Locks crisis. The start of an era that defines a modest. 19 seminar in the big committed a small steps december 23rd. Oil cartel opec is cutting production to boost prices but are members really on board well look at what the decision means for Africas Largest Oil Producer nigeria. Also on the show more worries about the safety of ride Healing Services reveals thousands of Sexual Assaults on both passengers and drivers. And well go to senegal where startups and Creative Solutions are center stage at the car digital show now they just need someone to back them. This is your business africa report im Stephen Beers in berlin thanks for watching the opec oil cartel and its allies have agreed to cut production by a further half a 1000000 barrels a day thats the equivalent of half a percent of global output the aim is to bolster prices as the Global Economy slows and to compensate for higher output from other producers if the existing cuts were already hard for many smaller opec members and the new ones dont appear to be going down easy. Saudi arabia and russia call most of the shots when it comes to opec and its allies it was their Oil Ministers who opened fridays meeting calling 48500000 barrel Production Cut despite plenty of disagreement from some smaller producer nations the big players got their way in the end. All opec members want to see high prices for their oil but there are regular disagreements over how to distribute cuts between producer nations some countries like iraq and nigeria are already producing more than previously agreed saudi arabia has reportedly threatened them with a massive production surge as they dont stop cheating but if there were tensions at thursdays meeting ministers were unwilling to show it publicly on friday. The biggest. Question but at one point even the angolan oil minister whose country has complied with its Production Cuts left the meeting last night and apparently said he wanted his country to quit opec though he later returned. There is little surprise that a deal was finally reached but it will be interesting to see how the cuts are distributed its expected that opec will shoulder more than 2 thirds of the 500000 barrel per day Production Cut with russia and other observer nations taking the rest. Is a Research Analyst at 4 x. Time and joins us from london thank you for joining us 1st of all with these cuts what do you see as the consequences for african nations. Thank you for having me had this evening and this would depend whether to cults results in a sustained increase in oil prices personally i think the agreement is largely symbolic even before this opec was cuts in production fall beyond the 1200000000. 00 agreed so today has just simply made the sufficient us all off to a producing nations i think they should be more focused on the fact that even though opec is Coal Production or price is almost influenced by them on side dynamics in the form of u. S. China trade developments and the fact the u. S. Steel production continues to rise. Now nigeria has has not really complied with those cuts that are in place before do you expect the country to adhere to ds new cuts. You have to look at 9 jews economic fundamentals 90 percent of export earnings all earnings and some percent of revenues come from or so does the risk what nigeria see and that is that the Coal Production doesnt result in High Oil Prices this could impact the nation does comedy on a vote to such a recovery and so far i guess its calculation has been that the prices havent risen enough to merit complying with those cuts at this point is that fair to say. Yeah well we just need to look at ledger was economic fundamentals i agree with the statement. Now saudi arabia has says says that it wants become less Oil Dependent do you believe thats an option for African Oil Producers such as nigeria. I believe this is a case no we have to look at what nigerias been doing a little posture it is widely understood that nigeria is still a population of over 200000000 and if you look at Economic Growth during the 1st cool tool was actually 2. 33 percent now in the none was that it was about 1. 5 percent which continues to show that nations actually tried to diversify i was speaking about a population has 200000000 people. Agree coach 0 it lends or is able to take advantage of its youth population agree coach there could be a form of diversification. Tourism as well nigeria has very important sites but photos and to become a reality that needs to be more infrastructural placements in place such as bodes and that facility and of course nigeria has been struggling to get out of recession and recent months. Joining us from london thank you very much. Thank you. New ideas for African Business look no further than senegal where the dakar digital show is in its 4th year new start ups and Clever Solutions are front and center and all are looking for that magical lexer investment. Credit card digital show is brimming with ideas and Creative Solutions africa is in the process of developing into a global hope for startups entrepreneurs find plenty of opportunity to fill the gaps in Public Services with their ideas and projects people like maxie mehndi whos exhibiting a lamp paradise solar a charitable recycled computer batteries. According to the world bank 1300000000. 00 people dont have access to electricity and at the same time 14000. 00 tonnes of batteries are produced and thrown into the environment so we designed a solar lamp which would allow young people who live in areas with no electricity to do their homework after dark. The poor fellow devout in. Africas future belongs to the startups something western investors have finally woken up to last year investments in the sector quadruplets to almost 750000000. 00 and expos like the one in to car are seeing visitor numbers or. Such i mean the 1st year in 2016 we had a little less than 800 participants on the following year we had 1500 last year we had more than 2500 and this year over 3000. 00 with more and more exhibitors every year. The majority of african entrepreneurs develop ups with the focus on finance Energy Supply health and agriculture. How safe a ride sharing apps earlier this week several women in the u. S. Filed lawsuits against lift over Sexual Assaults in cars affiliated with the company now rival ober has revealed how many reports of Sexual Assault its received in the u. S. In recent years and the number is considerable. Report made for some sobering reading there were more than 3000 Sexual Assaults recorded last year 235 of them were of rape this out of a total of 1200000000 journeys 99. 9 percent of which was keen to point and did without recorded incident the report which covers 20172018 is the 1st of its kind and comes just 2 weeks after i lost its license to operate in london after drivers using the app were fine to have faked their identity. And its not just super either rifle lift is also facing pressure over its Safety Record earlier this week 19 women filed lawsuits in San Francisco related to Sexual Assault or rape that happened in vehicles affiliated with the company. Whose hands touched had woken up to him actually groping. My words. Both lift and super have increased screening and background checks for drivers. Lift has also pledged to release the safety reports of its own but x. Brits say Sexual Assault often go under reported and that the problem could be far larger in scale than the figures suggest. And lets take a look now at some of the other global stories making business making news 3 people are dead and many are feared trapped after a 6 Story Building collapse in nairobi the kenyan red cross has 11 survivors have been pulled from the rubble building collapses are common in the kenyan capital where housing is in high demand and unscrupulous developers often bypass regulations. South africas ailing state power utility eskom has implemented the highest level of electricity rationing to date after its coal supply was dampened by rain as com which generates 95 percent of the countrys electricity has a heavy debt burden and is reeling from years of corruption and mismanagement. And its off after an initial hiccup space x. Has launched its falcon 9 rocket its destined for the International Space station the cargo is rather diverse on board of 40 genetically modified mice as well as christmas presents and fresh fruit for the lab 6 member crew. Madagascar continues to fight widespread deforestation a possible solution is charcoal pellets made from plant matter that is if islanders can figure out an efficient way to produce them. Here in florida nona a small town in the highlands of madagascar a Nonprofit Organization called the hanna is running a Training Course some bio char a charcoal produced from plant matter the residents collect dry grass and leaves press them into pretty dug holes in the ground and carefully light them then they seal the hole to cut off the air supply so the biomass can slowly undergo pyrolysis or char rice husks can also be used they char in this pit for 12 hours with a restricted air supply so seaboard looks good but the waste from the rice harvest has charred nicely we can empty out the contents now to process it. Down. To make pellets and bearcats from the charcoal dust they add diluted clay to the biomass to glue it together so they can needed into bio char its a far better fuel source than wood it burns 10 times longer. Than. People here at rice several times a day the residents used to spend hours gathering or cutting firewood for cooking the best way to burn bio chars in special clay ovens protected from the wind on the way home his son teaches the residents how to make them the women are already using the ovens to cook at the school a stove like this needs just a 5th of the fuel and by using bio char instead of would the embers last even longer. But old habits die hard Winning People over takes patience despite the many advantages of the bio char burning stove. What do you all know music saves a lot of fuel used it would. Like look stays inside. Here the team is testing a new machine that can help them produce bio char. Its designed to press and compact the bio mass in the cylinders more effectively than by hand but it doesnt work as well as hoped before love you have to clean it out every time you use it. So the machine needs to be optimized and that will take time for the moment its still more efficient to make the bio char by hand. And thats it for me and the business scene here in berlin you can find out more about these and other business stories a lot of dot com slash business be sure to check us out on facebook and twitter im stephen bears in berlin thanks as always for watching. Keep cool africa. A young kitchen in nairobi is fighting for the environment. The artificial hair she uses is made from the plant some salt instead of plastic. She cultivates the plant herself. All of its eco friendly benefits eco africa in 60 minutes. Takes a person. With. Stories that make the game so special. For all truth. Because. And im sure. This is new news africa coming up in the next 15 minutes the gambia still reeling in shock the government say is that sending a team to mauritania to investigate the dead saw dozens of migrants who drowned at sea in one of the deadliest such disasters. As building proof houses for cheney lagos and local office a explains cooling design. There a mass grave in berlin all see the objects of fish