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Alamine Ousmane Mey: Cameroon’s economic mastermind

5 June 2016 Comments (1) Africa, Featured, Leaders

Alamine Ousmane Mey

Cameroon’s Finance Minister has energized the country’s economy through reform, infrastructure developments and his own determination.

Cameroon’s Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, has been lauded as a brilliant fiscal tactician, a shrewd manager and a facilitator of new business enterprises. Earlier this month, Mey was recognized as Finance Minister of the Year at the prestigious African Banker Awards 2016. The honor is well deserved. While not everyone will have heard of Mey, he is the mastermind driving Cameroon’s fast developing economy, and his recent award gives credit to an exceptional career.

Education and banking success

Born in Kousseri in 1966, Mey grew up in an upper-middle class family. He later gained a solid financial education by studying abroad in Germany, Belgium and Turkey. Mey studied electro-technical engineering alongside banking, which bestowed him with a keen understanding of modern economics.

Upon his return to Cameroon in 1993, Mey obtained a job with the CCEI Bank, which later evolved into Afriland First Bank. He rose swiftly through the ranks, and in 2003 he was appointed General Manager of Afriland First Bank, which was the only non-foreign owned private financial institution at the time. Mey quickly ushered in a new era of success at the company. Afriland had a key role in financing the Cameroonian economy and driving consumer spending. In 2010 the bank issued the equivalent to US$ 567m in credit, an astronomical amount by regional standards. Under his leadership the bank saw rapid growth, and quickly became one of the major banks in the region that still enjoys a strong international reputation to this day.

Government career

Mey’s successes at Afriland bank did not go unnoticed. In 2011 he was offered the role of Minister of Finance, despite no previous government experience. He quickly undertook a range of financial reforms which increased real term government revenues and cracked down on misspending. He also refocused government investment towards sustainable projects that have driven growth in the economy.

Mey has carefully borrowed money to finance key infrastructure developments outside the capacity of the government budget; this has been a particularly astute move, as the loans have been used to target under-developed sectors of the economy with high potential gains, both in monetary terms, and for the people of Cameroon. He highlighted his strategy saying, “Yes, we will borrow, but we will focus on life-changing projects.” In doing so, Cameroon has grown its economy, while comfortably servicing the loans which kick-started the process.

Lom Pangar Pipeline modification

Lom Pangar Pipeline modification

Mey has since has earned a reputation as an expert in putting together and overseeing ambitious projects incorporating multiple parties. One such example was the recent completion of the $86m Lom Pangar Pipeline modification. This complex infrastructure scheme was cost-shared between the Cameroonian government, the World Bank, and the contractor COTCO who undertook the project. The scheme has been heralded as a great success as it was finished safely, on time and under budget, while indirectly benefiting thousands of local Cameroonians. Christian Lenoble the general manager of COTCO, praised the efficiency of the working relationship: “The collaboration between the project and government was superb. To me, it was a key factor in our success in completing our work on time and within budget.”

Now versus then

Before Mey took the helm, Cameroon’s growth stood at a middling 3.3% in 2010. Since Mey took over, the economy has grown year on year and is estimated to hit 5.5% for the financial year 2015. This performance is particularly impressive when considered against both international and regional trends. Many of the world’s nations have struggled to achieve any meaningful growth since the financial crisis. Similarly, many of Cameroon’s neighbors have posted disappointing growth figures in the years 2014 and 2015, largely due to falling global commodity prices or political instability. Cameroon has bucked both of these trends, thanks in part to its economic diversification. Initially, strong commodities exports allowed Cameroon to shrug off the worst of the global financial crisis, but Mey realized the economy was still vulnerable. Under his counsel, the government implemented diversification schemes to develop the construction, agriculture, transport and energy sectors. The fruition of these strategies has allowed Cameroon to largely sidestep the commodities crash, marking another success for the Minister of Finance.

No one would disagree that Cameroon still faces big challenges ahead, but Mey is not one to rest on his laurels. He is committed to meet a range of development targets set by the IMF, and given his past achievements, there is a very good chance of him doing so. Ultimately, the future of Cameroon’s economy appears to be in the strongest of hands.

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Sub-Saharan Africa’s most debt-laden nations

4 June 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

african-currencies

Sub-Saharan Africa’s most indebted countries are revealed in the latest figures from the World Bank and the IMF.

Recent figures from the World Bank and the IMF provide a clear picture of which of Africa’s sub-Saharan nations have the highest levels of debt. The figures illustrate national debt as a percentage of the nation’s GDP, as opposed to ranking nations on absolute debt. This is an important distinction, as it accounts for how significant the effect of a government’s debt could be to its economic future.

For example, South Africa has the largest overall debt in absolute terms – with a huge 158 billion euros worth – but it also has a much larger GDP then most African states. This larger economic base ensures that South Africa is not even in the top ten of the most indebted nations.

From the highest debt to the lowest

The ten most debt laden countries of sub-Saharan Africa (with the percentage of their GDP that debt represents in parentheses) are Eritrea (126%), Cape Verde (122%), Gambia (97%), São Tomé and Príncipe (92%), Congo (79%), Ghana (74%), Malawi (73%), Angola (70% ) and Seychelles (65%).

In contrast, the ten nations with the lowest percentage of their GDP represented as debt were Nigeria (13%), Botswana (16%), DR Congo and Swaziland (20%), Equatorial Guinea (25 %) and the Comoros (29.2%), Namibia (31%), The Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso (33%) and finally Mali (35%).

Across the entire sub-Saharan region this averaged out at a 52% debt to GDP ratio, which actually compares favorably with Europe, in which the average is 92%.

What is clearly of significance is the degree to which an economy is likely to grow, and thus manage its debt without it becoming crippling. Moreover, what is sustainable for a developing nation is markedly less than it is for a developed market. While 40% is generally seen as manageable for emerging economies it can be significantly higher for large, more established markets.

The good news for Africa as a whole is that average GDP growth is second only to South Asia. A more cautionary view would note that borrowing is also growing quickly, and unforeseen humanitarian disasters, such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak, can have huge economic fallout in developing markets.

Changes to old debt and shaping the future

The single largest impact on the once debilitating debt levels in Africa occurred with the 1996 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). The internationally developed program was managed by the World Bank, in conjunction with the IMF and the African Development Bank. The initiative was further bolstered by 2005’s Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, which was managed by the same trio, and led to 35 sub-Saharan nations eradicating over $100 billion of external debt.

While this allowed many nations to invest in social infrastructure, for others it simply meant writing off overdue debt, but did not create new streams of revenue for investment. Whether a nation wrote off old debt, or managed to put new resources into development, all of the affected nations profited in one key area.

According to Marcelo Guigale, a World Bank director, this universal benefit was that governments learnt “discipline” in spending, and had to have clear plans on reducing poverty. As such, Guigale stated African governments had “more money to spend and new offers to borrow—this time from private bankers.”

The concern in some quarters is that borrowing in some nations is outpacing growth, and this could lead to a return to pre HIPC levels of financial burden. An article in The Economist warned that, although Africa’s economies were growing quickly, “growing fastest of all is debt—personal, corporate and government.”

However, a trio of The World Bank’s own economists feel confident that “overall, governments have been borrowing responsibly”, and the IMF have ensured that guidance is being provided to help nations manage their debt constructively.

It is important for nations to be prudent with their borrowing, but even with some worries over rising debt, most experts feel genuine progress has been made.

Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development summarized the nature of Africa’s debt situation, saying, “Despite misgivings about certain countries, Africa is still in a fundamentally different place than it was 20 or 30 years ago when old debts were taken on.”

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Kori-Odan: Making Africa’s mark on the video game industry

3 June 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Leaders

Olivier Madiba

A Cameroon developer is one of the first to focus a game on the mythology of the continent.

With the release of one of the first African-themed computer video games produced on the continent, Cameroon’s Olivier Madiba, 30, hopes to shake up a global industry dominated by white game developers who create white heroes.

Madiba’s company, Kiro’o Games, launched the PC-based “Aurion: Legacy of Kori-Odan,” in April on the United States platform Steam to positive reviews.

To Madiba, it represents more than a video game, Madiba said.

“Our dream is bigger than that. We want to build a bridge between the gaming industry and Africa,” Madiba, the co-founder chief executive officer of Kiro’o Games said.

Game based on African myth

Based on African mythology, the game features Enzo Kori-Odan and his wife, Erine Evou, as they try to take back his throne in a land called Zama after his brother-in-law stages a coup and ousts them.

The game was a long time in the making. He first started talking to friends about making a game about Kori-Odan in 2003 while he was studying software development at the University of Yaoundé.

His father worked at a sugar factory and ran a video store in Douala when Madiba was growing up and video games became his obsession. However, since Cameroon has no video game industry, he could not find a career path in his own country.

After graduating from the university with a degree in computer science in 2009, Madiba taught himself how to create games on the internet and decided to start his own company, based on the Cameroon capital, Yaoundé.

Screenshot from Aurion

Screenshot from Aurion

Investors, Kickstarter campaign fund effort

Madiba launched the studio Kiro’o Games, in 2011, and his team began working on the game in earnest.

The studio, which has a staff of 20 artists and developers, raised $270,000 from investors and more than $55,000 in a successful Kickstarter campaign, which enabled them to complete the project.

When he was young, he had noticed few games had African heroes and the continent was often shown through the lens of war and crisis. Most games feature white heroes because most game developers are white, he said.

Game takes place in the future

Madiba wanted to change that with the story of “Aurion: Legacy of Kori-Odan,” an epic 2D adventure in which the usurped king and queen fight to regain their thrones from the evil brother-in-law.

While the story comes from African myth and tradition, the name adds an element of science fiction: The game takes place in a world that exists 10,000 years in the future on another planet far away from Earth.

Using African characters rather than the typical warriors and magicians of role-playing games, Madiba said he wanted to create a world where “Africa was on top.”

Other Africa studios are developing video games. In Nigeria, Maliyo develops smart phone games with African stories. In Kenya, Leti Arts creates puzzle games with local narratives.

Game captures international attention

But Aurion has captured much wider attention, enough that the U.S. State Department invited Madiba to participate in the 2016 Mandela Washington Fellowship Program, which is part of the Young African Leaders Initiative launched by President Obama.

In addition to being a Kickstarter Staff Pick and being featured in The Wall Street Journal, the game is receiving very good reviews, complimenting both the design and the storytelling.

It is available only for PC but Madiba hopes to develop it and other games with animation for mobile platforms as well. With low labor costs in Cameroon, he believes he can create a profitable business creating games that also tell the African story.

He hopes the game will help foster more diversity in games and create a better understanding of Africa. “Being African isn’t based on your color … It’s how you see the world and what you want to share.”

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An African first, Casablanca hosts the Smart City Expo

2 June 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

smart city expo casablanca

Casablanca became the first African host to the Smart City Expo this month.

Casablanca achieved a first for Morocco and Africa when it played host to the international Smart City Expo between the 18th and 20th of May this year. While it was a new experience for one of Morocco’s most famous cities, it was also an event with a new focus. The Casablanca Smart City Expo saw a subtle shift in discussions, away from simply technology, to greater emphasis on environmental issues and sustainability.

Technology will always be at the forefront of events such as this, but it appears there is now a commitment to finding ways to use technology for more than just human convenience.

An eclectic and international event

The motto for the May 2016 event was “An open city, inclusive and innovative,” and with guests from around the world, working across multiple platforms, it appears to have lived up to its theme. Academics, researchers and business representatives attended various meetings and workshops, while several events encouraged members of the public to participate too.

Hundreds of participants from across the globe attended the 2 day event, which featured an opening speech from Casablanca’s mayor, Abdelaziz El-Omari, and was officially endorsed by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

Casablanca was chosen to host the event by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, while the various exhibitions and public events were organized by Casablanca Events & Animation.

The project saw more than 80 speakers host talks on the integration of technology into city life, and how it can be utilized to improve various aspects of urban living. The four main themes for discussion were Sustainability and Resilience, Mobility and Urban Planning, Collaborative Cities and Citizen Engagement, and Technology and Green Development.

Engaging the local citizenry was a clear priority at the Expo as four major grassroots events looked to attract public involvement. These involved free city-wide Wi-Fi for 4 days, a University showcase of public-centered smart initiatives, a public showing of a new film Human, and a 3 day event for people to try and create new apps.

Aawatif Hayar, Cluster Smart City director of Casablanca, spoke about the significance of reaching out to the people of the city, saying, “This participatory approach will allow us to build projects and interconnected sites in order to gradually develop a smart city…capable of transforming societal and economic challenges into business opportunities.”

Smart Cities aim green

Technology and environmental issues are often viewed as separate or even clashing entities. However, looking at how intelligent use of technology could help solve environmental issues was a key aspect of the Smart City Expo.

Creating technology that cleans up urban environments is intrinsically linked to human welfare, and the desired experience of living in a smart city was central to many platforms.

One of the opening speeches came from Uwe Seidel, a senior consultant from German VDIVDE, who highlighted his views on the cities of the future saying, “The most important thing in building smart cities is to put people first.”

Experts such as Boyd Cohen, urban climate strategist and Entrepreneurship & Sustainability professor at EADA Business School Barcelona, were among other key speakers who reiterated the desire and need for technology to create greener solutions.

Many of the most successful green urban advances have come from Scandinavian cities, and the Expo allowed examples from places such as Finland to be presented to the multinational event.

The United Nations’ Chief of Sustainable Lifestyles, Arab Hoballah, highlighted how integral technology could be for future urban life, saying that cutting edge technology can “be used for achieving sustainability and quality of life.”

Importantly for the African representation in Casablanca, this was an area that Mr. Hoballah felt African nations could make huge progress in. When asked about African nations’ ability to follow in the footsteps of Scandinavia, Hoballah said, “African cities can, and probably will, develop fast, because of digitality…because of smart phones, the kids have the world in their pockets.”

It is fitting that as technology spreads rapidly in Africa’s developing markets, an event that placed great focus on utilizing this for human well-being was held in a major African city. Africa’s first Smart City Expo has come to a close, but after such a large and successful event, it would be no surprise if the continent plays host once again in the near future.

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Will Kenya’s ambitious Konza City project prove doubters wrong?

1 June 2016 Comments (1) Africa, Business, Featured

konza city

The construction of Kenya’s Konza City has begun, but will the city of the future fulfill its designers’ grand dreams?

When Kenya announced the hugely ambitious Konza City project in 2008, it was seen by most as a statement of intent by the President Mwai Kibaki. While the president is no longer in power, his dream of creating a tech-based city of the future, which would create a wealth of jobs, has remained at the forefront of Kenya’s Vision 2030 project.

The project aims to develop a strong, adaptive economy that turns Kenya into the leading tech nation within Africa. Konza City is to be the jewel in the crown of the project, and a city quite unlike anything seen on the continent before.

A grand vision

The main goal of the Konza City project is to revolutionize Kenya’s economy in terms of how it is structured, and how it develops throughout the 21st century. Kenya is one of Africa’s largest economies, with a GDP of $65.89 billion in 2015, yet up until 2013 75% of national assets were still in agriculture. As economies evolve, it is common for a shift into less production based means, and for a nation with Kenya’s climate it makes sense to redirect assets into areas that do not rely on uncontrollable forces of nature.

With Nairobi already a blossoming tech hub, the Kenyan government wants to create a designer city that both entices foreign investment and fosters local talent. Konza is to house 1,500 students and have an additional 35,000 homes for people working across its offices and research centers. The “Silicon Savannah,” as it has been dubbed, aims to be a hotspot of tech startups, and a regional base for global giants such as Google, Samsung and IBM.

What made the Konza City idea so bold was that this was not to be a glorified office space, but a genuine city with homes, schools and families being raised there. A bustling metropolis, built from scratch, is unprecedented as a feat of engineering and marketing, so unsurprisingly there have been obstacles.

The site of the future city

The site of the future city

Concerns over infrastructure and timing

The biggest worry for potential investors has been whether this new city can guarantee the everyday essentials that allow a place to run. The utilities that most of us take for granted – water, electricity and transport – are vital for a city to function.

Hamish Govani, Chairman of Kenya Association of Property Developers, voiced his concerns over power reliability earlier this year, saying, “By the time we come in to begin developments, we want to have guarantee of world-class infrastructure. We have big multinationals looking to set foot at Konza, we need proof that we will not be let down.”

The very same concerns were expressed by a project assistant for the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Kenya, Mr Thilo Gabriel Vogeler, who is interested in investing but said, “Since frequent power blackouts are a common occurrence in Nairobi, I would like to know how they will ensure reliability and constant supply 60km away.”

Other doubters have felt that construction would not begin in the time delineated under the plan, and it would therefore become an economic burden. However, the government has moved to silence such concerns by beginning the ground breaking for the first plots of land last month.

Moving forward

It appears that the Konza City project is truly beginning to move.

Konza Technology City Development Authority (KoTDA) CEO Eng John Tanui told reporters earlier this year that the first parcels of land are ready for investment now and that “we are completing the design for the provision of utilities including waste water management, street lighting, water, power and Internet systems to ensure that these are laid out in the right way.”

The project has interest from Blackberry, IBM, Google and many other multinational companies, but it is also ensuring that locals have an opportunity to invest and become part of something unique. ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i spoke at a news conference in October last year saying, “Together with the National Treasury, I am working on a Public Private Partnership framework that will see government source for funds to support local investors.”

If the project is a success, then 200,000 jobs could be created by 2030, and by 2018 the city aims to account for 2% of Kenyan GDP. With groundbreaking for construction already underway, investors from far and wide will be watching with interest, to see if the Konza City dream becomes a prosperous reality.

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Private equity investments grow across Africa

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

africa private equity

Africa’s burgeoning economies increase their growth, as private equity investor’s step up their interests.

Private equity investments look set to transform Africa, as the continent’s economies continue to grow and adapt. Emerging markets have long been of interest to private equity firms, and in the space of a few years Africa has transformed its image among investors.

One of the most important factors, for attracting foreign investment, has been a general decline in the armed conflicts that have mired much of Africa’s recent history. While there are ongoing issues, every region of Africa has seen nations emerge with increased stability, and thus increased potential.

Interest at an all-time high

The emergence of a well-developed private equity industry in Africa is not entirely new, but it is only in the last 15 years that things have taken off. This growth has continued year on year, with last year’s fundraising, transactions and exits hitting exciting highs, with impressive levels of upturn. A 2015 EY appraisal of private equity developments in Africa, found that fundraising had risen by 24% on the previous year, and transactions by 90%.

Africa has begun to shape a new image for itself in the eyes of foreign investors, and one of the clearest signs of this change is that foreign direct investments (FDI) are increasingly targeted at consumer facing businesses. Previous investments (in many African markets) would look to commodities that could be extracted and exported. In contrast, many investors are now allocating funds to enterprises, which provide immediate services to local people.

Additional good news for Africa is that the second largest source of FDI across the continent as a whole is intra-African business. African nations are investing in private equity inside the economies of their neighbors, which helps create a cycle of growth within the continent.

The raw figures provide a good picture of just how strong private equity is within Africa and how much it is likely to grow. According to African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, fundraising in 2015 was the highest it had been in years, with a total of nearly $1.9 billion.

Bloomberg reported that through the course of last year, private equity firms amassed an investment pot of $4.3 billion for ventures within African business, and the range of these investments continues to broaden.

Exits also hit a 9 year high, and while financial services remained the largest sector at 24%, exits in goods and services, industrials and healthcare were significant in number.

Graham Stokoe, EY’s Africa Private Equity Leader, stated that, “The last two years have seen an increase in the number of PE firms making exits in the African markets. PE firms clearly are focused on adding value to their portfolio companies and are diversifying their approaches to help achieve this.”

The future looks promising

Given the growth across fundraising, transactions and exits, private equity in Africa is patently in strong health. What promises to help build upon this strong base is the sheer scale of new investment packages that have already been raised and designated for Africa.

KKR & Co are one of the world’s largest private equity firms, and they have allocated $100 million for Africa in 2016. Senior advisor, Dominique Lafont, told Reuters, “We want to use Nigeria as regional base and springboard for West Africa…we are not limited to one sector.”

Such funds are impressive, and yet they are dwarfed by other revenue streams that are set to find their way into the African markets. The Dubai based Abraaj Group, has raised $375 million for private equity investments in North Africa for the coming year. The exciting aspect to Abraaj’s presence is that they have already raised a huge sum, for Sub-Saharan Africa, which when combined with their latest fundraising, will total $1.4 billion of African investments.

A rival to Abraaj, the Helios Group, have already assigned $1 billion for Africa, taking the continent’s private equity industry onto a new, unprecedented level of investment.

Across the industry, there seems to be a climate of positivity, and an appetite to capitalize on the continent’s new, developing markets.

Michael Rogers, EY’s global deputy private equity leader, summed up the optimistic feelings, saying, “I think increased investment from local and foreign investors across (a) wide range of industries… is really driving the story, and PE is becoming an important part of that narrative.”

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Christo Wiese, 74 year old billionaire, as driven as ever

30 May 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Leaders

Christo Wiese

The South African billionaire, Christo Wiese, continues to grow his business, with a commitment to long held principles.

Christo Wiese is one of the richest men in Africa, with a fortune valued at $6.5 billion, but despite being 74 years old, he is working as hard as ever.

In the summer of 2015, Wiese bought the British gym chain, Virgin Active, for $1 billion from Richard Branson’s Virgin group. Not finished with his British spending spree, Wiese also snapped up the high street fashion giant New Look Clothes for $1.23 billion. While evidently eager to expand, what is the business ethos of Mr. Wiese, and how did he become such a prosperous figure?

A family of entrepreneurs

Christo Wiese was born in a small town called Upington to parents who had nothing like the resources he enjoys today, but who did have the entrepreneurial spirit which has governed his life. Wiese’s parents were a huge influence on his attitude to business, and he is on record as saying, “I’ve had mentors in business, people from whom I have learnt a lot, but at the end of the day, my greatest inspiration came from my parents.”

These parents bought a share in a small retail outlet called Pep Stores in 1965, and although Christo had trained as a lawyer, he decided to join the family business. As the business grew, Wiese had brief forays into politics and the diamond industry, but returned to the original Pep Stores Company as its executive chairman in 1981. The following year, he changed the name to Pepkor, and the company began its rapid, extensive growth.

Ethics and necessity

Two of the key areas that have helped Wiese grow his brands (while finding widespread support in his home country) are the ethics behind his companies, and his focus on providing affordable products. In a nation where the ugly memory of Apartheid casts its shadow over much of recent history, Wiese’s business ethics are quite telling.

During the height of the Apartheid regime, Wiese broke the law by refusing to have racially segregated bathrooms at his offices and factories. His policies of inclusion rather than segregation have continued to be a hallmark of his employment record.

In 2013, he spoke to South African media saying, “We employ over 150,000 people who are very representative of the demographics of South Africa. We have people from different backgrounds, religious affiliations, race groups and countries, and they all work together to make the business work.”

Perhaps the key to his success has come from investing in products that people need, such as affordable clothing. This tied in with his ethical stance on Apartheid, as in the early days of Pepkor, low priced clothing was sold in poor rural areas, where most black people were able to buy new clothes for their families for the first time.

Continuing to expand

Alongside his recent British acquisitions, Wiese is the major shareholder in African retail giant Shoprite, has a 20% holding of the huge furniture company Steinhoff, and is the majority shareholder in private equity firm Brait. However, Wiese is focused on developing his trade across Africa, as he continues to promote trade and opportunities in his home continent.

As well as providing extensive training programs for potential entrepreneurs, Wiese is determined to open up more markets for African producers, and to make his homeland a greater part of his company’s trade. Wiese said, “Today, 80% of the fresh produce we sell in Zambia comes from Zambian farmers, because we created a market for them…Our African business is still only 15% of our overall business. In the next 10 or 20 years we believe that it will be more than 50% of our businesses.”

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Tidjane Dème : the face of Google in Francophone Africa

29 May 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Leaders

Tidjane Dème

Meet the face of Google in French-speaking Africa

Senegalese Tidjane Dème, 41, is working with Google to unlock affordable broadband access for Africa. Dème has worked for the giant global internet search and advertising giant since 2009.

Google recruited him to be its lead for Francophone Africa in Dakar well before most Africans had regular access to the internet, he noted, and Google understood that.

“Their approach was: ‘In a few years, Africa will be ready. It will be a big business opportunity for us,’” Dème recalled.

He said Google had also decided it didn’t want to recruit an expatriate for the job. Instead they were looking for someone with tech skills, with knowledge of the region and experience working in it.

“For them, that combination was necessary to develop their activities in the region.”

Tech education, experience

With European studies in technology, a stint working in Silicon Valley in the United States, and a record of entrepreneurship in Senegal, Dème fit the bill.

After high school in Dakar, a scholarship enabled him to continue his studies in France. He studied science at the prestigious Ecole polytechnique in Paris, where he discovered programming and computer studies. He went on to do specialized studies in telecommunications and information technology at the National College of Advanced Techniques, also in Paris.

From there, Dème worked as a consultant to Cap Gemini, one of the first information technology firms in France.

At Cap Gemini, “I was often the youngest, most inexperienced in a position where I could learn a lot from my colleagues,” he said.

Witness to the dot.com boom, bust

Then he joined a U.S. telecom start up with an office in Paris, which led to a job in Silicon Valley and a close-up view of the internet boom of the early 2000s.

“There was still a lot of energy and innovation in the Valley, but the bubble was about to burst,’’ he recalled.

After a few years, he returned to Senegal to start his own company. Actually, he attempted to start several companies but none took off.

Learning from failure

The lesson of failure? “It was necessary for someone like me who wanted to do entrepreneurship, innovation. You come out of a certain academic background and an early career that makes you believe you belong to a certain elite. It is a very good thing to discover your limits and learn to work with people who complement you.”

He also worked as a tech consultant in Dakar. In this role, in 2008, he met Google officials who wanted to launch a push in Africa from an office in Dakar.

Skeptical of Google

“At first I was very skeptical because I figured they would immediately try to market their products,” he said. “But they just asked what can be done to develop a dynamic, open internet for Africa.”

That convinced him to take the job.

Since joining Google, Dème has focused on fostering a technological community that can develop local content and supporting development of startups that ultimately will drive internet access and adoption. He also directs a Google team working on encouraging infrastructure investment in Africa.

Expense is a barrier to access

According to Internet World Stats, less than 30 percent of the population of Africa had access to the internet in 2015.

A May report by the World Economic Forum said affordability of broadband and equipment was a major hurdle to greater internet adoption in Africa.

Other obstacles are lack of skills and lack of understanding of the economic value of internet access, the report said. Finally, many African countries would require massive investment in infrastructure to assure affordable access to citizens.

But Dème is helping to change that. He sees a bright technological future on the continent – Africa will surprise the rest of the world.

“People underestimate the capacity of Africans … to use tools solve problems in their lives. It is the same for the internet and for every new technology that comes along.”

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The World Bank names Mauritius as Africa’s top business destination

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

business mauritius

An annual report from the World Bank has picked out Mauritius as the best place to conduct business in Africa, so just how has the island nation achieved this?

Mauritius has been named as Africa’s most business friendly country by the annual “Doing Business” report from the World Bank. The report seeks to help potential investors (and governments) identify how easy it is to create startups and investment opportunities across the globe. While Africa as a continent does not fare particularly well, Mauritius came in at number 32 on the global list, which made it the comfortable winner in Africa.

The top 5 African nations showed a diverse geographic spread, with Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa and Tunisia following, in that order, on the heels of Mauritius. A quick glance at Africa’s worst performing nations would provide no surprises, as Eritrea propped up a bottom 5 of the DRC, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Libya.

Any nation struggling with armed conflicts and political unrest is not going to provide the ideal base for creating new business opportunities, so while the bottom of the table comes as no surprise, what is it about Mauritius that has seen it take the top position?

Stability, simplicity and low taxes

Mauritius is first and foremost a fairly safe country. Not only does it not suffer from the unrest of many African nations, but it has low crime rates, and a small population which is governed by what the Economist Intelligence Unit called Africa’s only “full democracy” back in 2011. While this may no longer be fair to other nations, it is clear that Mauritius is a society with low levels of corruption and good personal safety.

Prime Minister's Office in Mauritius

Prime Minister’s Office in Mauritius

In addition to this, the Mauritian government has gone out of its way to reduce the amount of red tape involved in starting up a business. This ongoing strive to create a business-conducive atmosphere is highlighted by the 2014/15 changes to building permit rules, in which the process was streamlined to allow new ventures to start running as quickly as possible.

It now only takes 14 days to register a property, and 3-6 days to start up a new business. To help ensure the wheels on each sector of the economy run smoothly, the government has also invested heavily in education. The net result of this focus is that Mauritius has the highest rate of literacy in Africa, at 86%.

South Africa’s high commissioner to Mauritius, Nomvuyo Nokwe, told South African media that not only had Mauritius made it simple to register new businesses but that its development of education was also key. Nokwe stated, “It has highly skilled professional people…it’s made doing business easy, because you have [educated] people to work for you.”

Perhaps one of the most significant aspects to Mauritius’ burgeoning business growth, and yet one with some controversy, is its low taxation. The Africa 2016 Wealth Report referred to the huge growth in millionaires in Mauritius, but this included many from other nations who had moved there. The report found that “Mauritius was the top performing African country for millionaires during this period, with growth of 160 per cent…company and personal income tax rates are only 15 per cent, with no inheritance or capital gains tax.”The controversy around this is that some feel the nation is just a tax haven for the wealthy, and moreover that much of the money coming into the country is simply passing through. There are concerns around the rich, from nations like Kenya, using Mauritius for tax purposes, as its income tax rate is an attractive 15%.

Does the economy match the reputation?

Dipolelo Moime, chief executive of business risk consultancy Legato Services, believes it is more innovation that has attracted outsiders, saying, “Mauritius is continually reinventing and reforming itself massively to ensure the country is as business-friendly as possible, in order to attract multi-national corporations.”

Despite this, the issues around money just passing through cannot be ignored. There is an entire business strategy known as “The Mauritius Route”, which describes how investors in India use the island nation as a conduit to connect them to Indian markets. In fact, 39.6% of foreign direct investment to India, between 2001 and 2011, made its way via Mauritius.

However, this money does not pass through Mauritius in a vacuum, and the banking and legal processes it utilizes are legitimate businesses which create revenue streams for the host nation.

As things stand, Mauritius is not one of Africa’s largest economies, but the World Bank report did not base its findings on GDP, it based them on how easy it was to set up a new business in a nation, how well developed infrastructure was, and how attractive a destination was for new investment. In these measures, Mauritius must warrant its ranking.

As of 2016, Mauritius can boast the highest per capita GDP in Africa, with a 2016/17 predicted GDP growth of 5.7%. In addition, the nation’s stock exchange is widely regarded as one of the best in Africa and is worth over $7 billion. These figures are for a nation of only 1.2 million inhabitants.

Most significantly, the government is not resting on its laurels. The Mauritian government has drawn up a blueprint to diversify the economy, and invest in new industries, while continuing to develop existing ones. “Green growth” is at the forefront of plans to maximize the nation’s coastlines, with a goal of 8-9% economic growth per annum, which will ultimately lead to Mauritius being a high income status nation by 2025. The plans have worked thus far, so investors from far and near will be watching with interest.

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Muhammadu Buhari rebukes Cameron for corruption remarks

27 May 2016 Comments (2) Africa, Featured, Politics

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari

Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President, aimed a subtle attack on David Cameron’s hypocrisy after the British PM’s comments on Nigerian corruption.

Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President, was in London this month for a multinational conference on tackling corruption. The summit was being held at the Commonwealth Secretariat, in the UK’s capital city, and played host to numerous world leaders as well as the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

While the event was a positive move by different nations to discuss strategies for breaking down corruption, it was preceded by an embarrassing leak regarding the British Prime Minister.

Only days before the scheduled meeting, Cameron was overheard talking to the British Queen and saying, “We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain … Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

Buhari’s balanced retort

As Mr. Cameron’s comments were widely reported, President Buhari’s office released a statement to say that the President was “deeply shocked and embarrassed” by the Prime Minister’s remarks.

However, there was a much more subtle retort about to come. A retort in which Buhari accepted the issues that his country faces with corruption, but also shone a light on the vein of hypocrisy, that some might see, within Cameron’s words.

When asked by the BBC whether Nigeria was indeed “fantastically corrupt,” Mr Buhari responded “yes,” and then elaborated on Cameron’s remarks by saying, “He was telling the truth. He was talking about what he knew.”

But the real riposte came when Mr Buhari explained that he was not demanding “any apology from anybody,” adding, “I am demanding a return of assets. What would I do with an apology? I need something tangible.”

This was a reference to the billions of dollars of money stolen from Nigeria by corrupt officials, who then took their ill-gotten gains to the UK. The most recent example of this involves former Nigerian state governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who fled Nigeria as he faced corruption charges, and arrived in Britain with $1.8 million in cash. While Alamieyeseigha was arrested in the UK, and charged with money laundering. £1 million of this money was eventually returned to Nigeria through the Metropolitan Police.

Moreover, this was not an isolated case, or even close to being the largest amount. Funds stolen from Nigeria and siphoned to the UK are nothing new. Almost 20 years ago, the former military head of state, Sani Abacha, was shown to have stolen approximately $5 billion from Nigeria’s coffers, and half of this is estimated to have been laundered in the UK. None of this money was ever recovered by Nigeria, and the incumbent President wonders just where it is and when it will be returned.

The former governor of Nigeria’s Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori, is also estimated to have stolen $250 million from his homeland. Ibori is serving jail time in the UK, but his multitude of British properties has not been processed in order to ensure that the laundered money is sent back to its rightful home.

The reality for both nations

It is of course clear that Nigeria’s corruption problem outweighs Britain’s. However, perhaps one of the largest issues is that Nigeria’s corruption adversely affects its own people, while Britain’s corruption often allows a small number to benefit from theft outside its own shores.

Transparency International’s Corruption Index ranked Nigeria 136th out of 168 nations, and the UK was ranked 10th. However, Transparency International criticized Prime Minister Cameron’s comments, saying that the UK was a key part of the global corruption problem by “providing a safe haven for corrupt assets” and being “by far the most important part of the global offshore system of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.”

The recent scandal around the Panama Papers, and the naming of Mr. Cameron’s father in them, is a timely reminder that corruption is not simply a problem in the developing world.

The presence of the various world leaders in London is a positive step, but Nigeria could justifiably argue it is doing more than most to address its problems.

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has only been operating since 2003, and yet by 2013 it had thousands of convictions. Nigeria appears to be taking corruption seriously, and “embarrassing” comments put to the side, it must be hoped that all the nations at the anti-corruption talks can work together for sustained progress.

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