Author: khaoula

Business forum in Senegal promotes African female entrepreneurs

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Africa has the highest number of women entrepreneurs but they face more hurdles on the way to business success than their male counterparts.

Maty Ndiaye a Senegalese businesswoman founded Kaya, a shop in Dakar selling clothes, toys and products for children.

But the business stalled when she needed funding to grow and Ndiaye was forced to shut down her store due to lack of capital.

Like many entrepreneurs on the continent, access to resources and opportunities are limited, and even more so for women.

“I wanted to borrow 5 million with a micro financing body and they asked me to bring the 5 million, to put it in an account as a guarantee and afterwards they would lend me 5 million. I found that outrageous. So, it’s really hard when we want to develop our business and we need money to inject in the business, it’s really hard to get access to that type of financing,” she said.

 

However, a new networking initiative founded by French businesswoman, Aude De Thui is determined to change that.

Women In Africa (WIA) is an organisation that aims to support and fund businesses led or managed by African women.

The group recently held its first regional Summit in Dakar, bringing together over 180 women entrepreneurs from 15 different countries.

WIA recently held a Women’s Forum in Senegal, with specific focus on the challenges and solutions faced by African female entrepreneurs like Ndiaye.

“Women suffer today because they don’t get enough support, enough guardiancies and they don’t have access to financing. And women forums are often about well-being or personal themes. I participate in economic summits because I want to put women back in the economy and give them a voice because they inspire trust and also because the world needs to focus on Africa,” De Thuy said.

Speakers and experts were also on hand to give master classes and share their business experiences, as well as putting women in touch with investors and helping them pitch their ideas.

“By participating in this forum, it has allowed me to believe in myself more but in particular to believe in the woman that I can become, like these women leaders that I have met and with whom I took a lot of pleasure talking to and exchanging with,” said 17-year-old Fatou Khouleh Wade, who dreams of being a railroad engineer.

Ndiaye says the forum helped her find at least five new clients. More importantly she found out about funding sources she was unaware of before the forum.

She said she hopes to invest new money and inject new energy into her business so that she can re-open the shop and grow.

Source: Michael Ike Dibie with Reuters

 

Fidelity Bank Plans to List on Ghana Stock Exchange by 2020

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Fidelity Bank Ltd., a closely held Ghanaian lender, plans to list its shares for trading on the country’s bourse by 2020 as it targets a spot among the largest three banks in the West African nation.

Shareholders of the country’s fourth-largest lender on Friday approved a proposal to raise 70 million cedis ($16 million) by selling stock to selected investors, Managing Director Jim Baiden said in an interview in Accra, the capital. Fidelity will also transfer 20 million cedis of its surplus income to boost its capital buffers, he said.

 

 

The Bank of Ghana in September raised the minimum capital level for the country’s lenders to 400 million cedis, from 120 million cedis, and gave the country’s institutions until the end of the year to meet the goal. The new rules have spurred a flurry of capital-raising efforts, with Energy Commercial Bank Ltd. seeking to raise about 330 million cedis through an initial public offering, Societe Generale Ghana Ltd. planning a 170 million cedis-rights issue, and Universal Merchant Bank Ltd. in talks with investors for 260 million cedis.

Source: http://www.africanbusinesscentral.com/

 

Nigeria: France-based shipping group signs agreement to operate a container terminal in Lekki, Lagos

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Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE), the promoters of Lekki Deep Seaport, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CMA CGM Group, a France-based world leader in maritime transport, to operate the seaport of the future container terminal in the port. This deal is CMA CGM’s second shipping company in Nigeria and on the African market.

CMA CGM, through its subsidiary CMA Terminals, will be responsible for marketing, operations, and maintenance of the container terminal at Lekki Deep Sea Port. Upon completion, the container terminal will be equipped with a 1,200-meter-long quay as well as 13 quay cranes and will have a capacity of 2.5 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs). With its 16-meter depth, it will allow the Group to deploy ships with a capacity of up to 14,000 TEUs. The port which is expected to start operation at the end of 2020 will have 2 container berths and will be Nigeria’s first deep-sea port.

“We are pleased to sign this Memorandum of Agreement with LPLE to operate Lekki Port’s container terminal,” said Farid Salem, Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group. “As Nigeria’s first deep-sea port, Lekki Port represents a strategic choice for the CMA CGM Group. Thanks to its position and capacity, Lekki Port will allow us to bring to Nigeria larger container ships from Europe and Asia to better serve our customers and pursue our commitment to the development of the entire region. With CMA CGM’s unique service offering and expertise combined with our logistics and inland services, our presence in Lekki Port will benefit the entire Nigerian supply chain and market as well as neighboring countries.”

This port is expected to help reduce congestion in the Lagos port, which is fully in line with the CMA CGM Group’s development in the region. This terminal will also serve as a transshipment hub to Nigeria’s neighboring countries, most especially Benin.

During the official flag off ceremony of the Lekki port project recently the Federal Government of Nigeria pledged its total support for the project. This was made known by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who represented President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The signing of the agreement with the CMA CGM Group as another step in the right direction towards the actualization of the Port, which would become the deepest port in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Navin Nahata, Chief Executive Officer of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise.

The future Lekki Deep Sea Port will be developed, built and operated by LPLE, a joint venture enterprise led by the Tolaram Group, the Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority.

 

Source: The Nerve http://thenerveafrica.com/

 

IMF calls for East African interbank loan market

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended the formation of a cross-border bank-to-bank lending market, secured through physical surrender of collateral across eastern Africa. The IMF said a secured interbank market would be a true repo (repurchasing agreement) market as the region lacks such facility between banks.

Small financiers are the most affected by the lack of a regional market for banks to lend and borrow from each other overnight, as they have to pay a hefty premium to get emergency funds from regulators or larger rivals. IMF reckons banks could lend each other regardless of the location of the borrower in the region, especially as the countries race to set up structures for a monetary union in the next five years.

“A true repo market will be the safest way of integrating EAC money markets. The concept of a true sale is more uniformly understood (which) therefore makes cross-border trading easier. “So, for example, a Kenyan bank is likely to feel much safer lending to a Ugandan counterparty if it receives outright legal title to Ugandan collateral,” said the IMF.

Not vibrant

The multilateral lender notes that in Uganda, for example, the repo market is not vibrant and does not match the international standards.

For one, the market does not use the standard documentation such as the global master repurchase agreement (GRMA), which sets out the guidelines of how the trading is to be done legally. Tanzania is also in the process of adopting the GMRA, which Kenya adopted it in 2008 to pave the way for the horizontal repo.

The repo is supposed to redistribute liquidity in the banking sector with government securities serving as the collateral. Though used in Kenya, it is still not very popular nor widely used across the region as the monetary union is not yet in place. The Kenyan GMRA is also domestically oriented, rather than regional.

Horizontal repo

The IMF advises Uganda to adopt the GMRA as the basis for the horizontal repo market. “A true repo market will depend on a robust Master Repo Agreement (MRA).

There is no Master Repo Agreement in Uganda. Uganda does need to draft one from scratch; there are plenty of MRAs available across the markets that can be used as examples for Uganda and tailored as needed,” says the IMF. With regard to Tanzania, the IMF says such an agreement (GMRA) is a prelude to the adoption of a new monetary framework that uses interest rates as the anchor.

Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/

Wangari Maathai: the African woman Nobel Prize Winner

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The African Chamber of Commerce is celebrating the International Woman Day commemorating African women who changed the world we live in a better place.

This year we are united to honour Dr. Wangari Maathai who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for her work demonstrating the intricate links between the environment, democracy and peace through Kenya’s Green Belt Movement.

As many girls in Kenya, the young Wangari was taught to respect nature. She grew up loving the lands, plants, and animals that surrounded her from the giant mugumo trees to the tiny tadpoles that swam in the river. Although most Kenyan girls were not educated, Wangari, curious and hardworking, was allowed to go to school. She excelled at science and went on to study in the United States. After returning home Dr. Maathai used with devotion her knowledge and compassion to promote the rights of the Kenyan women and to help save the land and the trees of her country. In 1997 Dr. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights and since its foundation an estimated 45 million trees were planted around Kenya.

What made the Green Belt Movement remarkable was that it was also conceived as a source of employment in rural areas, and mostly a way to empower women who in their ordinary daily life they normally came second to men in terms of power, education and much else because of the cultural and social structure of many African countries.

Dr. Maathai was awarded in 2004 of the Nobel Peace Prize  that  for the the first time it had gone to an African woman. She was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. Unfortunately, in 2011 Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer.

Boosting women’s potential as “green agents of change” is necessary to realize the full potential of investments in conservation in African countries and around the world.  Today we all stand together in memory of Maathai.

 

 

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SEMINAR

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Among the main objectives of the African chamber of Commerce is to give youths the opportunity to develop and empower their skills in order to reveal their full potentials to become valuable members for the development of their communities.

On the 1st of March 2018, we organized a Youth Empowerment Seminar in Mixpace Wonderwall gathering students, young entrepreneurs and experts of the fields of Chinese education and entrepreneurialism.

Mr. Pablo Venegas, Partnership Director of China Campus Network opened the seminar with a presentation of CCN mission and study programs which aims are improving the enrollment quality of international students and develop global
talents to create bridges between China and their home countries. A significant question raised by Mr. Vengas to the audience was “Why China?”.

He explained that China nowadays is taking center stage in the global economy and that initiatives like One Belt One Road are bringing massive investment in many key sectors adding that Chinese companies are following the same path towards internationalization at an accelerated pace. This means that there will be a high demand of highly skilled and competitive talents that need to be addressed and trained to achieve their high potential.

Mr. D. Nkwetato Tamonkia, current chairperson of AFCHAM, after providing a general outline of African Chamber of Commerce vision and mission he presented the different problems faced by the international students during their experience in China, from the cultural shock, language barrier and nostalgia to the moment they need to renew the Visa from “X” to “Z” and setting up a business or building a family in China. There are different challenges and implication youth have to face during their experience abroad far from their families but Mr. Tamonkia conclude with a wise citation of Wayner Dayer “Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you”.

Also for Mr. Simon Brantes, specialized in importing and exporting business, China is the right country to be for ambitious young entrepreneurs. In less than a decade China has emerged as the world leader in e-commerce with Alibaba Group, E-lema and other retail e-commerce platforms. A way to empower youths and making them active part of the Chinese economic growth is to provide them a training program on e-commerce as this is regarded the future driving force in different fields of the Chinese economy.

A panel discussion was open between the hosts and the audience and a variety of topics were raised on the challenges to face while starting a business in China, implications of the scholarships during a study programs in China, the importance of being flexible and having always a Chinese partner while starting a career in the country and the skills and knowledge we can gain from our Chinese experience that then we can provide to our country of origins. The panel discussion was then followed by a refreshing break and general networking. The seminar ended with the assignment of the Certificates of Youth Empowerment for the attendees that have actively took part of the seminar. We firmly believe that through these seminars and the AYEP program with highly-qualified experts we create the basis for a better community in which youths which represent the growth and prosperity of a society are empowered.

 

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

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One of the biggest challenges for International postgraduate students is the inability to find the right job and occupation in China after the terms of their studies meaning that they have most of the cases leave their Chinese dream and go back to their countries. Our aim is to provide an useful orientation according to the case of the postgraduate student in terms of networking and empowerment.

There are different cases of students taking part of study programs in China that once they arrived in the country they realise that the study program they are taking is far from their expectations. AFCHAM provides counselling services to address students with the right study program and support.

Young skilled and educated people aiming to become entrepreneurs and start their own business in China, most of the time are limited because of the lack of knowledge on the legal procedures they have to go through to become entrepreneurs in China.

Which solutions we provide?

Youth Empowerment and Orientation through panel discussions with influential and skilled advisors who are experts of the Education system and Entrepreneurialism. We believe that through the networking with outstanding companies and highly-qualified profiles we create the basis for a better community in which youth which represent the growth and prosperity of a society is empowered.

Benefits for participants

– Having the right orientation according to their own case.
– Having the chance to enlarge their networking and to learn from the experience of concrete case studies.
– Receiving support and counselling service for studies and Visa regulations.
– Having the chance to meet experts of the education system and entrepreneurial world and get addressed by them on the right path to take.
– Having the chance to leave your CV that will be collected and inserted in our database to then being provided to our partners.
– Having the chance to meet HR managers and executives from different influential companies.
– For active participants there is a chance to get a Certificate of Youth Empowerment that they can add in their CVs.

Benefits for partners

– Promote their brand and bring visibility of their business and services.
– Having the chance to enlarge their networking with different companies and university partners of AFCHAM.
– Having the chance to meet high-skilled and educated profiles.
– Contributing in empowering young people and providing an orientation through which youth can reach their highest potential.
– Having the chance to meet HR managers and executives from different influential companies.