After working for seven years in the UK, Tyron Whitley last year made the move back home to South Africa with some trepidation. But 18 months on, his company, the South African Car Import Agency (SA-CIA), which helps other returnees ship their vehicles back from emigre destinations – has been a success and the 34 year old now feels pretty positive about his native land.
“When we first came back, we wondered what we were doing. Crime was a concern and initially power cuts meant that we found ourselves sitting in the house with candles studying how generators worked,” he says. “But doing business here has been a breeze.”
Johannesburg, South Africa
A glance at this year’s tables measuring the ease of doing business and prepared by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the business arm of the World Bank – highlights South Africa’s advantages. South Africa ranks 34th, only three places behind France, well ahead of other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, and Italy and substantially ahead of fashionably large emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, China and India, the so-called BRICs. Read the rest of this entry »
There are strong indications that the on-going wind of massive job cuts in banks will blow unabated before the end of the year.
As an indication of optimism in the market, leading companies like Ecobank, Halliburton, and Total will be congregating in London to secure talented professionals for their operations across Africa at the Careers in Africa Recruitment Summit from 30 October to 1 November.
Zebrajobs.com and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) have spearheaded the inaugural African Virtual Job Fair (AVJF) to support the recruitment needs of U.S. and other international companies and organizations doing business in Africa. The African Virtual Job Fair will draw job seekers from around the globe as well as Africans in the Diaspora for career opportunities with public and private corporations and organizations operating across the continent. 
“It’s very addictive – the notion people are walking around in Lagos thinking ‘we can do anything’ … Sometimes it’s laughable, particularly when you look at things through British eyes. But when you see some of these laughable stories come true, you start to question yourself.” — Olumide Bolumole, a Nigerian London-based former employee of hedge fund De Putron Fund, who has returned back to Lagos
