AFRICA

Marketing dilemma: to invest or not to invest in Africa?
[Issa Sikiti da Silva] For the past year or so, African governments and marketers have stepped up campaigns aiming to convince potential investors to do business in Africa despite a litany of serious problems hampering the continent's socio-economic development.

Kenya boosts tea and coffee marketing budgets
Kenya is boosting the budgets of its tea and coffee boards to help them compete more effectively in the global marketplace, a senior official said yesterday.

Scangroup eyes West African market
Breaking into the lucrative West African market tops the “to do” list of advertising and media services firm Scangroup which only listed at the Nairobi stock market in 2006.

Young & Rubicam Kenya gets new MD
Neema Wamai is the new managing director of Ayton Young & Rubicam Group's advertising division - Y&R Nairobi. She will oversee and help re-invent communication strategies for major client accounts in East Africa.

Call for submissions for Encounters Africa Shorts 2009
Encounters, in partnership with the SABC and the Jan Vrijman Fund, is calling for submissions for the Africa Shorts 2009. Following on the success of the first Africa Shorts workshop and productions launched at Encounters this year, the three are running a four-day storytelling and production workshop this year.

Expert advocates Africa-wide e-payment platform
As African economies move towards the global order of cashless economies, an expert has called for the adoption of a trans-continental electronic payment platform, which supports trade and cash management as the only means to fast-track efforts towards African integration.

WAITRO appoints TechnoPark as regional focal point for MENA region
TechnoPark, the science and technology facilitator of Economics Zones World announced that the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations' (WAITRO) executive committee has unanimously chosen TechnoPark to serve as the organisation's regional focal point (RFP) for the Middle East and North Africa region from July 2008 to June 2010.


MWeb Africa launches VoIP via VSAT
MWeb Africa has launched a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service for the African continent, enabling VSAT (satellite) customers to make or receive voice calls to or from almost anywhere in the world at reduced rates.


Kenya opens first e-waste management plant
Computers For Schools Kenya (CFSK) has opened East Africa's first e-waste management plant in Embakasi, Kenya, to handle the region's electronic recycling needs.

Dutch export their refuse to Africa
Dutch councils are indirectly profiting from the dumping of hazardous substances in Africa. Electronic equipment that is imported as second-hand goods is often dumped straight away. A change in regulations in the Netherlands has made the trade in superfluous electronic goods possible.

US$6bn to be spent on submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cable developments in Africa
In the last decade or so, investment in Africa's ICT infrastructure has improved significantly. However, marked deficiencies persist in the backbone networks across the continent.

GHANA

Poisoning the poor - Electronic waste in Ghana
[Greenpeace International] The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.

Ebook Library and Mallory International partner to bring e-books to Africa
Bristol: EBL and Mallory International are delighted to announce a joint initiative to promote and develop the sale and access of ebooks into libraries in Africa. Innovative pricing and delivery models, appropriate to the region, are being developed jointly, to give institutions effective access to the latest content and e-book technology.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi: Minister pleads with media to simplify economic issues
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's Economic Planning and Development Minister, Dr. Ken Lipenga has pleaded with economic and business journalists to simplify economic issues to promote popular participation.

Association for Progressive Communications Annual Report 2007
Uruguay: In existence as a virtual community since 1990, APC's leitmotif is building and strengthening online networks for social change. The 2007 Annual Report describes the challenges encountered building networks to influence international internet policy so that more people have reliable and affordable access to the internet, networks of technicians who are taking wireless to parts of Latin America where there's no internet, and networks of women concerned about keeping the internet safe but not censored. Read more here.

Malawi to host Africa ICT forum
Malawi will, from 26-28 August 2008, host Africa's leading ICT Forum called the Third Annual Connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe.

Photojournalist flees country following assault by police
Freelance photojournalist, Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi has decided to flee to South Africa with his family after being assaulted by the police and having his car confiscated.

Primedia Outdoor strengthens SADC region development commitment
Primedia Outdoor has sold 25,1% of its Namibia operations to the Namibia Mineworkers Investment Holding Company (NAMIC).


MISA Malawi protest over ban on parlimentary proceedings coverage
[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has protested over government's decision to ban live coverage of parliamentary proceedings currently underway in Malawi.

AFRICA

Africa's new voice
[Janine Erasmus] Africa will soon get a new dedicated 24-hour independent news channel. In the spirit of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and South Africa's own recently-launched eNews channel, A24 will bring news from the African continent delivered from an African perspective. The Nairobi-based initiative is the brainchild of Kenyan Salim Amin, the son of renowned cameraman Mohamed Amin, who died in a plane crash in 1996.


Interpublic increases stake in MCN
The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) has announced that it has concluded an important transaction in the Middle East and North Africa region, increasing its stake in the Middle East Communication Networks (MCN) from a minority position to 51% ownership.

KENYA

Will Zain be the better option in Kenya?
[Carole Kimutai] A majority of Kenyans have at least two mobile lines - Safaricom, Zain and/or a Telkom Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) line. Usually, a mobile phone user will have one regular line influenced by which operator friends, relatives and business contacts use because it is cheaper to call within the same network and a second or third line used occasionally.


Cyber Lotto partners with Zain on mobile lottery
[Gregory Gondwe] Cyber Lotto Limited has acquired African Lotteries Limited (AFLOT) and has partnered with the mobile service provider, Zain Malawi to operate online and mobile lottery games.

Facebook, Coca-Cola and medical aid in Africa
A recent development on Facebook has shown that social networking may be more powerful than simply a vehicle for gossip between friends, co-workers and ex-significant others.

TSN becomes country's media trendsetter
As the electronic media deploys new technologies in the industry, there is enough evidence that print media's audience is rapidly shrinking. In order to maintain their share of readership, the latter is now striving to cope with the emerging alternative mass media communication technologies.


YouTube to show Olympics in Africa, Asia, Middle East
Google Inc.'s YouTube, the most popular video-sharing website, will show daily coverage of the Olympic Games in India, Nigeria and 75 other countries where broadcasters haven't bought exclusive rights to the programming.

KENYA

Nairobi advertisers get the message across using local talent
[Vuyo Mkosi] What first strikes you about Nairobi is the vast number of outdoor advertising sites visible. The city is littered with outdoor, positioned at every roundabout, in every neighbourhood and on most streets. These are not just small or average-sized billboards either, they are all huge.


Alliance Media wins Uganda airport advertising tender - Alliance Media
Alliance Media has won the exclusive tender to control the advertising at Uganda's recently refurbished Entebbe Airport.

Nokia to open research unit in Africa
Nokia is set to open a unit in Africa to carry out research into its products and services across the continent.


Are you an email addict?
According to AOL Mail's fourth annual Email Addiction Survey, 46% of email users said they're hooked on email (up from just 15% last year) and 51% check their email four or more times a day. One in five said they check their email more than 10 times a day and some even, for crying out loud, check their emails while in church. Granted, the survey is an American one, but are African's so different? Are you an email addict?

EU: Strengthening international research with Africa
The European Union has announced that it will be offering a grant of over EUR600,000 to a joint partnership between the School of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton and the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana.

ZIMBABWE

Zim's insurance industry reaches for a lifeline
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's insurance companies, which have grappled with a major marketing nightmare posed by the fast erosion of the country's domestic currency, are reportedly battling to reach for a new lifeline in the form of foreign currency-denominated policies.

Africa attracts more private-equity funds
Private-equity firms are becoming increasingly active in the emerging markets of Africa, as the slowdown in the developed markets drives investors to seek opportunities in its burgeoning resource-rich, consumer-driven economies.

AFRICA

Reliable infrastructure needed to boost SADC region
[Bathandwa Mbola] A reliable infrastructure network is needed to further promote economic development and integration in the South African Development Community (SADC) region. This emerged at the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)/Southern African Development Community (SADC) Infrastructure Projects conference held in Johannesburg on Friday, 8 August.

Trouble out of Africa
London: Africa's tempting natural resources have attracted huge investment from mining companies and oil explorers, but the risks were evident on Wednesday as the military seized power in Mauritania and miners went on strike nationwide in South Africa. Investment in Africa, however, is unlikely to suffer.

AFRICA

How much damage will Mauritania's coup do to Africa?
African governments are now anxious to attract booming foreign investment on the continent and nervous that coups or crises like that in Zimbabwe, whose economy has collapsed, will frighten off overseas investors.

AFRICA

Zim auction firm resorts to barter trade
[Dumisani Ndlela] An auction company, Hammer and Tongues Auctioneers has introduced a new barter trade system for its car auction, as the Zimbabwe dollar remains under assault from rampaging inflation.

UCT GSB hold roundtable on WTO Warwick Commission's report
[Dr Mills Soko] A new report by global trade experts is shedding light on ways in which the World Trade Organisation (WTO) can evolve to better resolve trade troubles. The UCT Graduate School of Business this June played host to a special roundtable to discuss the findings of the Warwick Commission's report on the state of the global trade system.

Uganda, Iran's gateway into Africa: envoy
Gorgan: The Ugandan Ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Ahmad Kissule announced earlier this week that Uganda can be an appropriate gateway for Iranian investors to enter African markets.

Libya to spur economic growth in Africa
Speaking at a press conference that was held at Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, the president of the Libya Africa Portfolio Fund for Investment (LAP), Bashir Saleh said Libya is planning to invest over $8bn in Africa's economic sectors including oil, gas, air transport, tourism and the construction of oil refineries, among others, to spur Africa's economic development.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe: Banks run out of money
Attempts to tame Zimbabwe's multi-million percent annual inflation rate had an inauspicious beginning on 1 August when banks turned customers away after running out of cash.

Influencing the influencers - Exp
Carol Abade, group CEO of Exp, will be presenting a keynote speech on Influencing the Influencers at the African Experiential Marketing Summit on 3 September 2008, in Johannesburg.

Soles4Souls launches donation for Africa
Soles4Souls, the global organisation dedicated to providing free footwear to people in need all over the world, are conducting a donation drive. A $10 purchase of a pair of flip flops means that two additional pairs will be donated and sent to Africa for people experiencing hardships.

The sizes and gender of flip flops to be distributed to Africa will be determined by the local need. The flip flops will be available for shipment beginning in September 2008. For more information, visit www.giveshoes.org.

MTV to bow kudos for Africa
MTV Networks Africa will for the first time hold a dedicated music awards ceremony for Africa in Abuja, Nigeria on November 22, 2008.


Multichoice Malawi introduces new facilities
[Gregory Gondwe] Multichoice Malawi, a local digital satellite television service provider, has introduced new facilities, which its sales and marketing officer, Chimwemwe Nyirenda said would make it stand above its competitors in Malawi.