Connecting Africa’s Skilled Professionals
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The Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (The Partnership) is soliciting applications for vacancies on the United Nations Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel (IAP) for the Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (Global Strategy). Applications for members from all regions are required to be submitted no later than 18th November 2015. Instructions for the submission of applications and further information are available at the following link: http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/news/2015/iap/en/. Applications are particularly solicited from the African and South-East Asian regions. Consideration will be given to ensuring appropriate geographic representation and gender balance. After 18th November, applications will be carefully reviewed by the IAP Working Group, which will identify a selection of applications to the Chair of the Partnership Board who in turn will submit this shortlist to the UN Secretary General for appointment. The IAP will produce an annual global report on the “State of Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health”, providing the global community with the best evidence on progress on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health towards achieving the Global Strategy objectives across the full suite of the Survive, Thrive and Transform targets. IAP membership therefore needs to be diverse in terms of skills, gender, geographical distribution, experience, sectors, and stakeholders. The IAP will be independent and impartial, with members acting in their personal capacity. The IAP will undertake their roles on a pro bono basis, however, with costs to participate in IAP meetings and processes to develop the reports fully covered.
Women-led organisations that are working to advance the human rights of women and girls outside the United States are now invited to apply for funding during 2016. The Global Fund for Women is a publicly supported non-profit grant-making foundation that advances women’s human rights by investing in women-led organisations worldwide. It provides general operating support grants to organisations working at the local, regional and national levels to enable women and girls to reach their potential and live free of discrimination and violence. To date, it has made a total of 10,330 grants totalling nearly £125 million to 4,821 organisations in 175 countries. Organisations based outside of the United States may apply for funding as long as they are groups of women working together; Demonstrating a clear commitment to women’s equality and women’s human rights; Governed, directed and led by women. The 2016 application process is now open with a deadline of 31 January 2016. Full details, including an application form and guidelines, can be found on the Global Fund for Women website
The London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge is a workshop programme, coupled with a business plan competition that aims to help young entrepreneurs develop their businesses. The programme shows participants how to start a business by helping them through the process of setting up a new enterprise. Part of a programme designed to enhance University College London (UCL’s) reputation for entrepreneurship and science commercialisation, the Challenge aims to educate participants about how to create a new business from scratch, helping them gain invaluable know-how and experience. The competition comprises several stages and concludes in writing a detailed business plan; to be judged by a panel of experts from a range of disciplines. Alongside this, mentors will be running participant workshops that cover topics such as intellectual property, project management and finance and business models. Participants in the 2015 Challenge will have the opportunity to win prizes totalling £15,000 as well as benefiting from networking opportunities. Anyone who is interested in learning more about how new companies are started should enter the Entrepreneurs’ Challenge. Almost everything covered during the programme will be useful in any career in either the commercial world or academia. All students, staff and researchers at UCL, SOAS, Royal Veterinary College, Birkbeck and the London Business School are eligible for entry, regardless of which department they are attached to. The business idea could focus on science, innovation or technology, for example. The 2015 deadline for completed Idea Entry Forms is midnight on Sunday 1 November 2015. The Phase 2 deadline is 13 December 2015. See the website for more details.
The International Dylan Thomas Prize is an annual competitive award provided in partnership by the Dylan Thomas Centre and Swansea University to recognise and reward literary talent in young authors. The prize will be awarded to the single author who has written the best literary Work - a commercially published original volume of English language poetry, prose, fictional drama, collection of short fictional stories, fictional novella. The main prize for the winner is £30,000. Each short listed entrant will receive a Runners-up Award of £1,000. Entry is open to all authors of any nationality who are aged between 18 and 39. The winner will be announced at the final awards ceremony in Swansea, Wales, on 14 May 2016. The closing date for entries to the 2016 Prize is 2 November 2015. See the website for more information.
The UK Architect of the Year Awards identify who Britain's most revered clients and architectural experts think are the best architects by different categories of projects. All the projects on the panel must have been designed by an individual architect or architectural firm whose principals are members of a recognised architectural institution or professional body. The 2015 categories include: Small Project Architect of the Year; Individual House Architect of the Year; Education Architect of the Year; Housing Architect of the Year; Interior Architect of the Year; Masterplanning & Public Realm Architect of the Year; Public Building Architect of the Year and Young Architect of the Year. Architects and architect firms operating and permanently staffed in the UK may enter. The winners will be celebrated an awards ceremony held annually in the winter. The entry deadline for the 2015 Awards is 2 December 2015. See the website for more details.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation in association with SOAS and the Centre of African Studies-University of London is organising a Residential School from 21-25 March 2016 on the topic of ‘Governance and Development in Africa’. The residential school is for 20 participants who are policy makers, academics, researchers or civil society representatives from any African country who will gain, through this training, new ideas and knowledge on the broad issue of governance and development. We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds. Applicants should have at least a MSc degree in areas related to Governance or 5 years professional experiences in fields relevant to the theme of Governance and Development in Africa. The official language of the School is English. All costs for successful applicants, including economy flights, visa costs, accommodation and meals, will be covered. No per diem. Applications should include: 2 page max CV (including email address for correspondence); One reference letter (can be emailed directly by referee to ab17@soas.ac.uk); Proposal of max 1000 words outlining research interest and/or professional background and how the applicant will benefit from attending the Residential School. Deadline for applications: 15 December 2015. Please refer to the website for more information or contact cas@soas.ac.uk
Recruitment and career development specialist Rare collected two prizes at the glitzy Business in the Community (BITC) Race for Opportunity (RfO) Awards on Tuesday evening, as awards were presented to organisations that are taking the lead on race equality and inclusion at work. Rare picked up the Shell Developing Talent Award – small organisation and, in partnership with law firm Clifford Chance they also collected the Recruiting Diverse Talent Award. The award winners were: Champion and Executive Sponsor Award: Paulette Mastin, Counsel at Linklaters; Shell Developing Talent Award – large organisation: Northern Trust; Shell Developing Talent Award – small organisation: Rare; HSBC Employee Network Award – private sector: Deloitte; Employee Network Award – public sector: The Armed Forces; Google Future Workforce Award: Royal Air Force; Recruiting Diverse Talent Award: Rare and Clifford Chance; Transparency, Monitoring and Action Award: Teach First
Professional services firm Deloitte has revamped its recruitment process to hide the school and university candidates attended until a job offer is made. The ‘blind CV’ hiring strategy is part of the firm’s efforts to access a more diverse pool of talent, and improve the investment in, and development of, young people across the UK. Using a process of ‘contextualised recruitment’ Deloitte’s HR will be given a range of standardised data on candidates’ economic background and personal circumstances, to allow them to make more informed choices of the value of academic achievements gained. The firm has partnered with Rare, specialists in diversity recruitment, to recruit more than 1,500 graduates and school-leavers with a range of new diversity-friendly tactics which also include the introduction of school and university-blind interviews. The Rare Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) has been developed in collaboration with universities and global employers, and allows recruiters and hiring managers to understand the context in which a candidate’s experiences have been gained. By combining big data results with bespoke selection techniques, the employer can make differential offers to candidates, based on their ‘contextual data’. Rare has two new databases powering the CRS: the first contains the exam results of more than 4,000 secondary schools and sixth form colleges nationally; the second contains 2.5 million UK postcodes. The CRS uses this information, together with the candidates’ responses to questions asked as part of the application process, to produce real-time contextual information on all the candidates. An extra 100 jobs will also be available on the BrightStart Business Apprenticeship Scheme, and from 2016, 200 students a year will be offered work experience through Deloitte’s ASPIRE programme.
The number of jobs being created that aren't at risk of automation is outstripping the roles lost in high-risk sectors, a study has found. Analysis by Deloitte, based on ONS labour force data, found that in the last 15 years, occupations such as technology, high-tech manufacturing and financial and professional services, which are at high risk of automation, have lost 800,000 jobs. Meanwhile low-risk sectors – including care services, teaching, and business and project management – have actually created 3.5 million jobs since 2001. It also found that each new low-risk role paid on average £10,000 more than the high-risk job it replaced, adding £140bn to the economy. The analysis suggests fears that robots are going to displace jobs, at least in the near future, are exaggerated. In 2012, a survey by the European Commission (EC), which funds more than 100 collaborative projects into robotics, found that 70 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement "robots could steal people's jobs". The occupations Deloitte found had created the most jobs since 2001, included care home workers and home carers, a sector which has seen 55 per cent growth and 275,000 jobs created. The Deloitte analysis also found teaching assistant roles had seen 202 per cent growth with the creation of 250,000 new jobs, while business and financial project managers had seen a 842 per cent growth, with 170,000 new jobs created. Occupations with the largest decrease were personal assistants, which have fallen by 50 per cent, typists, which have seen a 75 per cent decrease, and bank and post office clerks, down 44 per cent.
Excellent retention rates across the organisation don’t necessarily mean your staff are happy campers. Research by the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) has revealed that nearly half (47 per cent) of the UK’s workers would like to change their current career. Worryingly, in this study of 1,000 professionals, around a quarter (23 per cent) said they regret choosing their current occupation. So with so many unhappy workers, what’s stopping them from making the jump? For 29 per cent of respondents, financial insecurity was the top reason for not risking a change, which Lee Biggins, founder and managing director, CV-Library, said wasn’t surprising. Dr Steve Priddy, director of research and academic dean at LSBF, said there’s a definite disconnect between what we’ve been told about the current economy, and what individuals are feeling and experiencing in the labour market.Money woes aren’t the only factor holding potential changers back. Other rationales include people not knowing what they want to change their career to (20 per cent) and the fear of failure (15 per cent). Knowing you want to jump ship without knowing where you want to land is not as uncommon as you might think, Lisa LaRue, career coach at CareerWorx said. As far as what motivates people to think about switching, nearly four in ten (39 per cent) said increased salary prospects, 35 per cent said better work-life balance and 34 per cent said improved job satisfaction.
Facebook has shared new statistics revealing that 2.2 million Kenyans use Facebook every day and 4.5 million each month, while 7.1 million Nigerians use Facebook daily and 15 million are active every month. Almost all these people are coming to Facebook on a mobile device: 100% of Nigerian monthly users are active on mobile as are 95% of Kenya’s monthly users. This follows the recent announcement that Facebook’s active user population in Africa has grown 20% to 120 million in June 2015 from 100 million in September 2014. More than 80% of these people access Facebook from their mobile phones. Now, 60% of all Internet users in Africa are active on Facebook. Facebook recently opened its first office in Africa to further the company’s commitment to help businesses connect with people and grow locally and regionally. The new office is the next step in furthering Facebook’s investment in Africa and its people. The team in Africa will focus initially on Kenya (East Africa), Nigeria (West Africa), and South Africa (Southern Africa).
Orange has launched Africa's first mobile crowdfunding platform in Côte d'Ivoire: Orange Collecte. With this platform, private individuals and charities can finance their personal (weddings, birthdays, etc.) and charitable projects (fundraising, events, projects, etc.) by making an appeal through their mobile network. This novel solution is open to all Orange Money customers in Côte d'Ivoire. Contributors will be able to make their donations using their Orange Money electronic wallet.
Online money transfer service WorldRemit has launched instant Mobile Money transfers to Burundi, and is the first remittance service to do so. Customers in 50 countries can now send money direct to EcoCash mobile wallets, just like an instant message. WorldRemit's mobile-to-mobile remittance service already enables people to send funds direct to Mobile Money wallets in countries across Africa, Asia and Oceania. Now the 350,000 Burundians who live abroad can make instant, low-cost money transfers direct to the mobiles of their friends and family in Burundi. Econet's EcoCash mobile wallet is available to the two million feature phone and smartphone connections in Burundi. With only 7% of the adult population of Burundi population banked, there are now more Mobile Money accounts than bank accounts in Burundi. Remittances are estimated to have contributed $51m to Burundi's economy in 2014, according to the World Bank. Western countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden and Australia all have significant Burundian communities.
South Africa ranks second for its excellent access to and usage of affordable financial services, according to a report. The 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) Report and Scorecard, which evaluated 21 countries, examined broad dimensions relevant to financial inclusion such as country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment and adoption of traditional and digital financial services. As of 2014, about 75% of South African adults had bank accounts and 5% used non-bank financial products. ATM and debit cards were more common, with 34% of the banked population owning a South African Social Security MasterCard. The 2014 Global Findex found that about 69% of men and 69% of women had accounts with a formal financial institution or mobile money provider. South Africa earned 80% and was ranked number 12 for country commitment, number one for mobile capacity, number 17 for regulatory environment and number three for adoption. It also received the highest score for formal account penetration, including among rural, low-income and female groups. South Africa's mobile capacity was strong, the report showed, with the percentage of unique subscribers comprising about 70% of the population and about 96% 3G mobile network coverage by population.
The Nigerian government of the World Bank Partial Risk Guarantees (PRGs) in support of the 450 megawatts Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant (IPP). The Guarantees comprise a Debt Mobilisation Guarantee (capped at USD $117 million) and a Liquidity Guarantee (capped at USD $120 million). The combined value of these Guarantees serves to leverage a total investment in the Azura power plant of more than $900 million made by a set of 20 international banks and equity finance institutions drawn from nine different countries. The Azura-Edo IPP, which is located on the outskirts of Benin City, comprises an open cycle gas turbine power station; a short transmission line connecting the power plant to a local substation and a short underground gas pipeline connecting the power plant to the country's main gas-supply. The first phase of the plant, which is targeted to come on stream in 2018, is forecast to create over 1,000 jobs during its construction and operation. The Azura project played a path-breaking role by helping to set the contractual framework for the development of other, large-scale IPPs, several of which will also benefit from the World Bank's PRG programme. NBET purchases electricity from the generating companies through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and sells to the distribution companies through vesting contracts.
South Africa comes in at a respectable sixth place, after Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Germany, in a LinkedIn survey of the top 20 profession migration countries. The number one country is United Arab Emirates. Based on a LinkedIn database of over 300 million professionals, the top 20 profession migration countries are measured by the most migration activity (an absolute number of members moving in and out of a country) and net migration (the number of members arriving to a country minus the number of member departing a country). The professionals entering South Africa are not necessarily skilled South Africans who are returning to the country; rather, the survey measures any professionals seeking job opportunities in South Africa. It found 0.26% more professionals arrived than left between January and December 2014, 0.5% up from the previous survey of the period from November 2012 to November 2013. More people left than arrived in certain countries, including the US, the UK, China, according to the research. Much-needed science, technology, engineering and maths, or Stem, skills make up nearly half the list of career traits in people migrating internationally, while other notable skillsets considered most valuable include foreign language translation, business consulting and life sciences. The results represent the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data and is influenced by how members choose to use the site. This can vary based on professional, social and regional culture, and overall site availability and accessibility. These variances were not accounted for in the analysis.
A survey of prices of international grade hotels in selected major African cities, produced by hospitality research firm STR Global has revealed that Addis Ababa is the most expensive place for a good night’s sleep. The average rate in US$ (constant currency) for a hotel room in the first six months of this year in Addis Ababa was $231.78/ night. This compares with $215.75 for a room in Lagos, $144.76 in Nairobi, $122.30 in Cape Town, $105.73 in Casablanca, $103.54 in Cairo, $72.90 in Johannesburg and $70.70 in Sharm El Sheikh. According to STR Global, a key reason for the difference in rates across major African cities is simply supply and demand. Addis Ababa has a shortage of top quality hotels. However, with the Ethiopian economy growing at a rapid rate of more than 10% per annum for the whole of the last decade, with more conferences coming to the city by virtue of its status as the seat of the African Union and with Ethiopian Airways on a similar growth trajectory to the country, thanks to new routes and increased passenger numbers, there is a high demand for premium hotel rooms. By comparison, Johannesburg is a long-established, sophisticated international city, with a large number of 5* hotels and a competitive market for accommodation. Looking at how hotel prices have changed over the past year (year to date June ’14-’15), there have been substantial rate rises in Sharm El Sheikh, up 42.5%, Addis Ababa, up 14.9%, Johannesburg, up 11.0% Cape Town, up 10.8% and Cairo, up 10.6%. Whereas, there has been a recovery in Lagos up 5.8% whilst Nairobi is broadly the same and Casablanca has suffered a 4.0% decline.
Africa is projected to have just one low income country by 2050. Large infrastructure gaps, climate change, high speed of urbanization, and a youthful and rapidly growing population will influence the future pace of growth. Most African countries that today are considered low income will transition to middle income within 15 years, and all but one will be middle income by 2050, according to the Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR). The ATOR, released by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), a program facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), examines the current and future trends that are likely to shape the trajectory of African economies. As the second-fastest growing region in the world, Africa has enjoyed robust economic growth in recent years. However, that progress has not been enough to make up for the lost decades of economic stagnation that preceded the recent recovery. And secondly, the benefits of this growth have not trickled down to the wider population. The report was released at the ReSAKSS conference organized by AUC and IFPRI in Addis Ababa.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is providing funding for various infrastructure projects on the continent, as the Africa Union steps up efforts to interconnect countries and encourage the growth of tourism. Poor inter-country infrastructure on the African continent, for decades, has limited economic development and tourism, with AU member-countries trading more with their European and American counterparts than members-states. According to Africa Economic Outlook 2015, Intra-Africa trade is growing mostly within sub-regions. From 2010 to 2013 intra-African export grew by 50%; and by another 11.5% in 2013 to US$61.4 billion. However, the share of exports between African sub-regions only increased from 11.3% in 2012 to 12.8% in 2013. This could indicate a lack of development for regional value chains and low levels of trade in intermediates between African countries. There is need for further improvement in intra-Africa trade volumes, the report noted. The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) data show that 34% of the country’s Non-Traditional Exports end up in the EU market, 10% in other developed countries, and about 32% for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market. Among projects being facilitated by the AU are the Cairo- Cape Town, and Dakar-Djibouti corridors. Studies undertaken in India, China, Vietnam and Ethiopia show a positive correlation between investment in road transportation, economic growth and poverty reduction. Similar studies conducted in Ghana also confirmed that completed and maintained roads lead to 20% increase in trips to hospital, 65% lowering of costs of travelling to market centres, 41% reduction in cost of travelling to welfare facilities, and 23% increase in the price of maize received by farmers — thereby empowering them financially. The road sector network actually carries about 95% of goods and people. Various development communities across Africa such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), recognise the development of major road transit corridors as a key facilitator to trade and economic development. About 56% of the entire 1,083km Abidjan-Lagos corridor spanning from its Eastern border with Togo to the western Border with Cote d’Ivoire is in Ghana. This corridor is said to contribute about 65% of economic activities within the ECOWAS sub-region. The corridor has attracted funding of about US$120million from the World Bank’s International Development Agency (IDA) for a project to reduce trade and transport barriers in the ports and on the roads along the Abidjan-Lagos coastal corridor in Ghana, Togo and Benin. This project is known as the Abidjan-Lagos Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (ALTTFP).
Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI) has announced that it will invest $6 million in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The investment will be carried out through a $60 million venture capital fund being raised by Grow Africa Equity Partners Limited. The bank’s report indicates that the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Grow Africa Equity Partners Limited have reached an agreement to raise a $60 million venture fund for small businesses out of which the BOI will invest $6 million to provide equity capital for SMEs. The Bank of Industry is an industrial development-financing organization. A few months ago the BOI invested in a Lagos-based mobile payments company, SimplePay and a renewable energy provider, Arnergy Solar.
A new report, "Economic Empowerment of African Women through Equitable Participation in Agricultural Value Chains" will help to identify areas that the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners could target to empower women economically through agriculture as the Bank implements its Gender Strategy (2014-2018). Agriculture in Africa is poised to remain one of the most important economic sectors, accounting for around 25% of the continent's GDP. Over 60% of its citizens rely on agriculture for some form of income. To transform the sector, the economic empowerment of women through boosting their productivity and raising their participation in commercial and higher value-add activities in agriculture is central.
Women make up almost 50% of the agricultural labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 62% of economically active women in Africa work in agriculture, making it the largest employer of women. In some countries, such as Rwanda, Malawi and Burkina Faso, over 90% of economically active women are involved in agriculture. The report highlights five major constraints that can limit women's productivity and full inclusion into the agricultural economy: lack of access to assets, lack of access to financing, limited training, gender-neutral government policy, and time constraints due to heavy domestic responsibilities. The report highlighted three broad areas for action that could begin to address the specific constraints women face in each focus country: Grow the number of large-scale agribusiness entrepreneurs by providing access to financing and training, and improving regional and global market links.Make sure women are remunerated by setting them up as co-owners, improving productivity, and providing training in core business skills.Increase women's access to niche markets by producing and marketing women-only products. The role of women is largely limited to the unskilled parts of production: few own the land on which they work, they are rarely remunerated for their labour and often do not control the income generated from the sale of agricultural produce. For example, in Côte d'Ivoire, the report estimates women account for 68% of the labour in cocoa production, but receive only 21% of the income. Similarly, in Ethiopia, women account for 75% of the labour in coffee production and receive only 34% of the income. </p> Randgold Resources Limited and AngloGold Ashanti Limited have concluded an investment agreement aimed at the formation of a joint venture to redevelop and operate AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi gold mine in Ghana. In terms of the Agreement, Randgold will lead and fund a development plan designed to rebuild Obuasi as a viable long-life mining business with an attractive cost structure and returns. Obuasi, located in the Ashanti region of Ghana and 320 kilometres northwest of the capital Accra, is a large, high-grade deposit with proven and probable ore reserves (as reported by AngloGold Ashanti in their 2014 Annual Report) of 24.53Mt at 6.70g/t for 5.29Moz, part of a substantial mineral resource base. In 2012, AngloGold Ashanti initiated a programme to modernise the mine, principally by starting to develop a ramp access that will ultimately run from surface to high-grade blocks of ore underground. The ramp will supplement current vertical hoisting infrastructure and help debottleneck the underground operation by allowing for greater ease in transporting people and materials underground, and transporting ore to surface. This is a necessary step ahead of the envisaged transformation of the mine into a modern, mechanised operation. At the end of 2014, AngloGold Ashanti converted Obuasi to limited operations, ceasing underground production, retrenching the workforce, but continuing to process tailings and starting a feasibility study on the redevelopment of the mine. Development of the decline ramp has continued over this period. The development plan will build on this feasibility study with the intention of establishing a more focused, efficient, mechanised high-grade operation, and is expected to take about four months to complete. If the development plan meets both parties’ investment criteria, and assuming all other conditions are satisfied, Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti will form a new joint venture company. Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti will then be jointly responsible for funding the redevelopment of Obuasi in line with the agreed development plan. A Randgold group entity will be appointed as operator of the mine, and Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti will appoint an equal number of directors to the board of the joint venture company, with board and shareholder decisions to be approved by both parties. Randgold is expected to deliver the new development plan to both parties’ boards by 31 January 2016.
Young professionals are blazing a trail in the field of information technology in South Africa, with more professional jobs offered in this sector than in any other. The career prospects are very encouraging, particularly for students who are considering what to study at university. With technology shaping the workplace of the future, far more careers in the sector are now an option than even a few years ago, says Professor Kevin Johnston, the head of the Information Systems (IS) department at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Careers range from website, app and game developers to networking specialists, project managers, data administrators and business analysts. South African job search websites offer a far higher number of jobs in Information Systems than in any other field. Johnston said every single UCT IS student who graduated last year was offered a job in the IS sector in South Africa. Most IS jobs are competitive and well paid as there’s a shortage of graduates and professionals are in high demand. IS skills are transferable and many UCT graduates have chosen to work in countries in regions across the world, from Europe and the US to Asia and Africa.
A newly-released report “Islamic Finance in Africa: A Promising Future” by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) takes an in-depth look at the tremendous growth opportunities for Islamic finance to flourish in the region. The report is being published as the global banking community comes together to define a transformative new landscape to integrate Islamic finance into the mainstream. Once of interest only to a niche market of Muslim investors, Islamic finance is now venturing beyond its traditional sphere, and is slowly gaining widespread acceptance in Africa. The birthplace of a quarter of the global Muslim population, the report highlights that Africa features a potentially strong demand for Islamic financial services and products. While still comparatively under-developed, Islamic finance is expanding in many parts of the region, and is now present across most of North Africa and in many countries of East and West Africa, particularly those with sizeable Muslim communities. One of the recommendations of the report is that Islamic finance can act as the catalyst in mobilising funding into Africa, thereby resulting in economic growth and sustainable development. It is estimated that the region needed USD93.0bln per year to finance large-scale infrastructure and manufacturing projects, while external funding is also needed to offset ballooning fiscal deficits. Meanwhile, 2 billion adults remain unbanked globally, and currently, sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for as much as 17.0% of the world’s unbanked adults. In addition, there is a significant funding potential opportunity for Islamic banks in view of the increasing emergence of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. In light of relatively low-income levels, a large informal sector and the prevalence of small businesses in Africa, Islamic microfinance is also a growth area worth looking into.The report also highlights notable progress in the sukuk sector, where recent developments have seen governments focusing more on creating a more enabling environment for sukuk issuances. Some countries which have issued sukuk include Gambia, Sudan, Senegal and South Africa, while Ivory Coast is lining up to issue its debut sukuk at the end of the year. Moving forward, several countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco have expressed keen interest in tapping the sukuk market for infrastructure financing and have finalized or are in the midst of finalizing their legal frameworks to promote sukuk issuances. Although the Islamic financial services industry in Africa is currently dominated by the banking and sukuk segments, growth potential remains in the asset management and takaful spheres. In its key recommendations, the report underlines that to capture the tremendous potential, the regional industry must overcome various challenges which are broadly similar with challenges faced in other parts of the world. These include challenges on the regulatory front such as regulatory inconsistency, the shortage of qualified human capital, the lack of awareness and financial literacy by many end-users and consumers, and a conducive business landscape which will support the growth of Islamic finance.
Woolworths and Capitec are the top value gainers of the year in brand value, according to a study by Brand South Africa and Brand Finance Africa where they revealed the country’s top 50 corporate brands. Capitec grew by 63 per cent, placed at 30 and Woolworths climbed 53 per cent as the 6th most valuable brand for 2014/15. The study suggests that Capitec can attribute its new found value on the understanding of its target market’s needs, to the extent that it changed the top 4 South African banks to the Top 5 with its addition. The bank’s use of simple affordable products and the small unsecured loans encouraged customers to migrate to its brand. The report states that in 2015, the bank’s 2.8 million full banking clients represented 18.3 per cent of the 15.3 million employed South Africans and its earnings stood at 2,563 million rand. This is the third year Brand Finance Africa has conducted this study, these top 50 corporates are valued at approximately 1.5 trillion rand. Telecommunication companies MTN maintained its position at the top despite a 4 per cent decline and Vodacom followed in second place. Oil and gas company Sasol sat in third place. Banks dominated four of the top 10 spots led by Standard Bank and FNB. Cell C, despite an evidently innovative marketing team, sits at 48 out of 50 companies in brand value, above retailer Foschini and food group Sasko. With a decline of 46 per cent, Grindrod lost the most brand value; the logistics company was at 25 in 2014 but has sits at position 44. Brand value is calculated using the Royalty Relief approach, which estimates “the likely future sales that are attributable to a brand and calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for the use of the brand”.
The study, published by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, says that "relatively high rates of economic growth" are giving African nations more reason to believe in their short-term futures and in the prospects of the next generation. Sub-Saharan African nations feel more optimistic about the future than many others around the world, a survey released in September found. "Having experienced relatively high rates of economic growth in recent years, African publics are more likely than citizens of many wealthier nations to believe their economies will improve," the report says. According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa's growth is projected at an average of 4,2% in 2015, down from 4,6% in 2014. The growth will be driven by domestic demand, supported by continuing infrastructure investment and private consumption fueled by lower oil prices, the bank says. The report examines public opinion in nine African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. It says that despite the optimism, sub-Saharan Africa still recognises that their countries face "tremendous challenges". Across the nine nations in the study, a median of 68% feel that their country needs more foreign aid than it gets today. The exception is South Africa, where a mere 26% hold this view. The report, based on 9 062 face-to-face interviews with adults 18 years and older, was conducted from 25 March to 21 May.
The emerging market BRICS nations will have their own development bank by the end of the year, South Africa said Friday. "The New Development Bank is expected to be operational by end of 2015," the South African finance ministry said in a statement that announced the nomination of South African banker Leslie Maasdorp as vice president of the bank and parliamentary ratification of two treaties concerning the lender. The BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- which represent 40 percent of the world's population and a quarter of its economic output, decided in 2013 to create their own development bank to step up lending for the infrastructure projects needed to close the gap with the industrialised world. The bank, which will be headquartered in Shanghai, is expected to have up to $100 billion in capital.
Zimbabwe is finalising new laws aimed at strengthening its fragile banking industry through measures such as imposing shareholding restrictions and revamping oversight functions to guard against insider loans. Foreign-owned banks in the country – which include the units of Standard Bank, Nedbank, Barclays, Standard Chartered and Ecobank – have remained the most stable ones but the banking groups’ locally owned counterparts face liquidity and corporate governance problems. The foreign-owned banks enjoy liquidity support from their international parent companies and have also adopted stricter lending criteria to manage risks from loan defaults. This comes on the back of bank failures in Zimbabwe that have left the sector vulnerable, prompting calls from economists and other experts for mergers and acquisitions in the Zimbabwean financial services sector. Banks such as Allied Bank, AfrAsia Kingdom, Genesis and Trust have folded in the past three years. The Zimbabwean government is now moving in to restore corporate governance in the financial services sector and to shore it up through new legislation and enhancing oversight of the industry. Bank rates, which have been problematic in the past few years since dollarisation of the economy, have now been capped at 18 percent. Zimbabwe is also seeking to factor in emerging mobile money and payments platforms into its regulations. Under the new banking regulations, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will be allowed to disband its monetary policy committee as the country seeks to restore confidence through continued usage of multiple world currencies. This comes amid fears that the government is test-running the introduction of the Zim dollar after it issued local coins to ease change problems although the central bank and other government officials have sought to assure the economy the local currency will not be reintroduced.
The hotel and tourism industry in Africa is beginning a period of sustained growth, according to the sector’s leading experts gathered at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum in Addis Ababa. The conference heard that inward international flights were recovering after being hit by the ebola outbreak. And the hotel sector reported significant expansion, as well as increased visitor numbers, boosted by demand from African business.According to ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions each day, its analysis showed there was an increase of 6.4% in international arrivals in September in Sub-Saharan Africa. The upturn marked a turning point after the ebola outbreak, which had wiped out four years of strong growth. Flight bookings for the next six months suggest a sustained recovery. The data shows arrivals on-the-book (bookings for travel in future) from October 2015 to March 2016 are now running 4% ahead, compared with the same period last year. The growing opportunities for investment in hotels on the continent were revealed in the African Hotel Report 2015. Hotel Partners Africa identified the top ten opportunities. Nigeria heads the list with the strongest economy, but with only 34 branded hotel bedrooms per million population. This compares with 6,754 branded hotel bedrooms per million population in North America and 2,432 bedrooms per million in Europe. Ghana with 59 bedrooms and Cote d’Ivoire with 61 bedrooms also present great opportunities with very strong unmet demand.
DHL Express, the express logistics provider, will launch its Growing Beyond Borders entrepreneurial training program in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) in the coming weeks – an innovative programme specifically designed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) understand the economic potential of international trade and the subsequent benefits to their businesses. The company will be launching the program in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Mauritius in October 2015, followed shortly by South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Uganda. The program will be expanded to a further 16 markets across SSA before the end of the first quarter of 2016. According to the company, as Sub Saharan Africa continues to emerge as a growth market, so will the continent’s attractiveness for business expansion. It believes that the stable GDP forecasts for the Sub Saharan Africa region (4.6% in 2016 and 5% 2017(1), coupled with a booming e-commerce sector will create significant opportunities for innovative SMEs to service online-savvy customers. The free of charge workshop model explores importing and exporting in new markets, provides guidance on how to find key geographical opportunities for the business’ specific products and services, as well as how to identify different marketing avenues and ways to build long-term relationships with their target customers for long term success. According to the company, the Growing Beyond Borders workshop is unique in that it was borne out of the same vein as the DHL Express Certified International Specialist (CIS) programme – an internal learning and development platform which has seen nearly 4,000 DHL employees in 51 countries in SSA and 100,000 employees globally, receive comprehensive training on the fundamentals of international shipping.
Rwanda and Kenya are the most competitive economies in east Africa and are among the top 10 most competitive economies in Africa at position three and six respectively. According to the newly released Global Competitiveness Report, Tanzania and Uganda follow in at positions 17 and 18 in Africa respectively while Burundi ranks last in the region and among the bottom four on the continent at position 29. Of the 144 economies assessed, the EAC countries save for Burundi improved on their economic productivity and prosperity Rwanda and Kenya most competitive economies in East Africa, report says moving up their competitiveness rankings from last year. Uganda emerged as the most improved economy moving up nine places from last year to position 122, followed by Kenya which moved up six places to 90th position while Rwanda and Tanzania moved up four places up to position 62 and 122 respectively. Burundi remained among the five least competitive economies in Africa and globally at position 138. The report says east Africa’s economic improvement has been driven by overall better infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, goods market and labour market efficiency and innovation. However, despite this improvement, corruption, access to finance and political instability remain the most problematic issues affecting doing business in the region. The report defines competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country. A more competitive economy is one that is likely to sustain growth. The highlights come at the time when Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) report indicates that the East Africa’s inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increase by 11 per cent in the third quarter of the year. According to the (ICAEW report, drawing on estimates prepared by the World Bank, the total level of external financial inflows into Africa has increased from $40.4billion in 2000 to $192billion in 2013. This is largely attributed to the inward FDI from China with investment mainly going into primary resource sectors and infrastructure. Kigali, for example, is helped by Rwanda’s performance in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ metric, with the World Bank ranking it as a better place to set up a business than Italy.Kampala, meanwhile, benefits from strong demographics as it enjoys a relatively youthful population and favourable rates of demographic growth. Nairobi tops the list as Africa’s most attractive destination for FDI. This is in big part because of a reportedly growing middle class that is setting the stage for a booming consumer market.
South Africa’s formal sector shed a staggering 161,000 jobs between the second quarters of last year and this year, indicating how tough economic conditions are starting to bite. Formal jobs are important as they usually carry benefits and make a sustained inroad into unemployment. The sector also employs more people, so if jobs are lost there, it means SA’s 25 percent unemployment rate will persist for longer. In the second quarter of this year 1,000 jobs were lost when the economy contracted 1.3 percent, Statistics SA’s quarterly employment statistics survey showed. The figures are distorted by the fact that the government increased employment by 100,000 temporary jobs in the second quarter of last year due to elections in May. But jobs were also shed in manufacturing, transport, business services and construction. While most sectors were likely affected by rising input costs and low commodity prices, those in business services may have been hit by new labour broking regulations. Research had shown that half of the workers employed through labour brokers lost their jobs, while a far smaller portion got permanent jobs after amendments to the Labour Relations Act restricted the employment of temporary workers. Formal sector jobs are likely to remain under pressure as the government will not hire as many people as it has in the past as it tries to curb its wage bill. Economic growth has been slowing and business confidence is weak — factors that indicate the private sector will not create jobs either. Gross earnings in the formal sector, however, rose between the first and second quarters.
The 2015/16 results of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index sees South Africa rise seven places from 56 to 49 of 140 countries. South Africa’s biggest improvements come in the areas of: infrastructure (up 8 places), health and primary education (up 6 places), labour market efficiency (up 6 places), technological readiness (up 16 places), and innovation (up 5 places). South Africa has also improved in the areas of: macro-economic environment (up 4 places), higher education and training (up 3 places), and business sophistication (up 2 places). South Africa has dropped in the area of institutions (down 2 places), goods market efficiency (down 6 places), financial market development (down 5 places) and market size (down 4 places).
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