The-Accountant-Jul-Aug-2017

TID BITS
Game-Changers: How Africa is transitioning
into Financial Technology
The digital world is growing exponentially across the continent
The rapid urbanisation, technological and economic growth seen in Africa
is exceedingly going digital, opening up a successfully secured venture into
e-commerce technological investments. Evidence of what is predicted
can already be seen in Africa’s major cities, where a growing number
of consumers have greater disposable income, with more than half the
consumers having access to internet-capable devices, 3G, and other wireless
networks. The explored continental infrastructure investment developments,
such as increased access to mobile broadband, fibre-optic cable connections
to households, and power-supply expansions, together with the rapid spread
of low-cost smart phones and devices, millions of Africans are able to stay
connected. This has devoted a growing surge of innovation in entrepreneurs
and large corporations alike to launch new web-based technological ventures.
Source; Africa.com
Dangote to invest $1bn in Nigeria
rice production; Company to set
up mills to process 1 million tons
per annum
Dangote Group is making a five-year investment of at
least $1 billion to grow and process rice in seven Nigerian
states, bringing sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest importer of
the grain closer to its goal of self-sufficiency. Dangote
Rice, a unit of the Lagos-based company, plans to increase
cultivation of paddy, or raw rice, to 150 000 hectares (371
000 acres) and harvest an annual 1.7 million metric tons
by 2019. Most of the output will be grown by medium
and smallholder farmers through an “outgrower scheme”
that would see Dangote Rice providing equipment and
training, project director Robert Coleman said in an
emailed response to questions. “Ultimately, at harvest,
Dangote guarantees to buy the farm produce back
from the farmers at an agreed/prevailing market price,”
Coleman said.
Source: Moneyweb
African executives not taking cyber
security seriously, study finds
Key decision makers do not have confidence in their Boards’
ability to manage cyber security threats, according to the latest
cyber security analysis from Control Risks. The global Cyber
Security Landscape survey is an independent global survey of
482 IT and business decision makers from organisations with
over 2,000 employees from across private and public sectors
in 20 countries. The survey was conducted between January
and February 2017. George Nicholls, Senior Partner based in
Johannesburg at Control Risks commented: “The misalignment
between treating cyber security as a technological issue or
a business risk is not new. Yet, the survey shows that this
misalignment remains a considerable and on-going concern for
many organisations.”
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