Investing in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges
Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to seven of the world’s ten fastest growing economies in the next five years. At a recent Thomson Reuters event, U.S. Sen. Christopher Coons joins top African investment managers and business leaders before a live audience to identify key opportunities and ways to address risks, in a panel moderated by Reuters Editor-at-Large Sir Harold Evans. The video features local investors such as Yemi Lalude of Adlevo Capital and Bismark Rewane of Financial Derivatives Company Limited as well as a number of Africa focused foreign investors. Watch the video below.
Opposition to Nigeria’s New N5000 Naira Note
Is the new 5000 Naira note a good or bad thing? Some at the lower end of the income scale say a 5000 Naira note is superfluous since many Nigerians do not have enough money to make frequent use of it. Others argue that as Nigeria has a rapidly expanding middle class and upper class, the note will be of use to the higher income strata and will reduce bank costs of handling smaller denominations.
MTV Base Interview with Aliko Dangote: Africa’s Richest Man
In other news, Dangote is apparently in talks with South African company Tiger Brands to sell a controlling stake in his flour company Dangote Flour Mills PLC for about $125 million dollars.
He also plans to spend $7.5 billion dollars in the next 4 years to expand his business.
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE84904K20120510
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lx_H_LrZ1DE
Africa’s Richest Dictators
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/11/08/who-were-africas-richest-dictators/
Mobutu Sese Seko, Abacha and Babangida are there…
Nafissatou Diallo Interview
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/dominique-strauss-kahn-maid-speaks-abc-news-14150523?tab=9482930
Nafissatou “Nafi” Diallo, the hotel maid at the Sofitel who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape has finally shown her face and gone public with her allegations of sexual assault against Strauss-Kahn. Watch the video of her televised interview at the li
IMF Boss Strauss-Kahn Arrested for Rape – on Suicide Watch
Contrary to the media reports, she is NOT HIV+.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/maid-in-imf-rape-case-under-siege-20110518-1et63.html
Wikileaks Exposes on the Niger Delta: “A Cesspool of Corruption and Crime”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,733880,00.html
Depressing reading regarding the corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry and the shenanigans of oil companies, militants, thieves, and the police force – all engaged in corruption.
“US diplomats also referred to a complaint from one oil multinational about the Nigerian Navy, which, the complaint said, was totally incapable of protecting oil companies in the delta. When rebels attacked an oil platform in the Gulf of Guinea with a total of six speed boats, Shell employees sounded the alarm at 2:30 a.m. It was only at 7:30 p.m., after the attackers had long disappeared, that naval boats arrived — and their primary aim was to obtain supplies of fuel and food from the platform.”
