Staying Connected

Another month, and another period unlike many of us will have witnessed in our lifetimes.

All across the world, public and commercial life continues to be far from normal, the meaning of that very word perhaps about to be redefined once COVID-19 finally passes.

The rise in home working, recalculation of how key workers are valued and heightening awareness of the importance of hygiene – one thing which the pandemic has taught societies is that things can and perhaps should be done differently.

Once more this issue covers the ins and outs of the coronavirus and how governments and businesses in Africa are responding. Be it through our company features or news section, we bring you a flavour of what organisations are doing to tackle one of the greatest challenges of this generation.

Our cover story this issue explores the world of rubber production. Today, the natural rubber industry serves as a critical socioeconomic enabler in West Africa, especially in Côte d’Ivoire, which is the world’s fourth largest rubber producing nation, recording 780,000 tonnes of production in 2019.

In an in-depth interview, we caught up with Marc Génot, General Manager of Société Africaine de Plantations d’Hévéas (SAPH), the nation’s leading player in the sector.

“Planting and maintaining trees, working with farmers, building and operating factories in rural areas are challenging, but very rewarding activities,” he tells us. “But it goes beyond that… Natural rubber is green and getting greener.”

Before this you will find an exclusive Q&A with the world’s leading mobile association, the GSMA.

The COVID-19 outbreak has revealed how critical connectivity is to sharing information, tracking the spread of the virus and keeping people working as best as possible from home – in Kenya, for example, Safaricom has reported a jump in data use of some 70 percent.

Access to mobile money is more important than ever too, and this is the topic of our interview with GSMA’s Head of Mobile Money Programme Ruan Swanepoel.

Other exclusive insights this issue come from Advent Construction, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Africa, HeidelbergCement’s DRC division and Cash Converters, while we also have a fascinating insight from GuineaBissau’s Minister of Public Health, Dr Magda Robalo, on the critical nature of vaccination programmes.