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00:03:11try and catch up with the GDP per capita of the rest of Welcome to this very special half
00:03:14an hour episode of Marketplace Africa the link, I'm Zayne
00:03:17Asher. Now whether it's an artist reaching a brand new
00:03:21international market or organizations educating
00:03:24new groups to help drive sustainable solutions, technology has
00:03:28undoubtedly played a role. Join me as we take a look at
00:03:32how plugging in and going digital has changed the
00:03:35game.
00:03:40Art, statements of color and memory,
00:03:45pass by every day, and of materials, movement and history. Art
00:03:49brings people together, regardless of where you're
00:03:52from, if you're all coming together to appreciate
00:03:55some sort of, some form of art,
00:03:59you let go of your beliefs.
00:04:01In Ghana, artists, the
00:04:05industry on the rise.
00:04:08According to a study by the organization Art Basel and banking
00:04:12giant UBS, global art sales were an estimated
00:04:16$57.5 billion dollars in
00:04:182024. While sales across Africa made up a
00:04:22minor percentage, industry leaders from across Ghana say demand
00:04:25for Ghanaian art is growing from within. If
00:04:29Ghanaians are able to come together and say that
00:04:33we are going to collect our own people's art
00:04:36or promote our
00:04:39Ghanaian artists, I think that will really
00:04:44that? I encourage it. Let me help the the economy. If we
00:04:46don't push our own artists, no one else is going to do that for
00:04:49us. What art looks like in Ghana is a
00:04:53question rising artist Denise Gamormenta is
00:04:56answering. I work in
00:05:00image transfer, digital
00:05:02collaging, and also, I say archiving,
00:05:06because my practice
00:05:09for the future of begins with collecting and gathering objects
00:05:13that have been left behind
00:05:15by time. Her solo exhibit Light Years of
00:05:19Us debuted during the 2025 Accra Cultural
00:05:22Week hosted by Gallery 1957.
00:05:25The annual event showcasing Ghanaian art has seen growing international
00:05:29interest. For Denise, showcasing these
00:05:32stories today has been boosted by the digital
00:05:35world. You have the opportunity to share what your work is
00:05:38about, and I think that has something to do with social
00:05:42media. Now there's access to the information, the stories carried
00:05:46in these objects that we are making as artists and
00:05:50that also gives them a lot more
00:05:52value.
00:05:54The numbers tell the same story with online sales making up nearly
00:05:58a fifth of all global art sales in 2024, according to an
00:06:02Art Basel and UBS study. Whether it's using
00:06:05digital tools to create art or using digital platforms to
00:06:09share art, technology has created a new global canvas
00:06:12for Ghanaian artists to use. And I think we have a lot to do still,
00:06:16we have so much to do, but we're getting there
00:06:20slowly with all these opportunities that are now
00:06:24coming in around us, step by step, we'll get there and then we'll
00:06:27see the value of African art and the importance of
00:06:31it as
00:06:31well.
00:06:36When it comes to using digital tools and education as a great equalizer across
00:06:40Africa, Fred Swaniker is all in. The Ghanaian-born
00:06:43entrepreneur opened the doors to the African Leadership Academy in South
00:06:46Africa in 2008, training high school students to prepare
00:06:50them for a pathway to university. He
00:06:53then went to establish the African Leadership University in Mauritius in
00:06:572015. But with technology ever evolving, Swaniker says
00:07:01his ambition turned to ensuring the continent's next generation of
00:07:04talent knew how to build their own tech. Today that
00:07:08talent he's helped nurture drives his latest venture, an AI company
00:07:12with global clients called Sand Technologies. CNN's Nick
00:07:16Watt sat down with him to talk about Africa's tech talent and why
00:07:19Africa will be the region to solve the world's
00:07:22problems.
00:07:26Is there a different approach from the
00:07:29companies and the engineers and the coders in Africa? A different
00:07:33approach than we might see in Silicon Valley in terms of the kind of problems
00:07:37that they try and tackle? Yes, because you see, when when you look at the engineers that we're
00:07:41developing in Africa. Um, firstly, we're training them a very different
00:07:44way. So, um, we believe that technology is a
00:07:48means to an end, it's not the end itself, right? I want to use
00:07:52AI to fix healthcare. I want to use AI to fix our cities. I want to use it for
00:07:55education. So that is what drives this talent. They
00:07:59want to solve problems for society.
00:08:02And uh, so the ethos is quite different. What we're doing in Africa
00:08:06is start first with the problems and then look at
00:08:09how the technology can solve it. And your engineers are based where? So I've
00:08:13got about 350 engineers and about 300 are based in Africa. About
00:08:16100 PhDs and data scientists who build these
00:08:20complicated artificial intelligence models that are
00:08:23helping to run the real
00:08:25world.
00:08:29I want to talk about health for a bit. So
00:08:31again,
00:08:33what was the problem? And the big problem that we saw in Africa, and by the way, the same problem
00:08:37that we're solving exists in rural America and many of the other states in the
00:08:40US. Um, there's a shortage of doctors.
00:08:43So the average doctor-patient ratio in Africa is 800
00:08:47patients to one doctor. To one doctor. In the West it's about 300 to 400
00:08:51300 patients per doctor. So the problem we saw is how do you bring world-class
00:08:54healthcare when you don't have enough doctors to
00:08:58what's going to be 40% of the world's population?
00:09:01So we have developed something called the Health Operating System and it has three
00:09:05components. The first component is digitizing
00:09:09health infrastructure. So we're going into different countries in Africa. We're
00:09:12working right now in 18 countries on the continent to
00:09:16uh first digitize the infrastructure. Once you have the data streaming from that, the second part
00:09:19of it is we then augment healthcare professionals with artificial
00:09:23intelligence. So you can take a community healthcare worker or nurse, which
00:09:27are much more abundant than doctors, and give them all sorts of AI tools that
00:09:31allow them to do more sophisticated things that before maybe only a doctor would have been able to
00:09:35do. Once you've connected the facilities and you've
00:09:38augmented a healthcare professional, you can have all this
00:09:41data that's coming. And that's now goes into what we call the
00:09:44Health Intelligence Center, which we are supporting different ministries of health in Africa to
00:09:48develop. And this Health Intelligence Center aggregates data
00:09:52from the entire system, all the thousands of hospitals and clinics
00:09:55in the country. So you can start to now see
00:09:59across the system where should you allocate your limited resources? If I
00:10:02only have so much money, where should I build my clinics? Where should I send my supply
00:10:06chain, my pharmaceutical? So you can now allocate with much better precision your
00:10:10resources. You can make better decisions.
00:10:13You can predict pandemics. You know what kind of
00:10:16training to do for your health workforce and so forth. And it shifts the whole
00:10:20healthcare system from being reactive and expensive to more predictive and
00:10:24preventive.
00:10:28And because there's a need for this in Africa, there
00:10:31is the environment in which you can develop and test it
00:10:35and use it. Exactly. One of the things I always say is that constraints drive innovation. So in
00:10:39Africa, we've got real serious problems and those constraints are forcing us to
00:10:42leverage some of these technologies and so AI
00:10:46is, if we play our cards right as a continent, will
00:10:50allow us to completely leapfrog development, um, and
00:10:54build fact, the model of education
00:10:57that we've developed with ALX, where we are training
00:11:01people who are able to compete with Stanford graduates and Yale
00:11:06the US. We've had several delegations from the US come to see what we're
00:11:10doing, and they kept asking us to bring it to the US. So we're now actually
00:11:13bringing our model for training AI talent to
00:11:17the US to help train Americans, prepare them for the
00:11:20AI age. And this is innovation that was born in
00:11:22Africa.
00:11:27Is tech inherently inclusive? Technology guided
00:11:31by good values can be
00:11:33incredibly inclusive, right? So technology
00:11:36alone, you because it's it's like any tool.
00:11:39You can use a knife to prepare a great meal, but it can also be a
00:11:43dangerous tool, it can be used to kill someone, right? It all depends
00:11:46on the intention behind it. And so the the the values
00:11:50that underlie that tool will determine whether it's
00:11:54inclusive or exclusive. So access to markets, access to education,
00:11:57access to health, all these things, um, can be
00:12:01enabled by technology. And it
00:12:04can allow you to leapfrog and catch up and develop
00:12:07faster. But it needs to be guided by the right vision, the right
00:12:10values. When we come back, CNN's Nick Watch
00:12:14continues the conversation with Sand Technology CEO and African
00:12:18Leadership Group founder, Fred
00:12:20Swaniker.
00:12:26Welcome back. For Fred Swaniker, the answer is clear. Armed with the
00:12:30world's youngest population, Africa has
00:12:33what it takes to be at the forefront of developing tech solutions for the
00:12:37world's biggest problems. Join us as we head
00:12:40back into that conversation to hear what he says is needed to ensure
00:12:44that that potential continues to be
00:12:46nurtured.
00:12:51Obviously, in this day and age, we're worried about, you, particularly with AI. But just
00:12:55with tech of various marginalized
00:12:57communities being left behind. Is there a
00:13:01concern that at a global scale that if Africa doesn't keep up with this,
00:13:04Africa will get left behind? Yes, there is. I think, I think very much in terms of the
00:13:08opportunity that we have, uh, with artificial
00:13:11intelligence. So um, when you think
00:13:15about, uh, development,
00:13:18historically in development has been measured by GDP per
00:13:21capita. Development ultimately is about quality of life. Why do we want
00:13:25to develop? We want better healthcare, we want education, you
00:13:28know, enough food security. And so one
00:13:32way to develop is to
00:13:36the world. But Africa's GDP per capita
00:13:38is $2,000 a year, and the West, we talk about $80,000
00:13:42a year. The West continues to grow. It'll take us 100 years. It's very difficult to
00:13:46catch up. Another way to develop is to say, I'm actually going to reduce
00:13:50the cost of getting good education and
00:13:53healthcare and so forth. To such that it fits within my GDP per cap, right?
00:13:57Right, right. So for example, that school that we bought in Silicon
00:14:01Valley, the engineers, the graduates were
00:14:04earning more than Stanford graduates, more than Yale graduates, more than Caltech graduates.
00:14:08And they were working at Tesla and Amazon and Apple and
00:14:11Nvidia and things like that. We brought that same education to
00:14:14Africa, but we're able to train software engineers for
00:14:18$200 a year.
00:14:20Now, we're in the Bay Area right now, Silicon Valley. You can
00:14:23make $400,000 a year, but after tax, you're left with $100,000 a year. You send
00:14:27your child to Stanford, $100,000 a year, you're broke. So you can't
00:14:31even afford to send your two children to Stanford. Who are you to tell me that I'm
00:14:35poor in Africa if I only earn $200 a year, but I can
00:14:38send my three children to a Stanford quality education. We can
00:14:41leverage AI to radically reduce the cost of the
00:14:45things that you would have wanted your high GDP per capita. So we can
00:14:48therefore completely redefine what it means to be a developed
00:14:52society.
00:14:56You must have a certain amount of leakage in terms of your
00:15:00talent in Africa moving to the US or the UK,
00:15:03absolutely, to try and earn more money for themselves, right? How do you deal with
00:15:09tell you why. Um, brain drain is only a problem when you're
00:15:12training talent at low scale and you're not training enough people. Exactly. We do
00:15:16this at scale, you know, so like I said, in 2024, we train
00:15:20700,000 people. Our goal is to train 3 to 5 million people in the
00:15:23next decade. So what Africa
00:15:25has that no one else has is young
00:15:28people.
00:15:32So just in terms of the practicalities, in terms of
00:15:35scaling. I'm in Lagos and I've got an
00:15:38idea. Um, in terms of
00:15:41scaling that idea, I mean, is there the
00:15:44infrastructure? What are the challenges? I see three big challenges. Number one is
00:15:48just power. We can use all these AI techniques, but if I don't even
00:15:51have um basic electricity to switch on my
00:15:55device, um, or, you know, access the Internet and all the
00:15:59stuff, uh, you know, it's it's going to be, you know, a challenge.
00:16:03So the second challenge I would say is
00:16:05um access to capital, right?
00:16:09As um, Africa gets less than
00:16:133% of the world's venture capital funding. Um,
00:16:16we're only 3% of the world's GDP. So we need a massive
00:16:19investment into this talent pool and into
00:16:23this ecosystem to actually catalyze
00:16:26the entrepreneurs, the innovators who can solve many of Africa's and many of the world's problems. The
00:16:30third thing that's a challenge is access to markets, because any
00:16:33entrepreneur, any innovation that is born ultimately needs a
00:16:36market to sell into, right? And he start
00:16:40and so the the market problems are twofold.
00:16:43Each market in Africa is is too small. When you aggregate Africa's
00:16:47economy, it's about $3 trillion dollars. But when you look
00:16:50at each individual economy, there's 54 countries. So you have small markets, right? Right. So
00:16:54suddenly, one of the reasons why the US works is because it's one big
00:16:57market, right? Right. Africa should similarly, by
00:17:01breaking down these barriers, you can start to create one big market, which makes it attractive both for foreign
00:17:05investors and local
00:17:07entrepreneurs to be able to to scale. The other aspect around access to markets is making
00:17:11it easier for African entrepreneurs to access global
00:17:14markets so that they can tap into that 97% of the world's GDP that
00:17:18is not enough. And how does that happen? Well, I think digital is a
00:17:22great enabler of that, because now is someone who's making
00:17:25baskets or making movies in Africa
00:17:28or any other kind of service, once you
00:17:32digitize your distribution channels, you can sell on
00:17:35Instagram and Facebook and all these different platforms. Now that if
00:17:39you look at what the Nigerians have done with music, yeah. I
00:17:42mean, 10, 15 years ago,
00:17:46Nigerian musicians were earning $10,000 for
00:17:50a performance because they were trying to sell
00:17:53locally. But when they went global, you see
00:17:56Burna Boy and Wizkid selling out the O2 Arena or Madison Square Garden.
00:18:00And you see with digital help, with digital help, right? They they
00:18:03became global and famous because of YouTube and Instagram and all
00:18:07these
00:18:08things.
00:18:11Is the attitude of the rest of the world towards Africa being
00:18:15changed by access
00:18:18to all of these African art forms, but also African
00:18:22innovation? In certain ways, yes, but I think the rest of the world
00:18:25still doesn't understand Africa's potential.
00:18:28Yeah, growing up,
00:18:32um, I was brought up on Hollywood, right? So I watched
00:18:35you, one of the greatest exports that America has had is its culture, and that came through
00:18:39film and music. And so by being able to tell our own
00:18:42story as a continent, um,
00:18:46we will be able to change how we are seen on our terms
00:18:49and not let others write our
00:18:51story.
00:19:01Whether it's international sports leagues like E1 debuting in Nigeria,
00:19:05or the tiny island nation of Cape Verde looking to expand tourism
00:19:08sustainably, digital tools are playing a key role in both
00:19:12education and outreach. Take a
00:19:14look.
00:19:18If you look at the structure of Lagos State, about 16% of the
00:19:22land mass is made up of water. And we have, um,
00:19:26a water network that is capable of taking you almost anywhere in
00:19:30Lagos. Despite this, the usage was very,
00:19:33very low, then less than 1%.
00:19:36Lagos, big on its waterways and
00:19:40big sports leagues like E1 have bought in. It is
00:19:44an amazing alignment of vision,
00:19:47energy. A recent partnership with the electric boat racing franchise brought
00:19:51its first ever race on the African continent to Lagos this past
00:19:55October. E1 goes beyond the
00:19:59sport, and I think the sport needs to play
00:20:02this kind of role which is inspirational. This
00:20:06comes with leadership, some
00:20:09concrete action on the coastal
00:20:12area. But the move to bring E1 to the
00:20:15shores of Africa goes far beyond this one race. It's
00:20:19a push that brings technology to the forefront. There will
00:20:22be conversation with local technology
00:20:26providers, universities to understand if we can fit their
00:20:29technologies in the future generation of our race
00:20:33boats. There will be inspiration for young
00:20:36students at high school level and university to pursue
00:20:40science, technology, engineering studies that is so
00:20:43important
00:20:46the of the planet and the environment and in any
00:20:50possible application. The league says they partnered with the state
00:20:54a range of events highlighting STEM and sustainability, an
00:20:57effort to amplify their message of conservation and innovation
00:21:01when it comes to the waterways. They're hoping their moves
00:21:04create a ripple effect.
00:21:08We want to show that a different water mobility is possible for the
00:21:12future. This will bring developments, this will bring
00:21:15jobs, innovation, and
00:21:18will put Lagos
00:21:22the place to go if you want
00:21:25the future.
00:21:29With more than 20 million residents, Lagos's roads are
00:21:32often congested. Despite several jetty terminals and almost
00:21:3660 major water routes across the state.
00:21:40Water transport in Lagos State, with what Lagos State has, has the
00:21:43ability and the capacity to remove 41% of the traffic,
00:21:47public to use water. At
00:21:50Ikorodu, a major hub in the state, private ferry
00:21:54operators say despite some challenges increased government
00:21:57involvement has been a game changer. So let's say in
00:22:012018, at the time where this particular terminal where
00:22:04building was still under construction, we were moving about,
00:22:08say, 10, 15 boats per day. Now, as of
00:22:11today, we move
00:22:14a day. With the
00:22:17growing success of private operators and a big event like the E1
00:22:21race, the tide seems to be turning. It was where
00:22:24sustainability met innovation, because what we saw happening with that
00:22:28boat race was a
00:22:30dynamic way of looking
00:22:34the local operators could see the future. So
00:22:38we saw them as well getting involved, loving the race, and being able to plan for themselves
00:22:42saying, this is where we want to eventually be in the
00:22:44future.
00:22:46Now we head to the sunny shores of Cape Verde to see how digitization is
00:22:50helping boost economies across the country by bringing more groups
00:22:54into the
00:22:54mix.
00:22:58A vacation destination that once seemed far away is
00:23:02suddenly within reach.
00:23:06In the very early days, hardly anyone had heard of Cape
00:23:09Verde. Now it is a very much known
00:23:12destination, and we are now experiencing a real
00:23:15explosion of interest from all over,
00:23:19predominantly Europe. So a very, very well sought after
00:23:22destination. Lying 600 kilometers off the coast
00:23:26of West Africa, Cape Verde is a small string of volcanic islands
00:23:30famed for its sun, sand, and sea life, not to
00:23:34mention miles of unbroken beaches. This tiny
00:23:38country with a population of just over 600,000 has
00:23:41proven very attractive for prospective investors
00:23:44and business of late has been
00:23:47booming. In winter of 2025, the UK-based
00:23:51low-cost airline EasyJet expanded
00:23:54service to Cape Verde with six new routes out of London and
00:23:58other major European cities. Its
00:24:01Chief Commercial Officer Paul Bixby says that while Cape Verde's government
00:24:04has been open to providing economic support, the next step is making
00:24:08sure the country's infrastructure and hotels are up to date and
00:24:12can handle a large increase in visitors. We carry 100
00:24:16million passengers, we've got 350 airplanes, we're not, we're not
00:24:19niche. We're a digital company. Your disruption is
00:24:22managed by phone, by app. You don't have thousands
00:24:26of people that can that can manage this, so it has to be quite seamless and quite
00:24:30mass market. While tourism is unquestionably the
00:24:34backbone of Cape Verde's economy, accounting for roughly a quarter of the country's
00:24:38GDP, the island nation is also looking to grow its digital
00:24:41sector, with investments in e-government and cybersecurity.
00:24:45Cape Verde hopes to one day be a competitive hub for IT
00:24:48services, fintech, and business processing operations,
00:24:52servicing an international clientele. All
00:24:55the businesses, not all the tourism, but especially tourism, that is
00:24:59the main service sector in in Cape
00:25:02Verde, depends heavily on the digital. Cape Verde knows the
00:25:06importance of the digitalization of the
00:25:09services and the tourism ecosystem in Cape.
00:25:12Verde. When tourists go to Cape Verde, you
00:25:16just use, for example, e-gate to cross the border easily, uh, in...
00:25:20in in some airports, and there are more investments uh on that. So
00:25:23that facilitates everything. Whether it's a
00:25:26digital transformation and burgeoning IT sector or the continued
00:25:30growth of international tourism, this tiny
00:25:33island nation hopes their planning today will pay dividends
00:25:36for generations to
00:25:37come.
00:25:41All right, that does it for this very special edition of Marketplace Africa,
00:25:45the link. Thank you so much for joining me. Remember, you can keep up with us on social
00:25:49media and on as well. I'm Zane Asha, I'll see
00:25:52you next time in the
00:25:53marketplace.
00:26:33Good evening, dear viewers, it's time
00:26:35for the news.
00:26:39Fires are still active near Konjic and Neum, the fire is on
00:26:43inaccessible terrain, a state of natural disaster has been declared,
00:26:47and international aid has been requested.
00:26:50The fire is spreading towards the village of Brđani and towards Džepska
00:26:53Mountain, meaning in the direction of Hadžići
00:26:55municipality.
00:27:00From tonight's news, we also highlight:
00:27:05Nova Željezara Zenica officially entered bankruptcy, worker protection
00:27:09is in focus, claims the
00:27:11company.
00:27:14After the ecocide in Gospić, Croatian USKOK is expanding its investigation
00:27:18into waste disposal sites, does hazardous waste from Croatia
00:27:22have anything to do with Derventa, and what kind of hazardous waste enters Bosnia and
00:27:25Herzegovina?
00:27:28More than 250 killed in an earthquake in Colombia. Rescue
00:27:32teams are continuously searching for survivors under the rubble,
00:27:36and
00:27:38tomorrow sunny and hot, in the south temperatures up to
00:27:4139°C.
00:27:48Forest fires have been raging for days in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fire
00:27:51near Jajce affected about 7 hectares of pine
00:27:55forest, extinguishing is difficult due to mines, which is why the helicopter
00:27:58of the Armed Forces was redirected to extinguish the fire in the vicinity
00:28:02of Konjic. A state of natural disaster has been declared
00:28:05in Konjic, and international air aid has
00:28:08been requested. A large forest fire has been raging for days
00:28:12on inaccessible and steep terrain near the settlements
00:28:15of Kanjina, Živašnica, Brđani, and Džepi. Under the force of the wind,
00:28:19the fire is spreading in several directions, and during the past night, two stables
00:28:23and one abandoned house in the hamlet of Golubić burned down. Due to
00:28:26the extremely difficult and alarming situation on the ground, a state
00:28:30of natural disaster has been declared. Meaning, it is constantly spreading
00:28:33on the ground, all our available resources and
00:28:36capacities are there, the fire is spreading towards the village of Brđani
00:28:40and towards Džepska Mountain, meaning in the direction of Hadžići
00:28:43municipality. Mm, during the past night, the city
00:28:47civil protection headquarters of the city of Konjic convened, a state
00:28:50of economic disaster has been declared in the area of the city of Konjic caused by large forest fires,
00:28:54and international aid has been requested for
00:28:57extinguishing forest fires from the air. Residents are fearfully following
00:29:01the movement of the fire towards their homes and properties, and the fight against
00:29:04the fire element is ongoing without interruption, so the forest
00:29:08is burning, meaning it's burning, we have
00:29:12a weekend house up there and my son went up there,
00:29:16there are people who have livestock,
00:29:19meaning they have sheep and they are all up there now,
00:29:23meaning it has spread to the hill,
00:29:26now the grass is dry,
00:29:30everything will burn here, it was really too critical, like the lower
00:29:33settlement, but it was really that big fire, firefighters
00:29:37fought for 24 hours for a couple of days for sure, so
00:29:40it was a lot more critical down there than here, but again we defended
00:29:44this settlement here too, fire trucks
00:29:47smoke has been visible for three or four days, it went in that
00:29:51direction up towards this hill, up there is a mountain, they
00:29:54were on duty, on duty on the clearing up there, a divide
00:29:58goes, it's all forest, and they were
00:30:01just waiting for a plan there. There's nothing else, the road is inaccessible,
00:30:04the road was built there when the power line
00:30:07was working, those were two or three households, now
00:30:11there's nobody there, it's deserted, and now that whole
00:30:15hillside is burning, and I don't know how to explain it to you, you can't even
00:30:19walk there on foot, let alone cars come, from early morning
00:30:22hours, firefighters from Konjic with the help of colleagues from Hadžići and Trčin
00:30:26and local residents and hunters are fighting a superhuman battle with the fire
00:30:29element, from the air they are also helped by e-tractors and
00:30:33helicopters, we have firefighters from Sarajevo Canton, from
00:30:36Hadžići, from Trčin, they help, they help us
00:30:39with ground forces, in extinguishing the fire
00:30:42from the ground, and we have directed all resources and capacities
00:30:46to prevent the spread of the fire
00:30:50towards the village of Brđani and towards Džepska Mountain. The toughest battles with
00:30:53the fire are fought during the night when the flames threaten property and homes. Therefore,
00:30:57fire brigades remain in full readiness.