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was. called. arrested for corruption we are. actually the way forward to solve africa's energy crisis. production instead of $20000000.00. backers. and french president obama travels to west africa to discuss the future of the save our currency. should it. come to business. africa your

updates on today's african and global business news here on the us welcome. south african police have arrested 2 former executive at embattled power utility eskom they're charged with fraud corruption and money laundering in connection with new power plants that are supposed to alleviate the country's electricity problems south africa's grid nearly collapsed in 2008 and eskom has had to enforce rolling blackouts ever since in a bid to relieve pressure it is causing chaos for the country and the economy the contracts involved in the allegations are worth around $50000000.00. but africa has the world's slowest electrification rate in an unstable pas applies constantly hampering businesses all over the continent many national grid unstable and badly maintained like the one in south africa we just heard about to get around this off grid solutions are increasingly popular way to get well power to the

people run source a nigerian solar energy firm has now raised $20000000.00 from several venture capital firms to power local merchants rentals benefits from heightened investor interest in africa focused off grid and renewable energy startup seeking to plug all those electricity gas the problem is biggest in nigeria africa's most populous country almost $77000000.00 people that have no access to electricity congo ethiopia are also struggling to supply their populations is a little less severe in uganda and siddharth while most of great companies offer the promise of electrifying homes when souls focuses solely on powering local markets. spoke to other mall a designer he's the founder and c.e.o. of red soles and i asked him why. well we haven't precluded going to private customers eventually but we thought that business were a good place to start or merely because it's

a lesser credit risk they're using our systems for productive use and so it's income generating for them to use or run sources them and as such you know that there's a direct benefit between their income and our service provision and so for us it was just a way to mitigate the credit risk. and tell us what is the advantage of an off grid system compared to a national grade especially for african economies well it's a it's a question of resiliency by having off grid systems that are distributed and decentralized you know $1.00 to $1.00 part of the grid breaking doesn't doesn't turn out our for everybody it's meant to be a back up in a complements to the grid men so it's a way of adding resiliency to the also the overall system but what we've seen is that you know we're really building many small grids and connecting them together in compliment to the national grid and so it's a question of resiliency and in the african situation it's also lower cost because

. the solar based systems were using. how difficult was it for you to raise the money. it was difficult you know we were at work during a fundraiser catering to many different interests around the name different types of investors want to see different types of metrics and different types of developments and so you know we had to engage everybody and speak in their own language you know the process took us a bit over a year and we thought it would take a lot less and i think also renewables. are at the scale at which we're operating is relatively new for africa it's really new for nigeria and such we had to get the investors comfortable with the country and the concept a way that we would hope we would need to do again for future congresses. and now you've got the funding what are the next steps what i am plans. we're going to roll out more micro utilities but we're going to go deeper and in terms of building more

more infrastructure in these different locations but then beyond energy provision we have now built several tools to offer non energy value added services for the merchants what we know we've got to understand the merchants we serve very well terms of you know how their businesses run you know what's formalized by the what's informal where the inefficiencies are and we're building tools to help bring their businesses that are essentially off light on light and so that's going to be our focus going forward both more micro utilities but also by building on top of the energy so often on energy services that michel on a whole lot is in a founder and c.e.o. of rand souls thank you very much. french president obama well because this week expected to signal a possible rethink of the french back see if front used by west and central african states ivory coast is the region's biggest economy and its president alassane ouattara has been

a strong defender of the euro pagans currency but he has come under pressure from regional politicians to challenge the arrangement he's set to meet mr mccall in a. shoppers at this market in abidjan the biggest city in the ivory coast pace in c f a from. the currency was introduced in 1905 and is used in 14 different african nations today. it was initially pegged to the french for all but today it is pegged to the euro which gives instability but some economists say this robs the c.f.a. front of the flexibility it needs on the global economy so this is if we can only deal commercially with a single country france so this parity causes problems all 'd serious economists have carried out research and that shows that what we need is a flexible exchange rate say into the show to fix it. there are frequent protests

against the c.f.a. front in west african nations many believe that the connection with the euro is a relic of africa's colonial past there is concern that the countries who use it don't have enough control over monetary policy but the sentiment is not universal. there is no pride in saying i have my own currency if this currency in reality is worthless on the international market. that's what i recommend less populism less caution. almost all soffit in my view we need to have total financial independence leave the euro completely so we can then come out with a new currency. that new currency would be called the eco. that's the name being used by the heads of states of members of the african continental free trade agreement which was signed early this summer now all they have to do is convince france that the old currency is in need of reform. and now to some

of us of the world's business news abby n.b.a. has scored a major victory in europe's top cold has ruled it's an online service and not a real estate agent in disguise the french tourism and hotel association that father legal complaint contending that evian be should be considered an agent and thus be subject to france's strict housing laws. the ruling of europe's top court is a big win for air b.n. b. the verdict means the company can continue operating as it currently does in france . the ruling states that air b.n. b. is just a platform connecting guests and hosts for short term accommodation and is merely a so-called information society service rather than a rental property agent that operates online information society service is legal terminology for something that provides online services like an online shop. yes you'll get into a tree service whose purpose is to use an electronic platform potential lodger's in

contact with potential landlords offering short term accommodation. proposal this is supplied as an information society service. sit on only the prisoner swap. the french hotel and tourism association argue that air b.n. b. should have to comply with the same laws as traditional hotels and short term rental property owners these pay a variety of taxes and must ensure that their properties are up to code a ruling in favor of the association would have put air b. and b.'s business in france on the entire european union at risk. the complaint also put air b.n. b. sponsorship deal with the international olympic committee at risk it plans to promote its properties during the 2024 olympics which will be held in paris. the news was not so good for another large sharing economy a german court has ruled that a u.s.

based rights hailing service cannot offer rides using rental rented to cost started using rental cars as a way of getting around the prohibition of private car owners taking fast for passengers but it is a victory for taxi drivers here in germany who brought the case says it will take steps to keep its business going into. boeing's production stop for its 737 max is affecting hundreds of suppliers making critical parts of the plane. oh boy has said it would not lay off any of its $12000.00 employees smaller supplies may be forced to cut jobs. dozens of fuselages waiting for wings but grounded indefinitely this is the headquarters of spirit aero systems in wichita kansas spirits biggest customers boeing spirit supplies not only the fuselages but most of the parts for the 737 max

aircraft it's wichita's largest employer providing more than $10000.00 jobs but many wonder for how long. could be way off could be for. i honestly don't know what say about it. all i know is a dozen more to do with. boeing's woes are also being felt here at french companies sapphire group it co-produces engines for the $7370.00 max saf cross says it wants to maintain a minimal production level for boeing rather than stopping outright british company make it another supplier said boeing's production halt is hitting its profits by about $1000000.00 a month. i think hauling production has a pretty major downside disrupts the whole supply chain that puts labor and a terrible spot it causes. real sloss of the economies of scale that this airplane has the 737 max has been grounded since march after 2

crashes in the space of 5 months killed 346 people in indonesia and ethiopia the grounding has cost boeing more than $9000000000.00 so far. regulators told the company last week that it had unrealistic expectations for getting the plane back into service the lack of clarity over a timetable has not only hit boeing hard but also its suppliers around the globe. and that sets. me and the business to me. says you. next on after this quick update some folks say.

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and on demand. language courses. video. this is africa coming up in the next 15 minutes it started look protests against increases in the price. so great and huge to the ousting of the dictator we look at saddam's uprising one year on and asked if the hopes of the protesters have been fulfilled. and reaching for the sky i will introduce you to the woman in gaza who's doing something no other woman in the country has done before. class running around in circles we turn a spotlight on the fears are faced.