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Afroplan: 21st Century Coupons

1 May 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

afroplan

Afroplan is a new online and mobile platform that connects users in Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Togo with grocery store chains to learn about discounts and promotions in real-time.

Big-box grocery stores are still a relatively new phenomenon in developing countries. Until just a few years ago, the vast majority of citizens living in even the metropolitan areas of such countries did their grocery shopping in locally-run markets filled with locally or regionally sourced foods. With the increase in chain grocery stores around the world, shoppers are adapting to the “one-stop-shop” mentality, including the concept of discounts and promotions.

Coupon Cutting in the Digital Age

Afroplan is a new mobile and online platform created by Cletus Razakou, a young Ivorian-Togolese digital expert and app developer. Afroplan bridges the gap between retailers and consumers by allowing users to input their personal data, such as location and material interests, and alerting them when a near-by retailer has a discount on a relevant item. While currently present only in three West African nations, a region home to 37 or 13% of Africa’s commercial centers, Afroplan is available on all smartphone platforms.

Users are able to input all varieties of material interests, from specific food items to the latest tablet, and are able to make informed choices about the right time to buy. Razakou was frustrated by the lack of communication between retailers and consumers regarding promotions, and realized that if a platform were created where retailers and consumers could alert one another about promotions, more Africans would benefit from these bargains.

This not only benefits consumers, but benefits retailers: many stores experience financial losses due to the expiry of food-products or to the fast turnover of tastes and preferences in material goods. Stores are now able to inform a broader range of consumers about potential savings while ridding themselves of soon-to-be-obsolete stock.

Benefits for All

The platform works through a two-pronged approach: the first is that supermarkets and other retailers are charged a flat fee to post individual promotions. The second is that sellers can purchase specialized advertising space to reach a broader range of consumers, including those who have not specifically listed a product as one of their interests. This is not only beneficial for the app as a money-making scheme, but is beneficial to retailers: the more specialized advertising they purchase, the more people see their products, and the more people will be interested in purchasing a discounted item, even if they had not listed it as a preferred item. In this way, retailers are able to expand their consumer base by creating a culture of desire while preventing losses incurred from expired and unsold products.

Of course, users benefit as well: they are now able to make informed choices about how to best-spend their hard-earned money. Consumers are able to choose from eight categories of goods: fashion, home decor, electronics, beauty, telephones, infant/baby, food, and overstock items.

Initial Challenges

Creating an app for an emerging industry is not without its challenges. Razakou said that the main challenges during this process were financial. It was challenging, Razakou said, to publicize the platform to potential clients (stores) and users in an efficient manner in all three countries, because they had not yet received investments from clients. Fortunately, Afroplan’s initial success indicates that financial barriers may no longer be prohibitive for expansion.

The Future of Bargaining?

Afroplan is an interesting, innovative approach to discount consumption. Connecting users in real-time to see the latest discounts is a new way to encourage consumption in West Africa, and, for those living in areas with supermarkets that opt to work with Afroplan, could lead to substantial savings on big ticket items. Unlike shopping at a local African market, buyers are not generally able to bargain in a supermarket, which takes the power away from the consumer. Afroplan gives shoppers some modicum of power when supermarkets are growing in popularity and number. No longer do citizens of Senegal, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire have to choose between the convenience of a one-stop-shop and the potentially low prices of shopping at good-specific markets.

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South Africa’s trade balance swings to 2.92 bil rand surplus in March

29 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s trade balance swung to a 2.92 billion rand ($206.10 million) surplus in March from a revised 1.27 billion rand deficit in February, the national revenue agency said on Friday.

Exports were up by 6.3 percent to 96.13 billion rand on a month-on-month basis, while imports rose by 1.6 percent to 93.22 billion rand on a month-on-month basis, the South African Revenue Service said in a statement.

($1 = 14.1678 rand)

 

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by James Macharia)

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Tunisia’s central bank holds key rate unchanged at 4.25%

29 April 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East, Non classé

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.25 percent, the spokesman of bank said on Friday.

The bank last cut its main interest rate in October, from 4.75 percent, in a bid to boost economic growth as inflation fell. Inflation was 4.9 percent in 2015, down from 5.5 percent in 2014.

 

(Reporting By Tarek Amara; editing by Patrick Markey)

 

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Lafarge Africa to market $302 mil bond to refinance loans

28 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Lafarge Africa is in the middle of a roadshow to market a 60 billion naira ($302 million) bond programme to refinance loans at United Company of Nigeria (UNICEM), which it acquired last year, its finance chief said on Thursday.

“We are in the process of restructuring the UNICEM debt. We are in the middle of a roadshow,” Lafarge Africa Chief Finance Officer Anders Kristiansson told an analysts call.

“We want to refinance the U.S. dollar borrowings that we have in UNICEM.”

($1 = 198.55 naira)

 

(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alexander Smith)

 

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Egypt’s CIB approves extension for Beltone Financial’s offer for CI Capital

28 April 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) approved a two-week extension for an offer by Beltone Financial to acquire its subsidiary CI Capital, CI Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Mahmoud Atalla told Reuters.

The offer was due to expire on Thursday.

“CIB approved Beltone’s request to extend the period of the offer to acquire CI Capital by two weeks, ending on May 12,” Atalla said.

In February, CIB signed a deal to sell investment bank CI Capital to Beltone, a unit of billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Orascom Telecom OTMT.CA, for 924 million Egyptian pounds ($104 million) but the deal has stalled pending approval from Egyptian regulators.

Sawiris said at the time he planned to merge CI Capital with Beltone Financial, which OTMT bought last year, to create one of Egypt’s largest investment firms, but the deal has faced a series of delays.

The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said this month that the deal was delayed pending the resolution of a court case and other issues, including a violation by Sawiris of pre-existing pledges to the EFSA.

Sawiris’s bid for CI Capital was also challenged in February when a unit of the state-owned National Bank of Egypt made a counter-offer. It later withdrew.

Sawiris later said the deal was being held up by national security concerns and criticised the state for meddling in business, adding that it discouraged investors.

 

 

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Susan Fenton and Ed Osmond)

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AIG becomes Africa’s first “unicorn”

28 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

africa internet group

African Internet Group (AIG) has become the continent’s first ever start-up company to be valued at over $1 billion.

African Internet Group (AIG) has been a trailblazer since the company was launched, in 2012, and it has now become the continent’s first ever “unicorn” startup. A “unicorn” simply refers to any startup company that becomes valued at over $1 billion, of which there are only 151 across the globe.

While such success is an incredible achievement for any business, to attain such status within only 4 years of launching is an astounding feat.

It is not simply the matter of how AIG can provide employment and services in Africa, but how such success inspires others to pursue their ambitions within the continent.

A groundbreaking year

It was expected that AIG would reach its “unicorn” standing by early this year, as turnover from its numerous brands continued to soar. Then, in March, the French insurance group AXA announced that it had purchased an 8% share of the company for $326 million, and AIG finally had a valuation of over $1 billion.

Within weeks of this announcement, the organization had further investment. French mobile phone company Orange declared it had put a further $85 million into AIG, adding still more revenue to the startup’s burgeoning resources.

While Orange’s plans for cross-promotion with AIG are not yet clear, AXA will look to sell insurance packages through AIG’s largest source of income, its Jumia online retail brand.

Jérémy Hodara

Jérémy Hodara

Jumia was set-up, alongside AIG, by co-founders Jérémy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec to provide African customers with an online shopping experience that matched the one offered by Amazon to consumers outside of Africa. While primarily focused in Nigeria, Jumia has expanded into a further 10 countries.

As Jumia flourished, AIG bought up and invested in other African companies that tapped into the demand for greater services in retail and leisure. The AIG portfolio includes the likes of Hellofood, an app for food delivery and Easy Taxi, which is essentially an African Uber.

AIG now controls 71 companies across 26 nations in Africa, with 10 of these companies involved in the e-commerce sector. The growth in the e-commerce market has been “double-digit…month after month” according to CEO, Jérémy Hodara.

The keys to success

Whenever a company realizes the level of growth that AIG has experienced, it is pertinent to ask: just what did they do to achieve such huge and rapid success? In the case of AIG, there are a number of factors that have allowed the company to do something unprecedented in Africa, with two in particular standing out.

The first of these was the focus on understanding and meeting the wishes of local markets. In an interview with Forbes magazine, Hodara explained that many African consumers were unsure about online shopping and trust had to be carefully fostered. This was done by offering not only exceptional service but by giving options that would be unusual in a market like America. One example of such options was cash on delivery, as Hodara said, “That way, people have assurance they can pay when the product arrives.”

The second major differential, that marks AIG’s group of e-commerce sites apart, has been their vertical integration. While most retailers in the US or Europe would outsource delivery to an existing company, this would simply not provide the level of customer service AIG wanted in Africa. Therefore, they use their own fleet of drivers, which Hodara explains is “larger than UPS, Fedex and DHL in Nigeria.”

AIG also employs its own online marketing and IT teams, which, aside from ensuring quality control, also reduces costs. Hodara says, “We believe we need to control the value chain from A-Z.”

Online retail is an area that Hodara believes will eclipse “bricks and mortar retail” within Africa. With that in mind, it has been a huge boon to AIG to have struck deals with the continent’s largest telecommunications companies, Rocket Internet, Milicom International Cellular and MTN.

Even more tantalizingly, McKinsey Consultants predict that within 9 years’ time, Internet penetration in Africa will have hit 50%. The opportunity for even greater expansion is evidently within AIG’s grasp.

A few years ago, an African “unicorn” might have seemed a proposition almost as unbelievable as its namesake, but AIG has not just become a first, they have potentially changed forever how investors view African startups.

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Angola probes management at local unit of failed Portuguese bank: official

28 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LUANDA (Reuters) – Angola has opened an investigation into the conduct of the management at the local unit of failed Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo, Attorney General Joao Maria de Sousa said on Wednesday.

Banco Espirito Santo (BES) collapsed in 2014 under the weight of its founding family’s debts and exposure to bad loans in Angola.

Portugal’s Novo Banco was carved out as the “good bank” from BES, while its Angolan unit Banco Espirito Santo Angola (BESA) was reincarnated as Banco Economico, with new shareholders including state oil company Sonangol.

“We have opened an inquiry on Banco Espirito Santo Angola management. This inquiry was an initiative of the bank shareholders,” de Sousa told reporters.

“I can not talk about the possibility of arrests in this process because I don’t know the facts.”

 

 

(Reporting by Herculano Coroado, Writing by Stella Mapenzauswa, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Mozambique says loans to state firms necessary for security

27 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

MAPUTO (Reuters) – Mozambique provided guarantees on loans to state firms Proindicus and Mozambique Asset Management to protect strategic national infrastructure and help maintain naval equipment, a government spokesman said.

The spokesman’s comment, in a statement, followed disclosure by the International Monetary Fund last week that Mozambique had admitted to having more than $1 billion of undisclosed debt and that the two parties were evaluating the implications of the disclosure.

Earlier, a source at the Fund had told Reuters that Proindicus, owned by the interior and defence ministries and the state security services, had been lent $504 million by Credit Suisse and $118 million by Russia’s VTB.

Another loan of $535 million had gone to Mozambique Asset Management, another state company set up to build a shipyard in the northern city of Pemba, that source said.

In his statement dated Tuesday but acquired by Reuters on Wednesday, spokesman Mouzinho Saide said the government had granted a $622 million loan guarantee to Proindicus in 2013, and $535 million to Mozambique Asset Management the following year.

“We faced security threats, such as piracy … illegal immigration, drug trafficking … and illegal fishing,” Saide said after a meeting of Mozambique’s cabinet.

He said the government had also been keen to ensure protection of the assets of oil and gas companies operating in Mozambique’s exclusive economic zone.

The loans are in addition to an $850 million ‘tuna bond’ issued in 2013 and restructured last month because the southeast African nation was struggling to meet repayments.

The IMF source said the extra borrowing had pushed Mozambique’s foreign debt to $9.64 billion, a level “very close to unsustainability”.

 

(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Writing by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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World Bank and Nigerian president discuss the country’s economic crisis

27 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) – The World Bank held talks with the Nigerian president on Wednesday on how it could help Nigeria overcome an economic crisis caused mainly by a sharp fall in crude prices eating into its oil revenues.

On her second day of meetings with Nigerian officials, World Bank Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer Sri Mulyani Indrawati met President Muhammadu Buhari, who plans to stimulate the flagging economy with a record 6 trillion naira ($31 billion) budget.

Nigeria will have to borrow 1.8 trillion naira from abroad and at home to help fund the budget, which has been delayed by several months and wrangling with parliament, if it goes ahead.

Although Nigeria has held talks with the World Bank over a possible loan or credit facility in recent months, Indrawati did not address this when speaking to reporters after the meeting.

“We would like to know how we can help Nigeria to make the very important decisions, whether on micro economic policy and other sectoral policy, that will make this economy move forward to become a strong middle income country,” she said.

Indrawati, who met Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun on Tuesday, said she and Buhari discussed the government’s “commendable goals to improve tax collection and crackdown on corruption.

Nigeria’s economy, the largest in Africa, grew by 2.8 percent last year, its slowest pace since 1999.

 

(By Felix Onuah. Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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Kenya’s Chase Bank reopening after liquidity scare

27 April 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

The mid-size financial institution works to emerge from receivership after questionable loans discovered and top executives dismissed.

Chase Bank Ltd. in Kenya is reopening its branch offices and resuming online and mobile banking services this week as the troubled financial institution seeks to emerge from receivership with new management and a new majority owner.

The bank was abruptly closed by Kenyan regulators in early April after its chairman and managing director resigned because an audit revealed that the bank had loaned $80 million to its own directors and had allowed its bad debts to rise to $100 million.

Kenya Commercial Bank Group Ltd., Kenya’s largest bank and a Chase rival, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Chase Bank on April 19 and began reopening its branch offices and restoring online services.

Chase is the country’s 11th largest bank with assets of $1.4 billion. Chase has more than 40 branches and 100,000 customers. It is a mid-sized bank and has a mix of low and middle-income customers. Chase also operates Islamic banking services for wealthy business customers who trade with companies in the Middle East.

Chase, the third Kenyan bank to falter in less than a year, had reported a profit of $23 million in 2014 but recorded a loss of $7 million last year.

Social media rumors cause panic

The bank was closed on April 7 after hundreds of panicked customers made a run on the bank based on rumors of problems on social media, according to the Central Bank of Kenya, which took control of the bank after financial discrepancies emerged.

The trouble began after Chase released two conflicting financial statements. An audit uncovered hidden loans to bank directors. Chase dismissed the two bank executives and police have ordered their arrest.

The Central Bank of Kenya said in a statement that Chase “experienced liquidity difficulties” and was not able to meet its financial obligations after panicked customers began making large withdrawals.

Two other banks fail

Chase is the third Kenyan bank to be placed in receivership because of liquidity problems and questions of mismanagement within the past year as regulators have stepped up scrutiny of the country’s financial institutions.

Central Bank Governor Patrick Ngugi Njoroge

Dubai Bank, a small institution, was taken over by regulators in August and Imperial Bank, a midsize financial institution, collapsed in October. Police in March also ordered the arrest of the chief executive officer and five other executives at a fourth bank, National Bank of Kenya, where an audit was scheduled.

Central Bank governor Patrick Ngugi Njoroge has tightened regulatory control on the nation’s banking industry since he took office in July. Earlier this year, Njoroge ordered a moratorium on new bank licenses until an investigation into the health of the country’s banks is complete.

Too many banks for population size

Bank consolidations are likely going forward as Kenya has an oversupply of financial institutions.

Kenya, with a population of 40 million and a $61 billion economy, has more than 40 banks. By comparison, Nigeria, with more than four times the population and an economy nine times as big, has 22 banks.

This large number of financial institutions creates a competitive environment in which banks may take unwarranted risks. At the same time, Kenya has traditionally allowed banks to maintain relatively low reserves, making smaller banks vulnerable to runs.

One banker said the central bank should force banks into “arranged marriages” to winnow and stabilize the banking sector. Banks that refuse should lose their licenses, according to John Gacora, managing director of Kenya’s NIC Bank.

Public confidence at stake

Hoping to calm pubic fears, Njoroge said the central bank would offer support to any bank that suffered liquidity problems through no fault of its own.

Njoroge said he hoped the Chase re-openings also would restore public confidence in the country’s banking system, which he said was stable in spite of problems at the four banks.

Kenyan regulators said they received offers from six local banks and two foreign banks for Chase.

The central bank cited KCB’s reputation as a strong bank with long experience in Kenya in favoring the larger bank’s acquisition of Chase.

Opening Chase under the management of KCB “will improve the profile of the troubled lender by capitalizing on the sound reputation of KCB,” said Eric Munywok, an executive at Sterling Capital. “If KCB wasn’t involved, a lot of depositors might have fled.”

New owner must retain customers

Financial experts said Chase customers would be well served by KCB Group, which would gain as well.

Maurice Oduor, an investment manager at Cytonn, said the main question is whether clients will stay with the bank following the scare in early April. “Clients may go away unless KCB ups its game in client service.”

The new management has a year to demonstrate it can emerge from receivership, In the meantime, the central bank has placed a moratorium on payments to Chase creditors of Chase Bank until the new team comes up with a plan for dealing with the bank’s debts.

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