A particular focus under the leadership of Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum (WEF), is the “Scaling up Innovative Grassroots Technologies; dimensions include budget transparency, climate change, democracy, media and mobile banking.”

So, enter the scene in 2010, Thierry Boulanger responsible for the formulation and execution of product sales for IT in Africa. In expectation of a French speaking accent, I am completely surprised by a South African dialect.

Despite being caught between the expectation and surprise, we are greeted by the warmest, welcoming voice over a telephone you could possibly experience, lending to the vast and successful experience Thierry has as a top notch sales executive.

Thierry’s diary is penned to brim with the direct management of a 15 people strong team, the development of partner networks, as well as the development and maintenance of the service and logistics network for Samsung’s IT division as too is keeping appointments out in the public domain.

Additionally, with the launch of Samsung Business, in February last year, Thierry is responsible for the successful development of this business critical division as well as the development of the business-to-business team that is significantly making in-roads into the corporate market in Africa.

Chatting to Thierry is firstly rewarding in that this Central African born executive, first positions Samsung not as a global conglomerate, but almost as a continental concern with the African people, their needs and Samsung development, belonging to Africa. Thierry Says, “Samsung is in Africa for the long-term and has made considerable investments as proof of our (Samsung’s) belief Africa as a sustainable market.”

In 2011, Thierry had indicated that Samsung’s expansion into Africa will increase continental revenues by 40 percent. Thierry confirms confidently, “We are well set on achieving this goal.” Samsung Africa is set to generate, if not exceed the 10bn USD sales revenue mark by 2015.

An important characteristic of the African continent is the demand from especially the youth market, for digital devices and any electronic mechanism that fits into the growing internet usage growth in Africa.

Thierry highlighted that, “Important to Samsung’s in its strategic approach is that we (Samsung) consider and develop a strategy for each country where we have operations in Africa.” Thierry goes on to highlight that, “Samsung because of their wide product base, sees select products as applicable for a specific country.”

All in all Thierry executes a tiered strategy in 49 countries across the continent dealing with more advanced or less developed environments in ICT (Information Communication Technologies), teleco’s (telecommunications), mobile devices, 2G or 3G and some countries far less developed mobile environments. He iterates that in Ethiopia as an example, their focus in much more on teleco (telecommunications) and then in Nigeria the company has a more advanced approach to mobile communications.

To emphasize the precise and innovative strategy Samsung employs if Africa, Thierry explains that the approach to Africa is unique and has thus adapted their product development strategy approach. As an example he points out that Samsung has developed the DuraCool fridge that has added built-in insulation. Africa in many regions is synonymous with energy load-shedding. This technology aids the consumer in this event by trapping the cold air, maintaining temperature and prolonging the fridge-life of the food stored therein.

In addition and also based on the energy needs of Africa, Samsung has developed a unique and advanced TV electronics circuitry called SurgeSafe that protects the television set from multiple power-surges.

Shifting gears and focusing on the rural Thierry articulates (you can hear the pride in his voice) the development of Samsung’s solar-powered generator. My eyes light up as, for the last 12 years I have had a hands-on approach to helping small businesses, even survivalist micro-businesses in the enterprise development arena. Given this rural background, the heartstrings are ‘jingling’ with just the thought of how this development can aid such businesses and even households.

Thierry also mentions that given the need for energy and a global focus on education, this technology development, especially on this continent is completely applicable to helping kids work not only in the classroom but also in their homes.

Africa’s GDP is also largely made up of micro-businesses with limited to no energy in many regions. This technology now enhances the ability of such trading entities to add to their product range of perishable goods, bridging the divide between rural and urban settings, giving access to families.

Continuing, Thierry highlights the development of the first solar-powered laptop. It can absorb energy while you’re working and while after the user has closed it and it is left in direct light.

Thierry changes the direction to point out that Samsung does not have a one track mind. Having studied his presentation at the 2012 AfricanBrains – “Southern Africa ICT for Education Summit”, we can see that Samsung not only understands the needs of Africa, but that their product development is submerged in the facts that depict Africa as a burgeoning market.

To this effect, Thierry emphasizes Samsung’s “BUILT IN AFRICA, FOR AFRICA, BY AFRICA” corporate social responsibility initiative. The focus is on youth unemployment, emigration of talented graduates, high crime thus creating conditions for ethnic tension and violent conflict which is typically synonymous with Africa.

Thierry repeats the Samsung belief that, “investment in education is felt to be ‘wasted’ if young people cannot apply their education to gaining a livelihood.”

To this extent Samsung has progressed by creating access to an enabling technology infrastructure at the bottom of the pyramid.

The three major programmes that are reaching the bottom-up approach (one of the guiding principles for Samsung) are depicted below;

Thierry alludes that Samsung understands well that success in Africa requires committing to help create the market and infrastructure around it- not just entering it, and says “We have set ourselves a goal to positively impact the lives of 5 million people in Africa by 2015.”

Making a success in Africa Thierry says is designing our ‘Built for Africa’ products with the preservation of the continent’s resources in mind, where partnering with local African governments to address critical environmental issues like waste and e-waste, carbon footprint reduction, chemicals and environmentally sensitive re-design practices.”

What makes Samsung special in many ways is that their corporate social responsibility speaks directly to their huge investments over the continent. From the ashes to the Mobile Education initiatives, to Solar Powered Internet Schools (such as the first set up in Botswana and Lesotho with pilots in Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa) and Electronics Engineering Academy, youth could see themselves employed in the private sector or within the assembly plants being set up in Africa for Samsung technologies.

To a large extent Samsung is leading the charge, not only as a global brand but as a leading proponent leading product development and change for our African people.

The post Innovative Investment: From Samsung, To Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Leading the funding round for the Nairobi company, which launched its BETA site in June 2012, is Amsterdam-based Africa Media Ventures Fund.

Lot Carlier, Managing Partner at AMVF remarked: “As internet penetration and e-commerce increases on the continent a new consumer class is emerging and SleepOut is simply in the right place at the right time. Together with a solid expansion strategy and a seasoned team with vast regional networks we are confident that SleepOut will provide a best-in-class service across these expanding markets.”

In addition to announcing the seed funding, SleepOut, which provides users with offers to book unique accommodation online, introduced NOMAD, an online travel and lifestyle magazine focused on Africa and the Middle East.

“SleepOut provides choice, efficiency and piece of mind for travellers wishing to discover a rapidly modernising Africa. The concept is simple: SleepOut connects travellers looking for unique and affordable accommodation with hosts who have a place to offer” said Mikul Shah, COO and co-founder.

The company aims to re-launch the platform with accommodation offerings in 10 countries across Africa and the Middle East by late 2013.

Launched in June 2012, SleepOut provides a secure platform for accommodation hosts (hotels, property owners and agents) in Africa to list their unique spaces for rent.

The post Accommodation Marketplace SleepOut.com Raises $200,000 In Seed Funding appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Guangli revealed this during a courtesy call to Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State. He said the team had spent two days in the state exploring possible areas of investments and having found that there are great opportunities, it decided to start with the establishment of a truck plant.

The visit was as a result of collaboration between the state government and the zone to bring investments into the state, General Manager of the Calabar FTZ, Sadiq Kassim, said.

Kassim explained that Chang Chun City, which has a population of over seven million and wants to invest in Nigeria through its chambers of commerce.

Aside building a truck manufacturing company, the Deputy Mayor revealed that the trade mission also have the intention of investing in agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors, noting that China and Nigeria have an age long commerce relationship.

Explaining the rationale behind the investment, Guangli stated that from the study carried out by the manufacturing company, the state (Cross River) is conducive for investments couple with the airport, seaport and free trade zone.

He added that the company which already has eleven outlets across the world including Japan, Germany and the United States will produce trucks that will be of high technology and high class.

The Deputy Mayor however said that volume of production will be determined by the economic indices of demand.

Speaking on the proposed investment, the state Governor, Liyel Imoke, praised the Chinese Trade Mission adding that the move will strengthen and develop the state’s economy.

Cross Rivers state is on one of Nigeria’s oil producing states. The establishment of a manufacturing plant would help divest concentration on the oil production which is the mainstay of the country’s economy.

The post Chinese Firm To Open Truck Manufacturing Plant In Calabar appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. And its CEO David Karp, will keep his position.

The product, service and brand will also continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.

With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world.

Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app and do an average of 7 sessions per day. Its tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! is expected to grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.

The deal offers unique opportunities for both companies. Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.

Commenting, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, said: “On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn’t be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn’t be more complementary.

David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, addressed the Tumblr community, “Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. We’re elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from.”

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Regarding its new acquisition, Yahoo! has promised “not to screw it up.”

The post Yahoo! To Pay $1.1 Billion To Acquire Tumblr appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

This move will improve Nairobi’s attempt to be East Africa’s banking and life insurance hub.

Last year, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) thoroughly went through three license requests, including JP Morgan Chase’s application. JP Morgan Chase is US’s biggest bank by assets.

“The applicants had been granted approval-in-principle by the end of 2012, and processing for final authorisation was at an advanced stage,” Business Daily quoted CBK as saying in its annual bank supervision report released last week.

JP Morgan Chase follows an increasing number of big global lenders that have set up shop in Kenya in an effort to benefit from huge deals that are being struck in the region.

This office will conduct financing transactions for the bank. However, the office will not take money from the people.

The CBK revealed that it had approved the applications of the Central Bank of India and Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali already.

Apparently, these lenders have already opened offices in Nairobi.

According to Business Daily, other international lenders with a presence in Kenya include British-based HSBC, India’s HDFC, Bank of China, and South Africa’s Nedbank and First Rand.

The post JP Morgan Chase To Open Rep Office In Kenya appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Stallion Group’s Business Development Manager, Sunil Dhermappa, who was received by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, during a courtesy visit at Government House, Benin City said the company is interested in replicating its vehicle assembling plants in Lagos and Kaduna, a solar energy system and agro-based activities in Edo State.

“We want to come here to invest and farm here, especially rice production. Our investments into local industries is to maximise manufacturing opportunities, utilisation of world class products in technologies and equipment, utilisation of abundant natural talents, alignment with government’s socio-economic objectives, self-sufficiency, employment, import substitution, community development and conservation of foreign exchange.”

“We have the largest capacity of rice mills in sub-Saharan Africa, with factories at strategic locations in Lagos and Kano to enhance prospects of processing local paddy and with capacity of 4 million bags per annum. With over 25 years of active presence in Nigeria, a thorough and well grounded knowledge of the Nigerian market is one of our comparative advantage”, he explained.

Responding, Edo State Government said investors who want to take advantage of the enhanced infrastructure in the state would receive needed support from the government.”

In response, Ihonvbere lauded the Stallion Group’s move as being worthwhile; adding that the company’s desire to invest in the state’s agricultural sector among others would enhance both the job creation efforts of the state government and the economic fortunes of the state.

The post Stallion Group To Invest In Rice Production In Edo appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The central parts—Kazanchis and Bole—of Addis Ababa resemble a construction site. New malls and hotels are being erected throughout these areas. These new constructions are mostly locally funded. Jupiter Hotels, as one of those locally funded constructions, has only been running for 5 years. In that time, the company has boosted occupancy rates above 80 percent to match international brands in the market.

Until recently, schmoozing with businessmen of all stripes and African diplomats involved sitting by the bar in the Hilton or lingering around the Sheraton lounge area. During the last African Union meeting, the lobby of the Jupiter Hotel in Kazanchis jammed softly with local Ethiopian jazz crowded out by Africa’s numerous local languages and the usual assortment of romance languages spoken on the continent.

This type of growth is usually the result of growing demand and stalled supply. But the supply of hotel beds in Addis has tripled in the last three years to around 6,000 hotel beds. Competition in this market could potentially push the number over 10,000 hotel beds in the next few years. Jupiter International Hotels will actively expand during this time to more than 1,000 hotel beds to capture approximately ten percent of the market, says Mr. Bisrat, who is also vice president of the Hotel Association of Ethiopia. International brands, including the Marriot, will also help the local hotel industry to reach that number.

Hotel groups are expanding in this capital because the amount of diplomats and corporate clients are growing. Yearly tourism, at approximately 500,000 tourists in Ethiopia, still has a ways to go before it matches other emerging African economies. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has stated its aspirations to make Ethiopia a top five tourist destination in Africa by 2020.

During this rapid growth phase, quality service-oriented business will win out at the end of the day, say Mr. Bisrat, or customers will walk out. He believes Jupiter International Hotels is positioned as top competitor in this space, especially as it plans to develop a value hotel chain. A hot shower, good mattress, and strong internet goes a long way to make a quality value hotel. But Jupiter International Hotels plans to also add a yoga studio, art gallery, and technological add-ons, including iPod docking stations and quality data and voice streaming capabilities in the rooms.

So many foreigners are coming now and more and more are not Ethiopian Diaspora, says Dawit, a local Ethiopian tourist operator. A sense of change has descended upon the country. Gone are filmmakers for aid videos on famine. Rather conference facilities and lobbies bustle with the growing presence of investors and government officials. Hotel groups, says Mr. Bisrat, still have a long way to go to meet the needs of a growing business and diplomatic hub. As Ethiopian Airlines expands its routes to meet the geographically diversifying clientele of the Ethiopia, expect the hotel industry to do the same.

The post Ethiopia’s Booming Hotel Industry appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to Safs Narker, an equity analyst at the Cape Town-based Metropolitan Asset Management, going into South Sudan is a risk that South African banks are not prepared to take at the moment.

“They are looking at the bigger economies like Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana among others. But they are not prepared for those cross border activities. They are not prepared to carry that risk of going into South Sudan at this early stage,” Narker said.

But the world’s banking trailblazers have begun to see banking opportunities in South Sudan, where others see only risk.

Earlier this week, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has had to fight an avalanche of lurid claims in his private life, was part of a team that assisted South Sudan open a new bank.

He reportedly said he is happy to see South Sudan, which broke away from Sudan a little more than two years ago, move forward.

Strauss-Kahn told delegates in South Sudan that the institution will help in enabling investors to get into the country with ease. The bank – called the National Credit Bank (NCB) – will also take part in credit lending for investment.

The post South African Banks Prepared To Overlook South Sudan? appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Hawkins, who paid a courtesy call to the state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole during an inspection of projects in the state, said the $250 million fertilizer plant is being planned by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United State Government.

“We are here because we are proud that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the US government is involved with the Green Petrochemical Company, which is making a $250m investment, and we are happy that this important fertilizer plant will have the support of the United States Government.”

“It will create about 1,500 jobs. That is something we are hoping to take a look at when we are here. The United States has had a long relationship with you way back before your time in politics and your activities as one of Nigeria’s premier labour leaders, and we are very happy to continue with that relationship.”

Hawkins in his address also described the state Governor who was a former president of Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC), as one of the most effective governors in Nigeria.

“We are happy that people of your state obviously think highly of you and your re-election is what we in America call landslide. You are someone many people point to when answering the question: ‘Who is the most effective governor in Nigeria?’ Often, the answer is Comrade Adams Oshiomhole,” he said.

Speaking on the proposed project, Governor Oshiomhole thanked the US government for the planned investment in the state.

“We trust we can count on your support. I am happy for the good news that a US agency is supporting a fertiliser plant here, and this shows the confidence and we are happy about that,” Oshiomole said.

The post United States Set To Establish $250m Fertilizer Plant In Nigeria appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The plant will be situated in Egypt’s Kom Abu Radi Industrial Zone, Al Wasta City, Beni Suef and is likely to be functional sometime this year.

The new factory, which will be spread over 366.000 square meters of land, is poised to grow the diversity of Samsung’s creative products that will be accessible to clients across the region.

The plant is likely to put more emphasis on making TV sets and monitors and other state-of-the-art tools.

Products made in Beni Suef will be supplied and made accessible all over Egypt and in 10 other MEA countries by the close of 2016.

“As technology is constantly becoming an integral component of everyday life, we welcome the first Samsung factory in MEA,” said Dr. Hesham Kandil, the Prime Minister of Egypt.

“As a market, we recognize that there are diverse business opportunities across a broad range of industry sectors which is why we always welcome and encourage foreign investment, such as Samsung’s.”

In the next five years, the plant’s yearly manufacturing output is set to be over 2 million units.

The post Samsung To Build Factory In Egypt, Enter MEA Region appeared first on Ventures Africa | .