By CLAIRE MARTIN The New York Times Last year, when Tunde Adebayo needed three inflatable bouncy castles for KidzPlay, his event-planning business in Lagos, Nigeria, he turned to an online shopping service called MallforAfrica. “In Nigeria we’re sometimes skeptical about online businesses,” Mr. Adebayo says. So he tested the service two years ago with an...
By Simeon Kerr, Financial Times Ashish Thakkar is wearing large sunglasses as he swings open the doors to his 73rd floor penthouse in Dubai’s financial district. Casually turned out as if he were in Silicon Valley, the African-Indian entrepreneur apologises for any suggestion of affectation — the dark glasses are to protect his eyes after...
Washington ( WDN) A delegation led by Somalia’s Prime Minister Omer Abdirashid Ali, who is currently touring the gulf oil rich country of Qatar, on March 17, 2015 has attended a bilateral business agreement between the two countries , in particular the signing of Qatar Airways to start flight to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia....
By Wendell Roelf Ethiopia’s leading private oil marketer plans to build a $5 billion (R62bn) refinery within 10 years to meet the growing demand for refined products in a region experiencing fast economic growth. A refinery could compete with imports from India, the Gulf and beyond, and also help African countries extract more value from...
By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – Wider smartphone and Internet access has allowed technology firms to reach remote African farmers with apps providing veterinary diagnoses, crop planting guidance and virtual marketplaces. Human food production will need to increase 70 percent by 2050 to meet rising demand and Africa is home to more than half of...
By Ece Toksabay and David Dolan ISTANBUL- (Reuters) – Selling fruit from a cart in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul hasn’t made Mehmet rich, but he’s adamant his modest savings won’t ever see the inside of a bank. “Getting paid interest is a sin,” he said, piling bunches of grapes onto a rusty set of...
By Africa correspondent Martin Cuddihy The tourism industry on the coast of Kenya is struggling, after high unemployment rates and terrorist attacks helped slash hundreds of millions of dollars from the country’s GDP. The tourism industry on the coast of Kenya is struggling after high unemployment rates and terrorist attacks helped slash hundreds of millions...
Paul Wallace and David Malingha Doya Nairobi INVESTORS skittish about Nigerian assets as plunging oil prices pummel the nation’s economy are casting their eyes across the continent to Kenya. Yields on Kenya’s 10-year Eurobonds, which were 128 basis points higher than comparable Nigerian debt when they were sold in June, are now 57 basis points...
Source: International Bank of Somalia International Bank of Somalia International Bank of Somalia (IBS), one of only a handful of commercial banks operating in the war-torn country, wants to raise $10 million in a public share offering that would be the first of its kind since civil war broke out in 1991. Somalia does not...
By Tom Jackson Cape Town Over 30 million Africans live in the diaspora. They sent almost $40bn (£26.5bn) home in 2014, a figure that is likely to grow significantly in the coming years. While north African countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Egypt receive the most, east African countries are particularly dependent on remittances. The...