Africa Top-10 Business News

The Primary Platform for all Car Transactions in the African Used Car Market

Founded by Etop Ikpe, previously of Konga and DealDey, Cars45 is trying to formalise the used automobile sector by providing an end-to-end digitised customer journey for buying, selling and swapping cars in Africa. 

The startup has built a technology-enabled platform that makes it easier to trade cars in Africa, and has expanded to provide access to finance, insurance and other value-added services in the wake of raising US$5 million in funding from the Berlin-based Frontier Car Group (FCG) in 2017. 

Cars45 is now expanding geographically, too, to ensure a larger slice of a market where nine million used cars are traded annually. Its launch in Ghana and Kenya means consumers in those two countries are now able to sell their cars directly through Cars45 and get paid in 45 minutes.

SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA

2 Luanda’s Progress in Diversifying its Portfolio

The IMF has approved a $247m loan to support Angola’s reform plans after the country stuck to its economic diversification programme and slimmed its deficit, “despite challenges,” the multi-lateral lender said. 

The lifeline is part of a three-year credit facility of $3.7bn, agreed in December 2018 to promote deep structural economic and governance reforms. 

The latest tranche brings the total IMF disbursements to Angola under the current programme to about $1.48bn, and was approved by the executive board on December 5 following a health check of the country’s economy.

SOURCE: AFRICAN BUSINESS MAGAZINE

3 Zimbabwe is Turning to Tourism to Rescue its Economy

Even as it deals with 300 percent inflation, Zimbabwe last year recorded its best-ever 12 months for tourism in Victoria Falls — the marquee destination — and its western regions more broadly. 

In 2018, visitors spent a total of 250,000 nights at the 10 Victoria Falls hotels surveyed for the Africa’s Living Soul report, up 30 percent from 2015. 

Room stock in the town has more than doubled in five years. After mining and agriculture, tourism is the biggest contributor to the country’s economy. 

And Lonely Planet gave Zimbabwe its vote of confidence, listing it among the 10 countries to visit in 2019 — despite the domestic crisis. 

The $150 million Victoria Falls International Airport — financed by a loan from China and with a capacity of 1.5 million visitors per year — is the centerpiece of Zimbabwe’s strategy.

SOURCE: OZY

4 Facebook’s Achievements Since Push into Africa

Facebook released its ‘2019 Year in Review’ infographic, showcasing just some of its investments across Sub-Saharan in 2019.  

Committed to giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, throughout the year this translated into significant support and investments into growing the ecosystem of developers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and many other communities. 

During 2019, Facebook Africa: trained over 7,000 woman-owned businesses in digital skills across sub Saharan Africa; celebrated 79 Community Leadership Circle meetups with over 2 ,650 people attending; reached its 45th Developer Circle, with circles now in 17 African countries and representing more than 70,000 members.

SOURCE: VENTURES AFRICA

5 The Driver of Rwanda’s Socio-economic Transformation

The Rwanda Development Board is a one stop institution to provide key services, and expedite decisions affecting investors as well as reforms for a very conducive business environment. 

The platform brings all the agencies responsible for business registration, investment/export promotion, privatization and specialist agencies which support the priority sectors of ICT and tourism as well as SMEs and human capacity development in the private sector all under one roof. 

Today, Rwanda, at 38th rank, is the only Low-Income Country in the top 50 of the 2020 World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report and is the 2nd easiest place to do business in Africa after Mauritius. 

Consequently, Rwanda has been recognized as the top global reformer by the World Bank with the highest number of implemented reforms over the last ten years.

SOURCE: FORBES AFRICA

6 A Turbulent Year for African Airlines

African airlines continue to suffer due to high costs and are projected to show a loss of $200m next year, similar to the loss expected for 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association. 

The industry body said this is largely due to government taxes and fees, as well as low load factors. 

Furthermore, aviation markets in Africa are seen as “very fragmented and inefficiently served in the absence, so far, of a single African air transport market”, according to data. 

Data recently released by Iata showed that African carriers posted the fastest cargo growth of any region in October 2019, with an increase in demand of 12.6% compared to the same period a year earlier. Strong trade and investment links with Asia contributed to the positive performance.

SOURCE: FIN 24

7 A Tough Quarter for South Africa

South Africa recorded smaller foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, but portfolio investment inflows jumped after the government issued international bonds. 

Africa’s most industrialised economy had FDI inflows of $1.16 billion. 

The portfolio investment inflows were at 40.2 billion rand from July to the end of September from inflows of 10 billion rand in the prior quarter, mainly reflecting the government’s issuance of international bonds of $5 billion.

SOURCE: REUTERS AFRICA

8 Microlenders Come for Women in Sierra Leone

The world’s largest NGO has been forced to conduct an internal review of a money-lending scheme it runs for the poor in Sierra Leone after some borrowers amassed significant debts and were reported to police when they couldn’t repay loans. 

A Guardian investigation into a microfinance programme run by Brac found that the NGO’s staff were failing to fully explain the conditions of the loan to borrowers, or ensure they could afford the high interest rates associated with such loans. Brac, an NGO that provides financial services for people living in poverty, has 5.6 million borrowers globally, almost 90% of whom are women.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

9 More Bad News from Africa’s Leading e-Commerce

Jumia Technologies has revealed that it will suspend food and drinks delivery services on its Jumia foods division in Rwanda. 

According to a statement from the company, “we have made the difficult decision to suspend our on-demand services in Rwanda effective on December 9th, 2019.” 

The statement went on to explain that “while decisions like these are always difficult, it is more important now than ever to put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help us thrive.” 

Although Jumia has concluded that running its e-commerce business in Tanzania and Cameroon, together with its food delivery service in Rwanda was unprofitable, it continues to operate in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, amongst other African countries.

SOURCE: THE NEW TIMES

10 A Growing Natural Hair Market across Africa

On the streets of Dakar, Abidjan or Lagos, you’ll be hard-pressed to see the Afros now commonplace in Nairobi, Johannesburg and New York. 

South Africa alone has a natural hair market valued at more than $300 million. You might conclude that the natural hair movement has failed to take root in West Africa. But you would be wrong. 

A cluster of companies, hair salons and communities emerging across 

West Africa that’s sparking a shift in the region’s approach to natural hair. If the number of people with natural hair is growing, why is there minimal evidence of it when you roam West African streets? The answer varies from city to city.

SOURCE: OZY

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