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Al-Ahram Weekly
4 days ago
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Veteran insider George Elombi appointed Afreximbank next president - Economy
Elombi's selection was finalized at the 32nd Afreximbank Group Annual Meetings and associated events, culminating in the formal annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Saturday, 28 June 2025, in Abuja, Nigeria. Elombi, a Cameroonian national in his early 60s, is set to assume the role in September 2025, bringing nearly three decades of experience to the position. He succeeds Professor Benedict Oramah, who has served as president since 2015. Elombi joined Afreximbank in 1996 as a legal officer and subsequently advanced through the ranks, most recently becoming the executive vice president (corporate governance and legal services). His previous roles also include director, executive secretary, deputy director, legal services executive secretary, chief legal officer, and senior legal officer. Before his tenure at Afreximbank, he taught law at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. Afreximbank is a pan-African multilateral financial institution established in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank. Headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, its core mandate is to finance and promote intra- and extra-African trade, thereby stimulating economic expansion and diversification across the continent. The bank plays a crucial role in addressing trade finance gaps, facilitating industrialization, and supporting the implementation of key initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Its diverse shareholders include African governments, central banks, regional and sub-regional institutions, as well as African and non-African public and private investors. As of December 2024, Afreximbank's total assets and contingencies stood at over $40.1 billion, with shareholder funds amounting to $7.2 billion. The appointment of a new president is a pivotal moment for Afreximbank, given its significant influence on Africa's economic development. Elombi's extensive tenure within the bank and his pivotal role in establishing its group structure and subsidiaries suggest a continuation of the institution's strategic direction. His leadership as chair of the Emergency Response Committee during the COVID-19 crisis, during which he mobilized over $2 billion for vaccine acquisition and deployment, highlights his capacity for impactful action in challenging times. Elombi has the ambitious target of growing Afreximbank into a $250 billion bank within the next decade, a goal articulated by his predecessor and accepted by the shareholders. Achieving this will further the bank's mission of transforming Africa's trade landscape, particularly as the continent navigates global economic shifts and seeks to bolster intra-African trade through initiatives like the AfCFTA. The institution's ability to provide trade, project financing, guarantees, and advisory services directly impacts the continent's capacity to industrialize, diversify its exports, and build resilience against external shocks. In his acceptance speech, Elombi underscored his commitment to the bank's mission. 'I have worked alongside remarkable colleagues and extraordinary leaders to help shape this institution's vision, its mandate, as well as its growth. As we look to the future, I see Afreximbank as a force for industrializing Africa and for regaining the dignity of Africans wherever they are. I will work to preserve this important asset,' he said. Elombi holds a master's degree in Law and a PhD in Commercial Arbitration from the London School of Economics, University of London, as well as a master's degree in Law from the University of Yaoundé. His appointment followed a rigorous global search process initiated in January 2025, culminating in a recommendation from the board of directors to the General Meeting of Shareholders for final approval. Under the Afreximbank Charter, a president serves a five-year term, renewable once.
The Star
09-06-2025
- Climate
- The Star
A fluid solution: British towns harness nature to combat rising flood risk
In a stream near Leicester in central England, six volunteers in waterproof overalls and boots busily reinforced mini wooden structures designed to combat the rising flooding threat. The city, like many others in Britain, has experienced several intense rainfall events in recent years, which have caused significant damage. Alert to climate change, which intensifies these events, authorities are strengthening their defences and turning to solutions more sympathetic with the environment. With their feet firmly planted on the bed of the Saffron Brook, a tributary of the River Soar that runs through Leicester, the volunteers ensured the structures' wooden bundles were securely anchored. These structures create bends that "change the behaviour of the river" and slow down water in stretches where it currently flows "straight and very fast", said Dan Scott, who leads the programme at the Trent Rivers Trust, a local group working to protect rivers. He regularly oversees the installation of new facilities. An aerial view of volunteers constructing a natural flood management feature on the Saffron Brook. A few months ago, the trust dug a pond on a river near the town of Loughborough and installed dozens of leaky wooden barriers to better protect downstream houses that flooded in the past. These techniques are "complementary to traditional flood defences" such as retention basins and canals that are increasingly under strain, Scott said. They "help to store some of that water upstream so that those traditional flood defences don't get overwhelmed, and if they do, it's not as quickly as if these features weren't in place," he added. They also help to maintain biodiversity. A natural flood management feature is pictured on the Saffron Brook. 'Urgent problem' More than 6.3 million properties are at risk of flooding in Britain, and this figure will rise to more than eight million by 2050, according to a recent government report. "Flooding is a really urgent societal problem," said Steven Forest, director of the Flood Risk Management Program at the University of Hull. Climate events resulted in Britain insurance payouts of more than £400mil (RM2.3bil) in 2022 and more than £570mil (RM3.3bil) in 2023 and 2024, half of which was related to flooding, according to the Association of British Insurers. Beyond traditional defences, "we need to think about living with water, and we need to think about integrating water within our urban spaces", Forest added. He cited the Netherlands, which allocates space for rivers to drain during heavy rainfall, and the United States, where vegetation "buffer zones" were created after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. "Straight-jacketing" waterways with various infrastructure is no longer sufficient, Forest said, especially since 7% of such structures were assessed to be in "poor" or "very poor" condition by the UK Environment Agency in 2022. Scott, project lead for the Trent River Trust, regularly oversees the installation of new facilities. Overcoming scepticism But convincing residents and authorities is not always an easy task as it often needs explaining that "just because we've not built a concrete solution, that it isn't going to be as effective", Scott said. "It's also about re-educating people in government because it's easier for them to sell something (to voters) that's physical and much more prominent within the landscape," he added. Traditional developments attracted the lion's share of the £2.6bil (RM14.9bil) announced by the government in March to fund new flood defence systems over the next two years. But Scott noted a greater interest in natural flood management over the past five years, with the previous government launching a £25mil (RM143mil) programme last year. As a result, Leicester will be able to develop several waterways southeast of the city, and 35 other projects have been selected in England. "It is encouraging that our successful approach to natural flood management measures is continuing to be supported," Geoff Whittle, a local councillor responsible for the environment, said. Contemplating the fruits of her labour in Saffron, 50-year-old volunteer Lis Gibbs said that "it feels like you can make a difference", in contrast to climate change in general, which "can feel really overwhelming". – AFP
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mountains are among the planet's most beautiful places. They're also becoming the deadliest
Jan Beutel was half-watching a live stream of Kleines Nesthorn, a mountain peak in the Swiss Alps, when he realized its cacophony of creaks and rumbles was getting louder. He dropped his work, turned up the sound and found himself unable to look away. 'The whole screen exploded,' he said. Beutel, a computer engineer specializing in mountain monitoring, had just witnessed a glacier collapse. On May 28, an avalanche of millions of tons of ice and rock barreled down the slope, burying Blatten, a centuries-old village nestled in the valley below. Local authorities had already evacuated the village after parts of the mountain had crumbled onto the glacier; a 64-year old man believed to have stayed remains missing. But no one expected an event of this magnitude. Successive rock avalanches onto the glacier increased the pressure on the ice, causing it to melt faster and the glacier to accelerate, eventually destabilizing it and pushing it from its bed. The collapse was sudden, violent and catastrophic. 'This one just left no moment to catch a breath,' Beutel said. The underlying causes will take time to unravel. A collapse of this magnitude would have been set in motion by geological factors going back decades at least, said Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the Swiss university ETH Zürich. But it's 'likely climate change is involved,' he said, as warming temperatures melt the ice that holds mountains together. It's a problem affecting mountains across the planet. People have long been fascinated with mountains for their dramatic beauty. Some make their homes beneath them — around 1 billion live in mountain communities — others are drawn by adventure, the challenge of conquering peaks. These majestic landscapes have always been dangerous, but as the world warms, they are becoming much more unpredictable and much deadlier. 'We do not fully understand the hazard at the moment, nor how the dangers are changing with climate change,' said David Petley, an Earth scientist at the University of Hull in England. Snowy and icy mountains are inherently sensitive to climate change. Very high mountains are etched with fractures filled with ice — called permafrost — which glues them together. As the permafrost thaws, mountains can become destabilized. 'We are seeing more large rock slope collapses in many mountains as a result,' Petley told CNN. Glaciers are also melting at a terrifyingly rapid rate, especially in regions such as the Alps and the Andes, which face the possibility of a glacier-free future. As these rivers of ancient ice disappear, they expose mountain faces, causing more rocks to fall. There have been several big collapses in the Alps in recent years as ice melts and permafrost thaws. In July 2022, about 64,000 tons of water, rock and ice broke off from the Marmolada Glacier in northern Italy after unusually hot weather caused massive melting. The subsequent ice avalanche killed 11 people hiking a popular trail. In 2023, the peak of Fluchthorn, a mountain on the border between Switzerland and Austria, collapsed as permafrost thawed, sending more than 100,000 cubic meters of rock into the valley below. 'This really seems to be something new. There seems to be a trend in such big events in high mountain areas,' Huss said. Melting glaciers can also form lakes, which can become so full that they burst their banks, sending water and debris cascading down mountainsides. In 2023, a permafrost landslide caused a large glacial lake in Sikkim, India, to break its banks, causing a catastrophic deluge that killed at least 55 people. Last year, a glacial lake outburst caused destructive flooding in Juneau, Alaska — a now regular occurrence for the city. After two years in a row of destructive glacial flooding, Juneau is scrambling to erect temporary flood barriers ahead of the next melting season, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week. As well as melting ice, there's another hazard destabilizing mountains: rain. Extreme precipitation is increasingly falling on mountains as rain instead of snow, said Mohammed Ombadi, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. His research shows every 1 degree Celsius of global warming increases extreme rainfall events by 15%. This pushes up the risks of flooding, landslides and soil erosion. Northern Hemisphere mountains will become 'hotspots' for extreme rain, Ombadi said. Heavy rainfall this month in Sikkim, a Himalayan state in northern India, triggered a series of landslides, killing at least three people. Images show deep muddy scars carved into the mountain, with buildings and trees obliterated. Scientists do have tools to monitor mountains and warn communities. 'There are fantastic instruments that can predict quite accurately when a rock mass (or) ice mass is going to come down,' Huss said. The difficulty is knowing where to look when a landscape is constantly changing in unpredictable ways. 'This is what climate change actually does… there are more new and previously unrecognized situations,' Huss said. These are particularly hard to deal with in developing countries, which don't have the resources for extensive monitoring. Scientists say the only way to reduce the impact of the climate crisis on mountains is to bring down global temperatures, but some changes are already locked in. 'Even if we manage to stabilize the climate right now, (glaciers) will continue to retreat significantly,' Huss said. Almost 40% of the world's glaciers are already doomed, according to a new study. 'We could have maybe avoided most of (the negative impacts) if we had acted 50 years ago and brought down CO2 emissions. But we failed,' Huss added. The consequences are hitting as the numbers of people living in and visiting mountains increases. 'We're just more exposed than we used to be,' he said. Ludovic Ravanel, an Alpine climber and geomorphologist who focuses on mountains' response to global warming, has a front line view of the increasing dangers of these landscapes. Mountains are the 'most convincing' hotspots of climate change, he told CNN. When he's focused on the science, he keeps his emotions at arm's length. But as a father, and a mountaineer, it hits him. 'I see just how critical the situation is. And even then, we're only at the very beginning.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New £48m wound research centre to open
A university has been awarded £48m to build a world-leading centre for research into wounds. The University of Hull has been given funding to build the Wound Innovation Centre, which it says will research ways to improve life for people with chronic wounds. The NHS spends about £8.3bn a year on wound care - more than obesity and cancer, according to the university. Mat Hardman, professor of wound healing at Hull York Medical School and director of the new centre, said: "Current treatments for wounds are woefully inadequate and we now have an opportunity to change this." The centre will be based at the University of Hull and upgrades are planned at Castle Hill Hospital to provide premium facilities for early-stage wound treatment research. Malcom Burns, 66, from Withernsea, has an unhealed ulcer he got from a leg wound after tripping over a child's go-kart four years ago. Mr Burns said: "There have been times I've been walking around all day and my pain is at a nine or 10 and there's nothing I can do to make it feel better. I can't sleep and it is mentally very damaging." Mr Burns said current treatments do not work but he feels "more able to cope" and "more supported" after taking part in clinical trials with the University of Hull's vascular team. "It is so important that these trials and research into new developments in wound care continue," he said. Mr Burns added: "I believe this new centre will be a real asset to the region and will pioneer new wound care treatment that will bring relief to all those who are suffering. "It will really change lives." The research hub is due to open at the end of the year, a spokesperson for the university said. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Mental health and addiction research hub to open New tech to improve cancer detection and treatment Approval given for £18m medical diagnostic centre University of Hull
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
New £48m wound research centre to open in Hull
A university has been awarded £48m to build a world-leading centre for research into University of Hull has been given funding to build the Wound Innovation Centre, which it says will research ways to improve life for people with chronic NHS spends about £8.3bn a year on wound care - more than obesity and cancer, according to the university. Mat Hardman, professor of wound healing at Hull York Medical School and director of the new centre, said: "Current treatments for wounds are woefully inadequate and we now have an opportunity to change this." The centre will be based at the University of Hull and upgrades are planned at Castle Hill Hospital to provide premium facilities for early-stage wound treatment Burns, 66, from Withernsea, has an unhealed ulcer he got from a leg wound after tripping over a child's go-kart four years Burns said: "There have been times I've been walking around all day and my pain is at a nine or 10 and there's nothing I can do to make it feel better. I can't sleep and it is mentally very damaging."Mr Burns said current treatments do not work but he feels "more able to cope" and "more supported" after taking part in clinical trials with the University of Hull's vascular team."It is so important that these trials and research into new developments in wound care continue," he Burns added: "I believe this new centre will be a real asset to the region and will pioneer new wound care treatment that will bring relief to all those who are suffering. "It will really change lives."The research hub is due to open at the end of the year, a spokesperson for the university said. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
