All Articles Tagged "african business"
New Obstacle for Wal-Mart in S. Africa Deal
(Wall Street Journal) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. threatened Monday to walk away from a proposed $2.4 billion merger with South African retailer Massmart Holdings Ltd. if procurement conditions are imposed after recommendations by the country’s competition commission. The latest obstacle comes after the commission listened to evidence from the independent Competition Tribunal of South Africa and concluded that recent job losses at Massmart were linked to the merger and recommended that if it gets approved, Wal-Mart must rehire the 503 workers that were laid off. It also recommended that Wal-Mart be forced to honor union agreements for three years and sign on to conditions for its purchasing pacts. The commission previously had said it would give its unconditional approval to the merger, which would see Wal-Mart get a 51% stake in the South African company. ”We cannot accept procurement conditions,” the legal team representing the companies said on the final day of the tribunal hearing Monday. “It will force the merging parties to appeal the conditions or walk away from the deal if imposed.”
Somali Women Pursue Entrepreneurial Dream
(Inter Press Service) — Deeqo Jibril is always on the go. Whether she is tending to her four children or teaching breast cancer awareness classes to women in her community, the Somali-born community organiser is always up for a new challenge. Recently, she gave up her job as a social worker to focus full time on the Boston-based Somali Community & Cultural Association, a nonprofit Jibril founded a year ago to support Somali-American women. The organisation is located inside a 3,000-square-foot retail building in Dudley Square, the heart of Boston’s African American community. Jibril is also a building co-landlord and currently subleases space for six businesses. ”Most of my tenants are from Africa and the West Indies,” Jibril said. “I started subleasing the building two years ago so other entrepreneurs could have a chance at the American dream.”
Rwandan Business Pins Hopes on Death
(New York Times) — Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida Nyirababeruka, who founded Pompe Funebre Twifatanye, a funeral home, after the 1994 genocide. Ms. Nyirababeruka, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran a tailoring business before 1994. The genocide claimed her husband and several family members, as well as her home and business. When it was over, she had to locate her three children, now in their 20s. “After the genocide, I started from scratch,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. A United Nations contact helped Ms. Nyirababeruka get a job as a cook, and she began to rebuild her life in Kigali.
Japan Eager to Check China's Rise in Africa
(Christian Science Monitor) — Japan’s diplomatic corps flooded Dakar, Senegal, this week. At a dome-topped conference hall not unlike the United Nations General Assembly, Japan’s top dignitaries addressed leaders of Africa’s 53 nations and laid out Japan’s proposal for a permanent African seat on the United Nations Security Council. Since the mid-1990s, Japan’s government has sought a permanent seat for itself at the all-powerful deliberative body, but Asian rival China has used its clout as one of the five permanent members to block the bid. Now, for the second time in decade, Japan is trying to dilute China’s power on the council by demanding the UN pull up a chair for Africa.
Adult Videos a Poverty Exit Strategy in Africa
(The Root) — I have been dreaming of becoming a Adult Videos actor since a very young age. I live in the Ivory Coast and I am looking for a producer or a director to sign a contract and to be in a movie … I am relying on you to make my dream come true. This is the advertisement that André (not his real name), a 21-year-old, posted on the Internet with his email address and cell phone numbers. This computer science student in Grand-Bassam — a town some 25 miles from Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast — is not unusual in Africa. Hundreds of young men and women in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere are all trying to join the pornographic-film industry in Africa or abroad.
The world pornography market (adult video networks, pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, websites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys, magazines and DVDs) is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars, according to Dan Miller, managing editor of XBIZ Premiere, a trade publication for the adult entertainment industry. Warning that exact numbers are difficult to acquire because the vast majority of companies in the sector are privately owned, Miller says, “America’s market is by far the largest in the world in terms of scope and revenue. It far exceeds the market in Europe. Based on the information we have, I would estimate the market in the U.S. to be in the neighborhood of $7 billion.”
Atlanta Delegation Visits Liberia to Drum Up Business
(GlobalAtlanta) — A delegation of businesspeople, academics and pastors traveled to the western African nation Liberiain March to lay the groundwork for future collaborations between Atlanta and the country. ”There is a significant relationship between Georgia and Liberia that we want to continue to build on,” said Cynthia Nash, honorary consul general of Liberia in Georgia, noting that the ties began with freed African American slaves that emigrated to the country. Supported by a movement to return freed slaves to Africa, Liberia was founded and colonized 1821-22. Ms. Nash told GlobalAtlanta that her office is working to expand Georgia’s relationship with the country through technology transfers, research partnerships and tourism.
African Bakery Expands With High-Powered Help
(Minneapolis Star Tribune) — Francesco O’Ryan, owner of the East African Bakery, launched his company in 2000 to satisfy a craving, shared by tens of thousands of other African immigrants in Minnesota, for the breads he grew up eating. Ethnic markets soon snapped up East African Bakery’s spongy injera bread — a staple eaten with meat or vegetarian sauces at most meals by Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis — and its sweet hambasha bread, often eaten as a snack or used for sandwiches, O’Ryan explained. The flatbreads also are served in some restaurants and are on the shelves at the Seward and Wedge co-ops in Minneapolis and the Holy Land deli. Now O’Ryan’s focus is to expand to mainstream grocery stores throughout the Twin Cities, a push that may begin in a month or two, and eventually to other cities and states. And he’s getting some high-powered help from food company giants Cargill Inc. and General Mills. O’Ryan turned to the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that offers consulting, training, business planning and financial assistance to minority-owned business.
10 Powerful People in African Business
Business in Africa has been booming and the movement is being led by a new league of African businessmen. These men are building pan-African companies with regional and global presences. They are considered some of Africa’s most esteemed voices in the business and political spheres. Ultimately, they are helping to shape the economic future of the continent. Here are 10 of those bold and fearless leaders according to a recent list compiled by Forbes:
Cyril Ramaphosa
Chairman, Shanduka Group, MTN
Ramaphosa is considered one of South Africa’s most respected business and political figures. He is the founder and executive chairman of the Shanduka Group, a black owned and managed investment group with investments in resources, financial services, property, energy and beverages. Recently, his company acquired the South African operations of McDonalds.
Ramaphosa is committed to South Africa’s development in the areas of education and enterprise development. The Shanduka Foundation focuses on these areas through the initiatives of the Adopt a School program and the Shanduka Black Umbrellas.
Zimbabwe Kicks Out Foreign Miners
(Wall Street Journal) — Zimbabwe has given foreign mining companies until Sept. 25 to sell majority stakes to local investors, the first tangible step in implementing an indigenization law it enacted in 2008. The law has emerged as a touchstone for a national debate over how to revive a resource-rich but cash-poor economy that has been buffeted by a decade of political turbulence. Affected firms have until May 9 to submit plans to the government and have until Sept. 25 to finalize the sale of the stakes, according to the published regulations, which say mining companies can sell to only a few designated government entities or set up share-ownership programs for employees. The regulations affect all foreign-owned firms in the mining sector with a net asset value of $1 or more. Previously, firms with a net asset value of less than $500,000 were exempt. President Robert Mugabe’s government said it would target the mining sector first, and other sector-specific thresholds will follow.
Commerce Dept. Pulls Back in Africa
(allafrica.c0m) — Less than two years ago, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made headlines as they landed in Accra, Ghana. The July 2009 visit was historic, coming only months after Obama was sworn in as our first African-American president. For some Americans, media coverage of the trip was a wake-up call that showed Africa as a coveted partner for businesses from South America, Europe, the Middle East, India and, especially, China. Responding to text messages submitted by Africans, the president recognized Africa’s strategic and long-term commercial importance to American business. “I want to find ways that we can further open up trade relationships between the United States and African countries,” he said. Many had assumed that Obama as president would go first to Kenya, the home of his father. But Ghana was rewarded instead because it was a shining beacon of African democracy and, with recent discoveries of offshore oil, an increasingly valuable economic partner to the United States.
