Just as almost every other Nation did, The Cameroonian head of state, Paul Biya, has approved sending a police contingent and a financial contribution of 500 million CFA in Haiti in crisis since the earthquake disaster. Despite the recession in the United States, donations came in at a faster pace than anyone imagined. All major International Organization pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, and this could very well reach U.S $1billion.

With all the hoopla about the intended use of all the donations, and the real opportunities for the local population once all the attention fades away, it’s fair to question the commitment of the international community. Who’s really going to benefit from this huge donation pool ? After all, if France was so bend on helping Haiti survive economically during all these years of hardship, they could have simply cancel the public debt repayments, and invite others to do the same. But again, these are some of the facts about devoloping countries, that often fail to trigger a reaction until something of this magnitude occurs.

Was Angola just not ready, or was it a colossal failure from the CAF ( African Football Confederation) & Organizing committee (COCAN) ?

It’s a long debate with arguments on both sides that might surge again if such a “drama” was to happen in South Africa this summer. The loss of human life at an event to celebrate peace and fraternity is a reality check for all. A brutal one at that !

But looking back after all the events unfolded, this is probably one of the worst P.R I’ve seen.  At first, COCAN said there was no shooting. Soon after after 3 people have died, they started to blame the Togolese delegation for taking a bus instead of flying to the venue. It is inconceivable that such a comment could be attributed to an official at this level.

The African football confederation president Issa Hayatou needs to get rid of his whole P.R or Communication staff.

  

African Cup of Nations Vs English Premier League. Or how to apply passion for premier leagues matches as a sign of deeper issues for Africans.

 

 

Simon kuper of the sporting life column in the FT, suggests that nationalist sentiment in African countries is eroding. And to argue his point, he enlisted a Nigerian University Lecturer who conducted a “poll” of  TV viewership during the previous African Cup of Nations (2008) Vs  English Premier League matches in the same period. The assumption here is that since football fans were more interested in Premier leagues matches than games played by the Super Eagles (Nigerian National Team), this could imply ” the diminishing importance of a Nation” in favour of allegiance to a European football club !

 

 Although there exist a  trend among football fans in some African countries – where the National Team is not used to victories – to look towards club matches , it’s too far fetched to link it to a collapse in Nation building.  During the African Cup tournament, it’s not hard to find football fans from a competing Country support the National Squad of another African nation instead. But to use sport passion as a sign of a decrease in national pride is a huge leap, rather it should indicate the success of a global reaching marketing campaign by leading european clubs (Barca, Man.U etc..)

La colonisation ou encore la naissance des plus grands groupes industriels Français

 

Un siecle plus tard, l’un des empires mentionés dans la video ci-haut fait son entrée triomphale sur la place boursiere (cliquez ici). Decidemment, tout s’explique !!

A random published article around the end of year 2009, claiming sources inside the company, put the company in the black for the year 2009. 

However,  it’s easy to put in doubt that notion, based on the fact that the only items taken into consideration were revenues from deals signed in the last quarter with Google and Bing. Although those revenues brought cash up to $25 millions, it’s worth noticing that since the company doesn’t release any long term revenues strategies, it could be challenging to know for sure how they intend to do it going forward. With many accounts and clients signing up everyday, some tend to forget the underlying costs twitter itself has to fork out to wireless companies (sms functionalities). Given the climate (stalling growth) in the telecoms industry in the US, it’s hard to imagine how twitter can obtain huge discounts for the services, because wireless providers themselves are counting on these types of content sharing apps to maintain revenues projections.

We’ll see what happens end 1st quarter ‘10.

After huge building projects  fueled growth in the emirates, recent events suggest the stalling in construction might signal the end of the boom.

After moving from a regional trading center to a global business capital with a large inflows of human capital, Dubai is now struggling to keep up with the growth recorded over the last decade. As of last week, the Government of Dubai was attempting to renegotiate billions of dollars of accumulated debt,  and asking Financial Institutions to suspend some interest payments coming due soon.

The bulk of the growth decline can be linked to real estate extra-large construction projects such as the World Islands, but can other sectors like tourism create alternate growth opportunities? If not, then it will really be over !

                   

Malgré  les apparences,  l’Afrique Francophone Sud-Saharienne continue d’ étaler ses limites aux plus hauts niveaux.

Apres y avoir été contrainte par le FMI, la Banque des Etats de L’afrique Centrale, s’est finalement decider à publier un rapport non-exhaustif sur les pratiques et détournements au sein de l’organe responsable de l’orientation  financiere et monétaire dans la sous-region. 

En lisant quelques lignes de ce rapport émis en collaboration avec le cabinet Mazars, on approche la crise cardiaque tant les malversations sont énormes et simplistes à la fois. Comment comprendre que l’ institution faîtière censée controler et fixer les regles du jeu soit si incapable de verifier l’application des normes comptables les plus élémentaires ?

Si aujourd’hui il est possible d’opérer avec autant de légèreté au sein d’une Banque Centrale, il faut bien se rendre à l’evidence que celle ci est absolument indigne de son statut d’organe régulateur et statutaire !

This is an Embarassment!

Extraits du rapport sur les detournements qui s’elevent jusqu’ici a 16,54 milliards de francs cfa

      

 

The noticed inflow of  fresh foreign investment into emerging markets, should raise growth prospects in Frontier Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to recent published data, foreign investments into emerging markets are reaching record levels unseen in 25 years. This resurgence of foreign capital into developing economies pushed the brazilian government to create a new 2% tax on these foreign capital inflows. Although this rule was deemed necessary to halt the rise of the local currency (Real), it’s nonetheless unprecedented for emerging countries to pass such precautionary measures.

On the flip side, once the valuation of local investments in Brazil, China, and South Africa can no longer sustain this continued flow of capital, the underlying assets would need to expand beyond their traditional borders into frontier markets (for revenues). When all is said and done, Frontier Markets will represent the only untapped source of  potential growth sought after by investors, and it might take diversification & expansionist strategies by emerging markets - business leaders - to get there.

  

 

Bank Regulators in Africa in the wake of the financial meltdown: When Ignorance is Bliss.

While answering questions from a panel of journalists about the risk exposure of Financial Institutions (F.I) in Cameroun and Countries of the BEAC region to the financial crisis, the finance minister of Cameroon said with such bravado that the risk was non-existant. He further explained that there was no risk whatsoever because banks in the BEAC zone were not allowed to invest in all those toxic assets that brought major financial institutions down.

However, he failed to mention the exposure of the Central Bank to the same toxic assets that translated in a huge loss in million of Euros. But the explanation given by the Finance Minister was applauded as some kind of foresighting of the upcoming trouble. That type of Monday morning quarterbacking is somewhat intriguing because it makes it seems that  Banks in the BEAC Zone and elsewhere in the SSA region were not allowed to invest in those types of vehicles because the regulating body (COBAC) already knew they were toxic (highly doubtful). Or was it simply because the regulators could not understand them to begin with, since those complex financial instruments required a high level of monitoring and risk assessment structures ?

In hindsight, we can all appreciate financial institutions all over the World that while able to comprehend and have access to some very complex financial instruments, chose very carefully when and what to invest in.  But I cannot co-sign ignorance being used as a sign of wisdom when it’s obvious African F.I didn’t participate in the feast because the regulators couldn’t figure out what the hell was on the menu.

      

 

“..Even as civilisation continues to march on, we need to return to our roots from time to time and ask ourselves whether we are contributing to the happiness of the human race. If we blindly pursue profits to an excessive degree, it results in many things going wrong … Before the crisis, it was said that the profitability of Japanese banks was too low but it is clear -with hindsight- that the profitability of western banks was too high. Financial Innovation is fine as long as it leads to greater social welfare, but financial institutions must always remember their roots as providers of security in the economic infracstructure…”

NOBUO KUROYANAGI Head of MUFJ Financial Group: the largest bank in Japan

 

FT , STR/AFP/Getty Images