Saturday 27 February 2021

Angola and Nigeria prove that being endowed with oil is not always a boon


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In countries with weak governance institutions, natural resource wealth tends to be a curse instead of a blessing. Where citizens are relatively powerless to hold ruling elites to account, resource wealth undermines development prospects. On the contrary, where citizens are able to exert constraints on executive power, resource wealth can generate development that benefits ordinary citizens.

Development scholar Richard Auty first coined the term ‘resource curse’ in the early 1990s. He used the phrase to describe the puzzling phenomenon of resource wealthy countries failing to industrialise. Manifestations of the ‘curse’ now range from widespread corruption to civil war to deepening authoritarian rule. [Full story via IOL.CO.ZA]

Tuesday 23 February 2021

Has Zambia finally found its fourth mobile operator?


Google Pixel 5 Android Mobile Phone

Zambian communications regulator, the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), has awarded the nation’s fourth mobile operator licence to Beeline Telecoms.

The Lusaka Times says that Beeline Telecoms, which is a wholly Zambian-owned company, has to start operations within the next six months. If it doesn’t it risks its licence being revoked, which would be an unfortunate development given that the previous award-winner, UZI Zambia, had its license withdrawn in June 2020. UZI Zambia lost the licence – over two years after the original award was made – because the company failed to launch in time. ZICTA twice postponed the deadline before revoking the licence. [Full story via developing telecoms]

Sunday 21 February 2021

The goats helping Zambians to reach economic independence


In Zambia, where the climate crisis is making it increasingly difficult to earn a living, goat-rearing is being seen as a possible route to a better livelihood, and economic resilience. When Sylvia Chiinda’s husband died, she was left to raise seven children on her own. As extreme weather hit more frequently, her farm became less productive, forcing her to look for other ways to make money. [Full story via news.un.org]

Wednesday 17 February 2021

Five pop artists from 1980 and beyond you should listen to.

 Five pop artists from 1980 and beyond you should listen to. This is a Spotify playlist that includes music from Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston and Diana Ross


Who else would you add to this playlist? What songs are your favourites?

Five Zambian Podcasts You Should Listen to on Spotify

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Five Zambian Podcasts you should listen to on Spotify. What is a podcast and what is Podcasting? 

According to Berry, R., (2006)"‘Podcasting’ allows anyone with a PC to create a ‘radio’ program and distribute it freely, through the internet to the portable MP3 players of subscribers around the world. Podcasting not only removes global barriers to reception but, at a stroke, removes key factors impeding the growth of internet radio: its portability, its intimacy, and its accessibility. This is a scenario where audiences are producers, where the technology we already have assumes new roles and where audiences, cut off from traditional media, rediscover their voices." 

Check out our list below (click on each link to find out more and subscribe to the listed podcasts). 

1. Bulela Podcast 

2. Conversation with Leelabee Podcast

3. Mwende Bwino Podcast

4. The BongoHive Podcast

5. Nerd Otaku Gaming Podcast







Ghana Plans to Relax Telecom Licensing Rules to Lower Data Costs

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Ghana plans to broaden the scope of its telecommunications licenses so mobile operators can have more spectrum available for internet use, lowering data costs for consumers.

Ghana currently sells licenses that are spectrum-specific “and the technology is tied to the spectrum that you can use,” said Communications Minister-Designate Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, who took questions from lawmakers Monday as part of her reappointment process.

After the change, it won’t “matter whether its 2G, 3G or 4G spectrum that you have, you can use whatever available technology there is on (your available spectrum) to deliver the service that you want,” she said, referring to the technologies used for voice calls and Internet services. 

Full story via BLOOMBERG.COM


Monday 8 February 2021

Saturday 6 February 2021

Top 5 Zambian news stories this week

This is for the week - 1st - 6th February 2021

1. Zambia Is Done for Now With Taking Over Mining CompaniesZambia isn’t looking to take over more mining companies, nor is the government planning to nationalize the industry, according to Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu.The government has acquired Glencore Plc’s and Vedanta Ltd.’s local operations in the past two years. Remarks by President Edgar Lungu in December that Africa’s second-biggest copper producer wanted to take “significant stakes” in unspecified mines led to fears of a fresh wave of nationalization. [Bloomberg]

 

2. Zambia asks for debt restructuring under G20 suspension dealZambia announced on Friday that it had officially applied for restructuring under the G20 debt suspension initiative for the world’s poorest countries.Zambia, the first African country to default on its debt during the pandemic, saw its external debt bulge to nearly $12 billion in 2020. The copper-rich country missed two interest payments over the past three months. Those interest payments totaled $98.6 million.“Zambia is committed to transparency and equal treatment of all creditors in the restructuring process,” Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu said in a statement. [CGTN]

3. MOROCCO 3 – 1 ZAMBIA: PLAYER RATINGS (CHILONGOSHI POOR, SHAMENDA, SAKALA GOOD):The Zambia national soccer team will be on the next plane back home after being dumped out of the on-going Total 2020 CHAN Tournament following a 3 – 1 loss to defending Champions Morocco. The Chipolopolo were a man down midway through the first half and 3 – 0 down at half time. They fought back to score a face saver late in the game. [ZambianFootball]

 

 4. Zimbabwe, Zambia Hydropower Plant Upgrade Delayed by Two YearsUpgrades to Kariba Dam, the main source of electricity for Zambia and Zimbabwe, have been set back by at least two years because of technical challenges and supply disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Zambezi River Authority said. A meeting of finance ministers from the two countries last week cited delays in contracting works, unforeseen technical challenges and supply constraints for the delay, the authority, which regulates water usage, said. [bloobbergquint]

5. Zambia electoral body launches electronic voter register inspection ahead of pollsThe exercise will run from February 7 until May 7 this year ahead of the August 12 general elections. Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Chief Electoral Officer Patrick Nshindano said the electronic-based inspections will involve the use of a website platform and mobile phone platforms.“In our quest to be innovative and provide convenience for the registered voters, we have devised electronic means of verification of voter details on the provisional register especially now that the country has not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he told reporters during a press briefing. [CGTN]

Friday 5 February 2021

Police seize $60 million of bitcoin! Now, where's the password?

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German prosecutors have confiscated more than 50 million euros ($60 million) worth of bitcoin from a fraudster. There’s only one problem: they can’t unlock the money because he won’t give them the password.

The man was sentenced to jail and has since served his term, maintaining his silence throughout while police made repeated failed efforts to crack the code to access more than 1,700 bitcoin, said a prosecutor in the Bavarian town of Kempten.

“We asked him but he didn’t say,” prosecutor Sebastian Murer told Reuters on Friday. “Perhaps he doesn’t know.”

Bitcoin is stored on software known as a digital wallet that is secured through encryption. A password is used as a decryption key to open the wallet and access the bitcoin. When a password is lost the user cannot open the wallet.

The fraudster had been sentenced to more than two years in jail for covertly installing software on other computers to harness their power to “mine” or produce bitcoin.

When he went behind bars, his bitcoin stash would have been worth a fraction of the current value. The price of bitcoin has surged over the past year, hitting a record high of $42,000 in January. It was trading at $37,577 on Friday, according to cryptocurrency and blockchain website Coindesk.

Prosecutors have ensured the man cannot access the largesse, however.

($1 = 0.8349 euros)

Copyright Claims on YouTube Videos 2020 | Vlogmas Day 2 | Lazambiana ✰


YouTube has developed a system that tells you as a content creator (musician, artist, painter, etc), when your content (some of it or all of it) is being used by another channel/creator. 

See the video above. I have a few videos on my channel that were also uploaded by other creators. As I do not mind and I am not the sole owner of the content I did not take action. 

However, this is not always the case. Especially for music content. 


As a creator (musician), you must make sure your content is only uploaded by you on your channel, nowhere else. No one else apart from you should upload, the video content or audio files or visualiser. You can then monetise the content if you own it.

Also, should it happen that someone else tries to upload your work or part of it YouTube will notify you (as my video shows) and you can start the process of having it taken down. Normally this is a long winding process. And not so straight forward.

So most musicians and their management must make sure they own the copyright to the song. So that in the case, that it is played or shown on another channel, that channel can not monetise the content. Or can be penalised by YOUTUBE. 

Feel free to comment if you have specific questions. 



Tuesday 2 February 2021

Shimika Conmigo! Season 2 Ep 2 with Kamota Mayondi Part 1

 

Are you an SME looking for finance to grow your business?

 

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