Connecting Africa’s Skilled Professionals
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The Association of Graduate Recruiters' (AGR) winter survey has revealed was a 4.3 per cent rise in graduate vacancies in 2013, with continued demand for young recruits likely to drive a 10.2 per cent increase in graduate posts this year. The findings from the bi-annual research suggest youth unemployment, currently at 20 per cent for 16-24 year olds, could be set to turn a corner. According to the AGR, job prospects for students this year will be better than at any point since 2010, with around 23,000 vacancies likely to be on offer. Sectors showing the strongest levels of recruitment growth are IT and telecoms - with vacancies up by 40 per cent compared to last year, as well as public services (up 20 per cent), energy (up 18 per cent) and banking and financial services (up 16 per cent). For sheer volume of jobs available, accountancy and professional services, the public sector, retail and investment banking/fund management are the most buoyant. But the findings also show a mixed picture for graduates. The survey, which polled more than 200 employers, also found that those with traditionally strong graduate programmes were increasingly working directly with schools too. It found 55 per cent of its members were already active in the schools market, with a further 15 per cent saying that school-lever programmes form part of their future recruitment plans. The AGR results follow a recent report by High Fliers Research, which showed employers are increasing their graduate intake by 8.7 per cent – the largest rise in recruitment for four years. It also found 11 out of 13 major employment areas were planning to take on more graduates in 2014 compared to 2013.
South African President Jacob Zuma has signed a proclamation setting Wednesday 7 May 2014 as the date for the national elections in South Africa. The proclamation is intended to be published in the Government Gazette today, making it the official, binding and final election date. South Africans abroad will go to the polls a week earlier, on Wednesday 30 April. If you are voting abroad, please be advised that you have 15 days from today’s announcement’s date (25 February 2014) to notify the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of your intention to vote abroad, and select the foreign mission at which you intend to vote. This can only be done online, effectively until 12 March 2014. Go the IEC website ( www.elections.org.za ) to notify the IEC of your exact voting intentions. You will find the applicable link under the menu item entitled “For voters”, which you can find on the top menu. Click on the drop-down menu point entitled “Voting outside South Africa (VEC10)” on the website and look for the section entitled “Notify us of your intention to vote abroad (VEC10).” You can then proceed to complete and submit the VEC10 online. Please note that this link will only be available from the proclamation date (25 February 2014) for a period of 15 days until 12 March 2014, so time is of essence if you want to ensure your vote will be counted.
An increase in the number of self-employed people is behind recent falls in official UK unemployment figures as opposed to the creation of new jobs, experts have said. Quarterly labour market data, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), revealed there were just 0.2 per cent more ‘employed’ people during the last quarter. This compares to a rise of 4.1 per cent in the self-employed sector during the same period. The rise in the number of people describing themselves as self-employed equates to an extra 172,000 in the last three months alone. It means the total number of self-employed people comes to 4.37 million, or 14.5 per cent of the total workforce according to PCG, the membership group for independent professionals. A report last December by Tax Research for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust found the self-employed were among the hardest hit during the recession. It found workers here had suffered a fall in income of 31 per cent over the last 12 years. But, possibly out of necessity through redundancy, this had not impacted growth in the numbers of self-employed workers. ONS data found that self-employment grew by 367,000 between 2008 and 2012, with 60 per cent of this increase in just one of these years, 2011. According to PCG there has been a 63 per cent rise in the number of people going freelance in the last decade alone. This brings the number to 1.72 million, contributing £95 billion to the UK economy. Since 2008, 84 per cent of the increase in self-employed workers was for those aged 50 and above. London has the highest proportion of self-employed workers, at 18 per cent.
There are no racial gaps between Blacks and whites when it comes to book reading. In fact, no matter what form the book comes in, Blacks are slightly more likely than whites and significantly more likely than Latinos to have read a book in the past year, according to a Pew Research study. The study, which initially investigated the ownership and usage of e-readers, found that 76 percent of American adults have read a book in the past 12 months. More than a quarter (28 percent) had read it on an e-reader or tablet, while almost seven of every 10 adults (68 percent) had read a book in print and 14 percent listened to an audiobook. Black adults led every category, with 81 percent of those surveyed having read a book in some form in the past year, more than whites (76 percent) and Latinos (67 percent). Three-quarters of Black Americans read a book in print, while 30 percent read one on an e-reader or tablet and nearly one out of every five (19 percent) listened to an audiobook. That compares to 71 percent of white adults who read a print book, 29 percent who read an e-book and 14 percent who listened to an audiobook. Black and white participants also read about the same amount, with whites reading an average of 13 books in the past year, compared to 12 books for Black adults. Younger adults were more likely to have read on a tablet or e-reader than older adults, but still preferred print books to electronic editions. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of adults under age 30 read a book in print, while only 37 percent had read an electronic version and 15 percent listened to an audiobook.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) reports that both the income and the expenditure of the country’s charities have doubled in the last ten years. The third sector's turnover has grown to £4.9 billion since 2003 but so has its spending, reaching a high of £4.7 billion. Based on 2013 annual return figures from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and the Scottish Housing Regulator, SCVO found that those 42% of charities spend more than they earn "because they are investing to meet increased demand for their services and plan for the future". This report follows on from SCVO's December 2013 State of the Sector Survey Results in which it reported that 41% of charities and third sector organisations grew in size in 2013despite the difficult economic environment. This was an improvement on 2012 when just 31% of organisations increased in size; 77% of charities and third sector organisations expect demand to increase in 2014; 60% expect costs to rise but the majority do not expect income, numbers of staff or pay to increase; 38% say they cannot confidently plan ahead due to their current funding arrangement; 8% say that they can plan ahead more than three years.
Almost a third of British employees are over-qualified for their jobs, while 22 per cent of roles require no more than primary education, a new CIPD report has found. The report, Industrial Strategy and the Future of UK Skills Policy ,said conflicting government skills policies encouraged employers to compete using low cost, relatively low skilled labour, while conversely promoting an increase in higher skills and qualifications. This has led to 30 per cent of UK workers being overqualified for their jobs. For example, there are fewer graduate jobs than jobseekers with a degree, so higher skills are being under-used. The UK also has the second highest level of what the OECD refers to as ‘over qualification’ because of the government’s heavy emphasis on increasing the supply of skills, while failing to boost employer demand for investment in skills to create more productive workplaces. More than a fifth (22 per cent) of British roles require only primary level education to do them, which is a larger proportion of low skilled posts than in countries like Germany and Sweden where they account for just 5 per cent of jobs. The effect is that the UK has the highest proportion of low skilled jobs in the OECD after Spain. And low skilled jobs translate into low pay, with in-work poverty in the UK growing by 20 per cent in the past decade. The prevalence of low skilled jobs combined with the under-use of higher skills workers have made a major contribution to the UK’s poor productivity levels. And productivity is the key to raising real wages above the rate of inflation , the CIPD said. The report was produced for the CIPD by the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), which is based at Oxford University.
Headhunters and executive search firms should put at least one strongly recommended woman on all shortlists for boardroom roles, according to expert advice given to the UK government. The recommendation is part of a review of the Voluntary Code of Conduct for search firms, conducted by Charlotte Sweeney, formerly the head of diversity at bank Nomura International. The review said that search firms could do more to help their clients reach diversity and equality targets and ensure more women reach top positions. As well as putting forward more female candidates, Sweeney called for headhunters to look beyond the minimum standards set out in the code, and start sharing statistics on gender balance ratios at all stages of the recruitment process with the government at least. She said all employers’ financial reporting councils should highlight their knowledge of the code with search firms they using, so headhunters are aware they take it seriously. Sweeney also challenged the firms to include compliance with the code in their contracts with search firms. As well as targeting search firms, Sweeney recommended that a database of ‘board-ready’ women should be created. A separate report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) called Room at the Top: women leaders and the role of executive search’, supported the idea that headhunters should publish data of the proportion of women on long and short-lists for senior and board-level positions. In 2011 Lord Davies’ review of women at the top recommended all FTSE 100 companies should aim for at least 25 per cent female boardroom representation by 2015. Today women comprise 20.4 per cent of FTSE 100 boards, up from 12.5 per cent when the review was first published.
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has launched the 2014 edition of the online training courses in financial management, international trade and intellectual property. These courses are intended for trade and finance professionals and officials from developing countries including least developed countries and economies in transition. Since the introduction of online courses in 2003, over 10,000 officials mainly from developing countries benefited from our courses. UNITAR is dedicated to delivering innovative e-Learning courses by high-level experts in a flexible and interactive way. Each course is moderated by an international expert with an in-depth understanding of current challenges and issues. Their real-world experiences allow participants to gain relevant and practical insights. A typical course’s length is around 6 weeks. Successful participants receive a certificate of completion from UNITAR. As the demand from Sub-Saharan African countries for online training steadily grows, the number of online courses has increased by 390% over the past 5 years, with more than 30% of beneficiaries coming from Africa, followed by Asia Pacific 24%, Latin America and the Caribbean 14%. Every year, over 25,000 participants benefit from UNITAR’s training and capacity development activities. The current calendar of events includes some of the highly in-demand courses on Financial Negotiation, Risk Management, Financial Governance/Management, Trade and Intellectual Property, Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution, as well as Debt Management and Poverty Reduction. Upcoming courses are available online at http://www.unitar.org/pftad3
Rising numbers of women in part-time employment means Britain is continuing to lag behind its European counterparts in narrowing the gender pay gap. This is the conclusion of PwC’s second Women In Work Index, which shows that despite there being more women in work than ever before, the UK ranks only 18th out of 27 OECD counties for female participation and pay. Gaenor Bagley, head of people and executive board member at PwC, said that the low level of females in full-time employment is holding back both the UK economic recovery and women’s career progression and that, despite the perception that flexible working helps women, the index and wider research suggests it could instead be holding them back in many cases. According to the report, the UK has made a one-place improvement on last year, but overall it still means that this ranking is worse than at the turn of the century. In 2000, the UK was placed as high as 14th. The report finds that while the UK has closed the gender pay gap from 26 per cent in 2000 to 18 per cent in 2012, it is still above the OECD average of 16 per cent. In the same time period however, other countries have made substantial progress. Ireland, for example has reduced its gender pay gap to just 4 per cent (from 20 per cent in 2000). PwC also found that while the proportion of women in the UK who work is above the OECD average, the percentage holding full-time jobs was lower than all but two of the countries measured. Countries leading the gender pay league table are Norway, followed by Denmark and Sweden – all countries that have shared parental leave. PwC’s findings come just three months after statistics by ONS found that the gender pay gap in Britain had widened for the first time in five years. It found the difference between male and female full-time employees increased from 9.5 per cent in 2012 to 10 per cent in 2013. Meanwhile, for all employees (including part-time workers), the difference rose from 19.6 per cent to 19.7 per cent over the same period.
Entrepreneurial businesswomen are set to benefit from investment of £85,000, new women's enterprise ambassadors and an action plan to tackle the gender gap in business. Finance Secretary John Swinney has announced two new schemes designed to help women start up or grow their own business and unleash their potential. £50,000 of this investment will provide financial support to the Investing Women initiative which will help unlock the potential, market expertise, talent and knowledge of ambitious business women across Scotland. £35,000 will help establish the new women's enterprise ambassadors, who will also act as role models and mentors for start-up and growth businesses, inspiring, motivating and connecting with female entrepreneurs. This announcement comes on the back of Women's Enterprise Scotland survey results which revealed that 87% of female-led businesses are actively seeking to grow. Investing Women aims to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, skills and experiences – and the creation of networks of contacts – to help participants grow and continue to improve the performance of their businesses. Support may be accessed at any time.See the Investing Women website for more information.
In today's labour market, high youth unemployment paradoxically co-exists with the unmet demand for skills jobs. Laura Brewer an ILO Specialist in Skills for Youth Employment discusses the worrying statistics relating to youth unemployment around the world. The global figures show that at least 74 million young people are unemployed, which is more than three times the number of unemployed adults. About 6 million youths have stopped looking for employment because they have become so discouraged. Globally there is a need to create 40 million jobs a year just to absorb entry level market workers, while 200 million jobs need to be created worldwide to fight the scourge of youth unemployment. Disadvantaged youths face even greater difficulty in securing employment. This group refers not only to youth who are “suffering from income poverty”. These are young people who also experience discrimination based on gender, disability or ethnicity. Brewer explains that location can also be a barrier to finding employment. However the primary impediment to youth employment is a lack of skills. The solution is to improve the core work skills which include the “ability to communicate, team work skills, problem solving skills and learning to learn”, these are the skills that are needed in the current marketplace. There has to be a focus to educate young people by providing good quality education and training. Research also shows that of the 200 million youths who are employed most are only earning 2 dollars a day or less. A 1 dollar investment in skills can have a 10 to 15 dollar increase in earning rate which is good for the economic growth. Finally since disadvantaged youths are more vulnerable they need to be earning while learning because of their income poverty situation they come from, you cannot just put them in a classroom and teach.
Anything a man can do, a woman can do just as well. But it turns out that when it comes to Maths and Science jobs, gender bias could be costing women valuable career opportunities. The latest research from Luigi Zingales from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science’s Early Edition, demonstrates that both men and women are biased against women when it comes to hiring for science-related work . In “How Stereotypes Impair Women’s Careers in Science,” Zingales, along with Ernesto Reuben of Columbia Business School and Paola Sapienza of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, ran a laboratory experiment to measure how employers respond to female applicants when hiring for a job that involves arithmetic. They found that when presented with no additional information about candidates, other than their genders, that both sexes are twice as likely to hire a man as a woman. Even when the interviewees had the chance to tell the employers about how well they expected to do on an upcoming arithmetic test, the economists found that the bias remained in place because men tend to boast and to inflate their abilities, which the hirers were willing to believe. At the same time, they found that women tend to underestimate their abilities. When candidates were considered alongside results from a completed arithmetic test, the bias against women lessened, but still did not go away. As a result, regardless of the situation, the decision to hire less-qualified male candidates over well-qualified female candidates remained commonplace. Taking the results out of the laboratory and into the real world, this means that women are losing the chances to join STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) career paths and that employers are not always hiring the best workers. Zingales and his colleague’s findings also suggest that both sexes discriminate against women without realizing that they do so, meaning that new policies are needed to remedy the situation.
Cape Town, this year's World Design Capital, has been named as the host city for the announcement of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize finalists list next March. Planning of the event is already beginning, with the Man Booker International Prize organisers in partnership with the University of Cape Town. The list of finalists has traditionally been published in a city other than London, home of the Booker Prize Foundation; it has previously taken place in Toronto, Washington DC, New York City, Sydney and Jaipur. The international prize differs from the Man Booker Prize in that it honours a writer's body of work and achievement and contribution to international fiction, as opposed to focusing on a single work. The £60,000 prize is awarded every second year, to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in English. Winners include Philip Roth (2011), Alice Munro (2009), the late Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (2007), and Ismail Kadare (2005). In addition, there is a separate award for translation and, if applicable, the winner can choose a translator of his or her work into English to receive a prize of £15 000. This will be the first time the announcement of finalists will take place in Africa. The Booker Prize for Fiction is in its 46th year. It became the Man Booker Prize in 2002 when the Man Group came on board as sponsor. Since 1969, 30 men and 16 women have won the prize. The Booker Prize initially awarded £5,000 to its winners. The prize money doubled in 1978, and today the winner receives £60,000.
Angola’s trade minister, Rosa Pacavira, has announced that the government will grant new licences to operate mobile and fixed telephone networks later this year. This new initiative, which would be open to new companies in various sectors including telecom networks, will allow more companies to operate in this sector. It is part of a new strategy that the government is putting in place in order to open trade in provision of services and to allow more companies to operate. According to Pacavira, the Angolan government may liberalise the market for trade in services which would help to facilitate trade and the service provision business.
Private equiteers revealed about $4billion worth of Africa-based deals in 2013, almost four times the $1.1billion recorded in the previous year, according to combined research from Preqin and Private Equity Africa. The 2013 figure is the second highest reached in Africa since 2006, only surpassed by the $7.2billion reported in 2007, at the height of the global private equity boom, according to Preqin data. The data only covers revealed deal values. Overall, last year’s values were bolstered by the gigantic $1.525bn deal from Helios and Brazil’s BTG Pactual, who partnered to invest in Nigeria-based Oil & Gas exploration company, Petrobras Africa. Deal making values were also spiked by the colossal $1.035billion IHS club deal led by Emerging Capital Partners and Investec Asset Management. The duo led a number of investors to infuse fresh capital into their Nigeria-based telecommunications infrastructure services portfolio company. Preqin’s preliminary figures place last year’s aggregate values at approximately $3.9billion, while Private Equity Africa has this at $4.4billion, adjusted to include Abraaj’s sizeable investment into Fan Milk, a Ghana-based consumer food company. The deal value was confidential, but is understood to be just over $400million – making it the largest consumer deal closed historically in Sub -Saharan Africa, ex-South Africa. Private Equity Africa’s figures have also included the $137million Helios and Kinnevik investment into South Africa’s Bayport Management Limited. Last year saw dealers deliver over 60 Africa-based transactions in 2013. The most active sectors in 2013 were industrials and business services which respectively contributed about 20% and 19%, respectively, to the deal volumes. They were tailed by food & agriculture which brought in 18% of the deal volumes. The consumer & retail space recorded 11% of the year’s deals, according to figures from Preqin. The year saw dealers deliver a good number of the much sought after large-cap deals, with the average disclosed deal size resting at $161million. This is over 50% larger than the $105 million average in 2012. Average deal sizes are however yet to touch the $217 million record high recorded in 2007 – a year that saw investors bring in about $7billion worth of transactions, according to Preqin figures.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced a US$10-million initiative to support pan-African business and financial journalism and advance transparency, accountability and governance on the continent. The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa, a three-year pan-African programme to build media capacity, convene international leaders and improve access to information on the continent, will initially focus on Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The initiative will provide cross-disciplinary education programmes and mid-career fellowships to increase the number of highly trained business and financial journalists, convene pan-African forums to examine worldwide media best practices, and support research to stimulate media innovations. According to Michael Bloomberg, the initiative will foster collaboration, support professional growth and nurture the leaders who are contributing to the Africa’s future. In developing and delivering its educational programmes, Bloomberg will partner with the University of Nairobi's School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Strathmore Business School in Kenya; the University of Lagos's Department of Mass Communications and the Pan Atlantic University's Lagos Business School in Nigeria; and Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies and the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa. Bloomberg says it also plans to collaborate with the Ibrahim Foundation, as well as international institutions such as UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, on a feasibility study to explore a platform for accessible, comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date economic data and information to promote African development.
Established by the AU Assembly in May 2013, the African Union Foundation aims to finance African priorities through voluntary contributions. The mission of the Foundation is to “mobilize resources in support of the African Union’s vision of an integrated, people-centred and prosperous Africa, at peace with itself and taking its rightful place in the world.” To accomplish this mission, the Foundation will focus on five key programme areas in its first five years: 1) skills and human resource development, 2) women’s empowerment and gender equality, 3) regional integration, 4) youth development and entrepreneurship, and 5) advocacy and support for the African Union. At its inaugural meeting, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission presented the objectives of the Foundation for voluntary contributions towards financing African priorities at the Headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In attendance were the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission, Mr. Erastus Mwencha, the AU Commissioners, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mr. P.J. Patterson, and first members of the inaugural council. The Foundation will strive to more deeply engage Africa’s private sector, African individuals and communities, and leading African philanthropists to generate resources and provide valuable insight on ways in which their success can accelerate Africa’s development. The issue of domestic and alternative sources of funding has been an intrinsic element of the continent’s commitments of the Pan African values of self-determination, solidarity and self-reliance. The AUC Chairperson called on the participants to act as good will ambassadors to the foundation. Selection for membership of the Foundation’s Governing Council was based on clear commitment to African development and philanthropy, the highest caliber of integrity, and prominence in the sectors and geographies they represent. The Tony Elumelu Foundation made a $150,000 donation to the start up costs of the African Union Foundation, the first contribution made to the ambitious initiative. At the same meeting, a pledge of $100,000 was made by the Government of Jamaica. A formal launch of the African Union Foundation and comprehensive awareness and fundraising campaign is planned for later this year.
Emerging markets private equity firm Actis have announced the acquisition of a 36% stake in AutoXpress, one of East Africa’s leading tyre wholesale and retails firms, for an undisclosed amount. With the funding, AutoXpress plan to expand their Kenyan footprint and enter the Tanzanian market. AutoXpress, a third-generation family business, have a network of 20 outlets in Kenya and Rwanda and distribute tyres, batteries and suspensions from different brands. They serve both the retail and the corporate market. Actis say that this investment reflects their focus on ‘a high class management team in a growing region and sub-sector that meet the needs of the emerging market consumer for quality goods and services.’
Despite sluggish local economic growth caused by the 2008-09 global financial crisis recession, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has not gone back on his 2013 projections for the growth of South Africa's economy. In his 2014 Budget, Gordhan projected that South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) growth would increase from 2.7% in 2014 to 3.4% in 2016. Over the next five years, Gordhan said, the government would focus its efforts on economic growth, backed up by increased investment in electricity and transport infrastructure. With the South African economy performing below its potential - growth declined from 3.6% in 2011 to 2.5% in 2012 and 1.9% in 2013 - the minister said that bold decisions were needed going forward. Increased spending on public infrastructure would encourage private investment, while stronger employment growth would contribute to increased household consumption, he said. South Africa's unemployment rate remains at an average of 24%, which Gordhan said was unsustainable. To counter unemployment levels, especially among young people, the government aims to create six-million work opportunities over the next five years. Gordhan said skills development and Further Education and Training (FET) programmes had been ramped up, while the government had stepped up its support for small and medium enterprises, and fostered partnerships between the private sector and public sector development agencies through the Jobs Fund.
Camac Energy, a US-based oil and gas exploration and production company focused on energy resources in Africa, has become the first new company to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2014. The company, which is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has a primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange, began trading on the main board of the JSE, making its oil and gas opportunities and shares available to local investors for the first time. Camac Energy's portfolio includes eight licences, including production and other projects off the coast of Nigeria, and onshore and offshore exploration licences in Kenya and off the coast of Gambia.
Thapelo Tsheole an alumnus of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) has been appointed deputy CEO of The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE). The new role took effect this February and he will work closely with current CEO, Hiran Mendis. He plans to focus widely on local and international growth opportunities and provide input into other strategic initiatives. Since joining the BSE in 2007 as Product Development Manager, Tsheole’s responsibilities included developing the bond market and introducing three bond indices, as well as listing the exchange trade fund (ETF) on the BSE. Tsheole completed his MBA at the UCT GSB in 2013
The Africa Finance Corporation, a multilateral development financial institution headquartered in Lagos, has secured its first International credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s). Moody’s has assigned the Corporation an A3 (long term) /P2 (short term) foreign currency debt rating, making the AFC the second highest investment grade rated multilateral financial institution on the African continent. Moody’s rationale for this investment grade rating is based on a sound capital adequacy position, high asset quality and strong prudential framework that supports a high degree of liquidity, supported by an excellent profit margin and profit retention. Additionally, the Corporation’s strong liquidity framework and position which is in excess of the requirements of Basel III Capital Accord on liquidity risk management, will mitigate against external economic shocks, and help support planned growth. The outlook on the rating is stable.
Twitter activity in Africa during the last quarter of 2013 peaked on the day of Nelson Mandela’s death, according to How Africa Tweets, a new study analysing Twitter activity on the continent. In a follow up to its 2012 study, strategic communications agency Portland analysed geo-located tweets originating from Africa during the final three months of 2013. The second How Africa Tweets study dives deeper into Twitter use on the continent, looking at which cities are the most active, what languages are being used the most and what issues are driving the conversation online. How Africa Tweets found that, during the final three months of 2013: Johannesburg is the most active city in Africa, with 344,215 geo-located tweets, followed by Ekurhuleni (264,172) and Cairo (227,509). Durban (163,019) and Alexandria (159,534) make up the remainder of the top five most active cities. Nairobi is the most active city in East Africa and the sixth most active on the continent, with 123,078 geo-located tweets. Accra is the most active city in West Africa and the eight most active on the continent, with 78,575 geo-located tweets. English, French and Arabic are the most common languages on Twitter in Africa, accounting for 75.5% of the total tweets analysed. Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese are the next most commonly tweeted languages in Africa. Tuesdays and Fridays are the most active tweeting days. Twitter activity rises steadily through the afternoon and evening, with peak volumes around 9pm. The day of Nelson Mandela’s death – 5 December - saw the highest volume of geo-located tweets in Africa. Brands in Africa are becoming increasingly prevalent on Twitter and football is the most-discussed topic on Twitter in Africa. Football was discussed more than any other topic, including the death of Nelson Mandela. Politically-related hashtags were less common than those around other issues, with only four particularly active political hashtags tracked during the time period. This included #KenyaAt50 – celebration of Kenya’s independence – and the competing #SickAt50
In apparent move to boost the nation's financial inclusion drive, the mobile payment solution from First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, Firstmonie has secured a grant of $12million US dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to execute the project. The grant, according to Firstmonie is to help deepen the penetration of its mobile financial services in Nigeria to the underbanked and low income communities, with the aim of driving financial inclusion in Nigeria. The funds are expected to be disbursed in tranches attached to performance milestones. The platform also expected to support wealth creation by providing opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs across the nation and encourage financial inclusion through the availability of banking services for the unbanked and under-banked.
State company Transnet has awarded contracts totalling R50-billion to two Chinese and two North American companies to build 1 064 diesel and electric locomotives, as part of a seven-year, R300-billion expansion of South Africa's railways, ports and pipelines. Together, this amounts to the biggest locomotive supply contract in South Africa's history, and the largest single infrastructure investment ever by a South African corporate. Contracts for the supply of 599 electric locomotives were awarded to Chinese firm CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive and the local arm of Canadian company Bombardier Transportation, along with their local empowerment partners. Contracts for 465 diesel locomotives were awarded to the local arms of General Electric and of state-owned Chinese company China CNR Corporation, along with their local empowerment partners. Transnet said the four suppliers had exceeded the minimum local content criteria for rolling stock of 60% for electric locomotives and 55% for diesel locomotives. All but 70 of the locomotives would be built at Transnet Engineering's plants in Koedoespoort, Pretoria and Durban, with Transnet Engineering sharing approximately 16% of the total build programme - about a third of which will be outsourced to local emerging engineering and manufacturing firms.
Mobile phone operator MTN Uganda grew its subscriber base to 8.8m people last year, up from 8.1m people in 2012, according to figures released by the company. Uganda has about 17m phone subscribers. In a statement, the company said that their total revenue increased by 17.8 per cent between 2012 and 2013, supported mainly by the increase in data revenue and voice calls. MTN said revenue from SMS platform declined as more people opted to use newer data-driven social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, Whatsapp and Viber, among others. According to the company, mobile money remained the fastest-growing product in Uganda with more than 5.2 million registered users each transacting on average five times a month. The popularity and growth of MTN mobile money, he said, was supported by a large agent network, which exceeded 27,000 agents. MTN says it invested Shs 140bn last year in upgrading the network infrastructure and adding another 400km of national fibre. By December 2013, the company’s total fibre infrastructure exceeded 3,200km.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced the appointment of 54 new research chairs under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (Sarchi), which aims to grow South Africa's research and innovation competitiveness by attracting and developing excellence at the country's universities. Established in 2006 by the Department of Science and Technology, Sarchi enables universities to produce high-quality postgraduate students and research and innovation outputs. The initiative is driven by internationally well-established researchers, who train and mentor postgraduates to become the next generation of research and development leaders. According to the department, the appointment of 54 new research chairs brings the current total number of awarded research chairs to 157, representing a cumulative investment of just under R1-billion. Sarchi research chairs are funded for up to 15 years at R2.5-million and R1.5-million per annum for tier 1 and tier 2 research chairs respectively, with inflation-related increases over the funding period. The investment has also translated into the creation of about a thousand new jobs within the country's National System of Innovation (NSI), in part by providing a much-needed stepping stone for associate researchers and postdoctoral students. Mr. Motlanthe has expressed confidence that the new chairs will improve South Africa's international research and innovation competitiveness, while responding to the socio-economic challenges facing the country. According to the department, the initiative includes five research chairs relevant to South Africa's Square Kilometre Array project: in radio astronomy techniques and technologies (Rhodes University); electromagnetic systems and Electromagnetic interference mitigation (Stellenbosch University); extragalactic multi-wavelength astronomy (University of Cape Town); astronomy and astrophysics (University of the Western Cape); and radio astronomy (University of the Witwatersrand).
In the space of just two decades, South Africa has gone from being an international pariah, shunned because of its apartheid policies, to being an influential player in world affairs and a powerful advocate for global political and economic reform. This is according to the South African government's 20 Year Review, a report reflecting on South Africa's progress in reconstruction and development since 1994, and on the challenges facing the country as it enters its third decade of democracy. The report notes that South Africa has sought to improve north-south relations while pushing for reform of the global economy and global governance, better market access for developing countries, more favourable terms for debt relief, and new forms of partnership for development. By 2012, the number of foreign diplomatic missions and international organisations in South Africa had increased to 315 - the second-largest number of diplomatic offices accredited to any country after the US. Over the same period, South Africa's missions abroad increased from 36 to 125, with the increasing importance of Africa in South Africa's foreign policy reflected in the growth of South African diplomatic missions in Africa, from 17 in 1994 to the current 47. The country has served on the United Nations Security Council for a two-year non-permanent term, become a member of influential emerging economy blocs BRICS and Ibsa (the India, Brazil, South Africa Dialogue Forum), and is still the only African country on the G20. To promote the interests of developing countries, South Africa has pushed for a rules-bound international political and economic order, and sought to transform north-south relations through dialogue while consolidating south-south collaboration by participation in groupings like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). South Africa also works with other African states and multilateral organisations like the UN, African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) to promote international respect for human rights, democracy and good governance. It has helped Madagascar, Zimbabwe and South Sudan resolve their problems and assisted with peacekeeping in Ethiopia/Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, among others. The country has also hosted numerous major international conferences and events since 1994, including the Non-Aligned Movement Summit (1998), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (1999), UN Aids Conference (2000), UN World Conference Against Racism (2001), World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002), and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP17) which delivered the landmark Durban Platform that rescued the Kyoto Protocol in November/December 2011. The democratic South Africa has prioritised the development of political and economic relations with African countries. Since 1994, it has signed 624 agreements and established 40 bilateral mechanisms with countries on the continent. The 20 Year Review does note, however, that there have been challenges with the implementation of some of these agreements. Between 1994 and 2013, South Africa's fiscal and macro-economic policies helped to boost trade between South Africa and European countries, while stimulating foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism. From 1994 inward, FDI stock increased significantly as South Africa experienced a continuous upward trajectory, from R44.7-billion to R1.38-trillion in 2012 in nominal terms. Over the same period, exports in goods and services increased from R106-billion to R892-billion (in nominal terms). The review states that cooperation between state institutions that deal with international relations policy and cross-border issues should also be strengthened.
Online money transfer platform, WorldRemit.com, has closed a $40 million investment from Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley investor in the likes of Facebook and Spotify, in a deal that represents one of the largest venture capital funding rounds to be completed in Europe. WorldRemit’s online platform enables migrants and expats to send quick, convenient and low cost remittance payments to families and friends abroad. Accel’s investment will support WorldRemit’s expansion into new geographies and the development of additional products and services. The online platform, which enables the sending of as little as US$1 for low fees, has already proven popular with Zimbabwean expats and migrants around the world. Currently, 33% of WorldRemit’s transactions to Zimbabwe are going to mobile accounts, EcoCash being the most popular. According to The World Bank, $519 billion of remittance payments were made in 2012 of which $2.1 billion are estimated to have been made to Zimbabwe. Most remittances were handled via traditional players such as Western Union and MoneyGram, as well as a plethora of smaller and informal operators.
Amethis Finance and Edmond de Rothschild Europportunities Management II (ERES) will acquire a minority stake in Fidelity Bank Ghana Ltd for USD35m. South African Kagiso Tiso Holdings (KTH) will invest a similar amount alongside Amethis and ERES, making this the most significant fund raising in the Ghanaian banking sector and in West Africa outside of Nigeria, according to Amethis investment director Laureen Kouassi-Olsson. Amethis and co-investors are currently awaiting approval from the Bank of Ghana and hope that the transaction will be completed by April 2014. Fidelity Bank, founded in 1998 as a discount house, acquired its universal banking license in 2006 and grew rapidly to become the country’s sixth largest bank. It has 50 branches across nine out of the 10 regions, 75 ATMs, and a work force of over 1000 full-time employees and 800 field sales staff. The bank also has an offshore banking subsidiary, Fidelity Asia Bank Ltd, to provide services to customers in the Asia Pacific region and capitalise on the growing trade flows between Ghana and China. Fidelity intends to use the funding to expand further.
Royal Philips has announced the establishment of its Africa Innovation Hub in Nairobi, Kenya, which underlines the company’s commitment to invest in Africa. The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will work both on the creation of new inventions, as well as bringing these inventions to the market. The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will do application-focused scientific and user studies to address key challenges like improving access to lighting and affordable healthcare as well as developing innovations to meet the aspirational needs of the rising middle class in Africa. The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will be located at the Philips East African Headquarters in Nairobi, where African talents and international researchers will operate on the concept of “open innovation” and will work in close collaboration with the R&D ecosystem of Kenya and Africa. Philips is in discussions with local organizations and Universities on R&D collaborations to co-create meaningful solutions for Africa. According to the company, with Kenya as a leader in the continent in science and entrepreneurship as well as a hub of collaboration on technology and innovation, Nairobi, is the ideal location to establish Philips’ African research presence. Some innovations that Philips was already working on have now become part of the Innovation Hub, hence, the Philips Africa Innovation Hub will kick-off with ventures that are under development as well as in the pilot phase. The Philips Africa Innovation Hub while headquartered in Kenya, will be responsible for pan-African research and projects and will have operations across Africa, linked to the Philips regional offices across the continent; the hub will be headed by Dr. Maarten van Herpen and will work in close collaboration with the Philips research labs in Bangalore, Shanghai and Eindhoven.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, meant to add an existing 300MW of reliable, low cost wind energy to the national grid of Kenya, has reached a critical milestone following the signing of the financial agreements in Nairobi, Kenya. The signing of the over US $870m financing agreements represents a major breakthrough to actualizing the biggest clean power energy project in Africa, spanning years of negotiations and fundraising, says Tshepo Mahloele, CEO of Harith General Partners. The project will be financed with a mixture of equity, mezzanine debt and senior debt. The Lake Turkana Wind Power project is the first of its kind in East Africa and will be the largest wind project on the continent to date, says Mahloele. The Project will benefit Kenya, and specifically the Turkana area where unemployment is high, with jobs, economic development and, most importantly, electricity which is a vital element in any economy. LTWP has signed a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement with the government of Kenya through its electricity entity, Kenya Power. LTWP is primarily responsible for the financing, construction and operation of the wind farm and comprise a grouping of investors and lenders including FMO, Vestas, Finnfund, IFU and a strong local sponsor KP&P on the equity side. The syndicate of banks is led by the African Development Bank and comprises Standard Bank, Nedbank, EIB, DEG and Proparco. The project will be located on one of the best sites for a wind farm in the world on the southeast border of Lake Turkana between two high ranging mountains in the Turkana Corridor where a low level jet stream originating in the Indian Ocean creates favourable wind conditions. The project will assist diversify Kenya’s energy mix and reduce the country’s reliance on power production from oil and diesel power generators, saving the Kenya government millions per year on importing fuel. The LTWP tax contribution to Kenya alone will be approximately $27m annually and $548m over the life of the investment. In Kenya, electricity is mainly generated from hydro, thermal and geothermal sources. Wind generation accounts for less than six megawatts of the installed capacity. Currently, hydro power comprises over 52 percent of the installed capacity in Kenya and is sourced from various stations managed by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen).
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) unveiled its 2014 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey to the public in early March. The survey compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services in 131 cities around the world. The study – which has been produced for more than 30 years – tracks and compares the prices of a basket of goods and services, such as food, transport, alcohol, clothing, household supplies, home rents, private schools and domestic help against their cost the previous September. The survey doesn’t take into account the price of real estate or income taxes, but it does factor in consumption taxes such as sales tax and levies on alcohol and tobacco. While New York is the baseline for the index, with a score of 100, the Big Apple is not the world’s most expensive city on the list. This year that honour belongs to Singapore, which has overtaken Tokyo, Japan for the top spot. Making up the remainder of the top 10 are: Paris, France; Oslo, Norway; Zurich, Switzerland; Sydney, Australia; Caracas, Venezuela; Geneva, Switzerland; Melbourne, Australia; Tokyo and Copenhagen, Denmark. New York comes in at 26th on the 2014 list. In Africa, the Kenyan capital of Nairobi is the continent’s most expensive city, followed by Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The rest of the African cities surveyed ranked in this order: Casablanca, Morocco; Lusaka, Zambia; Cairo, Egypt; Lagos, Nigeria; Johannesburg, South Africa; Pretoria, South Africa; and Algiers, Algeria. Despite being ranked in other reports as Africa's most expensive city, Luanda, the Angolan capital, was not ranked by the EIU survey. The three least expensive cities on the list are all in India: Mumbai, Karachi and New Delhi.
The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a $3.8 million grant to the Ghanaian government in partnership with the World Bank to support the establishment of world class facilities that will attract IT and IT enabled firms, including Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms to Ghana and create jobs for Ghanaian youth. The grant complements the World Bank’s US$5 million provided under the eGhana Project and is part of the Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative launched in 2013; the initiative is a $100million initiative aimed at improving 1 million lives through ICT skills and jobs for high potential but disadvantaged youth. As a result of this grant, a new mini ICT Park to be located in central Accra will be completed by August of this year, and is expected to have the potential of providing direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 people, primarily youth, who have few alternative job opportunities. Recent research funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and issued by the Dalberg Institute identifies access to real estate as the primary barrier to expanding the BPO sector in Ghana, and thus hinders creation of new jobs for an increasingly unemployed youth population. This grant will help address that constraint directly by providing the funds for the Ghanaian government to create a world class Facility. The proposed centre is expected to function as a mini-ICT park, whose impact is expected to move Ghana up the ranking among the Tier 2 countries, but most importantly the IT and IT enabled services (ITES) sector is deemed most likely to absorb large numbers of unemployed and disadvantaged youth. The Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative is being implemented in six countries in Africa - Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. The grant follows on from the Foundation’s 2012 support to the Ghana ITES Secretariat, a World Bank seeded implementing agency under the Ministry of Communication, to train and employ 150 youth to digitize government records. In September 2013, the World Bank approved the $97 million eTransform project which builds on the earlier eGhana project. Both projects seek to use ICT to improve the reach and efficiency of private and public service delivery and create jobs. The ICT Park is an important piece of the World Bank’s support of Ghana’s ICT strategy.
GSK has announced a series of new investments in sub-Saharan Africa designed to address pressing health needs and contribute to long-term business growth. Speaking at the 5th EU-Africa Business Forum in Brussels, GSK CEO Sir Andrew Witty set out the company’s intent to partner with governments of African countries to help stimulate more research into chronic diseases, increase capacity by localising medicines supply and strengthen healthcare infrastructure. This will see GSK make targeted investments of up to £130 million in Africa over the next five years, creating at least 500 jobs and contributing to the development of home-grown capabilities and skills in Africa. This builds on GSK’s existing business base in sub-Saharan Africa, which currently employs around 1,500 people in over 40 countries, including at three existing local manufacturing sites in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. GSK will invest £25 million to create the world’s first R&D Open Lab for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa. The Lab will see GSK scientists collaborate with research and scientific centres across Africa from its hub at GSK’s Stevenage R&D facility in the UK to conduct high quality epidemiological, genetic and interventional research to increase understanding of NCDs in Africa. An independent governing board of leading scientists and clinicians will oversee the implementation of NCD research projects within a dynamic and networked open innovation environment. The open lab aims to improve understanding of NCD variations seen in the Africa setting, which could include for example the apparent higher prevalence of treatment-resistant hypertension and aggressive breast cancers in younger women. The open lab will directly support the training and education of African scientific researchers who will participate in a portfolio of projects, building local expertise, creating a new generation of African NCD experts while instilling a deep vein of ‘African thinking’ within GSK’s own R&D organisation. Over the next five years, GSK will look to partner with a number of African countries to develop domestic manufacturing capacity and capability. This will see GSK invest up to £100m to expand its existing manufacturing capability in Nigeria and Kenya and build up to five new factories in Africa. The company is currently reviewing possible locations in countries including Rwanda, Ghana and Ethiopia and the selected sites will be announced in due course and subject to Government agreement. To support the scale-up of domestic manufacturing and supply, GSK will establish up to 25 academic Chairs at local African universities in related areas such as pharmaceutical sciences, public health, engineering and logistics. These roles will facilitate the development of new courses as well as internships and student exchanges, and will be pivotal to ensuring manufacturing capability is locked into the continent to help attract further manufacturing investment. GSK is also taking steps to improve and simplify its supply chain with the creation of regional supply hubs that will help to reduce stock shortages and local supply partnerships to enable more GSK products and medicines to reach under-served rural communities in Africa. These steps will help reduce Africa’s reliance on imported medicines, improving the security of supply and reducing production costs and transportation which in time should help contribute to lower prices.
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