Agriculture offers real growth potential

[Helmo Preuss] Although structural impediments such as poor logistics render the search for new avenues of deeper intra-African trade challenging‚ there is an immediate and compelling growth potential in the trade of agricultural products‚ Standard Bank research analyst Simon Freemantle said last week. 22 Apr 2013 13:24

Billions must be spent on railways in Africa

Africa will need to spend more than US$50bn in the next decade on building 4,000km of additional rail infrastructure to unlock the mineral resource potential on the continent. 22 Apr 2013 07:35

IMF forecasts "solid growth" for Africa

Economies in sub-Saharan Africa will ride out the bumpy global recovery in the next few years to post growth rates not seen outside Asia, the IMF said in its latest economic forecasts Tuesday (16 April). 17 Apr 2013 09:47

Standard Bank is cleanest and greenest

Standard Bank, the country's biggest banking group in terms of assets‚ has been ranked the 12th 'greenest' bank in the world and the cleanest in Africa by Bloomberg Markets. 12 Apr 2013 10:35

Africa's growth driven by SA

[Schalk Mouton] Although Africa made huge strides in increasing human development in the past decade, gains could - with hundreds of millions of people being pushed into extreme poverty - easily be reversed should "significant progress" not be made in halting global warming. 20 Mar 2013 10:37

Norton Rose tells insurers to tread carefully in Africa

[Phakamisa Ndzamela] Global legal practice Norton Rose has advised South African insurers expanding into other African countries to look beyond the sector-specific regulatory requirements in the jurisdictions they are entering as failure to do so could undermine their investments. 20 Mar 2013 09:25

Seeing beyond the stereotypes

[Richard Firth] More than half of Africa's one billion population has a mobile phone - and not just for talking. The power of telephony is forging a new enterprise culture, from banking to agriculture to healthcare. Africa has experienced an incredible boom in mobile phone use. 18 Mar 2013 11:14

US$950m to keep troops in Mali

ABIDJAN, COTE D'IVOIRE: West African nations will need aid worth US$950m to sustain and reinforce a military mission to help fight Islamists in Mali, Ivory Coast's Foreign Minister Charles Koffi Diby said Monday (25 February). 27 Feb 2013 10:10

Barclays, Absa to combine African operations

Barclays Bank and its subsidiary, Absa, say they are engaged in negotiations to combine the majority of the Barclays Africa operations. 21 Aug 2012 11:41