World
Why Egypt, Ethiopia’s Inclusion in BRICS is Strategic—Arnold Boateng
Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
South Africa hosted the 15th BRICS summit from August 22 to 24. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) members have thoroughly discussed a wide range of significant issues, including the bloc’s expansion, common currency, investment and trade, the bloc’s strategy and geo-policy. We already know that BRICS members consistently champion the rights and interests of Africa and also play an increasing role and influence in the global governance system – particularly international financial and economic organisations.
Holding the 15th summit, especially this crucial time, within the context of the emerging multipolar world, BRICS discussed steps forward for deepening interaction in the sphere of trade and investment with the nations of the Global South, including Africa. In fact, the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue in Johannesburg on August 24 was considered an important component event of the summit.
On the sidelines of the BRICS summit, Kestér Kenn Klomegâh had the chance to talk with Professor Arnold Boateng about a number of questions connecting BRICS and Africa. Professor Arnold Boateng is an Entrepreneur, Consultant, Speaker and Author. [Books: Dreams of Our Youth: The African Youth Question: Ananse Verses: Foundations for Life… (Available from Amazon & Kindle Store]. Here are the interview excerpts:
In your view, how do you assess the 15th BRICS summit held here in Johannesburg, South Africa
The summit was a huge success. It is living up to the hype and expectations prior to the summit. Invited guests showed up and gave a thumbs-up to the agenda. Two critical expectations were the admission of new members and the issue of BRICS currency for trading. The organisation of the summit went according to script. A notable hitch was the absence of President Vladimir Putin, but his Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergey Lavrov, is a qualified representative.
And also, how would you evaluate, within the context of an emerging new world, Egypt and Ethiopia as new BRICS members
Egypt is the largest economy in North Africa, with a GDP of $435 billion and a population of 112 million. Its economic growth is around 3.7% for this year. According to the IMF, it is expected to grow at 5% in 2024. Ethiopia, on the other hand, with its population of 120 million and a GDP of $305 billion, brings good matrices by any measure to the table. Both countries have a young population and a strong middle class. Their political environment is relatively stable for strong economic development.
With a bit of emphasis on BRICS supporting Africa’s development and … to undermine Western domination and influence, what could be Egypt and Ethiopia’s role in these issues across Africa
As I see it, BRICS may build these two countries into economic successes and use them as carrots to rope in other African nations. As you indicated, the era of photos and handshakes to get Africa dancing is over. Even the era of infrastructure funding is ending to give way to industrial base and manufacturing funding.
BRICS sees it clearly as the most secure way to go. Egypt appeals to the North African Islamic states, whilst Ethiopia appeals to the Horn of Africa and part of the East. With both nations developing economically, their economic successes would create synergies that overflow into surrounding economies. They would also be the trump card BRICS would need to demonstrate to Africa and other regions that it offers a better option than the West’s exploitative programmes. So far, BRICS support of Africa’s development is largely words since we cannot equate China to BRICS. Even if we could, China’s infrastructure funds went to corrupt governments.
Next, what’s your take on Vladimir Putin’s proposal that BRICS becomes a trading bloc? What are the obvious implications, particularly for Africa
Vladimir Putin’s call is the best and most practical statement to come from BRICS so far. He seems to have identified the pulse of Africa and our teaming youth. Africa wants more trade and less and less aid. Wealth and economic prosperity is what Africa needs. Africa needs investment in the continent and cross-border trade. Once BRICS began to function as a trading block with fair terms of trade, Africa may apply to join the block. If BRICS positions itself as a trading block with effective and open trade rules, it may very supplant WTO in a generation. Africa is tired of WTO, which favours North Atlantic Nations. BRICS has a population of about 40%, mineral resources, and technological know-how to thrive and compete. Even trade within the BRICS block would be enough for African nations to realise their respective dreams. This is what Africa has been waiting for a trading block with raw reserves, a youthful population underpinned by fair trade, open borders and honest trading partners.
How feasible that can be and what peculiar challenges it poses for Africa and for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) under the auspices of the African Union (AU)
Its applicability lies in the guidelines for joining the BRICS; the African Union adopting BRICS policy which is skewed towards trade. Africa’s trade policies are fragmented. That is what AfCFTA seeks to overcome and usher in an era of true free trade. The lukewarm attitude from countries, competing trade policies, and internal political situations pose huge challenges. Furthermore, road and logistical infrastructure are challenges even if Africa could overcome political and technical regimes of taxes, cross-border issues and intractable issues like corruption. Thus, nationalistic tendencies are key challenges to overcome. BRICS may have to impose its own trading protocols as an assistance to the African Union (AU) and AfCFTA to help them steer the task of streamlining trading rules. BRICS may also consider harmonising trade rules with AfCFTA. The African Union is now viewed with mistrust in certain capitals. African leaders see it as an attempt to a power grab. It must focus on coordination and getting African leaders to support AfCFTA to achieve its mandate.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
To serve rising global customer demand for responsibly sourced natural rubber, Olam Agri has acquired Asia Africa Rubber Industry SA (ASAF).
The acquisition is expected to unlock synergies across the company’s global logistics, supply chain, trading and marketing network, strengthening the supply of responsibly sourced rubber to key export markets. It also increases access to international rubber customers through ASAF’s existing strategic partnerships.
It was gathered that the takeover of ASAF helps Olam Agri to scale its rubber processing capabilities in Côte d’Ivoire, as the former adds about 176,000 metric tonnes (MT) to the latter’s annual rubber processing capacity in the country, giving the company greater scale in the country and geographic density that improves operational efficiency and supply reliability.
In addition, the acquisition advances Olam Agri’s commitment to sustainable, traceable natural rubber.
Additional processing capacity and greater oversight over origination in Côte d’Ivoire enable the organisation to extend plot-level traceability and responsible-sourcing standards. This will support its customers’ due-diligence and deforestation-free supply chain requirements as regulatory and buyer expectations continue to rise.
Global natural rubber consumption is driven by automotive and industrial applications, with annual demand of around 14–15 million MT.
Industry forecasts point to sustained long-term demand for technically specified natural rubber (TSR). Côte d’Ivoire has grown into the world’s third-largest producer of natural rubber and exporter of TSR, driven by a significant scale-up of rubber cultivation and local processing capacity.
“The acquisition of ASAF marks an important milestone for our rubber business. Over the past five years, we have expanded processing capacity in Côte d’Ivoire more than four-fold through sustained investment across the value chain.
“ASAF builds on that progress and reflects our long-term commitment to investing in the country.
“As demand for traceable and responsibly sourced natural rubber continues to climb, we are well-positioned to provide customers with the quality, consistency and service they require,” the chief executive of Fibre, Agri Industrials and Ag Services at Olam Agri, Ashok Hegde, stated.
Also commenting, the Global Head of Rubber at Olam Agri, Vijeth Shetty, said, “ASAF is a strong strategic fit with our rubber operations in Côte d’Ivoire. Its processing operations, sourcing network and customer relationships complement our business, improving efficiency, deepening our capabilities across the value chain and broadening our reach in key markets.
“We are excited to welcome ASAF’s employees into Olam Agri and to build on the solid foundations they have established.”
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A $1 million funding package has been secured by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, Echovane, to expand its market research platform.
The fresh capital would be used by the company to build AI agents that execute market research end-to-end, used by Fortune-500 firms, including P&G, Haleon, and Kantar.
Echovane will utilise the funds, co-led by Titan Capital and Neon Fund, to make complex market research a done-for-you AI-native service.
The platform is built on the premise that AI should take on the machinery of research while researchers retain control over the judgment. The result should be faster execution without sacrificing rigour, traceability or trust.
Echovane was founded by former Amazon, Stripe, Gojek and Razorpay product leaders and graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, Smriti Gupta, Vipul Nair and Himadri Roy.
They initially set out to build an AI moderator for consumer interviews. But the deeper they went, the clearer it became that the interview was only a fraction of the problem. Research teams were still spending weeks recruiting participants, coordinating fieldwork, analysing evidence and turning it into something the business could act on.
So, the founders expanded Echovane into the execution layer for the entire research process.
“We thought better AI interviews would unlock faster research. But that was only one step in the research operations, for one methodology of research.
“In reality, research is more complex, and can vary from interviews to unobtrusive observations and longitudinal studies. It has multi-level complexity including finding niche participants, getting the research completed on time with them and maintaining quality checks,” the chief executive of Echovane, Smriti Gupta, stated.
“This funding allows us to deepen the agent infrastructure behind Echovane, expand our multimodal capabilities, and strengthen the global participant network required to deliver increasingly complex studies with consistency,” the chief technical officer, Vipul Nair, noted.
Also commenting, the chief operating officer of Echovane, Himadri Roy, said, “Having done the research ourselves, we understand the operational pain researchers have to go through to conduct a good research that gives useful insights.”
“Echovane has made complex, multi-market studies feel simple. They find the right hard-to-reach participants, handle the nuances across markets and languages, and deliver actionable insights with remarkable speed and consistency,” the Consumer Science and Product Experience Lead for Haleon, Zee Alcasid, disclosed.
“Echovane turned a month of product research into two days. They reached exactly the right participants and let us test, learn and iterate continuously across multiple audiences, countries, product variants all within a single study that would be impossible to execute at speed and scale,” the chief product officer for Trustly, Adam D’arcy, stated.
A spokesperson for Titan Capital said, “We have backed Smriti, Vipul and Himadri because they have deeply understood why market research has stayed slow and expensive for decades.
“With Echovane, they are building an AI-native, end-to-end research platform focused on the quality of the final insight, encoding each client’s context into a system that gets sharper with every study.
“They are turning research from a recurring expense into compounding infrastructure — faster, cheaper and genuinely deeper. Their first-principles thinking and capital-efficient execution gave us confidence in Echovane’s long-term potential.”
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia’s system of foreign students’ admission is currently experiencing a completely different shape, due to the rapidly shifting geopolitical reality. The emerging trends are closely connected with increasing the number of highly interested applicants rather than the quality of education. The geopolitical shift is pushing Russia to make education for young Africans an ultimate priority. The quota campaign has already begun as the figure compares favourably with previous benchmarks but, to some considerable extent, noticeable challenges are currently affecting enrollment from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Despite that, general interest in Russian education among foreign nationals is increasing; the quota campaign confirms this trend. Last year, for instance, there were about 144,000 registrations in Rossotrudnichestvo’s Education in Russian system. The number has exceeded 160,000 in 2026. What is important here is that Russia shows preparedness to get more students from developing countries, especially from Africa and uses it as a factor for influencing its foreign policy in the region.
Regarding educational initiatives, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with relevant agencies and organisations are active in Africa. Noticeably, Russia is developing and expanding the existing, successfully operating cooperation in the sphere of education. In fact, priority is given to projects in the field of education and training of professional personnel for African countries. Currently, over 37,000 students from Africa are studying at Russian universities. Reports say a gradual increase in the number of scholarships for African citizens and the expansion of the range of professional training programs will provide a strong incentive for further promoting education at Russian universities.
This will continue to actively strengthen inter-university ties with African partners, including through specialised umbrella organisations such as the Russian-African Network University, the Consortium of Technical Universities “Nadra Africa” based at the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, the Russian-African Network Transport University, and the Consortium of Russian Universities Working in West Africa based at the NGO “Centre for Public Diplomacy.”
Reports further indicated that the Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices—the Russian Science and Culture Centres—operating in eight African countries, as well as the Open Education Centres operating under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Education in 31 African countries, serve as a solid foundation for our humanitarian presence in Africa. They serve as conduits for the Russian language and culture on the continent. It is, however, hoped that their number would only increase in the subsequent years.
While addressing the staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness to cooperate actively in the sustainable economic development and to strengthen efforts at training the needed specialists and professionals for Africa. After the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991, there were problems sustaining relations with Africa. Then, after more than a decade, Russia started to return to Africa. This process has been ongoing for the past 15 years, according to the top Russian diplomat.
According to Lavrov, these past few years have been characterised by frequent interactions between Russian and African Foreign Ministers, plethora of MoUs were signed that set out the broad parameters of cooperation. Russia’s Education Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have raised the quotas for many African countries, the highest given to Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia and Mozambique, and South Africa.
According to a report posted on the MFA website in August, for instance, some 1,120 Angolans have enrolled, on Russian scholarships or grants, at various institutes and universities throughout the Russian Federation. Figures for other African countries are available on the official information portal of the ministry.
Besides state-sponsored students, Russia’s Education Ministry has also launched a large-scale educational campaign targeting the recruitment of private foreign students into its educational institutions across the Russian Federation. The program is to be implemented until 2025, which has a website (studyinrussia) translated into different languages, seeks to boost the popularity and improve its image abroad.
Undoubtedly, Russia aims at strengthening the next generation of pro-Russian elites who will help promote its interests, including long-term ones in their home countries. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ultimately, hope to improve the efficiency of “soft power” in Africa, though not to the levels during the Soviet era.
Understandably, Russia is now targeting Africa’s fast-growing population as a huge potential market for knowledge transfer and export education. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a widely circulated Russian daily newspaper, reported that Russia has been focusing on the young population in developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, targeting the elite and middle class in these markets for the export of education, which has great potential.
The newspaper reported on the advantages of multiculturalism and cross-cultural interactive activities paving the way for integration in Russian society. As far back as 2023, Russia’s Federation Council and State Duma (upper and lower houses of parliament) passed a bill. That bill was finally signed into law, allowing foreign students the right to employment, a replica of the work and study model in Western and European countries.
Professor Viktor Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University and Chairman of the Russian Rectors’ Association, an organisation that unites more than 700 heads of higher education institutions, argued that education and demography are interconnected; developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have growing middle classes. “This favours the export of our education; it has great potential cooperating in the education sphere, it could serve as a huge market – training young professionals that are in demand on the labour market,” Sadovnichy said, addressing a plenary meeting of the Russian Rectors’ Association at Peter the Great St Petersburg State Polytechnic University.
Professor Natalia Vlasova, Deputy Rector at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Ural State University of Economics in Yekaterinburg, explained that many African countries are developing rapidly, and the African elites and the growing middle-class have great potential for sponsoring their children’s education abroad. “In the times of the Soviet Union, African countries were strategic partners, and now we should reactivate these relations because in the near future they will have big economic and political power. This could, indeed, be a huge market and has the business potential,” she noted assertively.
An educational survey released in September 2024, divided into five major groups, said Russia has made significant efforts at improving teaching (the learning environment), research, citations (research influence), knowledge transfer, and international outlook (staff, students, research) in the educational field, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
