"IT'S AFRICA'S TIME" - Episode 4. Use Africa's $60bn remittances to power industrialisation. As the world wakes up to the idea of Africa as a centre for economic growth, it is considered, in many ways, the final frontier for investment opportunities.
Industrialisation is widely seen as the next phaseof Africa’s development, an imperative on the path towards sustained wealth creation.Successful industrialisation requires ambitious entrepreneurs that are willing to take up the challenge. It is therefore important not only to have favourable regulatory and business environments, but also a stable po-litical landscape. The African continent has increased its competitiveness in the global marketplace in recent years, primarily as a result of nation states decreasing country risk.Business and investment is driven by confidence. According to the same report, these funds were sent by Africa’s 30m-strong diaspora to around 120m recipients. Harnessing potential It is no surprise therefore that policy makers are looking at ways to harness the development potential of diaspora remittances. Can Africa make the big switch? While a renewable energy revolution has yet to take off in Africa, the seeds of a possible revolution are finally being sown.
Large-scale wind and solar power projects are being developed in several countries and many governments now include renewable energy technologies in their power generation plans. International financial organisations and donor groups are providing some of the funding, while the African continent is appearing on the radar for many global turbine and photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers for the first time. Africa’s wind, geothermal, biomass and particularly solar power potential has been the subject of countless academic studies but investment had been limited until relatively recently.
The only countries really to source a significant proportion of their power requirements from renewables have been Egypt and Morocco, with wind farms, and Kenya, which has led the way in developing geothermal power plants. Wind power Solar energy. Kipochi Launches Africa’s First Bitcoin Wallet in Kenya. In Swahili, Kipochi means wallet or purse, an appropriate name for this new Bitcoin payment service launching in Kenya.
Kipochi is a Bitcoin wallet where your mobile number is your account number. Bitcoins can be sent and received across the borders with very low transaction fees, about $0.04 according to Kipochi’s website. “We’ve decided to spear head this as our goal is to make Bitcoin useful for regular people all over the world and not just computer programmers,” Kipochi said.
In Kenya, M-Pesa is a very popular mobile payment service for Kenyans to send money to each other, and Kipochi seems to fit in to that paradigm nicely letting Kenyans send and receive Bitcoin to people across the world. Even though 1 BTC is $85 today, a single Bitcoin can be broken into 1 million parts, called Satoshis, or 1000 parts, called a Millibit. Learn more at Kipochi.com. Financial Markets Readiness [2012 Data] by Country. International Reserves of African Countries by Country. Foreign Direct Investment Into Africa Topped $50B In 2012. Nigeria, Angola and South Africa are top investment destinations in Africa AFRICANGLOBE – In 2012 and for the first time ever, developing economies received more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than developed countries, accounting for 52% of global FDI flows, according to the latest 2013 World Investment Report (Pdf).
This is partly because the biggest fall in FDI inflows occurred in developed countries, which now account for only 42% of global flows. Africa bucked the trend with a 5% increase in FDI inflows to $50 billion, although global figures fell by 15 percent. The African banking evolution: High-Street banking on your doorstep. Simon Pont, chief executive of ECR Retail Systems.
Mobile phones may have revolutionised the way of life of the African population, but when it comes to mobile banking there are a variety of technologies circulating which each provide precise services and levels of connectivity and functionality, writes Simon Pont, chief executive of ECR Retail Systems. In order for the banking evolution to move up to the next level, the focus needs to shift from technological innovation to the delivery of solutions that place a greater emphasis on customer service and on helping businesses fulfil their potential by providing them with optimum transparency and traceability, Significant investment in infrastructure and technology has accelerated growth in Africa over the past decade establishing it as the second-fastest growing economic region in the world, with an annual growth rate of 5.1%.
Financial Services in Africa.pdf. African banking expansion shows no signs of abating. Retail banks in Sub-Saharan Africa have expanded their activities on the continent as never before over the past six years, with the crisis barely slowing them down, according to Yoann Lhonneur, partner at DEVLHON Consulting.
Whilst this mass market of 400-500 million potential clients offers outstanding opportunities in the long term, there remain major challenges that are cutting into profitability for the time being. For the major African banks, the question is no longer whether but how they can take part in this process. Following the “tragic” banking decade of the 1980s, the emergence of African banking players, in the context of surging commodity prices, led to the redrawing of the Sub-Saharan banking landscape throughout the 1990s. This reshuffling accelerated in the mid-2000s, with the opening up of new regional zones, the adaption or, in some case, innovation of products to local markets and growing initiatives to attract, until then, neglected retail clienteles.
Mobile money africa. Mobile banking in Africa: why mobile banking remains important for financial inclusion in Africa. As the world’s last frontier, Africa continues to be on a positive growth trajectory and all indications are that the growth will only intensify going into the future.
Currently, the African population is estimated at over one billion people and it is estimated that over 50% of the overall population will be living in cities by 2030. This rapid urbanisation will have to be matched with acceleration in infrastructure development to support people’s livelihood and commercial activities alike. Business Monitor estimated that the value of transactions would increase from $12 billion in 2011 to $85 billion in 2016 in the continent.
According to the African Development Bank, annual consumer expenditure will reach $2.2 trillion by 2030. Editorial. By Claude Périou, Chief executive officer of PROPARCO The African banking sector is undergoing radical change as regional and pan-African banking groups develop.
Are these players contributing to sustainable development on the continent? News, Information and Connections for Action. Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation. , November 2012 - A basic problem is holding back many countries in as they go for growth – the low level of bank penetration.
In the mostly French-speaking countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union zone, where the currency is linked to the euro, fewer than one in 10 people are reckoned to have a bank account. A number of reasons can be given for this, including low literacy levels, the big role played by the informal economy, low household incomes, ignorance about the banking system, and the lack of infrastructure such as branch networks. Banking collapses in some countries the late 1980s also caused a serious loss of credibility for banks. Banking in Africa: Continent of dreams.
Africa “Net Creditor” to Rest of World, New Data Shows « Afronline – The Voice Of Africa. Washington – Over the past three decades, Africa has functioned as a “net creditor” to the rest of the world, the result of a cumulative outflow of nearly a trillion and a half dollars from the continent.
The new data, to be formally released Wednesday by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based watchdog group, stands in stark contrast to widely held images of Africa receiving massive amounts of foreign aid. Foreign assistance levels are indeed high for Africa – following on a 2005 pledge among the Group of Eight (G8) rich countries, the continent receives more than 50 billion dollars a year, making it the world’s most aid-dependent region.
Yet according to the new joint report, the interplay of corruption, tax evasion, criminal activities and other factors resulted in a net outflow of some 1.4 billion dollars between 1980 and 2009. Africa experiencing surge in sovereign funds. SINGAPORE — Africa is experiencing the strongest growth in new sovereign wealth funds in the world as its nations are amassing commodity revenues and foreign-exchange reserves, JP Morgan Asset Management said on Monday.
During the past two years, 15 state funds have been set up or are being considered in Africa, the group’s global head of sovereigns Patrick Thomson said. The region would see more starting in coming years, he said. With commodity prices rising, African countries are putting their surpluses into government-owned funds designed to manage a country’s wealth for future generations. Angola set up its $5bn state fund in October, Uganda said in April it planned to create a sovereign fund, and Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, inaugurated its $1bn fund eight months ago. "We expect the number in Africa to grow further over the coming years," Mr Thomson recently said in Hong Kong. Bull runs free in African stock markets. NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The barrage of hourly tweets sent out by Aly-Khan Satchu — East Africa's version of CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer — cheers on what Satchu says is a growing sentiment among investors: If you're not investing in Africa, you should be.
Or as Satchu loudly proclaims on his Twitter feed or newspaper column: "It'S Boom Town, Baby. " Several African stock markets are seeing huge returns this year. Though small, Ghana's stock market is up more than 50% so far in 2013, one of the world's top performers. Kenya — up 35% — has been touching record highs all year. Nigeria is also up 35% on the year. Global investors used to put their money into Africa in the continent's north — the Arab rim — and the south — South Africa, Satchu said. Ballooning wage bills from Accra to Cairo. African private equity rivals the other emerging markets. Global private equity returns Individual rate of returns to limited partners, for 10 years to end Sep. 2012 Research that benchmarks African private equity against the global market for the first time shows the industry is far maturer than analysts had previously thought. For a long time investors saw the African market as the toddler of global private equity – it would grow up into something promising, but not for a decade or so.
Africa set for large infrastructure fund. Marrakesh - The African Development Bank (AfDB) is negotiating with its members to create a huge fund to finance infrastructure in Africa, an official of the Bank told Reuters. The Bank estimates the need of the African continent at $100bn every year for the current decade. The bank's annual assembly, held in Marrakesh, will decide of the size of the funds on Thursday. The AfDB is financing around $8bn, including $5bn for the infrastructure projects in Africa, the adviser of the President of The AfDB, Youssef Ouedraogo said on the margin of the bank's annual assembly. "There are many wealthy sovereign funds in Africa and among our members, so we will try to negotiate some interesting loans" he said.
The bank would get funds from Libya, which will become an active member, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Botswana. Micro-insurance Covers 44.4 Mln Africans: Claudia Huber. Claudia Huber, member of the Advisory Committee of Access to insurance initiative and member of International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), said micro-insurance covers 44.4 million Africans against life risks, default on payment of loans and mortgage risks. In Africa, It’s Boom Time for Bonds. Quite the juxtaposition of headlines to start May: Bloomberg reported that the world’s 200 richest people added $45 billion of collective net worth in the week, as the Dow Jones industrial average hit 15,000.
At the same time, the capital markets of sub-Saharan Africa, which has some of the poorest nations on earth, are feeling a financing boom unlike anything they’ve ever experienced, according to Chris Kay, a Bloomberg News reporter in Nigeria. How private equity will lower Africa’s dependency on aid - Business - www.theeastafrican.co.ke. Trade law centre » Hope for financing Africa’s Development through private equity. Investing in Africa? Try VC4Africa’s free investor services. VC4Africa connects qualified investors from around the world with quality entrepreneurs all across Africa.
Register as an investor on VC4Africa to get access to screened deal flow, direct access to private documents from hundreds of ventures in Africa, and to network and pool resources with fellow investors. Banking on expanding into Africa. Competition between banks, both local and international, for a stake in the rapidly growing markets in Africa is heating up. But the drive is not without risks and challenges, according to industry players and analysts. The growing and financially underserved populations of many African nations provide potential new sources of revenue for the industry at a time when the economies of developed nations remain stagnant.
MFW4A English Presentation. Microinsurance Landscaping: MFW4A - Making Finance Work for Africa. 2013, « année charnière de l’e-commerce en Afrique. (Agence Ecofin) - Le e-commerce prend peu à peu ses marques sur le continent africain. A l’instar du paiement mobile, cette manière d’acheter en ligne, soutenue par l’amélioration de l’accès à Internet, la meilleure accessibilité à la technologie et l’arrivée de la portabilité devient une réalité pour diverses acquisitions. D’après internetworldstats.com, la pénétration d’Internet en Afrique pour le second quart de 2012 affichait 15,6%. Ces bonnes nouvelles font dire à Mark Chirnside, le président directeur général du fournisseur de service de paiement en ligne PayU, que du point de vue local, « l’e-commerce croit de 30% par année. M-paiement : les facteurs de succès dans cinq pays africains. (Agence Ecofin) - Le potentiel du paiement mobile en Afrique est énorme. Les entreprises de mobile, ainsi que les banques selon les pays, s’investissent pour le contrôle du marché.
La possibilité d’accéder à des services financiers élémentaires, comme les dépôts et les transferts, à partir de n’importe quel téléphone mobile sans avoir besoin d’un compte bancaire formel, offre une opportunité potentiellement révolutionnaire pour les populations non bancarisées, encore nombreuses sur le continent. IFC Makes First Islamic Finance Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Invest Africa Episode 23: Private Equity. Invest Africa Episode 15: Insurance. Sukuk - Banque - L'Afrique frappe à la porte de la finance islamique - Magazine Africanaute.com.
What Africa Can Teach Us About the Future of Banking. SuperReturn Africa - Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Conference - Event Home. Equities in Africa to attract 30pc return - Business - www.theeastafrican.co.ke. The Rise of Africa’s Savers. By Eliot Pence The rapid increase in the number and size of African pension funds arguably matters more than any other single trend in the continent’s economic development.
The pace at which pension funds have grown is staggering. According to analyst reports, the top six countries’ pension funds alone are predicted to grow total assets under management to over $600 billion by the end of the decade (from $200 billion today). Sub-Saharan Africa growth rate second best to Asia - Fitch. Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa through 2013 is expected to remain above 5%, according to Fitch Ratings, making it the second fastest growing emerging market region after Asia. The rating agency said growth will be supported by infrastructure spending, development of mineral resources and growing consumption.
Africa: The Next Big Investment Opportunity. Africa and sovereign wealth funds: Should African countries hop onto the bandwagon? A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) consists of assets mainly coming from budget surpluses and revenues from commodities, which are then used in a state investment fund. SEND MONEY AFRICA. L'Afrique fait les yeux doux au capital-investissement. S : Montée en puissance attendue de l'Afrique sur les marchés obligataires internationaux à moyen et long termes. Venture Capital in Africa. WORLD'S BEST EMERGING MARKET BANKS IN AFRICA 2012. SAFEST EMERGING MARKET BANKS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 2012. Africa: Growth Of Pan-African Banks. Mobile money in Africa: Press 1 for modernity. Remarkable Economic Resilience Across the African Continent. Bankers and Dealmakers Set Their Sights on Africa.
French.news.cn-Afrique: toute l'actualité sur l'Afrique. 20120428_wom948_0.png (PNG Image, 595 × 588 pixels) 623.png (PNG Image, 415 × 456 pixels) African countries come to the sovereign wealth fund party. African debt on the up. Africa Rising banks on reality matching the metrics. Nigeria, Angola, Ghana plan record bond sales in 2013.
1-s2.0-S1042443101000427-gr4.gif (GIF Image, 586 × 357 pixels) - Worldfolio - AFA PRESS. Looking for great opportunities in Africa’s ‘frontier markets’ - Flying Blue Club Africa. Frontier Market Network : Company Feature : The potential of African capital markets. African financial services sector needs more competition - RISKAFRICA. ASEA to launch the Pan-African Index. Top 5 venture capital firms targeting Africa. Arton5870.gif (GIF Image, 1200 × 669 pixels) General PEs gain ground in Africa - Business - www.theeastafrican.co.ke. Nstant Capital - The African Business Journal. Les transferts financiers des diasporas se chiffrent à 406 milliards $ IFC Invests $5m In Nigerian Microfinance Bank. Moroccan Attijariwafabank, Abu Dhabi firm to start Africa equities fund.
Africa: Moody's - New Ratings for Africa. Satellite maps of African weather promise a microinsurance breakthrough. Bank of Africa deploys Clear2Pay mobile banking solution. TEXT-Fitch:Rapid credit growth in Sub-Saharan Africa reflects economic & financial development. Bond Investors Put Faith in a More Stable Africa. Finance : des groupes africains en pleine expansion. DOCUMENT_EN_FR_2_4_MARCH_2009_EA_CONGRESS_ARTICLE_VOLUME_1.pdf (application/pdf Object) Nigeria joins JP Morgan government bond index:Monday 1 October 2012. Emerging Market Private Equity Investing in the First Half of 2012 « emergingmktstories.
AfDB plans to launch debit Africa infrastructure bond — AfricaTimesNews. Tanzania Joins Neighbours with SWF Launch. Ecobank charts pan-African growth. Sovereign debt: is Africa underrated? Credit reports for emerging world markets - ICP. African private equity: start small-ish. African Banking: the Paper-Free Future of Checks. AfDB launches African Guarantee Fund to support SMEs. IFC-AfDB say currency deal will speed Africa credit. The North Africa Journal - Africa Wants to Attract Islamic Banking Investors. The North Africa Journal - Attijariwafa Bank in a Three-Horse Race to Control African Banking. Daily chart: The bank of SMS.