South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been cleared by the country&#8217;s reserve bank in the ongoing Phala Phala scandal, ruling that there was no contravention of exchange control regulations based on the available information. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) revealed its findings in a short release posted on its website today.



The Phala Phala scandal, as it has become known, involved a police report filed by South Africa&#8217;s former Head of State Security against the President, alleging that an undetermined amount of undeclared foreign currency was stolen from Ramaphosa&#8217;s game farm in early 2020, and that the President failed in his duty to report this crime.



The origin and purpose of the money, as well as its conformation with currency exchange laws, have all been the subject of investigation and have placed immense strain on the career of the President, almost leading him to resign his post in late 2022.



The money was alleged by the President to have been proceeds from a game sale by his farm, later identified as $580,000 for a prize bull, paid by Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa.



After the initial theft, Ramaphosa is alleged to have briefed his head of security, Major General Wally Rhoode, on the incident. Rhoode then reportedly proceeded to conduct an unsanctioned investigation, tracing the suspects of the theft in both South Africa and Namibia, before allegedly paying them off.



SARB’s exculpation of Ramaphosa comes after an independent report compiled by a retired judge, as well as a parliamentary vote for Ramaphosa&#8217;s impeachment, which failed to pass late last year.



Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka also absolved Ramaphosa in her own report in June of this year, which was widely panned by opposition parties and is currently the subject of a court challenge.



However, of note in the Reserve Bank&#8217;s media statement is that no violation of exchange controls for the transaction were found due somewhat to a technicality – namely, that since the goods, in this case, the bull for sale, were not actually delivered, no transaction took place, and thus no finding regarding a contravention could be made.



&#8220;SARB has concluded that the transaction in question was subject to conditions precedent which were not fulfilled, and therefore there was no legal entitlement… to the foreign currency,” continued the press release.



While the report is yet another in a long line of investigations that have left President Ramaphosa in the clear, it will likely remain a strong topic of discourse as the country prepares for both the BRICS summit this week and a hotly-contested general election next year.

CHOGM London 2018 – Day 2

South African Reserve Bank Clears President Ramaphosa in Phala Phala Scandal

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



DC Comics’ late-summer superhero movie&nbsp;Blue Beetle&nbsp;grossed roughly $9.8 million on its opening day at the U.S. box office, taking down Mattel’s&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;after a month on top of the box office charts, though&nbsp;Blue Beetle’s opening still pales in comparison to rival Marvel’s recent releases, a lackluster start for DC’s latest movie, which cost a reported $104 million to make.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Blue Beetle&nbsp;has pulled in more than $13 million since its opening, including $3.3 million in Thursday previews,&nbsp;<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/08/box-office-blue-beetle-strays-barbie-1235522235/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deadline</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-blue-beetle-previews-1235698810/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Variety</a>&nbsp;reported, taking down&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;after 29 straight days on top of the U.S. box office, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Box Office Mojo</a>.



The DC movie is projected to make between $25 million to $32 million through Sunday,&nbsp;Variety&nbsp;reported, though&nbsp;Deadline&nbsp;puts it at $25 million, making it DC’s latest underperforming film as it struggles to compete with rival Marvel.



Its opening could also finish with less than half of the $55.1 million DC’s&nbsp;The Flash&nbsp;pulled in domestically over its opening weekend in June, though&nbsp;The Flash&nbsp;also struggled to meet expectations, falling short of its $70 million opening weekend projection, after the film faced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/02/14/a-detailed-look-at-flash-star-ezra-millers-rough-2-years-harassment-burglary-charges-and-more/?sh=29e8e15029b7">controversy</a>&nbsp;over harassment and disorderly conduct charges against star Ezra Miller.



By comparison, Marvel’s&nbsp;Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3&nbsp;pulled in $118.4 million in its opening weekend in May, while&nbsp;Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania&nbsp;grossed $106.2 million in its opening weekend in February and Sony’s&nbsp;Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse&nbsp;grossed $120.7 million in its first weekend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



The DC movie has a 91% audience score and a 75% critics’ score on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_beetle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, though critics have not been universally friendly, giving it a score of 61 out of 100 on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.metacritic.com/movie/blue-beetle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Metacritic</a>. A review in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/16/dc-latino-superhero-film-blue-beetle-review" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Guardian</a>&nbsp;lauded the movie for setting a “milestone for representation” as the first live-action Latino superhero film, but confessed the movie “suffers from overplayed beats,” due to the “fatigue from oversaturation” of a seemingly never ending string of Hollywood superhero movies. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/movies/blue-beetle-review.html#:~:text=The%20plot%20is%20boilerplate%20and,family%20members%20steal%20the%20show." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;review didn’t pull any punches either, calling the plot “boilerplate” and the superhero “not particularly compelling.”



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Barbie&nbsp;is just under $30 million short of surpassing&nbsp;The Super Mario Bros. Movie&nbsp;as the year’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office. Since its release,&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;has pulled in $545.8 million in the U.S. and another $660.6 million internationally, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1077904129/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>&nbsp;from Box Office Mojo, putting it just behind the Universal Pictures and Nintendo blockbuster, which has grossed more than $574.2 million domestically since its release on April 5.&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;still has $110 million to go to catch up with James Cameron’s&nbsp;Avatar: The Way of Water, which has grossed more than $684 million in the U.S. since its December release.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/08/06/barbie-tops-1-billion-at-global-box-office/?sh=6c5fe75c7520">‘Barbie’ Tops $1 Billion At Global Box Office</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/08/13/barbie-and-oppenheimer-continue-box-office-dominance-for-fourth-week-raking-in-combined-525-million/?sh=65ef9f762019">&#8216;Barbie’ And &#8216;Oppenheimer&#8217; Continue Box Office Dominance For Fourth Week—Raking In Combined $52.5 Million</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/12/barbie-breaks-500-million-at-us-box-office-further-cementing-itself-as-summers-blockbuster/?sh=744fe19b43f9">‘Barbie’ Breaks $500 Million At U.S. Box Office—Further Cementing Itself As Summer’s Blockbuster</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

New Barbie Movie Sparks Barbie-mania Across U.S.

End Of Barbiemania? ‘Blue Beetle’ Unseats ‘Barbie’ With $9.8 Million Opening

Nigeria faces its highest inflation rate in approximately two decades, with the last instance of such soaring inflation recorded back in September 2005, when the rate touched 24.3%.



Nigeria faces its highest inflation rate in approximately two decades, with the last instance of such soaring inflation recorded back in September 2005, when the rate touched 24.3%.



The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the headline inflation rate in July reached 24.08%, marking a significant increase from the June rate of 22.79%.



Analyzing the data, it becomes apparent that the month of July witnessed a noteworthy 1.29% point rise in the headline inflation rate when compared to the previous month.



Comparing July to the same month the preceding year, the headline inflation rate on a year-on-year basis surged by 4.44% points. This substantial increase in inflation rate, when juxtaposed with July 2022&#8217;s rate of 19.64%, reveals the escalating inflationary pressures that the Nigerian economy currently grapples with.



This recent development raises concerns and calls for a comprehensive understanding of its implications on the nation&#8217;s economy and its citizens&#8217; livelihoods.



According to Iheakanwah Felix Arinzeh, a financial expert and doctor of business administration, the current inflationary surge was not unforeseen.



Arinzeh tells FORBES AFRICA: &#8220;The July inflation rate is not a shock to financial experts. Believe me, the inflationary pressure was expected, considering the tough policy decisions of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.&#8221;



He attributes the upward inflationary pressure to a combination of factors, including the removal of the fuel subsidy, the depreciation of the Naira, and the global food crisis. He also points out the impact of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has disrupted global supply chains and subsequently led to increased energy and food prices.



However, Arinzeh advocates for further devaluation of the Naira to enhance export competitiveness, especially for non-oil exports, which could bolster foreign exchange earnings and reserves.



While acknowledging the positive potential of recent government policies to revive the economy, Arinzeh highlights the importance of effective communication. He believes that proper sensitization about the implications of policies to the populace would have alleviated concerns and prepared citizens for the outcomes.



&#8220;I suggest the provision of financial assistance to vulnerable households via a social intervention program will go a long way in alleviating the excruciating impact of the high inflationary pressure on essential commodities.



&#8220;I believe we can recover well, but slowly from the current situation,&#8221; says Arinzeh.

Inflation Concept

Nigeria Confronts Highest Inflation Rate In Nearly Two Decades, Eclipsing 2005 Record

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The price of Bitcoin fell below $26,000 Thursday—its lowest level since June—amid a broader crypto market slump after the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/behind-the-curtain-of-elon-musks-secretive-spacex-revenue-growth-and-rising-costs-2c828e2b?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that SpaceX has taken a significant write-down on its Bitcoin holdings and sold the cryptocurrency.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The price of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency stood at $26,400 early on Friday, down nearly 8% in the previous 24 hours and 10% compared to last week.



Earlier on Thursday evening, the price of Bitcoin had dropped even lower, to around $25,400 before a slight recovery.



Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, also took a similar hit and fell to $1,680—down 6.6% in the previous 24 hours.



Other major tokens like Binance’s BNB, Cardano and Solana are also down more than 6%



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



16%. That’s how much the price of Ripple’s XRP token has fallen in the past 24 hours, significantly worse than all other major cryptocurrencies. XRP’s steeper fall is a result of a federal judge’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-jones-08-17-2023/card/judge-in-sec-ripple-case-opens-path-to-partial-appeal-after-july-ruling-Qj9YAsJsOP72ufpmQfCx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decision</a>&nbsp;on Thursday to allow the SEC to partially appeal a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-07-13/what-does-ripple-xrp-ruling-in-sec-case-mean-for-crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruling</a>&nbsp;in its case against Ripple.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Thursday evening’s crypto selloff began after the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/behind-the-curtain-of-elon-musks-secretive-spacex-revenue-growth-and-rising-costs-2c828e2b?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Elon Musk’s SpaceX wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by a total of $373 million in the previous two calendar years. The company has also sold off its crypto holdings, the report added, although it is unclear when this sale happened. Musk and his companies have been a key mover of cryptocurrency prices, with the market often seeing significant movement based on the billionaire’s tweets. However, the SpaceX selloff follows a similar move by Musk’s other company, Tesla, which&nbsp;<a href="https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/static/EIUQEC_2022_Q2_Quarterly_Update_Deck_J8VLIK.pdf?xseo=&amp;amp;response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22tsla-q2-22-update.pdf%22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disclosed in an earnings report last year</a>&nbsp;that it had sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/behind-the-curtain-of-elon-musks-secretive-spacex-revenue-growth-and-rising-costs-2c828e2b?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Rare Look Into the Finances of Elon Musk’s Secretive SpaceX</a>&nbsp;(Wall Street Journal)



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<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-18/bitcoin-plunge-spurs-liquidations-as-spacex-s-token-sale-weighs?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin Plunge Spurs Liquidations as SpaceX’s Token Sale Weighs</a> (Bloomberg)

Cryptocurrency Mining In Africa As Poor Sheperdherder Proves A Point

Bitcoin Drops To Lowest Level Since June Amid Wider Crypto Sell-Off

The new domestic soccer season gets underway in August and the Mamelodi Sundowns dynasty lives on. Can anyone break their stranglehold on the South African domestic league title? We speak to some of the top coaches.



Mamelodi Sundowns won an unprecedented sixth South African DStv Premiership title in a row in the 2022/23 season as their dominance of the domestic league continues in relentless fashion.



It is not just the fact they have lifted the trophy, but the manner of the victories has been so emphatic that the last three seasons in particular have been a one-horse race from the off.



They finished 13 points clear in 2020/21, and 16 points in front of second place in each of the last two seasons. The remainder of the league simply could not keep up with them.



Looking to the new campaign that starts in August, the question 



now is whether anyone can rise from the chasing pace and dethrone The Brazilians.



The most likely pretenders to the throne are Orlando Pirates, a giant of the local game who last lifted the league trophy in 2011/12 but went toe-to-toe with Sundowns in the second half of last season after a sticky start.



Pirates picked up 35 points in their final 15 games and Sundowns 33, as The Buccaneers’ Spanish coach José Riveiro got to grips with the DStv Premiership and the players at his disposal in his first year in charge.



If they can keep up that level through the 30 games of this coming season, they will have an excellent chance of being crowned champions.



“We have a fantastic group [of players] and resources,” Riveiro tells FORBES AFRICA.



“Emotionally, it’s been a tough fi rst season. It is not easy to do what you love in a different country. For me to be here, the learning process was dificult and things were not easy from the start.



“If we do the same things [next season], we are going to get less [success], so we have to do different things to improve.”



One factor that may hold the Pirates back in the coming campaign is that they will have the considerable distraction of the CAF Champions League.



The same is true for Sundowns, but at this stage the latter perhaps have a squad with more depth that makes them better equipped to juggle domestic and continental matters. Riveiro is confident his side can make an impact in both though.



“We are going into Africa to dream that we have the potential to go all the way. I’m a very optimistic person, so I have the intention to win it.



“We know we will fi nd dificult trips, difficult opponents and dificulties from the referees, but Mamelodi Sundowns did a fantastic job in the competition [last season] and showed that it’s possible for South African teams to compete.”



It will mean bolstering his squad, and just who they manage to sign will be key.



“There’s going to be players coming and going like every season. I hope not too many because it is important to have continuity to build on the things we have done already.”



As for who else could rival Sundowns, the pickings are slim. Kaizer Chiefs continue to falter and went backward in the last campaign, while SuperSport United overachieved but are in a constant cycle of having to sell their best players to balance the books. This transfer window looks no different.



“They’ve set the bar so high, I don’t think anybody is going to catch them in the next few years,” SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt says, adding other teams simply cannot match Sundowns in the transfer market. 



“Give us the fi ve to six players from Sundowns and we will show you where we can go,” he says ruefully. “We have a salary cap here, that is how we operate. That’s unfortunate, but we will have to find new players, try to build a team that is competitive and try to close the gap.”



Former Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane, who has since been replaced in the hotseat by Molefi Ntseki but remains an assistant with the team, also doesn’t see Sundowns dropping their level anytime soon, so it is up to the rest of the league to find a way to close that gap. 



“I think it is a challenge for everyone to take our game to another level. For us, we are a work in progress and we are getting better and better,” Zwane said. “It boils down to a lot of things: chemistry, preparation and having a long-term plan. We still have a long way to go. I wouldn’t talk about other teams because I don’t know what their plan is.



But as for us, we are on that journey of trying to revive the glory days.”



For anyone else hoping to win the DStv Premiership this coming season, the only thing that will get them over the line is consistency in performance, because relying on Sundowns to falter looks a pipe dream.

sundowns

Mamelodi Sundowns’ Dominance Of The South African Domestic League Title

Time is money for London-based luxury watchmaker William Adoasi, and he is now using it to support quality education in sub-Saharan Africa.



William Adoasi grew up in one of the roughest council estates in London and for as long as he could remember, wanted to get out. His parents emigrated from Ghana to the United Kingdom (UK) before Adoasi was born and, being the first of seven children, he saw first-hand the chaos that surrounded his estate in Peckham, South London.



A social housing project built by local authorities to provide shelter and other amenities like schools and shops, council estates in the UK have become notorious as breeding grounds for various social problems over the years.



This prompted two former prime ministers, David Cameron and Tony Blair, to advocate for the redevelopment of these estates citing their propensity to entrench poverty as well as create an environment for criminality to thrive, as the core reasons.



To shield Adoasi from the negative elements of the estate, his parents encouraged his education. Adoasi did well enough in school to secure a scholarship and move into a private boarding school in the midlands, and finally, out of the council estate.



“One day a fight broke out in a rugby game between my team and another team and I heard some of my teammates calling the other team ‘council estate scam’, not knowing that I grew up on a council estate myself. It really shaped the way I am in terms of my drive because there is always a part of me that wants to disprove the myth of a council estate boy who does not amount to anything in life,” says Adoasi.



Initially the drive was simply motivated by his need to create a luxury life far away from the tentacles of poverty that always gripped his childhood. His determination to succeed led him to drop out of university to start a sports academy, with which he made a six-figure income by the age of 19.



“I [ran] that for two years until the government pulled the funding, which meant that it wasn’t viable anymore,” says Adoasi.



After that stint, he worked in London as an insurance broker and recruiter. During this time, he went back to school and finished his education and, very soon, began to think outside the confines of his nine-to-five job for a way to make more money.



He was always interested in watches and by the time he was in the city, Adoasi was making enough money to upgrade his taste to the high-end brands, the likes of Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. That was when his light bulb moment happened.



“I wanted to find a middle ground of a watch that was super premium and has a high-end aesthetic, made with high-end materials but with a price point that wasn’t wild… I started speaking to multiple factories and haggling prices down between the factories until I perfected my sample batch,” says Adoasi.



At the age of 26, he quit his job and became the founder and lead designer of Vitae London.



“I felt that working in the city was a drain on me and that I had to do something with a bigger purpose where I wake up everyday and my motivation was not just money. Vitae means ‘lives’ in Latin. Our mantra from the get-go was to be the watch brand changing lives,” says Adoasi.



After launching the brand, Vitae London got shortlisted by Richard Branson to receive a startup loan of £20,000



(approximately $25,000 today) out of 10,000 applicants. To date, the brand has raised a total of $190,000 from the likes of US-based venture capital firm, Backstage Capital and, with that, total sales revenue to date is around £1.3 million ($1.6 million).



Adoasi has also kept his promise – 10% of everything the company makes goes back to empower children in sub-Saharan Africa to receive quality education. Through a partnership with charity organization, House of Wells, he has supported over 10,000 children with school uniforms and finance.



Vitae London is also currently stocked in leading US retailers, Macy’s and Nordstrom. The partnership with billionaire mogul Branson also helped attract other celebrities to the brand.



As Adoasi reflects, two things stand out for him.



“Firstly, entrepreneurship is about creating something much bigger than yourself… Secondly, money is a great motivator but if it is the only reason you get out of bed, then you have an unfulfilled life.”<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="15" height="14" src="">His next milestone is to be able to go to his parents and tell them they no longer need to work, and from the looks of things, time is on his side

peace11

Time To Tell: The London-Based Watchmaker Supporting Education In Africa

<a href="https://www.forbes.com/"></a>Valued at $2.2 billion in 2021, African money-transfer startup Chipper Cash was slow to adapt to the funding collapse of 2022. Now, after layoffs and a deep valuation cut, it’s focusing on the basics–and profitability.



The layoffs at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chipper Cash</a>, a five-year-old fintech startup that lets African consumers send money to each other, started slowly. In July 2022, four recruiters were dismissed. Seven quality assurance engineers came next, two months later. On a Sunday night in early December at 12:01 AM, about 50 employees, or slightly more than 10% of the company, received emails in their personal accounts telling them they no longer had jobs, and access to their work computers had been terminated. Staffers were stunned by the abrupt execution of the layoff. “There was shock and disgust,” a former employee says. Then, after another two months, even deeper cuts came: Chipper slashed about 30% of its staff.



It was a dramatic turnabout for a company that included “lead with empathy” as one of its four corporate values and had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions/">featured in&nbsp;Forbes</a>&nbsp;as one of the most promising startups in fintech just eight months before.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



In February 2023, Zepz, a U.K.-based international money-transfer company formerly known as WorldRemit, smelled blood and approached Chipper with a take-out offer. Zepz sent a letter of intent saying it would pay between 5% and 10% of its own stock to buy the startup, pending more due diligence. Zepz had been valued at $5 billion in an August 2021 fundraise, but market values for fintech stocks had since dropped by 50%. Even if you thought Zepz was still worth $5 billion, which was doubtful at best, the deal would have valued Chipper at between $250 million and $500 million–a brutal discount to the $2.2 billion valuation it fetched in late 2021.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“I was fully aware that we were living in a time when capital was cheap. And when capital is cheap, that&#8217;s when you want to do the capital-intensive things.&#8221;— Ham Serunjogi
</blockquote>



The talks broke down. A Zepz spokesperson says the company walked away from the deal because they couldn’t get enough financial information from Chipper, and what they did see made them question the viability of the business. Ham Serunjogi, Chipper’s now 29-year-old CEO, says that Chipper provided all information requested, Zepz refused to share its own financial metrics and Chipper was the one to walk away. “I have never had any intention to go out and look for a buyer or to be acquired,” Serunjogi told us in May, speaking from his office at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.



In April, Chipper lowered its internal 409A valuation–the market value it uses for issuing employee stock options–by 70%, cutting its common stock share price from about $13 in late 2022 to $3.89, according to a former employee and a document viewed by&nbsp;Forbes. It also raised roughly $25 million in convertible debt, says a person familiar with the financing–debt that will convert to equity at a $450 million valuation if Chipper gets acquired or has another big fundraise.



Chipper’s predicament is emblematic of the challenges many fintech startups face today. In 2020 and 2021, as Covid pushed more transactions online and consumers flocked to fintech apps, startups and their backers acted like the fast growth and good times would continue for years. Chipper, which offers low-cost money transfers, bill payment, stock investing and crypto trading for consumers in Africa, plus payment services for businesses there, had amassed five million registered users in seven countries, including Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria, in just the four years after its founding. It booked more than $75 million in revenue in 2021 (excluding cryptocurrency transactions), according to the company, and between $100 and $150 million in 2022, says a person familiar with its finances, compared with $18 million in 2020.



Serunjogi was pursuing a land-grab, growth-at-all-costs strategy, aiming “to capture as much market share and new geographical footprint as possible. And that&#8217;s an expensive endeavor,” he admits. Then as interest rates rose and the stock market sank, investors put away their checkbooks. Profitability suddenly became more important than growth.



Now Chipper is trying to dramatically cut costs and change its strategy while preventing employees from thinking they’re on a sinking ship. “I feel like I’ve grown up so much in the last 12 months,” Serunjogi says.



He has wrestled with the emotional toll of layoffs and a feeling that his employees weren’t taking their jobs seriously enough. In January, he decided to eliminate “lead with empathy” as one of Chipper’s four corporate values. “It was becoming a substitute for accountability,” he says. As he tries to turn the company around, he faces the tough task of still striving for rapid growth–and getting close to profitability–on a much tighter budget.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Serunjogi grew up in&nbsp;Uganda, and while in high school he saw the problems his dad faced trying to move money through Africa’s disjointed banking system. A couple of years later, he enrolled at Grinnell, a small liberal arts college in Iowa, where he met Maijid Moujaled, a Ghanaian computer science major. The two soon began talking about developing an app that could become a Venmo for Africa.



They cofounded Chipper in 2018 and eventually raised $300 million in funding from investors including FTX, Ribbit Capital and Bezos Expeditions. Serunjogi spent aggressively to grow his customer base because of the nature of the money-transfer business: if you’re a consumer in Nigeria, you’d rather be able to send money to twenty different countries than two. “I was fully aware that we were living in a time when capital was cheap. And when capital is cheap, that&#8217;s when you want to do the capital-intensive things,” he says.



At the end of 2021, Chipper created its 2022 financial plan and intended to keep burning through large sums of cash, assuming capital would still be abundant. As tech stocks tumbled through the spring of 2022, Chipper began revising its plans. But while&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/07/28/in-fintech-2022-is-becoming-the-year-of-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">many fintech companies started doing layoffs that summer</a>, Serunjogi and Moujaled held out.



Serunjogi focused on driving Chipper as fast as possible–one way he tried to do that was by keeping the board small. Though he insists he has a large group of advisors, Chipper only had (and still has) just three voting board members: Serunjogi, Moujaled and Dan Kimerling, who runs fintech-focused venture capital firm Deciens. Similar-stage startups usually have five or more. “At the early stage of a business, the founders’ vision still has a premium. You&#8217;re trying to execute on something you uniquely see,” Serunjogi says.



By mid-2022, Serunjogi wanted to slow down expansion, but he concluded Chipper had already progressed so far on some projects that it would be too costly or wasteful to abandon them. One example: The company had already done much regulatory legwork to launch money transfers simultaneously in 10 new nations, each with its own set of legal requirements. So it charged ahead anyway with the big rollout over a two-week period in the fall of 2022.



When asked whether he chases too many goals at once, Serunjogi says, “If you set a goal of 10 versus a goal of 100, you will get to 9 out of 10, and you&#8217;ll get to 90 out of 100 … I strongly believe in setting stretch goals–that has been my style.”



Chipper hired about 150 employees in 2022, hitting almost 450 at its peak size. It spent aggressively on marketing, paying spokespeople like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqkjPTzP_6Y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Burna Boy</a>, Africa’s most streamed artist, to appear in ads. Within the fintech industry and in Africa, Chipper was gaining attention. In the middle of last year,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;published an article chronicling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chipper’s founding story and fast growth</a>.



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When crypto exchange&nbsp;FTX collapsed suddenly last November, the mood inside Chipper grew much darker, former employees say. Sam Bankman-Fried’s company had been a major investor in Chipper’s 2021 mega funding round, and staffers found the situation deeply unsettling. It also exacerbated the bear market for the digital asset industry and dampened interest in something that had been helping Chipper attract new users: crypto investing.



With marketing efforts drastically reduced, Chipper saw its number of active users shrink in 2022, according to a former employee, and though it had more than five million registered users, only about one million of them were engaging with the app monthly, the company says. Serunjogi admits Chipper has seen a dip in usage and attributes it to Chipper’s raising prices on money transfers and other features to focus more on profitability. He says that new-user signups and “people who use multiple products” still “continue to fare quite well.”



Chipper will soon start offering U.S. dollar-denominated accounts to African customers to try to entice more users. Serunjogi says receiving international payments has been one of the most requested features, particularly for freelancers earning a living online. While crypto was once a major growth driver for Chipper, the startup seems to be going back to basics. “We’re essentially giving anyone access to one of the most trusted currencies in the world,” he says.



On top of spiking interest rates and a dormant funding market, Chipper has been facing another macroeconomic headwind: the naira, Nigeria’s currency that Chipper needs to hold to enable customers’ money transfers, has dramatically declined in value. It had been falling since early 2020, and in the second half of 2022 it lost another 8%, ultimately contributing to a negative gross profit margin for Chipper, an unusual financial profile for a company of its size. Today Serunjogi says Chipper has a positive gross margin.



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When the fintech market&nbsp;recovers from its deep downturn, entrepreneurs’ approaches to layoffs will likely turn out to have had a major impact on startups’ survival and trajectory. At Chipper, Serunjogi and Moujaled have done at least five sets of layoffs over the past 13 months. Judging by the frequency and increasing depth of the cuts compared with those of other major fintechs, Chipper waited too long to get lean.



“Layoffs were agonizing decisions. That is the stuff that kept me up at night,” Serunjogi says. “It’s like a piece of your humanity dies … Imagine having a conversation with people who you really like, who are very good, who made sacrifices for the business to be where it is today. They depend on that income. And you tell that person, ‘I have to cut you.’ And they have a family to look after.”



Why didn’t he opt for a smaller number of deeper cuts to get them over with faster? “These are human beings we’re talking about,” he says. “If I can save someone&#8217;s job, I&#8217;m going to try to find a way to save it until clearly it doesn&#8217;t make sense to be saved.” He adds that some international rules require companies to do layoffs over a period of three months, which drags out the process.



Some former Chipper employees think Serunjogi has botched the communication of bad news over the past year. For instance, after layoffs began, workers started asking questions about revenue and how much cash was left in the bank at company-wide meetings. Serunjogi often responded to the effect of, “Why do you guys keep asking this? You don’t need to know,” according to a former employee. Another staffer felt Chipper became a “very secretive environment.”



“We have various responsibilities and confidentiality we have to maintain in running a business,” Serunjogi says. “In all our all-hands meetings we used to show revenue, revenue growth by product, et cetera–until people started leaking it. We would start to see these things showing up in the press,” he says, chuckling.



He started to believe employees felt too entitled and weren’t taking their jobs seriously enough. That led him to remove the “lead with empathy” corporate value–he thought people were using it to excuse mediocre performance. Chipper replaced it with “be customer obsessed.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Don’t mistake the early successes we’ve had with ‘we’ve made it.’ No, we can still die.”— Ham Serunjogi
</blockquote>



“If you make a mistake, I have to come down hard on you, because the consequences for all of us are that much greater [at a startup],” Serunjogi says. “Don’t mistake the early successes we’ve had with ‘we’ve made it.’ No, we can still die.” He admires Bill Gates for working all the time and not taking vacation during Microsoft’s early days, and he appreciated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/11/17/elon-musks-ultimatum-to-twitter-employees-ramps-up-companys-crisis/">Elon Musk’s November 2022 ultimatum to Twitter employees</a>&nbsp;that staying at the company would require “extremely hardcore” work and long hours.



In the spring of 2023, some employees began saying Chipper had just ten months of cash left in the bank, with one posting it in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Chipper-Cash-RVW75333016.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a Glassdoor review</a>. People inside the startup were asking how it could have blown through the $300 million it raised, according to a former engineering manager.



Regarding Chipper’s rumored short runway, “I genuinely don&#8217;t know why and who would say something like that,” Serunjogi says, expressing frustration that anyone would discuss internal company matters publicly. “We have a tremendous amount of money on our balance sheet, so we’re fine,” he told us in late May.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Serunjogi doesn’t like talking&nbsp;much about the specifics of what he would have done differently if he could do it all again. When asked the question multiple times, he told us, “We are laying the foundation for what is going to make us successful over the next 10 or 20 years. I obsess less about what was happening in the last six months or three months or 12 months.” He concedes there are many things he’d do differently but demurs from spelling them out and says, “We are one of the most successful companies in Africa.”



What is clear: Chipper has cut nearly 175 people and scrapped plans to expand into Europe and the Middle East for now, since entering a new country takes months of work–it requires hiring lawyers and consultants and sometimes staffing at least 10 people in a new nation. It has refocused on Africa, cutting many U.S. employees who sit thousands of miles away from its customers. Serunjogi plans to hire fewer than 50 people this year. The marketing budget has been “meaningfully scaled back,” Serunjogi says, and he claims the company is “about to be profitable.”



Somehow, when asked to reflect on the past year, the young entrepreneur always comes back with a positive spin. “What we’ve achieved so far–if I went back and started the whole thing again, I would be very happy to come back to that same exact point.”

Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled by Ethan Pines for Forbes 130L-03-0027

Inside Chipper Cash’s Grueling Battle To Survive The Fintech Winter

A deadly attack in Niger claims the lives of 17 soldiers, raising concerns of escalating jihadist activity following the recent overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum. Supporters of the military junta face the dual threat of ECOWAS military intervention and internal extremism, as a new militia mobilizes to back the nation&#8217;s armed forces.



At least 17 soldiers from the Nigerien military were killed in an attack on Tuesday, potentially signaling an escalation in jihadist activity in a country that has long been considered a partner to the West in combating extremism in the Sahel region. This attack is the first of its kind since Niger&#8217;s democratically elected President, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown by a military junta in late July. The Nigerien junta stated that at least 100 attackers were killed in retaliation, although this claim could not be independently confirmed.



Supporters of the junta, condemned by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), seem to have been motivated by the threat of military intervention by ECOWAS, as well as the internal extremist threat. Reports suggest the emergence of a new militia, the Volunteers for the Defense of Niger, which is recruiting volunteers to support the nation&#8217;s armed forces.



ECOWAS, which denounced the attack on the Nigerien security forces, continues to call for the restoration of democratic order. &#8220;ECOWAS calls on the CNSP-military leadership in Niger to restore constitutional order in order to focus on the security of the increasingly fragile country,&#8221; stated the body in a recent release.



Officials of the bloc also attended an African Union (AU) meeting on Monday in Addis Ababa to discuss the situation in Niger. The situation seems unlikely to resolve soon, given the mixed signals from many of the involved parties. The junta recently expressed openness to diplomatic discussions but seemed to reverse its stance last Sunday by announcing the intention to charge captive President Bazoum with high treason.



Both ECOWAS and the AU condemned the legal threat against Bazoum, but this incident appears to have stalled further talks. The newly appointed US Ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, is expected to arrive in the capital city of Niamey this week, which could potentially lead to diplomatic progress. However, as these efforts stall, the stability of the region remains precariously fractured.

Demonstration of coup supporters in Niger

17 Soldiers Killed in Niger Attack, Escalating Concerns Over Extremism

The Ukrainian air assault forces finally have deployed their most powerful unit. The 2,000-person 82nd Air Assault Brigade, which is stacked with Marder and Stryker fighting vehicles and Challenger 2 tanks, rolled into action around Robotyne, in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast, apparently in the last few days.



The deployment is good&nbsp;and&nbsp;bad news for Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive, which kicked off with a series of coordinated assaults across southern and eastern Ukraine starting on June 4.



The 82nd Brigade and its sister air-assault unit, the 46th Brigade, were some of the last major units that the Ukrainian general staff was holding in reserve. In finally sending those formations into battle, the Ukrainians could significantly boost their firepower along one of the main axes of the counteroffensive—the one stretching 50 miles from Russian-occupied Robotyne to occupied Melitopol, just north of the Black Sea coast.



But no brigade can fight forever. When the 46th and 82nd Brigades pull back for rest, reset and repairs, there might not be any equally powerful&nbsp;fresh&nbsp;brigades to fill in for them. The counteroffensive could lose momentum.



This neither is a new problem, nor one that’s unique to the Robotyne axis. The Ukrainian marine corps, which has focused its efforts along the Mokri Yaly River Valley, 50 miles to the east, has deployed&nbsp;all four&nbsp;of its front-line brigades&nbsp;at the same time&nbsp;along a 10-mile-wide sector.



The concentration of marine forces along the Mokri Yaly River has paid off for Kyiv. The division-size marine force has liberated a chain of settlements on the road to occupied Mariupol, on the Black Sea coast 50 miles to the south. Most recently Urozhaine, where marine gunners firing American-made cluster shells <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/08/14/ukrainian-cluster-shells-massacred-russian-troops-fleeing-urozhaine/">massacred retreating Russian troops this weekend</a>.



But the marines eventually will need rest. And it’s not apparent which forces can fill in for them. While Ukraine still has uncommitted territorial and national guard brigades, these formations generally lack the firepower and training that make marine brigades so effective.



The same clock is ticking over in Robotyne, as a powerful Ukrainian air-assault force assembles outside the town. A Russian drone strike on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1691340418590429184" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">one of the 82nd Brigade’s American-made Stryker wheeled fighting vehicles</a>, apparently earlier this week, places the 82nd Brigade within a mile of the Russian 1430th Motor Rifle Regiment’s positions inside Robotyne.



Russian drones have spotted at least one of the 82nd Brigade’s 90 Strykers as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1691378804688580608" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">one of its 40 German-made Marder tracked fighting vehicles</a>. The Russians apparently&nbsp;haven’t&nbsp;located the brigade’s 14 ex-British Challenger 2 tanks. But we know the 69-ton tanks are inching toward the line of contact.



The most recent photo of a Ukrainian Challenger 2 to appear online depicts the tank with a turret-mounted cage that the crew clearly hopes will help to protect the vehicle from drone strikes. These “cope cages” are a battlefield expedient that brigades tend to install on their own as they’re getting ready to enter combat.



If the Ukrainian marines’ experience in Urozhaine is any indication, the surge of air-assault troops around Robotyne could result in rapid gains for Kyiv’s forces.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/08/11/ukrainian-scouts-are-inside-robotyne-the-first-russian-strongpoint-on-the-road-to-melitopol/?sh=544fb60010eb">The Ukrainians already were probing</a>, and attempting to flank, the Russian garrison in Robotyne. Now they’ve got two more brigades—and especially heavily-armed ones—to bolster their efforts.



If the Russians in Robotyne can hold their ground, and endure what is likely to be a major but temporary surge in Ukrainian combat power, they might eventually find themselves in a position to strike back at the Ukrainians—once the surge brigades rotate off the front line without replacement.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Train For Critical Spring Counter Offensive

Ukraine’s Powerful 82nd Brigade, Once Held In Reserve, Has Finally Joined The Counteroffensive

The BK Arena in Rwanda’s capital city Kigali was the stage for some electrifying performances as global artists enthralled basketball fans and excited locals at the grand opening of the first-ever week-long Giants of Africa festival on August 13.



The event, graced by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Masai Ujiri, the co-founder of Giants of Africa and president of Toronto Raptors, saw the two leaders rallying the youth to be fully immersed in sports as this is an untapped frontier.



“Everyone in this arena is a giant. It is time we don’t keep being reminded. We should know it and continue being the giants that we are and should be. We have got to decide and make that choice. Knowing every one of us in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, everyone has the possibility of being a giant and should be,” Kagame told the audience.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59223" style="width:536px;height:358px" width="536" height="358" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image credit Giants of Africa</figcaption></figure></div>


Rwanda is currently hosting Giants of Africa with 250 youth from 16 African countries taking part in activities centered around sports, entertainment, culture as well as national dialogue. The event is part of the country’s strategy to grow sports and make Rwanda a sporting hub.



“President Kagame came for an All-Star Game in 2016 to America. He asked me what it would take to build such an arena and get things done. His studious leadership saw that in just about 12 months, we had the BK Arena here in Kigali,” said Ujiri.



For the last two decades since its inception, Giants Of Africa has been able to play a catalytic role in mainstreaming sports as a tool for economic development and cultural diversity.



“Masai, I thank you for creating this great idea of identifying young people and bringing them here. These young people are being reminded that we are as good as anyone anywhere else. Through the sixteen teams representing sixteen countries, we should grow and work with each other to fulfil this dream for our continent,” added Kagame.



As part of the partnership between Giants of Africa and Rwanda, achievements include the construction of several basketball courts in the country, as well as equipping youngsters with skills for the game. The dazzling lights and thrilling performances at the arena also saw the President urging African youth to be united in growing the continent with their abundant talent.



“I am you; you are me. The best way to bring that out is through talented sportsmen. These young men and women will be giants in basketball and in everything else.”



Ujiri, who gave an emotional account of his encounters from Africa, affirmed that Giants of Africa will continue scaling up investments to make basketball a formidable game for Africans.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59222" style="width:510px;height:340px" width="510" height="340" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opening-night-image-credit-Giants-of-Africa-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Opening night; image credit Giants of Africa</figcaption></figure></div>


“I am overwhelmed and many years ago I had the opportunity to come here. That’s where this journey began for me. We believe in Africa. Every day, we dream, we preach and believe in Africa,” he said to rousing applause from a charged crowd at BK Arena.



Rwanda is also betting big on fusing sports and entertainment to diversify revenue lines. This year’s festival was headlined by Tanzanian artist Diamond Platnumz.



The closing ceremony slated for August 19 will be star-studded. Celebrated Rwandan artist Bruce Melodie, Nigerian singer Davido and Tiwa Savage are also expected to perform.

Star-studded event; Image credit Giants of Africa

Giant Festival In Kigali To Uplift Africa’s Youth Through Sport And Culture

Quote Boards (Twitter Post)

From Madiba To The Pan-Africanist: Playing His Part For The Continent

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Barbie&nbsp;was pulled from theaters in Algeria this week, joining a growing list of countries that, despite the summer blockbuster’s widespread success, have banned the film because of its themes of gender and sexuality or because of the film’s alleged use of a controversial map. (Say what?)



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Algeria:&nbsp;Algeria’s Ministry of Culture and Arts notified cinemas in the cities of Algiers, Oram and Constantine earlier this week to “immediately” pull the movie, the Algerian news outlet 24H&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24hdz.com/le-film-barbie-interdit-en-salles-en-algerie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;(a source confirmed the news to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/algeria-bans-barbie-movie-media-official-source-say-2023-08-14/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>).



Kuwait:&nbsp;On Thursday, officials in Kuwait announced they were banning the film because it promoted “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=3105733&amp;Language=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;a statement published by the state-run KUNA news agency. (The statement did not cite any specific scenes that Kuwaiti censors found objectionable.)



Vietnam:&nbsp;Before the film premiered, officials in Vietnam&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/03/barbie-movie-banned-in-vietnam-over-controversial-map/?sh=7ec28cfc4ba7">announced</a>&nbsp;they were banning&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;over a scene that included a map that appeared to show China’s contested territorial claims in the South China Sea—Warner Bros.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/07/warner-bros-defends-child-like-map-that-got-barbie-banned-in-vietnam/?sh=2702920437bd">disputed</a>&nbsp;the claim, describing the drawing as “child-like.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



Before it was banned,&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;had sold out Algerian theaters every day since its July 19 release, the Algerian news outlet 24H&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24hdz.com/le-film-barbie-interdit-en-salles-en-algerie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



It’s not uncommon for countries, particularly Gulf nations, to ban movies or TV shows because the content goes against certain religious beliefs. A number of countries in the Middle East, for example, have&nbsp;<a href="https://deadline.com/2022/05/everything-everywhere-all-once-banned-middle-east-1235016780/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned</a>&nbsp;films that include gay characters, such as&nbsp;Everything Everywhere All At Once, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, Eternals&nbsp;and&nbsp;West Side Story.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



It’s unclear how many other countries may ban the box office hit.&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;is scheduled to premiere in theaters in Lebanon on August 31, but some officials have said they might follow the lead of other Middle Eastern countries and ban the movie from theaters. Lebanese culture minister Mohammad Mortada asked the interior ministry to ban&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;because he said it contradicts “values of faith and morality” and promotes “homosexuality and sexual transformation,” the Associated Press&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mideast-barbie-movie-censorship-955390b933747bfc3f662022db2e4d9b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Mortada also said&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;questioned the necessity of marriage and ridiculed the role of mothers, the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/arts/barbie-ban-kuwait-lebanon.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Barbie&nbsp;was nearly banned in the Philippines earlier this month. Following news of Vietnam’s decision to not air the film, officials in the Philippines launched a weeklong review of the film that included two review sessions and conversations among multiple government departments,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=741736454626335&amp;set=pcb.741736844626296" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;a press release from the country’s Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. The board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=741736454626335&amp;set=pcb.741736844626296" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decided</a>&nbsp;the map included in the film did “not depict the ‘nine-dash line,’” a term used to describe China’s contested claims over the South China Sea, and instead the map “portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie.” In the statement, the board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=741736454626335&amp;set=pcb.741736844626296" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">noted</a>&nbsp;it has previously sanctioned filmmakers and distributions for exhibiting the fictitious nine-dash line in their films.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$1,187,042,188. That’s how much money&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;has grossed worldwide since it premiered in mid-July,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1077904129/?ref_=bo_hm_RECENT_WEEKEND_WIDGET_1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;Box Office Mojo. Domestically&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1077904129/?ref_=bo_hm_RECENT_WEEKEND_WIDGET_1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earned</a>&nbsp;more than $526 million, making it the second-highest-grossing movie of the year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/12/barbie-breaks-500-million-at-us-box-office-further-cementing-itself-as-summers-blockbuster/?sh=4ba5ebde43f9">behind</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;Super Mario Bros. Movie.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Barbie&nbsp;has dominated the U.S. box office since it first opened in theaters in July and taken the top box office spot for the past four weeks. The film tells the live-action story of Mattel dolls Barbie and Ken. With an all-star cast—Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Ncuti Gatwa, Michael Cera, Simu Liu, America Ferrera and Dua Lipa—and pop soundtrack produced by Mark Ronson, the film’s release was long awaited by many.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/03/barbie-movie-banned-in-vietnam-over-controversial-map/?sh=7ec28cfc4ba7">‘Barbie’ Movie Banned In Vietnam Over Controversial Map</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/arts/barbie-ban-kuwait-lebanon.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kuwait And Lebanon Look To Ban ‘Barbie’ For Moral Reasons</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)

The European Premiere of Barbie in London

‘Barbie’ Banned In Algeria—Here’s Where Else You Can’t See The Box Office Hit

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Ozempic and Mounjaro manufacturers are being sued over claims that the drugs cause gastroparesis, a severe stomach disorder, but some experts believe this assertion is inaccurate because the drugs only cause a temporary delay in stomach emptying.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Earlier this month, a personal injury law firm filed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forthepeople.com/sites/default/files/2023-08/Morgan%20%26%20Morgan%20Ozempic%20Bjorklund%20complaint%208.2.23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;against Novo Nordisk—the makers of Ozempic—and Eli Lilly, the makers of Mounjaro, claiming the drugs cause gastroparesis.



The lawsuit also alleges the manufacturers knew of the link between the GLP-1 drugs and “the risk of developing severe gastrointestinal issues, including gastroparesis.”



<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gastroparesis</a>, or stomach paralysis, slows or completely stops the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine, preventing the stomach from properly emptying—neither drug lists gastroparesis as a potential side effect.



Semaglutide (the generic name for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2022/12/26/what-to-know-about-ozempic/?sh=2336a35a5adb">Ozempic</a>) and tirzepatide (the generic name for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/31/diabetes-drug-mounjaro-expected-to-be-approved-for-weight-loss-soon-what-to-know-and-how-it-compares-to-similar-drugs/?sh=68aef4ef477a">Mounjaro</a>) are a type of drug known as a GLP-1, and they work by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/news/semaglutide-weight-loss-what-you-need-know" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interacting</a>&nbsp;with the hunger part of the brain and suppressing the appetite, causing patients to feel full quicker.



In July, CNN released a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/25/health/weight-loss-diabetes-drugs-gastroparesis/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;about patients who’ve been diagnosed with severe gastroparesis, and their doctors believe weight loss drug Wegovy (manufactured by Novo Nordisk) and its sister diabetes drug Ozempic may be to blame.



The patients noticed they were vomiting days-old food and doctors noted it was common for people on Ozempic to have stomachs full of food when doing an endoscopy—one patient even had to have a stomach bypass surgery to help relieve the gastroparesis.



The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) put out a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2023/06/patients-taking-popular-medications-for-diabetes-and-weight-loss-should-stop-before-elective-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warning</a>&nbsp;in June asking patients to stop taking GLP-1 drugs at least a week before elective surgeries due to an increased risk of the drugs causing vomiting during operation.



The ASA has received reports that an “increased risk of regurgitation and aspiration of food into the airways and lungs during general anesthesia and deep sedation” was potentially being caused by the drugs’ ability to “delay” stomach emptying.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4134614-ozempic-mounjaro-sued-stomach-paralysis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;The Hill “patient safety is of utmost importance” to the company and they continuously monitor “the safety profile of our products and collaborate closely with authorities to ensure patient safety, including adequate information on gastrointestinal side effects in the label.” In a similar statement, a spokesperson for Eli Lilly told The Hill patient safety is “top priority,” and it “actively [engages] in monitoring, evaluating and reporting safety information” for their medications.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has reached out to both companies for comment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Gastroparesis, also called delayed stomach emptying, affects the movement of food even though there isn’t a blockage in the small intestine or stomach,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/gastroparesis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It typically takes about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/expert-answers/faq-20058340#:~:text=After%20you%20eat%2C%20it%20takes,move%20through%20the%20entire%20colon." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">six to eight hours</a>&nbsp;for food to pass from the stomach to the small intestine, though the amount and type of food consumed can affect this. With gastroparesis, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318753#stomach-emptying" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digestion process</a>&nbsp;is extended, and specific times differ from person to person.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Symptoms</a>&nbsp;include too much bloating, feeling full after starting a meal, feeling full long after finishing a meal, vomiting, heartburn, pain in the upper abdomen, poor appetite and too much burping. Gastroparesis has many causes, including diabetes, which is the most common cause of gastroparesis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/diabetes-digestion.html#:~:text=Nausea%2C%20heartburn%2C%20or%20bloating%20can,common%20known%20cause%20of%20gastroparesis." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. Though both Ozempic and Mounjaro are used off-label for weight loss, they are only approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in treating Type 2 diabetes. High blood sugar can lead to gastroparesis. Besides suppressing the appetite, another result of Ozempic’s ability to slow down the digestion process is the lowering of blood sugar,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ozempic.com/why-ozempic/how-ozempic-works.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Novo Nordisk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



Steven Batash, founder of Batash Endoscopic Weight Loss and an expert on nonsurgical weight loss procedures, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that “to say [Ozempic] causes gastroparesis is not really an accurate statement.” This is because gastroparesis is the “end product” when no food or almost no food moves in the digestive tract. Instead, Batash believes Ozempic causes a delay in gastric emptying. However, this delay only lasts for a short period of time and once the medication’s effects wear off, patients’ “motility will return to [their] baselines,” according to Batash. Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are known to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ozempic.com/faqs.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cause</a>&nbsp;gastrointestinal issues, like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Side effects of Ozempic will be present but will be “mild” in most patients. If these effects are too extreme, Batash recommends either lowering the dosage or stopping usage altogether.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



A&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28958851/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology</a>&nbsp;examined how liraglutide—another GLP-1 drug—affected digestion. Participants took either liraglutide or a placebo for five weeks and then ate a meal with a radioactive tracer so researchers could see how long the food stayed in their stomachs. It took those taking liraglutide 70 minutes for half their food to leave their stomachs compared to four minutes in the control group, a drastic slow in digestion. In some participants taking liraglutide, it took up to two hours and 30 minutes for half the meal to leave their stomachs. However, this group did see weight loss, and there was a correlation between a bigger delay in stomach emptying and the more weight participants lost.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2022/12/26/what-to-know-about-ozempic/?sh=13edf6c65adb">What To Know About Ozempic: The Diabetes Drug Becomes A Viral Weight Loss Hit (Elon Musk Boasts Using It) Creating A Shortage</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/07/what-is-berberine-supplement-dubbed-natures-ozempic-for-possible-weight-loss-benefits-but-evidence-is-limited/?sh=154e8d5a1068">What Is Berberine? Supplement Dubbed ‘Nature’s Ozempic’ For Possible Weight Loss Benefits—But Evidence Is Limited.</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/31/diabetes-drug-mounjaro-expected-to-be-approved-for-weight-loss-soon-what-to-know-and-how-it-compares-to-similar-drugs/?sh=68aef4ef477a">Diabetes Drug Mounjaro Expected To Be Approved For Weight Loss Soon: What To Know And How It Compares To Similar Drugs</a> (Forbes)

Ozempic Manufacturer Sued Over Side Effects Of Medication Used For Weight Loss

What To Know About Gastroparesis: Lawsuit Claims Ozempic And Mounjaro Causes The Severe Stomach Disorder

Exploring the emerging trend of using cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation, highlighting real-world applications and driving economic growth in South Africa.



Cryptocurrencies have had a tumultuous history, often marred by speculation and fraudulent activities. However, the recent decline in public interest has allowed for more realistic applications to emerge, along with appropriate regulation. This maturation of the crypto space has led to an exploration of cryptocurrencies as a potential hedge against inflation.



Ahren Posthumus, CEO of Momint, a tech startup based in Cape Town, believes the reduction in hype has allowed for a focus on real-world projects that are auditable and have a real background. &#8220;We&#8217;re seeing this [crypto as a hedge against inflation] quite a lot&#8230; But not only is it being used as a hedge, it’s also being used as a mechanism to drive the bottom line and solve real problems that South Africa is facing right now,” he says to FORBES AFRICA.



Another notable advantage of cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation is stablecoins. Since stablecoins are backed by the US dollar, owning them is equivalent to saving in dollars. Storing funds in USDT or earning in other stable tokens like USDC can help keep finances protected from devaluation.



According to Peter Mureu, Marketing Director at Yellow Card, “The rand has dramatically lost its value over the past decade. From ZAR10 for $1 in 2010 to almost ZAR20 for the same amount now, the purchasing ability of the rand has nearly been cut in half. Investing in crypto, especially USDT will allow for that risk to be halved and increase the ability to purchase alternative power sources to deal with the current power issues/load-shedding. For those earning in USDT, even the lack of power is an easily surmountable problem because the USDT is constantly appreciating regardless of the state of the rand.”



One such problem is South Africa’s current energy crisis. The combination of large tax rebates for investments in renewable energy, coupled with platforms such as Momint, has seen large growth in realistic applications for cryptocurrencies. “Our tokenized, fractionalized solar investments qualify for Section 12 rebates… this is massive,” continues Posthumus.



Lerato Lamola, consultant and crypto specialist at Webber Wentzel, notes that South Africa’s legislative process seems to be in line with this, with the country classifying crypto as a financial product rather than a security. This allows crypto to be managed more easily within the framework of existing financial instruments.



“South Africa is really focusing on the man in the street,” says Lamola. “South Africa is now focusing more on how crypto is impacting retail consumers.”



Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are emerging as potent tools for socio-economic development in Africa, particularly South Africa. By facilitating low-cost remittances and microloans, they&#8217;re creating meaningful changes that uplift the economy.



Posthumus sees the burgeoning sector as a vehicle for innovation and economic growth, asserting that cryptocurrencies could engender a more equitable financial system by enabling secure and cost-effective transactions.



In Africa, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are no longer theoretical concepts; they have become practical tools driving tangible change. Platforms such as Momint are already realizing this – one such example is the ability for users to fractionally invest in renewable energy projects, allowing investors to generate returns, take advantage of renewable investment tax breaks, and invest in sustainable development.



Cryptocurrencies in South Africa and Africa are increasingly seen as more than just volatile investments, but as powerful tools.



&#8220;The biggest thing for us is about having a product that people can use and understand. It’s about education, and we need to be building that trust with the consumer,” adds Posthumus.

Bitcoin on digital circuit board and graph

Crypto As Inflation Hedge: South Africa’s Innovative Approach To Digital Assets

Food waste costs grocery stores $28 billion every year. Afresh is working to slash that number.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Albertsons&nbsp;wants to sell fresh raspberries. Not raspberries that are mushy. Or moldy. Or that will be inedible the day after you stick them in your fridge. But raspberries that are red and juicy and delicious.



It’s astonishingly difficult to pull off. In the past, store managers were essentially making their best guess when deciding how much to order. Too little, and the customer walks away empty-handed. Too much, and the raspberries end up sitting around for too long and go bad.



“Previously, produce ordering was a manual process, which meant stores were more likely to inaccurately estimate the type and amount of produce customers would buy,” said Suzanne Long, chief sustainability officer for Albertsons.



Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, one of the nation&#8217;s largest grocers with $78 billion in annual revenue, began using artificial intelligence software across stores last year from a startup called Afresh Technologies to help it forecast demand and place orders for the type of food that tends to spoil the fastest, like bananas, bell peppers and bagged salads. Albertsons is now placing more frequent&nbsp;orders for smaller quantities.



“We’re trying to have full shelves and an empty backroom when the next truck comes in,” said Afresh CEO Matt Schwartz.



San Francisco-based Afresh, started in 2017, is still a nascent business –&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that its revenue last year was under $10 million – but it’s growing fast. With $150 million in equity funding from Spark Capital, Insight Partners and other top VCs, Afresh has rolled out its software at 3,300 stores that include Albertsons (whose stores represent the majority of its business), WinCo Foods and Save Mart. Supermarket employees wielding iPads punch in how many apples, heads of broccoli and cherry tomatoes they have left on shelves and then review automated suggestions for how much to order.



More grocery stores are adopting this type of technology in an effort to cut down on how much food they toss each year, an amount that totals $28 billion, according to estimates from ReFED, a nonprofit that tracks food waste. Since stores tend to err on the side of ordering too much, they throw away about 5% to 6% of fresh food, Schwartz said. Rates can be twice that among prepared foods. In addition to being bad for the environment, it’s bad for business because it means lost sales and crimped profits.



Afresh CEO Matt SchwartzAFRESH



Afresh says that its customers typically reduce food waste by one quarter, which can lift operating margins in the produce category by 40% and deliver tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, in profit. “We tell chief financial officers, ‘You’re going to smash your numbers,’” said Schwartz.



That’s a welcome message at a time when grocery stores, which have notoriously thin profit margins, are grappling with the rising cost of food. Albertsons, whose brands include Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco and which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/business/kroger-albertsons-merger.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has announced plans to merge</a>&nbsp;with Kroger, rolled out the software across nearly all 2,200 of its stores last year. The company has said that its goal is to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/our-impact/planet/food-waste/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eliminate food waste going to landfills</a>&nbsp;by 2030. “If you can pick up three to five points of gross margin with this thing without having to raise prices, that is huge,” said Walter Robb, the former CEO of Whole Foods, who has invested in Afresh.



To assist with orders, the startup makes sense of a jumble of data to forecast demand better than any human can. It starts with the history of how an item has sold over the past several years, folding in sales data on a daily basis. It then factors in anything that may affect demand, such as upcoming promotions, weather, holidays and the day that food stamps are doled out. Internal estimates attempt to account for the unforgiving shelf life of finicky items like avocados and peaches, which a store is always racing against the clock to sell.



This is a big improvement over an employee going product by product, using their judgment to figure out how many Gala apples to order versus Honeycrisp and Fuji and Pink Lady and Granny Smith.



It means that fruits and veggies are not sitting around for nearly as long at grocers like Cub, a Minnesota chain with 100 stores, which is moving produce in and out of its stores 7% faster than before. The retailer has also seen a nice 2.5% boost in sales from improving its in-stock levels.



“Remember that retailing is all about having the right product at the right price at the right time,” said Robb. “This is a tool to make that happen.”



The backroom of a Cub grocery store before they started working with Afresh (left) and after.AFRESH



The stakes are high in the fresh section of a grocery store, which tends to be a big traffic driver, especially for return trips. Improving the quality and selection of fresh foods has been a major priority for Albertsons, which sees it as a way to boost sales and steal market share from competitors. “The fresh portfolio really, really matters,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran said in a quarterly earnings call last month.



Schwartz, 33, a former Bain consultant with an MBA from Stanford, started Afresh six years ago after learning how much fresh food grocery stores were throwing away, and how little technology existed to address the problem. Schwartz has always been a health nut, who practiced intermittent fasting and designed meal and workout plans for friends. Early in his career, he’d worked at Simple Mills, which makes crackers, cookies and other snacks with alt-ingredients like almond flour and coconut sugar.



Afresh charges each store department hundreds of dollars per month to use its software. It says it has prevented 43 million pounds of food from being thrown away since inception.



“This technology is one of a small handful we’re seeing really take off,” said Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED.



As AI-powered ordering gains wider adoption, it&nbsp;<a href="http://pacificcoastcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PCFWC-Case-Study_AI_Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">could help cut food waste at the store level in half by 2030</a>, according to the Pacific Coast Collaborative, a multi-state governmental initiative to reduce greenhouse gas. Similar technology is sold by companies like Shelf Engine, which signed up Kroger as a customer but subsequently laid off a significant portion of its staff.



Afresh is now signing up more stores and expanding beyond produce with existing customers. This year, it expects to go into another 7,500 departments, which includes new forays into the meat and seafood counters, the deli and the prepared foods section. It is also introducing more tools for grocery stores, like one that helps employees complete monthly inventory checks.



The company now assists with ordering a tenth of all produce sold in America, said Schwartz. “We plan to be preventing over 100 million pounds of food waste per year very shortly,” he said.

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