Voices of Africa

Eugene speaks to Riva Levinson CEO & President of KRL International, and Tom Sheehy Senior Adviser at KRL, about the future of US-Africa relations. How will the Biden administration continue this commitment and will the emphasis change? Riva also touches on the ‘Activist Generation’ and her optimism towards the youth in Africa. Tom has had a 22-year career with the Foreign Affairs Committee in the...

Marcus speaks to Alison Reid, Director of Personal and Applied learning at the Gordon Institute of Business Studies (GIBS) and Tanya Stevens, Professional Associate at GIBS. Alison and Tanya discuss the power of ‘Adaptive Leadership’ for managing complexity. ‘Adaptive Leadership is a ‘we’ thing, not a ‘me’ thing and it would be a trap to think that adaptive leadership is something I do to others....

Gabon’s Minister of Environment, Oceans and Forests, Prof. Lee White, is a very rare species. He’s a conservationist who was born in Britain and had never held a political post before agreeing to serve in President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s cabinet 18 months ago. Here talks to Marcus about his government’s plans to build a forestry industry that can supply up to 300,000 jobs in the next decade, bringing...

Marcus speaks with Robert Amsterdam, Founder of Amsterdam & Partners. Amsterdam has built a reputation working with sovereign governments, political candidates and multinational corporations. Here he speaks to Marcus about the tools businesses need to manage political risk, and about his client Tundu Lissu, CHADEMA presidential candidate in Tanzania. Robert Amsterdam is an international lawyer wit...

Marcus speaks to Catherine Constantinides, a South African climate activist & human rights defender. Her drive to address some of Africa’s largest challenges and create sustainable change combined with her understanding of the powerful role of the media and strong leadership has given her an influential platform to address these issues. Catherine’s recent appointment as one of the global ambassado...

Daphne Piriou speaks to Richard Kiplagat, director at Africa Practice and board member of Safe Hands Kenya, which recently won a series of Fast Company awards. Safe Hands Kenya is a mission-driven alliance of Kenyan organisations deploying free soap, hand-washing stations and masks to Kenyans. Richard explains how resources and capabilities are being brought together to improve the quality of hygi...

Marcus receives a lesson in sovereign bond trading from Jim Croft. Meanwhile, Zambia’s Finance Minister has appealed for an interest-payment holiday from holders of its $3 billion in Eurobonds. Croft, who participated in the call between the Finance minister and bondholders, tells Marcus the reaction of bondholders. The ratings agency Fitch believes that its recent downgrade of Zambia’s rating cou...

Marcus speaks with Brian Menell, CEO of TechMet, a privately owned company that is investing in projects that mine and process metals that are critical for the production of electric vehicles, energy storage and renewable energy. Brian shares his views on the richness of Africa’s resource base and sheds light on how the Coronavirus pandemic will accelerate demand for clean energy and technology me...

Governments have become more interventionist since the onset of COVID-19, resulting in a waveform of new regulations. Marie Wilke, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy at Africa Practice shares insights into the state of regulation in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the nature of corporate responses.

Leona Archary, Director at Bigen Africa talks about South Africa’s agriculture sector and the ambitions of industry and government. Leona also serves as Interim CEO of the South African Agricultural Development Agency (AGDA) which is a private sector-led initiative that is mobilising funding and support to the smallholder and black commercial farming sector through improved partnership models acro...

Ruud Jansen, Executive Secretary, Gaborone Declaration for Sustainable in Africa speaks with Marcus about the importance and growth of Natural Capital Accounting, as well as the Community of Practice for Africa project that the GDSA has recently launched. Ruud also addresses the concerns of climate change and ecosystem conservation, as well as where the African countries sit in terms of involvemen...

This week Marcus speaks with Simon Anholt, a leading public diplomacy specialist who has a new book just out, called The Good Country Equation, which contains many anecdotes from his experience advising governments all across the globe, plus a series of recommendations for ‘’repairing the world in one generation’’. Simon gives his honest insights about globalisation, multilateralism, and political...

This week Marucs speaks with Kola Masha, Managing Director of Babban Gona, one of Africa’s leading social entrepreneurs and lead coordinator of the GiveFood.ng initiative. Kola gives his views on the importance of collaboration for managing the COVID19 crisis and how GiveFood.ng is supporting the most vulnerable. LISTEN HERE Givefood.ng is an emergency food relief platform that leverages technolog...

Marcus talks with Jonathan Pell, CEO of Adam Smith International, about the recent announcement that the UK Government will merge its Dept for International Development and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. What are the implications for the UK’s partnerships with African nations? How has the international system responded to the Pandemic and did Britain engage? “There are lots of question marks a...

Marcus talks with Gyude Moore, Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Global Development and a former Government Minister in the Liberian Government. Gyude shares some of the lessons he learned when managing the Ebola outbreak and draws parallels with the current Covid-19 pandemic. Marcus and Gyude discuss the #BlackLivesMatter movement and African Government's response to the discrimination of Af...