July Archives - Page 2 of 5 - AfricaBusiness.com

23Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

23Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Science

New Study Finds Greatly Elevated HIV Infection Rates Among Young Black Gay and Bisexual Men in the U.S.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Study results released today by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) show disturbing rates of new HIV infections occurring among black gay and bisexual men in the U.S. (also known as men who have sex with men, or MSM), particularly young black MSM. The HPTN 061 study showed that the overall rate of new HIV infection among black MSM in this study was 2.8% per year, a rate that is nearly 50% higher than in white MSM in the U.S. Even more alarming, HPTN 061 found that young black MSM—those 30 years of age and younger—acquired HIV infection at a rate of 5.9% per year, three times the rate among U.S. white MSM. The overall infection rate among black MSM in this U.S study is comparable to the rate seen in the gen...

23Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

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...

22Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

Science

75% of People Have Received an Email or Had Information Sent to Them by Mistake Says Independent Data and Information Security Survey

SC Magazine’s latest survey produced in partnership with Egress Software Technologies raises major concerns about how organisations are sharing sensitive information. London, United Kingdom, July 19, 2012 --(PR.com)-- A recent survey carried out by SC Magazine and Egress Software Technologies designed to look at the challenges surrounding the security used by organisations to share sensitive information with third parties has uncovered some startling results. At a time when fines from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for data breaches are on the increase (http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2012.aspx), the correct systems simply aren't in place to ensure security standards are met. The survey showed that; 94.5% of those surveyed thought that data security system...

22Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News, Algeria News, Egypt News, Ethiopia News, Mauritius News, Nigeria News, South Africa News, Zambia News

Africa to gear up for more meaningful engagement with China

The partnership with China should aim to boost Africa's overall capacity, competitiveness and trade in a way that supports African development. African nations must use the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to complement the continent's regional institutions and policy agenda. This is according to a report by Standard Bank Group economists Jeremy Stevens and Simon Freemantle ahead of the fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, China, that starts on 19 July 2012. Jeremy Stevens, Standard Bank Group's Beijing-based economist, says that the summit comes at a time when China is distracted by domestic economic challenges and political matters. Meanwhile Africa is now even more reliant on China, in particular Chinese demand for African commodity exports, but even ...

22Jul

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

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...

22Jul

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

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...

22Jul

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

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...

19Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

5bn Euros Spent on Fairtrade Products in 2011

5 Billion Euros Spent on Fairtrade Products in 2011: World’s Most Recognized Ethical Label on Solid Ground in Established Markets, Taking Off in New Ones Bonn, Germany, 17 July 2012. Women, men and children around the globe spent almost 5 billion euros (€4.9bn, US$6.6bn) on Fairtrade certified products last year, according to figures released today by Fairtrade International. “Fairtrade is the norm for millions of people. It is a part of the regular weekly shopping. And now sales of Fairtrade certified products are taking off in new countries, as entirely new groups of people discover Fairtrade for the first time,” said Tuulia Syvaenen, Executive Operations Officer at Fairtrade International. In Fairtrade’s biggest market, the UK, shoppers spent 12% more on Fairtrade certif...

17Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Instant Asset Tracking for Enhanced Security Heightens RFID Usage in Data Centers, Observes Frost & Sullivan

Corporate accountability regulations compel data centers to invest in RFID to maintain and manage their IT assets MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The growing requirement for faster and more accurate tracking and tracing of IT assets in data centers is prompting data center operators and hosting service providers to increasingly adopt radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. This technology can rapidly locate, identify, and track assets without needing a clear line of sight, thereby reducing manual labor and errors. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.autoid.frost.com), Analysis of RFID in the Data Center Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $96.3 million in 2011 and estimates this to reach $952.6 million in 2017, with the widespread...