EGYPT

Internet penetration a major opportunity for Egypt's marketeers
Common wisdom says that when times call for cost-trimming, marketing budgets are the first to be cut.

BOTSWANA

200-MW solar power plant on the cards for Botswana
As efforts to bridge the demand-supply gap currently dogging Botswana continue, the Department of Energy Affairs (DEA) is spearheading plans for a possible 200-megawatt (MW) solar power station.

Desperate Zimbabwe looks for a political solution
Zimbabwe's feuding political parties are meeting in South Africa this week to again try salvaging a moribund political agreement that is stalling the release of much-needed humanitarian aid.


More Kenyans to get electricity
An additional one million Kenyans will be connected to the national power grid in the next five years, Energy Minister, Kiraitu Murungi has said.

Aero begins flights to Libreville
Nigeria 's oldest airline, Aero Contractors, has increased its international routes to seven within a week as it commenced operations to the central African city of Libreville in Gabon.

AFRICA

FIFA completes distribution of 2010 TV rights
With the awarding of the free-to-air terrestrial TV rights to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), FIFA completed its worldwide placement and distribution structure of the 2010 media rights last week.

Diambars Football Academy to launch in SA
“Diambars” is a Senegalese word for fighters, which was allocated to a football academy concept designed to address the plight African football stars who chase fame and fortune in the world of football at the expense of education.

African broadcasters drive 2010 HIV-prevention initiative
A new continent-wide HIV-prevention initiative, harnessing Africa's passion for soccer, will combine a sustained media campaign with community-level outreach and education programs using soccer to promote healthy living and responsible choices among African youth.

First Dubai Lynx 2009 jury presidents announced
Richard Beaven, Worldwide CEO of Initiative, and Dylan Taylor, BMF direct creative director, have been appointed media jury president and direct, sales promotion and interactive jury president respectively for the third Dubai Lynx awards, which honours creative advertising and communications in the Middle East and North Africa.

APEX 2009 judging panel announced
The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) has announced its panel of judges for the 2009 APEX Awards.

MMP rebrands to Media Monitoring Africa
The Media Monitoring Project has rebranded to become Media Monitoring Africa and relaunched their website, all this coinciding with its 15-year anniversary. The name change represents a realignment of their corporate identity to be more in-line with the work they do.

EAST AFRICA

Ethiopian secures foreign funding for new aircraft
Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) last week secured finance from Export Development Canada (EDC) - Canada's export credit agency - for the purchase of eight aircraft that will operate on local routes.

AFRICA

FESPACO 2009 call for entries
The 21st edition of the Pan-African Film and TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) will take place 28 February - 7 March 2009 with "African cinema: tourism and cultural heritage" as the theme. The upcoming edition will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the festival and the 20th anniversary for the African Film Library of Ouagadougou.

Microsoft to provide ICTs to 45 million Africans by 2010
Microsoft Africa chairman, Dr. Cheik Diarra, has vowed to empower as many as 45 million people on the continent with ICTs by 2010. He said it is his wish is to leave a legacy of having provided technology to the most remote areas of the continent.

Ithuba Forum discusses NEPAD project progress
The NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) hosted its inaugural Ithuba Business Forum earlier this month. The purpose of the forum was to provide a comprehensive update on the status of the submarine cable initiative and e-schools project under implementation, and how private sector can actively participate in both projects.

GHANA

New CEO of GT aims high...
...as he unveils vision to provide quality services, the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Telecom (GT), David Venn, has unveiled his vision for the Ghanaian telecommunications industry, and promised to introduce innovative and quality products and services onto the market.

Alcatel-Lucent promotes Moroccan education through ICTs
The Ministry of National Education, Higher Education, Executives training and Scientific Research of Morocco (MENESFCRS) and Alcatel-Lucent signed a co-operation agreement for a new educational program entitled, “Dynamic Knowledge for Education”.

SOUTH AFRICA

SADC media houses launch HIV/AIDS policies
[Arthur Okwemba & Dumisani Gandhi] Today, Monday, 1 December 2008, over 130 media houses in 11 countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have publicly launched HIV and AIDS policies as part of commemorations to mark World Aids Day. The climax of a three-year Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV and AIDS and Gender, simultaneous launches will take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia.

GHANA

Ghanaian reporter wins FPA Media Award
Ghanaian reporter Ibrahim Sannie Daara, a BBC journalist, along with his two colleagues Gavin Lee and Edward Main, won the Best Sports Story of the Year award at the Foreign Press Association Media Awards (FPA Media Awards) in Britain.

AFRICA

Inaugural MTV Africa Music Awards winners
ABUJA: The first MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs) was hosted on Saturday, 22 November 2008 at The Velodrome in Abuja, Nigeria, celebrating African contemporary music and talent.


FAJ's first working congress elects committee
The first working Congress of the Federation of African Journalists in Kenya was a milestone: it was a first, and it adopted rules and elected the Steering Committee.

AFRICA

Co-innovation campaign launches around mobile computing
The Reinvent Mobile initiative is designed to give millions of mobile computer users more say in what technologies and designs come to market.


Hellas Sat provides Gateway with Ku-band capacity
LONDON: Gateway Communications, a leading provider of African telecommunications services, has signed a deal with Hellas Sat which will provide an additional 36 meg of capacity over Southern Africa. Hellas Sat, the owner and operator of the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite, located at 39° East, will provide Gateway with Ku-band capacity.

Yu launches in Kenya
[Titus Kaloki] Kenya has made a giant step in it's telecommunications market with the launch of Essar-powered Yu. The licence awarded to Africa's telecom heavy-weight, Econet in September 2007 has seen legal battles with a Kenyan consortium that claimed a share and culminated in Essar, an Indian investment giant with also big interests in Kenya's petroleum industy, buying Econets stake.

Mobile web usage in Egypt continues to rise
Mobile web usage in Egypt has continued on a surprising rise since its debut last month in the top countries for Opera Mini usage. The country displaces the UK and Poland in Opera's State of the Mobile Web report for the mobile web.

2008 Global Mobile Marketing Awards winners
NEW YORK; LONDON, UK; SINGAPORE & SAO PAULO: The winners of the Fourth Annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards were announced recently at the Annual Global Awards dinner and ceremony that marked the conclusion of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)'s Mobile Marketing Forum in San Diego.

EAST AFRICA

2008 EAPRA Conference rescheduled
The planned 2008 EAPRA conference that was due to take place on December 4-5, 2008 has been rescheduled. A new date will be communicated by the end of December.

Kenya: Sex for jobs in export processing zones
NAIROBI: At the gates of one of Kenya's export processing zones (EPZs) men and women push and shove each other, trying to get their national identity cards taken by the guards.

Economists predict crisis in 2010
Economists of financial institutions in the country namely, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, have predicted that the Ghanaian economy would be hit by the global crisis in the year 2010.

Study says red tape driving import costs up
Import procedures in Zimbabwe consume much more time and are much more costly than what the country's exporters incur to fulfil the same procedures in other countries, new trade statistics have revealed.

A closer look at the modal shift in the express delivery market
The rising volatility of oil prices and the consequent fuel surcharges applied by integrators such as DHL, TNT, UPS and FedEx combined with the economic slowdown has led to a gradual shift in customer demand away from express and parcel delivery services via air to alternatives such as road and rail.

Africa could be reducing greenhouse gases
In fact, new research shows that the continent could actually be taking more carbon out of the atmosphere than it releases.

AFRICA

AU and NEPAD structures to integrate
The NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) hosted an Ambassador and Executive Dinner on 3 November, 2008 to discuss the integration of NEPAD into the African Union structures, as well as to provide an update on the developments of the NBF over the past 18 months.

Cote d'Ivoire: Farmers return to land in west after deadly clashes
DAKAR: Some 70 long-displaced farmers returned this week to a cocoa plantation in western Côte d'Ivoire, despite deadly clashes triggered when armed youths tried to block their return.

Engen invests extra $10 million in Zambia
Engen has invested an extra US$10 million in Engen Petroleum Zambia Limited (EPZL). The South African company made the announcement at a red carpet event on Thursday, 27 November, attended by dignitaries including Zambia's Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry; the Malaysian Ambassador to Zambia and Zimbabwe; and the South African High Commissioner to Zambia.

Price stability top priority, says CBE governor
Price stability will be the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) main focus in the coming period, said CBE Governor Farouk El-Okdah.

Seychelles retailers decide on ‘fair' rise in profit margin
Local retailers have taken new steps to cover their operation costs and make a reasonable profit while providing an affordable service to customers.

Zim-China trade hits US$500m mark
Asian giant is country's second largest trading partner after SA.

Europe beckons
[Anders Andersen, Founder of JumpB] The article was originally written for US online retailers, but it applies equally to our own here in South Africa, for in almost every mention of the US, one could substitute SA - for example in the weakness of the currency compared with the euro. The European market presents us with a challenging but real opportunity.

Congo: Financial crisis threatens timber jobs
BRAZZAVILLE: Guy-Blaise Bakala, a timber worker in Pointe-Noire in the south of the Republic of Congo, has been sleeping badly since his bosses first announced they would have to let some workers go because the financial crisis is hitting the key timber sector.

GTV launches new channels for Africa
LONDON: GTV, the pan-African pay TV network, announced on Tuesday, 25 November, the launch of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the Afro Music Channel on its service from 1 December 2008.