Angola Cables Has Just Launched Africa’s First Live Gaming Portal

August 11, 2019

Multinational telecoms company, Angola Cables, has announced that, through their ultra-low latency submarine fiber cable routes, they will provide a new Live Gaming Portal in Angola. This will be open to all eSports and gaming communities in Africa, offering the lowest latency experience ever.

The introduction of the Gaming Portal marks Angola Cables’ fist incursion into the eSports arena, made possible through a partnership with eSport and gaming specialists, Qwatti eSports. The partnership has been concluded following the increasing demand from the youth population for premium (less lag) gaming experiences — not just at country level, but worldwide.

A Look At The New Live Gaming Portal

The new gaming portal will feature tournaments across multiple platforms, including consoles, mobile games and, of course, computers. Also, an interactive tool to facilitate expertise and knowledge-sharing within the gaming community which will virtually connect gaming enthusiasts and users from across the world.

“The gaming portal is a first step in connecting African gamers in the region with users in America, Europe, and Asia.” Crisóstomo Mbundu, Product Manager at Angola Cables said that the new SACS cable, with data centres at each end of the cable network, is capable of providing connections to events taking place in America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. “SACS offers a compelling service proposition for the global gamers and the eSport community; gaming producers and providers of streamed events seeking interactive experiences with low latencies.”

Angola Cables provides an extensive and reliable infrastructure to support gaming activities leveraging the capacity of SACS, Monet and WACS subsea cable systems. The company currently links Europe, Africa and the Americas, reaching Asia through partners’ routes.

“Given the combined, robust IP network and the several agreements we have in place with major CDNs and Points of Presence within major telco hubs, users will benefit from a greater online experience and lower latency while gaming,” notes Mbundu.

Guilherme Fraga, Product Management and Product Development Director at Qwatti said that the combination of the Angola Cables’ high-performance network with Qwatti’s international expertise in the global eSports market holds tremendous promise and potential.”

“The platform will also have a strong impact in empowering the Angolan gaming industry, narrowing the gap for users in the Southern Hemisphere and giving African gamers the opportunity to compete with very good pings worldwide.” concluded Mbundu.

About Angola Cables

Angola Cables is an Angolan telecommunications multinational founded in 2009, operating in the wholesale market, its business is the sale of international transmission capacity through submarine fibre optic cables and IP Transit. SACS, Monet and WACS are the three submarine cable systems operated by Angola Cables, which connect four regions (South America, North America, Africa and Europe). Angola Cables manages Angonix, an Internet Exchange Point located in Luanda and the third largest in Africa. Angola Cables also manages two data centers: Angonap Fortaleza, in Fortaleza (Brazil) connected to SACS and Monet, and another in Luanda (Angola), Angonap Luanda, connected to SACS, WACS and additional systems for redundancy purposes.

About Qwatti Digital Entertainment

Qwatti provides specialized eSports services to teams and brands in the eSports industry. Our expertise covers areas like eSports Presence Creation, eSports Events Management, Partnership Acquisition, Marketing Activations and Content Generation. Qwatti excels in creating detailed eSports Strategies, accurate and realistic business plans, and opening new opportunities in terms of Market Placement, Brand Diversification and Merchandising, bringing value to our partners and allowing them to access a whole new and exciting target audience, increasing their customer base and monetization opportunities. Qwatti has over 20 years of experience in designing, planning and executing events in different areas of business, a broad network of contacts and trust relationships built over the course of many years in being a part of eSports.

http://www.qwatti.com

Agri-Startups In Ethiopia Can Apply For Funding And Growth Support Under This New Programme

This is a huge opportunity for agri-startups and businesses in Ethiopia to grow and scale their businesses. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through its Green Innovation Centers project, and the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in partnership with iceaddis, officially launched the Green Innovation & Agritech Slam 2019 (GIAS) on August 7 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Addis Abeba. GIAS is a nationwide agricultural business competition that aims to find innovative solutions to critical challenges of the agricultural sector.

All You Need To Know About The Competition

The competition supports Ethiopian agricultural entrepreneurs and is awarding 10 innovative and bright entrepreneurs or businesses, with over 1,000,000 Birr (roughly $35, 000) shared prize among winners.

“The winners will also receive extensive business development support; expert advice; mentorship; and an opportunity to travel to Germany for an exposure visit (for first prize winners only) in the field of their business idea. The business competition specifically encourages youth and women owned or co-owned companies to apply.’

“Disseminating agricultural innovations is essential to increase productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. By strengthening the private sector, up- and downstream enterprises, and promoting entrepreneurship directed towards challenges of the agricultural sector, the service provision for smallholder farmers can be improved,” said Laura de Guevara, GIZ supported Green Innovation Centers — Ethiopia

The nationwide business competition features 5 categories: nutrition & consumer market, agri-inputs & equipment, environmental protection & sustainability, idea stage digital businesses and post-revenue agri-tech startups.
Applications from all over the country will go through rigorous selection process to identify and award the final 10 winners at a grand award ceremony on November 14, 2019. The grand event will have a conference on digital agriculture in Ethiopia on November 15th, 2019.

Ken Lohento of CTA said:“Digital technologies have the potential to transform the agricultural sector. CTA is confident that a focus on digital solutions among youth in this regard will help to boost Ethiopia’s future food security and create jobs across the agricultural value chain.”

The innovations and ideas are expected to bring solutions to critical challenges of the wheat, legumes and honey value chains and digital needs of agricultural stakeholders in Ethiopia. These are believed to eventually contribute to job creation of youth and women entrepreneurs.

Markos Lemma, Co-founder & CEO of iceaddis on his part said that

“Agriculture is the cornerstone of the Ethiopian economy although lack of technology or fresh ideas has partly affected its full success. More than ever, iceaddis recognizes the need to bring innovation by young Ethiopians to the agriculture scene. It is time we support our smallholder farmers better with innovation and technology.”

The Green Innovation & Agritech Slam welcomes individuals, private businesses, higher learning institutes and governmental and non-governmental organizations with innovative ideas and businesses in the selected value chains, as well as young digital innovators offering digital services to the entire agricultural sector.

Funded by the European Union, the competition is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA).

How To Apply

The competition categories of this year’s Green Innovation & Agritech Slam 2019 are as follows:

The Value Chain Challenge

Application Deadline:

October 1st, 2019

Do you run a business or have an idea to upscale your business in the food and agriculture value chains of wheat, legumes or honey?

Then apply in these categories

Nutrition & Consumer Market:

Organisers are looking for businesses that want to enter the market with new/ improved products or innovations in the food processing sector that aim at food security or healthy eating

Agri-Inputs & Equipments:

Does your business idea address challenges in the agri-input systems or proposes innovative products to increase productivity, ease maintenance or substitute imports?

Environmental Protection & Sustainability

Apply here, if you have an innovative idea on how to protect the environment or promote sustainability in the selected value chains

Pitch AgriHack Challenge

Application Deadline:

September 10th, 2019

Are you young entrepreneurs (aged between 18 to 35 years old) and do you have innovative digital solutions for the entire agriculture sector?

Then apply in these categories

Pre-revenue digital startups:

Organisers are looking for early stage digital solutions that can solve agricultural problems and support agricultural sector. However, you must have an existing prototype

Post-revenue digital startups:

Do you run a post-revenue digital business focusing on agriculture? Your solution must be already generating revenues, even if it is not yet profitable.

Criteria

Young and driven entrepreneurs
Resident in Ethiopia
Submit the application by the deadlines. For the Value Chain Challenge this is October 1st,2019, and for Pitch AgriHack Challenge, September 10th, 2019.

Mode of Application

Applications can be submitted through the organisers’ web form which is available at www.innovation-slam.com or submitted in printed format at selected regional institutions and partners. For more information about submissions, kindly contact the organisers directly.

Selection Process

The selection of winners is determined by an independent jury composed by the private sector, government ministries, development agencies and business consultants. The organizers do not influence the outcome of the jury’s decision.

China’s Huawei Launches New Operating System To Challenge Android

August 9, 2019

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There’s been a lot of speculation about Huawei’s in-house operating system ever since Google suspended the company’s Android license back in May, following the US government’s decision to put Huawei on the Entity List. Huawei has made no secret of the fact that it’s been working on its own OS, but the extent to which it would be able to act as a substitute for Android is unclear.

Huawei plans to launch HarmonyOS on “smart screen products” later this year, before expanding it to work on other devices, like wearables, over the next three years. Huawei doesn’t explicitly say what constitutes a “smart screen” device, but its subsidiary Honor is expected to bring the OS to a smart TV according to a report in Reuters. The initial focus for the operating system will be China before Huawei expands it to other markets.

In a press release, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group Richard Yu says that HarmonyOS is “completely different from Android and iOS” because of its ability to scale across different kinds of devices. “You can develop your apps once, then flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices,” the CEO said.

Previously, it’s been unclear whether HarmonyOS would be an operating system for smartphones or for internet-of-things devices. It now appears that it’s designed to power both, similar to Google’s experimental Fuchsia operating system, which is designed to run on various form-factors.

Huawei is yet to announce a device running the new operating system, but the company is expected to launch a successor to the Mate 20 Pro smartphone in the fourth quarter of this year.

It isn’t yet clear how much need Huawei will have for its own in-house operating system going forward. Since placing Huawei on the Entity List, the Trump administration has indicated that it’s willing to ease the restrictions on the company.

In July, senior officials said that the administration would grant licenses to deal with Huawei in instances where national security wouldn’t be impacted. However, yesterday Bloomberg reported that the White House is delaying its decision about issuing these licenses in the wake of China’s decision to halt purchases of US farming goods.

It’s yet another suggestion that the Huawei restrictions have as much to do with the US-China trade war as they do with protecting national security.

HarmonyOS now has an official name, but it still has some major hurdles to overcome. Huawei is expecting developers to recompile their apps for this new operating system, with the ability to code once and deploy across multiple devices with different screen layouts, interactions, and more.

Huawei says developers can compile a range of languages into machine code in a single environment, but it’s unclear exactly how easy that will be for developers. There are a lot of big promises here, but it’s going to be an even bigger challenge to build up an app ecosystem to rival both Android and Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

TALKING TALENT: HR Experts in Nigeria discuss how to future-proof their business and discover the one thing they desperately need

The cost of a bad hire or exit is on average three times the annual salary of that position, once all bottom-line costs are included in calculations. This is an outrageous cost and one of the reasons HR leaders have to ensure that their companies must hire the right fit and effectively plan for succession, at all levels. One pioneering HR consulting company is trailblazing the course to help Nigerian companies achieve this.

On Tuesday, July 30th, 2019, over 50 HR Experts and Top Business professionals gathered at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos Nigeria to discuss human resource management strategies that help organizations plan for the right hire, identify, develop and retain top-performing talent and position teams for seamless succession.

This event, ‘Talking Talent’, is the maiden edition of a series of HR workshops planned to take place across different countries in Africa and is the brainchild of The African Talent Company (TATC), a Pan-African recruitment firm offering ‘Fit-For-Purpose’ HR solutions across Talent Acquisition, HR Technology, Data Analysis, and Consultancy.

Senior HR professionals from a wide range of top companies and industries, such as Nigerian Breweries, Mondelez, Rand Merchant Bank, Rossetti Pivot, were in attendance as speakers, panelists, and workshop participants.

There were presentations and panel discussions, however, the key activity that struck a chord with the participants was the break-away sessions to deep dive on three key HR pain points: ‘Hiring Right’, ‘Managing Talent’ and ‘Succession Planning’. These one-on-one sessions were respectively led by three talent Gurus: Heather O’Shea – Managing Partner, TATC; Martin Sutherland – Global Director, PeopleTree Group and Brett Mulder – COO, PeopleTree Group.

One insight that stood out, was the fact that succession planning was not commonly practiced at Nigerian companies and that implies that teams do not have the required bench strength and had to be reset whenever top performers leave.

It was quite a revelation as HR leaders at the workshop said they faced challenges which varied from the lack of support from team members who refused to mentor designated successors, to HR teams who did not know how to design and implement a succession plan.

Brett Mulder, who led the breakout group on Succession planning, said, “Succession planning is a risk management strategy to ensure leadership continuity, preserve institutional knowledge and, in most cases, develop talent from within the organisation.

Gaining commitment from the executive and creating a structured roadmap to guide your investment in time, is critical in implementing a plan that ensures successors actually succeed.

Identify key roles for succession, adopt an evidence-based approach to assessing readiness, identify pools of talent that could potentially fill these roles and finally develop employees to be ready for advancement into key roles.”

Heather O’Shea, who focused on hiring right, also said, “Top companies all struggle with getting their workforce planning correct, not knowing when to ‘Buy, Borrow, Build or Bind’ the skill. This can be very costly, from a time, money and emotional perspective and we want to make it easy for HR leaders to understand how to choose the right strategy”. To facilitate this learning, participants were given a free workforce planning template and a demonstration on how to use this template at their respective companies.

During the panel discussion, chaired by Jobberman CEO, Hilda Kragha, she mentioned, “When you find good people, as an organization, you need to make your value proposition interesting for them at every stage of their journey with you, so they are motivated to deliver more, for longer”.

The panel was discussing ‘How to identify top performers and how to retain them’ and had Martin Sutherland on the panel, who also said, “Personalising employee engagement is important, anonymous surveys don’t help you tailor custom retention actions for high-value individuals.”

In engagements with TATC clients in 2019, they asked: “How do I future-proof my business to ensure I have the right skills to continue to grow well past 2020?”.

This was the key pain point, and to address this, TATC decided to not hold “‘another conference”‘ but rather to have a workshop, where TATC could share insights and offer their talent specialists who could bring their expertise to share with clients.

Delegates were offered the opportunity to have one-on-one sessions to speak about their challenges because TATC wanted to offer the expertise to clients in an open, yet intimate forum.

The results were intriguing, as key insights around the challenges HR leaders face in succession planning and workforce planning were discovered and discussed. This is a high-impact workshop series that will occur regularly across the different markets that TATC operate.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

GE Healthcare and the Association of Medical Engineering of Kenya host more than 100 biomedical engineers for Biomedical Excellence Day

More than 100 biomedical engineers from the public and private sectors across the country participated with best practices on maintenance emphasized during the training; the training aligns with Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the Big Four agenda pillar on capacity building for Universal Health Coverage

GE Healthcare today hosted the first “Biomedical Excellence Day” in Kenya during which more than 100 biomedical engineers were trained by local and international experts. The engineers were drawn from both government and private health centers from across Kenya’s 47 counties. The training was organized in partnership with the Association of Medical Engineering of Kenya (AMEK) and held in Nairobi.

AMEK is a professional association registered under CAP 108 of the laws of Kenya and boasts of approximately 2000 members currently.

The objective of the Biomedical Excellence Day was to provide biomedical engineers with the latest information and knowledge on the use of advanced medical equipment. The full-day event also provided a platform for knowledge sharing to foster best practices in the maintenance of healthcare systems.

Topics covered included Medical Equipment Lifecycle management and upgrades, Navigation through CT Technology, Code of Conduct for Medical Engineers, among other topics.

“As a leader in the healthcare sector, we believe that in order to provide sustainability of healthcare solutions, training programs for healthcare professionals need up-dating to remain relevant to their practice and to reflect advances in healthcare innovations,” said Andrew Waititu, Managing Director of GE Healthcare East Africa. “The Biomedical Excellence Day reinforces our commitment to support continuous training for healthcare professionals and support the Universal Health Coverage agenda.”

In June 2016, GE Healthcare launched a US $13 million Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya in collaboration with the government to promote the training of biomedical engineers and other healthcare workers as part of the Managed Equipment Services (MES) project.

This is driving capacity and capability building as a priority for sustainable development of the healthcare sector in Kenya. To date, over 1600 professionals have been trained.

“Training in the latest medical technologies is critical for Biomedical Engineering professionals to efficiently provide quality Healthcare technology management to Kenyans through treatment, consultation, diagnosis, monitoring, administration, equipment preventive maintenance, surgery among other services.

We appreciate GE Healthcare for organizing the Biomedical Excellence Day which aligns with our motto of “Strengthening healthcare technology through appropriate technology” as it bridges the skills gaps within our fraternity.” Eng. Millicent Alooh, Secretary-General, AMEK

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

Addis Ababa leads Africa in hotel room rates

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, posted Africa’s highest average daily rate (ADR), according to the most recent 12-month data from STR . The market will play host to the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) on 23-25 September at the Sheraton Addis.

From July 2018 through June 2019, Addis Ababa registered an absolute ADR of US$163.79 when measured in constant currency, which removes the effects of inflation. That figure was a 1.1% increase year over year. The next closest STR-defined markets in Africa were Accra Area, Ghana (US$160.34) and Lagos Area, Nigeria (US$132.51).

“Addis Ababa continues to maintain high ADR levels when compared internationally,” said Thomas Emanuel, a director for STR. “The city has multiple demand drivers, such as a growing economy, successful airline and its status as the diplomatic capital for Africa.

Air connections and ease of access compared with other cities also factor in the equation for strong demand, which provides hoteliers with the confidence to maintain rate levels.

“With healthy performance comes to interest in investment. The market’s pipeline is strong with 22 hotels and 4,820 rooms in active development. We will continue to monitor these new openings to see how the market reacts once these additional rooms open.”

Emanuel will present the latest hotel performance and development insights on the Tuesday (24 September) of AHIF.

“Hosting high-profile international meetings like AHIF is one factor that has helped Addis to maintain its position as the city with the most expensive hotel accommodation in Africa,” said Matthew Weihs, Managing Director, Bench Events (AHIF organizer). “Our delegates will be looking carefully to see if the addition of a lot more high-quality accommodation and meeting space will depress room rates or help Addis become even more attractive as a destination.”

Addis Ababa’s occupancy over the same 12-month time period was 58.4%, up 6.5% year over year. Cairo & Giza was the continent’s occupancy leader at 74.5%. Cape Town Centre, South Africa (65.0%), ranked second in the metric followed by Accra Area (59.7%).

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

Nigerian Startup TechAdvance Raises $1m In New Funding To Expand To Emerging Markets

Nigerian startups too are having a field day here. TechAdvance, leading Nigerian payment application development company is the latest to join startup fundraising bandwagon. The payment solution has raised $1m in new funding, putting the startup’s valuation at USD $20M.

Here Is The Deal

The investment was led by the Bahrain-based energy investment company Lamar Holding.
Lamar’s investment will support TechAdvance’s strategy to substantially expand its global expansion.
The move will broaden Lamar’s successful portfolio into the technology industry, and give the company a foothold into the African continent.

‘‘The payments space in emerging markets is buzzing with opportunities but faces a number of major barriers. These funds will allow us to shift our focus to these opportunities — especially the launch of our digital bank, without compromising our existing business lines,” Founder and CEO of TechAdvance, Edmund Olotu said.

A Glance At Lamar Holding

Lamar Holding is an established developer and long-term operator of projects across Saudi Arabia’s national energy infrastructure network. Through a portfolio of companies and strategic joint ventures, Lamar Holding has garnered an unrivaled record of winning and delivering contracts in the Saudi energy market.

Why Lamar Holding Chose To Invest In TechAdvance

On why TechAdvance, Hani Abdulhadi, Vice President at Lamar Holding noted:

“We are delighted to make this investment in one of Nigeria’s most exciting and innovative companies. This is an opportunity for Lamar and TechAdvance to collaborate and distribute its expansive suite of digital solutions to emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East.”

A Glance At TechAdvance

TechAdvance is a payment application development company founded in 2009 with a strategic focus in developing and deploying niche payment companies to serve the needs of large public and private sector organizations in Nigeria. It oversees various niche subsidiaries including GPay Africa, PayElectricityBills, Advance Bancorp Digital Microfinance Bank, and others.
TechAdvance runs a network of subsidiaries, each of which focuses on different verticals in emerging markets including utility bill payments, digital financial services, and transportation software. Earlier this year, the company was highlighted as one of the top companies to Inspire Africa in the London Stock Exchange Group’s Report for 2019.
TechAdvance, through its subsidiaries, recently acquired a microfinance bank and obtained approval in principle for a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The company also recently received approval from the Central Bank of Bahrain to operate in the country, signaling its intentions to grow beyond Nigeria and Africa.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

This Egypt ’s Dating Startup Has Just Been Acquired By America’s Leading Company

This is a major signal that Muslim-dominated African countries are already adapting to the game of disruption. Sensing profitability in predominantly Muslim countries across the MENA region and Asia, leading American provider of dating-related apps Match Group has managed to expand into the Middle Eastern market by acquiring Egyptian match-making app Harmonica.

Here Is The Deal

This is to be Match Group’s first office in the Middle East, their investment in Harmonica forming part of their most recent ambitious international expansion program.

“As we think about international growth and expansion, there are huge populations of young singles — mostly across Asia and the Middle East — that will be looking for their life partners in the near future, and that are not properly served by Western products,” said Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group.

Harmonica is carefully designed to help Muslim users find suitable life partners, ‘using a scientific, safe, and culturally accepted approach,’ according to its website.
Following Match Group’s acquisition deal, Harmonica’s early investors Flat6Labs and 500 Startups have been able to successfully exit the startup.

“This deal marks the first major Flat6Labs exit with significant returns on investment in just over one year,” said Ramez El-Serafy, Flat6Labs CEO.

“From day one we’ve had a great deal of trust in Harmonica’s talented team, and their truly innovative marriage matchmaking application; and now, we’re thrilled that Match Group is sharing the same confidence in moving ahead with this remarkable deal.”

Harmonica, which is currently still an Arabic-only app, is to keep its headquarters in Cairo, with Sameh Saleh continuing as CEO. Its small team of 12 full-time employees will join the American company as part of the acquisition, where they intend to develop an English version of the app.

“We’ve already facilitated hundreds of marriages just in Egypt and believe that with Match Group’s vast experience, there are exciting opportunities ahead,” said Sameh Saleh.

About Harmonica

Based in Cairo, the startup was founded back in 2017 by four Egyptian entrepreneurs Sameh Saleh, Tamer Saleh, Aly Khaled, and Shaymaa Ali, who saw a gap in the market for apps that would serve their own community and therefore sought to create an app that could facilitate meaningful and traditionally acceptable relationships.

Not simply geared towards helping people find suitable partners, Harmonica is designed to facilitate successful marriages; the app also comprises a section that allows users to ask marriage-related questions to a team of in-house relationship coaches.

“The Harmonica team is not only smart and innovative, but has built a highly differentiated and technologically impressive product that, although early stage, truly understands the needs of this culture. We believe we’ve found great talent, with local expertise and insights that will help us further succeed in our international expansion strategy,” Ginsberg added.

Match Group’s brand portfolio includes apps such as Tinder, PlentyOfFish, Meetic, OkCupid, OurTime, Pairs, and Hinge, all of which are similarly designed to facilitate meaningful matchmaking for its users. The company is ranked among the world’s top digital companies, according to Forbes.

Global Venture Investment In Dating Startups

Casual dating in Egypt has only recently become a more widely spread practice with dating apps such as Tinder increasingly popular among middle- and upper-class Egyptians in pursuit of different types of acquaintances and relationships. Sexual relationships outside of marriage are traditionally taboo, dating therefore still primarily expected to be geared towards getting engaged. In contemporary Egyptian society, young people have considerably more decision-making power, although marriage generally still involves negotiation among family members.

Keywords:

MENA: MENA is an English-language acronym referring to the Middle East and North Africa region. An alternative term for the same group of countries is WANA (West Asia and North Africa).

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

Billions poised for Africa’s real estate sector

August 8, 2019

As Central and Eastern Europe become increasingly popular for South Africa’s property sector due to subdued growth potential and earnings locally, should these funds not be investing closer to home?

This is the view of Kfir Rusin, the host of the most significant annual gathering of capital investors in African real estate, the 10th annual Africa Property Investment (API) Summit taking place on October 2 & 3 in Johannesburg, whose stakeholders have been more active in the first half 2019 than in the previous 24 months.

“In the first two quarters of 2019, we’ve tracked ten significant transactions in excess of more than a half a billion dollars across multiple jurisdictions and sectors by API Summit stakeholders,” says Rusin.

The growth and opportunity displayed by a diverse spread of International funds, DFIs, Banks, PE firms, institutional investors and others is evidence that despite apparent indifference to African opportunities in SA boardrooms, the continent’s real estate sector has evolved, and become increasingly more liquid and provides value in key nodes and sectors.

Some of the most high-profile deals include well known listed funds and global investors including Growthpoint Investec African Properties Investment Fund (GIAPF); Grit Real Estate Income Group; WeWork, Centum Real Estate, Nedbank; Standard Bank, the IFC and the UK’s CDC.

For investors and developers looking for data and partners experienced in African development or looking to sell prime assets, these are the men and women responsible for structuring and executing these mega deals who will be at this year’s conference, confirmed Rusin. These include GIAPF’s Managing Director Thomas Reilly; Grit’s CEO Bronwyn Corbett; multiple senior investment officers from the IFC; Standard Bank’s Head of Africa real estate, Niyi Adeleye, the CDC’s Illaria Benucci, Centum’s RE MD Samuel Kariuki and many more in attendance.

“The market has moved forward in the past six months, and we’re thrilled that so many major dealmakers will be at the API Summit to transact and share their experiences with our delegates,” he says.

These high-value transactions, while not a repudiation of the South African listed sector’s muted view of the African opportunity, do provide a compelling narrative that the continent’s property markets are investable, but require nuance and insights. It’s not simply a copy and pastes what’s worked here (SA) will work elsewhere says, Rusin.

According to noted real estate analyst Craig Smith of Anchor Stockbrokers, Africa’s top markets are “definitely a more attractive entry point than 18-24 months ago” but cautions that investors still need to exercise a “higher level of diligence” when investing.

And while deal many South African funds continue to look at Central and Eastern Europe for scale (sizeable transactions) and positive funding spreads, says Smith, the transaction spread by API Summit’s investors point to a market that is expanding, which is in line with his view that the “the opportunity set over the long term is immense.”

An analysis which may explain, the increased diversity and complexity in these deals, says Rusin. “We’re witnessing sophisticated deal structuring in Affordable Housing; Hospitality; Logistics; Office spaces and Mixed-use, across countries and regions.”

TOP TEN AFRICAN REAL ESTATE DEALS IN 2019

Growthpoint Investec African Property Fund to acquire malls in Ghana & Zambia
Deal Size: Undisclosed

Centum RE & Nedbank ±$75M Debt Deal for their Two Rivers development project
Deal Size: $75M

IFC invests in Hilton in Lusaka Protea Hotel (Zambia)
Deal Size: $9M

African Logistics Properties (ALP) Signs Debt restructuring deal with Standard Bank
Deal Size: $26.5M

Shelter Afrique in Affordable Housing Deal with Habitat International
Deal Size: $100M

Grit buys Senegal Club Med
Deal Size: $12.5M with development plans of $28.8M

CDC commits to mezzanine debt investment in Teyliom Hospitality
Deal Size: $30.7M

WeWork opens its first of many African Office locations in Johannesburg
Deal Size: Undisclosed

Actis & Shapoorji launch affordable housing Joint Venture in Kenya
Deal Size: $120M

Westpark & Siemens to build sustainable industrial Park
Deal Size: Undisclosed

Regarded among local and international decision-makers as Africa’s Property gathering, the API Summit is recognized as a platform for investing but is also vital in developing deeper layers of transparency for investors looking to meet and understand the continent’s divergent and complex markets to avoid previous mistakes committed by SA developers.

As Smith comments, “Africa’s markets are still relatively opaque, and it is vital that these markets continue with their efforts to improve transparency.” Adding that, “The experience of GIAPF is crucial in my view as this will provide evidence of performance to the SA market.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

The leading Nigerian digital printing company chooses Canon for its digital color printing for maximum versatility

KAS Prints will rely on Canon’s innovative technologies to provide its customers with the best innovative printing services.

Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) world-leader in imaging solutions, is proud to have among its clients KAS Prints, a leading Nigerian digital printing company, and to participate fully in the development of its business objectives.

This collaboration, based on commitment, multi-sector knowledge, secure data management and high value-added solutions that guarantee sustainable innovation, allows them to combine their mutual know-how to provide KAS Prints customers with unique and unmatched services.

Canon’s continued investment in research and development offers KAS Prints confidence that they are using technologies specifically designed to improve their productivity and data security.

Canon appreciates that customer expectations in the digital and printing industries are constantly evolving which has an impact on business models in all imaging sectors. Integrated and intelligent applications allow businesses to reduce the complexity of challenges related to their environment and contribute to positive value creation.

“We have found in Canon a trusted partner with whom we share the same values and is committed to helping us successfully anticipate our customers’ needs especially in our offering of the latest solutions.

Canon’s long-standing experience in the digital and printing world encourages the emergence of innovations that will transform service delivery for our customers. We will be able to quickly adapt to any changes in the printing sector which will enable KAS Prints to maintain its leading position in the digital print market” said Ademola Kasumu – Managing Director and CEO, KAS PRINTS.

Tenaui, the official representative of Canon in Nigeria, was of big support to build this strong relationship between Canon and KAS. “Tenaui is really proud to have a valued partner such Canon and we are working very closely with the team to generate and develop more business in the country” added Yasser Alfara, Managing Director, Tenaui.

“We are very proud to be able to welcome KAS Prints among our customers to whom we have already provided C10000 printers. KAS Prints has a diverse customer portfolio and we are committed to supporting them with increasingly innovative and reliable high-performance state-of-the-art machines.

I am confident that this is the beginning of a mutually beneficial partnership that will last for the foreseeable future, as Canon helps KAS Prints achieve the goal of placing the customer at the heart of service delivery. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tenaui who continues to support us and have enabled us in recent years to pursue satisfactory growth in Nigeria” concluded Somesh Adukia Regional Sales Office Director, Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA).

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.