The eThekwini City Council in Durban and the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority in Nigeria invite you to an Investment Forum to showcase opportunities in the GPHCDA New City development in Port Harcourt, the capital of Nigeria’s oil producing industry.

South African investors and contractors have been invited to take up business opportunities in the building of a new world-class city in the heart of the Niger Delta, the oil producing area of Nigeria. The Greater Port Harcourt New City Development Authority (GPHCDA) is visiting South Africa as part of a global drive to attract [...]

  PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma ’s visit to China was, by some accounts, a big success. Much was made of the size of the business delegation — about 350 people — and the government team of 13 Cabinet ministers. It was a display of business-government engagement that SA rarely sees. It signalled the type of “SA [...]

THE recent firing of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO highlights a gradual move to a new standard of corporate governance in Nigeria — characterised by a slow chipping away at “old guard” business heavyweights.

ELECTION rumblings are gathering pace in Harare as the unity government in Zimbabwe heads for the expiry of its two-year mandate next year. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party says it is more than ready to take on an election next year and its partner in the government, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also [...]

THERE are celebrations taking place across Africa this year — and they have nothing to do with soccer. In 1960, 17 African countries gained their independence from colonial rule; this year marks the 50th anniversary of these momentous events. The landmark occasion has been celebrated with parades, parties, football games, dancing, public speeches and publications [...]

ON MY first visit to Ghana more than 15 years ago, I was enchanted by the carved wooden people found all over Accra’s markets.  There were roomfuls of brightly painted soldiers, white colonials, bureaucrats, waiters, nurses and myriad other icons of human beings produced by west African craftsmen.  Over the years, these figurines appeared in [...]

IN 1993, Equity Building Society in Kenya was declared technically insolvent; in 2010 it is a fully fledged bank, listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and claims more than half of Kenya’s banked population as its customers.  In 2006 alone, its customer base grew 82,5% and its deposits grow 80% a year. What is the secret [...]

A MINISTER in an African country that shall remain nameless was relating his experience of joining the government from the private sector at a dinner at a recent African business conference. He said the need to observe official protocol was one of the biggest challenges of transferring from an environment of informality in business to [...]

ARE South African companies damaging relationships with other African countries by not playing by the rules?