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30 Under 30 Tomorrow’s Titans: Heart And Hustle

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in cold plunges. Here are the benefits and latest research on their effectiveness.



By Peter Engelbrecht



You begin the descent.



As your feet and legs go into a rapid shiver, all you can think about is the wave of freezing cold climbing up your stomach.



Finally you are up to your neck in ice. We are of course talking about cold plunges or Ice Baths.



Ice baths have been used for decades by athletes, particularly those involved in endurance sports, as a way to promote recovery and reduce muscle soreness after intense exercise. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in ice baths, not just among elite athletes, but among fitness enthusiasts and the general population as well. Let’s explore the benefits of ice baths and look at the latest research on their effectiveness.



What are Ice baths?



Ice baths, also known as cold water immersion, involve submerging the body in cold water for a set amount of time. The water temperature is typically around 50°F (10°C) or lower, and the duration of the bath can range from a few minutes to 20 minutes or more. Some people also add ice to the water to make it even colder.



Reduces Inflammation



One of the main benefits of ice baths is their ability to reduce inflammation. During intense exercise, the body produces a lot of waste products, including lactic acid, which can build up in the muscles and cause soreness. Cold water immersion helps to constrict blood vessels and reduce blood flow to the affected area, which can help to reduce inflammation and promote healing.



Speeds Up Recovery



Ice baths can also help to speed up recovery after exercise. When you immerse your body in cold water, your blood vessels constrict, which helps to flush out metabolic waste products and reduce inflammation. This, in turn, helps to promote healing and reduce muscle soreness, allowing you to recover more quickly from your workouts.



Enhances Immune Function



Research has also shown that cold water immersion can enhance the immune function. Exposure to cold water can stimulate the production of white blood cells, which are responsible for fighting off infections and diseases. This means that regular ice baths could help to boost your immune system and make you less susceptible to illness.



Improves Mood



In addition to its physical benefits, cold water immersion can also have a positive effect on your mood. When you immerse your body in cold water, your body releases endorphins, which are natural mood enhancers. This can help to reduce stress and improve your overall sense of wellbeing.



Latest Research



While the benefits of ice baths have been known for some time, there is still ongoing research into their effectiveness. Some of the latest research has been done by Andrew D. Huberman, an American neuroscientist and tenured associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, who has made contributions to the fields of brain development, brain plasticity, neural regeneration and repair.



During an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan, Huberman recalls a study done by the European Journal of Physiology which was the first study of its kind that probed the effects of cold plunges and the neurochemical impacts on the brain. Huberman states: “When you go into the cold for one to two minutes and it is shockingly cold where you have to catch your breath and stabilize your mind, that invokes a dopamine, epinephrine and nor-epinephrine release.”



These three neurotransmitters collectively are referred to as catecholamines. There is a huge spike and dopamine levels that are present in the brain after cold exposure remain for up to four hours later.



Ice Baths vs. Active Recovery



A recent study compared the effects of ice baths to those of active recovery (light exercise) on muscle soreness and recovery in elite athletes. The study found that while both ice baths and active recovery were effective at reducing muscle soreness, active recovery was more effective at promoting recovery and reducing inflammation.



Frequency of Ice Baths



Another study looked at the frequency of ice baths and its effect on recovery in athletes. The study found that while daily ice baths did help to reduce muscle soreness and improve recovery, there was no significant difference between daily ice baths and ice baths taken every other day.



Timing of Ice Baths



Timing may also be an important factor when it comes to the effectiveness of ice baths. A study published in the Journal of Physiology found that taking an ice bath immediately after exercise was less effective at reducing inflammation and promoting recovery than waiting a few hours to take an ice bath.



Duration of Ice Baths



Finally, the duration of the ice bath may also play a role in its effectiveness. A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine &amp; Science in Sports found that longer and warmer ice baths (20 minutes) were more effective at reducing muscle soreness and promoting recovery than shorter and colder ice baths (two minutes).

Woman enjoying cold baths in a ice hole, Lapland

Cool Fad: Why Ice Baths Are Getting Popular

Very rarely do we receive 30 Under 30 nominations from Lesotho, and even more rarely, finalists from the small landlocked southern African country.



Monaheng is passionate about the energy space and doles out numbers easily.



According to an African Development Bank report, “over 640 million Africans have no access to energy, corresponding to an electricity access rate for African countries at just over 40%, the lowest in the world”.



In West Africa and Central Africa, the situation is dire as only three countries are on track to give every one of their people access to electricity by 2030, reports the World Bank.



“At this slow pace, 263 million people in the region will be left without electricity in ten years,” the report highlights.



Monaheng is trying to ensure that people know about these staggering numbers through Khantša Energy, which tackles the issues of energy access in Lesotho.



He also wants to do so for Africa.



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“I found it very interesting to say ‘how can we use adaptation from a subordinate level to combat some of these issues’ and these are also colonial powers. Because fundamentally what we are speaking about is how do we view Africa and as Africans how can we make a difference in this sector.”



The Lesotho-based Khantša Energy provides mobile solar power to rural communities in Lesotho and has been operating in the districts of Roma, Thaba-Tseka, Qacha and Mokhotlong since 2018.



“Our work was born out of connecting with the villagers and hearing about their everyday stories regarding their dire need for electrification,” Monaheng says.



Khantša spent its initial investment of about $8,000 on two years of research and development, learning about the communities in his country whilst also traveling the world to find appropriate solutions that were affordable and accessible in the “pursuit of equality, dignity, and equal opportunity to achieve a better life for all Basotho”.



“We imagined what the realties on the ground look like, having to structure entire days and orientate activities on the availability of light&#8230; Khantša which means ‘light up’ was a very symbolic name, as we looked to tackle the issue of energy access in Lesotho.”

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#FORBESAFRICA30Under30: Meet COVER STAR Koaile Monaheng: ‘How Do We View Africa and as Africans How Can We Make a Difference in This Sector’

That South Africa has just a single player featuring in Europe’s top five leagues is a telling indictment of the country’s football, which has seemingly been left behind by the rest of the world.



By Nick Said



England, Germany and France had seen a steady stream of South Africans since readmission to international football in 1992, Spain and Italy perhaps less so, but now that flow has dried up to almost nothing. 



Strasbourg forward Lebo Mothiba is the only player in any of Europe’s elite leagues, cutting a lone path for Bafana Bafana at a level all players should aspire to. And he is hardly setting the world alight, with a single start in his team’s first 23 Ligue 1 games this season. Bafana Bafana forward Lyle Foster should win promotion to the Premier League with Burnley at the end of this season, which will at least take that number to two… if Mothiba is retained.



The question, therefore, is why this should be. There are multiple issues at play and perhaps the biggest being the fact that the domestic Premier Soccer League (PSL) now pays on a par with many European leagues, while the reported low standard of the national team means foreign scouts are not looking towards South Africa and there is a lack of desire from players at home to put in the hard yards.



While moves directly from South Africa to English, French and German clubs have been relatively common in the past, they are now a rarity with players needing to prove themselves in ‘lesser leagues’ in Belgium, Netherlands or Sweden first. And with no real cash incentive to do so, there is a reluctance to take the risk when the comforts of home are as well paid.



“In the years leading up to 1996, our domestic league was basically semi-professional. Guys had jobs in the day and then went to training in the evening,” former Bafana Bafana coach Eric Tinkler tells FORBES AFRICA.



“If you wanted to make it as a professional, the only chance you had was to go abroad, and that meant you had to work unbelievably hard.



“That hunger, that desire to go overseas… it is now not the same as it was for our generation. I see it. For many players it is just about the money. And they are well paid in the PSL, so where is their motivation to really push themselves to the next level in their careers?” the current Cape Town City coach says.



“Money comes before performance these days. For us, it was the other way around. We really needed to perform to start earning anything decent from the game and to start making a living from it. That drove a lot of us.”



Tinkler played in Italy, England and Portugal, and understands fully well how competing at that much higher level inevitably improves players, which in turn is beneficial for the national team.



Among the side that played in the victorious 1996 Africa Cup of Nations final, all but one either was playing abroad at the time or would go on to do so. Captain Neil Tovey was the odd man out, likely only because readmission to international football came very late in his career and the ship had sailed. 



But he recognizes that the strength of that team was their leadership and football intelligence built by expanding their boundaries and playing abroad.



“When that [1996] side needed to dig deep, we were very intense in our thought and our process,” he says. “Since then, there have been some very good (Bafana) teams with some very good players. But I think, mentally, we were all like captains on the field.



“We all knew our responsibilities and we didn’t have to look to the (coach on the) bench. When things went a little awry on the pitch, we could take care of it and identify problems a lot quicker than teams can now.”



The rise of West Africa as a key source of players from the continent has also hampered South Africans’ chances.



While it is generally accepted that South Africa players are more technically proficient, they largely lack the physical stature of players from Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast… and that real burning desire to test themselves in Europe. For players from those countries, it is everything to them.



For South Africans, it seems more of a ‘nice to have’. All the while the national team suffers as those countries rise.



“We are definitely not where we should be… or could be,” Tinkler adds. “We do OK until about the age of 13, we can compete on a global level until then. But where other countries start to ramp it up from there, we have not managed to do so. “In fact, we start to go backwards and the growth of many players becomes stunted. I wish I could give you a good reason why, but there are probably multiple factors on and off the pitch.”

AS Saint-Etienne v ESTAC Troyes – Ligue 1 Uber Eats

South African Football: What Has Changed For Players

These coins are designed to protect stablecoin holders from inflation. But they are complicated and it’s not clear whether they will actually work.



Stablecoins are digital tokens created to mirror the value of hard currencies like the U.S. dollar. They are critical for liquidity in the $1.2 trillion crypto market because investors need a steady, predictable place to park cash, in part because bitcoin, which will swing as much as 10% in a single day, has largely failed as a store of value. There are $120 billion in stablecoins outstanding. Unfortunately, their history is anything but stable.



In May 2022, TerraUSD, a stablecoin dreamed up by a Stanford-educated South Korean programmer named Do Kwon, famously collapsed because its value was based on an algorithm that proved to be unreliable in the face of an asset run. More than $45 billion in market value evaporated in a single day setting off a crypto market plunge. After being on the lam for nearly a year, Do Kwon was recently arrested in Montenegro. Then, there is the world’s largest stablecoin issuer Tether, which has $80 billion outstanding, but has long avoided even the most basic disclosures (like where it is located) and has been in trouble with regulators numerous times. On several occasions Tether’s U.S. dollar coin (USDC) has “broken the buck” and dipped below $1.00 in value.



Even the most regulatory compliant and transparent stablecoin, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), which has $30 billion outstanding, has disappointed investors. When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10, USDC’s Boston-based issuer Circle admitted to having $3.3 billion on deposit at the bank, mostly uninsured. The price of USDC lost its peg, nosediving to $0.88 cents on March 11.



But stablecoins are still essential for serious players in the digital asset world, and hope springs eternal in crypto, so a new product has hit the market called promising an inflation-adjusted version of stablecoins. Dubbed “flatcoins” these new tokens are designed to to maintain purchasing power parity with a basket of goods by keeping up with inflation.



So far only about $100 million in flatcoins have been minted but with inflation stubbornly stuck at 4.6%, demand for these novel tokens is growing. Already Coinbase is actively looking to seed flatcoins on its new Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Base.



“We are fascinated by the deep thought we’re seeing in decentralized stablecoin design and are particularly interested in ‘flatcoins’ – stablecoins that track the rate of inflation, enabling users to have stability in purchasing power while also having resiliency from the economic uncertainty caused by the legacy financial system,” wrote Coinbase in a recent post.



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Flatcoins are the brainchild of former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan and an Iranian born programer Sam Kazemian, who came up with a stablecoin protocol named Frax in 2021, and an inflation tracking index called Frax Price Index (FPI).



“The term flatcoin was basically meant to signify by me and Balaji that it stays flat to a standard of living, &#8221; says Kazemian who notes that his new flatcoin would be partially backed by collateral like USDC, and partially “stabilized” algorithmically.



Here are the basics mechanics of the new inflation-protected stablecoins. The first thing the Frax programmers set out to do is identify a targeted standard of living to track. Kazemian built a feed with a blockchain data provider called Chainlink to publish each month’s CPI from the Federal Reserve’s Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) onto the Ethereum blockchain. With the current 12-month trailing inflation rate at 5%, Frax has a set of smart contracts programmed to automatically conduct algorithmic trading with a goal of profiting enough to match the monthly inflation print sent from Chainlink.



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In theory, this would mean that if a single tether or USDC is still worth $1.00, in a 5% inflation world an FPI would be redeemable for $1.05 of collateral. In order to earn the necessary amounts to cover the inflation premium, Kazemian’s team invests collateral in DeFi lending protocols such as Aave and Convex, which primarily focus on stablecoin markets. These DeFi protocols earn yield for letting borrowers access their tokens. These returns then become available for FPI minters to withdraw. However, FPI is run by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which could make changes to its risk parameters in the future.



If this sounds complicated and risky, it is, especially relative to simply owning a stablecoin like USDC and simultaneously hedging with something like a gold ETF or even Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), where the U.S. government effectively covers the inflation risk.



Even more complicated is another flatcoin called Nuon. Rather than simply matching the BLS’ inflation reading, it joined up with a sister company called Trustflation to produce real-time inflation data based on a proprietary methodology. For instance, while the BLS inflation has eight main categories: food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and other goods and services, Trustflation has 12. Additions include clothing/footwear and alcohol/tobacco. The company also weights categories differently than the BLS and pulls in data real-time through service agreements with various providers instead of just relying on monthly updates.



“When we studied inflation we realized that it was calculated by 477 people on a monthly basis in a nebulous fashion,” says Trustflation and Nuon CEO Stefan Rust. “We decided to use a developer approach, take the same metrics, pull it from API&#8217;s, and have it updated in real time.”



While no one would argue that the collection and indexing of official inflation data doesn’t have numerous flaws, including an antiquated monthly production schedule, Trustflation’s Moneyball-esque approach to calculating real time inflation data does not come without drawbacks.



“When inflation is between 1.5%, and 2.5% per annum, it&#8217;s probably a bit of overkill, but when topline inflation is 8% to 9% those numbers may be meaningful on a day-to-day basis,” says Peter C. Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research. “I think it&#8217;s interesting to capture daily or intraday inflation data, but I also think there&#8217;s a lot of statistical noise.”



That noise could become deafening if the data feeds which determine prices and return targets , known in the crypto world as oracles, become corrupted. Crypto forensics firms report that so called oracle manipulation attacks cost investors $362 million last year. It is not impossible to foresee a scenario where an oracle gets manipulated to force one of these platforms to employ a riskier trading strategy than anticipated.



But data collection is not the only worry flatcoin buyers need to worry about. Behind Nuon’s inflation-protection guarantee is a complicated and potentially risky proposition. When an individual “mints” Nuon, he must deposit ether in its protocol, which then automatically buys the same amount of Nuon on the open market and deposits it in a DeFi protocol such as Uniswap or Pancakeswap. Income generated from this deposit, known as “yield farming,” is added to a user’s collateral position (which is the original ether) essentially as an “insurance.” Thus unlike FPI, nuon positions are overcollateralized &#8211; for instance a user must deposit $1.30 worth of ether to mint $1 of nuon.



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So far both FPI and nuon are having trouble tracking inflation (see charts). According to CoinGecko, FPI is currently priced at $1.08, but in its almost 12 months in existence it has traded as high as $1.18 and as low as $0.92, which would imply that in the last 12 months, inflation has spiked as high as 18% and below 1%. Nuon has dramatically outperformed inflation in its short existence; it only launched in March. Right now it is priced at $1.24, but it has been as high as $1.44.



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Ifflatcoins are meant to be the next evolution of digital “safe money&#8221;, stablecoin’s biggest player’s have yet to sign on. Circle, which issues USDC, has no plans to issue a flatcoin. Circle already has more than $25 billion in short Treasury bills backing its USDC tokens, but it is precluded from buying TIPS, because they are not issued in durations shorter than five years. Tether did not respond to requests for comment.



Flatcoins are so new they do not yet appear in any of the current stablecoin regulation bills circulating around Capitol Hill. The bi-partisan draft introduced in April proposed a ban on new algorithmically derived stablecoins such as TerraUSD/LUNA, where the stablecoin was backed by a sister token. Flatcoins use computer algorithms to derive their valuations, however, in their current incarnation do not fit neatly into the bill’s specific description. Still, any new stablecoins would have to be issued by a licensed entity at the state or federal level, so these products would need a bank backer if they expect to ever go mainstream.



Rust says that there are no restrictions on users in the U.S. from minting Nuon right now. “I guess, they are in a bit of a gray zone [with regards to how flatcoins fall under securities regulation]&#8230;At the moment, all the indications are that stablecoins pegged to the dollar or euro will fall under some regulation.”



Forbes called various legislators and regulators involved with the recently proposed stablecoin legislation to ask about flatcoins but most hadn’t even heard of them yet. Said Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), a noted crypto critic, “We already have something like that. They’re called TIPS.”



By Steven Ehrlich, Forbes Staff

Mid-section of young Asian woman using smartphone in city at night, against illuminated street lights bokeh, working with Bitcoin technologies, investing or trading Bitcoin on cryptocurrency. Business on the go

Beware Of Flatcoins, Crypto’s Inflation Busting Fad

Kenya is among several African countries that have experienced a decline in the local value of currencies.



By Terryanne Chebet



Kenya has had a tough few months: ballooning debt, an enormous wage bill, and a depreciating shilling exacerbated by global conditions. Now, the government is unable to pay its salaries. An increased import bill, investment portfolio outflows, and servicing of existing foreign debt have also resulted in the reserves falling below the statutory minimum of four months of imports, with the Kenya shilling depreciating to an all-time low of KES130 to the US dollar.



So, how did Kenya get here?&nbsp;



“It was a matter of &#8216;when&#8217; and not &#8216;if&#8217; KES would weaken to reflect its fundamentals. There have been successive external shocks since 2020, but the currency remained relatively stable relative to its peers. In this light, it is not surprising the sharp adjustment we have seen this year and which we see bringing it closer to its fundamental value,” explains Churchill Ogutu, an economist with IC Africa.&nbsp;



Kenya is among several African countries that have experienced a decline in the local value of currencies, with a 25% decline in value since 2020, to a large extent caused by the rising interest rate environment in the United States (US), which has witnessed a very aggressive rate tightening by the US Federal Reserve.&nbsp;



&nbsp;Kenya’s borrowing for the financial year 2022-2023 is also substantially behind target.



“Given the continued uncertainty in the global financial markets, it appears that [the government] will have no choice but to borrow at higher rates from the domestic markets,” adds Sunil Sanger, CEO of Orion Advisory.&nbsp;



Kenya is also looking to offload its parastatals to reduce pressure on funding and to raise capital.



Despite fears that Kenya could default on its external loans, experts say it is unlikely.&nbsp;



Ogutu notes that Kenya’s position may be fragile, but a default seems remote. “With FX reserves at multi-year low levels, it is higher than upcoming short-term external debt servicing costs. Thus, I see a muddling through regarding external debt servicing costs.”



He adds that a default on&nbsp;domestic borrowing seems to be more likely due to its outsized domestic debt servicing costs compared to external debt servicing costs.&nbsp;



The outflow of portfolio investments in equity and bond markets and higher import prices for commodities, particularly petroleum products has seen Kenya’s government importing petroleum products on a deferred payment basis. The government is pursuing the government-to-government oil importation deal with Gulf countries to alleviate pressure on the&nbsp;shilling.&nbsp;



The reduction in oil demand will also help to reduce the depreciation of the shilling though analysts argue that Kenya could have used the opportunity to build reserves and maybe even consider using those to start buying back its 2023 eurobond maturity, an action that could help to calm down the market nerves.



Ogutu argues that is short-term thinking. “At some point in time, the supply and demand in the FX market will still reflect the mandated OMC coming to the market sourcing dollars. Kenya may get a bit of reprieve in the short-term but ultimately, the supply-demand dynamics will come to play.”



Both analysts agree that the revival of the interbank market in the last few weeks is a positive sign and has helped to reduce some of the uncertainty in the exchange rate. However, given the economic environment both locally and internationally, it is difficult to see circumstances under which the Kenya shilling would appreciate from current levels. &nbsp;



However, Ogutu holds that the shilling isn’t out of the woods yet.



“I have the sense that the initial sugar rush in the FX interbank market has ebbed away, and the next FX guidance will be delivered with the imminent changes at the helm of CBK. That said, my base case is a continued further weakness with 140 on sight.”

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Kenya Currency Woes: How Did It Get There?

Words and Curation: Chanel Retief Art Director: Lucy Nkosi Additional Research &amp; Reporting: Lillian Roberts Photography: Katlego Mokubyane Photography Assistant: Sbusiso Sigidi Studio: NewKatz Studio, Johannesburg Videographer: Astro @astro.vsn Videographer: Thabo Mathebula Video Editor: Chanel Retief Styling: Bontlefeela Mogoye | Outfits supplied by: Wanda Wear; Markhams; Kworks_design; BailebyB Hair &amp; Makeup: SnehhOnline Beauty



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She has unmistakable style as she struts into the studio in Johannesburg for the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 cover shoot.



“What’s it like to trend every week on Twitter?” we ask.



Khethokuhle Ngonyama, popularly known as ‘Kay Yarms’, laughs: “You know, I mostly trend for my work. So, it is really affirming. I have never really been good at anything, or rather I have never considered myself good at anything, just good enough. But when people speak about it and speak about how good I am at it, I am actually emotional. It just makes me feel like ‘wow I never thought I would be good at anything’.”



Originally from the idyllic city of Durban in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, Ngonyama says she has always found herself in major cities; she has lived in Johannesburg and now is based in Mother City, Cape Town.



“I think moving around has allowed me to really get to know and connect with my audience as well as the country I reside in.”



Unlike a number of brands and businesses where the need for capital is essential for launch, Ngonyama says she did not have that problem as her business was providing a service.



“I started out as a makeup artist providing services for everyone and sharing tutorials, tips and tricks on my online platform,” she adds. “I found that I reached a wider audience and so I eventually stopped doing private makeup and moved into teaching to do makeup in the form of tutorials, both online and offline.”



And although power on social media means social capital these days, there is also the dark side to it.



“The biggest challenge is probably having to grow a thick skin; sometimes, social media isn’t pleasant and sometimes the negativity can affect you. Also becoming a public figure – I&#8217;ve always been pretty reserved and introverted and coming out of my shell has been a bit challenging for me.”



But she is convinced her popularity and growth will keep going upwards.



“I think we are just growing, especially in Africa,” Ngonyama says. “I didn’t know about [other influencers] in other African countries but the power of social media has allowed me to feel more connected to them and to know them.”

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#FORBESAFRICA30Under30: Meet COVER STAR Khethokuhle Ngonyama- ‘I’ve always been pretty reserved and introverted and coming out of my shell has been a bit challenging for me’

By Godfrey Mutizwa



The World Bank says the climate change fight demands a focus on long-neglected structural challenges that are worsening the impact of natural disasters in Africa and other developing countries.



“Some of those structural challenges span from years of environmental degradation,’’ Anna Bjerde, the bank’s Managing Director for Operations told CNBC Africa last week after seeing villages devastated by Cyclone Freddy in Malawi in February and March.



The World Meteorological Organization says the cyclone may have been the longest in history. Over five weeks, it destroyed roads and other vital infrastructure in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. Officials estimate about two million people were displaced while more than a thousand died.



According to the United Nations, changing rainfall patterns and more extreme weather threaten Africans’ food, water and socio economic development and more needs to be done to help the continent cope better.



Bjerde, back in the region for the first time since taking up the operations role last month, says she was enthused by the energy of the Malawian people and the government’s response in helping rebuild communities.



“I saw an incredibly resilient population where a lot of people want to make a change, and a lot of innovation around sustainable solutions like renewable energy, like more climate-smart solutions in agriculture and solutions for the most vulnerable and poor to have access to clean water,” she said.



But countries like Malawi will need more help from the World Bank and other development institutions to help build climate resistant economies by improving their infrastructure, Bjerde said.



The bank has a twin approach to this, she said, outlining short-term measures such as providing extra resources to governments, and identifying long-term priority projects to build inclusive economies.



“The broader development community’s role is to continue to support with technical solutions, with financing, with building capacity and perhaps most importantly making sure that these solutions are really inclusive.’’



Developing countries also need to involve their private sectors, she said, addressing challenges such as access to markets and finance, providing basic infrastructure and rebuilding value chains as part of an overall effort to improve business environments, especially given rising public debt levels.



“I am very worried by the increased level of debt that we are seeing and actually… we are seeing right now that about of 60 percent of low income countries in the world either at risk of debt distress or already at debt distress levels,” she added.



The bank was playing its part in its new operating model which was discussed at this year’s Spring meetings in Washington DC. The model among other things seeks to boost the bank’s capital and address borderless global challenges at the country level.

Hurricane Along Coastline

Natural Disasters In Africa: World Bank Says Climate Change Fight Must Address Structural Deficits

Where does the continent fit into the chatbot conversation, and why it needs its own startups that focus on AI.



By Tiana Cline



The ability to be able to have a conversation with someone else is a fundamental part of what it means to be a human being but today, it’s becoming more and more confusing to figure out whether you’re talking to a bot… or not.



Technology has advanced to the point where AI-powered conversational chatbots, like ChatGPT or Meta’s BlenderBot 3, are deceptively realistic. (More so when they go off the rails and say things like ‘I want to be alive’, which is exactly what Bing’s AI bot expressed earlier this year.) While chatbots like these are trained to avoid expressing personal or biased views, and are known to make factual mistakes and mix up information, they’re becoming smarter, more streamlined and sometimes, a little strange…



“Conversational AI is one of the first applications of NLP in artificial intelligence and this kind of technology has existed since Eliza in the sixties,” explains Professor Mpho Raborife, the deputy director at the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.



Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a way for computers to understand human language. NLP uses AI tools like machine learning and neural networks to process and interpret large amounts of data.



“With the rise of big data, ChatGPT was inevitable. It’s trained on a very large dataset and the technologies behind it make it a lot more advanced than other conversational AI applications.”



One of the reasons for this, explains Raborife, is that ChatGPT uses reinforcement learning alongside sophisticated algorithms that manipulate its dataset. “It’s so sophisticated that people don’t realize that it really possesses no intelligence whatsoever,”



she adds, “it really doesn’t understand the meaning behind anything, it just know how the words are supposed to work but not what they mean.”



OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a research experiment gone wild that has shown the incredible potential of conversational AI yet Africa is still being left behind. Consider smartphone voice assistants like Siri or Alexa – both examples of conversational AI used regularly; they work with English but struggle to understand local accents. They don’t support African languages.



“We know that the Global North is not going to include our languages. Therefore, we need to find a way to make sure that we create an environment that the startups that come from Africa which do incorporate our languages have the same kind of impact,” Raborife adds. Duolingo, for example, is a popular language learning mobile app that uses an AI system called Birdbrain to personalize its content. Duolingo has 43 different languages (including made-up dialects such as Klingon, High Valyrian and Esperanto) but only isiZulu and Swahili are available when it comes to African language learning courses.



“When we talk about AI, our languages are not supported or even represented by these technologies,” says Raborife. “But conversational AI has the potential to bridge the language divide as it can be used in a variety of ways because it surpasses literacy levels. If people cannot read or write, they can use their voice to access services and this is something that is important to Africa.



This is why we need our own startups that focus on AI.”



Recently launched, Lelapa AI is an African AI research and product house looking to make a real difference within the continent with a special interest in agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, microfinance and language. 



“There are so many problems on the continent that AI-type technologies can help with so there’s a responsibility for us to use our skills to help create better lives for everyday Africans,” says Pelonomi Moiloa, Lelapa AI’s co-founder and CEO.



“What we intend to do is use technology in a very smart, resource-efficient way because there are challenges on the continent like rolling blackouts, water shortages and network issues…” Lelapa AI have already debuted an app called VulaVula which offers NLP-as-a-service for under-represented languages.



Moiloa describes VulaVula as an underlying technology that supports other technologies. A banking chatbot, for example, could use VulaVula’s AI language capabilities to help customers interact in their own languages.



“The idea is that if an organization has a place for us to plug our models into and we can collaborate agreements around how that work can be done, then – ideally – if we have the resources and capacity we will help businesses do what they need.”



For Moiloa, creating African data sets to work from may be challenging but it’s also something she sees as a competitive advantage for Lelapa AI. “We’re having to think around clever ways of dealing with Africa’s data scarcity problem. We have to create models that are able to cope with less amounts of data, but models that can get really good at curating and gathering data,” she says.



And the fact that ChatGPT doesn’t necessarily draw its information from African data sets (it was apparently trained using real human conversations) means startups like Lelapa AI have the opportunity to develop responsible methods of dealing with problems that are relevant to the continent.



“I don’t think we should be trying to develop our own ChatGPT but maybe we can develop other textual tools that can help solve the problems that ChatGPT is meant to – but at the moment, it seems to be creating more problems,” she ends.

Asian woman using smartphone surrounded by beams of light. Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence

Talking A-‘bot Africa: The Potential For Conversational AI

Tanzania’s beer-guzzlers have a locally-brewed option as this entrepreneur attempts to change the country’s drinking culture with a social enterprise.



By Inaara Gangji



&#8220;Tanzania has a rich beer history. Each tribe has its own beer. They were producing beer [even] before the Germans,” Swiss native and Tanzania-resident Raphael Flury says, in an interview with FORBES AFRICA.



That was perhaps the impetus for running his own outfit – a first-of-its-kind craft brewery and brewpub located in Arusha, Tanzania 



When Flury acquired Twiga Brewery and its talented team in 2015, he wanted to offer more options to the Tanzanian market as an alternative to wine and mainstream beers. He got on board Tanzanian native Damian Mosoka as the head brewer, and more locals from the community to create locally-crafted beer.



“It was a desire for better beer but also to combine job creation and social impact. We did the research and thought this would be an interesting way to enter the beverage industry. We wanted to learn on the job about how this industry works,” says Flury.


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<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/tanzania-beer.png" alt="" class="wp-image-58088" width="407" height="309" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/tanzania-beer.png 407w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/tanzania-beer-300x228.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo Supplied</figcaption></figure></div>


The brewery is his second sustainable venture; the first being an organic food company. It was a natural instinct to work with local staff and build capacity before expanding.



In line with its mission, Twiga focuses on premium beers and offering customers an experience – 80% of his client-base is Tanzanian.



“We do small quantities, which is typical for a craft brewery. All our ingredients are of the highest quality, and we give it plenty of time to develop flavors. We aim to offer the customer a fresh tasting beer,” adds Saphira von Moos, Flury’s COO.



Served on draft and bottled, the beer aims to be all-natural, unlike industrial beer produced on a large scale.



“People deserve a premium product, brewed the German way. It is unfiltered with no additives,” echoes Mosoka. However, their challenge is to convince the beer-favoring Tanzanian consumer that locally brewed beer is good, especially since it’s not standard in the market.



“We have an innovative product and a lot of customer interaction as well. You can touch the brewery [the machines and processes] which is an innovative concept in Tanzania.



“Not a lot of people know what a brewery is… but we are constantly trying to change the beer culture, and that Tanzanian SMEs can make quality products just as [well] as international brands,” says Flury.



Another challenge is to convince customers that beers are best enjoyed cold, which is how it is served fresh from the draft. “It’s fun to do all this work and take the customer with you on this journey…” avers von Moos, who also has a mandate to encourage women to join in key production jobs at the brewery.



At the end of the day, Flury wants to be a role model and show other companies that it is possible to create and sustain equitable businesses in Tanzania. 



“As a social enterprise, we mirror our values in the company too. It’s a marathon, it’s not easy, but we want to be sustainable and a hub for young Tanzanian talent,” he says.

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Tapping Into The Market: What’s Brewing In Tanzania

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FORBES AFRICA 30 UNDER 30 CLASS of 2023: TOMORROW’S TITANS

This is a business that started with two things.



“$150 and resilience!”



“I call myself the jack of all trades and muscle [to mean strength] of everything,” Oluwabusayo Victoria Abiri says to FORBES AFRICA. “My business is all about making sure that all black women feel comfortable in their own skin.”



Abiri’s energy came through in her bright dress at the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 photo shoot in Johannesburg.



“I started Koko By Khloe Beauty as a response to limited quality skincare products in Africa. Unfortunately, there [are too many] hazardous skincare products in the African market. I wanted to go against the status quo and launch a cosmetics line that embraces different skin types and shades, providing them with well-trusted and patented products that nourish and promote healthy glowing skin.”



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However, starting a business in the beauty industry as a woman from Nigeria did not come without its challenges.



“Being an entrepreneur in Nigeria in general is hard,” Abiri explains. “Already, there are a lot of stigmas about doing business with Nigerians, and there is a lot of competition that comes with it.”



Through her business, Abiri has been able to amass over 1.5 million followers on Instagram and over 200,000 daily Snapchat viewers. With that viewership, she has been able to mobilize conversations with her audience around the age-old standards of beauty across Africa and how they are changing.



“The beauty industry is highly competitive, and local brands face a significant challenge competing with global giants,” says Bright Jaja. “However, I am impressed with Victoria’s success in breaking into the industry and making a significant impact in a short period. By leveraging her Instagram following, she has managed to create a community of people who appreciate and purchase her products.”

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#FORBESAFRICA30Under30 Class of 2023: Meet COVER STAR Oluwabusayo Victoria Abiri “Being an entrepreneur in Nigeria in general is hard.”

By Colin Iles



What do all great leaders have in common?



Number one on my list is they have all achieved mastery in using storytelling to influence at scale.



The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin is widely recognized as having contributed to the end of slavery in the United States. The novel humanized slaves, portraying them as complex characters with emotions, families, and dignity, rather than just as property.



It was a powerful story which polarized opinion and catalyzed support for the abolitionist movement that eventually saw the ending of slavery in 1865.



Powerful stuff, but we shouldn’t be surprised.



Because stories are what have driven human behaviors since the beginning of time. In fact, stories have shaped our history in every regard, whether that relates to religion, politics or the underlying fabric of different cultures around the world.



It should therefore be no surprise that effective storytelling is a powerful tool in business.



By telling stories that emotionally resonate, we can influence others to do incredible things.



And business is all about influence.



Influencing investors to stay the course.



Staff to be more productive and innovative.



Customers to become advocates.



And I’m not the only one who believes in storytelling’s power.



Steve Denning, a former executive of the World Bank, said: “When it comes to inspiring people to embrace a vision or a change in behavior, storytelling isn’t just better than the other tools, it’s the only thing that works.”



Steve Jobs was perhaps one of the greatest proponents of the power of storytelling in business. As he once said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”



One of the best examples of how he inspired people with fantasy, not fact, came when he successfully asked American businessman John Sculley to leave PepsiCo and join Apple.



“Do you want to sell fizzy water for the rest of your life or come and help me change the world?” Sculley later said that question landed like a punch in the gut.



If stories are such powerful business tools, why don’t more businesses use them?



Well, purposeful organizations do, and it is central to their success.



A purpose-driven company typically sets social or environmental goals as the primary purpose or mission.



For-profits, on the other hand, follow American economist Milton Friedman’s doctrine that an entity’s greatest responsibility is to satisfy its shareholders. Interestingly, researchers are consistently showing that purposeful organizations are typically outperforming their profit-driven peers.



For example, the book Firms of Endearment showcases how purpose-driven companies like TOMS, Unilever, Ikea and Amazon have, on average, outperformed the S&amp;P500 by 14 times over 15 years from 1998 to 2013.



And if you are looking for more anecdotal evidence, just write down your 10 favorite successful companies. I’d expect the majority to be purpose-led.



The most recent case study is, of course, OpenAI.



Their flagship product ChatGPT gained 100 million users within two months, making it the fastest growing consumer application in history.



But their purpose wasn’t to make a profit. Instead, they focused on “creating safe artificial intelligence that benefits all of humanity”.



Despite their best efforts they are now worth billions! Ok, so back to the why. Why are purposeful organizations such better storytellers and, therefore, influencers?



Well, for starters, for-profits have no inspiring stories to tell.



When your goal is to make money for the sake of making money, and your dream only extends to making more money, what role can you play in a story other than that of the villain?



On the other hand, purposedriven organizations offer ample storytelling opportunities because their purpose is the story, and their staff are the heroes who all want to be part of a movement that benefits society.



And that’s the type of environment that fosters trust, collaboration and innovation.



Purpose allows for storytelling. Storytelling lets you influence. Influence is key to success.



That’s why most of the leaders profiled in this edition have probably mastered using storytelling to influence at scale.



The writer curates thought leadership events that help executive teams transform their organizations; visit coliniles.com.

Entrepreneur Using Laptop At Home Office

Why Storytelling Is A Powerful Tool In Business

A Gambia River journey took this writer to the depths of a region rich with wildlife, culture and world heritage sites.



By Ramdas Iyer



Upstream from the Atlantic and not too far from the banks of the Gambia River, I was standing amidst a concentration of 11 circles of 200 megalith stones erected more than a thousand years ago, mostly for burial purposes. The Wassu Circle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Africa’s greatest anthropological and archaeological puzzles; the stones are all that remain of what must have undoubtedly been a great and sophisticated culture.



Sailing from the mouth of the Gambia River, I embarked on a journey of 300km to the interior from the Atlantic coast at Banjul, formerly Bathurst, the capital city, to observe a land defined by the river and ravaged by the Atlantic slave trade. One of the smaller countries of Africa, it is a strip of land 450km long and 25km to 50km wide on either side of the river. The Gambia River is a major river in West Africa, running 1,120km from north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean. It is only navigable for about half that length.



In Banjul, I was particularly impressed by the local museum, cramped but with memorabilia from the colonial era, including a passenger ticket from Bathurst to Liverpool on the MV Apapa. It also houses an impressive collection of masks, musical instruments and Yoruba artifacts. I got an opportunity to purchase some of the African art, mostly from Mali, Ghana and Nigeria at the Royal Albert market, a great place to observe and mingle with the local population.



A few hours sailing from Banjul brought me to St. James Island in the middle of the river. Under British presence since 1651, it became an important slave trading post in The Gambia. In 1976, St. James Island became famous due to Alex Haley’s bestseller book Roots and the story of a slave, called Kunta Kinte.



The island was renamed Kunta Kinteh Island and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I had taken a copy of the book with me and identifying the areas in the book with an actual visit was quite emotional.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="415" height="188" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/sometime1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-57986" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/sometime1.png 415w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/sometime1-300x136.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Ramdas Iyer</figcaption></figure></div>


Each day, we used motorized pirogues to reach the fishing villages or to enjoy the beautiful Bao Bolong wetland reserves that boast over 250 species of birds. Adjacent to these wetlands is the large Kiang West National Park where I went on an all-day foot safari. Lions have long been extinct in The Gambia, along with the other animals in the Big Five. But a diverse presence of hyenas, leopards, spitting cobras and pythons made for an interesting outing. Further upstream, we arrived at the bustling Gambian port town of Kuntaur, the last inland stop along the river that is navigable for ocean-going vessels like mine.



Walking around town and its adjoining villages revealed the importance of peanuts as the chief cash crop of The Gambia. Not too far from Kuntaur, I was excited to visit a quintet of uninhabited islands that constitute the Gambia National River Park.



The southernmost, Baboon Island , is the home of the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Project established by American anthropologist Janis Carter in 1979, to provide a home for chimpanzees released from the laboratories of the western world. Over 100 of these primates live on these islands where no one is allowed to set foot except scientists. I photographed several of the apes including younger generations that are now free in a land where they had become extinct a century ago. At this point in the protected river, one could see a plethora of wildlife including hippos, crocodiles, and the red colobus and green vervet monkeys. 



At the Kuntaur pier, we were met by the ‘Kankurang’ and a local dance group. Believed to have spiritual powers, the Kankurang dispense justice and ward off evil spirits.



I tired dancing with the Mandinka women and the Kankurang at the pier to the sound of drums and whistles. With local river pilots familiar with the topography of the river bottom, we made our way back to Banjul.



Gambians, who still suffer economically from the ravages of slavery four centuries ago, showed me that poverty alone cannot destroy the human spirit and the ability to deliver a sparkling smile.

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Wondrous Waters: A Gambia River Journey

The beauty industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and as data says, so also the demand for minimally invasive aesthetic treatments in the Middle East and Africa.



This has been good news for Dr Wedu Tose Somolekae, who has become a sought-after expert in Botswana in the field of aesthetic medicine.



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And to think this was not her initial plan.



“When I started medical school in 2011, I dreamed of eventually becoming a pediatrician,” Tose Somolekae says to FORBES AFRICA. “Aesthetic medicine and entrepreneurship were the furthest thing on my mind. Little did I know that a weekend trip to Johannesburg with my friends would change all of that!”



After visiting a clinic in bustling Johannesburg, South Africa, Tose Somolekae immediately began her research on the concept of aesthetics and medicine. Like any millennial, the good doctor took to Instagram to directly speak to other medical aesthetic doctors in the field.



After many obstacles (being stuck in the small village of Masunga, Covid-19 and not enough fees to pay for her dream), Tose Somolekae took the plunge in the beginning of 2021 and resigned from her position as a medical officer in Masunga with a severance package of P50,000 ($380,000).



A move that led to Medi-Glow Aesthetics, the first full-time Medical Aesthetic Practice in Botswana.



“Watching me grow has definitely inspired those around me to chase their dreams and reach for the stars,” Tose Somolekae adds. “The tenacity and determination to introduce something new to the medical and beauty in.



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<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-2023-forbes-under-30-summit-africa">2023 Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa</h2>


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In April 2023, the Under 30 Summit will return to the world’s greatest growth market, Africa. Following the first-ever Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa held in April 2022, the world’s most elite young entrepreneurs and game-changers will again convene in one of the world’s most beautiful countries, Botswana.



Across four days in the country’s capital, Gaborone, we’ll harness the power of entrepreneurial capitalism amid the continent whose growth will help define the 21st century. As with every Under 30 Summit, the social and cultural opportunities will be world-class. You’ll hear from government, venture capital and business role models, providing inspiration for the newest—and next—generation of leaders. We will welcome local performers, chefs and entrepreneurs, allowing us to experience the sounds, cuisine and staples of local culture while engaging in unbeatable networking and pitching opportunities.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/connect/event/2023-forbes-under-30-summit-africa/?promo=LPAFRICA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Register here</a>

#FORBESAFRICA30Under30 Class of 2023:Meet COVER STAR Dr Wedu Tose Somolekae “Aesthetic medicine and entrepreneurship were the furthest thing on my mind.”

Author: Forbes Africa

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA