“No lithium-bearing ores, or unbeneficiated lithium whatsoever, shall be exported from Zimbabwe to another country except under the written permit of the minister…“If we continue exporting raw lithium we will go nowhere. We want to see lithium batteries being developed in the country. We have done this in good faith for the growth of industry,”  Zimbabwe Government position.

Zimbabwe is home to Africa’s largest deposits of lithium. You use lithium to make batteries for smartphones, EV vehicles, electronics, etc. It is one of the most important raw materials in the modern global economy. If Zimbabwe executes this policy (without the typical Africa backdoor cheats), this country will have resources to advance.

Just three decades ago, University of Harare was a center of learning when Mugabe was at the zenith of his presidency. The University of Warwick’s admission package had its photo. That Zimbabwe can return to its past glory if they can make $billions from this new industry, stabilize the economy, and drive growth.

Zimbabwe has imposed a ban on the export of unprocessed lithium, according to a government notice seen by Reuters on Tuesday, in a bid to stop artisanal miners who the government says are digging up and taking the mineral across borders.

The southern African country holds some of the world’s largest reserves of hard rock lithium, a vital mineral in the production of clean energy technologies.

Chinese giants Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt , Sinomine Resource Group  and Chengxin Lithium Group have over the past year acquired lithium mines and projects worth a combined $678 million in Zimbabwe and are at various stages of developing mines and processing plants, which would exempt them from the ban.

As that move happens, I also call other African leaders to check the latest move in London: “UK approves first coal mine in decades, sparking anger among environmentalists as energy costs soar”. Yes, the UK will be firing coal after preaching to Nigeria and others that coal was evil. That is why Enugu has no electricity because our leaders followed without thinking. With the Russian cheap energy sources gone, the UK did not pretend: burn the coal and power the economy, climate change matter will come later.

(Sure, I support saving the earth but I posit that a nuanced strategy is key for Africa. You cannot put Enugu in darkness because London, Brussels, etc told you so, when they would not do the same thing under similar circumstances.)

The United Kingdom this week approved its first new coal mine in 30 years, provoking anger among environmentalists who said the move is a step back for the country’s ambitions toward clean renewable energy.

The decision on the mine in the Cumbria area of northwest England came hours after the Conservative-led government reversed a ban on building new onshore wind farms in Britain. That was viewed by some opponents as a cynical attempt to offset criticism of the mine decision.

This report from Vanguard explains the struggle, quoting Nigeria’s former finance minister.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has accused western powers of being a stumbling block to Nigeria’s plan to improve power output through the use of coal. Adeosun said this on Wednesday in Washington during a discussion on the importance of addressing infrastructure gaps in developing countries at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund General Meetings.

She said that improving power supply was the corner stone of the current administration’s goal towards economic development, yet finding it difficult to get support from western community. “We want to build a coal power plant because we are a country blessed with coal, yet we have power problem. So it doesn’t take a genius to workout that it will make sense to build a coal power plant.

“However, we are being blocked from doing so, because it is not green. This is not fair because they have an entire western industralisation that was built on coal fired energy. “This is the competitive advantage that was used to develop Europe, yet now that Nigeria wants to do it, they say it’s not green, so we cannot.

“They suggest that we use solar and wind, which is the more expensive. So yes, Africa must invest in its infrastructure, but we must also make sure that the playing field is level,” she said. Adeosun said that in spite of the need for foreign borrowing to finance the country’s infrastructure gap, the strategy was to get the cheapest money.

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: A nation without a vision and strategy will be part of another nation’s vision and strategy. Leaders have visions and create strategies. Unfortunately, most African countries don’t have leaders. Don’t confuse people in leadership roles with leaders. True leaders are purposeful and have plans to lead their people to the promised land. Africa will continue to be exploited until we have people in leadership roles that have a plan for the nations.

Comment 2: We be real mumu.
We will sign all manner of international treaties, regulations and conventions without thinking.
If anyone try to develop a coal power plants at Enugu, the hurdles that will be placed on that person’s path by the State Ministry of Environment, the Federal Ministry of Environment, NESREA and all manner of other government Agencies and officials will be too humongous and scare the hell out of such investor.
The irony of it all is that none of the officials would ever take a step back to ask the basic questions:
How has Africa impacted the global environment relative to the other parts of the world? The obvious answer is negligible.

How is Africa impacting the global environment at the present relative to the other parts of the world? The obvious answer is, negligible.
And without industrialisation, Africa will hardly have any impact on the global environment.
The unfortunate part is that without radical changes, Africa can hardly develop, given the quantum of treaties, conventions and regulations that have been designed to tie us down that our official representatives and government officials have signed without thinking.

There has been a shift in the world of digital advertising, taking the leaders off their position as newcomers emerge, disrupting the status quo.

Meta and Alphabet have ruled the world of digital advertising over the years, but are now watching their dominance usurped by growing competition by new entrants – Amazon, TikTok, Microsoft and Apple, the Financial Times reports.

The FT reports, citing data from research group Insider Intelligence, that the share of US ad revenues held by Facebook’s parent Meta and Google owner Alphabet is projected to fall by 2.5 percentage points to 48.4 percent this year, the first time the two groups will not hold a majority share of the market since 2014.

The duopoly has been recording a consecutive decline for five years, resulting in a fall of its market share that peaked at 54.7 percent in 2017 and is projected to fall further to 43.9 percent by 2024, the report said. The report noted that both Alphabet and Meta’s share has declined worldwide 1 percentage point to 49.5 percent in 2022.

While the decline is mainly attributed to growing rivalry, which Jerry Dischler, head of ads at Google, acknowledged when he told the Financial Times that fierce rivalry from new entrants reflects an “extremely dynamic ad market,” other factors have also impacted the duopoly.

In the report, the Financial Times listed the factors which include antitrust probes and Apple’s privacy policy change – which has more than halved Meta’s Facebook revenue.

How the duo lost their dominance – FT

Regulators in the US and Europe have added antitrust scrutiny such as pursuing Google for allegedly promoting its products over rivals.

In December, Facebook owner Meta was served with a complaint from the EU’s watchdogs over concerns that the social network’s classified advert service is unfair to rivals. Tech groups are fighting harder than ever for a share of the $300 billion digital ads market, even as companies worldwide are cutting their ad budgets in response to rising interest rates and high inflation.

Amazon and Apple have expanded their advertising teams. In July, Netflix announced it would partner with Microsoft to build an advertisement-supported tier of its streaming service.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has blamed recent revenue falls on Apple’s privacy changes that make it harder to track users and target advertising, as well as the growing popularity of viral videos app TikTok, owned by Chinese parent ByteDance.

“Four years ago, you wouldn’t be talking about either [TikTok or Amazon] in advertising,” said Dischler. “So it’s really telling that more and more people are acknowledging that advertising is a great and scalable business model.”

Amazon’s foray into the digital ads world has played a big part in hitting Meta and Google’s dominance. After years of toying in the market, it ramped efforts up in 2015 and has since seen ad revenues skyrocket from less than $1 billion to an estimated $38 billion this year.

“Before I joined, I didn’t even know what Amazon Ads was,” said an Amazon executive who says they now run “a massive team—and I didn’t know this existed before the recruiter called.”

Paul Prior, chief operating officer of Undertone, a digital advertising company, said retail giants led by Amazon woke up to the realization that their extensive data on customers could be the basis for a massive advertising business with higher margins than the sale of goods online.

But Amazon then went a step further, expanding its on-site ads business beyond its own shopping site. “Across the wider digital universe, they use that data set to empower brands and the advertisers to buy better, to spend more effectively and drive return on ad-spend,” said Prior.

Apple has also emerged as a new threat. Its ad revenues have grown from under $2.2 billion in 2018 to more than $7 billion this year. Although that is just 1.2 percent of the global market, it is already more than Snapchat and Pinterest combined, and some estimates suggest Apple could reach $30 billion of ad revenue by 2026.

In September, the FT revealed that the iPhone maker plans to nearly double the workforce in its fast-growing digital advertising business. Its job ads describe ambitions of “redefining advertising” for a “privacy-centric” world.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly hit out at Apple’s “conflict of interest,” criticizing it for charging “monopoly rents” and stifling innovation. Apple’s privacy rules have made it difficult for Meta to tailor ads to people, contributing to its shares falling by about two-thirds over the past 15 months.

Google does not appear to have seen as much impact from Apple’s privacy changes, as it can tailor ads directly to users typing in search terms—giving it valuable “user intent” data that Meta struggles to attain

But Apple already has its own Google Maps rival, a search function on the iPhone, and it is building a nascent ads business—which analysts say could take on Google in future.

“Apple has a really strong brand that consumers trust and they have the devices that are used by the cream of the consumer crop,” said Josh Koenig, chief strategy officer at Pantheon, a digital marketing platform. “If they can figure out how to turn that into a real valuable network for advertisers, they’ll be able to charge a premium.”

Insider Intelligence has forecast that Google and Meta’s US ad growth in 2023 will be just 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while at least eight of its rivals are to experience double-digit gains.

It estimates that Amazon’s ads business will rise by 19 percent, Apple 26 percent, Spotify 30 percent, TikTok 36 percent and Walmart 42 percent. However, many of these groups’ market shares are currently small.

Dischler said Google was working hard on expanding its ads business in both ecommerce—where it is partnering with retailers—as well as in privacy-first advertising, where he argues Google can play a bigger role than Apple.

“I very much don’t see it as a zero-sum game,” said Dischler. “If Uber has an ad network—billboards on cars that previously didn’t have billboards, and is providing advertising opportunities when you’re getting groceries or food through restaurants—then they’re making the pie bigger.