……… brandhouse Pitch & Polish tackles the entrepreneurial skills gap head-on – Despite the numerous business skills development programmes on offer from training institutions, the much-discussed skills shortage remains a major crisis for South Africa’s small business community, which in turn affects the macro-economic environment. An article published by prominent SMME researcher Prof. Christian Rogerson entitled “Tracking SMME Development in South Africa: Issues of Finance, Training and the Regulatory Environment” indicates that, for small entrepreneurs, particularly those without a great deal of formal education, training programs are often poorly planned and fail to provide SMME owner-managers with the skill sets... Continue Reading
By Nawa Mutumweno – The total investment of approved projects by the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has risen by 10% during the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year. According to the March edition of the ZDA SPOTLIGHT, the total investment recorded for the quarter was $1,392,093,476.00 with7,885 jobs expected to be created for Zambian citizens. However, although there is an increase in investment during this period, there is no corresponding increase in employment creation when compared to the year 2011, which recorded 1,180 more job opportunities. Nonetheless, investor confidence to invest in the country during... Continue Reading
By Nawa Mutumweno – Zambia’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from India has exceeded US$3 billion in the last five years in various sector of the economy. The Zambia Daily Mail reports that the bulk of the investment went to mining, energy, finance and telecommunications. Indian Business Council of Zambia (IBCZ) executive secretary Sanjai Chaturvedi said India’s biggest investment in Zambia included Vedanta Resources’ US$2.6 million in the mining firm, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Bharti Airtel’s investment in the telecom firm Airtel Zambia acquired from Zain in 2010 and Taurian Manganese, which is investing US$300 million in a manganese processing... Continue Reading
By Nawa Mutumweno – Ecobank Zambia on June 7, 2012 launched the mobile money product in partnership with Airtel with a view to bring unbanked citizens into the formal banking sector. According to the financial institution’s managing director Charity Lumpa, the bank was committed to keeping with the pace of the rapid technological changes affecting its business and clients in ensuring that it satisfied its customers’ needs. “Our goal is to use these emerging technologies to not only deliver unprecedented levels of convenience, security and value for money for our customers but to also ensure the active inclusion of the... Continue Reading
By Nawa Mutumweno – A Kenyan ICT firm has won a Sh464.8 million tender to upgrade ICT infrastructure systems for the Zambian power utility company, ZESCO. Sevenseas Technologies will spearhead the project to modernize the power firm’s billing, data, center storage and enterprise resource planning systems. It will work in partnership with Compusource International, a Zambian ICT firm. The upgrade aims at improving the efficiency of business processes within the firm and customer service delivery, ZESCO managing director Cyprian Chitundu disclosed in Lusaka recently. “This development is driven by ZESCO’s view to improve its operations through implementation of integrated business... Continue Reading
