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Kenyans use spirit of ubuntu to scoop top prize
A Kenyan social enterprise, Honeycare Africa, was named the top small- to-medium-sized business in Africa in Johannesburg last week. This is the first time in the history of the Africa SMME Awards that a non-South African company has been named the winner. According to Professor Nicholas Biekpe, head of the Africa Centre for Investment Analysis (ACIA) at the University of Stellenbosch Business School and host of the event, the emergence of Honeycare as the winner is indica...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Electronic Currency: Malawi
In mid-September, cell phone users on Malawi’s Telecom Networks (TNM) received a text message saying With TNM you can now recharge your friends mobile using TNM direct top up service. Just use the following command: *112*phone number*recharge pin*. Its that easy What does this mean? Well, TNM users, for the most part, are on a pay-as-you-go system--when you need more minutes, you buy scratch-off cards with a code to punch in for additional credit. TNM has also lo...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mo Ibrahim: Revolutionising communications in Africa. His tool? The mobile phone
For a man who describes himself as a former Marxist, Mo Ibrahim has clearly made his peace with the forces of capitalism. The chairman of the fastest-growing mobile phone group in sub-Saharan African talks with relish of breaking down the Arab business world’s wariness towards his continent, of cellphones making the internet virtually redundant. Few inventions can boast as dramatic an impact on society as the mobile phone in Africa. Embraced there long before it became commonplac...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Drug Prices in Kenya Sickeningly Expensive
Kenyans pay up to 17 times the internationally-recommended prices for some branded medicines, and up to three times for their generic forms, reports Dagi Kimani COMPETITION AMONG KENYA’S 600-odd registered pharmacies as well as a vibrant drug manufacturing sector have failed to lower the cost of medicines in the country, says a Ministry of Health survey. According to the survey, Kenyans pay up to 17 times the internationally-recommended prices for some branded medici...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Shea butter boosts W. Africa business, by Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
The shea nut trees grow easily in the savannah belt that separates the Sahara desert from the verdant, tropical coast of West Africa. They only start to bear fruit after 20 years, reach maturity after 45, but can go on producing for two centuries. Several countries in the region export 60,000 to 80,000 metric tonnes of shea nuts each year, but the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that could increase ten fold. Shea nuts could be big business for West ...
- Source
- Reuters
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mozambique President Armando Guebuza Unveils The Newly Branded ’Zambique’ Cashew Nut for Export to U
Effective U.S. Foreign Assistance Program Underscores Benefits of Win-Win Public-Private Linkages with African Entrepreneurs President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, leading U.S. government officials, and TechnoServe today unveiled a newly branded cashew nut, Zambique, for its first export sale to a U.S. buyer, Suntree. This brand launch and new business-linkage demonstrates how targeted U.S. f...
- Source
- CSRwire
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Are you ready for Globalisation 2.0?, by Tim Weber
In Nigeria, the average mobile phone generates $55 (?29.15) in revenue every month. In Rwanda and Mozambique, two of the world’s poorest nations, it is $20 (?10.60). It’s not that Africans are mobile phone crazy. Rather, many phone owners make money by reselling airtime to their local communities. Full article available here. ...
- Source
- BBC News
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A model for water provision in urban Africa?
The bulk of the US $300 million invested in Senegal’s water partnership has come from World Bank loans made to the Senegalese government. And the World Bank seems pleased with its project, noting in an evaluation report in December that the Senegal case is regarded as a model of public-private partnership in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the main criticisms of utility privatisation is that once the water system is being run to make profits, price hikes usually follow which hit...
- Source
- IRIN
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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