Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

The sale of wireless spectrum in Nigeria set to have a major economic impact

Under Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), launched by the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (FMCT) in 2013, the government plans to increase wireless broadband penetration in the country to 42% by 2018. This represents a major jump on the current rate of 6% over a relatively brief span, but there is precedent for growth of this magnitude in Nigeria’s broadband market. According to FMCT data, by 2014 the country’s overall bandwidth capacity was around 9000 GB per second, up 26 times on 2009, for example. New Auctions To support continued rapid expansion in this area, in early 2013 the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the federal

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Chaim Zach-Managing Director and CEO-Agric International Technology and Trade; Kabiru Rabiu-Group Executive Director-BUA Group; and Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed-Managing Director

Rural connectivity: Boosting broadband penetration in remote communities

As in many developing nations in Africa and around the world, Nigeria’s rural population has declined in recent years as a result of steadily increasing rural-urban migration. While this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, providing public services to rural communities remains a government priority. In terms of telecoms, Nigeria’s rural population is consistently underserved compared to city dwellers, and the major telecoms providers have invested heavily in population centres while largely ignoring the sparsely populated rural areas. In recent years the government has renewed its efforts to boost rural telecoms access, primarily through development initiatives. Since the liberalisation of the telecoms

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Azzan Al Busaidi-CEO-Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ithraa)

Efforts in Nigeria to encourate local ICT entrepreneurs

In recent years Nigeria has developed into a major market for ICT firms of all stripes. With a population of nearly 170m people – more than a third of whom subscribe to mobile internet services, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission – the country is the largest potential market for ICT products in Africa and one of the fastest-growing in the world. The number of mobile internet subscriptions more than doubled from 30.9m at the end of 2012 to 64.2m at the end of 2013. With these figures in mind, ICT multinationals have moved in en masse in recent years. The local software, hardware and

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Mark Geilenkirchen-CEO-Port of Sohar

Outsourcing services in Nigeria’s IT sector

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) held Nigeria’s first National Outsourcing Conference in August 2011. The event marked a major push by Nigeria to carve out space in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector. The rationale behind this is clear. BPO firms are major employers in markets like India and the Philippines – a key consideration in Nigeria, where unemployment is roughly 24% – and have driven broader growth in the telecoms sectors of those economies. While BPO in Africa as a whole is more limited, countries including Morocco, Egypt and Ghana are working to gain a larger share of the global market. As

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George Richani-CEO-Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

Increased support for local production in Nigeria

Thanks to a new policy on automobile imports and key foreign investment, passenger cars are being produced in Nigeria for the first time in decades, and could lead to a domestic automotive assembly industry in the country. While a small trickle of commercial vehicles have been assembled in Nigeria in recent years by local manufacturers such as Innoson Group, the first-to-market Nigerian passenger car was produced through a joint venture between the RenaultNissan Alliance and the Stallion Group to assemble Nissan models in the country. Stallion, a local conglomerate, repurposed an existing facility near Lagos for Nissan that it had been using for small-scale production

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Daniel Asare-Kyei-CEO-Esoko; Curtis Vanderpuije-CEO-ExpressPay; and Daniel Marfo-General Manager-Zipline Ghana

Fast food restaurants in Nigeria

Uncategorized

Despite the challenges inherent in retailing in Nigeria, the quick-service restaurants (QSR) segment has been growing rapidly. Like many areas of the economy, its long-term potential stands out in a global context because of Nigeria’s sizeable population, currently standing at around 170m. But while investors in most consumer-facing industries are expecting smaller returns upfront in exchange for bigger ones later on, QSR offers investors a quick turnaround for profits. The challenges, however, are familiar from other sectors, including the cost of electricity, land, experienced labourers and importing inputs. Challenges unique to QSR include striking a balance between the local palette and popular international tastes, all

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Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Nigeria switching from analogue to digital broadcasting in television and radio

In recent years Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have worked to implement digital television broadcasting in Nigeria. This effort began in 2006, when the government announced a plan to digitise the nation’s analogue television broadcast signal by June 2015, in line with a global deadline established by the International Telecommunications Union, the UN’s telecoms technology arm. Since, the digital migration programme has moved forward in fits and starts. As of early 2015 it appeared that the country would likely not meet the June deadline, though a substantial amount of progress had been made. “Digital broadcasting is coming upstream, but the

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Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Opening credits: New opportunities for the rapidly expanding Nigerian film industry

With the release of the film “Half of a Yellow Sun” in late 2013, Nigeria’s film industry, collectively known as “Nollywood”, saw what may serve as a watershed moment. The movie was adapted from a novel of the same name by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and was filmed at Tinapa Studios, in Calabar, Cross River State. With a reported budget of around $9m-10m and major Hollywood star power to boot – including Oscar-nominated British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and actress Thandie Newton in leading roles – upon its release “Half of a Yellow Sun” was the highest-profile Nigerian film project to date, and was

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Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Investment opportunities in a number of sectors in Nigeria’s Osun State

Even with such a large income-sensitive population, few markets in Africa offer the potential scale and consumer base as Nigeria, which makes the country a natural destination for manufacturers and industrial firms looking to gain a foothold in the region. High operating costs and cheap unregulated imports have traditionally made it difficult for producers to ensure cost-efficiencies and have dampened growth. However, state governments are taking increasingly aggressive measures to attract labour-intensive and value-added activities – in a bid to increase internally generated revenue (IGR) and expand employment opportunities. The state’s geographical location, only four hours by road from the country’s single largest consumer market,

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President Abdel Fattah El Sisi

Boosting economic development and facilitating investment in Nigeria’s Osun State

Uncategorized

While it lacks the hydrocarbon resources of Nigeria’s Delta states and, with a modest population, has traditionally received one of the lowest amounts of revenue allocation from federal government, the State of Osun has nonetheless been aggressive about working to promote growth and development. Although Osun does face its fair share of challenges, including a large dependency on the volatile agricultural sector and neglected infrastructure, the current administration has taken a number of steps to block monetary leakages, improve project preparation and delivery, and raise internally generated revenue (IGR). These efforts have been in parallel with attempts to improve the business environment in the state,

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