Connecting Africa’s Skilled Professionals
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INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future, a unique youth outreach programme that started in 2011 is inviting Africans under 35 years of age to participate in Business Venture, Poster Design and Photography competitions. Registrations are open at www.indiafrica.in INDIAFRIC is very keen to connect with young Africans across the continent and this is your chance to win attractive cash prizes, equity investment, mentorship and a unique experience at Davos in January 2015.
The Sankofa Center is a non-profit charity fighting against HIV/AIDS in Ghana. During the outreach operations, rapid and free testing are provided for people of all ages, and the charity’s team visits 25 schools per year to prevent and educate students. Thus, since 2006, 35,000 students already have been educated. The founder and director of the organization, Ronnie Shaw, is also a designer; he sells his creations to finance the actions in Ghana. These creations are fair trade clothes and accessories made in Ghana. On the one hand, this fashion branch of The Sankofa Center helps to support the outreach program and, on the other hand, it also empowers people in Ghana who are fairly paid for their work. To help the charity keep going, you can shop online for beautiful outfits and accessories inspired by African prints and fashion on: https://thesankofacenter.org/store/ You can also become a Friend of The Sankofa Center by liking the Facebook page: The Sankofa Center and following the organization on Twitter: @SankofaGhana
Males are taking more than half of all top HR jobs despite representing only a third of the HR profession new research has indicated. The findings from Harvey Nash found 53% of Chief, Vice President and Director roles were filled by men despite women making up 63% of the profession, an over-representation of 43%. The company, which surveyed 900 HR professionals across eight countries, also found that men were 50% more likely to aspire to the role of CHRO. According to Lisa Wormald, Director - HR division, Harvey Nash, this research shows is that there is hidden challenge in promoting female senior HR talent. The progression of women from entry level to senior positions in HR does not compare favourably with other departments. For example, in IT, whilst only one in ten employees is female, the ratio remains the same from entry level through to CIO / Head of IT according to Harvey Nash's CIO Survey 2013 and Harvey Nash's Technology Survey 2014. This suggests that although there are less women entering the IT profession, a good proportion of them manage to climb the career ladder successfully, something that their peers in the HR industry appear to be struggling with. The survey also found that employee engagement was the highest priority for HR professionals in 2014 with most planning to involve high performing individuals in succession planning and provide mentoring from senior leaders.
Despite 650,000 people in the UK working part time and earning at least £40,000 FTE, 41% of those believe that there is a negative stereotype around part time work. This is according to Timewise Jobs, the UK’s first jobsite dedicated to professional part time jobs, who have released a report to highlight the stigmas associated with part time work. The research suggests that the vast majority (72%) of people in the UK still think that you cannot work a senior career on a part time basis. One in seven respondents (14%) said they try to keep their part time status under the radar, by ‘letting colleagues assume they work full time hours’. Part Time Paradox is the first ever research to be conducted among senior part time employees, via a concentrated data set of 300 £40,000+ FTE level workers who work less than 5 days a week, in a bid to give Britain’s part time executives a voice.
More than three quarters (76%) of graduate recruiters now use a 2:1 degree as their minimum entry requirement, a new survey suggests. This number has increased markedly from the 52% of employers requiring the classification in 2004. The research also suggests that 2.5% of recruiters demand a First-class honours degree. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) surveyed more than 200 firms, including Accenture, Deloitte, Marks & Spencer and Rolls-Royce, and found there is an average of 73 candidates for each graduate vacancy. Retail is the most competitive sector, with more than 150 applicants for each position.
The RBS Inspiring Enterprise has announced the dates for the 2014 funding rounds for RBS Inspiring Women in Enterprise and RBS Inspiring Youth in Enterprise. The provisional dates for Inspiring Youth in Enterprise are: Round 5: 30 June 2014 to 11 July 2014 (noon). The provisional dates for Inspiring Women in Enterprise are: Round 4: 7 April 2014 to 17 April 2014 (noon); Round 5: 6 October 2014 to 17 October 2014 (noon). Over the next year £1 million in grants will be awarded to support non-profit organisations in the UK which help young people or women to start up and succeed in business. Half of the money will go to youth enterprise and the other half to women in enterprise with a quarter of a million pounds available for each round. Organisations with innovative ideas to inspire either young people or women into enterprise can apply for grants of up to £50,000. The funding is intended to help build the capacity of non-profit organisations that encourage and support young people and women to explore their enterprise potential. To be eligible, applicants must be based and operating in the UK, formally constituted, operating on a non-profit distributing basis and have a track record of either providing enterprise support to women or to young people. Applications are expected to cover a variety of structured programmes in areas such as: business basics, skills and knowledge development, mentoring, peer support and a range of other ideas that will help build and develop the skills to allow more young people and women to start up and succeed in business. Since the programme launched in 2012, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) have made £2 million of financial support available to 74 not-for-profit organisations across the UK. The projects run by these funded organisations are on track to inspire and enable tens of thousands of people to consider starting up a business. Full details can be found on the RBS Inspiring Enterprise website
Graduate recruitment is expected to rise substantially this year as vacancies return to pre-recession levels, a survey has revealed. The UK’s top 100 employers told the study, conducted by High Fliers Research, that they intended to grow their graduate vacancies by 8.7 per cent in 2014 compared to the year before. This hike in advertised posts represents the biggest annual intake of university leavers for four years and has prompted forecasts that recruitment this year will increase to levels not seen since 2007. The public sector, professional services, and engineering are among 11 of the 13 key employment sectors reporting substantial increases in graduate hires this year.
Individual employers planning the largest recruitment campaigns are Teach First, which is looking to fill 1,550 graduate vacancies, PwC, with 1,200 jobs for new university leavers, and Deloitte, which is taking on 1,000 recruits. Graduate job applications are up 9 per cent on last year but many of these recruits will face disappointment as employers told the survey that 37 per cent of entry-level roles will go to applicants who have already worked for the organisation in paid internship posts or jobs during holidays. More than half of employers surveyed said that candidates without previous work experience have “little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their graduate programmes”. This trend for taking on people with experience of the company they are applying to is even more pronounced among City investment bank employers. Employers in this area of finance reported that three-quarters of the roles advertised would go to applicants who had worked for them previously, while law firms told the survey they expected to offer half their advertised training contracts to those who had completed past work experience with them. Employers are offering a record number of paid work experience placements this year making this vital experience more accesible. Pay for graduate posts has remained static for the past five years averaging £29,000 for entry-level jobs. A quarter of top graduate programmes reward new recruits with salaries of £35,000 and above. Investment banks plan to offer the highest pay to first jobbers with a median salary of £45,000, while law firms recruits can expect a median of £39,000, and banking and finance hires will be paid a median of £33,000. The highest published graduate starting salaries for 2014 are £41,500 at the European Commission and £41,000 at retailer Aldi.
People from black and ethnic minority groups are twice as likely to be unemployed as white jobseekers, figures show. The unemployment rate for working age people across all ethnic minority groups was 14 per cent last year, compared to 7 per cent for white people, according to the statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Jobseekers from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were the most likely to be out of work, with an unemployment rate of 19 per cent, compared to 17 per cent for black people and 15 per cent for people of mixed race. The DWP’s figures were compiled over the 12 months to September 2013, although overall unemployment in the UK has started to fall since that period. There are now 2.39 million people out of work, a drop of 99,000 in the three months to October 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics. The unemployment rate in the UK now stands at 7.4 per cent. But the TUC called on the government to start targeting unemployment initiatives, given the latest DWP statistics.
Many managers lack the expertise needed to steer their organisations to future success, according to research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The survey of 750 of the UK’s top leaders revealed where managers will need to excel by the end of the decade if the UK economy is to grow and compete internationally. Respondents identified their top priorities included building partnerships and networking (cited by 87 per cent and 78 per cent respectively); creating agile teams and tackling underperformance (85 per cent and 77 per cent); using social media (79 per cent); and managing complexity (76 per cent). However, the CMI survey also showed significant current skills gaps in the areas of management identified by leaders as a priority for their business. Managers said that their most common area of weakness was technology skills, with 68 per cent admitting they were ineffective at using social media, while 57 per cent said they were unable to make use of big data. Two-fifths said they were ineffective networkers, while a good proportion of respondents admitted to poor team management skills with 34 per cent having trouble decentralising decision making, 27 per cent struggling to create agile teams and 24 per cent failing to tackle underperformance. Respondents were also asked to predict how they thought the workplace would change by 2020. More than half (59 per cent) said they thought the traditional nine to five working day would disappear, while a similar number (54 per cent) expect the boundaries between home and work life to blur completely. Leaders also predicted much closer monitoring of staff, with 57 per cent suggesting that people metrics will routinely be used to track individual performance, which more than half of respondents said employees would fear. The expected impact of new technologies like social media was also clear. The majority of respondents, 83 per cent, expect to see more global working, while more than three-quarters predicted product development driven by customer input would increase.
The richest 85 people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population, according to Oxfam. The charity released the research to highlight the growing gap between rich and poor on the eve of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. In a statement the charity said: “This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems. People are increasingly separated by economic and political power, inevitably heightening social tensions and increasing the risk of societal breakdown.” Oxfam said the world’s richest 85 people boast a collective worth of $1.7trn (£1trn). Top of the 85 is Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecommunications mogul, worth around $73bn. Bill Gates comes in at number two and is one of 31 Americans on the list. This follows a report by the WEF that claimed that the increasing gap between rich and poor is seen as the biggest risk to global stability.
The gender pay gap starts the moment graduates hang up their mortar board cap and begin searching for their future career, according to research from graduate-jobs.com. The study analysed the salaries requested by 498,696 graduates over the course of a decade, and uncovered a widening gap between the salary expectations of female graduates and their male counterparts. While men are happy to request an average salary of £20,219 straight out of university, women currently ask only £18,781 from their first employer. The difference in graduate salary requests is now 44% greater than in 2003. The gap in pay expectation parallels the different industries favoured by men and women searching for graduate opportunities. While women often opt for careers in media and marketing, men are more likely to choose such high-paying sectors as banking, finance and insurance.
School-leavers look primarily to their parents for careers advice but half of mums and dads feel they don’t have sufficient knowledge to offer guidance, two studies have revealed. A survey of more than 90 trainees on EY’s school leaver programme found that most children (42 per cent) initially discuss future job options at home, followed by 26 per cent who look for advice online and 17 per cent who speak to careers advisors. In a separate EY study of more than a thousand parents and more than 500 employers, 48 per cent of parents admitted they were unaware of the range of options open to young people turning 18, and more than half didn’t fully understand the long term implications for their children’s careers. In addition, 78 per cent of mums and dads expressed concern about the prohibitive cost of higher education as university fees promise to leave graduates with thousands of pounds of debt, while youth unemployment remains at 20 per cent despite recently falling by 1 percentage point. This may explain why such a high proportion of parents (79 per cent) told the study they were worried their children would struggle to find a job after graduation. Most parents (56 per cent) also felt that helping their children to make career choices was more stressful than moving home or job. EY’s survey also found that while 89 per cent of parents view a degree as the main benefit of going to university, almost all employers (98 per cent) felt that students who had completed work experience were the most valuable recruits for their organisation.
Anglo American’s dedicated Corporate Social Investment (CSI) arm, the Chairman’s Fund, has been recognised for the ninth time for its excellence in achieving its ambition of being a true partner in development and a vehicle through which a real and sustainable difference is cultivated in communities throughout South Africa. The Cape Town-based analytical organisation, Trialogue, released its 2013 rating which was published in its annual CSI Handbook. These ratings are based on the perception ratings of 100 leaders of South African non-profit organisations and a similar number of South African company representatives. In this report, Anglo American was once again identified as a company perceived to be making the most developmental impact within its focus areasof HIV/AIDS, healthcare, welfare, education and entrepreneurial development. According to the Trialogue CSI Handbook, CSI expenditure remains concentrated among larger companies as they continue to account for the biggest share of CSI expenditure. The top 100 companies in terms of CSI expenditure spent over R5.4 billion in 2013, representing just under 70% of total social investment in South Africa. This expenditure remained focused in the education, social and community development, and health sectors, which together accounted for an average of 71% of CSI expenditure. Education received the largest percentage of funding with 89% of respondents supporting the sector and giving an average of 43% of their CSI expenditure to educational causes. Social and community development causes received an average of 15% of CSI expenditure, while health received 11%. Between 2012 and 2013, Anglo American has spent over R750 million on health and welfare, education and infrastructure CSI projects within mining communities. This excludes the company’s flagship and highly successful enterprise development programme Zimele that has created over 25,000 jobs in South Africa since 2008.
The latest Ipsos MORI IMA (Interim management Association) survey (Q3 2013) completed by all IMA members is showing encouraging news in that the figures are showing stabilised growth for the sector and member firms are maintaining current levels. Findings show the most common reason for an assignment remains Programme/Project Management with 62% of all interim executives hired for this purpose (up 6 percentage points from 56% in Q2 2013). Turnaround/Crisis Management has increased 1 percentage points to 12% (11% in Q2 2013) which seems to fit with what we are seeing. The private sector still accounts for the largest proportion of assignments at 60% although down 5 percentage points from the previous quarter. The Financial Services sector continues to lead the private sector with 45% of all assignments being from this sector. However, this sector has declined compared to Q2 2013 (59%). The other leading sectors are Business Services with an 11% share, IT & Telecommunications with a 7% share and Manufacturing with a 6% share this quarter. The public sector has grown its share from 35% in Q2 2013 to 40% in Q3 2013. Females Interim Executives are accounting for 36 per cent of Assignments – a figure that continues to increase, and the highest recorded since 2010.
Women now represent over 20% of FTSE 100 board positions, raising hope that the UK will hit the 25% female membership target without introducing quotas. The data from the Professional Boards Forum’s BoardWatch found that women made up 20.4% board members in FTSE 100 companies on January 9, an increase of three per cent from last May and of nearly eight percent three years ago. 51 more board seats need to be held by women for the FTSE 100 to reach the target set by Lord Davies. There are three boards remaining with all male boards, Antofagasta, Glencore Xstrata and London Stock Exchange Group but 49 companies now have a female representation of 25% or higher. Diageo has the highest representation at 44%, followed by Capita at 40% and Royal Mail and Unilever, both on 36%.
Job openings for those graduating this summer are set to increase sharply in 2014, indicating a return to pre-crisis heights in recruitment opportunities for university leavers. The new figures from High Flier Research found an 8.7% increase in the number of graduate vacancies, restoring recruitment levels back to what they were in 2007. According to High Fliers Research, this significant increase in graduate vacancies at Britain’s top employers means the job prospects for graduates leaving university this year are the best they’ve been since the start of the recession seven years ago. There are more opportunities than ever for university students to get paid work experience with the country’s most sought-after graduate employers – together they are offering over 11,000 paid internships and work placements this year for first and second year undergraduates. The study, based on a survey of 100 dominant graduate recruiters, found that graduate openings were cut at the beginning of the recession by 6.7% in 2008. The study revealed that employers in 11 out of 13 key areas will be open to recruiting new graduates in 2014. The largest increase of these will be in the public sector – with about 1,200 to 1, 400 job openings becoming available. Collectively, they are offering a record 11,000 paid placements in the current academic year.
The 8th edition of the African Banker Awards competition is now open. Financial institutions (banks, issuing houses, mortgage banks, micro-financiers, investment banks, development finance institutions and other financial services innovators as relevant) are invited to compete. Entries must be submitted by the closing date Monday 3rd March. The African Banker Awards is the biggest annual event for banks in Africa and the most important event that celebrates and rewards the institutions and individuals shaping the industry. The winners will be recognised at an awards ceremony that will take place on 20th May during the African Development Bank Annual Meetings in Kigali, Rwanda.Completed entry forms should be send in Word doc format to awards@icpublications.com byMonday 3rd March. Judging criteria can be found on the individual entry forms and the competition rules are on our website. www.africanbankerawards.com
Uganda’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) has joined forces with MTN to become the country’s first mobile money agent in the financial services industry. According to Margaret Mwanakatwe, managing director at UBA Uganda, the money transfer service has become Uganda’s fastest-growing, non-tariff telecommunications value-added service. Mwanakatwe said after gaining around one million MTN Mobile Money customers in the first year alone, the product is a perfect fit for UBA as one of the fastest growing commercial banks in Uganda. The bank is in the process of investing in the creation of a one large borderless network from Kenya in East Africa and Zambia in the south all the way to Senegal in West Africa. Mwanakatwe said the introduction of MTN Mobile Money at all its nine branches across the country would boost the penetration of banking services in Uganda and will be complementary to UBA’s other money transfer services such as U-Direct and Africash, enabling customers to convert cash on their personal and business accounts into e-cash in virtual accounts.
The African Development Bank Group has approved an African Development Fund grant of US $26 million to rehabilitate and expand the distribution networks in Juba, South Sudan, where only 1% of the population has access to grid electricity located chiefly in the three main cities. The Power Distribution System Rehabilitation and Expansion Project aims at providing reliable electricity supply from existing and future generation facilities and thus satisfying the suppressed load and demand growth in Juba. The upgraded and reinforced electricity supply will contribute to improve the quality of service provided by the national utility; the quality of life of residents; and promote businesses, hence contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction in South Sudan. The project consists of the construction of (i) 145 kilometres of low-voltage 33 kV lines; (ii) 370 km of medium-voltage lines; (iii) the purchase and installation of 195 transformer stations; and (iv) 20,000 prepaid meters for connecting 20,000 new customers. Given that this intervention is the first donor-funded project undertaken by the power utility, South Sudan Electricity Corporation (SSEC), the project includes a capacity-building component to ensure knowledge transfer in the areas of procurement as well as financial and project management. With the deployment of the upgraded distribution network, the project will also be the opportunity for technical staff of the utility to get trained in the use of similar technologies, which are likely to be used for other projects in the near future. This project in Juba is in line with the South Sudan Development Plan and South Sudan Infrastructure Action Plan, both identifying infrastructure as a core priority for South Sudan. The AfDB Interim Country Strategy Paper has also considered infrastructure as one of the pillars for the Bank’s intervention. Through the proposed investment, the Bank facilitates future investments in the electricity generation in South Sudan as the evacuation of energy output will be guaranteed.
The 2013 edition of Mergermarket’s Deal Drivers Africa reports a total of 115 deals worth US$26.6bn taking place in the first three quarters of 2013 across Africa. Robust M&A activity on the continent has been supported by increasing economic diversification among a number of countries, creating untapped investment opportunities in areas such as financial services, TMT and business services. Seven of the ten biggest deals of 2013 have been in the energy, mining & utilities sector. The largest of these transactions was China National Petroleum Corporation’s acquisition of a 28.57% stake in Eni East Africa Spa from Eni Spa, with a value of US$4.2bn. Some key findings in the report include: The majority of M&A activity remains driven by African acquirers, rather than inbound M&A to the region; since 2006, African acquirers have generally accounted for 50 to 60% of the total deal volume in each year; Private equity activity has been slightly muted compared to 2012. In the first three quarters of 2013 there were 16 private equity-related transactions worth US$1.2bn, while in the same period in 2012 there were 26 private equity-related transactions worth US$1.8bn.; There has been a marked rise in the value of deals originating from the Asia-Pacific region, increasing from a 13% share in deal value in 2006 to reach 56% by 2013. Deal Drivers Africa is published by Mergermarket in collaboration with ENSafrica, Nedbank Capital and Ecobank. Based on interviews with 100 M&A practitioners operating in Africa, this report provides invaluable insight into the African M&A market from those who know it best. To view the full report, please click here: http://mergermarketgroup.com/publication/deal-drivers-africa-2
African mobile subscription growth will fall by two thirds by 2017, pointing to new challenges for regional operators, according to a report from GSMA, an association of mobile operators. The uptake of new mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa is set to slow after five years posting the highest growth rates in the world. The number of mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 18 percent a year between 2007 and 2012 as operators increased connectivity and the cost of mobile devices fell. By mid-2013, there were 253m mobile users across the region, meaning that just under one in three people has access to a mobile phone. Those rates will increase to 346m by 2017 as more customers gain access to affordable devices, GSMA estimates. However, that represents a compound annual growth rate of around 7 percent - substantially lower than that of the last five years - according to Peter Lyons, GSMA’s director of spectrum policy for Africa and the Middle East. GSMA estimates that the average revenue of mobile users across sub-Saharan Africa stands at about $13.6 per month, but says that new users are likely to fall in the bracket of $7-9 per month, meaning companies face challenges in making mobile contracts affordable. Mobile operators have invested $44bn over the last six years and will be required to spend more in the future as they extend coverage to rural areas and deploy 3G and 4G networks, the Sub-Saharan Africa Mobile Economy report says. However, prohibitive tax regimes could deter investment. Taxation as a proportion of the cost of mobile ownership is already higher in sub-Saharan Africa than the global average, and governments are increasingly looking to the mobile industry as a source of much-needed revenue. Twenty countries in the region have levied customs duties on mobile handset imports driving up costs in a region where affordability is paramount; some, including Kenya, are taxing mobile money transfers, hitting price-sensitive users; and others have placed a surtax on inbound international calls. The mobile sector has had a transformative effect on sub-Saharan development over the last decade. The contribution of the mobile industry to sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP will rise to 8.2 percent by 2020, up from 6.3 percent in 2012 - already a higher proportion than any other region in the world - GSMA estimates. But sub-Saharan Africa still has the world’s lowest mobile penetration rates. The percentage of the population that uses a mobile phone varies from 65.7 percent in South Africa to 20 percent in Niger.
Today, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) announced a five-year project that seeks to increase incomes of smallholder farmers through the creation of an enabling policy environment in Africa. The initiative –Micro Reforms for African Agribusiness (MIRA) – will identify, prioritize and reform specific agricultural policies and regulations that currently deter or limit private investment in small- and medium-sized agribusinesses operating in smallholder agricultural value chains. Over a period of five years, AGRA aims to motivate at least 25 significant policy or regulatory reforms in selected countries, leading to measurable increases in private sector investment in local agribusinesses. The project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, is expected to increase the number of smallholder farmers accessing improved technologies supplied by agribusinesses operating in local staple food value chains. It will also help them access stable, predictable income-generating market opportunities. This enhanced access to input and output markets is in turn expected to lead to increased smallholder productivity and incomes, and reduced poverty for smallholder farm-dependent families. The MIRA project will provide African Governments with access to high quality local and international technical assistance for identifying, prioritizing and reforming specific agricultural regulations, says Dr. Steven Were Omamo, AGRA’s Director of Policy and Advocacy. The project will help build the capacity of African Government leaders and analysts to make better-informed, economically-robust assessments and decisions about which regulations need to be reformed in order to facilitate increased private investment in smallholder value chains.
Developing skills and using cutting-edge technologies to build human capital is at the heart of the AfDB’s Strategy 2013-2022 (http://www.afdb.org/en/about-us/afdbs-strategy/structural-transformation) which aims at transforming the continent creating opportunities for inclusive and green growth. the Bank's vision for the next 10 years to build human capital in Africa especially in the health sector, the labour market dynamics focusing on the health industry and the rapid growth of biomedical engineering and pharmaceuticals industries that need a new breed of highly educated and skilled professionals. Africa’s health workforce crisis in many regional member countries is caused by deeply rooted problems of outdated curricula, poor remuneration and limited opportunities for career progress for workers especially in rural areas. Creating a new paradigm for Africa’s human capital as the most precious resource is one of the priority of the Bank’s Human Capital Strategy 2014-2018, especially in healthcare sector. Over the last three years, the Bank has supported regional member countries (RMCs) build their health human capital. For example, in Uganda, the Bank supported a US $98 million project to transform Mulago Hospital (http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/afdb-support-to-improve-health-services-in-uganda-8769), into a centre of excellence in health care service delivery and education and training for students studying health sciences. Also, as the Africa’s pharmaceutical industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, the Bank has initiated public-private partnerships to help countries invest in skills development for this sector and to build the knowledge base needed to create jobs and sustainable growth.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released new guidelines for the swift take off of the next level of implementation of the Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS). The new guidelines released at the weekend include promoting increased awareness of its financial inclusion strategy, setting up of a financial inclusion secretariat, and the establishment of a financial inclusion committee, as well as development and running of pilot schemes. The CBN said it was working with other stakeholders to implement a NFIS that would reduce the percentage of adult Nigerians that are excluded from financial services from 46.3 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent by 2020. The CBN stated in the guidelines that specific targets had been set for payments, savings, credit, insurance, pensions, DMB and MFB branches, ATMs, POS, banking agents, youth and women. The strategy document indicated that the number of Nigerians included in the formal sector would increase from 36.3 per cent in 2010 to 70 per cent by 2020. Other areas to be addressed include the implementation of a comprehensive consumer protection framework to safeguard the interest of clients and sustain confidence in the financial sector; continued pursuance of Mobile Payment System and other cash-less policies to reduce the cost and increase the ease of financial services and transactions; and Implementation of Credit Enhancement Schemes/Programmes to empower micro, small, and medium enterprises. The CBN's vision is that 60 per cent of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF), will support loans from microfinance banks and institutions to women and women-owned enterprises. Coming one year after the launch of financial inclusion in the country, the CBN also listed steps it would take to track and implement the strategy.
Africa may be the second fastest-growing region, after Asia, but it lags the world in financial inclusion, according to a report from the African Development Bank. Less than one adult in four in Africa has access to an account at a formal financial institution, while the continent has recorded annual gross domestic product growth rates of more than 5% over the past decade. Broadening access to financial services will help to mobilise greater household savings, expand the number of entrepreneurs and create more capital for investment. The report, Financial Inclusion in Africa, finds that technological advances such as mobile money innovations have started to make inroads into banking the unbanked. Mobile money, via cellphones, has been the most successful innovation in Africa, with 14% of adults reporting they have used it in the past 12 months. In comparison, less than 6% of adults in all other regions globally used mobile money in the past year. The African Development Bank predicts technology could be a "game changer" in drawing the financially excluded into the formal banking world. In sub-Saharan Africa, 16% of adults said they had used a cellphone in the past 12 months to pay bills, or send or receive money. In Kenya, 68% of adults reported having used mobile money. The country’s M-Pesa service, launched in 2007 by telecommunications company Safaricom, transformed the banking world as it did not have a bank licence and users did not need to have bank accounts. About 43% of adults in Kenya who reported having used mobile money in the past 12 months, did not have a formal account. The 2012 Global Findex database, covering 148 economies that include 42 from Africa, found that less than a quarter of adults in Africa banked with a formal financial institution, but many people used informal methods to save, such as burial societies, and borrowed from family, friends and informal private lenders. Companies in Africa tend to lack access to bank credit, and this particularly affects small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Other sources of financing, such as equity markets, are underdeveloped. The African Development Bank report estimates a credit gap of about $100bn for businesses, of which SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa make up a credit shortfall of $70bn-$90bn. Roughly 23% of adults in Africa overall have an account at a formal financial institution, compared with 42% in Southern Africa. Financial inclusion goes beyond providing credit to those people previously excluded. It refers to all initiatives that make formal financial services accessible and affordable to the entire population, according to the African Development Bank.
The South African government has launched an updated bio-economy strategy that seeks to harness partnerships with industry and academia in order to accelerate the development of bio-based services, products and innovations in South Africa. The science-based Bio-Economy Strategy, approved by the Cabinet in November and launched by Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom on Tuesday, positions bio-innovation as essential to the achievement of the country's industrial and social development goals. Speaking to journalists at the launch in Pretoria, Hanekom said the strategy improved on the National Biotechnology Strategy of 2001 by "going beyond the mere generation of new technologies to ensuring that technology development is informed by the needs of the country and people, and that social and economic value is generated". The strategy calls for industry, science councils, government departments and academia to cooperate closely to ensure that biotechnology and bio-innovations are market-relevant and find easier application in South Africa.
Airtel Ghana has launched Airtel Insurance, a value added service (VAS) to give its customers free insurance cover as part of a move to boost insurance penetration in Ghana. Available statistics at the National Insurance Commission (NIC) indicates just about six to seven percent of Ghanaians have insurance cover, while 94% remain uncovered. This is because the traditional insurance companies have steered away from the risk associated with poor and below-average income people. Airtel Ghana’s partnership with MicroEnsure and Ghana’s Enterprise Life will design, administer and underwrite a premium-free insurance scheme that provides cover for Airtel customers on monthly basis, based on how much a customer spends the previous month. The scheme provides cover for life, accident and for hospital bills and Airtel is working with MicroEnsure to administer the scheme and provide the documentation on claims prior to payment. Enterprise Life is the underwriter for the scheme and will take premiums from Airtel on behalf of customers and pay out to customers who claim.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched a permanent showroom for South African lifestyle products, crafts, clothing and textiles in Atlanta in the United States. The showroom, a joint initiative of the DTI and the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) was opened by Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Elizabeth Thabethe and is located in one of the largest permanent wholesale trade centres in Atlanta, the showroom will serve as a platform for marketing South African products, while addressing the significant market entry costs faced by smaller exporters.
Euronews is to launch a sister channel in Africa. In partnership with the national television channel of the Republic of the Congo, Euronews will establish a multi-lingual and multi-cultural news channel, broadcasting around the clock. Starting with English and French, and then adding other languages widely-spoken on the continent, Africanews aims to become the first Pan-African rolling news channel. The headquarters will be in Brazzaville and regional offices will be set up across the continent. Africanews will adhere to the same editorial charter as Euronews, guaranteeing its independence. The two networks will share their news, creating a synergy that will give Africa a place in the world of news and give the world the latest news from the continent. Euronews channel produces 13 different language versions, 24/7. Its programmes are created by a newsroom of more than 400 journalists of 30 nationalities, and reach 400 million households in 155 countries.
The Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone, launched late last year, is already drawing strong international interest, with several lease agreements signed and a surge of global oil and gas companies negotiating joint ventures with South African firms, according to the Western Cape provincial government. The Saldanha Bay IDZ Licencing Company has signed six lease agreements with international and South African oil and gas companies that include firms specialising in oilfield services, oil rig operations, logistics operators, ship repair, engineering and market support. Final negotiations for lease agreements are taking place between the Licencing Company and two international oilfield service companies and a South African rig repair firm. A feasibility study conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry found that Saldanha Bay is strategically located to serve as a service, maintenance, fabrication and supply hub for the booming African oil and gas sector, due to the increasing number of oil rigs requiring maintenance, and their traffic flow passing from the west to the east coast of Africa. In October 2013, German company Oiltanking GmbH entered a joint venture with a number of South African companies to build a commercial crude oil storage and blending terminal at the port of Saldanha. Saldanha is an excellent location for a crude oil hub as it is close to strategic tanker routes from key oil-producing regions to major oil-consuming markets.
Zimbabwe has started levying a tax on mobile money transactions following lobbying from the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) for the Zimbabwean central bank to regulate mobile money services “to create a level playing field” in the financial services sector. The banks had been involved in a dispute with Econet Wireless, the country’s biggest telecoms firm, over its alleged refusal to open up its EcoCash mobile money platform for integration with the banking system in Zimbabwe. The government has subsequently moved in to regulate mobile money transactions, effectively imposing a 5 cents tax levy on transactions carried out using mobile money platforms. Econet’s EcoCash, with 3 million subscribers, is the biggest mobile money platform in Zimbabwe."We advise that a transaction tax of 5 cents will be levied on applicable transactions... in line with government tax policy," Econet Wireless said in a statement. According to the country’s Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, the emergence of mobile technology has opened doors to innovative technology which facilitates transfer of funds through mobile phones but that transactions through such platforms had to conform to the same tax regime applicable for Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and Point of Sale (POS) transactions. Experts in Zimbabwe said the government was hoping to capitalise on the prominence of mobile money transactions by imposing the 5 cents per transaction tax rate. Mobile money platforms in Zimbabwe are used for cash transfers, airtime top-ups, utility bill payments and other transactions.
Dubai-based investment bank Arqaam Capital has become the newest equity member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), an indication the confidence of other emerging markets in South Africa as a financial gateway to sub-Saharan Africa. Arqaam Capital is a specialist emerging markets investment bank headquartered in Dubai, with listings on the Dubai, Nasdaq Dubai and Abu Dhabi exchanges and offices in Beirut and London. According to the company, Arqaam Capital's first expansion into Africa was "due to an overwhelming demand from its clients for investment opportunities in South Africa and the rest of the continent". The JSE said it believed that Arqaam Capital's move showed that investors in other emerging markets recognised Africa's potential and had both confidence and an appetite for investment in the continent.
Marriott International, the largest publicly traded hotel chain in the United States, has signed agreements to acquire the three brands and management company of South Africa's Protea Hospitality Holdings, in a transaction that will make Marriott Africa's biggest hotel company by number of rooms in operation or under construction. Protea has 116 hotels with 10 148 rooms in seven African countries including South Africa. Once the deal is finalised, Marriott will become the largest hotel company in the Middle East and Africa region. Announcing the signing of definitive agreements for the purchase, Marriott said the deal was worth R2.02-billion (approximately US$186-million). The company said in November, when it signed a letter of intent to make the acquisition, that the transaction would nearly double Marriott's distribution in Africa to more than 23 000 rooms, "and would also provide Marriott with a proven operational platform and leadership team to accelerate Marriott's expansion plans and solidify its leadership position in the dynamic and growing African hotel market". Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson said the African continent "has significant untapped potential for travel and tourism, both as a destination and source of new global travellers. The continent's GDP is anticipated to grow at over five percent annually over the next several years, which we expect will raise more people into the emerging middle class.
International businesses grant South African researchers, on average, $64 000 each a year for academic research. This puts them fourth on the list of funding recipients globally and the only African country in the top 10, according to the World Academic Summit Innovation Index. The index is compiled by the Times Higher Education, a leading global publication with a specific focus on higher education. It is best known for its annual ranking of universities. Using industry income – funding received by academic staff from business – as an indicator, the only countries better funded than South Africa were South Korea, Singapore and the Netherlands. It is the only African country on the list and lies ahead of India, the only Brics partner in the top 10. Using data from its World University Rankings, the index suggests that businesses are moving funding away from traditional research universities in North America and Europe, where it has historically channelled funding, to researchers in the East and South Africa. Among the best-known innovations to come out of academic research before they are monetised by industry include the internet (research done at the University of California, Los Angeles and George Boole at Queen's University in Cork), holograms (Imperial College of London), plasma screens (University of Illinois) and fluoride toothpaste (Indiana University). Business-funded university research plays an important role in fuelling the knowledge economy, and the relationship between universities and business has evolved, says Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education. He says that ivory tower discoveries and research are only able to make a social and economic impact if universities partner with industry. Research funding to a large degree is aimed at studies in technology and engineering. In the South African context, and to an extent in other developing economies, medical research is also well funded. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the national departments of health and science and technology, recently announced a R370-million fund to develop vaccines and other technologies to fight HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. In a knowledge-based economy universities are the drivers of research and the custodians of information and the index shows that research done in South Africa is proving vital.
Les trophées des meilleurs employeurs au Maroc au titre de l'année 2013 ont été décernés à 8 entreprises représentant différents secteurs d'activités. Ainsi, le grand prix de la "catégorie grande entreprise", a été remporté par la société "Ménara Holding", organisée sur cinq pôles d'activités dont le transport, l'automobile et l'immobilier, tandis que la filiale d'Italcementi Group, "Ciments du Maroc" et le spécialiste dans la prestation de services informatiques "HP CDG", ont respectivement remporté le 2ème et 3ème prix. Le grand prix de catégorie "petite et moyenne entreprise" est revenu à la filiale marocaine du géant de l'informatique, "Microsoft". Le 2ème prix a été décerné à la compagnie "Coca-Cola Export Corporation", le 3ème au fournisseur d'infrastructures télécoms "Ericsson Maroc", le 4ème à "Jacobs Engineering" qui gère de nombreux programme d'ingénie, notamment à destination de l'Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP) et le 5ème à "IBM Maroc" (services et logiciels). S'exprimant à cette occasion, le ministre de l'Emploi et des Affaires sociales, M. Abdesslam Seddiki a souligné que cette initiative, lancée en 2011, vise à encourager l'investissement dans le renforcement et la valorisation du capital humain, ajoutant que la performance sociale est une des conditions essentielles de la performance économique et de l'efficacité de l'entreprise. Par ailleurs, M. Seddiki a appelé l'ensemble des entreprises, quelques soient leurs tailles, à investir davantage dans le capital humain pour la promotion d'une bonne gouvernance, axée sur la bonne gestion des ressources humaines, la dispense de formations adéquates aux salariés et la promotion de culture de concertation, de consultation et de dialogue social. Placé sous l'égide du ministère de l'Emploi et des Affaires sociales, le programme des meilleurs employeurs au Maroc 2013, organisé en partenariat avec la Confédération des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM) et l'Association des femmes chefs d'entreprise du Maroc (AFEM), rend hommage aux sociétés marocaines offrant le meilleur environnement de travail et vise à reconnaître les entreprises qui savent attirer et retenir les meilleurs collaborateurs. Géré par l'Institut Best Companies Group, ce programme est mené au Maroc auprès des différentes entreprises et porte sur la perception des employés de la politique ressources humaines (RH), de la culture de l'entreprise, des conditions de travail, des outils RH, de l'évolution professionnelle, de la rémunération et de la reconnaissance professionnelle.
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