Increased media investment in Africa - 25 Apr 2016[Louise Marsland] Every week it seems there is news about another media collaboration or innovation in the ICT, mobile or digital sector on the African continent. Africa is rising, no doubt about that and it is gratifying to see all the new media launches and many awards for talented young developers from the continent. Africanews, a Euronews offshoot, which launched on the continent in January this year, launched into sub-Saharan Africa this week through a myriad of partnerships with local broadcast and internet channels; and Deutsche Welle and Channels TV announced a collaboration on the Eco@Africa channel to highlight best-practice environmental guidelines for ecological protection from all over in Africa and the world. read more It's been a good week for African developers who showcased a variety of innovation - 18 Apr 2016[Louise Marsland] Economic diversification and a superhero will save African economy - 11 Apr 2016[Louise Marsland] Africa has a new superhero and his name is Jongo, played by hip hop star Pacou Mutombo. South Africa's e.tv network will broadcast the new TV series on 19 April on e.tv and DStv channel 194. read more African business opportunities abound – if you start with yourself - 4 Apr 2016[Leigh Andrews] Farren Roper says now's the time for marketers to establish their professional brand. Not being a true brand ambassador for your own truth in sharing your stories, successes and failures is the opportunity cost of building great role models for other would-be marketers to aspire towards, especially as more and more business moves online. Hatem Hariri agrees that digital transformation is key to Africa's future. read more Cracking African business basics - 29 Mar 2016[Leigh Andrews] Duke Malan kicks off this shortened work week's content by explaining how to 'sell a country' in five minutes, particularly from the perspective of Ethiopia, the world's fastest growing economy in 2015. He states that while the country's rise was driven by investment in infrastructure, the agriculture sector, population growth and a rapidly expanding manufacturing sector, few realise that Ethiopia is actually "open for business". read more Promoting women in business - 22 Mar 2016[Leigh Andrews] With a push towards promoting women in business, MTN has announced the winners of the 2016 Women in Business Awards. MTN is using the initiative to continue its support for business communities in Uganda. Staying on topic of promoting Africa, the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Awards 2016 has extended the entry deadline to 4 April, giving aspiring journalists a chance to get their entries in. read more Freedom of digital communication? - 14 Mar 2016[Leigh Andrews] Uganda's government has proposed a bill that will effectively tighten control of social media by regulating what goes on in the communication sector. The effects are far-reaching, with several journalists arrested for covering protests and Twitter and Facebook blocked during February's elections for unspecified "national security" concerns. From the mobile aspect, MTN says it is still in talks with Nigerian officials over the record $3.9bn fine imposed for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers in Nigeria as they aim to ensure an amicable resolution to the matter. Then, looking at businesses embracing digital trends, Dee Stephens explains just how long SEO takes to rank you at #1. read more Africa, rise! - 7 Mar 2016[Leigh Andrews] It's definitely time for global brands to refocus their attention on the African market. In an exclusive interview, Danette Breitenbach finds out more from Scott Julian, one of the founding partners of Effective Measure, which was recently acquired by Insiight and plans to better create an environment of trust and an understanding of what a client is buying and that they get what they asked for from the continent. read more Mobile, connected Africa - 29 Feb 2016[Leigh Andrews] There's no denying we're in the age of disruption. That's why Ngugi Mungai says not to wait for another Uber to drive you out of the market - while the digital revolution has left many casualties along the way, it's also created huge opportunities for growth, particularly in the realm of mobile business. Keeping mobile front and centre, Ericsson's recent Africa Night event took this a step further by discussing the establishment of smart cities as part of the process of developing a connected Africa. As responsive design and visual content is set to play a major part in the mobile business future, Charles Mburugu shares guidelines for using images in blog posts. read more Redesigning Africa - 22 Feb 2016[Leigh Andrews] Fresh from the Design Indaba, which closed out in Cape Town last week, we have inspiring insights and outtakes to rejuvenate your design thinking across the continent. For a taste of this, Terry Levin speaks to Alex McDowell, the man behind the futuristic scenarios created for Steven Spielberg's award-winning 1999 film Minority Report, about the importance of the tribal space in storytelling. Ann Nurock also sits down with Christian Benimana, architect and programmes manager of MASS Design Group in Rwanda, to find out more about his concept of "building for social change", through building homes for expectant mothers that will reduce maternal mortality. You can also click through to our Design Indaba special section for more, and watch for the Design Indaba newsletter in your inbox! read more Revamping your digital life - 15 Feb 2016[Leigh Andrews] With digital slowly but surely taking over from mobile to TV, Nkem Ndem lets us in on four ways Nigerians can revamp their digital lives. It's all about spring-cleaning your devices and making the digital world as simple as possible. Sticking with technology, Kees Snijders says Africa is on the cusp of a M2M (machine-to-machine) explosion. read more Businesses boosting the economy - 8 Feb 2016[Leigh Andrews] With blogging proving hugely popular in the country at the moment, Nkem Ndem V offers five tips to write an SEO-friendly blog post for Nigerians. She touches on the importance of keywords, links for reference and a comment box, to make your content shareable. Expanding on the context of shareable content, Facebook is helping SMEs in West Africa to better connect with their customers through a roundtable discussion set to support entrepreneurship. read more Get ready for #DesignMonth! - 1 Feb 2016[Leigh Andrews] With Design Indaba just a few weeks away, February is Design Month on Bizcommunity. Look forward to exclusive design-centric interviews and thought leadership throughout the month, sure to expand your business-design thinking, and don't forget to join the conversation by using the hashtag #DesignMonth when you tweet us! Fittingly, Nkem Ndem V offers three reasons Nigerian fashion is taking over the world due to high exposure on social media thanks to stars like Rihanna and Beyonce wearing stunning examples that create global interest. Trending on the continent, Grey Africa has appointed Fran Luckin as its chief creative officer. read more 2016’s m-business forecast - 25 Jan 2016[Leigh Andrews] Ngugi Mungai explains why Kenyan SMEs must tap the potential of mobile phones, especially with the mobile market in the country maintaining an upward trend year-on-year. Qwilt, offering an open cache solution, and three6five, the IP networking service integrator, have embraced the m-business trend by announcing technology partnership to improve over-the-top (OTT) streaming video strategies for service providers in Africa. This signals further room for mobile growth as the availability of new streaming services in Africa means that in order to remain competitive, network operators must redesign their network architecture to better support streaming video. Still on the topic of mobile in Africa, MTN denies any wrongdoing in Cameroon after being indexed in a recent report of the Cameroon National Anti-Corruption Commission. read more Welcome to [BizTrends 2016!] - 18 Jan 2016[Leigh Andrews] This week sees the launch of BizTrends 2016. Curated by our team, some of the continent's foremost thought leaders have submitted their top business trends to watch out for in the industry over the coming months. read more |
