Tony Elumelu Foundation Supports Sèmè City – Benin’s International Knowledge And Innovation Hub – In Empowering 50 Beninese Entrepreneurs

Lagos, Nigeria 28.01.2019 – Sèmè City, the International Knowledge and Innovation City, has partnered with theTony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropic organization empowering African entrepreneurs to train and empower additional 50 Beninese entrepreneurs. Sèmè City will join a growing list of governments, development agencies and private sector organisations partnering with the Tony Elumelu Foundation to explore the Foundation’s sustainable model of philanthropy geared at addressing the root cause of poverty in Africa while creating jobs and economic wealth for all.

As part of the partnership with the Foundation, Sèmè City will invest $250,000 for the sponsorship of 50 additional Beninese entrepreneurs with innovative projects across various sectors ranging from tourism to health, energy, ICT, environment, fashion, media, entertainment and agriculture. This partnership aims to provide beneficiaries with the necessary skills to develop high-impact ventures as well as encourage female entrepreneurship.

The 50 beneficiaries will be

Rail delay payouts to be made by cheque on Virgin Trains

Delayed passengers on Virgin Trains are to receive compensation in the form of money back, rather than travel vouchers.

The operator is the first in the UK to make compensation payments automatically by cheque. This will apply to delayed passengers on the east and west coast.

Fever-Tree say global demand has boosted profits

Fever-Tree has said global demand for its premium mixer drinks has boosted profits in an "exceptional year" for the business.

Pre-tax profits hit £16.8m in the year ending 31 December 2015, up from £2.5m.

Revenue was up 71% to £59.3m, from £34.7m in 2014.

Charles Rolls, the firm's executive deputy chairman, said its success was due to their customers' "desire to drink premium mixers to complement their premium spirits".

Tim Warrillow, chief executive of Fever-Tree, added: "2015 was an exceptional first full year for Fever-Tree as a public company."

Burberry shares rise on takeover bid talk

Shares in luxury clothing retailer Burberry have risen nearly 6% on speculation an anonymous investor might be about to launch a takeover bid.

 

Burberry is reportedly attempting to identity the mystery investor who has built up a stake of nearly 5%.

Shares in the upmarket retailer were nearly 6% higher at 1453p at midday.

GE Aviation: General Electric creates new digital business

GE Aviation announced the creation of a digital organization that brings all of the digital expertise from across Aviation into one business GE Aviation announced the creation of a digital organization that brings all of the digital expertise from across Aviation into one business.

This new Digital business will be led by Jim Daily as president and chief digital officer, Engineering and Technology for GE Aviation.
“Over the past two years, we have shown the significant benefit that GE Aviation can provide customers by combining our depth of aviation product knowledge with the rapidly growing technologies around digital and analytics,” said David Joyce, president & CEO of GE Aviation. “We have only taken our first steps in this journey and the GE Aviation Digital organization will be the driving force to achieve aggressive goals for operational value for our customers.”

GE Aviation Digital will form its own division within GE Aviation, supporting the operations of customers across the aviation ecosystem by leveraging data science, domain expertise and software capabilities to increase productivity and minimize down time.

Barclays Africa presses on with expansion plan

BARCLAYS Africa on Tuesday said it would not be deterred from expansion on the rest of the continent despite its parents’ shareholding in the African operation falling to about 20% in two to three years.

The local unit’s strategy included acquiring an insurance firm in Ghana and a securities licence in Nigeria this year.
Barclays Africa CEO Maria Ramos on Tuesday vowed that the group would continue to invest as it had done since 2013, despite the sell-down by Barclays Plc.
Management still had ambitions to build a big pan-African bank, she said.
Barclays Plc’s shares in London fell over 10% after it posted an 8% decline in profits to £2.1bn for the year ended December. It closed down 8.11%.
Barclays said its dividend in the 2016 and 2017 financial years would be cut by more than 50% to 3p per share from the 6.5p in 2015.

Businesses call for Faster UK Broadband speeds

Business leaders' group the Institute of Directors (IoD) has accused the UK government of a "poverty of ambition" on broadband speeds.

An IoD report, Ultrafast Britain, says the UK is lagging behind many European nations when installing fibre optic cables that enable the fastest broadband connections.

It is calling for faster broadband access for homes and business.

A government spokesperson said most UK homes can get "superfast" broadband.

America's Gun sales Drive demand for high Capacity Magazines

America's zeal for guns is driving sales of one of the industry's most controversial accessories: high capacity magazines.

High capacity magazines that carry 10 or more rounds, have been banned in eight states. But sales are strong where they're still legal, fueled by fears that they'll soon be subject to tighter regulations.

Pure Radio up for Sale as Imagination Technologies' boss Departs

Digital radio brand Pure is being put up for sale by UK technology company Imagination Technologies as the firm looks to cut costs.

 

Imagination, which makes the graphics for smartphones and tablets, said it felt there were "more appropriate owners" for Pure.

Shares dropped 7% as the firm also issued a profit warning and said its long-serving boss had stepped down.

Sir Hossein Yassaie left Imagination after 18 years as chief executive.

10 Management Tips for Great Leaders.

Having seen lots of words put together for

Business Chinese Investors buy German Machinery Suppliers firm for $1bn

A group of Chinese investors have bought one of Germany's largest machinery suppliers, KraussMaffei, for €925m ($1bn; £694m).

 

The investors include state-owned firm China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and investment firms AGIC Capital and Guoxin International.

KraussMaffei, which makes machinery for processing plastic and rubber, was owned by Canadian firm Onex Group.

South Africa Agoa threat sees calls for creation of small-scale poultry farmers

South Africa’s largest poultry producers should maintain their dominance in the market so that the country remains globally competitive, the SA Poultry Association (Sapa) said on Sunday.

This comes as the US threatened on Friday to suspend South Africa’s benefits from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) unless there was agreement on outstanding issues around meat, poultry and pork within 60 days.

 

The surprise move prompted discussion about the state of the poultry industry in SA, with voices raised in favour of encouraging the development of black, small-holding chicken farmers to enter the space to feed the country’s ever-growing demand for chicken.

Sapa CEO Kevin Lovell said curbing imports would create more domestic opportunity, but economies of scale still applied. "Small producers won’t necessarily have the economic efficiencies required to compete," he said.

Mr Lovell proposed that the government should manage imports. The association is also pushing for poultry to be declared a designated product for government procurement.

Positive indicators in job-loss statistics

The mining sector has surprisingly not recorded job losses in the third quarter, despite mining companies reporting jobs cuts over the period, according to unemployment figures released by Statistics SA on Tuesday.

Careers

The agriculture sector also unexpectedly added a significant number of jobs even after a severe drought earlier this year sharply curbed output.
But despite these positive indicators, unemployment still rose from 25% to 25.5% in the third quarter — indicating that 5.4-million people looking for work were unable to find any, the quarterly labour force survey showed on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank reveals plan to restructure into new division as"Global Market"

The investment bank is being split, with several senior bankers departing.

The chairman, Paul Achleitner, described it as a "fundamental reorganisation" that required tough decisions.

New boss John Cryan is under pressure to reform Deutsche following a series of scandals.

Earlier this year the bank was fined $2.5bn (£1.7bn) for its role in the Libor-rigging affair.

The fine resulted in co-chief executives Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain resigning in June, to be replaced by Mr Cryan.