At Genesis, which turned 20 this year, we are dedicating our next decade to the future of young Africans. These young people, measuring around 500 million over time, will build their lives in a hyper-technological world whilst managing the impact of climate change. 

Despite their generally weakened financial positions, several African governments are once again flirting with the idea of establishing dedicated SME banks. But is creating dedicated ‘banks’ for SMEs the right strategy?

On behalf of the CEOs’ Initiative, Standard Bank asked Genesis Analytics to prepare a joint Action Plan to bring business and government together to address the decline of the Vaal Region and prevent it from becoming the “rust belt” of South Africa. Last week, the CEO Initiative delivered the report and regeneration action plan to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni. 

When a market has adopted a payment standard, a huge marketing effort is required to shift consumer behaviour. Can mVisa tip the scale of retail payments back in favour of Kenyan banks? Genesis associate Tom Magara looks at the experience of mVisa.

The Portfolio Committee for Economic Development approved further amendments to the SA Competition Amendment Bill this week. Our Competition and Regulatory Economics practice has participated closely in the debates over the Bill. The Bill will now be placed before the National Assembly for a vote before heading to the National Council of Provinces.

In the next 20 years, the number of people aged 15-24 in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by a 100 million. Genesis works in many of the critical areas in which the prospects for this generation of young people will be determined, including health, agriculture, communications, financial services and youth economic empowerment. This newsletter presents some of our current work. 

MERL Tech, which has been successful in London and DC, came to Jozi for the first time. Its purpose was to bring together development practitioners at the intersection of M&E and technology to share and learn how we can, together, tackle the fourth industrial revolution and use technology to do our jobs better.

Richard Ketley asks whether in all the hype about fintech we have lost track of the importance of finding ways to support mobile network operators to establish the infrastructure required for mobile money and to encourage regulators to balance the reward for investment in mobile money while preventing excessive pricing. 

Impact investing is becoming one of the largest forces in driving social and environmental change globally. However, how one defines, measures and communicates this impact is not well defined or consistently implemented. Members of the Evaluation for Development practice examine three case studies in the African Evaluation Journal.

Our Agribusiness, Climate Change and Market Development practice works across the design-and-implement project spectrum, combining deep technical expertise with context-specific knowledge and management. 

On behalf of the CEOs’ Initiative, Standard Bank asked Genesis Analytics to work with the largest companies in the Vaal Region and four public sector partners to prepare a joint Action Plan to bring business and government together to address the decline of the Vaal Region and prevent it from becoming the “rust belt” of South Africa. This trend mirrors the decline of manufacturing in South Africa over the past 10 years. 

The Vaal Region Regeneration Action Plan is a possible partnership between business and government to turn around the deindustrialisation of the Vaal Region. The Vaal has traditionally been South Africa’s heavy industrial, manufacturing and engineering hub. However, owing to an array of reasons, which are explored in this information pack, the region has suffered from falling output and company closures. 

In the next two decades, technology will redraw the manufacturing map of the world. As legacy factors such as geography and starting conditions become less important, other factors will be pivotal to manufacturing location. This establishes a clear agenda for countries aspiring to join the ranks of manufacturing exporters, writes Genesis Analytics founder Stephan Malherbe in a background paper for Oxford's Pathways for Prosperity Commission.

The SA Competition Amendment Bill was tabled before Parliament in July and was the subject of public hearings before the Portfolio Committee for Economic Development in late August.  On the basis of those hearings and further engagements with the Ministry, the Committee approved further amendments to the Bill on 16 October 2018. Download B version of the Bill, which will now be placed before the National Assembly for a vote before heading to the National Council of Provinces

The SA Competition Amendment Bill was tabled before Parliament in July and was the subject of public hearings before the Portfolio Committee for Economic Development in late August.  On the basis of those hearings and further engagements with the Ministry, the Committee approved further amendments to the Bill on 16 October 2018. Download the Committee report. 

Genesis was contracted by Airbnb to measure the economic impact of the online accommodation marketing platform on tourism in South Africa. Since its founding, 2 million guests have arrived at listings on Airbnb in South Africa, and 3.5 million across Africa as a whole, with roughly half of these arrivals occurring in just the past year.