Bill Gates calls for the empowerment of African youth 

Updated on 18 July 2016

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Bill Gates delivered the 14th annual Nelson Mandela memorial lecture at the University of Pretoria on Sunday night. The Microsoft founder and billionare philanthropist said if Africa’s tech-savvy youth are given their basic needs, it will enable them to change the future.

The theme of the lecture was “living together “. Sharing Mandela’s love for young people is a reason why Gates is so optimistic about the future of Africa, he said.

“Demographically, Africa is the world’s youngest continent, and its youth can be the source of a special dynamism.

“In the next 35 years, two billion babies will be born in Africa. By 2050, 40% of the world’s children will live on this continent.

“Economists talk about the demographic dividend, ” he said. “When you have more people of working age, and fewer dependents for them to take care of, you can generate phenomenal economic growth. ”

Gates said young people are important because of the way their minds work. “Young people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past, ” he said. (Big News Network)

Deloitte survey identifies the five trends disrupting how business is done 
According to the Deloitte 2016 Human Capital Trends Report for South Africa highlights how global changes, such as the expanding generation gap, technological advancements and new employer-employee social contracts, are disrupting traditional business models, reports Bizcommunity.

The top five trends identified by South African participants related to organisational design, shape culture, engagement, leadership awakened and learning.

Globally, the Deloitte survey garnered feedback from over 7,000 business and HR leaders in 130 countries, with 213 of the responses from South African respondents across all industry groups.

According to Bizcommunity, 92% of the global survey participants rated organisational design as very important. The ‘new organisation’, as it has been termed, is built around empowered teams that are driven by a new model of management and led by a breed of younger, more globally diverse leaders.

South African respondents mirrored this result, with 91% of participants rating organisational design as very important or important. However, 54% say that they are not ready for the trend, which has two main drivers, namely the need to get products to market quickly and the digital technologies that help teams to stay connected. (Bizcommunity)

Mozambique finalists chosen for Seedstars startup competition
​Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its Mozambique round to a successful close during Seedstars Maputo. The event took place this Friday at the Standard Bank Incubator in, Rua dos Desportistas where 10 selected startups were invited to present their ideas in front of the local jury panel.

The local winner, Blackbox TV, which allows anyone to stream content without internet, using their digital broadcast, was selected as the best startup in Mozambique for its novel video on demand (VOD) solution for Africa. “I started Blackbox TV because I wanted to create VOD (Video on Demand) system, a Netflix for Africa. However, I wanted people to have access to content without a conventional data connection”, explains Claude Champier, founder of Blackbox TV. As a part of the prize, Blackbox TV will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the over 65+ winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to the USD 1.5 million equity investment.

IZYSHOP, an online supermarket which connects producers to consumers, came second and Vamobi Net, which aims to modernize the management of small water supply and distribution systems, took the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Compra, Kharin, MolaPay, +J, Mozik, Ola Taxi, and KWINE.

The Mozambican competition was carried out with the support of Standard Bank and local ambassador UX Information Technologies.

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