Despite diseases and terrorism, Africa still remains a ripe field for entrepreneurship if only enterprises could embrace venture capital to develop their trades.
When disaster strikes in Africa, investment momentum experiences major impediments with donors reluctant to fund ventures in the continent.
However, Mbwana Alliy is optimistic that “Africa is about to peak” and it is time to invest in the region.
According to Mr Alliy, who co-founded Savannah Fund, a seed capital investment firm located in Nairobi, Kenya, smartphone connectivity, an emerging middle class, and opportunities for technology are unprecedented and provide great platforms to expand enterprises in Africa.
“When there is a negative event, like Ebola or a terrorist incident, investment momentum gets set back and talent leaves,” he said noting that enterprises can benefit better from venture capital.
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Africa is Ripe for Entrepreneurship Despite Challenges
Despite diseases and terrorism, Africa still remains a ripe field for entrepreneurship if only enterprises could embrace venture capital to develop their trades.
When disaster strikes in Africa, investment momentum experiences major impediments with donors reluctant to fund ventures in the continent.
However, Mbwana Alliy is optimistic that “Africa is about to peak” and it is time to invest in the region.
According to Mr Alliy, who co-founded Savannah Fund, a seed capital investment firm located in Nairobi, Kenya, smartphone connectivity, an emerging middle class, and opportunities for technology are unprecedented and provide great platforms to expand enterprises in Africa.
“When there is a negative event, like Ebola or a terrorist incident, investment momentum gets set back and talent leaves,” he said noting that enterprises can benefit better from venture capital.
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Home Affairs to be taken to court – 5 April 2016
Concern over withdrawal of rights of asylum seekers and refugees
Immigration lawyers have accused the Department of Home Affairs of being in contempt of a High Court order. This comes after the department withdrew an instruction allowing asylum seekers and refugees to apply for permanent residence without giving up their asylum or refugee status. The Department also withdrew an instruction allowing asylum seekers and refugees to apply for temporary residence without a valid passport.
Temporary residence visas include relatives’ visas and work visas.
“The effect of this is huge, as asylum seekers are struggling to get married and register the birth of their children with South African spouses,” the Forum of Immigration Practitioners said.
Another effect was that asylum seekers who did not have temporary residence could not open a bank account, FIPSA said. This made them vulnerable to crooks who preyed on them because they carried cash.
The directive signed by Mkuseli Apleni on 3 February 2016 explains that the Department believes that asylum seekers (who are yet to be granted refugee status) should not have their status changed, for example given permanent or temporary residence, until they are certified as refugees. Following this logic, the Department has withdrawn a circular of 2008 which had allowed asylum seekers to apply for permanent residence.
In the directive, Apleni, who is Director General of Home Affairs, states, “I wish
Apleni’s directive comes in spite of a 2003 Western Cape High Court order. In the matter of Dabone and others vs the Minister of Home Affairs, the court instructed that asylum seekers and refugees should be able to apply for temporary residence permits and permanent residence without having to cancel their asylum seeker status or give up their refugee status.
Another important provision of the court order was that asylum seekers or refugees do not need to be in possession of a valid passport for their temporary residence permits to be processed or issued.
FIPSA said the Department’s new directive was “breaking the law” by deviating from the court order.
“The Dabone Judgement is in fact a consent order of court which means that as parties to the agreement the Department of Home Affairs have agreed to it and that it is binding. As such it cannot be appealed to a higher court and any deviation thereto constitutes a contempt of court,” said FIPSA.
FIPSA also said that VFS, which is the company that processes visa documents, had stopped accepting applications for temporary or permanent residence from refugees or asylum seekers.
FIPSA and other interested parties are to take the Department to court on 21 April 2016, with Tashriq Ahmed representing them. FIPSA told GroundUp that the Department had said it would defend the matter. “But it is a consent order, so it is inconceivable what defence they can mount. As we have seen before, Home Affairs have a pattern of just appealing matters to frustrate clients as justice is expensive, in the hope clients will run out of money.”
FIPSA said asylum seekers and refugees were vulnerable and few organisations took up their battle to win their rights under the constitution.
The Department’s spokesperson promised on Friday to respond to questions but has not yet done so.
These Are Sub-Saharan Africa’s 3 Brightest Spots For Doing Business
Africa is viewed as a highly challenging environment to do business in. Despite this, however, Africa’s growing frontier markets have become increasingly significant to the world’s economy. Comprehensive economic reforms, improving business environments, effective political reforms and good governance have all promoted foreign investment and contributed to Africa’s economic growth.
While the low price of oil is certainly a major headwind for African markets, the International Monetary Fund forecast indicates that African economies will regain their growth momentum as the real GDP growth in the region will rebound to 4.3 percent in 2016, after it fell from 5.0 percent in 2014 to 3.75 percent in 2015.
Here are the economic prospects of three of the brightest lights in sub-Saharan Africa today.
Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the most resilient markets in Africa. No country has gained more influence on the continent in recent years than the West African state. Indeed, despite external shocks, Nigeria has been able to maintain a reasonable level of economic and political stability.
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#InLoveWithAfrica: An Expat’s Enthusiasm For Cape Town
As travel surprises go, you can’t beat Cape Town. Tourists touch down at the airport, clutching their valuables and expecting a wild slice of Africa. The start of the journey into town doesn’t exactly shatter this preconception, as the N2 highway passes the townships of the Cape Flats, with their jumble of shacks, bungalows and state-subsidised ‘Mandela houses’. Groups of scantily clad boys happily kick a football or splash in a rainwater pool, as six lanes of cars surge past – a good example of the rainbow nation’s contrasts between African and Western lifestyles.
Then you enter the city proper, perhaps on the mountainside rollercoaster of De Waal Drive, which crosses the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak with Table Bay and the harbour below. Finally, you round a corner and there it is, one of the world’s most iconic sights: Table Mountain. Beneath the cable car climbing to the 1000m-high plateau, well-to-do neighbourhoods pour into the aptly named City Bowl, sloshing up the sides of the sphinx-like Lion’s Head and Signal Hill. As the buildings run towards the sea, they become the towers of the CBD and the market complexes and museums of the V&A Waterfront precinct.
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