San-Francisco-based Uber Technologies plans to introduce UberEverything, a division of the company that leverage on its drivers network into the on-demand economy and provide services such as product and food delivery and courier services.
The taxi-hailing company plans to introduce UberEverthing, that will include UberRush (a personal courier service) and UberEat ( a food delivery service), in South Africa by the end of the year, Quartz Africa reported.
“The first market will probably be South Africa and we are pushing to make that happen before the end of the year,” said Alon Lits, Uber’s general manager for sub-Saharan Africa.
“If things go well in South Africa, there’s no reason why we won’t bring UberEverything to more markets,” he added.
Last week, Uber launched its taxi-hailing service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, meeting its expansion target for 2016 and bringing the countries it operates in on the continent to eight. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya. Egypt, Morocco, Uganda and Ghana.
UberRusha and UberEat will ride on top of the network created by uber drivers in cities in these countries.
Globally, the $60 billion tech company has already made strides with UberEverything, with bicycle couriers and drivers shuttling food and other small packages around the city like New York for about $5 to $7, Inc. reported.
The tech startup also sold football tickets for “the most hopeless team@ in the U.S. National Football Legue, the Jacksonville Jaguars, in what was termed as a “first-of-its-kind partnership” that let Florida passengers request a ride through Uber’s app and then shop a range of last-minute tickets at specially discounted rates, Mashable reported.
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UberEverything Coming To Africa By End of 2016
San-Francisco-based Uber Technologies plans to introduce UberEverything, a division of the company that leverage on its drivers network into the on-demand economy and provide services such as product and food delivery and courier services.
The taxi-hailing company plans to introduce UberEverthing, that will include UberRush (a personal courier service) and UberEat ( a food delivery service), in South Africa by the end of the year, Quartz Africa reported.
“The first market will probably be South Africa and we are pushing to make that happen before the end of the year,” said Alon Lits, Uber’s general manager for sub-Saharan Africa.
“If things go well in South Africa, there’s no reason why we won’t bring UberEverything to more markets,” he added.
Last week, Uber launched its taxi-hailing service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, meeting its expansion target for 2016 and bringing the countries it operates in on the continent to eight. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya. Egypt, Morocco, Uganda and Ghana.
UberRusha and UberEat will ride on top of the network created by uber drivers in cities in these countries.
Globally, the $60 billion tech company has already made strides with UberEverything, with bicycle couriers and drivers shuttling food and other small packages around the city like New York for about $5 to $7, Inc. reported.
The tech startup also sold football tickets for “the most hopeless team@ in the U.S. National Football Legue, the Jacksonville Jaguars, in what was termed as a “first-of-its-kind partnership” that let Florida passengers request a ride through Uber’s app and then shop a range of last-minute tickets at specially discounted rates, Mashable reported.
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Why Is China Trying To Manage African Media?
More than 300 delegates from 44 African countries are in Beijing for the Third Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation, the goal being to deepen media cooperation and boost the development of China-Africa ties, according to Chinese government-controlled CCTV.
China and Africa should share content, said Donald Liphoko, director of South Africa’s government communication and information systems (GCIS), in a press release. The forum is meant to be a platform to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa on media-related matters.
Liphoko spoke at the opening ceremony of the forum Tuesday in Beijing.
The forum is a place to exchange best practices, he said. There is a lot that Africa and China can learn from each other such as media policies and regulations in China and Africa.
China and Africa should exchange programs focusing on digital content for communities and small businesses as they prepare for broadband and digital broadcasting,according to Liphoko.
In December, South Africa played host to the China-Africa Media Summit in Cape Town, leading up to the current forum now underway in Beijing. China’s minister of the State Council Information Office, Jiang Jianguo, represented the Chinese government.
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He said China is concerned about “the world’s unbalanced media power system,” according to a report by the Center For International Media Assistance. Jiang lamented that both China and African countries “face prejudice, misunderstandings, and stereotypes” and that “it’s very urgent for the developing countries to improve their international communication capability to create a more objective, impartial, and balanced international public opinion environment.”
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African Hotels See Dizzy Growth, But Zimbabwe-Listed Group Is Laying Off Workers
Nigeria and Angola, the two African countries hit hardest by falling oil prices, have the highest number of hotels in the development pipeline this year, BusinessDayLive reported.
Global and domestic hotel chains are investing more than ever in Africa, but Zimbabwe-listed hospitality group, African Sun, has laid off nearly 250 employees citing dwindling tourist numbers, lower room rates and the country’s deteriorating economic environment.
African Sun transitioned it business model from a hotel operating company to a hotel investment management company in October, according to Daily News. The average daily room rate fell 5 percent from $98 in 2015 to $93, said African Sun managing director, Edwin Shangwa.
There are 64,000 African hotel rooms in the development pipeline this year, according to an industry survey compiled by the Lagos-based W Hospitality Group, BusinessDayLive reported.
That’s 30 percent more development activity than 2015 and more than twice the development pipeline in 2009. However more than 30 percent of the hotel deals signed between 2009 and 2013 have still not been opened, mainly due to the lack of finance, said Trevor Ward, W Hospitality Group’s managing director.
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Single Passport: Towards Making Africa Borderless for Development
The plan to initiate the new electronic African Union (AU) passport seems to be taking shape as the first Africans to be issued with the electronic passport (e-Passport) will be the heads of state from across Africa who will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda next month. The leaders will be attending the African Union Summit.
The flagship project, first agreed upon in 2014, is part of the framework of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and is aimed at facilitating free movement of persons, goods, and services around the continent – in order to foster intra-Africa trade, integration, and socio-economic development. The AU said in a statement that the e-Passport will be launched at the 27th AU Summit in Kigali in July.
According to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, this initiative is both “symbolic and significant,” calling it a “steady step toward the objective of creating a strong, prosperous and integrated Africa, driven by its own citizens and capable of taking its rightful place on the world stage.”
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