Vaccines, antibiotics: Africa's push for pharma independence [Business Africa]

Vaccines & antibiotics: Africa's push for pharma independence

Africa imports 70-80% of the medicines it consumes, and up to 95% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to make them.

That dependency leaves the continent exposed to every global supply chain shock, from Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine to instability in the Gulf.

The African Union's Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA), launched in 2005, was meant to close the gap. Two decades on, progress has stalled: roughly 36 sub-Saharan African countries have virtually no medicine manufacturing capacity at all.

Lenias Hwenda, CEO of Medicines 4 Africa, joins the program to make the case for building a robust, homegrown pharmaceutical industry, and what it will take to get there.

Sustainability: Kenya bets on electric buses, bikes to power economy

Kenya is positioning itself as East Africa's frontrunner in electric mobility. Roughly 15% of new motorcycles sold in the country are now electric, and e-buses and e-cars are gaining a foothold in the capital.

But the transition is far from complete: Nairobi still runs 20,000 diesel buses on its roads every day.

Housing: Abidjan's property prices put businesses on edge

In Côte d'Ivoire's economic capital, securing a home or a storefront has become an uphill battle.

A decent studio apartment rents for 100,000 to 150,000 francs, well above the national minimum wage of 75,000 francs.

To survive, residents are turning to co-renting.

As costs climb, Abidjan risks pricing out the very workers and entrepreneurs its economy depends on.