Q-MHI Africa Weekly Brief ;

Hi Q-MHI Africa readers!

A YOUTHFUL GAMBLE

It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s “get-rich-quicker” through systematic, effort and the compounding of effort through groups of people.

That’s from the slick marketing of TwinKas, a very popular online “investment” plan in Nigeria. Like MMM before it, this is essentially a ponzi scheme which promises unbelievable rates of return via a system which relies on regularly recruiting hundreds of new “investors” to keep it running. Despite the stories of such programs eventually collapsing, and thousands of Nigerians losing money, there’s never a shortage of other people willing to enroll when new schemes pop up.

Meanwhile in Kenya, which is well-known as a mobile-first nation in financial technology, it turns out one of the first reasons some Kenyans buy smartphones is so they can use their phones for online betting, according to a new study backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kenyans said they used winnings to furnish their homes or buy new electronics but, unsurprisingly, also admitted they lost more than they won.

Gambling is also big in Uganda. The bets are mainly on soccer at local betting shops which have been popping up in big cities there since rules were relaxed. But now, some local governments are getting worried that so many young people are hooked.

Like many sub-Saharan African countries, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda have many unemployed people and, crucially, a lot of those unemployed people are young and digitally-savvy.

Nearly 50% of Nigeria’s youth labor force was unemployed or underemployed in the third quarter, according to the nation’s statistics bureau. In Kenya, youth unemployment is estimated to be around 35% (pdf). And Uganda, where some three-quarters of the population is under 30, around 22% of those aged 15-24 are unemployed

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With insufficient options for formal employment and banks which lend at extremely high rates, it’s not too surprising fun pastimes like gambling on soccer matches are engaged as serious economic activity by ordinary people.

There are many positive things about technology making the world a smaller place and a more level playing field. The problem here is that the technology and access make it easier for one side of the equation to exploit the other. For example, some of the different branded Nigerian investment plans are run out of the same address in the United Arab Emirates.

Awareness programs about the dangers of gambling and ponzi investing are to be encouraged but many young people will ignore them while they have few realistic economic options.

Yinka Adegoke, Q-MHI Africa editor

STORIES FROM THIS WEEK

Exploring the true glamour of Nollywood. Despite recent international critical success, Nigeria’s movie business is still perceived as an industry of poorly shot and badly edited movies. But a new coffee table book by New York artist Iké Udé hopes to change that image with dazzling portraits of the industry’s biggest stars.

Why Nigeria’s naira became the punchline to a bad joke. Alongside 15 other Nigerians, Feyi Fawehinmi recently wrote an open letter to the country’s central bank governor calling on him to resign. The reason: to stop the mismanagement of the Nigerian naira, whose myriad of valuations versus the dollar has contributed to hobbling the economy.

Political tension is mounting in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. To suppress political agitation, Cameroon’s Francophone-led government shut down the internet in two English-speaking regions in January. But since then protestors have been arrested, activists gone underground and journalists have had to leave the country, writes Amindeh Blaise Atabong.

Lagos keeps forcing thousands of slum dwellers from their homes. Lagos, Africa’s fifth largest economy, has long grappled with how to become a befitting 21st Century mega city. But, limited on land space, the government is demolishing undesirable water-based slums it sees as an opportunity for prime waterfront real estate deals, finds Yomi Kazeem.

Africans are leveraging technology to help millions at risk of famine. An unprecedented crisis is currently gripping Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen, threatening the lives of 20 million people. But not waiting on donors, young Africans equipped with smartphones and access to the internet, are collaborating to create homegrown tech solutions to reach and assist those in need.

Cape Town has just three months of water left. In early March, Cape Town was declared a disaster area after water supplies dwindled due to a drought. But despite restrictions and public shaming of water wasters, South Africa’s Mother City has 100 days of water left, reports Lynsey Chutel.

CHART OF THE WEEK

Somali pirates could be making a comeback. For the first time since 2012, Somali pirates hijacked and seized an oil tanker in mid-March off the northern coast of Somalia. But the overall decline in the anti-piracy industry, the return of illegal trawlers, and the reduction of naval patrols signal a return of the once-notorious piracy industry.

OTHER THINGS WE LIKED

The Portuguese denied citizenship in their own country. Recent changes in Portuguese nationality laws have made it one of Europe’s more generous countries for resident, tax-paying migrants. But as Ana Naomi de Sousa reports for Al Jazeera English, this is not the case for an unknown number of black, Afro-descendent men and women, who were born in Portugal but are considered “foreigners” because of their parents’ legal status.

The Zambian “Afronaut” who wanted to join the space race. Edward Mukuka Nkoloso was a Zambian secondary school teacher of Latin, science and math. But at the height of the Cold War, he launched the Zambian Space Program with a dozen aspiring teenage astronauts, and promised to beat the United States and Russia to the moon. As novelist Namwali Serpell asks in The New Yorker, was Nkoloso unfairly mocked?

A Day in the life of a female taxi driver in the DR Congo. Every day, Maguy Washilamaputs on a man’s suit and goes to work as a taxi driver in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But as Bustle documents, not everything is easy for women in the labor market.

Fighting the corruption and violence preying on South Africa’s immigrants. Refugees and immigrants in South Africa have suffered corruption and worse at the hands of police and immigration officers. But one immigrant who was shot by police, is now suing South African authorities to put an end to all this suffering, reports Joe Brock for Reuters.

KEEP AN EYE ON

Economic data Monday (Mar. 27). Kenya will release key economic data on Monday (Mar. 27) including GDP data and inflation data. The Central Bank of Kenya will also hold a monetary policy meeting. Bank of Ghana will announce its policy rate decision while Botswana and Mauritius will release GDP data. Zambia will also update on inflation data.

South Africa employment data (Mar. 28). South Africa will release employment data on Tuesday (Mar. 28). Much of the debate and handwringing about issues like xenophobic attacks and welfare grant scandals have been taken place with 26% unemployment as the backdrop.

Q-MHI