2009 Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

5Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Kenya News

Deforestation Costing Kenyan Economy Millions of Dollars Each Year and Increasing Water Shortage Risk, UNEP and Kenya Forest Service Report Finds / Services from Kenya’s Water Towers Underpin Many Sectors of Economy

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 5, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Deforestation deprived Kenya’s economy of 5.8 billion shillings ($US 68 million) in 2010 and 6.6 billion shillings in 2009, far outstripping the roughly 1.3 billion shillings injected from forestry and logging each year, according to a joint Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report. The ongoing work of the KFS, together with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and international partners, says that the contribution of forests is undervalued by 2.5 per cent, putting the estimate of its annual contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at around 3.6 per cent. Hon. Dr. Noah Wekesa, Kenya’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, said the report – entitled ‘The ...

31Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News

Bunna International Bank Partners With Finacle From Infosys for Banking Transformation

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia and BANGALORE, India, November 1, 2012/PRNewswire-FirstCall via African Press Organization (APO)/ — New Core Banking Solution to Improve Customer Service and Operational Efficiency Bunna International Bank, a leading player in the Ethiopian market, today announced the selection of Finacle[TM] core banking solution [http://www.infosys.com/finacle ] from Infosys for its transformation journey. Finacle will enable the bank to integrate its front and back office operations and deploy a state-of-the-art loan origination system. This will include automating the credit check and loan approval processes for risk-free and efficient loan disbursals. This transformation will help Bunna improve the overall banking experience for its customers. Finacle will also comp...

8Oct

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

African News

Officials to deliberate a business plan to implement the African Mining Vision

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, October 8, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – The joint partnership of the African Union Commission, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank has hailed today’s meeting of the Bureau of the Second Conference of AU Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development as “an important milestone in implementing the Africa Mining Vision.” Convened by the Ethiopian Minister of Mines, Sinkinesh Ejigu, in her capacity as Chair of the Bureau of Ministers responsible for Mines, the 8-9 meeting aims to discuss a Business Plan aimed at establishing the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), according to Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division, ECA. “We are all only too aware that despite Africa’s rich ...

26Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News, Zambia News

Regionalism

by Chikomborero Dengu (chikodengu @ gmail.com) Regionalism (Microsoft Word) Introduction There is an increasing recognition for the need to improve the political and economic environment of a country or region via collective action . This recognition is borne out of the realisation that countries or indeed regions are competing with themselves for scarce resources . This essay intends to dissect the concept of new regionalism and whilst briefly looking at how it has evolved . With reference to the last point this paper will attempt to link the concept of new regionalism to the recent surge in Regional Trade Agreements (RTA).[1] The crux of this essay however lay in establishing the reasons for increases in RTA’s , that is to say both economic and political positives of jo...

10Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Africa – Mobile Voice Market and Major Network Operators

Market penetration to reach 60% among Africa's one billion people in 2012 Mobile phones represent more than 90% of all telephone lines in Africa. Market penetration passed the 50% mark in 2010 and is expected to reach 60% in 2012. Subscriber growth across the continent has slowed to around 17% p.a, but several individual markets are still growing at 50% p.a. or more and others stand at only single-digit penetration rates. The continent's most advanced markets have passed the 100% penetration mark. Although the greatest demand is in the major cities, cellular solutions are also being employed to increase accessibility in rural and other disadvantaged areas. In addition to mobile networks, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) systems have been introduced in a large number of countries for the provision...