According to a strategist for Standard bank, Samir Gadio: ‘‘the oil producing country will likely have to pay a higher yield to launch its second Eurobond than it would have, a couple of months ago.’’

However, Gadio said: “Nigeria will still be able to issue the new bond at a lower yield than the 7 percent its debut $500 million Eurobond garnered in 2011.’’

Nigeria’s debt office had declared its intentions to sell the billion-dollar bond by the end of September and that it was increasing the amount it borrows overseas to lower funding costs and to improve the infrastructure of the country.

The road show for the $1 billion Eurobond, which commenced yesterday in London, was led by the Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, senior government officials, with Deutsche Bank and Citigroup acting as the Book-runners with the view of issuing the bond.

An anonymous London-based fund manager, who attended the road show in London, told Reuters that the bond will be issued this year, though the exact time is yet to be decided and will largely depend on the market.

Yields on Nigeria’s 10-year domestic bond went up almost 3 percent this month while stocks and the naira tumbled last week, as foreign investors dumped frontier market assets.

The post Nigeria Will Likely Pay 6% On Eurobond – Analyst appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The company statement says, Skhumbuzo Ngozwana and Mark James van Lill Sardi will take over as joint acting chief executives from July 1, until a permanent chief executive is found.

The two will replace acting CEO Johan du Preez.

Cipla Limited, India’s fifth largest drugmaker by sales, made a $512 million cash offer in February to acquire 100 percent ordinary shares of South African drugmaker at R10 ($1.13) per share.

Mumbai-based Cipla has over 30 manufacturing facilities across India and manufactures more than 2,000 products in more than 50 therapeutic categories.

With a turnover of over $1.4 billion, Cipla has a strong track record of partnering with local businesses in over 150 countries. One such successful partnership has been Cipla’s relationship with Medpro spanning almost two decades, which has resulted in Medpro becoming a leading pharmaceutical company in South Africa and, in doing so, has enhanced the “Cipla” brand throughout the region.

The stock climbed 0.31 percent at R9.63 in early trade on Thursday.

The post Cipla Medro South Africa Appoints Two CEOs appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The 14 listed candidates for potential investment consisted of 7 Kenyans, 2 Nigerians and Tanzanians, a South-African, an Ethiopian and a Ghanaian.

The selected entrepreneurs will receive, among other things, targeted coaching and introductions to the VC4Africa investor network – the largest network of African SME focused investors, boasting of a profile of over 40 investors across the continent.

VC4Africa is Africa’s leading founder’s network that connects quality entrepreneurs from across Africa with qualified investors all around the world.

Over the next three months, an experienced team will be working closely with the selected entrepreneurs to further strengthen their business cases, help them complete their documentation – that entrepreneurs in Africa can use to prepare for fundraising – and facilitate introductions to the network.

According to a press release, the founder(s) are equipped with quality teams and are running established companies – “post prototype stage” and in many cases, are already turning in revenues.

Many have already secured the backing of a lead investor and are now working to close their round of funding through VC4Africa.

“It’s great to work with these entrepreneurs. They have passed a strict screening and we look forward to supporting these entrepreneurs as they move to take their ventures forward.” VC4Africa’s Head of Investor Relations Saskia Reus-Makkink said.

The selected ventures require between $10,000 and $1 million of capital investment and are situated in various countries in Africa.

VC4Africa was founded by former Microsoft software engineer Bill Zimmerman and serial entrepreneur Ben White. Both men are founding members of AfriLab – a network of African technology incubators – a driving force behind the peer-to-peer network for connecting entrepreneurs with the required resources.

The post VC4Africa Lists Top 14 Entrepreneurs For African Investment Cohort appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

These marches – which will be mainly held in Marikana – will run for two weeks and could trigger violence between rival unions in an area that has seen volatility since August last year.

More than 34 people were killed in August last year in Lonmin’s Marikana mine when workers belonging to the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) went on an illegal strike.

North West is an area where the platinum rich Rustenburg platinum belt is situated.

Solly Phetoe, Cosatu provincial spokesperson, said the mines in the area were not treating workers belonging to its bigger affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), like they did workers of other rival unions.

NUM’s biggest rival in the area is AMCU, which claims to be a majority union in Lonmin’s Marikana mine.

AMCU and NUM in Marikana warned last month that they could embark on strike action, fighting over organisational rights.

AMCU wants NUM to vacate its offices in Marikana because it is now a minority union in the Lonmin mine.

The rival unions have been fighting for supremacy at the mine for a while now. This has led to violent strikes and deaths.

Phetoe claimed that NUM members had been threatened. He accused the mine management of forcing NUM to prove its membership knowing well that NUM could not organise freely on the mine.

The Lonmin marches in the next two weeks will demand Lonmin to give it a chance “until the situation in the area has normalised and all unions are allowed to exist side-by-side in peace”.

The post Cosatu To March In South Africa’s Volatile Platinum Belt appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to an official statement, the MOU was signed on June 5 after the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V), which held in Yokohama, Japan, from June 1-3.

The AfDB-UNU partnership aims to strengthen collaboration between Japan and African countries to strengthen Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa. The AfDB and UNU will contribute to the establishment of a joint Africa–Asia strategic plan for sustainable development and a joint program of activities for capacity building in Africa.

The two institutions aim to promote knowledge transfer through a consortium of universities, the African development agency said.

At the TICAD V, a side event on the role of higher education in Africa’s sustainable development was organized by the AfDB’s Human Development Department in collaboration with UNU, the University of Tokyo, and the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Representatives from the consortium of universities exchanged their views on innovative ways to achieve sustainable development in Africa through higher education.

The post AfDB, UN Sign MoU On Sustainable Development In Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

With Kenya as the first African beneficiary of this investment, the project will include the creation of programmes to help Kenyan software developers while providing them with design tools, resources and expert consulting.

Intel Software and Services Group will further enable Kenyan developers to engage with more than 20,000 independent software vendors (ISV) worldwide through a collaborative online application and software development community dubbed Intel Developer Zone. Intel® Developer Zone is a global program that enables developers engage with Intel on topics related to software and is designed to answer today’s software development challenges.

SSG also seek to build a foundation for robust solutions and industry innovation, working with the software community to set standards, establish industry benchmarks and participate in open source projects.

Aside this, Intel will this year sponsor three local tech start-ups for online training and mentorship program conducted by University of California Berkeley Faculty members and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Over the next six months, Intel hopes to reach more than 400 developers and facilitate the development of 100 locally-made new applications , running on phones and tablets on Intel® Architecture.

The division will be led locally by Agatha Gikunda, the newly appointed Lead for Intel Software and Services Group in East Africa.

While speaking at a developers’ conference hosted by Intel that saw more than 250 developers in attendance, Danie Steyn, East Africa General Manager said: “We recognize that software is a vital element of all Intel platforms and processors. Therefore, Intel Software and Services Group seeks to enhance local innovation and provide tools to developers that enable them create applications with rich user experience on devices running on Intel technology. We are very excited about the growing developer engagement in Africa and seek to increase collaborations with tech hubs, independent software vendors and universities.”

The US company intends to collaborate with Strathmore University and University of Nairobi to provide resources in the universities’ hardware labs, build a student Developer Partner Program and integrate High Performance Computing into the university curriculum.

These activities are aimed at enhancing the ability of student developers to create rich user experiences on Intel-based hardware as well as test their software applications.

Through an established program between Intel, iHub and m:lab, Intel Software and Services Group (SSG) will provide training to developers enabling them to create and port Android apps for Android-based devices running on Intel architecture.

Also, starting from 24th June 2013, Intel and iHub will on a quarterly basis host intensive coaching sessions for developers – dubbed Ideation camps – that seek to empower upcoming tech entrepreneurs and social innovators with tools to turn complex problems into great business opportunities.

Acting CEO, Kenya ICT Board , Victor Kyalo, said: “Intel’s approach to collaborate and support tech hubs, independent software vendors and universities provides a good opportunity for both upcoming and established developers to exploit,” adding that “Programs that provide opportunities for local software developers to nurture their skills, to access the latest tools and to get exposure on the global stage are critical components in the growth of our local software economy.”

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Information released by Ghana’s Energy Ministry disclosed that the power plant, which is expected to be completed over the next five years, will enhance the country’s current power generating capacity.

Ghana’s Energy Minister, Emmanuel Buah initialed the MoU for Ghana while Jay Ireland, the President and CEO of GE Africa signed for his company.

The John Mahama administration in Ghana has promised to double Ghana’s energy generating capacity to 5000 megawatts of power by 2016.

“Under this MoU, GE will be facilitating the development, financing and technical partnership required for the implementation of an incremental 1000MW of power in collaboration with the government of Ghana over the next five years,” the Energy Ministry said on its website June 18, 2013.

The “Ghana 1000MW Project” will introduce the Power Park Concept to enable lower cost of power and faster implementation, the information further revealed.

The statement additionally explained that the GE, whose four thematic areas includes: Energy, Technology Infrastructure, Capital Finance and Consumer and Industrial, and partners plan to establish a comprehensive training programme for the power plant managers and technicians to ensure the appropriate level of skills transfer to local engineers and technicians upon completion.

This will be in addition to another hydro power plant, the $980 million 400MW Bui Dam which is under construction and should be completed by the end of the year.

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This emerged when Famous Brands, the JSE-listed food retailer, late on Wednesday said its franchise sales have surged 16.8 percent for the quarter March to May this year.

This included a 16 percent advance in South Africa and a 27.2 percent sales increase in the rest of Africa.

Famous Brands owns the Mugg & Bean and Steers, which are popular eateries in South Africa and in parts of Africa where it already has operations.

Analysts described Famous Brands performance as remarkable considering that the middle classes’ disposable incomes are under pressure in South Africa and some parts of the continent.

“Groups like Famous Brands and Taste Holdings are offering a very good value proposition and often it’s cheaper to buy from them than it is to buy from the supermarket,” BD Live quoted Chris Gilmour, a retail analyst at Absa Investments, as saying.

“Furthermore, what the 27.2 percent is really telling us is that they’re forging into the rest of Africa and that is making a big difference.”

Famous Brands is set to launch about 55 fast food eateries in the rest of Africa this year.

This is similar to other South African food retailers that want to spread their wings in the fastest growing continent in terms of economic growth.

The post Africa’s Middle Class Prefers Fast Food Eateries? appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, the Founder and CEO of Africa Consulting and Trading in Senegal: “As we speak we’ve been mandated by four countries Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire to basically help them organise and structure and eventually raise some money for a railway project which is going to be tremendously helpful in boosting the countries’ infrastructure and economies.”

Diong said a number of West African countries are investing a lot of money in infrastructural development which is crucial in attracting foreign direct investment.

“We see a lot of demand particularly in the government side with the projects that have been sitting in the backbone; railway projects, infrastructure projects and other projects where the government needs some structural support, resource mobilisation and in some case what we call chain management by bringing in some specialised skills to get the transactions moving forward,” Diong added.

He said it was encouraging to see West African countries particularly the francophone governments pushing the agenda to compete equally with emerging markets regionally and internationally to boost African business.

Mr. Diong further said “I think what has been changing first is people’s mind-sets, for a very long time the perception people had of West Africa particularly the francophone government was almost everywhere. When it comes to doing business what we have today is a government recognised”.

He said a number of West African countries had long eliminated risk factors that derailed sustainable growth for the region.

“Today, in my view it is much easier to do business with West Africa than a couple of years ago” he said.

This is the second such transport project announced by countries in the sub-region.

Last month, four other West African countries-Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana- agreed to build a six lane road highway to boost trade and business among themselves.

The post 4 West African Countries To Invest In $4 Billion Railway Project appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The Director of Transmission Development at the country’s state-owned power firm Zesco, Mr Christopher Mubemba said this at a mining and energy conference on Wednesday. Mr Mubemba said the company planned to invest about $5.3 billion in generation and transmission projects to achieve this target.

He said there had been a lot of growth in the economy primarily driven by mining, and this would only be sustained with increased investment in electricity generation.

“We do have a problem arising from delayed investment. We have got a plan to invest about $5.3 billion over the next five years and those investments have started,” Mr Mubemba said.

Zambia’s peak electricity demand of 1,650MW exceeded the country’s generation capacity by about 250MW and demand was projected to rise 3-4 percent per year, he said.

Zesco has projects such as the $2 billion Kafue Gorge Lower power generation project, the $420 million Kariba North Bank project and the $120 million Itezhi Tezhi hydro-electric project, he said.

“In terms of power generation, when we finish, these will double the generation capacity in the next 5-6 years,” Mr Mubemba said.

He added that most of the financing would come in the form of loans and equity. Zesco planned to spend the rest of 2013 looking for financing, mainly for Kafue Gorge Lower, he said.

“We have an idea to visit all the big names such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, New Delhi, Mumbai, London and New York and that will happen over the next six months,” said Mr Mubemba.

Zesco would seek financing from sources such as the World Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank, he said.

Mr Mubemba said Zesco exported power to Namibia, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and higher generation capacity would also ease the regional power deficit.

Zambian president Michael Sata has placed power generation and investment in infrastructure and mining as some of his main priorities. This is a move that could see the country working more closely with its neighbours in the provision of electricity.

Zambia is also looking forward to being a major beneficiary of the Inga Dam hydroelectricity power project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, if it gets off the ground.

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