South Africa News Archives - Page 58 of 72

The impact of Brexit on South Africa and Africa

17Oct

By Morne van der MerweNo Comments

The impact of Brexit on South Africa and Africa

By Morne van der Merwe, Managing Partner and Head of the Corporate/M&A Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg Countries in Africa are preparing for the reality that a hard Brexit could lead to increased risk aversion and reduced investor appetite for trade in the region. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), said recently that AfDB might revise its economic growth projections for Africa if global trade conditions worsened. The growth projections are currently 4% for 2019 and 4.1% in 2020. However, current world trade frictions are also providing many opportunities for the continent, as well as a chance for Africa to showcase its new African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which now covers the world’s largest free trade area. South Africa is a ...

Innovative funding models in EduTech help to eliminate skills shortages

22Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Science, South Africa News, Startups

Innovative funding models in EduTech help to eliminate skills shortages

According to the latest figures released by Stats SA, South Africa’s unemployment rate jumped to a staggering 29% in the last quarter - the worst it’s been since 2008. The unemployment rate for the youth in particular is one of the highest in the world – currently sitting at 56.4%. With all eyes on government to curb the growing unemployment rates, President Ramaphosa has remained steadfast in his call to corporates to absorb more of the youth into the workforce. With the increased focus on how the country will lead the fourth industrial revolution on the continent, most notably in his last State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa reaffirmed that skills and education was high on the new administration’s list of priorities. The high-tech industry is set to be expanded, by making sure that leg...

Fueling the future of oil and gas infrastructure

9Jul

By Stephan BurgerNo Comments

Energy, Events, South Africa News

Fueling the future of oil and gas infrastructure

Stephan Burger, Vice President MOGS Oil & Gas Services In this Op-Ed piece MOGS Vice President Stephan Burger speaks to the theme of Africa Oil and Power - the continent's premier platform for energy investment. AOP’s theme #MakeEnergyWork will showcase the energy sector as a key driver of economic growth, jobs and opportunity for Africa’s people and private sectors. MOGS Oil & Gas Services (MOGS) is a Pan-African operator, investor and developer of oil and gas midstream infrastructure across the African continent. The company develops and operates fuel import terminals, storage and blending facilities. A subsidiary of African investment company Royal Bafokeng Holdings, MOGS is a majority partner in the South Africa-based energy infrastructure company, Sunrise Energy, which is r...

Prioritise MRO strategy to manage costs for your company

9Jul

By Brian AndrewNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Prioritise MRO strategy to manage costs for your company

By Brian Andrew, Managing Director South and Sub-Saharan Africa at RS Components It does not matter if times are good or bad - waste is never welcome at any proactive business. Business is primarily driven by profit and efficiency, and waste is an attack on both. But many businesses, particularly among manufacturers, overlook a major cost hidden among their operations: that of MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) procurement. MRO or indirect procurement concerns those many small parts needed to keep equipment running. It’s fundamentally a supply chain/procurement discipline, but not often considered as a cost centre. Individual MRO items - small parts in big machines such as light bulbs, safety switches, connectors, push buttons, power supplies etc. - tend to be inexpensive and not att...

29May

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Ethiopia News, Main, Mauritius News, Senegal News, South Africa News, Tunisia News, Zimbabwe News

Funding Africa’s Infrastructure Gap

Key to enabling African economies to make the most of their opportunities is developing infrastructure in the region. Across the continent, new laws are being implemented and alternative sources of infrastructure funding are being sought in order to kick-start direly needed infrastructure projects. At the centre of it all is China, which is providing alternative sources financing to countries in Africa that have not been able to access funding in more traditional ways. The benefits are numerous, but African countries are also concerned about their growing dependence on China. Research released in 2018 from Baker McKenzie and IJGlobal (research) with data drawn exclusively from fully financed projects and excluding recent announcements of government funding commitments, shows that the value...

20May

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

Seven Things to Consider When Transacting in Africa

By Morne van der Merwe, Managing Partner, and Wildu du Plessis, Head of Africa at global law firm Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg Ahead of the Baker McKenzie African Transactional Summit taking place in Johannesburg in May 2019, Baker McKenzie lawyers based in Africa, alongside the Firm’s global Africa specialists, as well as lawyers from our African Relationship Firms from across the continent, share their knowledge about what investors should consider when transacting in Africa. Accept the uncertainty and gather knowledge Investors in Africa must consider geo-political and economic uncertainty on the continent as well as a plethora of country and region-specific governance, compliance and regulatory challenges when investing in the region. They must also contend with a critical lac...

A Thorough Assessment of Johannesburg – The City of gold

25Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Africa Travel, South Africa News

A Thorough Assessment of Johannesburg – The City of gold

Located in the second largest continent Africa, Johannesburg is the largest city of South Africa. It is the most populous city of South Africa as well. It is known as the city of gold, the modern day El Dorado. Popularly known as the home town of great leaders and activists like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, Johannesburg is a perfect place to visit. City of Gold Johannesburg is known as the gold city due to the massive gold deposit. During the end of the 19th century, it was open for public digging. Gold trade always existed there and has made it own place for centuries. It attracted many migrant workers due to the gold mine. After a few years, the gold deposit went under the control of mining companies. These companies were responsible for the construction of some famous buildings of...

Investments into the South African hospitality sector

25Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Africa Travel, South Africa News

Investments into the South African hospitality sector

JLL has released its 2019 SA Hotel Investment Outlook report forecasting that R1.9 billion will be invested into new hotels, and around R6.9 billion in total over the next three years. This translates into 3,900 new rooms across South Africa. The report highlights that there has been a clear shift in the way that capital is being deployed into the hotel sector, with a number of opportunistic and disruptive activities driving this increase in development activity. Despite the uptick in new development, the hotel sector has not been spared from poor macro-economic headwinds in recent years and performance has been challenging, with revenue per available room declining 1.4% for during 2018. Poor levels of business confidence and pressure on government travel has been the primary reason for th...

10Apr

By Johan BurgerNo Comments

Egypt News, Energy, Eritrea News, Ethiopia News, Ghana News, Green Energy, Kenya News, Main, Namibia News, Nigeria News, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Rwanda News, Somalia News, South Africa News, South Sudan, Togo News, Zimbabwe News

Trends and Events in Africa 2018

by Johan Burger 2018 has been an interesting year for Africa, with various events and trends becoming visible. 2016 saw the effects of the slowdown of China’s economic growth due to its rebalancing of its economy and the end of the commodity price super cycle. 2017 brought some relief. In Africa, 2018 demonstrated a number of continued trends, but also some new events. The NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies publishes a weekly newsletter. These were studied to pick up on the trends prominent in 2018. Some of these trends are more elaborate than others. Trend 1: Foreign Investment in Africa Africa has been the recipient of foreign investment form a variety of foreign countries. In addition to the normal investors such as China, Japan, India, etc., we are also seeing new entrants or countries...

Friday@Noon on Manufacturing in Africa: 2018

10Apr

By Johan BurgerNo Comments

Business, Ethiopia News, Kenya News, Main, Rwanda News, South Africa News, Uganda News

Friday@Noon on Manufacturing in Africa: 2018

by Johan Burger The NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies publishes a weekly newsletter on issues relevant to Africa. This paper is based on issues addressed in the newsletter. Manufacturing in Africa Manufacturing and industrialisation are the current buzzwords for transforming Africa’s economies. In order to reduce any dependence on the extraction and sale of raw commodities, it does make sense to diversify Africa’s economies. African economies do seem to struggle with growing and developing their manufacturing sectors and to increase this sector’s contribution to their GDP’s. In addition to the challenges stated below, we do find that cheap imports from abroad complicate the process even more. These cheap imports range from cheap steel products from China (upsetting steel manufacturing in ...