Asides

Mon Trésor’s latest campaign tagline is ‘Move south’. That statement signals a call to all future residents to come experience all that southern Mauritius has to offer and be a part of the premier smart city of the island. Therein lies a promise to fulfil the quest for a harmonious and balanced lifestyle amidst a modern, carefully planned and sustainable environment. Mon Trésor positions itself as the ideal neighbourhood to enjoy a rewarding lifestyle.

The new residential offering proposes modern amenities embedded in a pristine coastal haven. An irresistible live, work, play environment hushed by nature’s hums, harmoniously designed and surrounded by lush gardens and iconic landscapes.

Strategically located near the country’s international airport, Mon Trésor smart city’s vision is to capitalise on the already ongoing rapid expansion of airport-linked commercial facilities as recently mentioned by the prime minister of Mauritius while officially inaugurating a new wing of the airport terminal. The increasing connectivity of Mauritius with the world and its intensifying air links with some 11 international airport hubs and 30 airlines serving the country is resolutely placing the country as a major hub on the Africa-Asia routes.

As already observed in other countries, this expansion, according to Aerotropolis co-author John Kasarda, is making ’air gateways anchors of 21st-century metropolitan development, where distant travellers and locals alike can conduct business, exchange knowledge, shop, eat, sleep and be entertained without going more than 15 minutes from the airport’. Kasarda adds: ‘This functional and spatial evolution is transforming many city airports into airport cities.’

Yet Mon Trésor will remain far from the maddening crowd of the mainstream conurbation areas that stretch from Port Louis, the capital city, towards the north-west and central areas. The new residential component of Mon Trésor consists of apartments, townhouses and villas accessible to Mauritians and foreigners alike, priced from MUR7.2 million. The proposed residential precincts complement the activity mix as earmarked by the governing master plan, which was produced by renowned international engineering, design and project management consultancy firm Royal Haskonning and has benefited from funding from the European Investment Fund.

The commercial development comprises a business gateway; a trade port and free-trade zone/light industrial compound; and a commercial park. The vicinity around SSR International Airport, where Mon Trésor is positioned, is expected to become a major economic hub for the country, according to local authorities.

‘Major airports have become key nodes in global production and enterprise systems, offering them speed, agility, and connectivity,’ says Kasarda. ‘They are also powerful engines of local economic development, attracting aviation-linked businesses of all types to their environs. These include, among others, time-sensitive manufacturing and distribution facilities; hotel, entertainment, retail, convention, trade and exhibition complexes; and office buildings that house air travel-intensive executives and professionals.’

The various components of the Mon Trésor smart city combine these elements. The Mon Trésor business gateway is already operational. Its first phase, an office park, has housed the Omnicane headquarters since the end of 2018. The business gateway will cover 55 ha with office and coworking spaces for rent.

The Trade Port and Free-trade Zone, and their infrastructures, are under way and will extend over 24 ha. The Freeport Park zone will offer an attractive tax regime and other incentives, together with the benefits of preferred access to international markets as per the regional agreements Mauritius is part of.

The retail centre development will feature a 10 000 m2 shopping mall with an array of retail outlets. This major component of the development is designed to boost the neighbouring region.

The Mon Trésor smart city aims to capitalise on the expansion of airport-linked commercial facilities

The commercial park spreads out over 17 ha and consists of 50 plots available for sale to local and foreign buyers. The plots, ranging between 2 039 m2 and 5 121 m2, have been designed to meet the needs of commercial buildings of five storeys or fewer. Visitor parking and a drop-off zone will be available at the entrance of the business centre.

These components, tailored for modern businesses willing to boost the Mauritian economy and, more specifically, from this part of the island, follow the construction of the airport’s Holiday Inn hotel. Operational since 2014, the Holiday Inn Mauritius Mon Trésor is the country’s first-ever airport hotel and is the initial landmark to the country’s first project to be issued a smart city certificate by the authorities.

The smart city promoters are also setting up a state-of-the-art film studio. This innovative first for the country will be established in the premises of the old sugar mill. The film studio will host international productions and comprise five sound studios; a props workshop; office space; trailer park; and a parking zone. The studio development will, of course, provide new career opportunities for young Mauritians, particularly those residing in the immediate neighbourhoods.

Sustainability is at the heart of Mon Trésor’s residential component. The development will feature cycling tracks finely integrated into street networks, including a royal palm forest, the beach and coastline access.

This will enable residents and visitors to move around freely and safely in an eco-friendly and healthy way. Mon Trésor will also have medical services, schools, convenience stores and a beach club.

It is important to note that the development and its components are regulated by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). This standard is applied during the early planning and design stages of a development. It offers a holistic framework with key target benchmarks that assist decision-makers to better understand and improve on the impact their decisions will have on the longer-term environmental, social and economic aspects of the development.

The current standard can be used to assess projects in most parts of the world. However, for areas with more complex ecosystems and planning requirements, BREEAM offers a bespoke option that helps tailor the criteria to better reflect a country/region’s environmental, political, economic and cultural climate.

BREEAM benefits local authorities, developers, master planners and community members by:

  • Helping to create sustainable communities that are good for the environment and its people, and are also economically successful
  • Embedding  sustainable principles and goals within the master plan from the outset, helping to create places where people want to live and work, enhancing employee satisfaction
  • Providing a framework to improve efficiencies during the master planning process, saving time and money throughout the project
  • Facilitating the planning process with tools and targets to assist with sustainable decision-making
  • Providing independent third-party certification of the sustainability of a development’s master plan
  • Contributing to project participants’ and tenants’ corporate social responsibility, business reporting and sustainable business leadership.

As required by the registration process, all stakeholders and, most importantly, the neighbouring localities have been and continue to be regularly consulted, appraised and updated on the various components of the Mon Trésor initiative, and their respective stages of advancement.

A comprehensive survey has been conducted in the various surrounded villages, with a view to sensitising residents, especially the youth, on the job and career opportunities that will be made available.

This survey provides valuable insight on the need for training.

This illustrates the progressive inclusive development approach that characterises the Mon Trésor smart city project. This is a trademark of the socio-economic and historical DNA of Omnicane, the Mauritian conglomerate behind the launch of the smart city project.

Omnicane illustrates the successful transformation of a century-old sugar industry into a modern, state-of-the-art cane cluster, embodied by its now integrated and sustainable agro-industrial ecosystem located at La Baraque, l’Escalier.

The La Baraque facility is visited regularly by foreign heads of state and other dignitaries together with business leaders from around the world, proving that Omnicane is a major socio-economic player. Through the Mon Trésor smart city, Omnicane intend to pursue its vision, namely integrating energies. It is fully committed to the sustainable development of the region and has nurtured its eco-sustainable footprint as a responsible corporate citizen for more than a hundred years, to the benefit of all its stakeholders.

Omnicane House, Mon Trésor Business Gateway
New Airport Access Road, Plaine Magnien, 51521, Mauritius
+230 660 0600
[email protected]
www.montresor.mu

This year Henley Business School Africa enrolled 329 students into its MBA programme. It’s the biggest class the school has ever had, so big in fact that it’s been split into five intakes. It’s a far cry from where the school was in 2011 – light years in fact.

Then, Henley Africa was a small, locally accredited operation of an overseas business school, basically delivering its MBA degree. That year 30 students graduated. In 2019 the school will graduate almost 1 000 students across a broad spectrum of internationally accredited qualifications; from the higher certificate in management to the advanced certificate, diploma, post-graduate diploma in management practice and the Master’s in business administration.

When the school started this journey, it depended on the MBA programme for 98% of its revenue. These days the MBA’s portion is down to 30% to 40%, with the balance made up by other programmes, especially its executive education offering, which has grown from nothing into a US$6 million-a-year operation. Today, the school has a total student body of 3 500 students; two-thirds of all Henley MBA students come from its Africa campus and three-quarters of the flexible MBA cohort.

Henley Business School Africa has not only developed from what was in essence a classic business start-up, bootstrapping itself into a fully fledged business school; it has also diversified its offerings.

Jon Foster-Pedley, dean and founder of Henley Business School Africa

The school had to do this to properly respond to South Africa’s and indeed Africa’s needs, where not everyone comes to business school after a conventional undergraduate degree and time in management. On the contrary, many students had the requisite experience and ability, but never the opportunity – this had to be created through the school’s unique academic pathway of learning, which can effectively take someone with a school leaver’s certificate all the way to Master’s level, without leaving Henley or, even more importantly, their jobs.

The flexible ‘family-friendly’ MBA was one of the movements the school founded to break the age-old trope of the Marriage Break up Academy, but Henley has played around with the concept of the MBA in other equally important areas, such as introducing a Master’s in business activism – or its mobilising business in action programme. Its MBAid is an outreach to NGOs and NPOs to give them vital management input and prove that business schools can turn their energies to social good and become deeply localised in the process. To date, the school has worked with 350 of these organisations. Henley Africa wanted to change the face of business education too, through constant innovation, immersive learning and corporate activism in a country that is often as equally defined by its inequality as its recent deposed kleptocracy. Henley Africa has gone from 20% female to 42% in its MBA programme and from about 32% black students to 68%.

Its executive education programmes, which didn’t exist when it started eight years ago, comprise 60% women and 80% black students, and is twice the size of the MBA programme. Henley Africa also runs a coaching programme – the Professional Certificate in Coaching as does Henley UK. In addition, it provides the highest number of MBA scholarships – 30 this year – in the whole of Africa, to allow the school to cast its net as widely as possible, to infuse its classes with diversity and reward local heroes, giving them critical skills to become even better and bigger community leaders.

Henley Africa continues to innovate – through Henley #FIRE (Full Immersion Reality Education), #ICE (its school of Innovation Creativity and Entrepreneurship) and now #AIR (African Insight and Research) and #EARTH (Environmental Activism through Research and Training at Henley).

Two-thirds of the global Henley MBA student body come from its Africa campus

The last two innovations are particularly potent in the African context: land because of its historical connotations of dispossession and its importance now for sustainable growth for all; and research that is not just relevant to the African context but is also sustainable.

As a business school, Henley Africa believes it has to show that it can deliver great value and create new services for a growing client base beyond its students, without being subsidised, exactly as other businesses have to.

Charity always starts at home and Henley Africa practises what it preaches, determined to break the cobbler’s children syndrome where the cobbler’s kids are the only ones without a decent pair of shoes. The school is a passionate supporter of both employment equity and black economic empowerment, contributing to transforming South Africa from its racist exclusionary past. Henley Africa has grown from five staff to 70 full-time and 150 part-time staff. In addition, 68% of its faculty teaching custom programmes are women.

The minimum wage paid at Henley Africa is more than triple the national minimum to ensure everyone receives a living wage; everyone gets medical aid and there’s a staff welfare fund too for those unexpected emergencies. All the staff receive free education. Some have moved from receptionists into programme management and others are now enrolled for their MBAs; or are pursuing a range of programmes from matric to Master’s degrees at other schools and universities, all supported by Henley Africa.

Henley Business School Africa has followed an unprecedented upward trajectory since 2011, a 900% increase in turnover being just one of the markers of this success.

The real success story is how this former little agency has developed into a stand-alone, fully functional multidisciplinary business school with its own quality assurance and teaching and learning committees allowing the parent organisation to have less detailed involvement but with a far more intense British-based quality-assurance overview, coupled with the excellent quality assurance from the South African Council on Higher Education.

It’s a source of great joy to all at Henley Africa – how well its students do in the blindly assessed externally moderated MBA examinations. Its student body is at least 70% black and at least 50% women; and the South African MBA students do as well or better than the British or Germans. In fact, their marks are as good as anyone’s in the world, which means that what Henley has in South Africa is contrary to the enduring mythologies of the colonisation of the mind and that one is no good.

Eight years after this journey began, perhaps what is most interesting is how from its colonial and British roots, Henley has become emancipated as a fully-fledged, full-service business school in its own right, assertively decolonised to provide the best possible business education to as many as possible to build the South African economy.

Tel: +27 (0)11 808 0860
[email protected]
www.henleysa.ac.za

Mobicel is a technology company that embodies the typically African characteristics of independence, resourcefulness and innovation, positioning itself as a hero for the South Africa’s mobile phone users and continuing to thrive in a fiercely competitive market.

In 2007, founder and CEO Ridhwan Khan established Mobicel, based on his passionate belief that South Africans deserve better. He recognised that technology is a tool for empowerment and he knew that a mobile phone isn’t simply a device. It empowers people to interact with and shape their world. It’s an extension of one’s personality, voice and senses. So by putting a mobile phone in a person’s hand, Mobicel is empowering people to have, do and be more.

Pole position
Recent statistics show that Mobicel is the leading mobile brand in South Africa in terms of sales. Mobicel sells more devices than any other brand in the market.

A report issued by Counterpoint has shown that within the smartphone segment, Mobicel has seen the highest growth rate in market share – from 6% in 2017 to 16% in 2018. The growth of Mobicel smartphones, driven by the Mobicel Astro, places the company as the largest mobile phone brand in South Africa in 2018.

Mobicel founder and CEO Ridhwan Khan

Be more
From the very beginning, Mobicel has lived its ‘be more’ ethos. Knowing that mobile phones are a necessity and not a luxury, the company set out to put these devices in more people’s hands at affordable prices.

Its mission is nothing short of revolutionary: power through technology; by the people, for the people. From small beginnings, Mobicel has grown to be a major player in the South African mobile phone market. It designs and manufactures handsets that hold their own alongside global brands. The challenge is always to create and market this technology at prices that are not merely competitive, but a fraction of those offered by its big-name competitors. This is a challenge it has consistently met and surpassed.

Mobicel constantly strives to be more, so that its customers can too. Today it stands firmly positioned in its local market, and poised to make an explosive entry into the global industry. More freedom, more self-empowerment, more style, ease and affordability – these form the core of Mobicel.

Bigger picture
To be more means doing more with what one has, and that is an art Mobicel has mastered. The company is able to provide its fellow South Africans with true value in a device.

Mobicel devices are built with key consumer price-points in mind throughout the development process, which ensures that key features are included in all devices and that consumers always receive true value.

When it comes to developing smartphones, Mobicel has listened to what South Africans need, and in doing so, it has created mobile phones that add value to the customer’s wallet. In keeping with its founding vision, Mobicel has a device for everyone: from basic, retro-style feature phones to feature-packed smartphones.

Mobicel is the top-selling mobile brand in South Africa

Sound outlook
Mobicel’s goal has always been ‘for the people, by the people’. It understands its market’s mobile needs and aims to meet these needs, as the company consistently grows and expands its product range. It will continue to form lasting partnerships with its distributors in order to increase growth and gain a better understanding of its market. Mobicel is continuously looking for ways to improve not only its products but its services too as it expands into the continent.

Solid teamwork
Currently, the Mobicel workforce is about 200-strong, including salespeople, call-centre operators, administration, technicians and engineers. Khan – EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 – leads the management team and represents Africa on a global stage.

+27 (0)11 541 3500
[email protected]
www.mobicel.co.za

It has become a cliché to call us a ‘throw-away society’ but, according to Brindha Roberts, head of sustainability at waste-management solutions provider Averda South Africa, it’s a fairly accurate description.

‘In earlier days, consumers understood and appreciated the value of the “whole”,’ she says. ‘The consumption of a natural resource was utilised to its maximum extent, with minimal wastage. We see this in the habits of the elderly, where plastic carrier bags are folded, stored, reused and appreciated as a thing of value. As we progress as a species it seems we predominantly learn by experience, and we have just realised the error of our ways regarding the sourcing, design production, utilisation and disposal of goods.’

Circular economy
At Averda, the concept of a ‘circular economy’ is central to finding value in the whole. Roberts believes this can be achieved by an integrated life-cycle approach, and by redesigning products to include responsible sourcing of renewable raw materials, fit for purpose and with post-use (reuse, recycling or repurpose) in mind.

‘A successful circular economy designs, manufactures, uses and reuses products for as long as possible with only the truly spent items being discarded as waste,’ she says.

‘Products are made by combining several valuable materials to form a useful and functional product, and in most instances can be “de-manufactured” back into valuable raw materials to feed into the start of the process. ‘This post-use beneficiation, as opposed to linear disposal thinking, has the potential to create new economic sectors to improve employment levels and spur technological development,’ says Roberts.

The question is, what to do with those products when they finally reach the end of their life cycle. As a leader in the waste-management sector, Averda is constantly rethinking the process by finding sustainable alternatives to sending that waste to landfill. In 2017, after all, 96 million tons of waste were deposited across South Africa’s 826 operational landfills, and the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs has warned that if it continues to be a throw-away society, it will run out of landfill airspace.

‘Averda has identified that the need for landfills will be our reality for the foreseeable future due to the sheer expanse of the land – logistics – and the lack of economically feasible technology,’ says Roberts. ‘But we acknowledge and have identified the need to re-think the waste chain in partnership with our clients. We are in the process of designing and implementing global best practice in the treatment and handling of hazardous waste to unlock the potential value.’

While landfills will continue to exist, Averda is working on ways to limit their environmental impact

The NIMBY effect
While this is the case, using licensed and legally compliant facilities will help minimise any negative consequences. These facilities have a number of mechanisms in place to manage their social and environmental impact, including contamination barriers, monitoring committees and ongoing measurement of air and soil quality for periods of up to 30 years following the facility’s closure.

‘In addition to the environmental hazards, improperly managed dumps also pose serious health problems as they become breeding grounds for disease vectors such as rats and mosquitoes, and illegally dumped waste could cause respiratory illnesses, including asthma and TB,’ she says.

This all adds to the NIMBY (not in my backyard) effect. ‘It’s a common reaction by people who aren’t necessarily opposed to landfill sites, but don’t want them in close proximity to their properties,’ says Roberts. This opposition adds to the scarcity issue, pushing landfills further and further away from urban areas and increasing the cost and carbon footprint associated with managing waste.

Finding the sweet spot
Roberts adds that seeking out compliance and innovative alternatives in waste management comes at a cost, so using licensed waste-management facilities and abiding by their requirements can be a more expensive option for waste disposers. ‘However, this should not be a cost-only decision,’ she says. ‘Waste-management value chain outcomes should be a priority, and non-compliance should not be an acceptable cost-saving mechanism.’

Currently waste-management providers compete with unlicensed counterparts who can carry out the same service at a fraction of the cost, without any regard for the environmental consequences.

Brindha Roberts, head of sustainability, Averda South Africa

In South Africa, and across the continent as a whole, waste diversion is not only an environmental objective; it also has wider reaching economic and social impacts. ‘It’s about finding the sweet spot between people, planet and economic stewardship,’ says Roberts.

‘For example, recycling is currently favoured because it is the main income source for a large portion of the population, therefore structuring diversion without inclusion will be faced with resistance.’

If more entities were to prioritise the environment and people over cost, it would enable investment in sustainable alternatives. ‘Currently, options like refuse-derived fuel and anaerobic digestion are only available in selected regions, whereas bio-drying and gasification are not available at all,’ according to Roberts. ‘Investing in compliance will drive vital funds into an industry that’s plagued by under-pricing – increasing the ability for waste experts to invest in much-needed alternative technologies.’

When it comes to waste management, the duty of care is assigned to the waste generator. However, they do not necessarily have the knowledge or competence to track legislation or best practice, as it is not their core business. For this reason, it is beneficial to engage the services of responsible waste-management providers.

Drawing from their expertise and experience, waste generators can negotiate the complexities of compliance – and benefit from the innovative thinking of the waste-management experts.

‘If it is possible to recycle a fraction of a used disposable diaper back into the process of making a new diaper, surely it is possible to find the value in presently landfilled chemicals or to find value in the molecular structure and properties of the waste as a feedstock to alternative industries,’ says Roberts.

‘Averda’s clients’ core functions do not include R&D for waste beneficiation – and rightly so. Their focus is upstream and on raw-material sourcing, product design and increasing efficiencies,’ she says.

‘Division opportunities dependent on volume and access to a panoramic view of inputs and outputs over diverse sectors and, of course, economic influences… Averda offers this and more.’

+27 (0)86 128 3732
[email protected]
www.averda.co.za

South Africa is a water-stressed country, receiving an average annual rainfall of 492 mm, while the rest of the Earth receives 985 mm. In addition, the WWF cautions that 98% of South Africa’s water has already been allocated to users, leaving little surplus water to cater for a growing population and demand.

With this in mind, prepaid water – as with prepaid electricity – is a good solution to more sustainable consumption and management of shared resources.

Smart water
Smart water has many of the answers for South Africa, the world’s 30th-driest country and one that spends ZAR7 billion a year because of water losses.

Marcus Thulsidas, business development director of Utility Systems, a Sebata Water Technologies company, says the focus needs to move from crisis management to the implementation of proactive water-saving technologies – because water shortages promise to be an ongoing issue.

In addition, infrastructure, reticulation and bulk meters have not been well maintained over the past 25 years, with many leaks resulting in a huge amount of water being wasted.

In this context, one should consider a smart water-supply system fitted with sensors to measure water pressure, chemical composition and flow. When undesirable changes occur, authorities can take immediate action.

Technology has the potential to win the fight to reduce water consumption. Smart meters can detect leaks and tampering, and monitor water in almost real time (while it can take a consumer four months to detect leaks). With this control, consumers can manage their own consumption and prevent waste.

Water-metering systems can manage and reduce consumption

Prepaid water means that the consumer purchases water credit in the form of a prepaid water token. When entered into the user interface unit (located in the consumer’s home), the token instructs the water management device to allow a certain amount of water through the meter before closing. Consumers can track usage, load credit remotely and decrease the possibility of bill shock due to leakages or incorrect monitoring.

According to Leon Vermaak, MD of UMS, also a Sebata Water Technologies company: ‘Municipalities find themselves in a compromised position, because they can’t know with accuracy how much water is going where. Balancing is inaccurate and revenue is lost without explanation. Failure to implement appropriate metering and billing systems contributes to a worsening crisis.’

What’s possible?
There are solutions to the water crisis. As a start, municipalities need to be able to collect revenue efficiently, to enhance profitability and deliver services. Forward-thinking municipalities are already implementing smart metering, which drastically reduces government’s administration costs. This is because they don’t need to chase bad debts or budget for legal fees on unpaid accounts. Public-sector cash flow is immediately improved when municipalities are paid upfront for water.

A prepaid water meter can be used to limit water flowing to a particular area. This helps authorities and property owners control the amount of water used at certain outputs and prevents wastage in low-income households that can’t afford to pay for excess use of this basic need. They can make payments in smaller, frequent increments. This prevents their falling into debt, which can compound in a post-paid arrangement.

Collecting data from prepaid meters is more efficient than the manual collection required for post-paid meters. A radio link receiver can be fixed, vehicle-mounted or carried by municipality personnel. Data is transmitted to the receiver as soon as it’s within signal of the meter, so meter readers don’t need to enter the property. They can walk or drive by a prepaid meter to read it.

Prepaid systems are cost-effective solutions to sustainable water management in that they are not expensive and, by curbing water usage, capital recovery is possible within months. The systems are also able to distribute water equally, based on free water quotas, water balancing and fluctuating demand. Yet because of the diversity of South Africa’s socio-economic and natural environment, warns Vermaak, we must not think there is a single solution to all consumers’ needs.

Diverse solutions
Utility Systems, Amanzi Meters, UMS and Sebata Municipal Solutions are proud subsidiaries of Sebata Water Technologies, Software Solutions and Consultancy Services, which is part of the Sebata Holdings family.

Utility Systems
Smart water management
Utility Systems’ smart water-management devices (WMDs) connect to most pulse-output water meters to convert analogue units into smart devices. They offer flow limitation, prepaid water metering and bulk water management.

Automated meter reading
This technology enables the automatic collection of data – including basic diagnostic, consumption and status information – from a smart water meter and dispatched to the water authority, to facilitate accurate billing and water balancing across zones.

Advanced metering infrastructure
Bi-directional communication from the smart WMD to the utility, in near real-time, assists with early leak detection, minimises wastage, facilitates accurate billing and allows human resources to be assigned to operational or management tasks.

Water-metering systems can manage and reduce consumption

Amanzi Meters
Water meters
The designers of these state-of-the-art, locally produced water meters have combined a high-precision measuring insert with a high-quality, robust meter body.

Ball valves
These manually operated quarter-turn valves are used for isolating (on/off), not for regulating, via a flow-controlling spherical ball located in the valve body.

Meter boxes
These offer multiple solutions for housing and weather-proofing metering systems.

UMS
Meter audit
The firm conducts physical inspections and assessments of water meters and installations to establish functional condition for serviceability.

Spacial data management and verification
Its geo-spatial and workflow-management solutions are able to verify stand data, services and consumer information.

Meter reading and exception management
UMS carries out the physical reading of all electricity and water meters monthly and compiles exception reports based on field data recordings.

Water-flow restriction devices
These custom-designed devices restrict water flow for all water-dispensing units, as a mechanism for credit control and flow limitation for indigent households.

Sebata Municipal Solutions
Data cleansing
Using a third-party service provider, Sebata Municipal Solutions verifies and completes missing data and metadata from the municipality’s billing database.

Debtors book analysis
Clean data from the data-cleansing team is fed into financial systems (FMS and EMS), to allow municipalities to carry out live reporting and billing.

66 Park Lane, Sandton, 2196
+27 (0)11 218 8080
www.sebata.co.za

Consider this conundrum: developing countries with a richness of natural resources, of which the African continent possesses an unusual abundance, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than many countries with fewer natural resources.

Precise measurements give certainty to small-scale miners

Now consider the same abundance of natural resources but place them in a country such as Australia. For the past few decades, Australia’s mining boom has been legendary, powering the economy through, and beyond, the global downturn of 2008. The resulting contrast could not be clearer. Australia’s level of education, healthcare, social protection systems, infrastructure and governance are what the African continent sorely needs. Australia has taken full advantage of its natural resources and put the country’s revenues to good use. Africa must do the same. The crucial question, however, is how do you go about it, and in what order do you invest the proceeds to gain maximum benefit for a developing country?

A new solution that benefits small-scale miners
Some claim that investing away from natural resources and into, for example, healthcare and education, is the solution to this ‘paradox of plenty’ suffered by many resource-dependent states. Politicians eager for votes tend to be the keenest proponents of this course.

The South African-based Moti Group, however, insists precisely the opposite: while healthcare and education are obviously a necessity for a healthy economy, a solution can also be found in spreading the power and influence of existing producers of natural resources by upskilling small-scale industry and facilitating their tangible participation to the national fiscus.

The Moti Group – one of the biggest and fastest-growing enterprises in Southern Africa, and one of the largest investors in Zimbabwe – is soon to launch its first example of this initiative in that country, with its Zimbabwe Motivation Mining (ZMM) programme, which will target small-scale lumpy chrome ore producers. Through this initiative, the Moti Group – via its Zimbabwean subsidiary, African Chrome Fields – aims to empower small-scale industries to unlock the potential of Africa outside of big business.

Small-scale Zimbabwean miners produce 200 000 tons of lumpy chrome every year. ZMM has the potential to increase this figure to 1 million tons

The Zimbabwe Midlands area is well-known for being home to the world’s second-largest chromite resources in the world. This massive bounty holds great potential for foreign earnings. However, while lumpy chrome has been extensively extracted by traditional, small-scale miners for decades, the potential for mining expansion through these operations – and for drastically improving their livelihoods – stays relatively untapped. The question remains on how the Zimbabwean economy can benefit from the 200 000 tons of lumpy chrome that the small-scale miners produce.

Small-scale miners face enormous challenges, not least of which are access to capital, machinery, geological expertise and fair prices. They also face dangerous working conditions and inevitably contribute to environmental deterioration. These factors greatly hamper their ability to grow their operations and, in the process, to contribute significantly to the Zimbabwean economy through foreign earnings.

The Moti Group’s African Chrome Fields mines and processes alluvial chromite ore along the Great Dyke region, and it is the proprietor of the aluminothermic technology, having established a successful plant utilising this proprietary technology. The Moti Group’s ZMM initiative will enable small-scale producers of lumpy chrome to make a tangible contribution to the national fiscus and, thus, for the first time, to enjoy the benefits of real enterprise for their efforts.

In essence, ZMM will incentivise and train small-scale miners in environmental and safety compliance, empowering them for growth into medium-scale miners by optimising production, over and above boosting their income. ZMM will match the grade of each product with available market prices, and pay miners in a combination of the RTGS (real-time gross settlement) payment platform and US dollars. ‘The programme will incentivise miners to improve and grow their operations through training programmes, financial and intellectual capital, and a trusted channel to the international commodities market,’ says Zunaid Moti, chairman of the Moti Group. Utilising the existing infrastructure and network of African Chrome Fields, ZMM will initially work with small-scale chrome miners before expanding into gold and lithium.

With its partners, ZMM has already earmarked a significant initial funding allocation and, once ZMM is launched, chrome output by small-scale minors may hit 1 million tons in the short to medium term – five times higher than the current 200 000 tons currently produced. ‘Our strategy to empower small-scale industry to contribute to the improvement of export revenues will in turn help support the government’s competition initiatives and improve standards of performance across the sector,’ according to Ashruf Kaka, CEO of the Moti Group. ‘ZMM offers a more sustainable solution to current issues than any existing structure with a similar aim.’

Small-scale industries across the continent should be able to take control of their land and their resources in the same way, and work together to help unlock the potential of Africa outside of big business.

108 4th Street, Parkmore,
Sandton, 2196, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)11 888 8888
[email protected]

Afrilog provides comprehensive supply management and inventory management services to not only meet but also anticipate the demands of the group’s highly specialised clientele – mining as well as industrial companies.

The Afrilog team has more than a decade of extensive experience on the African continent, which means it is able to offer an international, integrated procurement and logistics solution for the inland, ocean and air transportation of containerised, break-bulk, hazardous and dimensional heavy-lift project cargo throughout the world. The company also provides end-to-end management of the supply chain, including warehouse management. In addition, Afrilog ensures the seamless movement of cargo across Africa. Having operated in various countries across the continent for many years, it has developed good and sound relationships with reputable agents. These relationships help ensure the required cargo can be received and routed seamlessly to project sites.

Due to Afrilog’s sound relationships with reputable agents, cargo can be received and routed seamlessly to project sites

A history of innovation
Afrilog is a proud member of the CSTTAO group, where innovation is central to the DNA of the business. Boasting more than 70 years of experience, knowledge and know-how across the logistics and supply chain industries, CSTT-AO is renowned as the industry pioneers across Africa.

Some of the highlights of the group’s recent history bears testament to this:

  • 1990: It was among the first service providers to offer clients an integrated service that involved not only logistics services, but also taking over the management of clients’ goods from the moment that orders are placed
  •  2000: Development of sourcing and procurement to integrate with logistics
  •  2010: It was the first supply chain management company in West Africa to use the ERP SAP
  • 2015: Regional collaborative storage and distribution (the Moussala platform)
  •  2018: Kaolack river port as break-bulk port for the East Senegal, West Mali and West Guinea Mines.

Today, Afrilog offers complete supply management – from maintenance planning to stock management.

Connecting suppliers and clients
With a legacy of providing innovative and cost-effective supply chain solutions that deliver sustainable operational and financial growth for its clients, the CSTT-AO group of companies launched the African Logistics Platform. Having operated on the African continent for more than 60 years, it has first-hand experience of the challenges clients and suppliers in the mining and related industries face operating in West Africa.

These challenges include:

  • Not being able to stockpile due to a lack of storage facilities and restrictive budgets
  • Long lead times and higher transport costs associated with importing stock as and when needed
  • Complications and barriers that arise during the wet season.
Afrilog’s logistics platform provides suppliers and manufacturers with an in-country presence to store and move goods speedily

With this in mind, the group undertook to provide suppliers and manufacturers with a logistics platform that gives them an in-country presence that enables them to store and move goods speedily. Located on the border of Senegal and Mali, the African Logistics Platform provides complete storage, handling, processing and fulfilment services.

The platform is a natural progression for the CSTT-AO group and brings it closer to realising its vision to be the leading independent service provider, specialising in supply chain management and integrated logistics solutions (across Africa), operating globally.

Key features of the platform

  • Safety
    – Fire hose installation
    – 100 m3 watertank, pumps
    – Portable extinguishers
    – Fire sensors and alarm station
    – Security gates
    – Supervision room with cameras
  •  SAP system
    – Warehouse-management system
    – Replenishment system
    – Hazardous management system
    – Real-time tracking and visibility
    – Reporting tool
  •  ISO standard
    – ISO 9001
    – ISO 14001 & OSHASS 1800 in progress
    – ICMI
  •  Qualified and experienced staff
  • Location
    Moussala Platform to:
    – Loulo-Gounkoto: 25 km
    – Tabakoto: 47 km
    – Massawa: 108 km
    – Sabodala: 123 km
    – Mako: 173 km.

Key benefits of the platform

  • Brings the stock (vendor) closer to the mines (customer)
  • Delivers to the mining industry a complete, integrated and flexible supply chain solution that contributes to reduction of inventories and lead times, and optimisation of procurement budge
  • Provides vendors and manufacturers with an adequate and safe distribution solution with a deep knowledge of local procedure
  • Compliance with safety and environmental standards.
Head office: 134-135 Nasmith Road,
Jupiter, Germiston, 2094,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)11 021 5230
www.afrilog.com

The International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA) held its 13th international conference on medical regulation (6–9 October 2018) in Dubai, UAE, under the theme: Empowering Regulation with Innovation and Evidence. At this conference, Dr Tebogo Kgosietsile Solomon Letlape, president of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) was elected as chair of IAMRA.

Letlape’s election as the chair of IAMRA came exactly two months after his election as president of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA), at its 22nd annual conference, which was held in Ghana.

Dr Tebogo Kgosietsile Solomon Letlape, chair of IAMRA and president of the Health Professions Council of South Africa

AMCOA’s primary purpose is to support medical regulatory authorities on the continent in their quest to protect the public by promoting high standards of medical education, registration and regulation. AMCOA also seeks to facilitate the ongoing exchange of information among medical regulatory authorities.

In accordance with Article 4 of AMCOA’s constitution, membership in the association is open for all councils/boards that regulate medical and dental practitioners within Africa.States applying to become members may be admitted on a formal resolution by AMCOA. The current membership of AMCOA comprises 19 African member states.

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is proud of this fact, and of Letlape’s achievements. In congratulating Letlape, HPCSA vice-president Lesiba Malotana said: ‘It gives me immense pleasure to extend, on behalf of the HPCSA Council, our warmest congratulations to Dr Kgosi Letlape on his election as chair of the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities. Dr Letlape is a renowned leader in the healthcare profession and has shown commitment to co-operation and collaboration among medical regulatory authorities as a basis on which to benchmark good practice, promote ambitious standards, and ensure patient safety. ‘Certainly, his willingness to volunteer his time and effort, as well as express his opinions, has contributed to him being elected for the position. Once more, as the HPCSA and as the nation, we commit our full support and wish him all the best as he represents us.’

IAMRA membership extends to 48 countries that comprise both members and partners. IAMRA exists to support the world’s medical regulatory authorities in their endeavour to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards for the profession of medicine.

Through scientific, educational and collaborative activities, IAMRA strives to encourage best practices among the world’s medical regulatory authorities and to respond to both their current and future needs. As a membership organisation, IAMRA values the communication, participation and interaction that are key to the success of this international collaboration. South Africa will play host to the 14th International Conference on Medical Regulation in 2020.

About Dr Tebogo Letlape
Letlape is the current president of the HPCSA and chairperson of the Medical and Dental Professions Board. He made history by becoming the first African to qualify as an ophthalmologist in South Africa during the apartheid years and was also the first African to be elected president of the World Medical Association in 2006. He is a former chairman of the South African Medical Association (SAMA).

Dr Tebogo Kgosietsile Solomon Letlape, chair of IAMRA and president of the HPCSA and Dr Manyangane Raymond Billa, CEO/Registrar of the HPCSA

Urged by the late former South African President Nelson Mandela, Letlape embarked on an ambitious project towards providing access to antiretroviral treatment to HIV-positive patients in 2003. Together with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and SAMA, he established the Tshepang Trust, of which he is a former executive director. The Tshepang Trust facilitated the treatment of HIV-positive patients when none was provided by the government at the time.

His interest in healthcare for South Africans sees him participating in various health committees and task teams, and he serves as a member of the Global Hygiene Council.

Tel: (+27) 12 338 9300,
Fax: (+27) 12 328 5120
[email protected]
www.hpcsa.co.za

Having recently announced agreements with the likes of Marlink, Talia, CETel and Avanti, SatADSL is a rapidly-growing company that is wholly committed to delivering cost-effective, high-quality connectivity across the globe. Ahead of AfricaCom 2018, SatADSL co-founder and chief operations officer Caroline de Vos provides insight into the market and the unique approach the company has brought to the satellite industry.

Q: As a satellite service provider, what are some of the challenges the company faces?
A: As a company that was founded in 2011, we are fortunate to be in a position today where we have overcome many of our challenges. We have done this by being flexible; solution-minded – and, as a result we are now growing quickly.

In fact, we have just announced a global service offering. This success has come because we interconnect hubs and offer our service upstream to operators, such as teleport operators and satellite operators, on a platform-as-a-service basis.

This is new, as we previously concentrated our business downstream the value-chain to internet service providers (ISPs) and end-user customers. Although SatADSL still tackles the end-user market, the change of focus to upstreaming our services means we can now work with operators, to allow us to have a bigger reach within the market.

What remains a constant consideration for us, however, is the price of equipment, especially for end users in emerging regions such as Africa and Latin America. This – along with connecting moving devices – remains a challenge, and we believe it is incredibly important for quality equipment to come down in price if we are to be successful in delivering ubiquitous connectivity.

As a satellite service provider, SatADSL is helping to bride the digital divide in Africa

Q: SatADSL recently announced agreements with Marlink and Talia, among others. What do these partnerships bring to your value proposition and to your customers?
A: To give a little bit of history, when we founded SatADSL, we operated as a service provider and bought capacity from satellite operators, which we then re-sold as a service with value-add features to end users through ISPs. Throughout this time, we remained very flexible in what we could provide in terms of new features and services via our cloud-based service-delivery platform (C-SDP), with functionalities such as voucher systems, hot spots, a full monitoring system and traffic enhancements, making it a very attractive offering for satellite and teleport operators.

When we reached this point, we did not want to sell the platform or sell licences to use it. Instead, we decided the most effective way we could share the benefits of the C-SDP was to enter into partnerships with operators – enabling them to use the C-SDP and offer the services it enables, while allowing us to connect to their teleport to widen our reach/bandwidth offering.

This is a completely new approach in the satellite industry and it opens up both parties’ markets without the need for upfront investment which is a huge advantage in today’s current economic climate.

An example is our agreement with Marlink, that lets us link directly to its teleports and installed technology to provide high-bandwidth C- and Ku-band VSAT services across its coverage footprint, giving us a global presence. Marlink will also use the C-SDP to extend voucher-based and congestion-based services to customers, expanding its technology-leading portfolio of business-critical solutions.

SatADSL can now provide high-bandwidth C- and Ku-band VSAT services, and thereby build a global presence

Q: How does SatADSL stay ahead of the game in the competitive satellite services sector?
A: In a word, ‘flexibility’. The unique way in which we are interconnecting hubs and teleports means there is increased competition in the market, and this means there is greater pressure for the price of services to be competitive, making broadband more affordable, even in emerging regions.

Being able to offer affordable services ourselves is also a key differentiator for SatADSL, as the fact that we can provide additional capacity without upfront investment – such as the purchasing of a hub – means we can offer services of the same quality at a lower cost.

Q: There has been a lot of talk about Africa and ending the digital divide. Are we getting closer to this?
A: Yes, definitely, especially with the offering of Ka-band services on Avanti, for example, to which SatADSL’s platform is connected.

We have 78 partners across Africa and they have been waiting for us to offer Ka-band services, which we can now do because we are also interconnecting with Avanti’s hubs on HYLAS 4 and HYLAS 2. In addition to this, our online payment features and voucher-based services help us to provide simpler, more flexible payment schemes for our customers.

Additionally, we are starting to talk to mobile network operators and telcos in Africa about how we can provide them with a solution to enable backhauling and last mile solutions using satellite applications without CAPEX.

This next step means that even mobile internet connectivity could be addressed by VSAT services from SatADSL and our partners in remote areas where terrestrial solutions are not available or fully reliable.

1505 Chaussée de Wavre,
Auderghem, Belgium, 1160
Tel: +32 2 880 82 70
[email protected]
www.satadsl.net

Esoko is a pioneering technology company driving Africa’s digital revolution. The company achieves this through the development of simple yet powerful mobile and web-based tools and services that empower organisations seeking to provide critical services to the last mile. The company’s mission is to improve the revenues of the continent’s rural population and it hopes to encourage their economic empowerment through digital and financial inclusion.

Organisations worldwide use Esoko technology to collect and disseminate data about people and markets via smart phone, tablet, web, SMS and voice SMS. Based in Accra, Ghana, the company has a geographical footprint that spans Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and South Africa.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Insyt
Insyt provides a mobile and web-based platform for data collection, paper-form digitisation, agent management and data analysis – helping agencies convert from paper, thus reducing cost, time and errors in targeting customers or gaining visibility and insights into their own operations. Via a simple mobile device, organisations can:

  • Digitise all paper forms and customise work flows and then migrate into the digital space
  • Capture any type of data from the field including socio-economic data, registration of people or assets, household data, farm-level data, images, signatures, fingerprints and GIS
  • Track inventory, monitor last-mile distribution and manage field-level transactions and sales from multiple locations in real time
  • Map land areas into GIS polygons or point maps without a separate GPS receiver
  • Collect data in both online and offline mode.
Esoko has been the backbone technology of many agricultural and social protection programmes on the continent

The web management portal features real-time data monitoring and insights through analytics. Insyt has been the backbone technology of many government-led agricultural and social protection programmes including the Ghana National Household Registry, the Planting for Food and Jobs programme and Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty initiative in Ghana – a flagship social protection programme that helps government agencies profile more than 3.7 million individuals, map 42 087 ha and capture 695 000 biometric profiles for improved targeting.

For medium- to large-scale survey exercises Esoko offers field-agent recruitment, training and deployment and customised workflows including payment and verifications services. Learn more and sign up via insyt.esoko.com.

Digital Farmer Service
The Esoko Digital Farmer Service is an innovative agricultural value-chain digitisation service that leverages mobile and web technologies to develop a super-agent network across vulnerable farming communities.

Agents equipped with tablets running Esoko technologies are the conduits for providing critical services to thousands of smallholders. These critical services include credit to finance agricultural operations, insurance to increase farmer resilience to emerging threats and economic stressors, input subsidy programmes and access to input and output markets.

The service creates an ecosystem around the agents, comprising key value-chain actors such as input providers, mechanisation service providers, financial institutions (including insurance companies) and grain off-takers.

All transactions within the agricultural value chain are recorded and digitised using smart cards that are enabled by the Esoko mobile money wallet and global payment provider Visa, helping farmers build a history of transactions that can be used by third parties such as banks to assess and provide credit/loans.

The system also enables biometric verification for interventions such as subsidy programmes within the agricultural industry and making cash payments to the last mile.

Organisations across the world use Esoko technology to collect and disseminate data about people and markets, via mobile devices

Information services
Esoko provides a simple but powerful communication tool for businesses, projects, NGOs and governments to connect with farmers. The company offers a cloud-hosted web platform that allows any project or organisation to customise its network and areas of interest; profile recipients; then send information to them at a low cost via SMS, voice SMS and a call centre.

Esoko’s original content and e-extension offering includes:

  • Market prices covering more than 52 agricultural commodities
  • Climate-smart agricultural technologies and seasonal forecast delivered via SMS, voice SMS, interactive voice response and call centre
  • Bids and offers, linking buyers to sellers
  • Good agronomic practices
  • A call centre staffed with agricultural experts who speak the local languages
  • The facility for organisations to send their own content – promotions, announcements, reminders and so on – via the platform.

More than 1 million farmers have received 30 million SMSes via the Esoko platform, with 220 000 calls coming in through the call centre.

Knowledge Plus app
Knowledge Plus (K+) is a digital extension and training app that allows users to create any kind of content on the web and publish it to mobile devices for offline access in hard-to-reach areas. K+ is a direct response to the problem of low-extension worker-to-farmer ratios in Africa. K+ features include:

  • A web portal to create and publish content, including text, video, photo and quizzes
  • A mobile-based app, where published content is accessible offline after initial syncing
  • Report and feedback functions.

The K+ app is being used by the Farm Africa-led Sesame project in Tanzania to provide rural communities with better agronomic practices.

42 Ring Rd, Central Accra, Ghana
Tel: +233 30 221 1611
[email protected]
www.esoko.com