Chairman King

Democratic Republic of Congo Business News

South Africa Says 2010 FIFA World Cup Safety Worry ‘Illogical’

Jan 12

Posted by Staff Writer in News | 1 Comment

Danny Jordaan, CEO, South African World Cup Organizing Committee

Danny Jordaan, CEO, South African World Cup Organizing Committee

“We should not be condemned by what happens in a country far away from us. It can’t be right, it makes no sense. It’s illogical,” Danny Jordaan, the leader of the committee, told reporters in Johannesburg today.

“If there is a security breach in Finland, you are not going to ask England to explain,” he said, adding that the distance between South Africa and Angola is equivalent to the distance between Finland and the U.K.

The head of the organizing committee for the soccer World Cup in South Africa dismissed concerns over the safety of the event after the Togolese national team was attacked by rebels in Angola en route to the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

East Africa Community (EAC): The Region’s Leaders Take Another Step Towards Building a Common Market

Jan 11

Posted by Staff Writer in News | Post Comment

East AfricaFree Trade fingers crossed, some time this summer, goods should start being sold without tariffs across borders within the five countries of the East African Community (EAC). The new common market will take in 130m-plus people in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The next step is monetary union, with political federation a far remoter prospect.

The agreement signed last year at the EAC’s headquarters in the Tanzanian city of Arusha was a first step. Optimists say the EAC should join free-trade blocks in southern and western Africa before 2030.

The EAC should be better placed to trade with Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan. And if it can build its own wider manufacturing base, its goods may start to compete with cheap stuff from China.

Kenya, which has the region’s strongest manufacturers, retailers, and banks, is sure to gain most. But for the EAC to succeed, others must win too. Rwanda and Burundi should benefit from cheaper and quicker transport of goods to and from the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Uganda is well placed to expand its agriculture for export. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Congo Will Ask Southern African Development Community (SADC) to Help Build Grand Inga Hydropower Plant

Sep 8

Posted by Staff Writer in News | Post Comment

River DamThe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will invite more countries into Western Power Corridor Co. (Westcor), the regional partnership that plans to build the $5 billion Inga 3 hydropower plant on the Congo river, Africa’s biggest river.

Congo will ask all 15 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to join Westcor at a regional summit due to be held in Kinshasa on Sept. 7-8, said Bene M’Poko, the Congolese ambassador to South Africa.

“What we’re going to propose during this summit is a framework whereby we should aim to produce more than 4,000 megawatts so that we can accommodate the needs of everyone in the region,” M’Poko, who is also the contact point for SADC, said today in an interview in Kinshasa. “Let’s open the doors so all the countries can join in.”

Angola, Botswana, Congo, Namibia, and South Africa in 2005 established Westcor to develop Inga 3 and tackle growing power shortages in the region. The plant would generate 4,300 megawatts from the Congo River, the world’s second-largest river by volume. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Buy Africa’ to Profit When Commodity Cycle Turns Up Again, Advise Analysts

Aug 1

Posted by Staff Writer in News | 1 Comment

Gold
“If you believe in the long-term urbanization success story of China and India, you buy Africa, because that’s where the commodities are going to come from”, Frontier Advisory CEO Dr Martyn Davies told mining investors in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Davies had earlier heard McKinsey Principal Dr Heinz Pley tell the same Frontier Advisory/JSE Africa Board seminar that there was great potential for Chinese demand to rekindle the commodity super cycle, which came to an abrupt halt in October 2008.

Rather than harp on the debunked word “decoupling” when referring to the potential of China to provide markets larger than the traditional Western economies, Davies urged that recognition be given to “the new coupling”, of the economies of Africa and Asia.

“The capital is coming in from China and India and not from traditional Western economies,” Martyn Davies reiterated

He said that China and India were taking full advantage of current depressed commodity prices and lack of activity in the commodity sector to invest in mining opportunities in Africa. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Skye Bank Uses SAS to Address Potential Risk

Jul 22

Posted by Staff Writer in News | Post Comment

Skye BankSkye Bank, one of the top 10 banks in Nigeria, has undertaken to implement the SAS Money Laundering Detection solution across its organisation. Skye Bank is one of the industry leaders in Nigeria. It is a publicly quoted company with over 500,000 shareholders, and operates out of over 250 branches and transaction centres across Nigeria, serviced by over 6,000 professional bankers and business experts with a N1 trillion ($7 billion) balance sheet.

The bank operates 600 ATM machines across Nigeria, and with its African expansion strategy, it now has full operations in Sierra Leone and The Gambia, while business operations in Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Congo (DRC), Guinea, and Equatorial Guinea are at concluding stages of regulatory clearance. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

French Firms at Heart of Race for African Mobile Telecommunications Markets

Jul 21

Posted by Staff Writer in News | Post Comment

Cell Phone UserThe scramble for mobile markets in Africa is well underway, and while early activity was driven by expansionist local operators like MTN, the European giants are now stepping up their game, with French players poised to shake up the picture significantly.

There are two key aspects to the multipronged attack by French players from Vivendi and Orange to new start-up Augere. One is acquisition of existing 2G and 3G players or licenses, the other is to establish footholds using new technologies, with WiMAX at the forefront.

France Telecom is using WiMAX in many sub-Saharan African territories to expand its Orange brand even before it can gain 3G licenses, and now new company Augere – founded by former Orange CEO Sanjiv Ahuja – is pursuing a similar strategy.

Augere, a London-based start-up, has raised EUR 88m (USD 125m) in an initial round of funding from France Telecom itself (which holds a 22% stake), plus US venture capitalists New Silk Route and Vedanta Capital. It plans to launch WiMAX networks in Rwanda and Uganda early next year, and then Nigeria. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

VIDEO: Africa Open for Business (6 Minute Preview)

Jun 1

Posted by Staff Writer in News | Post Comment

Voted BBC World Documentary of the Year 2006.

Ten stories, one continent, a global world. Get ready to see Africa as you’ve never seen it before. Imagine an Africa with entrepreneurial spirit that is striving to take care of itself and finding African solutions to African problems. That’s what you will see in this groundbreaking one-hour documentary by award-winning producer Carol Pineau.

There is no denying Africa has wars, famines, and natural and man-made disasters, but it also has high rises, stock markets, and internet cafes. Africa Open for Business challenges the stereotypes and proves Africa cannot be so easily defined.

Africa Open for Business offers a tour of the continent, profiling ten companies throughout Africa. Some operate in countries with good governance. One operates in a country with no government! What they have in common is hard work and good business sense. Taken together, they are inspiring stories of human force of will.

This is the Africa you don’t see on the nightly news. They are the real stories on the ground – the successes, the struggles, the challenges, and the solutions. Together, they are building Africa one business at a time.

Source(s): Africa Open for Business

Tags: , , , , ,