Private equity group, Abraaj Capital, has raised $375 million from existing shareholders via rights issue or cash call

The Dubai-based buy-out firm will be using the proceeds from the sale to invest in real estate and small businesses starting early 2010.

Abraaj is setting up a $500 million vehicle to invest in regional commercial real estate and a $200 million fund to invest in small and medium-sized enterprises. The firm is also looking at aviation, logistics, education and healthcare sectors in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE for expansion.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission awarded a generating license to Dangote Industry Power Ltd.

Dangote plans to generate 135 megawatts of electricity at the proposed plant out of which 46 megawatts will be consumed by its Obajana Cement plant in the central Nigerian state of Kogi. The remaining 89 megawatts will be sold to the national grid.

The regulator has granted 29 licenses to companies to produce power to boost generation to 6,000 megawatts by the end of this year and 10,000 megawatts by 2011.

Dubai-based private equity firm Saffar Capital is launching a private equity fund

The fund will focus on financial services in the Middle East to take advantage of an improving outlook in the sector.

The fund is the first to be launched by Saffar, which specialises in taking stakes in private equity financial services firms in the region.
Private equity investments are increasingly finding favour in the frontier markets of the Middle East and Africa, as investors once more chase yield in a global environment of low interest rates.

AVCA 8th Annual Conference to be held under auspices of Egypt's Ministry of Investment

Investors and fund managers descend on Cairo for the African Venture Capital Association's (AVCA) 8th Annual Conference, which is due to take place here in Cairo on 15th - 17th of November. The prominence of the conference is such that it will be held under the auspices of Egypt's Ministry of Investment.

Ghana: Exploit Opportunities in Growing Tourism Sector

TradeInvest Africa (Cape Town)

Ghana's tourism sector is expected to grow at an average rate of 4.1% over the next two decades, indicating a need to build more tourist accommodation. There is an opportunity to participate in the development of a beach complex in Kokrobite, a popular tourist destination about 30kms west of the Ghanaian capital city of Accra.

The fishing village of Kokrobite is a popular destination for tourists seeking a quiet, tropical paradise with beautiful sandy beaches. There exists a burgeoning demand for day, weekend and longer-term accommodation and European standard restaurant and entertainment facilities, particularly near the beachfront.

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World bank's IFC to raise capital for Africa, Latam fund

The International Finance Corporation is seeking fresh capital to invest in Latin America and Africa, its chief executive Lars Thunell said Saturday. The investment arm of the World Bank group, aims to raise up to $1 billion from institutions such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds around the world for the new fund

Original post:
World bank’s IFC to raise capital for Africa, Latam fund

Citi Venture Capital International investing $25 million into SkyVision Holdings Limited

Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI), is going to invest USD25 million into SkyVision Holdings Limited. The investment will be made through a wholly owned subsidiary of the Citigroup Venture Capital International Africa Fund L.P (CVCIAF), a private equity fund advised by Citi Venture Capital International.

SkyVision is a provider of global IP services over satellite and terrestrial fibre optic systems for enterprise, ISP, and carrier class clients in emerging markets. The company has coverage in over 120 countries and currently operates in more than 50 countries around the world, with sales in 2009 estimated to exceed USD80 million. In Africa, Skyvision services the largest and most respected telcos, mobile operators, corporations and public sector clients. In the past five years, the company has achieved growth rates of approximately 50% per year. The company is controlled by Cyphertech and Shamrock, the investment arm of the Roy E. Disney family. Pursuant to the investment, Cyphertech and Shamrock will hold approximately 30 percent each, CVCIAF will hold approximately 23 percent, and the remainder will be held principally by management and employees. Sunil Nair, Managing Director and Head, Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Citi Venture Capital International, mentioned that investment demonstrates CVCI’s commitment to supporting and further strengthening companies with a proven record of success in Africa.

IMImobile has been picked to provide technology and services to emerging markets telecommunications company MTN Group Ltd.

IMImobile has been chosen to help MTN standardise its mobile phone and online content in 21 markets in which it operates.

IMImobile said the deal was "a major commercial milestone." Financial terms weren't disclosed.

IMImobile is Venuture Capital firm Spark Ventures PLC biggest holding. It has a 38% stake in the company with a book value of GBP13 million.

This Deal will see IMImobile help South African operator standardise mobile, online content.

Nigeria could sell stakes in its joint ventures with Western oil firms to China

Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia said China would not be given all the reserves it was seeking but that Nigerian state oil firm NNPC could sell stakes in joint ventures with existing oil partners if Beijing offered the right price.

The Chinese made a proposal which Nigeria is considering. They are asking for 6 billion barrels of oil from our reserves, but according to Ajumogobia, Nigeria is not going to give them all of that.

Western oil firms including Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Chevron (CVX.N) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N), operate in Nigeria through joint ventures with NNPC.

Asked if the state firm could sell its stakes to China, Ajumogobia said:
"It's an option we are also looking at. Why not? If the offer is very good and very attractive why not? NNPC has the right to do whatever it likes with its own share."

Some analysts say the sale of stakes to China by NNPC would likely be challenged by other partners in the ventures and that the prospect of putting a greater proportion of Nigerian oil reserves in foreign hands would face huge political opposition.

Chinese state energy firm CNOOC has identified 23 licenses in Nigeria in which it would like to buy stakes.

Emerging Capital Partners Invests In ananchi Group Holdings, a telecommunications company

The Africa-focused private equity firm, Emerging Capital Partners has committed $25 million to Wananchi Group Holdings, a telecom company specializing in pay-television and Internet services in Kenya and Tanzania

The equity investment will be used to upgrade and expand Wananchi's network infrastructure, enabling the company to provide east Africa's first triple-play service of digital pay-TV, high-speed Internet and voice-over-Internet protocol services.

ECP disclosed that East Africa has been characterized by limited supply of pay-TV and Internet services due to high costs and inadequate infrastructure.

Virgin Nigeria dropping the U.K. company's brand, Virgin Atlantic and seek fresh funding

The carrier new brand will be known as Nigerian Eagle Airlines and plans a private placement.

Virgin Atlantic, which has a 49% stake in the Nigerian carrier, has been reassessing its ties in recent months. Nigerian institutional investors hold majority control.

Virgin Nigeria dropped all its international flights in January to focus on what it called its "profitable domestic and regional operations."

Virgin Nigeria was part of an array of international affiliates launched by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, including airlines in Belgium, Australia and the U.S.

Nigeria - Central Bank (CBN) is considering three options to recapitalise the country’s five troubled banks

The banks are: Intercontinetal Bank; Oceanic Bank; Union Bank; Finbank and Afribank.
The Central Bank is considering three local options aimed at acquisitions of the five troubled banks following the seeming collapse of its offshore investment mission.

The three options which the apex bank is considering are:

Option 1: Rights Issue

In which the apex bank hopes to execute a rights issue, converting the tier two capital (the amount injected) to 80 per cent stake in the affected banks’ shareholding, leaving the other shareholders with 20 per cent.

Option 2: Scheme of Arrangement

The CBN management is said to be considering the alternative of getting the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE, to do a “Scheme of Arrangement”. The thinking in the CBN is that this option is the most viable now and if applied, it will involve a legal means of bringing shareholders of these banks to an extra-ordinary General Meeting to agree to a merger or acquisition arrangement.

Option 3: Acquisition

If the first two options fail, the apex bank would then go for the third option which is acquisition.

This involves nominating a bank in the country to acquire any of the five banks and then backing the action with statutory powers.

Emerging markets giant Actis is adjusting to life after the closing of its $2.9bn third fund by building up its IR and communications teams.

The appointments follow the closing of Actis’ $2.9 billion Emerging Markets 3 Fund in December 2008 – its largest-ever vehicle. Actis has raised smaller real estate funds, including its first dedicated property vehicle for sub-Saharan Africa in 2006, which had more than $350 million of investment capital with leverage.

In this newly-created position, Turtle will manage a seven-strong IR team and report to Actis partner Jonathan Bond, who has been responsible for the firm’s fundraising efforts since before it demerged from CDC Group in 2004. His immediate focus will be communication with the 100 existing institutional investors in Actis’ latest vehicle.

Actis has also revamped its external communications function with the hire of Tashi Lassalle as director of communications. Lassalle, formerly chief marketing officer for listed recruitment company Heidrick & Struggles, has replaced Actis’ incumbent external public relations agency and is mandated to build a permanent communications team.

Breaking News: CBN Appoints new CEO’s for 5 banks, reveals N2.4trn debt

Source: Proshare Limited

The CBN, this morning, at the Emergency Bankers’ Committee convened by the CBN in Lagos confirmed the rumour that has been making the rounds all week that the CEO and Executive Directors of the following five banks have been removed:

1. Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank);
2. Okey Nwosu (Finbank);
3. Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank Plc);
4. Mrs Cecelia Ibru (Oceanic Bank Plc); and
5. Bartholomew Ebong (Union Bank Plc).

The CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi explains that the result of the special examination done by the joint team from CBN and NDIC reveals excessive credit lending in the following banks – Oceanic Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Afribank Plc, FinBank plc, and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

The CBN Governor says that the CBN today injected N400bn tier 2 capital into the 5 banks. This is to be repaid soon from their offer proceeds.

The CBN Governor ANNOUNCES the following appointments:

1. Mr. John Aboh to take over as CEO of OCEANIC BANK Plc
2. Mr. Lai Alabi to take over as CEO at INTERCONTINENTAL BANK Plc
3. Mr. Arah NEBOLISA to take over as CEO at AFRIBANK Plc
4. Susan Iroche to take over as CEO at FINBANK Plc
5. Mrs. Funke Osibodu to take over as CEO at UNION BANK Plc

Lamido says there will be no setting up of an asset Management Company or bad loan bank until full declaration of exposures by all banks.

Breaking News....

BREAKING NEWS: Dangote is the NSE PRESIDENT. A formal announcement to follow by the DG and new President within the hour.

African Capital Alliance raises $200 million

African Capital Alliance (ACA) announces the first closing of USD 200 million for Capital Alliance Private Equity III (“CAPE III”), a private equity fund which seeks to tap high potential opportunities in sectors such as financial services, oil and gas, power (electricity) supply, communications, manufacturing and services in Nigeria and the West African sub-region. African Capital Alliance mobilizes long-term capital from institutional investors to promote private sector led investments.

The investors in CAPE III include well-known international development finance institutions such as CDC Group, the European Investment Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and Netherlands Development Finance Corporation. In addition, commitments have been made by Nigeria-based institutional investors including First Trustees Nigeria Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc, Africa Re-insurance Corporation and some high net worth individuals.

Breaking News

ALHAJI ALIKO DANGOTE stepped down from the Council of Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Further updates will be provided next week.

CDC Group commits $50m to African Capital Alliance’s PE Fund III (CAPE III)

CDC Group, the UK government-backed, emerging-markets fund of funds, has committed $50m to African Capital Alliance’s Private Equity Fund III (CAPE III) as part of its new focus on investing in the world’s poorest countries.

CAPE III targets to make minority and majority investments between $30m and $50m in mid-sized Nigerian companies with growth potential. About 25 per cent of investments will also be in other West African countries and the Gulf of Guinea region.

The fund will back companies that operate in industries which will benefit from regulatory changes in Nigeria, such as electric power. Around half of Nigeria’s population does not have access to electricity, but recent reform in the sector is said to be providing an opening for new entrants to the market.

Actis assembled new Africa team

UK emerging markets buyout firm Actis has beefed up its Africa operations with the recruitment of a West Africa head, a move that comes after its largest investor, the Government-owned CDC Group, was told to increase its investments on the continent.

IFC acquires Tunisian airport project stakes

The International Finance Corporation has acquired a 15 percent stake in airport concession company TAV Tunisia for €28 million. The company is currently involved in developing the first two airport PPPs in North Africa.

Equitable Equity

When multiple partners build a startup, how big a stake should each one get?
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Bernard Madoff has been jailed for the rest of his life...

International fraudster Bernard Madoff has been jailed for the rest of his life for swindling investors out of billions of dollars.

The 71-year-old was sentenced to 150 years after he, 10 of his victims and lawyers on both sides had addressed the court.

Dozens of those who lost fortunes in his pyramid-based Ponzi investment fraud that lasted decades filled the New York courthouse having spent hours queueing to get seats.

Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has since been held in jail.

Victims who lost millions of dollars had described their ruined lives to judge Denny Chin.

Madoff, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a tie, sat and listened as they described how he wrecked their financial security, and urged he be sent to prison for life.

"Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can't wake from," said Carla Hirshhorn.

"He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values," said Tom Fitzmaurice. "He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife Ruth could live a life of luxury beyond belief."

Dominic Ambrosino called it an "indescribably heinous crime" and urged a long prison sentence so "will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others." He added: "In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence."

Madoff's lawyer had asked a judge to give his client 12 years behind bars. Prosecutors sought the maximum 150-year term.

Merger and Acquisition Interest on Nigerian Banks by Foreign Banks Likely to Happen

Plans by Nigeria’s central bank to lift the cap on foreign ownership of banks and to encourage mergers and acquisitions will spur interest in the banking system, UBA Capital Research said.

“Speculating on which individual banks could be targets for foreign banks is of limited value, but we do believe that it is likely that banks in the mid-tier segment will attract attention,” said UBA Capital, the brokerage unit of Lagos-based United Bank for Africa Plc. It reiterated its buy recommendations on Access Bank Nigeria Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc and GTBank.

Central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi, in his first interview since his appointment on June 3, told the Financial Times of London that he expected a further consolidation in the Nigerian banking industry to bring down the number of banks to about 15 from 24.

The Private equity face of infrastructure

Adebayo Ogunlesi is the Chairman and Managing Director of Global Infrastructure Partners and is based in New York City.

Bayo previously served as Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking Division with senior responsibility for Credit Suisse’s corporate and sovereign investment banking clients. From 2002 to 2004, he was Head of Credit Suisse’s Global Investment Banking Department, responsible for worldwide capital markets (debt and equity), mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and advisory, industry, country and regional banking businesses.

Bayo was previously Head of Global Power, Utilities and Project Finance in 1994, and from 1997-2002, served as Head of the Global Energy Group (power, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, mining and project finance).
Prior to becoming an investment banker, he was an attorney with the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. From 1980 to 1981, he served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Ogunlesi, more commonly known as Bayo, holds a record that many in the private equity world would envy: the largest first-time fundraise for an independent fund manager. Even more impressive is the fact that he raised GIP's $5.64 billion war chest with a focus on an emerging asset class that was just beginning to be understood by investors. People familar with the native Nigerian credit the suscess to his laser-eyed focus on bringing operational efficiences to infrastructure assets. He is by far the loudest propenent of his strategy - a mainstay of the private equity sphere that is fast becoming mainstream in the infrastructure asset class, thanks in large part to his advocacy. His lean mean management of London's City airport, which GIP bought in concert with AIG affiliate in 2006 for £770 million, is the textbook example of this growing trend.

Five ways to grow the market and create value

After years of restructuring, reengineering, and downsizing many companies are now emphasizing growth. They are under pressure to do so from three directions: shareholders, competitors, and employees.

Shareholders have become more active and demanding in the US, but increasingly so in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Consider the number of companies that have fired or gently pushed out their CEOs in recent years. Shareholders demand value creation. This is closely linked to corporate growth. The obvious limits of value creation through cost cutting now make revenue growth essential.

Then there is heat from competitors, particularly in industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals, automotive, defense, airlines, and personal computers, which are undergoing consolidation. Here growth is essential if economies of scale in technology development, operations, capacity utilization, marketing, distribution, and network externalities are to be captures. Those companies that fail to expand as fast as competitors will lose competitive and enter a downward spiral. The only options then are expansion or a vicious cycle leading to oblivion.

Finally, employees are an important influence. Employees in an expanding company have greater opportunities for career advancement, financial rewards, job security, and job satisfaction. It is more fun to go work every day and the collective mood is more upbeat in growing company.

While growth is important, it is ot easy. Asked about their target growth, companies in the US and Europe will respond that on average it is between 10 and 15 percent. As the overall economic growth rate of the countries in which they trade is about 2 to 3 percent, there is no way all of them can achieve their targets.

Put differently: add up the five-year projected market shares of all the competitors in an industry and you get a figure well over 100 percent. For every company that achieves its growth target, another will be well short. To count among the successful, a company needs a wise growth strategy. Developing this involves two major decisions: the direction and the mode of growth.

There are five possible growth directions:
- from current business by gaining market share and increasing market penetration;
- in the same business, but in a different geographic location;
- by vertical integration, either backward or forward;
- in another related business;
- in a different, unrelated business.

A company does not have to pick only one such direction. However, it is unlikely that simultaneous pursuit in all directions is wise. Instead, given limited resources, a company should determine the relative emphasis to place on each chosen growth direction.

The most promising growth directions in today's environment are: market penetration, globalization (particularly where emerging country markets are concerned), and forward integration.

Zain Africa Mobile Networks up for sale...

Vivendi Universal has emerged as one of the suitors for Zain’s operations in Africa. The deal would be worth an estimated Sh936 billion ($12 billion).

If Vivendi succeeds, it would mark an ironical return of the company to the Kenyan market, after selling its 60 per cent stake in KenCell — the predecessor of Zain Kenya — to Celtel in 2005, for $230 million. Celtel in turn sold the business to the Kuwait-based company, Zain, in August last year, as part of the larger Celtel Africa, which spans 12 African countries, for $3.4 billion.

South Africa’s MTN is said to be another contender.

Vivendi is one of the largest European entertainment companies. It has a 56 per cent stake in a French mobile network — SFR — that offers mobile services in Re-Union Islands and Morocco, and it is likely that this is the brand the African operation will don.

MTN has operations in much of the region, but Kenya has remained elusive for it. It unsuccessfully attempted to buy KenCell in 2004.

Zain has grown the Kenyan operation.

It has, for instance, built the 13 per cent market share it had at the time of the takeover, to over 20 per cent currently.

However, it sill remains a distant second to Safaricom with a market share of about 70 per cent.

For Sh930 billion, Zain could make a handsome profit for the company it bought for $3.4 billon.

Zain Group has posted record results for the financial year ended December 31, last year, with revenues increasing by 26 per cent to reach $7.441 billion, although fourth quarter results were hit by currency fluctuations, according to an unnamed company official.

Zain, which has operations in 22 countries across the Middle East and Africa, increased its customer base by 50 per cent to reach 63.5 million subscribers, while net profit increased by 6 per cent compared with 2007 to reach $1.2 billion.

Call for higher education support fund

Writer: Karen MacGregor
University World News

In Africa, Sixteen African ministers attending a preparatory meeting for the Unesco World Conference on Higher Education, to be held in Paris in July, called for improved financing of universities and a support fund to strengthen training and research in key areas. The ministers also want improved governance and quality assurance, and diversification of programmes to enable the sector to meet a wider range of needs, according to a conference statement circulated last week.

Africa's Regional Conference on Higher Education, or CRESA, was held in Dakar from 10 to 13 November last year and was organised by Unesco's Regional Office for Education in Africa, in partnership with the government of Senegal. The theme was "New Dynamics on Higher Education and Research: Strategies for change and development".

There were 241 participants from 27 African countries including two prime ministers, 16 higher education ministers, 23 heads of universities and a range of international organisations including Unesco, the African Union, EU, Association of African Universities, Association for the Development of Education in Africa and World Bank.

Following a meeting held during the CRESA conference, the 16 ministers called for more efficient policies to support national and international cooperation, to boost the revitalisation of higher education in Africa.

They urged governments and partners to increase spending on higher education, expand the involvement of women and prioritise science and technology for Africa's development. A Support Fund for Higher Education was proposed, to bolster efforts to expand and improve the sector and to develop training and research in key areas like science and technology.

The ministers said good governance in higher education should be strengthened to achieve greater autonomy, transparency and accountability in management. Diversification of training programmes was needed along with efficient quality assurance mechanisms that would provide a basis for harmonising qualifications.

South African Minister of Education Naledi Pandor called on African states to ensure the autonomy of higher education institutions so they could fully perform their role of creating and disseminating knowledge at the service of an African renaissance.

The aim of the Dakar regional conference was to bring higher education decision-makers, stakeholders and partners together to provide Africa with some shared higher education benchmarks and produce guidelines for the 2009 world conference. The meeting reviewed progress made in the past decade and formulated strategies for the future.

Chair of the CRESA organising committee, Professor Ahmadou Lamine Ndiaye, said considerable improvements had been made in higher education in several areas, including access, equity - especially greater involvement of women - and good governance.

The report said there had been more awareness of the role that should be played by knowledge as the driving force of development. It said the will to reform higher education systems to achieve improvements in relevance and in quality, particularly by establishing monitoring and evaluation, quality assurance and accreditation mechanisms was also more evident.

Efforts to diversify provision and structures as well as sources of financing and to improve links between higher education, the state and private sector had occurred while increasing stress had been placed on information and communication technologies. Sub-regional and regional networks had been created to strengthen inter-African cooperation, exchange of experiences and harmonisation of policies.

But the stock-taking also revealed numerous challenges, said the conference report. One was that access to higher education remained generally very low and Africa was far from achieving the critical mass of skilled people needed to secure its development. The higher education participation rate fluctuated around 5% to 7% and was aggravated by a fairly low success rate, particularly in the first cycle of most universities.

In many countries there was persistent mismatch between the content of training programmes and needs of the market - reflected by high rates of graduate unemployment in some key economic sectors that woefully lacked qualified personnel. An imbalance also existed between numbers of students in the arts and humanities and those in science, technology and vocational streams - especially among women.

Further challenges were lack of reliable statistical data to inform policy and building an African higher education community, as well as the need to construct coherent education systems from pre-school to higher education and the inclusion of private education sas a fully-fledged component with the same demands as public education.

The conference reached conclusions in a number of areas, including: access; relevance, efficiency and effectiveness; quality assurance; research and innovation; partnerships and cooperation; creation of an African Higher Education Area; and funding.

Africa needed to increase and broaden student access to higher education with financial support for students from poor and marginalised communities and greater representation of women across broad fields of study, participants at the conference decided.

There was a call for a diverse range of institutions such as research-intensive universities, undergraduate universities, polytechnics, teacher training colleges and rural institutions. Also, private sector participation and open and distance learning should be encouraged, "with appropriate quality assurance mechanisms in place".

In terms of relevance, efficiency and effectiveness, the conference concluded that institutions should be supported to serve the priorities and needs of Africa's development through socio-culturally relevant curricula. According to the conference report:

"Development plans should match graduate output with national human resource needs in order to minimise graduate unemployment." Further, there should be technical, vocational and entrepreneurship training to prepare graduates for the world of work.

African indigenous knowledge should be included in curricula and disseminated widely, and values of democracy, sustainable development, peace, conflict prevention and resolution as well as ethical values, behaviours and attitudes should be "inculcated in students and staff".

The conference called for governance and management of institutions to be strengthened in ways conducive to "greater autonomy, transparency and accountability", for ICTs and open and distance learning to be used more widely, and for credible information systems and statistical databases to enable evidence-based planning and decision-making.

The meeting concluded that sub-regional and regional quality assurance networks should be established "to promote cooperation among African experts and common frames of reference for standards-setting and monitoring", that regulatory mechanisms for cross-border provision should be developed, and that capacity to deliver quality assurance should be strengthened.

Institutional and human capacity to generate quality research should also be strengthened through funding, training and collaboration with well-established researchers in and outside Africa. Also, quality documentary resources should be established, research and development should be promoted and rewarded - especially that targeting Africa's development problems - and innovation incubators and science parks should be created.

The report stated, that north-south cooperation should be based on strong structures and sustainable frameworks, research-driven cooperation should tackle shared regional cross-border challenges, and cooperation and partnerships should be mutually beneficial and structured to discourage the brain drain while strengthening links with the African Diaspora.

The conference called for the creation of an African Higher Education Area and regional centres of excellence to facilitate the exchange of experiences and expertise, regional student and staff mobility, joint degrees and mutual recognition of qualifications. African language teaching should be strengthened "to promote communication and regional integration".

Finally, the report said there should be a national commitment to fund higher education adequately with African governments giving priority to the sector and allocating more resources to it, while cost-sharing or cost-recovery as well as the diversification of funding sources should be encouraged.

"An African Higher Education Trust Fund should be established to supplement the efforts of African governments and institutions to expand and strengthen higher education institutions."

The conclusions of the conference helped to define a vision for, and the role and challenges facing, higher education, said the report. They would enable higher education and states "to make choices, opt for orientations and design plans of action for the development of post-secondary education in Africa in the years ahead".

Nigerian economy best for investment in Africa

ABUJA—In spite of the hype on the effect of the global economic meltdown on the nation’s economy, the Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Hassan Muhammad Lawal has said the country’s economy was strong and offered the best investment opportunity in Africa.

Dr. Lawal who stated this while welcoming the proposal by the Turkish Construction Giant TASYAPI Construction Undertaking to participate in the construction industry in Nigeria, said the fact the country is enjoying stable polity glitters its fortune as investment hobnob in the continent.

Led by the General Manager and member of the Board of TASYAPI Construction Undertaking, Mr. Goksel Bodur, the Minister assured the Turkish Firm that Nigerian economy was strong and the polity stable and offered the best investment opportunity in Africa.

He recalled that Nigeria and Turkey have a very cordial bilateral relationship and told the Turkish delegation that they had nothing to fear.

He said the coming of the Turkish company into the Nigerian construction industry would strengthen the existing cordial bilateral ties between Nigeria and Turkey.

He urged the company to comply with legal stipulations for business operations in Nigeria, and explore their areas of interest with relevant officials in the Ministry.

The Minister also called on them to participate in joint venture schemes with the Ministry to provide beautiful and affordable housing schemes for Nigerians, noting that the sector was very viable and lucrative.

He said the Federal Government will welcome the injection of international capital and investment in the housing sector to ease the problem of affordable and decent housing in the country.

Addressing the Minister earlier, leader of the Turkish delegation Mr. Goksel Bodur said they were the third largest construction company in Turkey and were currently involved in construction projects in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.


Written by Chris Ochayi
Tuesday, 03 March 2009

FURTHER GUIDELINES ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET

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Nigeria will stabilize the naira following tumble, Soludo says

Nigeria will stabilize the naira without squandering its more than $50 billion of foreign reserves after the currency fell about 20 percent against the dollar, said central bank Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

Policy makers have a “flexible” exchange-rate policy, Soludo said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Currency-trading restrictions imposed last week are “temporary,” designed to prevent the central bank from running down international reserves as Russia has done to support the ruble.

The naira began tumbling as oil, which accounts for 90 percent of Nigeria’s export earnings, started its 74 percent drop from a record in July. The central bank banned interbank trading in the currency last week, spurring the resurgence of an unregulated market where the naira’s exchange rate is about 6.5 percent weaker than the central bank’s target rate.

Africa’s biggest oil producer and the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the U.S. has enough reserves to meet all its foreign- debt obligations “even for years,” Soludo said.

Foreign-currency reserves fell 5.7 percent to $58.4 billion from $61.9 billion a month earlier, the central bank said on Nov. 7. As of Jan. 22, reserves dropped to $50.9 billion as the central bank stepped in to buy naira after it reached a record low of 161.2 per dollar in interbank trading on Jan. 13.

Liberia’s First Microfinance Institution Starts Operations with IFC’s Support

Liberia’s first commercial microfinance bank has received a banking license and is making loans to the public, boosting the country’s economy by providing finance to its smallest businesses, many of which have had no access to financial services.

IFC is a founding shareholder in AccessBank Liberia, which received a preliminary banking license from Liberia’s central bank.

IFC has supported AccessBank Liberia through every stage of its development. AccessBank Liberia looks forward to a continued partnership with IFC to increase financial services to Liberia’s smallest entrepreneurs and help support the country’s economic development.

AccessBank Liberia is the result of a two-year partnership between IFC and Liberia’s government. IFC initially worked with partners at Liberia’s Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and within the World Bank Group to build a regulatory framework based on global best practices in microfinance. IFC will continue to work with Liberia’s central bank to strengthen its capacity to supervise microfinance lending.

The successful launch of AccessBank Liberia demonstrates IFC’s commitment to Liberia and strong belief in the potential of the country’s private sector. IFC Africa strategy involve supporting Africa’s smallest businesses and entrepreneurs by helping to extend financial services to people and places where they are most needed.

AccessBank Liberia was established in partnership with Access Holding. IFC previously worked with Access Holding to establish successful microfinance banks in Madagascar and Tanzania. The European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank are also shareholders in the new institution.

Breaking Views: Microfinance Risk? What risk?

Microfinance entrepreneur Dave Van Niekerk thinks Afraica is a safe bet and is lending the money to prove it - even though his customers don't have bank account between them.

Feeling Blue?
Blue Financial Services (www.blue.co.za) began life in 2001 as a finance provider for low-income earners in South Africa unable to afford mainstream financial services. By 2003 it had expanded into Botswana and by the year ending February 2005 it saw turnover reach R80 million ($11m). A swift listing on tha Altx board of the JSE in October 2006 and capital injections from AIG and IFC among others sponsored an ambitious expansion programme that sees it now operating 173 branches across Soth Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia and Kenya, employing over 1,000 people.

David Van Niekerk founded Blue Financial Services in 2001 and has led it since as CEO. He has worked in microfinance since 1997 when he joined Unity Financial Services, later becoming a shareholder and the operational manager. Unity was eventually sold to Theta investments to become part of its microfinance stable, which was then merged into South African loans provider African Bank, to become African Bank Investments Limited. Van Niekerk held various senior management posts there until leaving for Blue. He was officially to Blue's board in October 2005.

Q. Why does your company Blue focus on microfinance for the bottom of the pyramid?

The opportunities in the microfinance area across the continent are just enormous - banks are simply not servicing this market. In Zambia for instance, you can’t get a home improvement loan or even a loan to buy a vehicle from a commercial bank - the restrictions and costs are too high.
The majority of our customers live on a subsistence living, and they don’t have a large savings base. Many of them don’t have any savings, they live from hand to mouth, so the smallest emergency expense will set them back dramatically and they need to have access to capital to fix the problem.

Q. How successful has the venture been so far?

We’re currently the top-listed company on the ALTX, with a market capitalisation of about two billion rand (U S$281m). We have strong international shareholders like IFC, part of the World Bank; AIG, one of the largest insurers in the world; Stanlib from South Africa, and the Dutch Development Bank recently also placed funding with us. We have a nice investor base, and a lot of international flavour.
We want to become Africa’s biggest credit provider, and our intention is to be in the majority of African countries in the next five years. We’ll go where others fear to tread. Our Kenyan operation is continuing despite the political chaos and will continue, and the people that pull out now are the ones that are going to get hurt.

Q. What financial services do people in this market need?

People primarily need day-to-day finance - they need salary advances, which is instant finance. Second, they need term loans, which are essentially personal loans that can be used for a variety of purposes from home improvement to an emergency. Our third most popular product is the home improvement loan. In our experience the majority of our clients don’t want loans or advances paid into a bank account, they want to receive cash.
It’s not as easy as dealing with a high-profile customer: it’s a more labour-intensive market. We spend, on average, half an hour with each customer to get things done and we pay out advances or credit on average within an hour. People need access to credit in a hurry - they’ve got jobs they’ve got to maintain, and they don’t want to go and apply and then come back for an answer three weeks later. They will often travel large distances from rural to urban areas to get finance.
We give typically home loans of up to 350,000 rand ($49,000) - an area where the banks won’t play. We’ll give education loans, home improvement loans and normal personal loans, and advanced credit with fixed repayments over time.

Q. Why don’t the banks serve these customers?

The banks are not geared for this market. It’s not their fault they’re not geared, it’s a very tough market and there isn’t necessarily all the information to hand to grant credit.
Most of this population is also unbanked. So, if you’re a bank, you’re looking at banking that person first, to get them a track record, and a history to be able to grant the credit on. Banks look at this market from a very different perspective - we don’t measure our customers’ credit ability or credit worthiness from his bank account, we look at a number of factors. Banks like to have a customer with them before they will grant credit. So you first have to bank the population - it’s a chicken and egg situation, do you bank them first or lend to them first? In Tanzania, 35% of civil servants don’t have bank accounts. They get paid by collecting cheques from banks assigned by the government, but they don’t have an account there. These are civil servants, your more educated, higher level employees - it just illustrates the limited nature of banking in Africa.

Q. What can microfinance do for economic growth in Africa?

There are many stats showing that if you lift the GDP of a country by 10%, you raise the bottom income earners by 3% - you’ve taken 3% of the population out of poverty. How do you do that? You create employment, you give potential entrepreneurs access to funding.
In Zambia, most of our customers are existing civil servants who run a small business on the sideline; where they have agricultural crops, they have a poultry business, they do repair work, and they do it through loans they get from us. We have one lady there who borrowed money from us to start a chicken business. Over a year that has blossomed and she now makes three times her teacher’s salary through her business. That’s the kind of access to finance that people require.

Q. Africa’s low-income market is perceived to be credit-risky - would you agree?

In our experience, people who have new access to credit don’t want to disappoint the lender because they’ll never be able to borrow from you again, and they want to continue that relationship. So, we have a much better payment history in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa than we do in South Africa, and strangely enough the more informal or rural the country, the better the payment culture.
It’s essentially about responsible lending - the customer has to be able to afford the instalment, so you adjust the term, the period and the value of the advance to the use of the loan to ensure they can afford it. We match the term of the repayment to the product - we won’t give somebody a school fee loan over three years, it must be a one-year loan.

Q. How do you check the creditworthiness of your customers?

We have a scoring model that we use to determine the customer’s affordability and whether he should get the loan, and that involves working with ITC bureaux and credit bureaux in these countries, often using data shared between banks and financial institutions. We base our model on factors such as length of employment, how much the customer earns, how long he has lived at the current address, and a number of different aspects of his personal life.

Q. Do you back up your loans with money management support or mentoring?

We’ve only now moved into SMME lending - small business loans - and yes, we do. There is a lot of hand-holding involved; we give the person coaching, mentoring, we manage his bank account with him for the first few months.
We’ve got education courses for our customers and education booklets to train people on budgeting, managing their money, how to use a loan, why not to use a loan, how to repay a loan, what the effects of interest rates are. This is all designed to educate our customer base, because for many this is their first experience of credit. When we opened in Malawi we were the first formal microfinancier in the market, as they had only previously had loan sharks who would break their kneecaps. They knocked us over - we couldn’t keep up with demand for the first few weeks. It’s a big education process.

Original Article: Africa Investor

Can you make money in African infrastructure?

Brian Myerson, joint chairman of PME Infrastructure Managers, says you can, and he's raised a $180m fund to prove it

Brian Myerson is a director of PME African Infrastructure Opportunities and joint chairman of PME Infrstructure Managers Limited, which will mange the funds of PME Afraican Infrastructure Opportunities. He is also CEO of Pinnacle Capital Group (www.principalcapital.com), which he founded in November 2004. Pinnacle Capital Group specialises in alternative investment management and is one of four joint venture partners in PME Infrastructure Managers.

In 1993, Myerson co-founded Active Value and was a pioneer in actvist investing in the UK, Continental Europe and South Africa. He has also been on the boards of several listed UK companies.

Once described as one of the City’s "most feared corporate raiders", Myerson has turned his activist investor mindset to African infrastructure through the creation of PME African Infrastructure Opportunities, an AIM-listed investment fund.
"Infrastructure is literally top of every African government official’s agenda at the moment," says Myerson.

He believes the current environment is perfect for private equity investment in infrastructure due to a number of factors coming into play at the same time. First, the worldwide boom in demand for mineral resources is a fantastic opportunity for Africa. But to fully benefit Africa needs the mines and supporting infrastructure - such as roads, railways and ports - to get the stuff out of the ground and shipped to places such as India and China.
Second, peace has taken hold and democracy is spreading across large parts of Africa, significantly improving the investment climate. At the same time, African governments are starting to embrace capitalism. They are desperate for inward investment and going out of their way to bring down regulatory barriers. Finally, South Africa and many other African countries have experienced extended periods of economic growth but infrastructure development has not kept up.

"Just being in Africa and knowing people in the investment banking industry means I’m being shown potential deals all the time," says Myerson. "People are desperately looking for equity investments in infrastructure-related projects and that’s why we put this fund together."

Read More..

Integrity Counts

Vimal Shah, CEO of east African FMCG giant Bidco, has built a household name by matching business sense and commitment with firm ethics. He explains his vision to Alison Lock, Africa Investors.

It isn’t an easy time to be doing business in Kenya at the moment, but Vimal Shah, founder and head of the Bidco empire, has weathered a few storms in his time. "It’s a phase we have to go through and it’s good to learn from," he says stoically of the current political upheaval.

"These are our peak months, but they’ve been the opposite," he says. "It’s disrupted the distribution systems and the way people work, and in Uganda we’re down by about 50% from normal levels."

It was a similar story 15 years ago, during the 1992 multiparty elections in Kenya, when his small consumer goods company, producing and selling edible oils, fats, soaps and margarines was in its crucial expansion stage.

"It was a very tough period for us when we started off. Interest rates went from 15% to 80% per annum. The exchange rate was also very high, worse than it is at the moment in Kenya, it was very hard to operate. Lots of companies didn’t make it."

Bidco did survive, however, and has since grown from an idea conceived out of his father’s textile business into a household name with production plants in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania distributing 26 brands across 14 countries. Shah’s ambitions for his business now stretch continent-wide: "Africa’s per capita consumption is very low. It can only go up. We have a goal - 2030 - by which time we want to be all over Africa in this industry."

Read More..

South Africa's Treasury will provide electricity utility Eskom with loan guarantees of 175.97 billion rand

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's Treasury will provide electricity utility Eskom with loan guarantees of 175.97 billion rand over the next 5 years to help it raise funds for spending requirements.

The Treasury said in its 2009 Budget Review, released on Wednesday, that the guarantees were in addition to a 60 billion rand, three-year direct loan to the company announced last year.

Eskom , which is battling to meet growing demand, plans to spend 343 billion rand over five years to boost capacity but a global credit crisis had raised borrowing costs making it different for the company to raise finance.

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South Africa invests $16 billion to create jobs, cut poverty

South Africa will invest an additional 161 billion rand over the next three years to create jobs and reduce poverty as the effects of a global financial crisis weigh on the economy.

The government has allocated 25 billion rand to provinces to expand no-fee schools, reduce infant and child mortality and improve welfare services.

The government will concentrate on its expanded public works programme to try and rein in mounting job losses, mainly in the mining and manufacturing sectors, where shrinking exports and lower commodity prices place tens of thousands of jobs at risk.

The government will spend 4.1 billion rand on the public works programme and an additional 7.9 billion rand for housing and municipal infrastructure.

A further 5.4 billion rand will go to improve the criminal justice system and increase the number of police officials from 183,000 last year to over 204,000 in 2011/12.

S.Africa ramps up spending to fight slowing growth

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa ramped up spending in its 2009 budget and cut taxes to counter a global slowdown and boost an economy seen limping to its lowest rate of growth in more than a decade.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel also delayed the introduction of mineral royalties until next year as miners struggle amid falling commodity prices and easing global demand.

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Angola's government will cut spending in 2009

Angola's government will cut spending in 2009 and bolster efforts to diversify the oil dependent economy to counter the global economic slowdown.

The government would continue to invest in key sectors like agriculture in a bid to improve the lives of ordinary Angolans -- an estimated two-thirds live on less than $2 a day.

The country's Economy minister Manuel Nunes said "We will continue to carry out efforts to fight hunger, poverty and implement key public investments."

The government, which in December forecast the economy in 2009 to grow 11.8 percent, has also said it could revise these estimates in the face of the global economic slowdown.

It has also pledged to spend $50 billion to build one million new homes for the poor in the next five years.

RAISING FUNDS FOR THE SMART & SERIOUS ENTREPRENEUR

We're expecting $400,000 in revenue this year and considering seeking outside capital for the first time. What do investors usually want in terms of percentage of ownership and rate of return?
The answer, in two words: a lot. Which makes sense, because the investors are taking a lot of risk. Out of any 10 investments, half will fail completely. Of the remaining five, two will break even and two will return a couple of times the investment. The profit needs to come from the last company, which means that every one them has to have the potential of being a home run.

What's a home run? In an angel's ideal world, an equity investment of $100,00 would turn into $1 million to $3 million in five to seven years. Angels won't complain about a lower return, however, if they can exit more quickly.

You may have to give away a large stake to get the money you need. Whereas a tech company with your level of revenue might be valued at $4 million to $5 million, a toffee maker probably is worth from $1 million to $2 million. If an angel estimates that your company is worth $1 million, then gives you $250,000, the investor will get a 20 percent stake. That's because the size of the stake is determined by the postmoney valuation of the company - in this example, $1 million plus the $250,000 investment. If you can show that sales are growing rapidly, you may have some leverage to negotiate a higher valuation. But may be not. Consumer products is a risky sector; even if your toffee is already on grocery store shelves, a larger company could drop its prices and drive you out.

Don't want to give up a large chunk of your company, only to see it sold off? You could approach friends and family members instead. Unlike a professional investor, Grandma probably can't tell you how to find a great new VP of marketing. On the other hand, she is much less likely to demand a full-ratchet anti-dilution provision. And there's something else to keep in mind. Like VCs, angels are increasingly asking for their shares to come in the form of participating preferred stock, which ranks higher than common stock. In an exit, your angels will receive the face value of their original investment plus any accrued dividends (usually worth about 8 percent a year) before you or any friends-and-family investors receive a cent. then if there's any money left over, the angels share in the rest of the pie. If the pie is big enough for all to share, great. If not? Well, you're in for an uncomfortable conversation with Grandma

This Blog Post was adapted from " Tough questions, smart answers ASK Inc." from the November 2008 issue of INC. Magazine.

USA - Breaking News

Senate passes $838B STIMULUS PLAN. The plan was approved by vote of 61 to 37.

Pres. Obama on the economy:
- hails passage of senate stimulus bill
- plan will save or create "up to 4 million jobs"
- "we can use this crisis & turn it into an opportunity"
- middle-class tax cuts " the best way" to help
- "I expect to be judged by results"

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AllTech Ventures Management Adding Value beyond Capital to Entrepreneur's Project

Good initiative to provide financial, technical and managerial support to ensure long-term success of businesses or entrepreneur's project that will ultimately provide exceptional returns for both the entrepreneur and investors.

AllTech Ventures Management is the Allegiance Technologies Limited (a subsidiary of Steersman Enterprises, Inc.) vehicle for entrepreneurship development for technology creators, and venture creation services and resources for entrepreneurs committed to bridging the gap between technical ideas and viable companies.

AllTech partner with entrepreneurs to build leading evolutionary technology companies. Founders face significant challenges today in planning, staffing, launching, and financing new ventures. AllTech understand the gap that exists between great ideas and sustainable growth companies. AllTech Ventures Management provides extensive services and resources designed to turn great ideas into scalable enterprises. Portfolio companies receive:

• Access to proven funding, team-building, and customer networks
• Hands-on consultation from our experienced venture staff
• Technical expertise, to support product development, from one of the region’s leading research institutions
• Valuable infrastructure, such as advanced computer and biotechnology labs

The AllTech team is drawn from top start-ups, high ranked corporations, and world-class universities. AllTech Ventures Management professionals have an established record of excellence in the tasks they have dedicated themselves to — from academics to operating businesses.

AllTech Ventures Management draws upon the start-up, corporate, venture capital and management consulting experience of its founders to foster successful entrepreneurship and the management of technological innovation.

AllTech Ventures Management venture building activities includes:

VentureAccelerator Program (VA)
VA is a program open to Entrepreneurs committed to creating new companies based on Allegiance Technologies innovations. Once registered into the program,
VA company founders receive intense, hands-on assistance with a range of new business processes, including market validation, business planning, staffing and initial funding through grants and/or equity investment.

Technology Advancement Program (TAP)
TAP is a venture incubator that partners with entrepreneurs to build early-stage companies. TAP expedites the maturation of young firms by providing extensive hands-on business support from experienced and entrepreneurial staff, access to funding sources, technical expertise and turn-key infrastructure.

The Technology Advancement Program (TAP) staff is comprised of seasoned veterans of technology startups and venture capital firms who will provide:

• business advice and support
• product planning
• project management
• program management
• market intelligence
• introductions
• access to funding
• other critical assistance that can accelerate the growth of your technology venture.

AllTech Venture Creation programs provide to entrepreneurs in the emerging markets of Africa. We seek opportunities in multiple industries including wireless, digital media, software and service companies.

Submit business plan: bizplan@steersmanenterprises.com

Unleashing ideas with venture capital

There are many Nigerians with fantastic ideas that require capital to start or grow their existing businesses. Accessing the needed money from banks or other financial institutions is usually difficult not because all the ideas lack credit but there are certain factors that the lenders contend with it. In addition to funds, many people with ideas also need a partner to work with.

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UBS to start Private Equity Investing

UBS Global Asset Management is planning to start a private equity investment division before year-end as an offshoot of its Infrastructure Asset Management business. The firm closed its flagship UBS International Infrastructure Fund at $1.5 billion with commitments from institutional investors globally. UBS is planning to commence a second international fund next year and is now marketing a Middle East and North Africa-focused infrastructure strategy. The firm is also looking to invest in Chinese and Latin American infrastructure later next year.

Investors accuse of banks inhibiting market recovery

As the Nigerian capital market continues to wallow in the troubled waters of prolonged loss of value, investors and operators are railing accusations against the banking sector for their die-hard posture on recovering margin loans, an instrument that played a crucial role during the market boom period. Read More

What is Private Equity?

- Private equity can be divided generally into two streams, fund investing and company investing. Fund investing is essentially one level removed from company investing, as the fund will in turn invest in underlying portfolio companies. For this reason company investing is often called "direct" investing.

- Fund investments are in turn divided into primary and secondary. A primary investment is a commitment to invest in a new fund which is as yet unformed. A secondary investment is the purchase and transfer of an interest in an existing fund from another investor.

- Direct private equity investing, i.e., at the company rather than the fund level, can be described as typically being an investment of an equity nature in a company which is not listed on any public equity market. While there are a number of possible exceptions, this definition remains broadly true.

- All private equity investing, whether at the fund or company level, can be subdivided into buyout and venture. Buyout transactions typically include debt and involve established and usually profitable companies. Venture transactions typically do not include debt and involve young, even start-up companies and some element of technological innovation.

- Fundamental to a proper appreciation of how private equity funds work is an understanding of the difference between allocated, committed, drawndown and invested capital. Allocated capital represents that part of the overall asset mix which has been set aside for investment in private equity. Committed capital is that amount of allocated capital which has been committed. Drawndown capital is that part of committed capital which has been paid on demand. Invested capital is that part of drawndown capital which has actually been invested in portfolio companies (the other main use of drwandown capital being the payment of fees and expenses).

- The bulk of private equity funds are these days typically structured as institutional limited partnerships, though other legal forms exist, including some which are quoted and/or aimed at least in part at retail investors.

- A private equity fund may be thought of as a stream of cashflows (both into and out of the fund) which are essentially unpredictable both as to their timing and amount.

- Sole investment powers rest with the GP (manager) of the fund. Thus all private equity fund investors are wholly passive in the strict legal sense.

- Fundraising typically takes at 3-year intervals, although some funds, such as secondary funds, have in recent years been investing more rapidly, and thus fundraising at shorter intervals. This phenomenon also occurred with venture funds during the bubble period.

The Foundational 12P’s of Vision Empowerment

Book Launch Campaign Plan

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Fiction & Literature marketing book

Improved Infrastructure Key To Economic, Social Progress In Africa

Addressing an African Union (AU) summit focused on enhancement of the continent’s poor infrastructure, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today that public works were the cornerstone to economic and social progress.

“Africa needs good roads, schools and hospitals; as well as reliable and efficient water services, electricity grids and telecom networks, while information and communications technologies must also be a bigger part of Africa's future,” Mr. Ban told leaders of the 53-State organization, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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World Bank Grants Nigeria $150 million Agricultural Loan

The Board of the World Bank last week in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of $150 million (N21 billion) for Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) in Nigeria. The IDA credit, which is payable in 40 years with a moratorium of 10 years, has a service charge of 0.75 per cent and it is interest-free.

The CADP is designed to strengthen agricultural production systems as well as facilitate access to markets for targeted value chains among small and medium scale commercial farmers in the five participating states in the country. The beneficiary states are Cross River, Enugu, Lagos, Kaduna , and Kano.

The CADP, which will be implemented over a five-year period, starting from April 16, 2009 and closing December 31, 2014, has two components: Agricultural Production and Commercialisation and Rural Infrastructure.

EOI for Sustainable Forestry Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa

CDC Group plc ("CDC"), the UK government-owned fund of funds, is seeking preliminary proposals from fund managers for the formation and management of a commercial fund that will invest primarily in sustainable forestry in Sub-Saharan Africa.

CDC anticipates providing up to US$100m to the selected fund, to be supplemented by additional capital from sponsors or private investors.

Download press release: EOI for Sustainable Forestry Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa

Why Venturing Abroad Still Makes Sense for Fund Investors

Some people have pulled dollars from foreign-stock funds as their performance has tanked. But thinking global is still a smart way to go.

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N500m private equity fund to be float by BGL

BGL Plc has planned to float a N500m private equity fund, which will be used to improve activities and take advantage of the various opportunities in the markets where the company operates.

In the coming months, the company would introduce three funds into the financial market. The funds, which included the BGL Infrastructure Fund, BGL Mutual Fund, Real Estate Fund.

Company Profile: Pan African Resources plc

Pan African is a mining, exploration, and development company with operations solely on the African continent with a focus on gold.

The Company was incorporated in England and Wales, as an Internet Company, called Viking Internet PLC in 2000. During that same year it was listed on AIM for the first time. After a strategic decision was made to change the core focus of the Company, the name followed. Viking Internet PLC became an investment vehicle operating under the name of White Knight Investments PLC.

On 3 December 2003, after making the tactical decision to focus on the natural resources sector, White Knight Investments PLC completed the acquisition of Mistral Resources Development Corporation (Mistral), a company with two gold projects, one in Ghana and one in Mozambique. The acquisition, in effect, constituted a reverse takeover of the Company under the AIM rules, and on 14 September 2004 the Company was readmitted to AIM as Pan African Resources PLC – a gold exploration and development company with assets in Africa.

On 27 July 2007, Pan African Resources added three gold producing mines to the portfolio of assets already held in Africa. The Barberton Mining Operations consisting of the Fairview, Sheba and New Consort mines was added to provide Pan African Resources with increased cash flow in order to move the projects in other parts of Africa forward. The transaction constituted a reverse takeover according to the AIM Rules and Class Tests with a number of conditions, which had to be fulfilled, this warranted suspension from the exchange. The company was suspended from 20 December 2006 to 4 July 2007 as a result of the regulatory approval taking longer than expected.

On 4 July 2007 Pan African, after all the conditions precedent had been fulfilled, posted a circular to the shareholders as well as being readmitted to AIM for trading. On 27 July 2007, the shareholders voted in favour of the transaction. The transaction became effective on 31 July 2007 with Pan African completing an inward dual listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s AltX as well as the last conditions of the transaction.

This transaction completed Pan African’s transformation from being a junior gold explorer to being both a mid-tier gold producer whilst still retaining its focus on gold exploration in Africa.

URL
http://www.panafricanresources.com

Mining Week Deals

This week Albidon (ALD), the mining group working on the Munali nickel project in Zambia, reached an in-principle agreement for up to US$26 million in funding from Pacific Road Resources Funds (PRRF), a private equity investment fund specialising in investing in mining projects worldwide.

Blackthorn Resources (BRL) noted that it had been granted renewal of the New Order Prospecting Rights over the Mokopane Project in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

Coal of Africa (COAL) secured a deal with Transnet Freight Rail that gives it rail allocation to transport 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of coal to the Matola dry bulk terminal.

Three Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer

One of the hundreds of business ventures launched each year, many never get off the ground.

Why such dismal odds? Entrepreneurs - with their bias for action - often ignore ingredients essential to business success. These include a clear strategy, the right workforce talent, and organizational controls that spur performance without stifling employees' initiative.

Moreover, no two ventures take the same path. Thus entrepreneurs can't look to formulas to navigate the myriad choices arising as their enterprise evolves. A decision that's right for one venture may prove disastrous for another.

Here are three questions on how to chart a successful course for your venture:

WHERE DO I WANT TO GO?
To articulate your goals for the enterprises, clarify:

- What you want personally from your business: An outlet for artistic talent? A flexible lifestyle? The immorality of building an institution that embodies your values? Quick profits?

- The kind of enterprise required: For example, if you want to sell your business eventually you'll need to build a sustainable enterprise - one that can renew itself through changing generations of technology, employees, and customers. And you'll need a company big enough to support an infrastructure that won't require your daily intervention.

- Your risk tolerance: For example, building a sustainable business entails risky long-term bets - including trusting inexperienced employees, personally guaranteeing debt, and tolerating delayed payoffs. Are your goals worth the attendant risks?


HOW WILL I GET THERE?
Successful strategies:

- Provide clear direction: Articulate the enterprise's policies, geographic reach, capabilities and decision-making framework - in concise terms that employees, investors, and customers can understand.

- Generate sufficient profits and growth: Ensure that your strategy will produce desired business results. For example, Mothers Work - which sells maternity clothing to professional women - took off only when its founder revised her strategy from mail order (which generated low profits owing to stiff competition) to retail stores.

- Serve the enterprise long-term: Anticipate future market saturation, intensifies competition, and major technological change, then ensure that your strategy accommodates those future scenarios.

- Establish the right growth rate: Plan for a growth rate that will attract customers and capital without causing excessive stress for you and your employees.


CAN I DO IT?
A great strategy is worthless unless you can execute it. To do so, you'll need the right:

- Resources: Augment your workforce with employees possessing the skills, knowledge, and values needed to implement your strategy. A strong workforce attracts customers and investment capital.

- Infrastructure: Establish the organizational systems needed to execute your strategy. For example, suppose you want to build a geographically dispersed business, grow rapidly, and eventually go public. In this case, you'll need to invest heavily in mechanism for delegating tasks, specializing job roles, forecasting and monitoring availability of funds, and maintaining financial records.

- Role flexibility: To grow your business, your role must shift from doing the "real work" to teaching others to do it, prescribing desired results, and managing the work environment.

African private equity funds will struggle in fundraising through 2009

African private equity funds will struggle in fundraising through 2009 as investors have withdrawn from the market, says Rod Evison, a managing director at UK government-backed, emerging markets-focused firm CDC.

Evison predicts that African funds launched in the second half of 2008 will struggle to reach their targets due to the current withdrawal of international investors from the market.

Gross domestic product growth in South Africa in 2009 is likely to be between 2-3 per cent, well below the 5 per cent level that was sighted in 2007.

In Nigeria in 2009, growth is expected to remain around 6 per cent.

Playing an integral role in the revival of Africa.

LONRHO is a pan-African company with a diverse portfolio of investments focusing on Africa. Its investments range from primary infrastructure to transportation, support services, hotels and natural resources.

The Company is focused on servicing Western investment and African business by investing in emerging sectors across Africa, creating hubs of business through key investments.

Lonrho is re-establishing a significant presence on the African Continent through strategic investments across sectors in fast-growing African economies.

Malawi's inflation climbed to 9.9 percent

Malawi's inflation climbed to 9.9 percent year-on-year in December from 9.6 percent in November, largely due to higher non-food prices.

Malawi's second consecutive surplus harvest of the maize staple helped to reduce inflation from 15 percent in June 2006 to single digits in early 2007.

According to the Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, he said the southern African nation would not able to meet some of its economic targets because of the global financial crisis, which may hurt exports.

Malawi relies on agriculture, primarily tobacco, for its foreign earnings and is dependent on imported oil and gas.

South Africa Telkom bought 25 percent of Nigeria Multi-Links for $130 million

South Africa's biggest fixed-line phone operator Telkom had bought the 25 percent of Nigerian firm Multi-Links it does not own for $130 million, the company said on Thusrday.

Telkom said it bought the private telecommunications operator from Kenston Investment Ltd. The deal was effective from January 21.

Telkom acquired 75 percent of Multi-Links in May 2007.

South Africa's Neotel may list on the JSE

Neotel [NEO.UL], South Africa's second-biggest fixed-line phone operator, may be listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange when the economic climate improves

Neotel, controlled by India's Tata group, is to spend up to 2 billion rand ($199.8 million) on a 5,000 km fibre optic cable network in partnership with mobile operator MTN (MTNJ.J).

Vodacom, South Africa's biggest mobile phone operator, may join MTN and Neotel to construct the network.

Neotel launched in 2006 after long delays and employs more than 900 people. It began offering telephone and Internet services to corporate clients in March 2007.

MTN and Neotel building fiber optic network for 2010 World Cup

South African cell phone operator MTN and fixed-line operator Neotel aim to build $197 million long distance fiber optic network in time for 2010 World Cup.

Reuters Poll: Kenya Economy

Analysts expect Kenya's economy to grow by 4.1% in 2009, partly due to falling prices for commodity imports. The risks in 2009 are that prolonged dry weather and a global slowdown may hurt key agricultural export sectors and tourism.

Last year’s spike in the price of crude and commodities such as fertiliser drove up Kenya’s import bill — a factor blamed for the shilling’s weakness in the second half of 2008.

Like neighbours Tanzania and Uganda, the financial crisis forced Kenya to shelve plans to issue a debut $500 million Eurobond. It is now planning to raise 18 billion shillings locally through infrastructure bonds.

Ghana has world's hottest stock exchange

About time for the continent of Africa to show the world we could compete globally. This is great to see Ghana and Tunisia Stock Market Leads World Indexes.

A year after it became widely known that Ghana had oil reserves of at least a billion barrels, the race for acreage has begun in earnest.

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Top 3 Places To Invest In Africa & Middle East For 2009

Press Release Summary: The overseas property portal Homesgofast.com which promotes real estate in over 70 countries has predicted its top three places to invest within Africa and Middle East for 2009. The portal predicts that Dubai, Egypt and Tunisia will see the most activity from international property investors.

Press Release Body: The overseas property portal Homesgofast.com which promotes real estate in over 70 countries has predicted its top three places to invest within Africa and Middle East for 2009. The portal predicts that Dubai, Egypt and Tunisia will see the most activity from international property investors.

The results come after research by Marr International Ltd the company behind HomesGofast.com. They analysed internet traffic and enquiry trends from its network of property websites.

Old favourites such as Dubai remain top of the agenda for international investors however there was one region that took the portal by surprise this was Tunisia.

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IBM's Next 5 in 5

The third annual "IBM Next Five in Five" is a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBMs Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible. Find out more at http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/26121.wss

Africa: A New Emerging Markets Frontier?

The improvement in economic policy in Africa has certainly contributing to the dynamism of domestic demand and in particular of investment, which is increasingly becoming a driver for growth in the continent.

Africa: A New Emerging Markets Frontier?

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