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Africa Daily

Africa Daily

BBC World Service

One question to wake up to every weekday morning. One story from Africa, for Africa. Alan Kasujja takes a deep dive into the news shaping the continent. Ready by early morning, five days a week, Monday to Friday.

985 - Can a land-for-cash deal save Egypt’s economy?
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  • 985 - Can a land-for-cash deal save Egypt’s economy?

    The Ras al-Hikma peninsula on the north coast of Egypt is going to become a new city. But it’s going to be built and managed by another country, the United Arab Emirates.

    In a deal signed earlier this year, Egypt gave the UAE the right to develop this 170 square kilometre area in return for $35 billion dollars. The Egyptian economy was in a critical position, and needed a quick cash injection to get it out of trouble, and the Ras al-Hikma deal was seen as the solution. But it is a very unusual deal. Both because of the amount of money involved, but also because it gives another country the right to essentially build and own a city in Egypt. And it’s not known whether it provides a long-term solution to Egypt’s economic problems. Presenter: Mpho Lakaje Guests: Wael Gamal, from ‘The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights’ a human rights think tank based in Cairo, Yomn Hamaky an Economics Professor at Ain Shams university in Egypt, and Ahmed Ghoneim, Professor of Economics at Cairo University.

    Fri, 29 Mar 2024
  • 984 - Nigeria: What’s it like when your child is kidnapped?

    This month there have been six mass abductions in the north of Nigeria, many involving children.

    One school that was attacked by armed men was in the town of Kuriga in the North West. There, the parents of 137 children had to wait, helpless, for the next 16 days, not knowing where their children were, or how they were being treated by the kidnappers.

    The Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, took a tough line, saying there would be no ransom paid.

    But then, on Sunday, there was relief after it was announced they'd been released. It’s not clear how this happened, but all the children are believed to have survived. There was one fatality, a teacher called Abubakar Issa, who had been kidnapped with the children.

    For today's Africa Daily, Mpho Lakaje speaks to Dahiru Abdulahi, the parent of one of the students who was taken.

    Thu, 28 Mar 2024
  • 983 - Can President Joseph Boakai make Liberia’s government more honest?

    “Everybody wants to see you – everybody thinks this is an opportunity for employment…. a lot of people come into government believing they are there to enrich themselves.”

    It’s nearly three months since Joseph Boakai started work as Liberia’s new president. But in an interview with the Africa Daily podcast he tells Alan Kasujja that he’s still fielding enquiries from people wanting government jobs every working day from early in the morning.

    The 79-year-old, who was Vice President from 2006 to 2018 under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, narrowly defeated George Weah in November last year – after campaigning on an anti-corruption ticket. But he says while he’s spoken constantly about the need to clean up politics, many people ‘still haven’t grasped’ the concept that politics is about service and not about financial security for themselves and their family.

    In a wide-ranging and frank interview, he also tells Alan Kasujja how poverty and badly paid jobs like rubber tapping helped prepare him for leadership, his plans for a war crimes court to work for justice and reconciliation after the country’s two brutal civil wars, and how he wants to sort out Liberia’s awful roads within his first 100 days in office.

    And he and Alan discover a shared love of Arsenal Football Club…

    Wed, 27 Mar 2024
  • 982 - What happened to South Africa’s promise of low-cost housing?

    “Life here is difficult. You have to be a resilient person to survive. There’s no electricity. The roads are almost non-existent. In sunny days, the shack gets too hot. You can’t stay inside. When it’s cold, it gets very cold. When it’s raining, it gets flooded” – Lala Maria Sebetlele, a resident of a Johannesburg shanty town When Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress took over in 1994, it introduced the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). It’s a policy that aims to build low-cost homes for the poor, thus reversing the legacy of apartheid. More than three million such houses have since been built, but many people still live in shanty towns due to a variety of reasons. They include internal migration and rapid urbanization. The University of Johannesburg has now come up with an initiative to use 3D printing technology to construct low-cost houses to help ease the accommodation burden. How exactly does it work? And will it make a difference? Presenter: Alan Kasujja Guests: Lala Maria Sebetlele, Dr. Alec Moemi and Professor Jeffrey Mahachi

    Tue, 26 Mar 2024
  • 981 - How have some Rwandans overcome the trauma of genocide, 30 years later?

    It’s been 30 years since one of the worst atrocities in recent African history - the Rwandan genocide.

    In 1994, between 800,000 and one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days.

    Some Rwandans have worked hard to move on from the tragic events of 1994, but many - both in and out of the country - are still living with the trauma.

    Jean Paul Samputu was already an established musician in Rwanda at the time.

    He was living abroad during the genocide, but he lost his parents, two brothers and a sister, all killed by a neighbour and his childhood friend.

    Now a global peace ambassador, Jean Paul says he has found healing in forgiving his family’s killer.

    The Kora Awards winner tells Alan Kasujja what role music has played in his peace campaigns.

    Mon, 25 Mar 2024
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