A steady decline in ARPU is challenging the economics of mobile operations on the African continent. As a result, operators are paying increasing attention to reducing cost to make subscriber additions add value. They are also looking at data services to increase ARPU.

Washington, DCJanuary 22, 2008 – The 2008 Global Development Marketplace (DM2008) competition was launched today, offering $4 million in grants to social entrepreneurs with innovative ideas that have potential for high impact in promoting sustainable agriculture.

Aggressive territorial male Mozambique tilapia fish (Oreochromis mossambicus) send chemical messages to rival males via their urine. They increase urination, have smellier urine and store more in their bladders than less aggressive males, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Biology. Animal behaviourists have known for some time that the urine of freshwater fish is a vehicle for reproductive hormones that act in the water as pheromones, affecting the behaviour and physiology of members of the opposite sex.

As the year draws to a close, I thought this article from the World Bank is appropriate: Read On:

Despite gains in the second half of the 1990s, Sub­Saharan Africa (Africa) enters the 21 st century with many of the world's poorest countries. Average income per capita is lower than at the end of the 1960s. Incomes, assets, and access to essential services are unequally distributed. And the region contains a growing share of the world's absolute poor, who have little power to influence the allocation of resources.

TOKYO, JAPAN, December 27, 2007 -- Africa Region Vice President Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili made a visit to Tokyo on December 12-14, where she spent two days talking to numerous stakeholders in government, civil society, business and the media, making a passionate case for Africa during a Foreign Correspondents’ Club media luncheon.

81,000 rural, urban homes and public services will newly access electricity

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$105 million equivalent IDA credit [1]and a US$6.5 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to improve electricity services in Tanzania, where electrification rates in some areas are as low as two percent.

The Energy Development and Access Expansion Project will improve the quality and efficiency of the electricity service provision in the three main growth centers of Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Kilimanjaro. It will also establish a sustainable basis for energy access expansion and support the global objective of reducing CO2 emissions by reducing barriers to renewable energy development.