What began as a national disaster on 24th February when Russia invaded Ukraine has become a global crisis affecting millions by disrupting global food supply chains. Russia, the largest exporter of fertilizer and wheat, imposed temporary export bans on both products on 1st February and 14th March, respectively. Ukraine also banned wheat exports on 9th March. Due to these bans, the FAO cereal price index increased by 17%, the vegetable oil price index by 23.2%, and the sugar price index by 6.7% in March. As a result of the uncertainty, global trade is projected to only grow by 3% this year, a rate which is 1.7% lower than earlier forecasts.

From sports to trade-adjacent events, the Gulf countries are set to be home to a plethora of mega-events in the course of this decade. While the UAE just wrapped up a successful Expo 2020 amidst an ongoing pandemic, Qatar is gearing up to host arguably one of the biggest sporting events in the world—FIFA World Cup 2022. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has declared their ambition to host Expo 2030. These mega-events, targeted to boost both economic and soft power credentials, have already garnered widespread international attention. The growing interest in the Gulf to host mega-events suggests that these events hold significant opportunities to boost host nations' economies. However, international scrutiny means negative press can potentially have counter effects too. So, should Gulf countries continue to pursue mega-events?

In 1997, a British rock band raising funds from their fans to finance their reunion concert was amongst the earliest success stories of modern crowdfunding. Today, the global crowdfunding market is expected to grow from $12.2 billion in 2021 to $25.8 billion by 2027. Yet, the MENA region contributed only $150 million by 2020, accounting for a negligible portion of the global crowdfunding pie. However, the UAE's new crowdfunding regulation is a significant step toward closing this gap and utilizing crowdfunding to promote the local small and mid-size enterprise (SME) sector and strengthen the UAE's position as a regional startup hub.

Data scarcity presents a significant global challenge. For instance, in 2021, an IMF report titled, “What Next for Emerging Markets,” highlighted the unavailability of data on individual incomes from household surveys and administrative sources in 20 countries classified as emerging markets. This lack of data makes it challenging to accurately estimate Covid-19’s impact on global inequality weighted by population in 2020. Similarly, another study by the World Bank underscored that 77 countries lacked sufficient data to measure poverty exhaustively.

African start-ups raised over $4.6 billion in investments in 2021, with some reports indicating that an average of $1million was raised every two hours. These figures represent an increase of over 200% from 2020. However, despite this growth, inequalities in the distribution of investments continue to abound, with founders from marginalised communities, such as forcibly displaced people, struggling to secure financing for their businesses.

In the past decade, eSports were simply video games played as a hobby. Today, eSports represent a US $1.08 billion market that increased by 50% in the last year alone. This rapid growth presents an opportunity for African policymakers to leverage the industry’s potential as a source of foreign investment attraction and nurture the industry’s many stakeholders, including players, game developers, and publishers. The professional and competitive video gaming industry has multiple financial dimensions

E-governance can be a risky business. The use of information and communications technologies to deliver government services to citizens has its benefits. However, when policymakers make decisions without intrinsic knowledge of e-governance implementation, they face the possibility of failure due to a lack of technical infrastructure, human resource competency, and inadequate cybersecurity. As a result, several governments have been slow to execute e-government policies.

Covid-19 has made sure that digitization is no longer a “nice to have” - for both the public and private sectors. For governments, in particular, digital transformation has been at the center of most emerging market governments’ development priorities. This has pushed states that are digitizing services on a mass scale to engage with the private sector as not just vendors, but also co-creators.

Meet Adviser Ama, a 30-year old investment professional based in Nairobi, who advises entrepreneurs and investors on deal-making in Africa. In this episode, Adviser Ama and Entrepreneur Mugisha, engage with two potential investors, David and Andrew, who keep changing their requirements for funding Mugisha’s business.

Almost two years into the pandemic, Covid-19 has rapidly accelerated the digital transformation of economies globally. For businesses in some parts of the world, such as Pacific Asia, Covid-19 has fast-forwarded digitalization by more than 10 years. However, not all countries have seen a boost to their digitization efforts during the pandemic.

Development finance institutions (DFIs) and commercial investors run the same marathon but use different methods to get to the finish line. While commercial investors typically invest directly in companies that can promise high short-term returns, DFIs provide risk capital for enterprises

Expo 2020, the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia provides a great opportunity for Gulf countries to rebuild their economies as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the event could add up to AED 122.6 billion (USD 33 Billion) to the UAE GDP alone between 2013 and 2031 and as many as 905,000 job possibilities, resulting in a 1.5 percent rise in the UAE's estimated annual GDP.

A popular Kenyan saying goes, ‘Vitu kwa ground ni different’. The Swa-English phrase literally means ‘things on the ground are different, different from how they are portrayed online or in popular publications. One can apply the same lens to the World Bank’s recent decision to pull their flagship Doing Business report after an audit revealed that Bank and IMF officials altered report data to benefit China’s and Saudi Arabia’s rankings in 2018 and 2020

Adviser Ama is a 30-year old investment professional based in Nairobi who advises entrepreneurs and investors on deal-making in Africa. In this episode, Adviser Ama and Entrepreneur Mugisha meet Investor Clyde. While Clyde says that his fund helps high-potential businesses go-to-market, Mugisha soon finds out that it all may be too good to be true.

Dubai has long recognized the importance of startups as agents of innovation and catalysts to economic growth and development. At Expo 2020, there are various programs both by the Expo organizers and the participating pavilions to promote entrepreneurs.

The Malaysia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai features four showcases that highlight the country’s burgeoning agricultural-commodity sector, technological strength, culture, and tourism, all while promising zero net emissions. As its economy recovers from COVID-19, the mega-event offers an opportunity for the country to attract tourists, investors and strategic partners to take its recent strides to new heights.

The UAE government recently proposed an amendment in the UAE Bankruptcy Law (Federal Decree No.9 of 2016) which aims to support viable businesses that are experiencing financial difficulty in the context of an “Emergency Financial Crisis”, a situation which affects trade and investment in the UAE and which expressly includes the ongoing pandemic.

The lithium and battery storage sector is dominated by a handful of markets, but surging global demand coupled with increased traction of the element are now generating exciting new partnership opportunities across emerging markets. As countries scramble to diversify the existing China-dominated lithium battery value chain, Zimbabwe, the UAE, and Estonia are three key players we believe should partner to capitalize on the growing lithium market.

As Expo 2020 focuses on urban development and planning as one of its key thematic areas, it is critical to recognize the efforts made by country pavilions as well as private companies to boost the environmental efficiency and sustainability of urban planning and development solutions.

Adviser Ama is a 30-year old investment professional based in Nairobi who advises entrepreneurs and investors on deal-making in Africa. In this episode, Adviser Ama and Entrepreneur Mugisha meet Investor Billy. While things seem promising from the mega-fund manager, who seems eager to add Mugisha’s company to his portfolio, it turns out that all is not what it seems…