East Africa emerges as a trade hub

East Africa is emerging as a trade hub to rival sub-Saharan Africa’s two heavyweight states of South Africa and Nigeria, according to analysis by Barclays published on Thursday. However the UK bank identifies five “sleeping giants” that present significant new for foreign companies; Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana. This quintet which are “playing catch-up after significant political and economic...

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South Africa crash, Ghana win, Nigeria draw

Mauritania shocked South Africa 3-1, Ghana edged Rwanda 1-0 and Nigeria were held 0-0 by Tanzania Saturday in Africa Cup of Nations matchday 2 qualifiers. A blunder by goalkeeper and captain Itumeleng Khune after five minutes cost South Africa a goal in Nouakchott and set the home team on the road to their greatest Cup of Nations triumph. Khune allowed a long-range Ali Abeid free-kick to slip from his grasp into the net and Bafana Bafana...

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WHO-raised team develops guidelines for ‘IVF’ in Africa

A team of experts raised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed Fertility Guidelines especially on the practice of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)/Assiated Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) in Africa. President African Fertility Society (AFS), Prof Oladapo Ashiru, in a press release, yesterday, the WHO experts hadon September 4, 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland, completed a week long meeting, making evidence-based recommendations on...

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Veteran City investor hopes to power up Africa

Veteran investor Jerome Booth, who has long extolled the virtues of emerging markets, is to launch a new investment fund that will focus on renewable and conventional energy projects in Africa. New Sparta Asset Management plans to invest in at least three power stations, each of which will need at least £50m of equity. The group, which has a number of economists on its board, including Sunday Telegraph columnist Liam Halligan, is about to launch...

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Egypt announces parliamentary election will start in October

Egypt will hold a long-awaited parliamentary election in two phases starting on 18-19 October, the election commission has said. The first phase of voting had been due to begin in March but the election was delayed after a court ruled part of an election law was unconstitutional. The second phase will take place on 22-23 November, the election commission told a news conference. Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a...

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Fly Africa to open new routes in East and West Africa

Southern Africa-focused low-cost airline Fly Africa will expand to fly new routes to destinations in East and West Africa, Gabon's president said on Saturday. "One of the biggest contributions that we as Africans can make to Africa's development is to open the skies for direct affordable travel between African states," said Ali Bongo at the New York Forum in Gabon's capital Libreville. A statement from Fly Africa said that the expansion was...

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South Africa's Bidvest Group profit rises on food business

South African conglomerate Bidvest Group reported an 8.6 percent rise in annual profit on Monday, buoyed by its food service business. Bidvest, whose business spans auto showrooms, shipping and catering, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 1,882 cents in year to end-June, slightly better than the mean estimate of 11 analysts in a Reuter’s poll. Headline EPS is the most widely watched profit measure in South Africa and strips out...

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