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Rera.farm is best start-up in Zimbabwe

Rera, a platform that enables retail consumers to farm their own chickens and save up to 40% from buying poultry produce without having to own the infrastructure of a chicken farm was selected the best startup in Zimbabwe for its innovative sustainable solution

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Rera, a platform that enables retail consumers to farm their own chickens and save up to 40% from buying poultry produce without having to own the infrastructure of a chicken farm was selected the best startup in Zimbabwe for its innovative sustainable solution.

As a part of the prize, Rera will be participating at the Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland, in April 2019. It is a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the 65+ winners from other fast growing economies, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the Summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of more than 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to USD 1 million in equity investment and other prizes.

Read Also: Egypt’s nuclear power plant to gulp $25 billion

The 9 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Nhena Nyagura from Dandemutande, Ethel Bangwayo from UNDP, Sharon Wekwete from Omidyar Network and Lilian Mbayiwa from Old Mutual.

Wellnescript, with its wellness and digital health startup in Africa which empowers individuals, families, companies and communities to experience more happiness and enjoy the gift of life, came second. YouFarm, a Zimbabwean company that provides collateral free funding for farmers via the YouFarm Crowd Farming Platform, allowing people to become part of the agriculture value chain by letting them invest in crops and livestock and then share the profits with the Farmer when the produce goes to market. grabbed the last spot in the top 3.

There was also a prize for the best Civic Tech startup and a Best Learner prize. The first was taken by Vote Africa , a mobile application aiming to educate, motivate and empower the electorate to fully own the electoral process and hold governments accountable and the second by Justice Today , a mobile application that protects citizens from crime and uses artificial intelligence to educate citizens on the steps to take when victimized.

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Nigeria: Senate cautions executive over central bank loans, illegal spending

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The Nigerian Senate has advised President Bola Tinubu to send a supplementary budget for the country’s Compressed Natural Gas initiative and cautioned him against engaging in illegal spending.

Through its Gas Committee, chaired by Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, the Senate urged Tinubu to swiftly submit a 2023 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly in order to launch the compressed natural gas project.

This request was made just 48 hours after President Bola Tinubu announced plans to ease Nigerians’ pain from the removal of fuel subsidies. The law, insisted the legislators, forbade extra-budgetary spending.

Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on the commemoration of the country’s independence on Sunday, announced an interim wage rise for low-income workers, and deployment of mass transit buses running on gas to ease the impact of petrol subsidy removal.

Tinubu, in his address, said the government “has opened a new chapter in public transportation through the deployment of cheaper, safer CNG buses across the nation. These buses will operate at a fraction of current fuel prices, positively affecting transport fares. New CNG conversion kits will start coming in very soon as all hands are on deck to fast track the usually lengthy procurement process.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s advances to the federal government rose 2900 per cent in the last seven years to N23.8 trillion under Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, an unprecedented rise that violated the law, triggered inflation and worsened the country’s debt burden; and the Senate is worried the latest “CNG move ” by the executive might degenerate into a similar position

Although the committee’s chairman praised Tinubu for the CNG initiative, he also cautioned that other projects in the gas value chain and the use of taxpayer money without National Assembly approval would be illegal. The senators cautioned against extra-budgetary spending through Ways and Means, saying that the legislature was ready to support and assist the populace.

Jarigbe said, “The noble initiative would ameliorate the hardship of the citizens. Also, the President needs to come up with a supplementary budget to enable the government to fund the gas value chain, including the provision for CNG infrastructure and CNG vehicles.

“The President should not embark on extra-budgetary expenditure because it would be inconsistent with the provisions of the law.”

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Nigeria, Egypt, S’Africa, other developing economies need $2tn annually to achieve net-zero emissions— IMF

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated in a report released on Monday that emerging economies, some of which are African countries, would require about $2 trillion per year by 2030 to meet the target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

An emerging economy is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not fully meet its standards; African countries like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya are in this category.

The report “Emerging economies need much more private financing for climate transition”, pointed out that investing significantly in climate mitigation in emerging markets and developing economies, which currently emit about two-thirds of greenhouse gases, was necessary to achieve the transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The report read in part:

“These countries will need about $2tn annually by 2030 to reach that ambitious goal, according to the International Energy Agency, with the majority of that funding flowing into the energy industry. This is a fivefold increase from the current $400bn of climate investments planned over the next seven years.

“We project that growth in public investment, however, will be limited and that the private sector will therefore need to make a major contribution toward the large climate investment needs for emerging market and developing economies.

“The private sector will need to supply about 80 per cent of the required investment, and this share rises to 90 per cent when China is excluded, as shown in an analytical chapter of our latest Global Financial Stability Report.”

Additionally, the report asserts that while China and other larger emerging economies have the necessary domestic financial resources, many other nations lack sufficiently mature financial markets that can provide significant amounts of private finance.

Phasing out coal power plants, the single largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions (about 20%), is another major challenge.

Meanwhile, some pan-African arguments have emerged in reaction to the calls to phase out existing energy sources, seeing it as a conspiracy against the continent’s use of energy for development after the sources had been adequately explored for developed economies.

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