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Rolls-Royce: Sustainably Powering Africa’s Regional Connectivity (By Lydia-Claire Halliday)

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4 years ago

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aviation

Africa urgently needs a more extensive and robust aviation network, given the region’s relative lack of alternative long-distance transportation infrastructure

DAKAR, Senegal, December 28, 2022/APO Group/ — 

By Lydia-Claire Halliday, Executive Director, Stakeholder Relations & Strategy, LCH Consultancy Ltd.

The African aviation market has been underserved for a long time. Before 2020, only 9% of Africa’s air traffic was between African countries, the rest being intercontinental. And today, globally, the region accounts for less than 2% of total air traffic despite being home to around 17% of the world’s population.

Africa urgently needs a more extensive and robust aviation network, given the region’s relative lack of alternative long-distance transportation infrastructure. Indeed, unlike the United States and Europe, where there is an extensive road and rail network, in Africa, these vital modes of intracontinental transport remain underdeveloped.

“African countries have experienced unprecedented economic growth in the past years, with a fast-growing population, but the airline industry has not enjoyed the same positive trend.  African airlines have been marginalised, and this is evidenced by the sharp drop of their market share in the past years. In the intra-African regional market, there is need for airlines to deploy the appropriate right-sized aircraft. As the air transport sector resumes the growth trajectory post-COVID, growth will be enhanced by implementing the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). A shift of strategies and focus on the regional operations to feed, and de-feed major hubs is important for African carriers to harness the growth opportunity and enhance competitiveness.” Mr Abderahmane Berthé – AFRAA Secretary General, speaking at the associations’ Annual General Assembly in Dakar Senegal.

While infrastructure is being developed, aircraft manufacturers are also responding to the call. Embraer, in particular, has long seen the potential for its planes in Africa and has thus extensively marketed its aircraft to African airlines.

Rolls-Royce proudly supplies the Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer with AE3007 engines for its 50-seater ERJ family of aircraft. Since the engine achieved FAA/EASA certification in 1995 for Embraer, Rolls-Royce has delivered more than 3,200 engines worldwide, with more than 65 million flight hours. The AE3007 also reliably and efficiently powers the Cessna Citation X passenger aircraft. In the Defence sector, the AE3007 powers the Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk & Triton; in fact, the AE engine family was initially developed for defence applications. Still, the constant development of the common core has given us a range of highly robust and versatile engines.

In Africa, Rolls-Royce powers more than 100 regional aircraft in operation. These range from premium full-serviced regional airlines, government-owned flagship airlines, charter operations, and mining companies to operators serving humanitarian missions for the United Nations and the World Food Program.

The majority of these aircraft, however, are Embraer’s ERJ 145/140/135 and Legacy twin-turbofan regional jets. The Long Range version of the ERJ140 can carry a full load of passengers over a distance of more than 3,000 kilometres. This range can intra-connect Eastern, Central, Western, Southern and Northern African sub-regions.  

As this connectivity increases and barriers to trade and travel are lowered, we expect demand for this aircraft type to grow.

During the pandemic, with many aircraft grounded, Rolls-Royce took the opportunity to complete an extensive maintenance program on their AE3007 engines in the region, upgrading to the latest standards without charge. This allowed operators to comply with an Airworthiness Directive (necessary for all grounded aircraft) before operations restarted, giving them an all-important head start.

Meanwhile, in September 2021, Rolls-Royce penned an important extension of its TotalCare maintenance service agreement with South African airline Airlink.

Rolls-Royce has submitted a proposal to Embraer to power the new 70-90 seater rear-mounted turboprop that the airframer plans to launch in early 2023

“I’m very proud to say that we have had a long-standing relationship with Rolls-Royce since 2001. These engines power up our 28-aircraft Embraer ERJ fleet. Rolls-Royce has never dropped the ball, and Airlink has extreme reliability on these engines. Kudos to Rolls-Royce, who has been awarded our supplier of the year and on an unbelievable and excellent relationship.”  Rodger Foster, Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director Airlink

The key to TotalCare is that Rolls-Royce takes back time-on-wing and shop visit cost risks, providing airlines with peace of mind that their maintenance schedules will run at a fixed cost per engine flying hour.

The service is underpinned by predictive maintenance, i.e. fixing problems before they occur. It relies on extensive gathering and analysis of performance data, which helps engineers to diagnose potential future faults and act on them to avoid downtime.   

Indeed, this has been central to Airlink’s impressive on-time performance, consistently above 97% throughout its use of TotalCare.

Moving forwards, if Africa is to build a more extensive regional flying network, maintenance infrastructure will be essential to ensure it runs smoothly. Indeed, Rolls-Royce has observed the need to diversify services to keep as many aircraft flying in the region as possible.

A relentless focus on efficiency and the pathway to zero-emissions

Deploying the right aircraft on suitable routes is also crucial to running the network as environmentally and sustainably as possible.

According to research by Embraer, some 14% of all domestic African flights are operated on widebody aircraft. In addition, the company observes that almost all (99%) of these flights flown with widebodies fly on sectors under 4,500 kilometres – in other words, the scope for narrowbody aircraft seating 120-150 passengers to increase operational efficiency is sizeable.

In the longer term, the regional aviation industry has a huge opportunity to be a flagbearer for net zero flying.

And here, as one example in Norway, Embraer and Rolls-Royce, in collaboration with Widerøe, are deep into a study on a conceptual zero-emission regional aircraft. The 12-month project, set to conclude in February 2023, aims to accelerate the knowledge of the technologies necessary for the net zero transition, progress which could pave the way for clean fuels and electrification to be the significant enablers of a new era of regional aviation. The study examines a variety of potential solutions, including all-electric, hydrogen fuel cell or hydrogen-fuelled gas turbine-powered aircraft.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce has submitted a proposal to Embraer to power the new 70-90 seater rear-mounted turboprop that the airframer plans to launch in early 2023. A key reason why Embraer has chosen to switch the design to rear-mounted engines is that it enables easier accommodation of a hydrogen system which could be integrated in the future. With its ongoing R&D into hydrogen-propelled aircraft, Rolls-Royce will be well-placed to fulfil this need.

In addition, the company is set to prove that all its aero engines will be able to run on 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel by the end of 2023. Any sustainable fuel that meets the D1655 jet fuel standard and requirements is now approved for use in AE3007 engines. Currently, seven different blend varieties can be used, some being certified to blend up to 50% with conventional jet fuel, dramatically reducing carbon footprints.

In keeping its fingers on the pulse, Rolls-Royce is ideally positioned to steer Africa’s growing regional aviation sector in a sustainable direction over the coming years. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Rolls-Royce.

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Africa gains governance momentum in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index, but sustaining progress is the real test

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9 hours ago

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October 29, 2026

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Africa

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship

This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives

KIGALI, Rwanda, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa was the second best-performing region for governance progress in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI), with 71% of the African countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026 achieving higher overall scores. However, the continent remains the lowest-scoring region overall, highlighting the challenge of translating improvement in government capabilities into better outcomes for citizens.

 




 
 

These findings were highlighted by the Chandler Governance Group (CGG) at a joint session with the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) to launch the 13th edition of the Rwanda Governance Scorecard at the Kigali Serena Hotel on Thursday, 22 October 2026.

“This year, Africa’s strongest gains came in Financial Stewardship, followed by Helping People Rise, the CGGI’s outcomes pillar. This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives, from access to quality education and healthcare to the public finances that fund them. The task now is to sustain that progress over the coming years,” says Dinesh Naidu, Director (Knowledge) at CGG.

Now in its sixth edition, the CGGI assesses government capabilities and effectiveness across 133 countries representing 94% of the world’s population, up from 120 countries in 2025. It measures 35 equally weighted indicators across seven pillars, providing governments with a framework to benchmark performance, identify gaps and learn from the experience of other countries.

Globally, the findings point to improving governance performance. Of the 120 countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026, 61% recorded higher scores, representing the highest annual share of countries improving since the Index launched in 2021. However, longer-term progress has been less consistent, with only 43% of the 104 countries tracked since 2021 recording an overall improvement.

Africa’s leading governments

Mauritius remains Africa’s highest-ranked country, placing 55th globally, followed by Rwanda (62nd), Botswana (70th), Morocco (79th) and Tanzania (80th). South Africa ranks sixth on the continent, in 85th place globally.

Rwanda features prominently in the discussion, ranking 11th globally for Leadership & Foresight and emerging as the highest-ranked low-income country in the Index. It ranks 61 places above where its income alone would predict. Across the Index, government capabilities track citizen outcomes more closely than national wealth does, suggesting that strengthening government capabilities matter in delivering better outcomes for citizens.

The joint session brings together the CGGI’s international benchmarks and the Rwanda Governance Scorecard’s assessment of governance in the Rwandan context, creating an opportunity to consider both global perspectives and country-specific priorities.

Progress across key governance pillars

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship. These improvements point to progress in areas associated with public services, including healthcare and education, as well as the management of public finances.

Longer-term trends also highlight areas of progress. Between 2021 and 2026, nearly every African country assessed across the period improved its Data Capability score, with Morocco recording the largest gains. Ghana’s overall score improved in 2026, supported by stronger Financial Stewardship, while South Africa continues to show relative strength in Robust Laws & Policies, ranking 44th globally, and Attractive Marketplace, ranking 48th.

Despite these gains, the scale of the challenge remains clear. Africa’s regional average is still below its 2021 level, 23 of the 35 African countries in the 2026 Index rank outside the global top 100, and none is in the top 50. Seven African countries joined the Index this year: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia and Togo.

“Rankings provide a useful starting point, but the broader value of the CGGI lies in helping governments understand where they are making progress and where further work is needed. Sustained improvements depend on the ability to strengthen institutions, manage resources responsibly and turn policy into meaningful outcomes for citizens,” says Naidu.

A tool for learning and improvement

The CGGI is designed as a practical diagnostic tool, helping governments identify gaps, track progress over time, and learn from peers facing similar constraints. The collaboration with the RGB brings international benchmarking together with locally grounded assessment.

“Every country faces its own governance challenges and is driven by varying priorities. Governments that are willing to take stock of the evidence and learn from peers to strengthen their institutions are well placed to achieve real improvements,” concludes Naidu.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Chandler Governance Group.

 

 




 

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Spiro brings electric motorcycles and battery-swapping technology to Ghana, expanding its pan-African footprint

Published

9 hours ago

on

October 29, 2026

By

Spiro

The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles

ACCRA, Ghana, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ —

  • Spiro’s entry into Ghana introduces the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution, bringing a new mobility option to commercial riders and delivery fleets.
  • The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles.
  • Test rides and product demonstrations across Greater Accra will support the rollout and help riders experience the benefits of electric mobility.

 




 
 

Spiro (www.Spironet.com), Africa’s largest electric mobility company, is expanding its footprint in Ghana with the introduction of the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution. Combining electric two-wheelers with access to charged batteries, Spiro aims to make everyday transport more affordable and practical for riders while supporting Ghana’s transition towards sustainable mobility.

For commercial riders and delivery fleets, fuel expenses and time spent off the road directly affect daily earnings. Spiro’s integrated offering addresses both challenges: riders can exchange a depleted battery for a charged one at a Spiro battery-swapping station in just two minutes, while potentially saving up to USD 2 per day in operating costs compared with conventional petrol-powered motorcycles.

Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets

Designed to meet the everyday mobility needs of African riders, the Ekon 450 M1 V3 offers an alternative to petrol-powered motorcycles. Supported by Spiro’s battery-swapping technology, it allows riders to get back on the road without waiting for their motorcycle to recharge.

Auroasish Choudhuri Managing Director Central and West Africa, commented: “Our entry into Ghana is an important step in strengthening Spiro’s presence in West Africa. Our focus is on building a local ecosystem that riders can rely on, combining electric motorcycles with convenient access to battery swapping. By working closely with local partners and listening to riders’ needs, we aim to support the long-term adoption of electric mobility in Ghana.”

Kaushik Burman, CEO Mobility of Spiro said: “Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets. By bringing the Ekon 450 M1 V3 together with our battery-swapping solution, we are addressing two key barriers to adoption: operating costs and access to charging infrastructure. Our ambition is to build a strong foundation for electric mobility to scale across Ghana.”

To support its rollout, Spiro is engaging with prospective customers through test rides, product demonstrations and live demonstrations of its battery-swapping technology across Greater Accra. These activities give riders the opportunity to experience the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and understand how battery swapping can fit into their daily routines.

Mr Maxwell Dodd, Managing Director of Spiro Ghana, said: “For riders in Ghana, the value of electric mobility lies in what it can deliver every day: lower operating costs, less downtime and more time on the road. Through the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and our battery-swapping solution, we want to make those benefits accessible and support riders as they make the transition to electric motorcycles.”

Ghana forms part of Spiro’s wider expansion across Africa. Building on its recent USD 270 million equity funding round and an additional USD 18 million in debt financing from the Africa Go Green Fund, the company is scaling its electric mobility ecosystem with the ambition of establishing a presence in 20 African markets. Spiro is also preparing to enter new countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Spiro.

 

 




 

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Huawei Wireless Unveils Innovation Breakthroughs to Pioneer New Communications Networks

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9 hours ago

on

October 29, 2026

By

Huawei

The innovation breakthroughs for pioneering new communications networks include RetinaMIMO, new materials, and OSCAR solution among other root technologies. By tackling coverage, energy consumption, and capacity challenges, the breakthroughs drive ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. The breakthroughs have unlocked a wealth of new capabilities, including the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series.
Huawei promotes A2A-T standards and drives commercial open-source OpenAN through extensive partnerships to build an open telecom agent ecosystem.

 




 
 

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 October 2026 – At Huawei Decoding China 2026, Fang Xiang, Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solution of Huawei, unveiled a series of innovation breakthroughs to pioneer new communications networks. The innovation breakthroughs mark major leaps in root technologies focused on ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. With the breakthroughs, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series. Additionally featuring the new progress in open ecosystem for telecom agents, the breakthroughs will lay a solid foundation for new communications networks.

With booming intelligent devices and services, new devices, traffic, and applications are taking shape in the mobile industry. The new devices are expanding network connectivity from people to things and agents, increasing the number of connections by 100 times. Device-cloud synergy for intelligent services calls for stronger uplink capabilities to support training and inference, shifting network focus from downlink dominance to both uplink and downlink. With new applications, come a diversity of new interaction modes, calling for higher standards in experience and driving networks to support ubiquitous steady ultra-low latency with a high reliability.

As the world steps into an intelligent era, the value of connectivity is not only about quantity—it’s more about quality. This has been inspiring Huawei to convert cutting-edge breakthroughs into the commercial practices of new communications networks by focusing on root technologies for ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency.

Pioneering ubiquitous experience

RetinaMIMO is a new pioneering technology designed to solve the challenge of concurrent ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage. It features the industry’s first Retina scanning system that allows RF link topologies to be reconstructed to eliminate coverage collapse in the vertical direction. It also adopts a reconstructed antenna array architecture to address the diminishing marginal gains as array elements (AEs) increase.

Based on RetinaMIMO, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU. Compared with similar products with 1024 AEs, VitaAAU widens coverage by about 30%, enabling U6 GHz to match C-band in both horizontal and vertical directions. This enables operators to deliver U6 GHz coverage for new communications networks on their C-band sites, minimizing overall TCO. To date, VitaAAU has seen commercial adoption in the UAE and other markets, with peak downlink speeds exceeding 10 Gbps, making ubiquitous premium experience a reality.

Pioneering simplified, green networks

Huawei’s pioneering EP power amplifier (PA) architecture capitalizes on new materials and technologies to solve the problem of energy efficiency decline on higher frequency bands, maximizing energy conversion efficiency. The industry’s first-ever multimode dielectric filters allow antennas to have small dimensions and low power consumption on multi-channel networks with high frequency bands. Powered by new materials, technologies, and architectures, VitaAAU antenna is reduced to 1.5 m in diameter while supporting “0 Bit 0 Watt 0 Loss”, delivering superior energy saving efficiency. These innovations enable Huawei’s GigaGreen Plus series products to achieve significant reductions in dimensions, weight, and power consumption, better positioned to power simplified and green networks.

Pioneering superior spectral efficiency

Multi-band, multi-cell, and multi-user interference is a major restrictive factor of capacity. The time scaling of the Tau (τ) law is introduced to base stations for the first time to realize optimal dynamic resource scheduling across all domains based on the OSCAR solution. With low-latency bus and high-speed interconnect technology, a high-speed architecture is built to enable the real-time exchange of massive data. Thanks to software and hardware synergy, new UBBPi series products improve average user experience by 1.3 times while reducing power consumption by approximately 40%, further improving spectral and energy efficiency.

Pioneering open-source autonomous networks

Autonomous networks have emerged as an inevitable choice to deal with the growing AI services and increasing network complexity. RANSpirit is another industry first from Huawei, implementing single-domain network autonomy based on the telecom foundation model and digital twins. To date, RANSpirit is serving more than 1.2 million cells across 25 networks around the world, providing assistance to more than 2,000 engineers.

Extensive agent collaboration relies on an open, win-win ecosystem. This galvanizes Huawei to join industry partners to develop ecosystem standards, communities, and industry alliances. In terms of standards, Huawei adapts to the TM Forum, building a cross-agent foundation on the A2A-T standard and framework agreed upon by the industry. In terms of communities, Huawei jointly promotes neutral open-source communities and donates open-source agent components to the Linux Foundation, driving global collaboration and innovation. With regard to industry alliances, Huawei has taken the initiative to pool ecosystem strengths to accelerate business implementation based on the GSMA industry platform.

Fang concluded with the reiteration of Huawei’s unswerving pursuit of dual-drive innovation to promote new breakthroughs in mobile networks and work with partners from around the world to deepen the OpenAN ecosystem, advancing new communications networks through technological innovation and open collaboration.

FAQs

Q1: Why is it challenging to balance ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage?

Ultra-high bandwidth depends on higher frequency bands. As we know, a higher frequency leads to a greater propagation loss of electromagnetic waves and a weaker ability for them to penetrate obstacles, because high-frequency signals attenuate fast and have short coverage distances, while ubiquitous coverage requires signals to travel a long distance in complex environments. Inherently, the two priorities pull in sharply opposite directions.

  




 

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