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Nine international “Top Employers” have operations in Africa, Middle East

14 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

top employer africa

The annual certification recognizes more than 1,000 companies globally for creating good working conditions.

The Top Employers Institute has recognized nine companies that do business in Africa and the Middle East for providing a good working environment for employees.

AbbVie, Becton Dickinson, DHL, Old Mutual, EY, G4S, JTI, Orange and Unilever were certified as top employers, according to the 2016 ratings by the Netherlands-based institute.

The Top Employers Institute evaluates companies at their request, considering companies that operate in at least five countries and have at least 2,500 employees. The institute audits human resource practices to determine whether a company is fostering a good work environment for employees.

The certified organizations have created forward-thinking human resources practices and work continuously to improve working conditions and provide employees opportunities to develop, according to the institute said.

Abbvie pharmaceuticals recognized

Abbvie operations in South Africa, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates were among those recognized as Top Employers.

Abbvie is a Chicago-based pharmaceutical company that has 15 manufacturing facilities around the world and sells products in more than 170 countries. The company employs 28,000.

The instituted cited Becton Dickinson operations in East and West Africa as well as in Zambia as top employers.

Becton Dickinson is a medical technology company whose products include laboratory instruments, medical devices and diagnostic products. It has operations in more than 40 companies.

DHL cited in 13 countries in region

The institute also certified DHL operations in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Angola, Gambia, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

DHL, based in Redwood City, California, is a global delivery service and the world’s oldest international air express company. With more than 325,000 employees worldwide, DHL delivers to 70,000 locations in 220 countries.

EY, or Ernst & Young, was cited as a top employer including businesses in Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The company, based in London, offers tax, audit, business risk, technology and security risk services, and human resources services worldwide. One of the Big Four accounting firms, EY has more than 200,000 employees and operates in 150 countries.

Security company G4S tapped

The institute recognized G4S operations in Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Zambia.

G4S is a security services company headquartered in London. Active in 110 countries, G4S has 623,000 employees.

JTI, based in Geneva, was recognized as a top employer in Dubai. JTI is a tobacco manufacturer with about 25,000 employees.

Old Mutual was recognized as a top employer for operations in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Old Mutual provides banking, investment, asset management and insurance in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. The company, based in London, has about 61,000 employees. Nearly half its holdings are in South Africa, where the company was founded.

Orange business services highly rated

Among Orange outlets recognized were operations in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali and Senegal as well as Egypt and Jordan.

Orange is a business services corporation with offices in 160 countries. Orange specializes in information technology and communications support to businesses in more than 200 countries.

Mobinil was recognized in Egypt. Mobinil, a subsidiary of Orange headquartered in Cairo, provides wireless telecommunication services in Egypt. Mobinil was rebranded as Orange in March.

More than 1,000 companies certified

Unilever was recognized for operations in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

The company, which produces and distributes food and household care products with brands that include Lipton, Dove and Suave, employs 172,000 people.

More than 1,000 organizations received the Top Employer rating for 2016, the institute said.

The institute also certified eight companies as Top Employer Global 2016. They are

Saint-Gobain, DHL Express, Dimension Data, JT International, Orange, TATA Consultancy Services, Technip and Valeo.

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Gulf airlines stage price war

12 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Featured, Middle East

emirates

Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways cut regional airfares as they seek to increase their market share.

The Arab Gulf’s three major air carriers are slashing their fares as they compete for market share in the region.

With the help of low oil prices, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have cut fares on some Middle Eastern routes by as much as 20 percent compared to a year ago.

Qatar Airways has also sharply cut fares to Europe and India, while Etihad fares to Europe rose more than 20 percent, according to data from the travel portal Cleartrip.

Qatar cuts across the board

Qatar made cuts on fares to Europe and Indian and within the Middle East. For example, the average price of a ticket to Europe on Qatar airlines was $540 in 2016, compared to $660 a year ago, a decrease of 18 percent. The average roundtrip fare to India decreased by $50 to $300, a decline of about 15 percent. The average price of a Qatar ticket in the Middle East declined 20 percent to $290.

On Emirates, the average roundtrip ticket to destinations in the Middle East dropped by more than 17 percent to $390. Emirates’ average fare to Europe edged up slightly from $850 to $875 while fares to India dropped by $30 or nearly 9 percent to $310 in 2016.

Etihad also cut fares within the Middle East by 12 percent, from an average of $375 for a roundtrip ticket in 2015 to the current average of $330. However, Etihad’s average fares to India declined only slightly, from $385 in 2015 to $380 in 2016. Etihad fares to Europe jumped from $660 to $805, an increase of more than 21 percent.

Low oil prices fuel fare drop

The airlines are taking advantage of the slump in oil prices to improve their market share on many routes where they compete head-to-head in the region, according to Amit Taneja, Cleartrip’s chief revenue officer.

Oil fell to a record low of less than $30 a barrel in January, a fall of more than 70 percent, before rallying to its current $40 per barrel. OPEC producers hope to stabilize the price at $50 a barrel this year.

At the same time, Taneja said, higher demand for travel from the United Arab Emirates to Europe has tempered airlines’ willingness to drop prices as significantly as on Middle East routes.

India demand grows

Demand for travel from the United Arab Emirates to India, a major market for Gulf carriers, has also increased. However, competition from non-Gulf carriers has put downward pressure on fares, according to Taneja.

Emirates is the largest and oldest of the three Gulf airlines. It is based in Dubai with a fleet of 250 aircraft and in business since 1985. Qatar Airways, based in Doha with a fleet of 153 aircraft, began operations in 1994. Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, is the newcomer, launched in 2003 with a current fleet of 121 aircraft.

The three are competing to become the dominant international hub in the Gulf region.

Qatar opened Hamad International Airport in 2014, with a capacity to handle 30 million passengers annually. Abu Dhabi International said it would open a new Midfield Terminal, which also will have the capacity to serve 30 million passengers a year, in 2017.

Competition from Turkey

But they also face a rival in Turkey, which will open a new international air hub next year. Turkish Airlines plans to spend $3.7 billion this year to grow its fleet to 261 aircraft.

The new airport in Istanbul, with investment of about $35 billion, will be able to accommodate 150 million passengers a year and has parking spots for 500 aircraft. That would give Turkey the potential to more than double the number of passengers it saw at Istanbul Ataturk Airport last year.

Ataturk Airport served more than 60 million passengers last year, while Dubai handled 78 million. Dubai expects to handle 85 million passengers this year.

Bertrand-Marc Allen, the president of Boeing International, called Turkey “a significant opportunity” with its capacity, location, population and likelihood of growth in the coming decades.

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Top Cities for Expatriates in Africa

11 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

Every year, Mercer Consulting publishes a list ranking the quality of life for expatriate or highly-skilled immigrants based upon surveys conducted in cities around the world. Mercer conducts these surveys in order to provide employers, and employees, with a comprehensive analysis of the world’s largest cities to use when, for employers, considering sending employees abroad or, for employees, relocating. The surveys include questions on a variety of metrics including personal safety (new in 2016’s survey), political stability, banking security, quality, accessibility and cost of healthcare, standards of education and history of natural disasters, to include a few.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, cities in developing countries and regions struggled to break into the upper levels of this ranking. Considering the current global political, social and economic crises, it is no wonder that peaceful, wealthy Vienna was ranked the number one best city in which to live, followed by Zurich, Switzerland, Auckland, New Zealand, Munich, Germany and Vancouver, Canada. The Mauritian capital of Port Louis, was the highest ranking African city at 83rd out of 230 cities. Mauritius is a wealthy island off of Africa known for its pristine beaches, booming tourism industry and high standards of living.

South Africa: The Next (three) Best Things

South Africa claims the next three best-ranked African cities: Durban at 85th, Cape Town at 92nd and Johannesburg at 95th. Durban is a beautiful oceanside town and is the largest city in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Kwa-Zulu Natal is home to some of Africa’s largest game reserves, and, in 2015, Durban was ranked Africa’s number-one best city in which to live, citing the availability of high quality housing and variety of leisure activities. Cape Town, 3rd for Africa, is perhaps best known for being the port closest to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held captive for 27 years during the anti-apartheid movement. Cape Town has a large tourism industry, internationally renowned medical school and university, and an abundance of outdoor activities. Johannesburg comes in at a surprising 95th: once ranked the seventh most dangerous city in the world, Johannesburg is no longer a leader in violent crime, but whether this speaks to the increasing danger of the rest of the world, or an increased rule of law, is unaddressed. While the overall standard of living has increased in South Africa, endemic poverty and widespread, systematic racism are still enormous barriers to improvement in the life of the average South African.

Victoria, the capitol of the Seychelles islands, is ranked 97th overall. A major exporter of items that are in high demand in western countries (such as coconut oil and vanilla bean), Victoria has a variety of business opportunities and is relatively safe.

The next three African cities are Tunis, Tunisia (113th), Rabat (116th) and Casablanca (126th), both in Morocco. Ironically, Tunis was the focal point of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, a widespread series of protests against the low standards of living, poor economic opportunities and repressive government. Morocco boasts a large expatriate community across tourism, import/export industry and banking. Rabat and Casablanca are relatively safe, although less so for women, and provide wealthy workers with many opportunities for travel within and outside of the region.

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South Africa’s MTN offers $1.5 bil to settle Nigeria fine

11 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) – South African telecoms firm MTN Group has offered $1.5 billion to settle a much larger fine from Nigerian regulators for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered SIM card users, a document seen by Reuters shows.

Africa’s biggest mobile phone group has been in talks with Nigerian authorities to have the $3.9 billion penalty reduced and last month made a “good faith” payment of $250 million towards a settlement.

In a letter to the Nigerian government from MTN’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the company proposed a 300 billion naira ($1.5 billion) settlement to be paid through a combination of government bond purchases, cash instalments and network access to the Nigerian government.

Holder said in the letter, dated Feb. 24, the offer “ultimately is in the best interest of the FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) and MTN Nigeria.”

Johannesburg-based MTN said on Friday talks with the Nigerian government were ongoing.

“MTN has previously advised shareholders not to make decisions based on press reports and MTN again urges its shareholders to refrain from doing so,” it said.

Nigeria’s telecoms ministry had no immediate comment.

In its annual results last week, MTN said it had put aside $600 million to cover a deal over the fine, which was originally set at $5.2 billion on the basis of charging $1,000 for every unregistered SIM card.

Nigeria imposed a deadline on mobile operators to cut off unregistered SIM cards, which MTN missed, amid fears the lines were being used by criminal gangs, including militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

The fine, equating to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital expenditure over the past five years, came months after Muhammadu Buhari was swept to power after an election campaign which pledged tougher regulation and a fight against corruption.

Shares in MTN, which makes about 37 percent of its sales in Nigeria, were little changed at 147.53 rand at 0839 GMT, after rising more than 2 percent shortly after the market opened.

($1 = 199.0000 naira)

 

(By Camillus Eboh. Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala in Johannesburg; Writing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Mark Potter)

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Old Mutual says to split up, asset management sale eyed

11 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual Plc said on Friday it would split up into its four main businesses, strengthening expectations of the sale or listing of its UK asset management arm.

The break-up of the company, which is listed in London and Johannesburg and has insurance, asset management and banking operations, follows a strategic review announced in November, when former Standard Bank executive Bruce Hemphill took over as chief executive.

Changes to the regulatory environment in Europe and South Africa have made the company, which started out in 1845 as a life insurance firm in Cape Town, more complex to run, it said in a statement.

“It’s a costly structure with insufficient synergies to justify those costs,” Hemphill said.

Old Mutual’s solvency capital ratio under new European rules was 135 percent, lower than many of the other major insurers that have reported earnings so far this year.

The group said it had not yet decided how it would go about spinning off the units but that it expected the separation to be largely completed by the end of 2018.

The company’s four units are Old Mutual Emerging Markets, Old Mutual Wealth, Nedbank Group and OM Asset Management.

It said it planned to cut its majority stake in Nedbank to a minority one.

Old Mutual’s shares have risen since Sky News reported the break-up plans last weekend, and said private equity firms had tabled a multi-billion pound cash bid for Old Mutual Wealth.

Analysts said the unit would be worth 3-4 billion pounds.

The group said its pretax adjusted operating profit for 2015 rose 4 percent in reported currency terms to 1.7 billion pounds ($2.4 billion).

($1 = 0.7004 pounds)

 

(By Carolyn Cohn and Noor Zainab Hussain. Additional reporting by Soumithri Mamidipudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Mark Potter)

 

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South Africa’s rand firms to 2-1/2-month high after ECB cuts rates

10 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand rallied to its firmest since December in afternoon trade on Thursday after the European Central bank cut interest rates and stepped up its stimulus program.

By 1305 GMT the rand had firmed 1.12 percent to 15.0300 per dollar, its strongest level since Dec. 21.

“This means there is more cheap money going around and the risky assets are loving it,” said chief currency at Bidvest Bank Ion de Vleeschauwer.

 

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)

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Bint el Sudan, a fragrance across the sands of time

10 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

bint el sudan

A small factory on northern Nigeria continues to produce a legendary perfume despite the ravages of the jihadist group Boko Haram.

While the ravages of Boko Haram have shut down much of the industry of northern Nigeria, production of a legendary perfume continues uninterrupted at a small factory in Kano.

Bint el Sudan, known for nearly a century as the “Chanel No. 5” of Africa and once the best-selling perfume in the world, is known for its musky fragrance and oil, rather than alcohol base, which made the scent popular with Muslims.

Bint el Sudan means “Daughter of Sudan” and a girl wearing the traditional topless garb of 1920s Sudan appears on the label.

Most of the fragrance – about seven million small 12-mililiter bottles a year – is produced by a dozen workers from inside a larger, ultra-secure bunker of a factory that also manufactures pesticides, detergents and disinfectants.

Shipments across the northern Africa

About 80 percent of Bint el Sudan is produced in Kano for shipment to local markets across the region and as far away as Libya. Factories in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe produce the rest of the perfume, primarily for sales in their own local markets.

That the Kano production continues is quite a feat, given the devastation Boko Haram has brought to the region. In Kano, once a great Nigerian industrial center and historically a hub of regional trade, most factories are shut down today, victims of waves of attacks by jihadists since 2012. As it is, business executives in the city have been forced to use armored cars and bodyguards for security.

Stephane Malaussene, owner of the Gongoni Company, which produces the perfume under a franchise arrangement with U.S. owner International Flavors & Fragrances, said production has actually increased from about 500,000 bottles 10 years ago. Production in Kano began in 1952.

“It’s a pride to produce and distribute this fragrance that crossed the sands and time,” Malaussene said.

Fragrance dates to 1920s Sudan

Bint el SudanBint el Sudan was created in the 1920s when, according to legend, fourteen leaders of Arab tribes approached a British traveler and adventurer, Eric Ernest Burgess, in Khartoum and asked him to create a fragrance. The perfume was developed in six months in the lab of Burgess’ employer, W.J. Bush & Co. in London.

Burgess also photographed the Sudanese girl who appears on the label, topless wearing a traditional elephant-hair red skirt and bracelets on her ankles and wrists and her dowry and purse around her neck. The girl also appeared on posters used to market the perfume throughout the region in what was the first advertising campaign for a perfume at the time.

It was sold in markets rather than stores at low prices and for a time was used as currency.

Staple for cosmetics and other uses

Widely used in courtship and circumcision rituals, Bint el Sudan became a staple of women’s cosmetics, especially after the wave of national independence and modernization that began in the 1960s.

With its mix of jasmine, lilac and lily scents, it is also used as a skin moisturizer and bath oil.

The fragrance is a top seller on the continent, particularly in western, central and northeastern Africa while women in the eastern and southern regions prefer western scents.

Boko Haram destroys local industry

The continuing production of Bint el Sudan belies the devastation of industry in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest industrial center and its largest producer of textiles, tanning, footwear, cosmetics, and ceramics.

Industrial activity was reduced by 50 percent since 2012, according to Ali Madugu Safiyanu, vice president of the Association of Industrial Nigeria. Boko Haram undermined the whole economic and agricultural ecosystem in the Kano region as well as Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, Safiyanu said.

The region has seen bloody raids on markets, mosques and universities by Boko Haram, which is allied with the Islamic State, have left hundreds dead as well as abductions and forced marriages.

A military coalition of soldiers from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger has driven Boko Haram into the far northeast of the country but the group continues to attack.

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Zimbabwe needs up to 8% growth in next decade to revamp economy

10 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe needs an annual growth rate of up to 8 percent over the next 10 to 15 years to revamp its economy, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Thursday, in addition to other reforms agreed with an International Monetary Fund delegation.

On Wednesday, Chinamasa said President Robert Mugabe had agreed to major reforms, including compensation for evicted white farmers and a big reduction in public sector wages as the government tries to woo back international lenders.

Chinamasa said that new loans from international lenders will only come if the drought-stricken Southern African nation showed the capacity to introduce a raft of economic reforms.

“Any reform agenda is painful. The journey we have travelled has been difficult and will remain difficult,” Chinamasa told a forum discussing Zimbabwe’s future prospects.

Chinamasa and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya are leading Zimbabwe’s re-engagement with international lenders and the finance minister has previously said he has had to overcome divisions within Mugabe’s cabinet to pursue that process.

Zimbabwe is trying to emerge from more than a decade of isolation that saw the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank freeze lending in 1999. Western powers imposed sanctions on Mugabe’s government over allegations of vote rigging and human rights abuses. Mugabe rejects the charges.

The IMF executive board will on May. 2 consider Harare’s plan to repay $1.8 billion in arrears. Chinamasa said he was seeking clear commitments from the IMF that clearing the arrears would trigger new financial aid.

“As I stand before you I am in buoyant spirits because I know that the measures that we are taking will exploit and realize the full potential of this country. We just need an uninterrupted process of reform,” said Chinamasa.

 

(Reporting by Macdonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia)

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African telecom towers firm IHS to buy Nigerian rival

10 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Pan-African mobile telecoms infrastructure group IHS has agreed to buy Nigerian rival Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN) for an undisclosed sum, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Issam Darwis, who founded IHS, said Africa’s largest tower company, which builds and leases mobile telecoms towers in five countries across the continent, will acquire 1,211 towers spread across 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

IHS will acquire the entire issued share capital of HTN, IHS said in a statement.

“IHS will have full operational control of the underlying business and will market independent infrastructure sharing services to mobile network operators and internet service providers in Nigeria,” it said.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016, it said.

IHS already has around 23,000 towers across Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Zambia and Rwanda. It has around 15,000 towers in Nigeria, its biggest market and Africa’s most populace nation.

“We remain committed to the Nigerian tower market where coverage levels are yet to mature and explosive data growth continues,” Darwis said. “This is a statement of how confident we are in the Nigerian economy.”

Africa’s biggest economy and top oil producer is flagging due to the fall in crude prices and restrictions imposed by the central bank to defend its currency.

Building and maintaining mobile communications towers in Africa tends to be more expensive than in other regions because of security costs and electricity shortages, while revenue per user is often lower.

These costs have prompted many mobile operators to sell or lease towers to specialist companies such as IHS, which can reduce building and maintenance costs by hosting multiple tenants — mobile operators and internet providers — on the same towers.

 

 

(By Alexis Akwagyiram. Editing by Susan Thomas)

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Ghana consumer inflation slows to 18.5% in February

9 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s annual consumer price inflation fell to 18.5 percent in February from 19.0 percent the month before, helped by the stability of the local currency, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

Consumer prices could fall further if the cedi holds steady and in the absence of any external shock, deputy government statistician Anthony Amuzu told reporters in Accra.

After weakening nearly 4 percent in January on seasonal high corporate dollar demand, the cedi, has remained firm in recent weeks. It was trading at 3.8500 to the greenback on Wednesday, down 1.3 percent year-to-date.

“The stability of the cedi was the major driver in February,” Amuzu said, adding that it drove down prices of imported items.

The commodities exporter is implementing a three-year aid programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in an attempt to remedy fiscal problems including inflation persistently above government targets.

The IMF projects that inflation will peak before slowing to around 10 percent at the end of the year and the central bank has been tightening monetary policy in order to contain it.

Analyst say the easing in February CPI showed that the central bank’s tight monetary policy had been effective.

“The deceleration in year-on-year inflation also relieves the pressure on the Bank of Ghana to raise interest rates in the near term,” said Standard Chartered’s head of Africa research Razia Khan.

Year-on-year non-food inflation for February, which comprises imported goods, was 24.5 percent, compared with 25.5 percent the month before. Food inflation was 8.3 percent, from 8.2 percent in January.

 

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Toby Chopra)

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