Africa Business News
US software giant Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. "Launching the Amharic version software is a major step forward for Amharic to be a language of technology", Director of the Ethiopian ICT Development Agency (EICTDA), Debretsion Gebremichael has said.
40 scholars from the Addis Ababa University…
Standard Chartered Bank and China Unionpay have struck a deal that will enable Unionpay cardholders worldwide access the bank's ATM services in 20 countries in Africa. China has over the last decade become the world's largest investor into Africa, injecting billions of dollars in various projects across the continent.
Analysts say no signal…
United States supported, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCA), has announced its plans to expand its operations in Africa as more countries meet democracy requirements.
Africa, which accounts for about 70 percent of the corporation’s total funding of $5.2 billion, has 11 countries where so-called compacts, or programs, are underway.
MCA…
The biggest second hand market - 'Adjame Black Market' - in Abidjan, the capital city of Ivory Coast, was razed down early Saturday morning at about 5:00 am causing extensive damage to hundreds of shops where you can get textiles, clothes, computers, Freezers, mobile phones, building materials, carpentry and handcrafts.
It is a sight visited…
Continued economic developments across the continent have necessitated the need to expedite the implementation of a massive hydro power project by the African Union (AU).
The project dubbed ‘Hydropower 2020’ is an initiative of the African Union that seeks to increase power generation capacity for Africa and enhance socio-economic development…
The Zambian annual rate of inflation for the month of January 2010 has recorded a decline of 0.3 percentage points and now stands at 9.6 percent.
The Central Statistical Office has attributed this reduction to the 3.6 percentage point decrease in some food prices while non-food products in the consumer price index accounted for six percentage points.…
Nigeria may soon end the days of transporting its crude for refining offshore. The Nigeria Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia has announced that the country is happy to partner with India in processing crude locally after a meeting with Indian business delegate and minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Murli Deora.
Dr. Deora said…
One of Nigeria's foremost business firms, the Dangote Group has repaid a $1.27 billion loan obtained from a conglomerate of 10 banks in Nigeria.
The loan was taken in May 2008 to finance its cement expansion project with a target to crash the price of the commodity from about N1, 800 ($10) to N1, 000 ($7) early 2011.
At completion of the phase…
South Africans, hard-pressed by the effects of recession and staring at over a R1-trillion debt bill, were rethinking their exposure to credit.
According to the country’s National Credit Regulator (NCR) there are 17-million people, or almost a third of the population, in South Africa who are exposed to some kind of debt.
CEO of the NCR Gabriel…
South Africa's ruling party African National Congress has said that a recent call to nationalize the country's Reserve Bank was simply to test the water and that no plans have been put in place to do so.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said that the “status quo” would not change. Currently the South African Reserve Bank is owned…
United Kingdom's Diageo Plc has announced the launch its annual Africa Business Reporting Awards. Initiated by Diageo in 2004, the media awards encourage more prolific business journalism within Africa in a drive to increase the continent's share of voice in the international media.
The number of categories has been extended with sector-specific…
World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick begins a three-nation African tour today. His eight-day visit would help focus attention on African governments, development partners and private investors on the need to seize the opportunity for renewed momentum in economic growth to overcome poverty.
Zoellick will start his tour in Sierra Leone after which…
Maroc telecom has launched Mobicash, Morocco's first trials of mobile debit payment service. This first service of money transfer and payment by cell phone has been the object of an agreement signed between Morocco Telecom operators and Attijariwafa bank and the Central 'Banque Populaire'.
MobiCash is a complete mobile payment platform…
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) is to invest US$4 million in Zimbabwe's rural financial services and agribusiness sectors. Fund director, Hugh Scott, said more than 250 local companies in the Southern African country had applied for the grants that range from US$250 000 to US$1.5 million.
He said the AECF Zimbabwe window was targeting…
Moroccan banks may introduce the concepts and practices of sharia (Islamic law) finance and banking to the public, thanks to recent tax rate changes. The new tax rates means that sharia-approved alternative banking products will be charged the same taxes as traditional banking products and loans.
As of January 2010, the VAT on alternative banking products…
Nigerian rebels have released three British expatriates and a Colombian worker, a police official said on Monday. The four were kidnapped six days ago near the oil hub Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta region and were in good condition.
"All kidnapped victims -- the three Britons and the Columbian -- have been released this evening and (are) looking…
South Africa's banks would not recover as quickly from the global economic crisis as US banks, with analysts expecting bad debt charges would weigh down profits.
Earnings for the country’s four biggest banks would be down a combined 37 percent for 2009, said head of Sanlam Investment Management Global Kokkie Kooyman.
Kooyman said that…
South Africa will follow the UK's banking system in investigating whether cheques should be phased out. The UK's Payment Council, citing a dramatic drop in usage, has announced that cheques would stop circulating in 2018, but that this decision would be reviewed in 2016.
South Africa, like the UK, has experienced a dramatic drop in cheque…
India has offered Zambia a combined credit line of US$125, 000 for various developmental projects.
Indian Vice President, Hamid Ansari who is on a tour of Zambia, Malawi and Botswana has stated that his country plans to offer credit lines of about $5.4 billion by 2012 to woo African countries.
India has extended a $75 million line of credit to Zambia,…
Nigeria and South Africa are Africa's leading mobile telephony powerhouses accounting for an amalgamated total of 45% of the continent's industry, according to the latest International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Kenya mobile telephony industry now accounts for 7% of mobile phone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kenya had 17.4 million…