Via Bloomberg, a look at Nigeria’s weakening economy: If there was ever a time Nigeria could have taken off, it was in 1999. Democracy had been restored, with its economy reopening after decades of mismanagement and plunder under military dictatorships. Tomi Davies, a systems analyst, was one of thousands of Nigerians who came home to […]
Read more »Via Foreign Policy, commentary on the impact of the oil price crash to petrostates from Nigeria to Iran, where governments rely on oil wealth to stabilize power and pay off competing interests: The epic collapse in the price of oil, set off by Russia and Saudi Arabia last weekend, has obvious winners and losers. The winners: […]
Read more »Via Quartz, an article on MTN Nigeria’s move into formal banking: The fledgling mobile money market in Nigeria is about to get a major shake-up. MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms operator, has been granted a “super agent” license which allows it set up an agent network through which it can provide financial services. It’s the first […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, a report on Blackstone’s decision to pull back from a pledge to invest $2.5 billion through an African infrastructure company called Black Rhino: Blackstone Group , BX -0.50% the world’s largest private-equity firm, has pulled back on a plan to invest billions of dollars across Africa, the latest U.S. investor to temper its ambitions […]
Read more »Courtesy of Barron’s, an interesting look at the Next 11: On a recent holiday in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, I couldn’t resist thinking about these countries’ economic potential and ongoing policy challenges. After all, in 2005 my Goldman Sachs colleagues and I had listed Vietnam as one of the Next Eleven, or N-11, all countries […]
Read more »Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on how mobile operators are navigating changing regulatory environment and network issues in Nigeria: The prospects for mobile-phone growth in Nigeria are among the most lucrative for telecom operators globally, but also the most challenging. Only some 45% of the approximately 192 million people in Africa’s most populous […]
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