Sunday, November 24African Digital Business Magazine

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South Africa News

Telecoms journal highlights challenges in the sector

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa Johan van Huyssteen, PwC Communications Leader for Southern Africa reports that with billions of dollars of international investment flowing in and subscriber numbers rising across the continent, Africa’s communications market is at the inflection point where high potential starts to turn into high growth. And more reports showing that strong growth in the telecommunications sector is being driven by increasing investment, rapid progress in technological and communications services and some deregulation across the African continent. But for many reasons these achievements to date are only just the beginning as Africa’s future potential dwarfs the growth seen so far. These are some of the highlights from PwC’s publication: Communications Revie...
African News, South Africa News

Petrochemical giant innovates the ‘Shell Alexia S4’

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa It has be called a Shell's Special Marine Oil. The announcement that the global group of energy and petrochemicals companies Shell, has launched the Shell Alexia S4, an innovative marine engine oil, has been welcomed by experts as an important step in the development of the industry. And unlike conventional cylinder oils, it can be used across a wide range of vessel and engine types, fuel specifications, loads and climates - from the Antarctic to the Amazon to the Suez Canal, the company claims. The organisation states: "This means vessels no longer need to carry multiple oils. Shell Alexia S4 also works effectively at any vessel speed, including slow and ultra slow - especially important to modern ships that have to vary speeds to reduce fuel consumption and mee...
African News, Nigeria News

Nigeria’s Constitution Review: Nigerians reject rotating the presidency between North and South

By Hussaini Umar Nigerians yesterday rejected single term presidency, which is being canvassed by President Goodluck Jonathan, during the House of Representatives Public Hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution at the 360 Federal Constituencies in the country. Also, in most states, the call for the creation of additional states and the recognition of the six geopolitical zones in the constitution were rejected. So, also, the people rejected the idea of rotating the presidency between North and South, as most of them voted for leadership by merit. At the various venues of  the public hearing, delegates were asked to tick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against each of the 43 aspects of the 1999 Constitution which is being amended by the National Assembly. However, delegates overwhelmingly voted aga...
African News, Malawi News

Lilongwe district council successful in LDF projects-NGO

By Chancy Namadzunda   The Lilongwe District council has been successful in the construction of 30 Local Development Fund (LDF) funded teachers houses this year, according to Malawi Human Rights Youth Network (MHRYN).     MHRYN Acting National Coordinator Weston Happy Msowoya said so far, about 95 percent of the completed work has been successful in all the six Traditional Authorities (TAS).     “In our overall assessment, the project went well in almost all areas with the majority of houses completed with solar system and already occupied by the teachers. The completion period was on target as many finished between 90 to 100 days with no reports of corruption, so far, I can say Lilongwe is a model for other districts,” said Msowoya.     He sai...
African News, South Africa News

Richard Came & Ministry of Communication to address MEF Seminar 19th November

12 November 2012 Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Richard Came, the technology entrepreneur who has been active in the South African and international market since the 1980′s and the Ministry of Communication will address the MEF’s (Metro Ethernet Forum) Ethernet Business Services Seminar on Monday the19th November at the Axiz Workgroup Auditorium in Midrand. “Carrier Ethernet is the way forward for South Africa and the continent as a whole,” said Richard.  “If we want high speed Internet everywhere, service providers need to connect their networks together.  The best way to achieve this is through the MEF, whose standards are the common language in an interconnected world.”  Gary Williams, Head of Presales Engineering at Metrofibre networx, the s...
African News

Former President of the African Development Bank Babacar Ndiaye to lead Investment Day at this year’s AgriBusiness Forum.

African expert calls on everyone involved in agriculture to step up to the fore for the sake of the entire continent’s development and in the fight against poverty. 12th November 2012, Brussels, Belgium With the AgriBusiness Forum 2012 just around the corner, Babacar Ndiaye, former President of the African Development Bank and founder of the African Business Roundtable (ABR), outlines his demands towards the African and international community to act and establish basic and fundamental financial policies to create real change, after years of debates and establishing potential visions and objectives. “Africa’s agricultural potential cannot induce people into a self-righteous optimism, but should instead incite a responsible and pro-active approach from the sector’s various players because ...
African News, South Africa News

Smarter infrastructure needed to handle exploding data traffic

  By Peter Karaszi   Mobile operators across the globe are being squeezed by decreasing revenues per user, and a seemingly insatiable demand by users for more data. To efficiently manage the rapidly growing increase in data traffic in their networks, mobile operators need to build and improve their infrastructure in a much smarter way than they have hitherto done. Telecoms expert Peter Karaszi takes a look at some new infrastructural solutions that can help mobile operators do just that.   According to Cisco, the mobile data traffic in the world’s mobile networks grows by 150 per cent per year, driven by the emergence and use of smartphones, apps and videos. Traffic is expected to increase 26-fold between 2010 and 2015. Other sources have even scarier estimates but th...
Energy, Green Energy

Canadian Solar Supplies Modules for Turkey’s Largest Commercial PV Project: 540 kW Solar Power Plant at Izmir Airport Installed by Gehrlicher Merk Solar

First PV project under the new Turkish 500 kW law   ONTARIO, Canada, Nov., 2012 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company" or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar companies, provided its CS6P-P solar modules for the first project under the new Turkish solar energy legislation, YEK (Law on the utilization of renewable energy resources for the purpose of generating electricity), for solar power plants under 500 kW. The solar park has a capacity of 540 kW (450 kW on-grid and 90 kW off-grid), which marks a new milestone of solar power production in Turkey, making it the largest solar power plant in the country. This is the second project that Canadian Solar has realized in collaboration with the EPC contractor Gehrlicher ...
South Africa News

Standard Bank Group to scale back its international operations

  Given the challenging global economic climate and evolving regulatory regime for banks, Standard Bank Group's Corporate & Investment Banking business (CIB) is continuing to right size its international operations in a responsible and deliberate manner. As part of this process, CIB will be driving higher levels of efficiency in both its front and back offices, and is planning to scale back certain product lines and geographies. These actions will be focused on CIB's geographic footprint outside Africa excluding Latin America. Says David Munro, Chief Executive, CIB: "Our strategic positioning remains strong. However we continue to seek ways to simplify our business, reduc...
Energy, Green Energy

Standard Bank Group commits R9.4bn to first batch of renewable energy projects

Standard Bank Group has emerged as the leading investor in the first round of South Africa's renewable energy independent power producer (REIPP) procurement process, backing a total of 11 wind and solar projects. Standard Bank Group will provide comprehensive corporate and investment banking services to all its clients, including underwriting R9.4-billion worth of debt, providing interest and currency hedges, carbon trading credits, and corporate bonding and guarantee facilities. Standard Bank Group has also taken an equity stake in four projects. The South African government's allocation of 1,416MW for this first round of the procuremnt process has translated...