In line with their plan to invest in Nigeria before the second quarter of 2016, Murat Sakartepe, the Secretary General of Turkish Business group, said the group has plans to develop a juice factory in partnership with Nigerian entrepreneurs in Africa’s biggest economy by 2015.
Sakartepe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Izmir, Turkey, that members of the group are leveraging on the investment potential offered by the Africa nation, with latest GDP figures proving an attractive incentive for investors.
“No good business can be done in Africa now without Nigeria,” Sakartepe said.
Nigeria’s GDP is expected to rise at 7.9 and 8.8 per cent for 2014 and 2015 respectively. This is predicted to spark a similar surge in foreign investment inflow during this period.
Sakartepe said aside the proposed establishment of the juice factory in which discussion is said to have reached advanced stage, the group is hoping to make credible investment in the country’s manufacturing and mining sectors.
He reinstates the group’s interest in investing in Nigeria, adding that between last year and now, the group has undertook 230 business trips to Nigeria and other African countries for assessment.
According to him, the group has also offered internship opportunities to 18 Nigerian students in Turkish universities to build a healthy business relationship with Nigeria.
The Federation of the Aegean and Mediterranean Industrialists and Businesspeople (ESİDEF) is a business federation of 42 business associations in Turkey with about 12,500 members. (VENTURES AFRICA)
Goldfields Ghana plan $180m investment this year
Gold Fields Ghana (GFG) Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa, Mr. Alfred Baku said his company will invest over US$180 million this year into its mining operations in Tarkwa and Damang.
Gold Fields, a subsidiary of Gold Fields Limited (GFL) is the largest gold mining company in Ghana with annual production of about 935,000 ounces from its two operating mines at Damang and Tarkwa.
The miner which was recently honoured with a platinum award for its contribution towards trade and investment in Ghana at the Ghana-Africa Business Awards said it had spent over $2.4billion in direct investments since it began operations in the country.
“In 2013, we paid almost US$218 million in taxes and royalties to the government. We continue to honour our legal obligations to government, and social commitment to our stakeholder communities,” Baku said while receiving award on behalf of the company.
A statement released by the company also stated that over US$26 million is spent on socio-economic development of its stakeholder communities with major focus on education, agriculture, health, water and sanitation, and infrastructure.
This is made possible through a commitment made to its foundation that for every ounce of gold produced on any of the mines own by the miner, a dollar and a supplementary 0.5 percent of the company’s pre-tax profit is invested toward community development. (VENTURES AFRICA)
Palm Hills promotes its CIO, Rahman to CEO
Tarek Abdel Rahman, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Egypt’s property developer, Palm Hills Development (PHD), has been elevated to the position of co-CEO of the firm with immediate effect, the firm said on Monday.
Rahman will share the management position with the current CEO, Mohamed Ahmed Sultan, who has been CEO of the firm for about four years.
Rahman’s promotion followed Ripplewood’s acquisition of a 2.3 percent stake in PHD in May this year. Ripplewood is the US-based private equity company, Reuters reported.
“In his capacity as Co-CEO,… Rahman will oversee sales and client relations in addition to marketing and finance operations. He will also supervise the firm’s real estate portfolio as well as PHD’s investor relations functions,” Reuters quoted the firm as having said in a statement.
PHD posted a 9 percent surge in the first-quarter net profit to 49.7 million Egyptian pounds ($7 million). (VENTURES AFRICA)
Google trains Nigerian taxi drivers on map use
Easy Taxi Nigeria, a mobile app taxi service, decided to hold a more educative and informative forum during its monthly drivers meeting by inviting personnel from Google Nigeria to train the drivers on the use and importance of Google map and Global Positioning System GPS.
Organized by Easy Taxi Nigeria in collaboration with Google, this forum is in response to the high level of illiteracy amongst Lagos drivers on the use of maps and GPS. Easy Taxi recognizes that maps are a very important tool for navigation and there is a need for its drivers to benefit from the usefulness and the importance of GPS in terms of tracking, safety and practical use in terms of locating areas around Lagos.
It was announced that Easy taxi drivers would be putting what they learnt during the forum into practice by joining Google to chart all areas of Lagos that are blank to eventually create a more accurate Google map of Lagos State.
Speaking on the forum, Mr. Okoya Cosmas, one of the Easy Taxi drivers said that since he joined Easy Taxi Nigeria over 8 months ago, his client service delivery has improved remarkably, with further training gearing him up for greater efficiency in customer service and satisfaction.
The CEO of Easy Taxi Nigeria, Bankole Cardoso echoed his pride that Easy Taxi drivers can now compete with international drivers who are more informed on the use of Google map.
Backing this was a statement from Easy Taxi, Community Manager, Miss Rita Achebe, which read: “with the training Easy Taxi Nigeria drivers have received today, they will be able to get to their clients faster and easier which will reduce our clients waiting time.” (VENTURES AFRICA)
South Africa to partner Nigeria in developing gold mining
African economic superpowers, Nigeria and South Africa, are exploring collaborative ventures to develop artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Nigeria.
Although, South Africa is featured as the largest gold miner on the continent and the sixth largest miner of the mineral globally;
Nigeria is not buoyant in mining gold and majority of gold mining that takes place in the country are carried out by artisans.
The partnership will see Nigeria acquire mining equipment and expertise from South Africa owing to the many artisans operating in the country’s developing mining sector, Nigeria’s Minister of Steel and Development, Musa Sada said.
“Our focus is on gold because we have a lot of artisanal and small-scale miners,” Sada told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
“We realised that we are wasting a lot of resources and not getting as much as we should from mining. So, we need to improve on our mining technology and commodity pricing,” he explained further.
Most of the Nigeria’s gold deposits are found in the northern states. Nigeria recently surpassed South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy after a recent economy rebasing.
Gold mining constitutes less than one percent to the country’s GDP. (VENTURES AFRICA)
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