Industrial parks promise women formal jobs, and Ethiopia’s flagship park is staffed overwhelmingly by young rural migrants, yet the wages testing that promise sit near the poverty line.
Section
Profiles
The 10,000: Africa’s private Chinese firms outnumber the state giants
The image of Chinese investment in Africa is a state colossus building dams. The data says otherwise: most of the roughly 10,000 Chinese firms on the continent are small and privately owned.
Green Envoys: A Skills Programme Long on Mission, Short on Headcount
The China-Africa Green Envoys Program promises green skills and a homegrown workforce. Six years on, the published record still carries the mission – but not the number of Africans actually trained.
The Stewards: Who Governs GIPF’s N$800 Million Return to Home Ground
After offshore money that vanished, the question at GIPF is less where it invests than who now decides.
The Makers of Wrong Generation: Who Carried an Independent Film to Screen
A director, an author-producer and two producers turned a book and a protest into a cinema release.
Talent Development: How Luban Workshops Became a Policy Pillar, Not a Footnote
Vocational schools and training pledges have moved from the margins of China-Africa policy to a named pillar – with real numbers attached and real questions about who they serve.
The Operator’s Pivot: Tim Ekandjo and MTC’s Move Beyond Telecoms
Policy sets direction; operators execute it. MTC’s turn toward enterprise technology has faces, and one speaks for it.
The Principal Behind the Fund: Hauuanga and the Women-Led SME Bet
A grant that names women- and youth-led firms as a priority is delivered by a board a woman currently leads.
From Report to Bench: The Operators Namibia’s AfCFTA Assessment Leans On
An assessment convenes ambition. Processors, manufacturers and planners are the people who have to turn it into shipped, higher-value goods.