Biz Hub Africa

  Gene Marks President of The Marks Group, Columnist, Speaker The FAA has proposed new rules for drones and I admit that I’m a little relieved. The rules limit the drones to only 55 pounds. They can’t be flown outside of the line of vision of the operator and can’t go higher than 500 feet (which is about 50 stories, still pretty high) and 100 miles per hour (which is pretty darn fast). Companies like Amazon are upset because they had plans to deliver packages across the country, so they’ll just have to settle with same day delivery on Sundays and generating $4 billion a year from cloud services. They’ll be fine. Me? I run a technology company so my whole life is dealing with stuff that frequently doesn’t work as expected. I can’t even get my computer to restart cleanly three times in a row and then I hear that Amazon wants to fly thousands of drones overhead? Regardless of security issues (which are still very much an issue even with the FAA’s proposed ruling) ...

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, pumping over two million barrels a day. For decades, the country has relied heavily on the oil sector to bring in taxes and foreign exchange. But the drop in the oil price has knocked the value of the local currency - the naira - by nearly 20%. Those immediately affected are ordinary people, and also the new generation of investors who only entered the oil and gas businesses in recent years.

How has the cloud changed your world? Think about it. The cloud has transformed our daily lives, whether it’s for everyday use in business or how we use social media after work. It’s become an increasingly essential technology for driving creativity and collaboration, capable of altering the very fabric of society. As the cloud market grows, it’s crucial to make it even more accessible and comprehensive for startups. Though almost all startups today already use the cloud, the information technology (IT) industry needs to open up the cloud more broadly for startups. Doing so would serve to level the competitive playing field for existing companies and entrepreneurs around the world. Here are three ways we can help startups use the cloud for its maximum potential: 1. Free access to the cloud: Young companies need a strong IT infrastructure to quickly launch their businesses and spend their resources and time on coding, building and scaling their innovations — not ...

     Whether you’ve ever been a consultant before or not, I hope you’ll start thinking of yourself as a consultant in 2015. You are the CEO of your own business . Your career is your business! You can’t let your employer run your career —  not that most employers are sitting around worrying about their employees’ careers, if we are honest. You have to run your own career, and that means knowing what problem you solve for your employers. If you think about it, a full-time employee is just a consultant with only one client. I hope you’ll take the next step in 2015 and get a consulting business card. You can consult at night and on the weekends. It’s a very good thing to do, not just for the extra income but for the mojo boost and the understanding of the market that a part-time consulting business gives you. My daughter was just 19 when she started a music theory coaching business. She was happily surprised to find that people who pay fif...

     Since the onset of the financial crisis back in 2007, the level of debt across the world has continued to grow steadily. According to a McKinsey and Global Institute study , global debt has increased by $57 trillion (40.1 percent) over the past seven years. By the second quarter of 2014, global debt stood at just under $200 trillion. In the fourth quarter of 2007, total debt as a share of GDP stood at 269 percent but that increased to 286 percent by the second quarter of 2014. China in particular has experienced a meteoric rise in its debt levels . During the same seven-year period, real estate and shadow banking propelled Chinese debt nearly four-fold from $7 trillion to $28 trillion .  

   Insurance in our African region is not seen as a very important necessity compared to other places in the world. For the past few decades since this practice was introduced to the African population it has been something for the elite only. It was tailor made for the working class people because they were the only group that was earning regular income and could afford to pay for the annual premiums. Such actions made the insurance companies that were there by then lay a very segregating foundation of this industry. As years followed more and more insurance companies from both local and international spectrum which were joining this market didn't bother to alter these barrios. These aspects later led into a mental state from the low income earners and people who were coming from the informal sector that such things like "Health insurance" policies were not ment for them. A tradition which have led to the stagnant grow of our insurance industry compared to others.  ...

For the first time in the four years that FORBES has been tracking Africa’s richest, Nigeria bests South Africa. At the top yet again is cement tycoon Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, joined on the list of Africa’s 50 Richest by 12 other countrymen.  In comparison South Africa claims 11 spots, down from 14 a year ago. Nigeria is showing its strength, having earned commendations for its efforts to snuff out Ebola in the country, which Dangote helped fund — and despite a recent drop in oil prices. There are four new billionaires on the list: Orji Uzor Kalu of Nigeria, Tony Elumelu of Nigeria,  Theophilus Danjuma of Nigeria and  King Mohammed VI of Morocco. That brings the number of billionaires on the list to 28, up one from 27 last year. Three billionaires on last year’s list are no longer members of the 10-figure club: Vimal Shah of Kenya is off the list, replaced by his father Bhimji Depar Shah at a lower net worth. Abdulsamad Rabiu of Nigeria dropped below...