NIGERIA

BFS invests in Nigeria

Blue Financial Services (BFS) opened for business in Nigeria through a signed partnership agreement with Nigeria's largest bank, Intercontinental Bank (ICB). A new company, Blue Intercontinental Micro Finance Bank (BIMFB), has since been formed to market, distribute and sell Blue micro-financing services and products into Nigeria's retail market. Read more >>

AFRICA

Hytner appointed UM EMEA president

Universal McCann has recently appointed Jim Hytner as president for the EMEA region, tasked with building the UM network across European, Middle Eastern and African territories. Read more >>

AFRICA

Building a positive "Brand Africa"

Professor Arthur Mutambara, deputy prime minister, Zimbabwe and John Mahama, vice president, Republic of Ghana; will be speakers a the Nation Branding Masterclass on 28 September 2009, at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra, Ghana. The event is supported by the BBC, Africa Investor, africapractice, the Ghana Chapter of the IAA, Business Day, Business World and Publicis Ghana. Read more >>

NIGERIA

Nigeria's Five Greatest Living Legends: lessons for brand builders: part one

[Bayo Adekanmbi] The highly publicised Nigeria's Five Greatest Living Legends voting and final selection has come and gone, but it leaves us with so much to unearth as students of brand evolution. The whole initiative, which I consider very indigenous in context, provides us a very valid basis to substantiate our quest for local insights on how global brands will emerge from this part of the world. Read more >>

NIGERIA

Nigeria's Five Greatest Living Legends: lessons for brand builders: part two

[Bayo Adekanmbi] You will agree with me that successful brands are not haphazard creations; they emerge from a consistent reinforcement of a point of view that secures permanent placement in the consumers' hallowed space as an ageless, borderless, and timeless influencer of choice. This by implication demands that such brands are not just functionality-driven and thrive on basic category membership but have evolved to earn an elevated space that weaves them seamlessly with the consumers' self-definition and expression. Read more >>

AFRICA

FTTH, a sustainable African alternative?

JOHANNESBURG: During the TelTech Africa 2009 Conference in Johannesburg, 13 - 14 August 2009, under the theme 'Driving growth in Africa Telecom: Should operators or technologies compete..?', Nadia Babaali, communications director of the FTTH Council Europe, discussed Fibre to the Home (FTTH) in Africa. Read more >>

KENYA

Kenya launches digital villages project

NAIROBI: Kenya has launched the Digital Villages Project (DVP) aimed at encouraging new micro-enterprises by providing access to information, education and new markets. Kenya's permanent secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications Technology (ICT), Bitange Ndemo, officiated at the first project, known as Pasha, in Kangundo. Read more >>

AFRICA

Connect with Highway Africa, DCI online

click to enlarge

Share ideas, expectations, projects and general feedback for next month's Highway Africa 2009 and the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) conferences via www.highwayafrica.com, blog http://highwayafrica.wordpress.com, DCI website and blog www.digitalcitizenindaba.com, Twitter profiles @highwayafrica09 and @dcindaba and Facebook group Friends of Highway Africa.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi establishes credit reference bureau

[Gregory Gondwe] The Bankers Association of Malawi (BAM) has joined hands with Kenyan-based CRB-Africa to form the first of its kind Credit Reference Bureau (CRB-Malawi). BAM President George Partridge who is also the country's CEO for Malawi's largest bank by assets, the National Bank of Malawi (NBM) said the bureau would help commercial banks stop wasting time and resources trying to establish history of customers. Read more >>

CENTRAL AFRICA

K4bn tobacco company opens in Lilongwe

[Gregory Gondwe] Kanengo Tobacco Processing Ltd (KTPL) has opened its doors in Lilongwe, Malawi with an investment of K4bn, becoming the country's third largest tobacco processing company after Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company and Alliance One Tobacco. Read more >>

UGANDA

Uganda: SMEs explore stock market for finance

[Walter Wafula] Ugandan businesses are on the hunt for cheaper and advanced financing options at the stock market according to a fund manager at African Alliance in Kampala. Read more >>