Regional Round Up: US Government Officially Shuts Down

The US government has partially shut down after Congress failed to approve a funding plan before the midnight Thursday deadline. The Senate recessed until early Friday and funding expired at the end of Thursday, leaving the government partially shut down. Some government agencies will run out of money and have to furlough workers. READ MORE 

Tunisia’s Central Bank Governor sacked.

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed sacked Chedly Ayari, the governor of the central bank of Tunisia on February 7, 2018.Mr. Chahed’s decision came only hours after the European Union (EU) Parliament put Tunisia on a blacklist of countries in the world most exposed to money laundering and financing of terrorism. Mr. Ayari had been governor of the Bank since 2012 when he returned from retirement at the request of the Constituent Assembly, the transitional legislature. READ MORE

How innovation is turning education on its head in Africa

Technology is transforming education in Africa at an unprecedented rate. With the rapid growth of mobile learning, the e-learning market is set to be worth well over the US $530 million by 2018. E-learning is not only helping students learn better, but it is also giving underprivileged learners inexpensive access to educational content. In Kenya, there is Kytabu, a textbook subscription platform that provides low-cost digitalized books to millions of students. Ghanaian company, Metro Institute of Innovation and Technology (MIT), offers school children training in robotics and mobile app development. And in south Africa, donors can send to settle fees to students registered on the Feenix.org site. READ MORE