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Africa and the Middle East: Going Mobile

1 October 2015 Comments (0) Business, Featured, Middle East

ME mobile

By Enu Afolayan, Contributor

Going mobile. That’s the tune businesses, and marketers, are singing in the Middle East and Africa as the end of 2015 nears. If you don’t have a plan or haven’t started one, for the mobile marketplace, then you are at risk at being a generation behind the competition. You’re still driving a moped while everyone else is passing you by in their sleek, new electric cars that are almost driving themselves. Moreover, they are working on an app for that.

The people of the MEA market are snatching up mobile devices at a rapid rate and are second only to the Asia-Pacific market as the largest users of mobile phones. According to eMarketer, an independent market research company, 606 million people in the region have at least one mobile phone. They expect an increase to over 789 million in 2019. That’s a lot of phones. That’s a lot of people with phones who use mobile services and are increasingly buying goods and other services with them.

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Lubna Olayan, a Modern Arab Business Leader

28 September 2015 Comments (0) Featured, Leaders, Middle East

Lubna-Olayan

by Sheldon Mayer, Managing Editor

Lubna Olayan appears in “Most Powerful Women” lists every year, featured by Forbes, Fortune, and Bloomberg as a model of modern international business leadership. She was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010 by her alma mater Cornell University. After her renowned father and founder of OFC summoned her to head the Middle Eastern sector of his OFC conglomerate, Lubna Olayan raised the standards, and quietly began modernizing work flow practices, undaunted by her singularity as the only woman in a conservative, heavily male-dominated Arabic business-scape. Notably she now continues a trend to fill roles in her companies with women who are “deserving” of positions in business and engineering, in what she describes as a unique meritocracy for Middle Eastern businesses. Her meritocracy sweeps across vast borders of business and finance, and as a holding company it is uniquely diverse.

Although Olayan Financing Company is reserved in comments about their revenue and profit, assets are currently estimated to range from seven to ten billion dollars. With the leadership of Lubna Olayan the company expanded into real estate, manufacturing, and partnerships in international brands such as Nabisco and Burger King. Lubna, her brother, and two sisters sit on the board of directors of this global enterprise, each sibling taking a role as leader of a particular geographic area within the global scope.

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The Fraught Four: China’s Economic Crash Has Serious Consequences for Four Southern African Nations

25 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

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By Enu Afolayan, Contributor

China is a superpower. If there was any lingering doubt as to this, it should have been erased as the widespread fall-out from China’s recent economic crash became evident. For Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, the impact of the crash was particularly harsh.

The stock market crash on August 24th had several immediate consequences: the yuan was devalued, there was a huge injection of capital into the Chinese economy to support financial markets and the risk of a decrease in Chinese tourism worried many nations.

China is the number one trading partner for most African countries. It has more than $20billion USD in investments in addition to billions in development aid. China is one of the biggest customers for Africa’s robust resource-selling market, particularly for mined minerals and crude oil. The devaluation of the yuan against the dollar will likely result in less demand for African goods as the purchasing power of the yuan plummets, thus increasing the relative price for Chinese consumers. For South Africa, Angola, Zambia and Sierra Leone in particular, China’s economic troubles may be manifested in crippling ways.

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Tentative Optimism as Cote D’Ivoire Heads Into First Election Since 2010 Violence

24 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Politics

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By Sheldon Mayer, Managing Editor

In the first step towards their landmark election, nine candidates have formally announced that they will run in the October election against incumbent Alassane Ouattara.

While the official campaign season does not begin until October 11th, just two weeks before the election on October 25th, the announcement by the Constitutional Council is an unofficial green light for candidates to begin their campaigning.

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Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu Takes on Corruption at Nigeria’s State Oil Company

18 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Latest Updates from Reuters, Politics

nigeria oil

by Enu Afolayan, Contributor

The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, is committed to fighting corruption in his country. On June 26th, immediately after being elected, he ordered the dissolution of the board of the Nigerian petroleum company NNPC. Nigeria extracts two million barrels of crude every day, which makes it the largest producer of black gold in Africa. By attacking the petroleum sector, Buhari made a brave attempt to solve the country’s most serious mismanagement and corruption problem.

In 1970s, Buhari was the Minister of Oil and oversaw the birth of the NNPC. Corruption began to spread in the corporation as early as 1978, when it failed to repay the Treasury of Nigeria. Now, the “Father of the NNPC” is determined to put an end to the widespread corruption. He appointed Ibe Kachikwu as the new head of the petroleum corporation to take on this challenge.

Kachikwu arrived at the helm of NNPC right after the publication of an independent analysis by the Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). The analysis unveiled that over $32 billion in oil revenue was lost by Nigeria due to money laundering at the NNPC.

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World Economic Forum Reveals Morocco as North Africa’s Most Competitive Country

7 September 2015 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Preparations Ahead Of The Davos World Economic Forum 2015

According to the latest report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), at 72nd Morocco is the most competitive country in Northern Africa (an improvement from the previous report), and ranked 4th in all of Africa. Above are Mauritius, South Africa and Rwanda at 39th, 56th and 62nd respectively. Morocco is making a transition toward lower, and eventually, elimination of subsidized government spending through collaboration with international lenders, and more toward innovation, education, and free trade leading to overall economic amelioration.

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China’s Development of Ethiopia : Investment in a Country, or in an Industry ?

2 September 2015 Comments (0) Business, Featured

ethiopia

Ethiopia, a country of about 90 million people, covers just 1,127,127km2—less than 10% of the territory of China. Despite its comparably tiny size, Ethiopia is proving to be a massively important resource for China’s demand for essential minerals necessary in its insatiable demand for technological goods.

Some experts, British-born Ethiopia specialist Richard Pankhurst, believe that trade between the two countries could date back more than 1400 years. Though China’s demand on Ethiopia has evolved from exotic animals and jewelry to minerals and leather, their trade partnership has an unbroken past.

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Bosch registers sales growth in the Middle East

14 August 2015 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Bosch

The Middle East is proving to be a lucrative market for Bosch, a German multinational company with expertise in engineering and electronics. The company closed the 2014 fiscal year with AED 945 million (approximately USD 257 million) in consolidated sales across 15 countries in the region, representing an increase of seven per cent over the previous year.

Since the opening of its regional office in Dubai a little over ten years ago, Bosch has experienced continued expansion and sales growth in the Middle East. The UAE now accounts for the highest sales in region, with the largest percentage of growth coming from power tools business.

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From the Bottom(ish) Up: Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man

7 August 2015 Comments (0) Featured, Leaders

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Aliko Dangote is Africa’s richest man. Valued at $17.4billion, this Nigerian magnate is the 67th richest billionaire in the world, one of an elite circle of fabulously wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes in the poorest region of the world. Thirty years ago, Dangote received a loan from his uncle, which he used to break into commodity trading. In the intervening decades, 54-year-old Dangote has managed to build a multinational trading empire.

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Bernard Dunn – the new President of Boeing Middle East

1 August 2015 Comments (0) Featured, Leaders

Bernard Dunn

On May 20, 2015 The Boeing Company named Bernard Dunn the new president of Middle East Division. He succeeded Jeff Johnson who moved to the US in March 2015 to become a vice president of business development at Boeing Military Aircraft.

Dunn is now in charge for fulfilment of Boeing’s strategy towards Middle East and the company’s business development in Middle East region. He is responsible for GR, partnership development, expanding Boeing presence and improving company relationships with customers and shareholders. He will cooperate with the President of Boeing Saudi Arabia Ahmed Jazzaar.

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