Hi, Quartz Africa readers! Changing attitudes In recent weeks, Nigeria has been rocked by a disturbing number of rape cases, with the police registering 717 cases since January. The news alarmed many, sparking anti-rape protests in the cities of Lagos and Abuja that prompted state governors to declare a state of emergency on the crisis. Gender-based violence and sexual harassment are cancers originating from home and metastasizing into public spaces. Not even the tech industry, with its relatively young and progressive denizens, is immune to the disease. As with many male-dominated fields, women in tech, especially those in the lower roles, have long endured sexual harassment at the hands of their male colleagues for fear of reprisals in the form termination, public humiliation, or losing out on future job opportunities. Thankfully, attitudes are starting to change with young Nigerians increasingly using social media to shed light on rape culture and call out perpetrators of sexual violence. Case in point, a woman accused the CEO of Lagos-based ISP Tizeti of sexual misconduct in a series of tweets posted on June 2. While the executive denied the charges and has temporarily stepped down from his post amid an ongoing investigation, it didn't stop one of its financial backers from severing ties with the tech company over the how it responded to the incident. While hashtag activism is often dismissed as secondary to street protests and demonstrations, organizations with an online presence are more sensitive to how being associated with the wrong celebrity can damage their reputation or bottom line. In June, social media users pressured a local bank to terminate its endorsement deal with Afrobeats veteran star, Dbanj, on account of the recent rape allegation against him. Still, activists maintain individual actions of private citizens, companies and civil society organization aren't long-term solutions to combating gender-based violence, arguing the Nigerian government needs to commit to retraining law enforcement officers, raising public awareness and enforcing pre-existing laws to end the scourge. It would be good start. — Shayera Dark, Quartz Africa contributor Five stories from this week African governments are being forced to develop social welfare programs in an economic crisis. As they deal with a public health crisis triggered by Covid-19, African governments have also had to come up with economic relief measures to aid their poorest citizens. Without pre-existing social nets, governments are turning to cash transfers, food distribution schemes and price freezes. A 10-minute test could solve Africa's sickle cell disease screening problem for newborns. Some respite may be on the cards for the more than 200,000 babies born with sickle cell anemia every year in Africa. Scientists are trialing a $2 rapid point-of-care tool to boost sickle cell screening for Africa's newborns. Zimbabwe has banned mobile money services as its currency troubles worsen. Zimbabwe is taking drastic measures to curb its reliance on digital finance platforms amid a severe financial crunch. In a move that leaves millions of users stranded, the southern African country has banned all mobile money platforms and stock trades in a desperate move to tame the rapid fall in value of the Zimdollar, Tawanda Karombo reports from Harare. Netflix's "Blood and Water" features Black wealth, Cape Town mansions and invisible inequality. Netflix is deepening its African offering with the confirmation of another season of its second original South African series, Blood and Water. But as Norma Young writes from Johannesburg, while the show's portrayal of wealthy Black South African families is a welcome change from typical Hollywood fare its non-acknowledgement of the country's inequality makes it seem unrealistic. An Egyptian cyber attack on Ethiopia by hackers is the latest strike over the Grand Renaissance Dam. The long-running dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over a $4.8 billion dam has taken a digital turn. As Zecharias Zelalem reports from Addis Ababa, the latest twist has seen cyber attacks launched on a Ethiopian government websites, leaving threats of war and violence. Dealmaker African venture funding is expected to slow but impact investors are boosting health and agri-tech startups. As health and economic crises worsen across Africa amid the Covid-19 pandemic, impact investment players are likely to double down on backing companies solving primary problems. Five months into the year, there's already evidence of increasing focus on healthcare and agriculture, learns Yomi Kazeem in Lagos. A Lagos-based seed stage VC has doubled its fund size to bet on African startups in uncertain times. Early-stage investor Ingressive Capital closed new investment which takes the size of its fund to $10 million. New investors include the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, San Francisco-based Plexo Capital and Lagos-based Platform Capital. •Egyptian fintech startup MoneyFellows raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Partech Africa and Sawari Ventures, an Egyptian venture capital firm. Chart of the Week Covid could upend several African countries' plans to fuel economic growth with oil and gas. When Covid-19 sent the price of oil tumbling, it induced a fiscal catastrophe for oil-dependent African economies like Nigeria. It also sent shockwaves through countries like Mozambique, Uganda, and Senegal that were relative newcomers to the oil and gas game. Up to 30 such projects across Africa are now on hold, find Tim Mcdonnell and Rabson Kondowe, and oil and gas investment in the continent is expected to fall by $12 billion over the next five years. Read more in the Quartz field guide to the future of fossil fuels. Other things we liked Kenya's road to dictatorship runs through Nairobi county. "As Kenya reels from the coronavirus pandemic, a shift in power is underway in Nairobi, with municipal duties being transferred from elected public officials into the hands of military men," writes Carey Baraka for Foreign Policy. This move, seen as a transfer of Nairobi county's administration into the president's office, is described as a "brazen power grab" by president Kenyatta. In China's 'Little Africa,' a struggle to get back to business after lockdown. After the unsettling and destabilizing experience of being targeted by local authorities for being suspected coronavirus carriers in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, African migrants tell Reuters' David Kirton they are not in a rush to leave just yet. "It happened, it was bad, but I just want to move on," says Mohammed, a Tanzanian trader. The problems with palm oil don't start with my recipes. There has been a growing movement against the use of commercial palm oil-based products from bathroom soaps to make-up. But for Medium's Heated, chef Yewande Komolafe argues that some in the sustainability movement are incorrectly conflating their cause with the centuries-old use of cooking palm oil by Africans. "Criticism is founded upon ignorance of how colonial systems have evolved into our current global trade." ICYMI Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2021. The Royal Academy of Engineering is accepting applications from "ambitious African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges." (Sept. 14) AppsAfrica Innovation Awards. The sixth edition of the awards will showcase the most innovative tech and mobile ventures across 14 categories (Oct. 20) *This brief was produced while listening to Kelmti horra (My Word is Free) by Emel Mathlouthi (Tunisia). Our best wishes for a productive and ideas-filled year ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, ideas, Zim mobile money and palm oil recipes to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day. If you received this email from a friend or colleague, you can sign up here to receive the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief in your inbox every week. You can also follow Quartz Africa on Facebook. | 
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