoore90210/status/1099294928956465152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Election coverage kit loaded! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cnbcafrica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cnbcafrica</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Christycolep?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Christycolep</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KennethIgbomor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KennethIgbomor</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Estheroawoniyi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Estheroawoniyi</a> <a href="https://t.co/qHsuN8XRO5">pic.twitter.com/qHsuN8XRO5</a>&mdash; Wole Famurewa (@WoleFamurewa) <a href="https://twitter.com/WoleFamurewa/status/1099187036366557184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Yass!!! This woman is not here for the foolishness! All business baby!! ??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mood?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mood</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/voting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#voting</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecide2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecide2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionisNotWar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionisNotWar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Election2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Election2019</a> photo Crd:<a href="https://twitter.com/FarabaleAfrica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FarabaleAfrica</a> <a href="https://t.co/Y35EhQo9Cy">pic.twitter.com/Y35EhQo9Cy</a>&mdash; Uchenna.U (@mildyche) <a href="https://twitter.com/mildyche/status/1099334281984380929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Electoral material arriving unit 22 on Water cooperation drive, Oniru, Lagos at 8:57 am. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides410?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides410</a> <a href="https://t.co/sQbFsNDODZ">pic.twitter.com/sQbFsNDODZ</a>&mdash; Wole Famurewa (@WoleFamurewa) <a href="https://twitter.com/WoleFamurewa/status/1099226591132110848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">&quot;It is empty&quot;. Electoral officers showing ballot boxes before voting. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides410?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides410</a> <a href="https://t.co/PSa3VyVyRX">pic.twitter.com/PSa3VyVyRX</a>&mdash; Wole Famurewa (@WoleFamurewa) <a href="https://twitter.com/WoleFamurewa/status/1099227020335243264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">The ballot boxes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides410?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides410</a> <a href="https://t.co/TE6vIMv355">pic.twitter.com/TE6vIMv355</a>&mdash; Wole Famurewa (@WoleFamurewa) <a href="https://twitter.com/WoleFamurewa/status/1099227570443292674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">So this essentially happened in most places in Lagos where majorly Igbos live. Nigeria will always find a way to break your heart ? ??? <a href="https://t.co/2XaN7tPQqw">pic.twitter.com/2XaN7tPQqw</a>&mdash; Sparklezzzzz (@Sparklezzzzz1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sparklezzzzz1/status/1099320403942694912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/inecnigeria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@inecnigeria</a> This happened at Isolo Lagos, votes were set on fire<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionNotWar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionNotWar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides</a> <a href="https://t.co/rZ6Z01Ifzk">pic.twitter.com/rZ6Z01Ifzk</a>&mdash; WINNERMAN WILLZ (@Lightss_Up) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lightss_Up/status/1099292431349092352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">This is happening in Okota. <a href="https://twitter.com/inecnigeria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@inecnigeria</a> what happens to their vote?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionNotWar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionNotWar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides</a> <a href="https://t.co/rQrvoPh9dV">pic.twitter.com/rQrvoPh9dV</a>&mdash; ??? (@miss_ooma) <a href="https://twitter.com/miss_ooma/status/1099303230054547457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides410?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides410</a>: Voters at Asokoro 111, ECOWAS secretariat (Garki) all smiles and ready to cast their votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019Elections?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2019Elections</a> <a href="https://t.co/ev6YIuzpNZ">pic.twitter.com/ev6YIuzpNZ</a>&mdash; CNBC Africa (@cnbcafrica) <a href="https://twitter.com/cnbcafrica/status/1099254118684807168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Did you know that there are 84.2 million people have registered to vote in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nigeria?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nigeria</a>&#39;s 2019 presidential elections? The youth represents 51.1% of the registered voters. Source: INEC <a href="https://twitter.com/inecnigeria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@inecnigeria</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNBCAfrica?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CNBCAfrica</a> <a href="https://t.co/JGp7Cm25bC">pic.twitter.com/JGp7Cm25bC</a>&mdash; CNBC Africa (@cnbcafrica) <a href="https://twitter.com/cnbcafrica/status/1099256647166410752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Who gets the Nigerian vote? Follow it all vote by vote live on ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/cnbcafrica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cnbcafrica</a>⁩ at 4 pm CAT <a href="https://t.co/aCDrF9mw49">pic.twitter.com/aCDrF9mw49</a>&mdash; Chris Bishop (@ChrisBishopZA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisBishopZA/status/1099281223615164417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides410?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides410</a>: Counting and sorting ongoing at polling unit 028 Maitama, Abuja and polling unit 037 Victoria Island, Lagos respectively. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaDecides2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NigeriaDecides2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019Elections?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2019Elections</a> <a href="https://t.co/340LeLKsu4">pic.twitter.com/340LeLKsu4</a>&mdash; CNBC Africa (@cnbcafrica) <a href="https://twitter.com/cnbcafrica/status/1099309912000266240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/electionday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#electionday</a> came and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ivoted?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ivoted</a>. Proudly!! <a href="https://t.co/vGOTsZXwVx">pic.twitter.com/vGOTsZXwVx</a>&mdash; Asaba Boy (@_aideology) <a href="https://twitter.com/_aideology/status/1099327828322123777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Voting done and dusted, my polling Unit was generally peaceful, though we had to stay in the sun for over two hours, it was a time well spent chatting with neighbors, especially my <a href="https://twitter.com/elevationng?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elevationng</a> connect group members who turned out to cast their votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/election2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#election2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ivoted?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ivoted</a> <a href="https://t.co/MaYoBFvxWw">pic.twitter.com/MaYoBFvxWw</a>&mdash; Godman Akinlabi (@PGeeman) <a href="https://twitter.com/PGeeman/status/1099306682176454656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[IN TWEETS] Nigerians head to the polls

YOLA, Nigeria/ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian teacher Benjamin Shagu flew 500 km (310 miles) from the east of the country to the capital, Abuja, to vote in the presidential election &#8211; only for the vote to be delayed for a week, just five hours before polls had been due to open. 



“I have left my students for a week. I can’t leave them for another week,” said the English teacher &#8211; who travelled from the eastern city of Yola &#8211; weighing up the expense and disruption in returning to the city in which he registered to vote.



Many of the country’s 72.8 million eligible voters, having spent considerable sums of money on travel, face the same dilemma.



The delay to the election, now scheduled for Saturday, could depress turnout, according to politicians and civil society groups. That in turn would reduce the mandate of the eventual winner to rule Africa’s most populous country and its biggest economy.



The two main candidates &#8211; President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar &#8211; are also both over 70 years old and have failed to generate significant excitement from a relatively youthful population.



“It disadvantages us because we need the turnout. Our base is the youth population, and they’re the ones who can just easily get turned off from the whole process,” Bukola Saraki, director general of Atiku’s campaign, told Reuters in an interview.



“The momentum was on our side,” he said.



Idayat Hassan, director of the Abuja-based think tank Centre for Democracy and Development, also said the delay would likely benefit Buhari.



His supporters had been galvanised in the last two elections with a high turnout in his core base in the northwest, she said, the region with the highest number of registered voters.



The main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) typically attracts more support in the southeast, a region where turnout has historically been low, she said.



Yusuf Tuggar, a campaign team member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, said his party would be hit harder because many of its northern supporters live in the south and could not afford to travel home.



“It hurts us more because we have more supporters,” he said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">VOTER TURNOUT DECLINE</h3>



Turnout in presidential elections has declined steadily since 2003 from nearly 70 percent to just 44 percent in 2015.



That is largely because of growing disenchantment with a political class seen as corrupt and out of touch with a population that includes a high proportion of people living in extreme poverty.



Hassan said that, irrespective of the outcome, lower voter numbers would be dangerous for the winner.



“Sooner or later many people will question the legitimacy of elected representatives, especially when they have not participated in the process,” said Hassan.



Such concerns have led to the announcement of measures aimed at boosting turnout.



The interior ministry said Friday would be a public holiday, to give people time to travel to the polls, while fuel suppliers cut the price of petrol and a trade union that operates bus routes nationwide agreed to provide discounts for trips to voting points.



The hope was that people would overcome the difficulties involved in making a second trek to the polls.



“I need to travel to perform my citizenship of Nigeria,” said student Francisca Esidoy as she boarded a bus in the northern city of Kano, where she lives, to make the 970 kilometre (600 miles) journey to her southeastern home state of Abia.



But others could not be enticed.



Brauna Afraimu, 41, a civil servant based in Yola, said he was too disillusioned to make the 440 kilometre journey to nearby Bauchi state. “All these things will not motivate me to go and vote. I’ve already spent a lot of my resources and time last week,” he said.



Additional reporting by Aaron Ross and Alexis Akwagyiram in Abuja, Percy Dabang in Yola, Kazeem Sanni in Kano; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by James Macharia and Hugh Lawson

Nigerian vote tough to call, here’s why

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s new currency is expected to begin trading at around 2.5 to the U.S. dollar, Central Bank Governor John Mangudya said on Friday, a significant devaluation as the regulator attempts to stem chronic cash shortages.



The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Wednesday said it would scrap a peg between its quasi-currency bond notes and the U.S. dollar, creating a new currency from the bond notes and notional electronic dollars known as RTGS dollars.



Trading on the Interbank market was due to begin on Monday, although Mangudya mentioned trading had started on Friday morning.



Reporting by Alfonce Mbizwo; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Alexandra Zavis

How much will Zimbabwe’s new currency trade against the U.S. dollar ?

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya’s High Court has postponed until May 24 a ruling on whether to strike out or uphold a colonial-era law banning gay sex, a judge said on Friday.



Judge Chacha Mwita told a packed court in the capital, Nairobi, that the bench constituted to hear the case needed more time to prepare for the ruling, which had been due on Friday.



“The judges on the bench also sit in other courts &#8230; we need more time,” Mwita said.



Same-sex relationships are illegal in more than 70 countries, almost half of them in Africa, where homosexuality is broadly taboo and persecution is rife.



In Kenya, where same-sex relationships can lead to a 14-year jail sentence, campaigners for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) rights have become increasingly vocal in recent years.



Kenya arrested 534 people for same-sex relationships between 2013 and 2017, the government said. Kenya’s high court began hearings on the law last year.



Campaigners say the colonial-era law violates Kenya’s progressive 2010 constitution, which guarantees equality, dignity and privacy for all citizens.



They also submitted arguments based on India’s rejection of a similar law in August.[nL8N1WD360]



Reporting by Baz Ratner and John Ndiso; Editing by Paul Tait and Darren Schuettler

Ruling on law banning gay sex delayed in Kenya High Court, what you need to know

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Precious metal miner Sibanye-Stillwater posted a full-year attributable loss of 2.5 billion rand ($178.10 million) on Thursday, hit by multiple disruptions at its South African gold operations and a deferred tax charge.



The company posted a headline loss per share of 1 cents for the year ended Dec. 31, 2018, compared with a loss of 12 cents per share in the previous year. In 2017, it made an attributable loss of 4.437 billion rand.



Overall 2018 was a mixed year, said Chief Executive Neal Froneman, when safety incidents, unanticipated operational disruptions and a strike saw gold production in South Africa decrease by 2,345 kg (75,390oz) to 1,176,600 ounces.



The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has been on strike at the company’s gold mining operations since mid-November over a wage dispute.



Group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined 8 percent to 8.369 billion rand. EBITDA for its gold operations fell to 1.362 billion rand from 5.309 billion rand in 2017.



Losses were limited by the strong performance of the company’s U.S. and South African platinum group metals (PGM) operations. About half of the 2018 group adjusted EBITDA came from the company’s U.S PGM operations.



Sibanye-Stillwater said it would buy SFA (Oxford), which provides market intelligence on battery materials and precious metals, to leverage off knowledge for future power train requirements to the market.



($1 = 14.0372 rand)



Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

What you need to know about South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater FY attributable loss of $178 million

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/">Todd Haselton</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=593-KR">Samsung</a>&nbsp;announced the first consumer-ready foldable smartphone Wednesday at a launch event in San Francisco.



The new phone, called the Galaxy Fold, has a special display that can fold open if you want to use it like a tablet. The new device will launch at a time when consumers are looking for innovative new features in smartphones to justify increased prices in the $1,000 range.



Samsung said that, when closed, the phone can easily fit in your hand like a traditional phone. But it also opens up into a large tablet for when you want to watch movies. You can also switch between screens on the fly. Samsung said that means, if you get an alert on the front screen, you can open into tablet mode and see the notification automatically in the app. 



There are two batteries, one on each side of the fold, that allow the tablet to fold in half easier.



Both Samsung and Apple have seen their smartphone market share lose ground to companies like Huawei, which makes phones with similar features at a lower cost. Folding phones, which so far have only been shown as prototypes by Samsung and other companies like Xiaomi, could usher in a new wave of unique smartphone form factors that will excite customers to upgrade.



Samsung first unveiled a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/07/samsung-foldable-phone-release-date-specs.html">prototype of the Galaxy Fold in November</a>2018, when it promised that a model people will actually be able to buy was launching &#8220;soon.&#8221; The Galaxy Fold runs a version of Google Android that automatically adjusts the software so that it works in both tablet and phone modes. 



&#8220;You can simply unfold the device to get a larger tablet-sized screen,&#8221; Google Android&#8217;s vice president of engineering, Dave Burke, said in November. &#8220;As you unfold, the app seamlessly transfers to the bigger screen without missing a beat.&#8221;



It will launch in LTE and 5G versions beginning April 26 for $1,980.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ISjiJQGJ72o" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>







This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/samsung-galaxy-fold-release-date-price-specs.html and is republished with its permission.

Samsung just announced the first foldable phone you can buy, here’s how much it will cost you

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/debby-carreau/ ">By Debby Carreau</a> 



You can never be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/31/6-common-body-language-mistakes-to-avoid-in-your-next-job-interview.html">too prepared</a> for a job interview. Doing the all the right things before the big day can still leave room for surprises, especially if your interviewers have a few tricky questions up their sleeves.



While some hiring managers prefer to call them&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/22/how-to-answer-common-interview-questions.html">&#8220;advanced&#8221; interview questions</a>, job candidates view them as &#8220;annoying&#8221; or &#8220;frustrating,&#8221; often because they are poorly worded, have no right or wrong answer or just seem irrelevant. Whatever the reason, chances are that you&#8217;ll get caught in one.



Here are seven examples of the most annoying — and commonly asked — interview questions, along with tips on how to answer them with ease and intelligence.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. &#8220;What is your biggest weakness?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;How self-aware are you?&#8221; Tip to remember: Never say, &#8220;I have no weaknesses.&#8221; Instead, take one of the hundreds of online assessment tools (i.e., Meyers Briggs or DISC) before your interview. This will help you prepare a fact-based answer. How to answer: Discuss your profile results (from the personality assessment) with your interviewer. In your answer, explain how you are working to improve yourself based on your innate tendencies. This approach also works well for similar questions about your strengths, giving you the chance to lay out your core skills without sounding like a bragger.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. &#8220;Tell me what you don&#8217;t like about your current (or previous) manager?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;Are you addicted to drama, or can you reasonably work through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/19/what-to-do-when-your-toxic-boss-makes-work-and-life-miserable.html">conflict with a manager</a>?&#8221; Tip to remember: First, rarely is there such a thing as a &#8220;perfect manager.&#8221; Second, never badmouth your previous employer. This is the fastest way to ruin your chances at getting hired.&nbsp; How to answer: A successful answer requires you to give a critical (yet fair) assessment of how your boss might have made work a little more challenging for you, and how you attempted to find a solution. It&#8217;s always best to bring up a situation you already discussed with your boss in the past. For example, they might have acknowledged their need to improve their communication skills. And you could say, &#8220;We decided that it would help to set up regular check-ins, follow up with email notes from meetings and point out positive interactions.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. &#8220;Are you planning on having children or getting married?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;How much of your time can you commit to the job?&#8221; Tip to remember: These questions are not only tricky, they are also often illegal to ask as part of a hiring assessment. While you shouldn&#8217;t feel the pressure to answer, it&#8217;s important to recognize that passing on these types of questions will most likely have a negative impact on your interview. How to answer: If you choose to answer, of course, be direct and honest. If you choose not to answer, pivot the conversation by saying something concise and straightforward, like &#8220;right now, my career is my focus&#8221; or &#8220;currently, my goal is to pursue an MBA in my free time.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. &#8220;If I ask you to sell me this pen, how would you do it?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;How creative and logical are you?&#8221; Tip to remember: Don&#8217;t try to answer a hypothetical question without facts. Focus on your process instead. How to answer: These questions are totally subjective, and even the brightest minds often give mediocre answers, so don&#8217;t set yourself up to fail. Use your experience and expertise to walk the interviewer through your process of approaching the problem. There is no need for any real data here, so try to break the process down into areas such as the objective, target audience details, unique characteristics of the item, competition and delivery method that will resonate best with the consumer. The goal is to demonstrate how thoughtful, creative and process-oriented you are.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. &#8220;What are your salary expectations?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;How well do you know your own industry?&#8221; Tip to remember: Don&#8217;t base your salary expectations on what you feel you are worth. Use the facts from your research. How to answer: Instead of trying to put a price on yourself, look up comparable salaries. You can get a pretty good idea of the range by looking through similar job postings, recruitment firm salary guides or websites like Glassdoor. And always answer the question with data: &#8220;Based on my research, comparable positions with candidates with a similar background to mine are paying between $50,000 to$60,000, so I would like to be paid in the midpoint of that range.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">6. &#8220;Tell me about a time you faced an extraordinary challenge. How did you address it?&#8221;</h4>



Translation: &#8220;Do you sink or swim when pushed out of your comfort zone?&#8221; Tip to remember: Anytime a question starts with &#8220;tell me about a time,&#8221; use the S.T.A.R. method to answer. How to answer:&nbsp;Is there a groundbreaking project you were part of? Have you ever worked with a team with challenging interpersonal dynamics? Break your example down into the following four steps:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Situation: Explain when and where did this take place.</li><li>Task: Share what was your role in this in this example.</li><li>Action: Share the steps did you took to address the issue.</li><li>Result: Describe the outcome and what you learned as a result.</li></ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">7. &#8220;Why should we hire you over all the other applicants?&#8221;</h4>



About the question: &#8220;Can you prove that you are the right fit?&#8221; Tip to remember: Never compare yourself to other candidates. Focus on your strengths and how you can compliment a team. How to answer: Talk about your passion for the role, the alignment of your personal goals with the organizations and how your skills and personal attributes match the job profile and team dynamic. This could also be another great place to highlight your personality assessment. If you genuinely aren&#8217;t confident in what sets you apart, there are great tools like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/home/en-us/strengthsfinder">Strengthfinders</a>&nbsp;that can help draw them out for you.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Not all interviewers are skilled</h4>



As challenging as these questions may be, never be sarcastic and avoid cliché humble bragging (i.e., &#8220;my biggest weakness is I work too hard&#8221;). More importantly, do not let a poor interviewer throw you off by trying to guess the answer they are looking for. The goal is to focus on the facts, your personal values, real experiences, data and personal experience.



<a href="http://www.debbycarreau.com/">Debby Carreau</a> is an entrepreneur, author and founder of <a href="https://www.inspiredhr.ca/">Inspired HR</a>. She has been recognized as one of Canada&#8217;s Top 25 HR Professionals and is a regular contributor on multiple TV shows, Entrepreneur Magazine and many other print and online publications. She is a board member for Young Presidents Organization and Elevation Group as well as an Advisory Board member for FinDev Canada.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/how-to-answer-the-7-most-annoying-job-interview-questions-and-spot-the-illegal-ones.html and is republished with its permission.

Improperly appointed boards spell disaster for organisations

How to answer the 7 most annoying job interview questions (and spot 2 that are illegal to ask)

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/">By Karen Gilchrist</a>



Daniella Sjoqvist was 28 when she decided to take her side gig full time.



She might have been nervous, except that there was one major factor in her favor — she had a job waiting for her if it all fell through.



Sjoqvist&#8217;s employer, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sweden/">Swedish</a>&nbsp;government, had given her six months off to pursue her business idea with the guarantee that her job would be waiting for her if she chose to return.



&#8220;I had already started my company, teaching languages on the side while I was working, but it felt more like a hobby than a job,&#8221; Sjoqvist told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. The break &#8220;allowed me to take the chance of working full time on my company,&#8221; she said.



Six months later, Sjoqvist&#8217;s burgeoning language academy had seen its customer numbers more than triple, giving her the confidence to quit her admin job permanently and become her own boss.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">A country of entrepreneurs</h4>



It may sound like an improbable scenario, but Sjoqvist is not alone. She is one of thousands of workers who&#8217;ve taken advantage of a Swedish workplace initiative designed to encourage entrepreneurship.



Sweden&#8217;s so-called leave of absence for entrepreneurship program entitles all full-time, permanent employees to take six months out to focus on their business, safe in the knowledge that they can return to their job — or a similar one — once the period is up.



The leave — known locally as tjänstledighet — is typically unpaid, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20131210/mythbusting-the-swedish-leave-of-absence">may only be redeemed by employees once per employer</a>. It allows recipients to retain job security while they get their idea off the ground — a rare luxury for most full-time entrepreneurs.



Employers are only entitled to reject the request if there are significant operational reasons or if the new business is considered a direct competitor.



&#8220;To my knowledge this is the only country (Sweden) that offers a legally-enshrined right to take a leave of absence for entrepreneurship,&#8221; Claire Ingram Bogusz, a post-doctoral researcher in entrepreneurship and information systems at Stockholm School of Economics,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190206-swedens-surprising-rule-for-time-off">told the BBC in a recent article on the scheme</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Disrupting the workplace</h4>



The program was introduced in 1998 and is one of the country&#8217;s various leave of absence schemes —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20131210/mythbusting-the-swedish-leave-of-absence">including 18-month parental leave</a>&nbsp;— intended to improve Swedish employee freedoms.



In a so-called welfare state like Sweden, where taxes are high, such social benefits are the norm. But the entrepreneurship scheme is different in that it was conceived to boost the country&#8217;s business scene.



Traditional economics suggests that&nbsp;<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-010-9299-y">countries&#8217; with higher taxes discourage entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;because individuals view the risks as greater. That could have been the case for 31-year-old Max Friberg, who &#8220;really enjoyed (his) job&#8221; in corporate finance at a global consulting firm and might have stayed there if it weren&#8217;t for the leave of absence scheme.



&#8220;I would have been hesitant to start my business if I didn&#8217;t have the opportunity to return,&#8221; Friberg told CNBC Make It, noting that the six months gave him the time and security to give his software platform &#8220;an honest try.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Measuring start-up success</h4>



Sweden does not keep official records of the number of people who take advantage of its leave of absence for entrepreneurship scheme. However, over the past decade, the Scandinavian country has seen a general uptick in the number of 25- to 54-year-olds who were registered on leave, according to the BBC article which cited Statistics Sweden.&nbsp;Meanwhile,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190206-swedens-surprising-rule-for-time-off">the number of registered businesses has nearly doubled</a>.



The shift is reflective of Sweden&#8217;s now booming start-up scene. In fact, after Silicon Valley,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/09/sweden-startups/541413/">Stockholm is home to the world&#8217;s highest number of billion-dollar start-ups per capita</a>, including major names like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SPOT">Spotify</a>and Minecraft.



In Sweden, there are 20 start-ups for every 1,000 employees versus five for every 1,000 in the U.S,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/no-country-for-young-firms_5jm22p40c8mw-en">according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</a>.



Sjoqvist said she has no doubt the scheme and the start-up boom are correlated.



&#8220;I think it is great way of pushing for entrepreneurship,&#8221; said Sjoqvist, founder of E.L.A.N.S (Enjoy Learning And Never Stop). &#8220;I suspect that programs like this have contributed to the large amount of Swedish unicorns such as Spotify and King.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">A new future for employees</h4>



However, despite the unorthodox scheme&#8217;s apparent success, it will likely be some time before everyone is convinced of its benefits. Not least employers.



Under the program, Swedish businesses must shoulder the disruption caused by an absent employee. In countries with stable economies, such as Sweden, that&#8217;s something most employers can generally weather. But others may find it more difficult.



Plus, even in Sweden, there remains miscommunication about the scheme&#8217;s implications. Sjoqvist noted that she had to educate her boss on it.



&#8220;At first, my employer was not even aware that this law existed so I had to show it to her,&#8221; Sjoqvist said. But after that, she said, the response was positive.



Sjoqvist and Friberg are among those who decided to leave their jobs to pursue their businesses full-time after the six-month scheme. However, there are others for whom the scheme is less successful and who decide to return to their job once the program ends.



Ingram Bogusz noted that that can in fact be a positive for employers, who may see their employees return to work more energized and appreciative of the benefits of full-time employment.



&#8220;For someone to have gone out and tried something new and had that opportunity and come back isn&#8217;t actually seen negatively. It&#8217;s seen neutrally at best, and probably even positively, because then the person has said, &#8216;Oh no, this job is what is actually for me,'&#8221; she told the BBC.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/sweden-lets-employees-take-six-months-off-work-to-start-a-business.html and is republished with its permission.

This country lets you take six months off work to start your own business

LUSAKA (Reuters) &#8211; Debt servicing costs are putting pressure on Zambia’s central bank reserves, Bank of Zambia Governor Denny Kalyalya said during a monetary policy committee briefing on Wednesday, after announcing it would keep interest rates unchanged.



The International Monetary Fund has raised concerns over high levels of government debt in Africa’s second largest copper producer, and rejected the state’s borrowing plans last February, saying they risked making its debt load harder to sustain.



Reporting by Chris Mfula; writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Alison Williams

Debt servicing costs putting pressure on Zambia’s central bank reserves, what you need to know

DAKAR (Reuters) &#8211; Senegal, the most stable democracy in West Africa, is preparing for an election on Sunday with President Macky Sall facing off against four other candidates. 



Sall is widely expected to win a second term, after the country’s two best-known opposition figures were barred from running because of corruption allegations, in moves critics said represented a worrying crackdown on dissent. [nL8N1ZE3W0]



Below is a look at the five candidates competing in the Feb. 24 ballot:



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE INCUMBENT: MACKY SALL</h3>



Favourite to win the upcoming vote, the Senegalese president first came to power in 2012, after beating former president and mentor Abdoulaye Wade in the second round.



Sall, 57, started in politics as a member of Wade’s Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and served as his prime minister between 2004 and 2007. Internal disputes led Sall to split with Wade in 2008 and form his own party, Alliance for the Republic (APR).



As president, Sall launched an ambitious development and reform programme aimed at transforming Senegal into an emerging economy by 2035. The plan includes an array of big ticket infrastructure projects, including a rail project, power generation and a futuristic new city on the outskirts of Dakar. [nL5N20878I]



But the barring of his main rivals, Khalifa Sall, who is in jail for corruption, and Karim Wade, son of the former president, also previously jailed for graft, has raised eyebrows among voters. Heavy-handed crackdowns by security forces on some protests have also prompted accusations that President Sall has an authoritarian streak.



THE TWICE-DEFEATED: IDRISSA SECK



Like Sall, Idrissa Seck, 59, served as Wade’s prime minister in the 2000s, but his subsequent bids for the presidency have been unsuccessful.



Seck was sacked as prime minister in 2004 over embezzlement allegations and spent some months in jail before his case was dismissed. In 2006, he founded the party Rewmi (“The Country”, in the Wolof language) and ran against Wade in 2007, finishing second.



He ran again in 2012 but did not make it to the second round. He is one of Sall’s main challengers, but a widely-cited survey in November showed him trailing the incumbent with little over eight percent support.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE NEWCOMER: OUSMANE SONKO</h3>



At 44 years old, Sonko is the youngest contestant in the race and a newcomer to the political scene. His relative youth plays to his advantage in Senegal, where more than 60 percent of the population is under 25 and anxious for change.



The tax inspector made a name for himself in 2016 when he became a whistleblower, denouncing corrupt practices in the Senegalese elite.



He was sacked over the activism, but his new-found prominence led to his election as a lawmaker in 2017, representing his own party: the Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF).



He is Sall’s other main challenger with 15 percent support, according to the November survey, which was conducted before the candidates list was finalised. Official opinion polls are banned ahead of elections.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE ACADEMIC: ISSA SALL</h3>



The 63-year-old IT professor represents the Party of Unity and Assembly (PUR). His party is affiliated with the Moustarchidine religious movement, part of a leading Sufi brotherhood in Senegal.



Founder of a private university in Dakar, Issa Sall launched his political career in the late 1990s. He is one of only three representatives of his party in the national assembly.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE OUTSIDER: MADICKE NIANG</h3>



Madicke Niang, 65, is seen as having the least chance of winning the upcoming vote.



A long-time member of the PDS, Niang was a loyal supporter of former president Wade and served as a minister in his government for many years. His decision last year to run for president led to his banishment from the party, as Wade wanted his son Karim to represent PDS in the race.



Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Alessandra Prentice, William Maclean

What you need to know about the five candidates running in Senegal’s presidential election

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s Tiger Brands on Wednesday reported a one percent rise in group revenue from continuing operations for the four months to January 31 on Wednesday helped by overall price inflation and volume growth. 



South Africa’s leading food producer had reported a 5 percent fall in revenue in the corresponding period last year.



Excluding its Value Added Meat Products (VAMP) unit, which produces cold meat such as polony, group revenue rose 8 percent, driven by overall price inflation of 2 percent and volume growth of 6 percent, it said.



For most of 2018, production at its VAMP business was halted after the source of the world’s largest ever listeriosis outbreak was traced in March to a factory owned by Tiger Brands’ Enterprise Foods unit, prompting the health department to recall tonnes of processed meat products.



In December authorities gave the food maker permission to re-open the Polokwane processing facility, a few months after production restarted at other facilities.



“The re-launch of the VAMP business has been well received by customers and consumers, however challenges in managing the factory start-ups have resulted in an inability to fully meet demand in this period,” the group said.



This had a significant negative impact on that business’ operating performance, it added.



It saw good volume in wheat, maize, groceries, snacks and treats, beverages, baby and in particular, home and personal care.



Tiger Brands has had to cope with intense competition in a low-growth, value-driven consumer environment, coupled with price deflation in some soft commodities.



“With the exception of sorghum-based products, pasta, maize and rice, all categories recorded selling price inflation although price increases were not sufficient to fully recover cost increases, resulting in gross margin compression,” it said.



The company said it has not received a summons from class action lawyers representing victims of listeriosis, which claimed more than 200 lives in the country.



A South African court in December granted a class action certificate to the victims, paving the way for them to make claims against Tiger Brands.



The company said it has product liability insurance cover appropriate for a business of its scale, which will be used in the event that the company is held liable.



“Coverage has been confirmed by the insurers, subject to the terms and limits of the policy,” it said.



Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Jason Neely

Tiger Brands reports a one percent rise in group revenue, what you need to know

<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Morocco-PxHere1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-328610" width="671" height="503"/><figcaption>The first university in Africa was founded in Morocco. Image by PxHere.</figcaption></figure>



By Nnamdi Oranye



When we think of where the University came
from, most of us probably think back to the oldest institutions we know &#8211;
perhaps Oxford in England. Or perhaps we think of the top Universities of the
world, like Harvard. We think of how a group of men had a passion for education
and began these amazing institutions. We think of how much we need to thank the
Western world for the University. Certainly the University is one of the most
groundbreaking and important innovations of all time. 



But was it a Western innovation? Actually, as the facts show, the innovation of the University comes from Africa. Morocco, to be exact. The story of Fatima al-Fihri (Al-<g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="11" data-gr-id="11">Fihriya</g>), a Moroccan Muslim woman from Fez, who was born in 800 A.D., is one practically no one hears about. When her father passed away he left money to both her and her sister. She used this inheritance to establish the University of Al Qarawiynn in 859 C.E., which is still existent today &#8211; 1160 years later. 



It is, as a result, the oldest continually operating educational institute in the world &#8211; the first institution to award degrees for different levels of study. The original courses offered were in Islamic Studies, mathematics, grammar, and medicine. It is one of the largest tertiary institutions in North Africa and includes a library with over 4000 manuscripts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Breaking through cultural limitations</h2>



Think about this for a moment. Here is a woman
in 859 C.E. breaking through all her cultural limitations of her time and
disrupting history for the last 1160 years. One innovation, the University, has
spawned millions of other innovations &#8211; millions of people who have innovated
in many, many other industries. Without Fatima, would there be a Harvard or a
Stanford or an Oxford today? Without and African woman breaking through all the
limitations of her time?



“The darkest thing about Africa,” said George
H.T. Kimble, “has always been our ignorance of it.” This is true for not only
our geography, which was Kimble’s main concern, but for practically every
aspect of our continent. What is even worse is so many Africans themselves are
ignorant of what’s really going on in Africa. We need to change our own
mindsets towards Africa and innovation going on in Africa.



Fatima’s legacy is one that we as Africans can draw inspiration from. In our time, there are a million limitations we are constantly put up against. There is always a reason why our innovations don’t matter as much; why we ought not to think out the box; why we should let the world dictate to us what we should do and how we should move forward. Like Fatima’s legacy &#8211; one we don’t read in the ordinary history books &#8211; we are facing a similar dilemma now: No recognition and a great deal of ignorance, yet we live in an extremely disruptive landscape.&nbsp; 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">She used her mind &amp; imagination</h2>



Malcolm Gladwell says, “If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” Fatima obviously worked hard. She obviously asserted herself. She obviously used her mind and her imagination &#8211; and built something that would allow millions to do the same. Like her, we need to start to know what’s going on in the world, what’s happening on the ground in Africa, and use our mind and imagination together with hard work and asserting ourselves in this world &#8211; as individuals and as a collective of Africans.



How did Fatima view the future? It’s worth
thinking about what motivated her. Because the big question is: how do you view
the future? Do you know where it is going? Do you like where it’s going? Do you
know how you can influence where it’s going &#8211; and be a part of where it’s
going? What will two or three generations from now say about your generation? 



These are questions that continue to plague
me, and excite me. Because, right now, we are standing on the cusp of many
opportunities. All we need to do is think differently and see how things all
fit together. As leaders and experts and entrepreneurs, it’s no longer good
enough to just know ‘your thing’. We need to have a horizontal view across
industries to help inform our vertical view in our particular industry. We need
to connect industries, innovations, and people together; think differently; and
create new ecosystems, just like Fatima and her university did. It’s great to
major in your profession, but every profession is an interconnected part of the
whole. Whatever your main work or whatever your side hustle may be, the picture
is bigger than you think &#8211; and therein lies plenty of opportunity for you and
for all of us, together.



Think bigger. It’s time to know your change
and it’s time to step into it.

Op-Ed: Why The World Owes Education to an African Woman﻿

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/tom-popomaronis/">By Tom Popomaronis</a>



Let&#8217;s be honest, lazy people get a bad rap, especially when some of the world&#8217;s most successful billionaires are perceived as the exact opposite.



Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, for instance gets up at 5 a.m. every day. He answers emails, eats breakfast with his family, reads the news, takes meetings and plays sports like tennis, running and kitesurfing (what?!) — all before going to bed at 11 p.m. Basically, Branson is an incredibly active and accomplished individual (and it should be a crime to call him lazy).



So it&#8217;s not hard to see why lazy people are considered to be less smart and successful in their careers. Fortunately, for all the &#8220;lazies&#8221; out there, science has discovered evidence that laziness might actually be a sign of intelligence.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Science supports laziness</h4>



On average, people who are less physically active tend to be brainier than physically active people, according to a 2015 study published in the&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1359105314565827">Journal of Health Psychology</a>. Researchers even developed a fancy description for &#8220;laziness&#8221; — they call it &#8220;<a href="https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/personality/need-for-cognition/">need for cognition</a>.&#8221; People who have this trait crave structured and reasoned ways of looking at the world, and they often pursue activities that provide intense mental stimulation, such as brainstorming puzzles or debating.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;The data found that those with a high IQ got bored less easily, leading them to be less active and spend more time engaged in thought.&#8221;</blockquote>



For the study, researchers used a questionnaire to assess the &#8220;need for cognition.&#8221; They 60 subjects were split into two groups (&#8220;thinkers&#8221; and &#8220;non-thinkers&#8221;) based on their survey responses. All participants then wore activity trackers for a seven-day period, providing the researchers with insight into their habits.



The data showed that those with a high IQ got bored less easily, leading them to be less active and spend more time engaged in thought. The highly active group got easily bored when having to sit still and observe their abstract thoughts. Instead, they preferred to stimulate their minds with active tasks, like sports and other physical activities.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Are lazy people really smarter and more successful?</h4>



That certainly doesn&#8217;t add up. But part of the problem might have to do with how we view laziness itself; it&#8217;s very possible that the things we associate with laziness are actually not so indicative of laziness at all.



Bill Gates has often been quoted as saying, &#8220;I always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.&#8221; Whether Gates even&nbsp;<a href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/lazy-job/">said that</a>&nbsp;in the first place is questionable, but the quote still gets repeated — and that&#8217;s because there&#8217;s some truth in it.



Many obsessively critical thinkers (a.k.a. people with a high &#8220;need for cognition&#8221;) are concerned with reducing wasteful actions, and instead prefer to use efficient processes. So perhaps hiring a lazy person isn&#8217;t the worst idea after all. They&#8217;re likely to be strategic thinkers who can come up with smart shortcuts, ways to eliminate problems, save time and contribute new, innovative ideas to the company.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;False laziness&#8221;</h4>



Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of &#8220;Moneyball&#8221; and &#8220;The Big Short,&#8221; is nothing if not smart and successful, and he hasn&#8217;t shied away from being called lazy. In fact, he attributes much of his success directly to being lazy.



&#8220;My laziness serves as a filter,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/moneyball-author-michael-lewis-says-being-lazy-is-the-key-to-success.html">he once said in an interview</a> with Ryan Smith, CEO of the online survey company Qualtrics. &#8220;Something has to be really good before I&#8217;ll decide to work on it.&#8221;



Lewis&#8217; perception of laziness is what one might call &#8220;false laziness&#8221;: the fact that his laziness contributed to his success debunks the negative stereotypes being a lazy person.



Video games are another example of &#8220;false laziness.&#8221; It&#8217;s often seen as a mindless activity enjoyed mostly by lazy people. But anyone who&#8217;s ever played Fortnite knows it requires a fair amount of strategic thinking and problem-solving.



Elon Musk himself has been known to be a prolific gamer, and it&#8217;s certainly difficult to imagine anyone branding him as lazy. On the back of more than 100-hour workweeks and years without a vacation, Musk has built at least six extremely successful companies. He&#8217;s about as far from &#8220;unintelligent&#8221; as it gets.



You&#8217;ve also got Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page among the legions of wildly successful people who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/26/mark-zuckerberg-larry-page-and-elon-musk-play-video-games-should-you.html">like to play video games</a>. Again, these two people are neither lazy nor unintelligent by any stretch.



The bottom line is that &#8220;lazy&#8221; is a broadly defined word. Still, the evidence suggests that we could afford to be more mindful about what qualities in a person lead us to make that judgment. In the meantime, we should consider embracing the positive aspects of our own inner laziness.



Now, if you&#8217;ll excuse me, I have to get back to Fortnite.



Tom Popomaronis is a commerce expert and proud Baltimore native. Currently, he is the Senior Director of Product Innovation at the <a href="https://rhawkinsgroup.com/">Hawkins Group</a>. His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and The Washington Post. In 2014, he was named one of the &#8220;40 Under 40&#8221; by the Baltimore Business Journal. Follow him on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tpopomaronis/">LinkedIn</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/tpopomaronis">@tpopomaronis </a>.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/the-science-backed-reason-lazy-people-are-smarter-more-successful-and-better-employees.html and is republished with its permission.

Why lazy people are likely to be smarter, more successful, and better employees, according to science

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sarah-berger/">By Sarah Berger</a>



You probably know whether you&#8217;re a morning or night person. Now science has some good news for the early risers: Apparently the early bird really does get the worm. 



There are fundamental differences in brain function between night owls and early birds, and night owls may have impaired function during regular work-day hours, according to a new study published Thursday in the&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsz033/5316210?searchresult=1">academic journal &#8220;Sleep.&#8221;</a>



Researchers at the University of Birmingham looked at the brain function (among other things) of 38 people who were categorized as either night owls, who had an average bedtime of 2:30 a.m. and a wake-up time of 10:00 a.m., or morning larks, who had average bedtime of 11 p.m. and wake time of 6:30 a.m.



Participants underwent MRI scans, were asked to complete a series of tasks and participated in testing sessions at different times during the day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., while also being asked to report their level of sleepiness.



Overall, researchers found that night owls had lower resting brain connectivity in ways that are associated with poorer attention, slower reactions and increased sleepiness throughout the hours of a typical work day.



Meanwhile, brain connectivity in the regions of the brain that can predict better performance and lower sleepiness were significantly higher in larks at all times,&nbsp;<a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-reveal-brain-disadvantage-night-owls.html">&#8220;suggesting that</a>&nbsp;the resting state brain connectivity of night owls is impaired throughout the whole day.&#8221; (The &#8220;resting state&#8221; of the brain,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livescience.com/64779-night-owls-brain-connectivity.html">Live Science notes</a>, means not doing a particular task and letting the mind wander.)



&#8220;A huge number of people struggle to deliver their best performance during work or school hours they are not naturally suited to,&#8221; says&nbsp;<a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-reveal-brain-disadvantage-night-owls.html">the study&#8217;s lead researcher,</a>&nbsp;Dr. Elise Facer-Childs, of the University of Birmingham&#8217;s Centre for Human Brain Health. &#8220;There is a critical need to increase our understanding of these issues in order to minimize health risks in society, as well as maximize productivity.&#8221;



And whether you&#8217;re a morning or night person might be dictated by your genes. A separate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08259-7">study published</a>&nbsp;in January looked at the genomes of almost 700,000 people, using data from 23andMe and the U.K. Biobank. It found that there are hundreds of genes that are associated with whether you are a night owl or an early bird. Regions of the genome<a href="https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_141185">that the study found&nbsp;</a>to be relevant to whether you&#8217;re a morning or night person included genes involved in metabolism, the biological clock and genes that function in the retina.



However,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/30/daniel-pink-how-to-time-your-day-for-peak-performance.html">knowing whether you&#8217;re an early bird, night owl or somewhere in between</a>&nbsp;can help you optimize your productivity throughout the day, according to Daniel Pink, author of &#8220;<a href="https://www.danpink.com/books/when/">When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing</a>.&#8221;



&#8220;All times of day are not created equal,&#8221; Pink previously told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. &#8220;Our performance varies considerably over the course of the day, and what task to do at a certain time really depends on the nature of the task. If we look at the evidence, we can be doing the right work, at the right time.&#8221;



According to Pink, for larks, the morning is the best time to do analytical work that requires focus, and more administrative or routine work should be done later in the day. The reverse is true for night owls.



This article was first published by CNBC&nbsp;https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/study-reveals-if-night-or-morning-people-have-brain-function-advantage.html&nbsp;and is republished with its permission.

Early birds vs. night owls: How one has an advantage at work, according to science

<figure>
 <img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258072/original/file-20190210-174861-bywlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" alt="File 20190210 174861 bywlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" />
 <figcaption>
 There’s no painless way for South Africans to deal with the power utility crisis.
 Shutterstock
 </figcaption>
 </figure>


By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rod-crompton-309956">Rod Crompton</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>

Eskom is by far the largest of South Africa’s many state owned companies. This near monopoly power utility is in crisis. It’s the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/255015/eskom-is-the-single-biggest-risk-to-south-africas-economy/">single largest threat</a> to South Africa’s economy, according to a former minister of finance. The Conversation Africa spoke to Adjunct Professor Rod Crompton about why this is the case and what can be done. 

<h2>How is power generated and distributed in South Africa?</h2>

Electricity markets in most countries consist of three parts: generation, transmission and distribution. Most electricity is generated by using heat to boil water to create steam which in turn spins a turbine that generates electricity.

South Africa’s cheap and abundant coal resources made coal generated electricity an obvious choice for many years. Initially, power stations were owned by municipalities and large mining and industrial concerns. But as the costs of recapitalisation emerged, government was persuaded to take over responsibility for power. 

Eskom is <a href="http://www.dpe.gov.za/soc/Pages/Eskom.aspx">among the biggest</a> power utilities <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/how-power-utility-eskom-is-hobbling-south-africas-economy-2018-12-05">in the world</a>, famous for its ability to handle vast tonnages of low grade coal. Eskom accounts for <a href="http://www.dpe.gov.za/soc/Pages/Eskom.aspx">over 90% of power generating</a> capacity. Its power plants are mostly coal with one nuclear station and some pumped storage (water). Only a few minor power generators have remained outside Eskom’s fold. 

More recently, international climate change pressure caused government to introduce renewable power generation through <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-africa-to-release-new-look-renewables-bid-window-in-november-2018-06-01">bidding rounds</a>. These private investors were given 20 year price guarantees underwritten by government – some at exorbitant prices. Nevertheless, as these technologies became more globally popular, some of them – solar (photo voltaic) and wind power – emerged as the lowest cost generators. 

All power generation is tied into Eskom’s national transmission grid that moves electricity from generation stations to demand areas. Transmission is a natural monopoly. If you want to use the transmission grid you need Eskom’s permission. 

Transmission lines end where high voltage power is stepped down to distribution networks until it reaches residential customers – at 220 volts. In many areas Eskom sells to municipal distributors.

So, Eskom is a vertically integrated near monopoly responsible for generation, transmission and distribution.

<h2>Is this monopoly situation unusual in the 21st century?</h2>

In many countries competition between power generators has been encouraged to drive down prices. Transmission, being a natural monopoly, remains just that; but like toll roads they are open to all who obey the “road rules” and pay the toll. The same goes for distribution to a lesser extent.

<h2>What’s the trouble with Eskom?</h2>

Eskom has two major problems. Its operating costs are too high and it can’t pay its debt. It owes over <a href="https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/eskom-needs-a-bailout/">R400 billion</a> and does not generate enough cash to pay even the interest on its debt. It’s reached the end of the road. 

Eskom has been getting steep tariff increases in recent years but these have driven some customers off-grid and shut others down. Eskom’s sales have been declining by about 1% per <a href="https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2018/07/23/eskom-loss-power-sales-drop-debt-slumps">annum</a>. The less it sells, the higher the tariff it wants, and the less it sells – the utility death spiral.

<h2>How did it get here?</h2>

The main cause of its troubles is its decision to build two of the biggest coal fired generating plants in the world, (<a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/Whatweredoing/NewBuild/MedupiPowerStation/Documents/NB_0002MedupiFactSheetSept2013.pdf">Medupi</a> and <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/Whatweredoing/NewBuild/Pages/Kusile_Power_Station.aspx">Kusile</a>). These plants are running way behind schedule, they’re over budget and the bits that are complete don’t work properly. They are <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/editorials/2018-06-20-editorial-keep-an-open-mind-on--energy/">probably</a> the single largest disaster in South Africa’s economic history.

“State capture” (patronage networks), corruption and poor management have led to over staffing and neglected maintenance, resulting in <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/Eskom/corruption-state-capture-behind-eskoms-downfall-nersa-hears-20190114-2">constant breakdowns</a>. Electricity theft, a culture of non-payment and defaulting municipalities have deepened the <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/how-eskoms-looming-death-spiral-is-menacing-sa-economy-20181206">crisis</a>. Eskom is owed over <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/293980/why-youre-going-to-pay-more-for-eskoms-mistakes/">R30 billion</a>.

<h2>What are the answers?</h2>

Eskom needs to simultaneously reduce operating costs, increase tariffs and shed a big chunk of its debt. There is no painless way for South Africans to deal with their Eskom crisis. And it can’t wait until the national elections on 8 May 2019.

President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a team of advisers and has announced that Eskom is to be split into three subsidiaries: generation, transmission and distribution. This has been a government policy since 1998. This should increase cost and debt transparency and may lead to increased efficiencies, especially if competition is allowed.

<hr>

 
 
 Read more:
 <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-south-africas-latest-plan-for-state-owned-power-giant-could-work-111480">Why South Africa&#8217;s latest plan for state-owned power giant could work</a>
 
 

<hr>


Ramaphosa hinted that Eskom will be allowed to invest in renewables, possibly to absorb surplus staff and avoid retrenchments that have been so <a href="https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news-fast-news/num-union-tells-ramaphosa-to-scrap-eskom-split-plan/">vehemently opposed</a> by the unions. Some think this is too little too late. He passed the debt hot potato to the minister of finance’s budget speech on 20 February 2018. 

Energy Minister Jeff Radebe <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/prepare-for-greater-power-generation-competition-radebe-tells-eskom-2018-06-04">said</a> Eskom must prepare for increased competition, presumably in generation. The transmission network needs to be opened to allow this. The courts <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/court-prevents-eskom-from-cutting-off-musinas-electricity-20181120">have stopped</a> Eskom from switching off defaulting municipalities. Esokm’s crisis gets worse every day. Government will have to sort out municipal non-payment or allow towns and cities to go dark or let Eskom collapse. 

Until the President’s statement, government seemed paralysed. Will words turn into the effective action that’s needed to save South Africa from its power utility?<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111510/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/rod-crompton-309956">Rod Crompton</a>, Adjunct professor African Energy Leadership Centre Wits Business School, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</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/explainer-why-south-africas-energy-generator-is-in-so-much-trouble-111510">original article</a>.

Special Report

Zimbabwe banks start trading new currency, what you need to know

Dozens killed in election violence in Nigeria

[IN TWEETS] Nigerians head to the polls

Nigerian vote tough to call, here’s why

How much will Zimbabwe’s new currency trade against the U.S. dollar ?

Ruling on law banning gay sex delayed in Kenya High Court, what you need to know

What you need to know about South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater FY attributable loss of $178 million

Samsung just announced the first foldable phone you can buy, here’s how much it will cost you

How to answer the 7 most annoying job interview questions (and spot 2 that are illegal to ask)

This country lets you take six months off work to start your own business

Debt servicing costs putting pressure on Zambia’s central bank reserves, what you need to know

What you need to know about the five candidates running in Senegal’s presidential election

Tiger Brands reports a one percent rise in group revenue, what you need to know

Op-Ed: Why The World Owes Education to an African Woman

Why lazy people are likely to be smarter, more successful, and better employees, according to science

Early birds vs. night owls: How one has an advantage at work, according to science

Explainer: South Africa’s energy generator is in trouble, here’s why

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Special Report

Zimbabwe banks start trading new currency, what you need to know

Dozens killed in election violence in Nigeria

[IN TWEETS] Nigerians head to the polls

Nigerian vote tough to call, here’s why

How much will Zimbabwe’s new currency trade against the U.S. dollar ?

Ruling on law banning gay sex delayed in Kenya High Court, what you need to know

What you need to know about South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater FY attributable loss of $178 million

Samsung just announced the first foldable phone you can buy, here’s how much it will cost you

How to answer the 7 most annoying job interview questions (and spot 2 that are illegal to ask)

This country lets you take six months off work to start your own business

Debt servicing costs putting pressure on Zambia’s central bank reserves, what you need to know

What you need to know about the five candidates running in Senegal’s presidential election

Tiger Brands reports a one percent rise in group revenue, what you need to know

Op-Ed: Why The World Owes Education to an African Woman﻿

Why lazy people are likely to be smarter, more successful, and better employees, according to science

Early birds vs. night owls: How one has an advantage at work, according to science

Explainer: South Africa’s energy generator is in trouble, here’s why

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters

Op-Ed: Why The World Owes Education to an African Woman