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The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has launched a domestic SWIFT-style payment service to decrease dependence on Western financial services. “The new service will allow credit institutions to transmit messages in a SWIFT format through CBR to all Russia’s regions without restrictions,” said Ramilya Kanafina, the deputy head of the National Payment System Department at the CBR. Earlier in November, Kanafina had said the bank was creating its own system for transmitting financial messages, adding that it would go operational in a few months. On Friday, she said, “The system is already operating, and will be fully functional within six months.”
Russia has been hit with a series of sanctions by the US and the European Union (EU), which have accused Moscow of playing a role in the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, a claim Russia has repeatedly rejected. Russia has been witnessing a decline in the value of its currency, ruble, which is going through its worst crisis since 1998 due to the Western bans and dropping oil prices.
There has been talk of blocking Russian banks from using SWIFT among some EU members as well. SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has, however, insisted that it is not going to block Russian banks from using its services. SWIFT is a global banking transaction system used by most international banks. It securely carries information, including payment instructions, between financial institutions in 210 countries.
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Rita Akana
Just some few months after launching the sale of bonds by the Cameroon government, the Minister of Finance Alamine Ousmane Mey has revealed that of the 150 billion initially expected by the State of Cameroon in 2014, 153 billion has been gotten from the exercise. The announcement was made during a press conference Minister Alamine Ousmane gave this Friday, December 26, 2014 at the Hilton Hotel in Yaoundé in the presence of the controversial government spokesman and Minister for Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
Minister Alamine also indicated that banks and financial institutions operating in Cameroon alone mobilized the sum of 100 billion FCFA. The remaining 53 billion CFA francs came through other subscribers. It should be recalled that on December 16, Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey gave a detail analysis on the intended use of 150 billion sought by the State of Cameroon. As a reminder, the subscription period of the bond issue in 2014 ranged from 24 November to 23 December 2014.
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Turkish Airlines is planning further growth in Africa in 2015 with at least six new destinations. Turkish already has the largest network in Africa among foreign carriers, overtaking Air France and Emirates as it has added a staggering 25 African destinations over the last three years.
By the end of 2015 Turkish will have at least 45 destinations in its African network across 30 countries. North Africa continues to account for most of its African capacity but Turkish also has established a large presence in east, central and west Africa.
Turkish is able to enter relatively thin underserved African markets by offering a myriad of connections to Europe, Asia and the Americas. Narrowbody aircraft have been the driver of its African expansion strategy as it has used 737-900ERs to open up destinations as far as seven hours from Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil said on the sidelines of the 17-Dec-2014 Star Alliance executive meeting in Delhi that six of the 15 destinations the carrier plans to add in 2015 will be in Africa. This includes two unnamed destinations in Egypt, Abuja in Nigeria, Bamako in Mali, Conakry in Guinea and Juba in South Sudan.
Among the six planned new African destinations Turkish so far has only set a launch date and begun sales for Abuja, which will be served five times weekly from 3-Mar-2015 with 737-900ERs. Abuja will be Turkish’s third destination in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano.
Turkish currently serves 39 destinations in Africa across 27 countries, according to OAG data. Bamako, Conakry and Juba will extend Turkish’s African network to 30 countries as the airline does not currently serve Mali, Guinea or South Sudan.
Turkish has not yet set launch dates for any of these routes, some of which are likely to be tagged to existing destinations, following the normal Turkish formula for expanding to thinner African markets. Conakry is also not expected to be launched until the Ebola virus, which has significantly impacted traffic in Guinea, subsides.
Turkish will be the fourth airline from outside Africa to serve Abuja, joining British Airways, Emirates and Lufthansa. It will be the third non-African airline in the Bamako market after Air France and TAP Portugal. Air France and Brussels Airlines serve Conakry while flydubai is the only non-African airline serving Juba, according to OAG data.
Turkish's presence in North Africa grows as Egyptian network expands
In Egypt Turkish already serves four destinations – Alexandria, Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. These are the four largest international airports in Egypt based on current seat capacity. There are currently another six airports in Egypt with international services but only three of these are significant (over 1,000 weekly seats) – Luxor, Marsa Alam and Sohag. All three could potentially support service from Turkish, particularly given the airline’s typical low frequency small aircraft strategy for serving secondary markets in Africa.
The only African country that currently has more than four destinations is Algeria, where Turkish serves Algiers, Batna, Constantine, Oran and Tlemcen. Algeria and Egypt are logical markets for Turkish given their proximity to Istanbul. The two combined account for about one third of Turkish’s total African capacity.
North Africa overall accounts for 56% of Turkish’s total African capacity – or about 5% of its total global seat capacity. Central/West Africa and East Africa each account for approximately 20% of Turkish’s African seat capacity while Southern Africa, where Turkish currently has only one daily flight on an Istanbul-Johannesburg-Cape Town rotation, accounts for only about 5%.
Turkish is keen to pursue opportunities for expansion in all regions of Africa. In North Africa there are clearly expansion opportunities in Egypt, particularly as Egypt’s tourism sector gradually recovers. Turkish has about a 5% share of international seat capacity in Algeria and a slightly less than 3% share in Egypt. It has about 8,600 weekly seats in Algeria and about 14,000 weekly seats in the larger Egyptian market, according to CAPA and OAG data.
Turkish has the largest African network
The six new destinations will also extend the gap between Turkish and its rivals in the Gulf, which have also been pursuing rapid expansion in Africa. Emirates currently serves 22 destinations in Africa while Qatar Airways has 19 and Etihad only seven, according to OAG data.
Air France has the second largest African network after Turkish among European carriers with 34 destinations. Turkish is categorised as a European carrier and is a member of the Association of European Airlines but strategically is more like a Gulf carrier. Turkish also competes more with the Gulf carriers given Istanbul’s location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, including for passengers travelling between Africa and Asia. European and Gulf carriers both compete for Africa-Europe and Africa-North America traffic.
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Africa Telecom People’s (ATP) jury for the competition that recognises the best companies and managers in the telecommunications sector in Africa has just named Cameroonian national, Elisabeth Medou Badang (photo), the Managing Director of Orange Cameroon, as 2014’s top telecom manager in Africa.
Elisabeth Medou Badang officially assumed her post at the helm of France Telecom’s Cameroonian subsidiary on December 2, 2013 after her three years as CEO of Orange Botswana.
Along with Orange Cameroon’s Managing Director, the ATP 2014 jury also recognised the young Cameroonian, Arthur Zang, the inventor of the cardiopad, who was laureate of the “best development initiative” award.
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The Agricultural Research for Development Institute (IRAD) has a balanced budget of 12.2 billion FCFA, up by 2.5 billion FCFA. This was announced by that organisation in a release issued following its last board meeting this year.
Out of this sum, the operational budget, which is the amount used to finance research activity, is 6.5 billion FCFA, which is a 53.1% increase over 2014.
According to the IRAD, this increase “is largely due to the taking into account of the special donation of 500 million FCFA granted by the government for the large-scale production of improved seeds from major impact speculation.”
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A few weeks ago, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, announced a nearly 10% devaluation of the Naira, Nigeria’s currency, after admitting that a plunge in world oil prices and dwindling dollar reserves were making it difficult to defend the value of the currency. The Naira is now trading at N187 to $1, compared to N165 in November. In dollar terms, the devaluation has knocked more than $40 billion off the value of Nigeria’s economy.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is the biggest loser among Nigeria’s richest people as the Naira’s slump, coupled with falling stock prices, has erased more than $7.8 billion of his fortune since February, when FORBES locked in the values for its annual ranking of the World’s Billionaires. Dangote was worth $25 billion at the time; as of market close on Tuesday, he’s worth $17.2 billion. More than half of the drop in his fortune has happened since early November. As of Nov. 7, Dangote was worth $21.6 billion, $4.4 billion more than now.
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Technology Article Count: 102
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