Saturday, November 23African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: Government

African News

IBM To Boost Technical Skills In Mauritius

  New programs to help develop technical talent in the Indian Ocean Island Region PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, July 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced a collaboration agreement with the University of Mauritius to help meet the demand for Computer Science skills in the Indian Ocean island region. The joint academic initiative will provide technology and training resources while boosting support for computer science professionals at the University. In tandem, IBM also launched a Mauritian technical skills training pilot initiative for IT specialists, which will be rolled out to nine other African countries. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO) As part of the agreement with the University of Mauritius, IBM will provide access to the latest open...
African News

KEMET Highlighted in GAO Report on Conflict Minerals

    GREENVILLE, S.C., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- KEMET Corporation (NYSE: KEM), a leading manufacturer of tantalum, ceramic, aluminum, film, paper and electrolytic capacitors, today announced that it is positively cited in the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report Conflict Mineral Disclosure Rule: SEC's Actions and Stakeholder-Developed Initiatives (GAO-12-763). This report highlights KEMET's "Making Africa Work" initiative of establishing a "closed-pipe" supply chain for responsible sourcing of tantalum from Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). (Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120723/CL44445 ) "Addressing both the social and economic health of the local mining communities in the DRC is a critical step in resolving its l...
African News

Confirmation.com Uncovers $200 Million Peregrine Financial Group Fraud

  Commodity Futures Regulator Moves to Mandate Use of Service for All Regulated Brokerages BRENTWOOD, Tenn., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Within 24 hours of a regulatory mandate to use electronic confirmation service Confirmation.com, here, PFGBest, a commodity brokerage unit of Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., was exposed as a multi-year $215 million fraud. "PFGBest is a sadly common example of how easily bank and account information can be falsified to evade detection of accounting frauds," said Brian Fox, founder and chief marketing officer of Confirmation.com. "CEO Russell Wasendorf resisted using our service for months, presumably because he knew that as soon as electronic confirmation went into effect, he would be exposed. We have seen this pattern several times since lau...
African News, Nigeria News

Kola Aluko Hails $4.5 Billion Deal for New Refineries

  LONDON, July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nigerian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US firm Vulcan Petroleum Resources and Nigeria's Petroleum Refining and Strategic Reserve to build six new oil refineries in a deal worth $4.5 billion. Two of the plants, each of which will have a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day, are set to be operational within a year. Nigeria - Africa's top oil producer - has been held back by its lack of refining capacity, which has made it a net importer of processed crude and subject to global price fluctuations. Until recently, a generous fuel subsidy protected consumers from high import prices. Though not yet lifted entirely, six months ago President Goodluck Jonathan announced that this support was no longer affordable. Fund...
African News

Groot Group and Partners to Develop Africa’s Largest Glass Manufacturing Plant in Tses, Namibia

Tses Glass is expected to become the largest dynamic glass manufacturing factory in Africa focused on producing industry leading glass products with the type of float glass, hollow glass, glass wool and fiber, cast glass, and ultrathin glass for the construction of residential and commercial buildings as well as for automobiles, kitchenware, bottles, touch screen computing, and smart phones devices for the markets around the world. Windhoek, Namibia, July, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Groot Group, SDS Group, Nissi, and the Tses Community are joining forces on an equal shareholding value to form a joint venture, namely; Tses Glass (Pty) Ltd, for the development of the Tses Glass Manufacturing Plant (Tses Glass) in Tses, Southern Namibia. Tses Glass is expected to become the largest dynamic glass manuf...
Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

World Cocoa Foundation and First Lady of Cote d’Ivoire Partner to Improve Cocoa Communities

  Agreement Provides for Social and Economic Support [19-July-2012] WASHINGTON, July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the office of Dominique Ouattara, first lady of Cote d’Ivoire, announced today an agreement to develop and implement educational and vocational training programs to benefit cocoa farmers and their families in Cote d’Ivoire. The three-year agreement is valued at $3.6 million and will benefit more than 12,000 Ivorians through successful WCF educational programs that are active in the country and in other West African countries. The agreement was signed in a ceremony today in Washington by First Lady Dominique Ouattara and Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation. The collaboration expands access to quality universal basic e...
African News

IN CHINA, AFRICA, UNITED NATIONS WILL CONNECT THOSE WHO FACE CHALLENGES WITH THOSE WHO HAVE SOLUTIONS, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT BEIJING FORUM

  NEW YORK, July 20, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, in Beijing, 19 July: It is a great honour for me to participate on behalf of the United Nations at this important Forum on China-Africa cooperation. I thank the Government of China and the people for their kind invitation and warm hospitality. I commend the leadership of President Hu Jintao in organizing this forum at this very important time in Beijing. I also thank the Government of Egypt for their contribution and leadership and for co-chairing this Forum during the last several years. As the largest developing country, and as the region with the largest number of developing countrie...
African News, South Africa News

Deskbags can help children gain their educational independence

  by Madelain Roscher   DeskBags - ShopSA (Microsoft Word) According to a recent report by UNESCO, there are as many as 95 million school children who do not have access to a school desk in Africa. In Southern Africa, the statistics are equally alarming, with over 4 million scholars requiring desks.   This is a statistic that doesn’t sit well with Madelain Roscher, Managing Director of PR Worx.“Education is one of the most important elements in a child’s life and while many children are eager to learn, their lack of facilities can considerably hamper their educational development and they subsequently struggle to become positive contributing members of society.”   Ideally, this issue could be solved by building more classrooms with relevant furniture, but...
Energy, Gabon News, Green Energy

AfDB supports Gabon renewable energy sector with €57m loan

  LIBREVILLE, Gabon, July 20, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group (http://www.afdb.org), through its private sector window, approved on 18 July 2012 in Tunis, a senior loan of €57.5 million to the Coder Hydropower Project for the design, construction and operation of two run-of-river hydro projects in Ngounie Province and North Gabon. The project consists of two run-of-river hydroelectric power plants, a 70 MW plant in the Ngounie Province and a 52MW plant in north Gabon. Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/african-development-bank.jpg Despite a high electricity access rate of up to 83 percent, the Gabon electricity sector still faces frequent electricity shortages and blackou...
African News, Malawi News

Fight on Malaria rages in MALAWI

  By Rabecca Chimjeka Fight on Malaria rages in Malawi (Microsoft Word)   Malaria remains a threat and a major cause of deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi in particular, confirms  the country’s 2010 Demographic and Health Survey. Malawi government, through the Ministry of Health is implementing a five year called  Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) targeting communities in the country’s five lakeshore districts of Karonga,Nkhatabay, Nkhotakota,Salima,Mangochi and the two Lower Shire districts of Chikhwawa and Nsanje. According o the Doreen Ali of the Malaria Control Program in the Ministry of Health, the  IRS drive  that rolled out in 2007 is on track. She confirms that  77,647 structures have been sprayed out of 82,629  targeted translating into about 88 percent su...