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8Oct

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

African News

Middle East and North Africa: Boosting support for women’s entrepreneurship will pay off in jobs and growth, says OECD

PARIS, France, October 8, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) should create urgently needed jobs for the 2.5 million people entering the labour market each year and improve their policies to encourage women’s entrepreneurship in order to reduce structural unemployment, says a new OECD report. Women in Business: Policies to Support Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region notes that while MENA governments have made progress over the past decade in closing the gender gap in education, more needs to be done to tackle gender inequality in business. Today, only 27% of women in the region join the labour force, compared to 51% in other low, middle and high-income economies, and only 11% are self-employed, against...

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 ...

8Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News

World Bank Launches New Fund to Help African Countries Negotiate Best-Possible Deals for their Oil, Gas, and Minerals

PARIS, October, 2012―With new discoveries of oil, gas, and other minerals generating a wave of significant mineral wealth in African countries, the World Bank today launched a new fund to help countries on the continent level the playing field and ensure equitable deals in their natural resource contracts with international companies. With Africa holding 15% of the world’s oil reserves, 40% of its gold, and about 80% of the platinum group of metals, natural resources represent important development opportunities for the continent. For example, oil production has been growing steadily in Africa, and is expected to continue to rise at an average rate of six percent per year for the foreseeable future. At the 40th Anniversary Meeting of the Zone Franc Monetary Union in Paris today, attended b...

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...

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 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, South Africa News

AFDB gives ATI support

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa More and more support is pouring in; in an attempt to beef up the attraction of investment into Africa. Recently the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a USD15 million equity investment in the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) to increase its capital base. A statement reports that this contribution will allow ATI to increase its provision of trade, credit and political risk insurance products that encourage foreign direct investment and trade in Africa. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, ATI was founded in 2001, under an International Treaty by African Member States at the initiative of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and with the technical and financial support of the World Bank. ATI has a mandate to incr...

17Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Global Investment Management Industry Continues To Face A Regulatory Avalanche Of Disparate Rules: KPMG Report

Progress is Slow, But Moving toward More Consistent Rules across Every Region NEW YORK, July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In its fourth annual analysis of global financial regulations, KPMG, the audit, tax and advisory firm, says investment managers continue to face daunting challenges brought on by a changing global regulatory environment, which is fraught with unanswered questions and an array of differing rules in each region. Observers, however, are beginning to see some consistency regarding the implementation of new regulations across the globe, with the U.S. and Europe setting the bar and Asia catching up. "We are beginning to see progress toward more consistency with regard to global regulations but there still remains disparity in the regulatory requirements across the regions," said ...

17Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News, Botswana News, Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea Leads Africa In Per Capita Health Investment

Improvement of public health and health infrastructure is a national priority in Equatorial Guinea. MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, July, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Equatorial Guinea and Botswana lead Africa in per capita investments in health care, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, but the gap in spending between Africa and the rest of the world is still a concern. The statistics are from the WHO's 2012 Health Financing and Health MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) Scorecard and Africa's first Multi Year Health Financing Trends Analysis. The surveys show Equatorial Guinea's per capita annual spending at $612 and Botswana's at $442. The survey results were presented by Rotimi Sankore to the WHO's Joint Conference of Finance and Health Ministers, which met in Tunis Ju...

16Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News, Ethiopia News, Kenya News

World Bank Approves New Power Transmission Line between Ethiopia and Kenya to Boost Electricity and Economic Growth in East Africa

Washington, July 12, 2012 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the Eastern Electricity Highway Project, which will connect Ethiopia’s electrical grid with Kenya’s, create power- sharing between the two countries, reduce energy costs, promote sustainable and renewable power generation, better protect the region’s environment, and pave the way for more dynamic regional cooperation between the countries of East Africa. The new project marks the first phase of a regional East Africa power integration program which is likely to cost US$1.3 billion at completion, eventually benefiting 212 million people living in five countries with a combined GDP of US$107 billion. Together with the Governments of Ethiopia and Kenya, the African Development Bank (AfDB), and ...