An internet cafe in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. A rise in social media use among citizens is resulting in greater accountability for politicians and government agencies in Africa. Getty
An internet cafe in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. A rise in social media use among citizens is resulting in greater accountability for politicians and government agencies in Africa. Getty

Social media shines a light on corruption in Africa



Social media is helping shine a light on one of Africa’s greatest curses - corruption. This in turn is driving a new generation of leaders to put more energy than their predecessors did into fighting graft.

In Angola, President João Lourenço has shut down the activities of wealthy political untouchables, including Isabel dos Santos, who once reveled in the title ‘Africa’s richest woman’. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is leading an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that he recently complained had resulted in him having “lost so many friends”. South Africa meanwhile, is holding its biggest ever corruption investigation into ‘state capture’ of up to US$100 billion (Dh367.2bn) in embezzled government contracts.

At least some of this change in attitude is the result of greater public awareness and consequent outrage over stolen money.

“Just by working with a phone it’s possible for activists and concerned citizens to share information,” says Faith Pienaar, Non-Profit Management Fellow at the Accountability Lab in Johannesburg. “This means everyone has a voice, and ordinary citizens become advocates for anti-corruption.”

Corruption is not an inconsequential problem. The African Union estimates that collectively 25 per cent of the continent’s GDP is lost to graft – around US$150bn a year. Public tolerance for this in many countries is now diminishing, forcing leaders to at least make a show of change.

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In Kenya, Mr Kenyatta is driving a purge of senior officials linked to ongoing scandals that have racked up billions of dollars in losses. In the latest of a long list of scandals, the National Youth Services, meant to provide skills training for young people, has swallowed $78 million in unaccounted spending.

As these skeletons tumble out of the closet, Kenyan Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other platforms have lit up, which Mr Kenyatta admits helps drive the government crackdown.

Speaking at the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York on September 26, he said Kenyans were now fully aware of the scale of the problem.

"The free press and social media are rife with news of outright fraud, cynical conflicts of interest and financial arrangements that privatise gains during prosperous times, then socialise losses during economic catastrophes,” he said.

Ms Pienaar says younger generations of African citizens are also forging cross border links via social media to help fight corruption. Activists in Kenya can chat to their counterparts in Nigeria. Awareness that a country such as Botswana is almost free of corruption is held up in other countries as an example that graft is not endemically African.

Botswana, incidentally, is ranked 31st least corrupt country by Transparency International out of 180 countries. As a result, Nigeria that comes it at 148, sent a delegation to Gaborone in August to see what the landlocked Botswana was getting right.

Even though Botswana is rarely in the news, young Africans especially are paying attention to successes such as this, says Ms Pienaar.

“Millennials have access to the internet that their predecessors didn’t. This lets them go to the internet, and leverage cross border connections to challenge internal problems such as corruption.”

Online social discourse also makes it harder for African leaders to hide the true extent of graft. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari successfully cast himself as an anti-corruption crusader during the 2015 elections, but statistics published in the first ever bribery survey show the country still has some way to go.

More than 95 per cent of all Nigerians pay bribes during a year, the survey found. In total more than $1bn is paid by ordinary citizens each year to policemen and public officials.

With numbers like these out in the open, citizen outrage begins to count. Tapiwa Uchizi Nyasulu, the regional coordinator for southern Africa for Transparency, says social media platforms mean senior officials can be directly challenged when they are viewed as failing to curb graft.

With many public officials on social media themselves, it is easier for ordinary citizens to contact them directly.

“We see officials like the Kenyan Director of Public Prosecution and political party leaders in South Africa being increasingly active on social media, which is promising for public engagement and accountability,”  says Ms Nyasulu.

Some 18 million South Africans out of a population of 55.9 million have access to smartphones, according to data from mobile provider MTN. Ms Nyasulu says this is not just making it easier for people to follow corruption scandals, but to report incidents of graft themselves.

“Corruption Watch, our chapter in South Africa, has seen a rise in the number of people reporting corruption on Facebook, as well as WhatsApp.”

What is needed however, is commitment to translate anger into action, Ms Nyasulu adds.

“The real test is whether public pressure to combat corruption, which can be galvanised using social media and other new technologies, will be not just heard, but properly acted and followed through upon by those in power.”

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Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

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Sukuk explained

Sukuk are Sharia-compliant financial certificates issued by governments, corporates and other entities. While as an asset class they resemble conventional bonds, there are some significant differences. As interest is prohibited under Sharia, sukuk must contain an underlying transaction, for example a leaseback agreement, and the income that is paid to investors is generated by the underlying asset. Investors must also be prepared to share in both the profits and losses of an enterprise. Nevertheless, sukuk are similar to conventional bonds in that they provide regular payments, and are considered less risky than equities. Most investors would not buy sukuk directly due to high minimum subscriptions, but invest via funds.

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Date of birth September 19, 1990

Place of birth Bury, United Kingdom

Age 26

Height 1.74 metres

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Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Where to buy art books in the UAE

There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.

In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show. 

In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.

In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.

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Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler

Price, base / as tested Dh57,000

Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine

Transmission Six-speed gearbox

Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm

Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm

Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km

TOURNAMENT INFO

Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia

UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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  • The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
  • The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
  • The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
  • The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
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England v South Africa schedule
  • First Test: Starts Thursday, Lord's, 2pm (UAE)
  • Second Test: July 14-18, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 2pm
  • Third Test: The Oval, London, July 27-31, 2pm
  • Fourth Test: Old Trafford, Manchester, August 4-8

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

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