It was heartening news that gave me hope; an end to a maelstrom of misery that has plagued the land and broken the lives of countless Africans.
I was staggered and relieved to hear that Mozambique has cleared its last landmine after 22 years of hard work by mine lifters – many of whom paid with their lives.
They used to call it the ‘red mist’ in the minefields of Mozambique; the air thick with blood of a brave man who had tried to remove a mine and failed.
Landmines are an evil that the world should be rid of. I saw them all in years reporting from Angola and Mozambique and hated every one: anti-tank mines, black widows, shoeboxes, cake tins, whatever you wanted to call them; they blew people to smithereens and maimed many more. Claymores worked on a tripwire that triggered a flying sheet of shrapnel that cuts you off at the knees. They were one of the biggest problems in the former battlefields of Africa. Troops would set them up around their camps at night to catch raiders; in the morning they would pack up and leave the tripwires, unmarked, for an unfortunate person to stumble to their death years later.
The sickest of them all were the Chinese mass-produced butterfly mines: tiny plastic explosives with wings. Planes used to drop them by the ton and they would flutter down in to bushes and grass. They were made in pretty colors to attract children. When a child grasped at them, the tiny mines would blow off an arm at the shoulder. They were designed to maim, rather than kill, on the grounds that the injured would be a burden on the economy of your enemy.
In the dark days of the civil war in Angola, in 1994, I saw the work of the little plastic mines. One late summer’s day, on the Ilha de Luanda, I took a walk along the spit of sandy beaches just off the coast of the capital. It used to be a tourist trap, but in war the Red Cross had set up huge tents to house hundreds upon hundreds of children without limbs.
As I walked to the tent, a multitude of children hobbled towards me. All were on crutches, one or two looked in pain, all of them tried to smile; strangers were rare in war torn Angola. Some were missing an arm, others a leg, one or two were missing both legs. They crowded around me, clamoring to clutch my hands. One or two brushed their cheeks gently over the back of my hand.
“Amigo (friend in Portuguese),” they said quietly.
I am not sentimental and when I am doing stories I have an objective, professional, detachment; on this day I couldn’t stop myself turning and shedding tears. Those children will be men now; in the dead of night, I often wonder how many had enough strength left to overcome the cruel start to their young lives.
This is just one reason why I celebrate the clearance of these evil devices from the red soil of Africa. I spent many days walking, one foot in front of the other, on the thin path through a minefield. They are dark and depressing places where you can often see the rotting remains of those who stepped astray and perished. Once, in Mozambique, engineers detonated an anti-tank mine, not too far from my left ear, knocking me flat – it hasn’t been the same since, a memory of those terrible places.
On that same tour of duty, we cleared an arms cache and a pile of landmines in a field near Chimoio in the border country in western Mozambique – once one of the most heavily mined strips of land in the world. The mine lifters blew it sky high bringing a shower of red hot fragments down on our heads, sending us diving for cover – they never show that in the movies.
As we drove off the farmer ran to our truck in tears. They were tears of joy; after decades of war he had his field back so he could plant again. In my mind’s eye I see him tilling his land at sunset. It soothes my soul.

Good Riddance  To The Mines Of Death

If you haven’t heard about it, you’ve already missed it. The 2015 Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo, came and went without much ado. But, if you were South African swimmer Ricky Ellis, coming back with one gold and three silver medals from the small francophone country, it was a time of his life, in the pool and out.
“Obviously, Africa [swimming] is not considered great. But, the competition wasn’t as easy as we thought. We knew the Egyptians were going to come at us. There are a couple of Egyptians who did really well at Junior World Champs and they had a big cash incentive to win. From what I can remember they were getting $8,000 for a gold and I think a bonus $2,000 for a championship record. Some were flown in from the USA,” says Ellis.
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The tall backstroke swimmer is no stranger to competition. In December, he swam in the World Short Course Championships in Qatar and has plunged into the pools at the 2012 Africa Games. He is also on the cusp of Olympic glory, needing to drop 0.7 seconds on his personal best to qualify for Rio next year.
“My personal best has been 55.1 seconds last year at Nationals. It was good enough to go to the World Champs but [the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee] chose not to send me. You can never say definitely. But if you do qualify it’s pretty certain you can go to the Olympics,” says Ellis.
Brazzaville welcomed the swimmers of Africa by pulling out almost all the stops.
“In terms of the conditions, [Brazzaville was] way better than anything in South Africa. They had built a brand new pool, with new starting blocks. They had the overflow pool and it was a constant three meters deep, which is Olympic standard. But they didn’t have the backstroke ledges, which I was a little upset about. Still, you don’t get [pools like that] in South Africa.”
Away from the water it was a hair-raising experience for Ellis.
“When we arrived in Brazzaville we drove through poverty. There are huge crowds of men standing around. There are army guys everywhere with AK-47s. There were even guns strapped to the stands. Sitting in the bus, it’s quite nerve wracking to pass by soldiers who are training and have left their weapons on the floor,” he says.
“We were expecting it to be hot. The smog felt like we were in Beijing. The thing we were most scared of was the mosquitos. We were very scared of catching malaria. When we walked into the hotel room, we saw the carcasses of old mozzies on the floor. Luckily the mozzies decided they wanted to bite my roommate, Brent Szurdoki, instead of me.”
If the 28-year-old Ellis qualifies he will be a late comer to the pool. He is well over the average age of Olympic swimmers; according to USAswimming.org, in 2012 the average age for men is 25.8 years and 21.6 years for women.
“I started swimming from the age of four or five. I can remember crying a lot from the cold water in winters. But over time you get used to it. I only really started to swim well when I was about 20. That’s when I thought about moving to the States. I stuffed around at [the University of the Witwatersrand] doing a BCom General instead.”
“The youngsters push me at training every day. Most of them leave for the US. I get older and they get younger every year,” he says.
Ellis remains undeterred with his ever increasing age; after all, he’s just getting a taste for medals.

Medals Galore  AK-47s On The Floor

It’s been two decades since South Africa became a democratic republic and the issue of gender equality in the workplace continues to surface. We have our Constitution as the supreme law of our land – that is widely acknowledged as one of the most progressive in the world. Enshrined in Section 8 of the Constitution is the right to equality. This provision prescribes that no one can be discriminated against on grounds of race, sex, religion and sexual orientation. However, there is an unfair disparity between the salaries of females and males in South Africa.
According to statistics published by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in 2013, the average taxable income for females was around R193,908 ($14,543) per annum, while males earned an average of R254,347 ($19,076) per annum. This effectively means that the average female earns around a third less than males. There are, however, a number of plausible reasons: firstly the job market that succeeded the Industrial Revolution was primarily designed for men, men were, and still are to a degree, seen as the providers and women as caregivers.
However, this has progressively changed over the past few decades with gender equality groups, in recent years vehemently stating their dissatisfaction for the slow rate of transformation for women in the workplace. Interestingly, South Africa has funnelled out more female graduates than males in recent times and the pay at which both parties start is often based on the educational level, skills and experience. Thus, on the surface, it appears as though males and females start on a similar pay grade.
Nonetheless, what would be interesting to investigate is why the gap widens over the years. Are males offered better opportunities for career advancement than women purely based on the fact that they are men? Or perhaps are employers wary of the disruption pregnancy might have on labor supply? If the Constitution states that we are all equal, why should the latter even be questioned? After all, women do not get pregnant by themselves. Some sociologists believe that the proverbial ‘work/life’ balance for women may be an illusion, citing that females might have to concede a thriving career for a more family-orientated lifestyle.
A recent survey that was conducted in numerous university campuses across South Africa states that most female graduates’ biggest concern is how they will take care of their families amid ambitions of conquering the corporate world.
Some may wonder why the conversations surrounding the disparity of income between males and females are pertinent. In a South African context it is simply unavoidable: the country’s social structure tells us that more houses are headed by women than men. Thus females earning potential not only impacts their immediate spending potential on the people they care for but could possibly have an adverse impact their ability to take care of themselves in their pension years.
The call from gender equality organizations for the eradication of income disparities between men and women has never been more boisterous. This call includes getting more female participation in management and senior executive positions within organizations. Ironically, the private sector can learn from the government. Our government has taken the lead and should be commended for employing women as cabinet ministers, premiers, MECs, mayors and directors and CEOs in state organizations.
Diversity can be a significant competitive advantage for organizations that implement it correctly. Women are the backbone of our society and the role they play in our family structures is indispensable. Despite the prejudices women have overcome in the ‘free world’, there are biases that are firmly rooted in the workplace and should be addressed. Going forward, our labor legislative framework should consider shared paternity and maternity leave in order to minimize the biases that women encounter for falling pregnant – what I would call the ‘career penalty’. Conversations around the disparity in income of men and women is a decent start, but whether anything will be done about this remains to be seen.

Are Women Really As Equal As Men?

I am currently rereading my investment bible, Security Analysis written by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. The book is still as relevant as it was in 1933 when it was first written.
What stands out in the book is the need to buy stocks at discounted prices, or those which are undervalued. Such stocks are usually difficult to get these days as investors have more information today than they had in 1933. However, I took a good look at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and noted that there is more than meets the eye.
The fact is; we are experiencing a bear run.
This year has been a difficult one at the market. The NSE All Share Index (NASI) began the year at 162.9. By the time of writing, it had dropped to 147.6. This was a reprieve considering that, by August 27, the NASI had fallen to 137.5. To date, the market has shed off 9.39% in one of the longest bear runs.
This is in contrast to the 2014 performance where the NASI closed the year with a 19.9% gain, coming second only to Dar es Salaam on the continent.
There are many reasons why the NSE is shedding value. Firstly, the government introduced an unpopular capital gains tax which worked against the market from day one. The tax has since been abolished.
Secondly, and more importantly, the international investment climate is still recovering from the 2009 recession. Investors are still very jittery and, at the slightest provocation, they move their money to safe havens. Internationally, most investors believe the United States (US) is the safest place for their money and so, at the slightest tension, there will be a capital flight to the US.
This year began with uncertainty around the Greek problem and a subdued Chinese economy. These two factors drove foreign investors to believe that they should be cautious and most of them sold their holdings and took their money to the US. This strengthened the dollar, driving the forex rates of other currencies through the roof, the Kenyan shilling included.
If there is bad news in the market, to the effect that a considerable number of investors are selling, other investors will also sell without knowing why. It has a ripple effect. The international pressures caused only half the paper loss, the other half was due to fear and panic by other investors.
Nevertheless, prices of many counters have gone down. It is naturally a loss to many, but is there a silver lining in this dark cloud?
To understand this, one needs to check the best performing industries of last year. The champions of 2014 were the insurance industry and the agricultural sector. In 2015, the major gainers of 2014 are in the red. Britam has shed off 41.5% since January. CIC Insurance, the best price gainer in the sector in 2014, has shed off 26.04% this year. Pan Africa Insurance suffered the most, having lost 45.42% in the year.
There is no doubt that the insurance industry is expanding in Kenya, with the growing middle class requiring a wide array of insurance services. Furthermore, actions by companies like Britam create an investment appetite as the adjustments herald a growing stock. Yet these companies have lost significant value and present a great opportunity to a long-term investor looking for discounted stock.
But the attraction is not only in insurance. Housing Finance, ARM Cement and Total Kenya are all in the red, presenting opportunities for growth.
The end of the year is approaching and many investors are looking for value investments that will make 2015 worthwhile. If Security Analysis is anything to go by, then there is a real opportunity in the Nairobi bear run.
Tellingly, bear runs present investors with a great opportunity to buy choice stocks at prices much lower than the actual value. So while many are making a flight from the bear, embrace it and give it a bear hug, it might make you rich.

A Bear Hug That Could make you rich

The once thriving Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) is a shadow of itself. It has declined as sharply as the economy.
Last March, the African Development Bank ranked the country’s bourse as the worst performer in the region due to a lack of investor confidence. The trend is down.
At its peak, the ZSE had 79 counters, now it has 52 – with 90% of trade concentrated on the top market capitalization companies.
The ZSE saw turnover value fall from $66 million year-on-year in August 2014 to $17 million in September this year.
According to analysts, President Robert Mugabe’s inconsistent policy and controversial indigenization laws have pushed even the most resilient investors from the exchange.
The ZSE’s Chief Executive, Alban Chirume, says the country’s bourse was also suffering after the global financial crisis.
“Most companies on our exchange are failing to raise capital with foreign investors having somewhat withdrawn participating on our market,” says Chirume.
He added that international investors were wary of investing in Zimbabwe because of the country’s risk.
The exchange lost more than $1.7 billion in value for the 12-month period ending August 31, 2015.
“The bourse’s market capitalization stood at $5.2 billion in August 2014 but has been in free fall since then and is now valued at $3.5 billion, a 32.69 percent decline,” reported a South African business news website.
The decline in disposable incomes is also believed to be forcing large capitalization companies from the bourse.
Momentum SP Reid Securities’ Pan-African Sales Trader, Sebastian Gumbo, says large capitalization companies, like Delta Corporation, have not been spared economic hardships. He says the beer and soft drink company has seen a drop in volume, especially with high-margin products.
“The beer and soft drink company saw a sharp drop as consumers’ base has been moving to cheaper lower margin products, like opaque beer and Maheu,” says Gumbo.
In an attempt to stem losses, Harare has been revising some of its controversial laws.
Mugabe’s deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in July, said government was working on reform to win back investors.
Leading economist, John Robertson, blames Mugabe’s Zanu–PF party for the decline.
“At the core of Zimbabwe’s economic malaise is the controversial and disastrous land reform program, rising costs of production and the indigenization policies driving away investors,” says Robertson.
“Zimbabwe should also have reduced the wage bill costs as the country does not have the leverage of devaluation of the US dollar.”
Twenty seven counters stopped trading on the ZSE since the economy was dollarized in February 2009.
Robertson says the country’s woes have been worsened by rising labor costs. He says this is a result of the strengthening dollar, since 2011, as commodity prices fell.
“Due to rising production and labor costs, the country has seen no more production as companies now import goods they used to produce, the factories are now warehouses. We have become a nation of buyers and sellers and we have turned consumers into dependents of people working in the diaspora.”
Big companies are cutting back. Analysts say this is a sign of the tough trading conditions.
“Most companies are either retrenching or changing their business models in an effort to sustain operations,” says one analyst.
The Division Chief of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Simon Nyarota, said in June, activity on the local bourse was a reflection of the slowdown in the economy.
“Since 2009, a total of 14 counters were suspended and 15 counters were delisted from the stock exchange,” he said.
It all means more uncertainty for an exchange that used to be the jewel of Southern Africa.

how Zimbabwe stocks lost $1.7 Billion in a year

I felt green to the core. The Vice-President of the United States (US), Al Gore, was coming to South Africa to deliver his An Inconvenient Truth address at Maropeng and I was going to introduce him to a packed audience.
But there was a slight challenge. Gore could only travel from the airport in a small convoy of hybrid vehicles.
A Japanese luxury vehicle manufacturer had recently brought out a range of stunning hybrid SUVs, with enviable fuel consumption and low emissions, and were keen to supply them for the trip to the Cradle of Humankind. But the reply from his office was quite prescriptive; he could only be seen in a hybrid sedan.
This was duly arranged and the Maropeng gathering was supercharged with Gore’s mission to save the planet and how we could make a difference.
The missing link is how did he return to OR Tambo that evening? Well… in a rather large helicopter. In some ways I turned from dark green to light green in a matter of minutes.
Make no bones about it, I’m not saying that we don’t need to preserve fossil fuels and cut down on all forms of pollution. I wouldn’t dare argue with the experts who have exposed holes in the ozone layer and correlate this with dwindling ice caps.
By its very definition, pollution has harmful, and even poisonous, effects and you will find it difficult to get an appointment with an ENT specialist in many of the areas around Africa where industry rules the airwaves.
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And when it comes to vehicle emmissions you can’t help but be totally shocked when the US Environmental Protection Agency calculates that the average passenger car spews out
4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year!
So, for many of us, it was a like Tiger Woods moment when the Volkswagen (VW) scandal over rigged emissions tests broke and our minds went back to the ads for the Beetle comeback which showed flower power over two generations.
It is a gaffe that has denuded faith in VW and is likely to have long term affects on their market value, and possibly even the German economy. It is the biggest crisis in their 78-year history.
Media reports say the overall cost of the debacle could amount to $86 billion – that’s $30 billion more than the BP oil spill in 2010!
VW say that the defeat devices were fitted to around 11 million vehicles worldwide. But it seems not every owner will have to rush to get their cars refitted or reprogrammed. Volkswagen Group South Africa says that no action is required on the part of their customers or dealers.
Here is where things get complicated. According to VW Brand PR Manager Andile Dlamini, the irregularities reported overseas relate to a nitrogen oxide emmission standard known as Euro 5. In South Africa, the compliance standard is EU2.
So the VW and Audi diesel engines in question comply with South Africa’s regulations in relation to nitrogen oxide and, according to Dlamini, the software does not negatively affect the carbon dioxide values – which leaves me feeling that I should have concentrated harder in science class.
So any recall of cars around Africa will depend on that country’s specific emission standards.
Surprisingly, in terms of numbers, this won’t rate among the biggest recalls in history.
The automotive world is still reeling from the defective Takata airbags which can shoot out sharp metal shrapnel when deployed. Around 35 million vehicles may be affected in the US and an additional seven million have been recalled worldwide.
Nearly two dozen brands have been affected in this rather frightening scenario which has left some dealers disabling the airbags and affixing ‘Do Not Sit Here’ stickers to the dashboards as a temporary measure!
If we focus on a single manufacturer, then the recall record goes to Ford in the late seventies. It involved a failed safety catch which allowed all Ford automatics to slip from Park to Reverse with no warning. The safety defect was blamed for 6,000 accidents and 98 deaths. Repairs to 20 million vehicles and a host of law suits reportedly cost Ford $1.79 billion. A fortune back in the day!
It was a testing start for Mary Barra when she took the helm of the General Motors Company (GM) in the midst of a massive recall at the beginning of last year. Under the spotlight of becoming the first woman to head a major automobile manufacturer, she faced revelations about faulty ignition switches and pressure from investors to return more cash to investors.
Listed by FORBES as one of the Top 10 most powerful women in the world, Barra inherited the ‘new’ GM which was founded in 2009 after the trials and tribulations of bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 reorganization. And the leaner operation has been declaring profits since 2010 despite the costly recall and a dip in share prices.
GM sold over 180,000 vehicles in their Africa markets last year – which represents a 10% market share. The President and Managing Director of GM Sub-Saharan Africa, Ian Nicholls, says he is excited about the growth potential of the business.
“We are finalizing the details of our agreement with Isuzu to build higher volumes of vehicles in South Africa. The Isuzu range has a reputation for reliability and capability, and is engineered for local conditions,” says Nicholls.
The Chevrolet portfolio extends from that tiny Spark, through the Captiva, to the daunting Trailblazer. The updated Trailblazer is handily placed to take a slice out of the Fortuner market with an attractive and comfortable cabin, in grey and black trim, and the model I tested with the 2.8-liter Duramax turbodiesel engine has grunt to spare with a fairly stable fuel gauge – well a claimed 8.5l/100km.
Strangely it’s the infotainment system of the beast that impresses me the most. The Chevrolet MyLink setup, with rearview camera included, is the essence of simplicity and makes you wonder why so many German marques make choosing a radio station a life study.
But it’s Opel that is really turning heads and order books.
“The Opel brand is on the rise with sales volumes up more than 76 percent year to date, on the back of a product onslaught,” says Nicholls.
For me one of the surprise packages of the year is the tiny Opel Adam, available in funky guises of Jam and Glam, with a one-liter turbo engine that loves to canter. It’s even more appealing than a Fiat 500 and has more standard features than any luxury car I have tested.
Little wonder it is bagging international awards.
But despite these positive outlooks, GM and virtually all car manufacturers, many surviving as hybrids born of takeovers, must be nervous about further major recalls that could spell financial disaster.
And here’s what will make them even more wary. The British government is to start its own enquiry into car emissions, running new tests on engines from across the industry and comparing the results with on-the-road emissions.
These independent tests could even challenge the claimed fuel consumption figures which, in many cases, seem to have been calculated on some of the steep downhills of the Tour de France.
Accountability is going to be the name of the game.

Do You Recall?

He pulled up to the entrance of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), in Durban, South Africa. He was ushered into the frenzy of orientation week, took tours of the campus, chose his subjects and made friends. He was just like any other first–year student, buzzing with the future. Previn Naicker was 14 years old.
“For me personally, my age wasn’t such a big deal. I knew what it meant, I knew that it was an achievement, everyone around me knew it was an achievement. At that point, I just thought it was cool.”
Naicker isn’t just a varsity anomaly. Born in Durban, he attended Durwest Primary School. After winning a Maths Olympiad in grade six, at the age of 12, he was offered a scholarship to Star College, a private college with a focus on maths, science and technology. Although the youngest, he was one of nine students who entered an accelerated program which gave him a triple promotion from Grade Eight to Grade 12. Apart from some harmless jokes, he hardly noticed that he was the youngest.
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“You always get jokes coming your way but it was never too bad, just poking fun at the situation. Going into university, I was obviously younger and I still managed to make friends and get along with people. There were no challenges. The only challenge at university is just focusing and getting your work done, but that’s the same challenge for everybody,” he says.
He did his undergraduate degree at UKZN in biomedical science and his honors in medical biochemistry. He took a gap year in 2010 to ponder deep questions related to his field. Like any scientist, he’s methodical and his gap year was spent carefully analyzing all his options. He began studying protein structure and function, analyzing diseases and how they relate to protein structure function. He applied for his master’s which he then converted to a PhD at the age of 21. In 2013, he began working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
“I still enjoyed myself being around friends. It’s an enjoyable time in life. I wasn’t really affected by what other people were doing and what I wasn’t doing.”
“I don’t know if people expect you to be a socially awkward person when you finish younger but that wasn’t the case,” he says.
By the age of 23, Naicker had earned his PhD degree in biochemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, making him one of Africa’s youngest doctoral graduates, despite the delay of a gap year.
Naicker isn’t bursting with the tales of being a young prodigy; he’s unassuming and practical and broaches every aspect of life scientifically.
“It’s hard to have it all figured out, no matter where you are. There are people who have 15 years of experience in a field who want to change their path. Looking back, I’m happier than I was going through the academic process. In hindsight, things turned out better than I thought – I’ve learned so much.”
“I’m at a stage where I have as much experience in my field as my peers. It’s a competitive advantage. In five years, I’ll achieve what I want to and I’ll still have my youth. I’ll be more energetic – there are no challenges just advantages,” he says.
“You’ll never really know until you experience it. No matter how calculating you want to be, you have to experience. I always thought I was an old spirit in a young body.”
You can’t argue with that.

University  At 14 PhD At 23

David Adjaye, the renowned architect born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents, has been busy. He is leading the design team behind the Smithsonian’s $500-million National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. He is also the frontrunner to design Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago. These two buildings will be the most high-profile pieces of more than a decade of work.
Although Adjaye’s work, which focuses heavily on historical cultures, is spread all over the world, it can now be appreciated, by many. He recently released his latest book, David Adjaye: Form, Heft, Material, which was published to complement his exhibition at the Haus der Kunst museum in Munich. In September, it was extended to Chicago.
“It is the most comprehensive survey of my work to date. The concept of the book was to offer an insight into current projects within the context of the trajectory of my work over the past 15 years, and framed within a broad social, cultural and historical discourse,” says Adjaye.
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The discourse to which Adjaye refers has informed his multiculturalist work across every continent, and has led to projects that have placed Adjaye as one of the most distinguished architects in the world.
Adjaye’s work has shifted to public architecture.
“I think that design can provide a critical inquiry into social responsibility and civic consciousness.”
Despite this shift, Adjaye maintains a certain audacity to his work; the kind of trait that can only make a building indelible to the most discerning eye. His work surpasses the mediocrity of simply fulfilling the mere function of shelter. Adjaye is more of an artist than an architect. His work is often as much of a visual sculpture as a constructional design.
“I have always sought to cross creative platforms, collaborating with artists and designers from different disciplines and focusing on the creative discourse surrounding the act of making things. It is the dialogue – the cultural intersection – which excites me.”
Adjaye has also been embraced by the world of politics. He was commissioned by Obama to lead the design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Such a responsibility has not been taken lightly. Adjaye describes it as “a career defining project.” The monument, in Washington D.C.’s National Mall, has been built to commemorate the momentous milestones in African American history.
“It is an incredibly exciting project and it has been a real honor to be involved in the creation of this monumental building,” he says.
Like most of the museums the architect has designed, the National Museum will be as iconic as the exhibitions inside it. It is  to open to the public in early 2016. The timing of the building’s inaugural opening could not be more perfect; Obama’s term is coming to a close, and racial antipathy continues to plague the country.
“My hope is that the museum will transcend the uneasy fact of racial tension through an open exploration of history, culture and society – thereby addressing profound aspects of the human condition and the positive value inherent in creating a forum for multiple interpretations of America’s history and demography, however uncomfortable those may be.”
Adjaye has a different hope for Africa – a continent often riddled with political instability that threatens to derail progress made in the private and public sector.
“Politics can hinder development. The four-year electoral window is often at odds with urban and infrastructure projects which can require a decade of political commitment. Nevertheless, [I] am excited about all of my work in Africa.”
A few of the projects that Adjaye has been working on across the continent include; a luxury concept store in Lagos called Alara, a school campus and residential project in Accra, building the headquarters of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Dakar, residential projects in Johannesburg, and a hospital in Rwanda.
Over the last few years, Adjaye has collaborated with Propertuity to develop one of the Johannesburg CBD’s many timeworn buildings in the Maboneng Precinct – Hallmark House. The area is undergoing urban changes, with many buildings being redeveloped and perhaps gentrified.
“The project is a dramatic transformation of a former commercial building into apartments and cultural facilities in Johannesburg’s CBD. Its proximity to the already vibrant Maboneng district will mean that it will extend this extraordinary new city quarter.”
The inspiration behind Hallmark House’s transformation has been driven by the same principles Adjaye places on all of his work. His designs are often a reflection of social, historical and environmental context. In the case of his work in Maboneng, the design of the residential building was inspired by what Adjaye lauds as “an icon of the Joburg city skyline”. The 66-meter-high structure, initially designed in the 1970s by Greg Cohen, was built to house a burgeoning diamond polishing company.
Adjaye is a firm believer that the story of a city is written in its buildings. Johannesburg reflects the complex challenges of its past.
“Johannesburg, sadly, is one of the few cities in the world that has a specific spatial architecture that is born from division,” he says.
Such a landscape does not wean Adjaye away from the potential possibilities awaiting this historically rich part of Johannesburg, but rather encourages an admiration of the city.
“Johannesburg is the most cosmopolitan city I have visited in Africa. You see in its buildings a story of a tragic past but also a city that is being very intentional about confronting its history and seeking ways to move forward.”
Adjaye dismisses the idea that his work has a clear and definitive aesthetic.
“I am part of a generation of architects which has moved away from the idea of a signature.”
He does, however, pull much of his inspiration from the continent.
“I draw from Africa, but I also draw from many other things. That’s what architects do – we are planetary creatures.”
Adjaye adds that all of his projects have been memorable.
“Each one is part of a curve, a critical piece of a narrative that is still unfolding.”
This is a story that will bring many more milestones for the successful architect on a mission in Africa.

The Brain of Africa more of an artist  than an architect

He can toss pizza dough with the best of them, make a perfect base, fold a pizza box in seconds – and knows how to make millions from them. Carlo Gonzaga, the CEO of Taste Holdings, is building an empire to rival the Roman one, signing new deals and serving it up with a side of coffee – with two pumps of caramel syrup.
We walk into a Domino’s in Fourways, Johannesburg. The staff greet us with a booming “welcome to Domino’s” in perfect chorus. Gonzaga is transfixed by his phone.
“Can you wait a minute? We’ve just launched our online ordering app so I actually want to order and see if it’s working. We’ve been testing it in this store for about two weeks now,” he says.
As we wait on his order, he tells us how he started out in the pizza game. His dad bought a Debonairs Pizza franchise – the 12th one. Armed with a postgraduate law degree, he started out helping him in the December holidays. It sparked a new passion and he asked his dad to sell him a share in the business. After four years with the brand and four stores, Debonairs sold out to Famous Brands and Gonzaga, pizzaless, plotted his next move.
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The idea that hit him was: 39 minutes or your order is free. That’s the promise on which he built his new business – Scooters Pizza – which was founded in 2000. The franchise had 100 stores by 2006. He has since acquired five more restaurants – St Elmo’s, Domino’s Pizza, Maxi’s, The Fish &amp; Chip Co, Zebro’s; Starbucks; and three jewelry stores – Arthur Kaplan, NWJ and World’s Finest Watches. Last year, he began converting his Scooters Pizza and St Elmo’s stores into Domino’s, transplanted from New York.
“It has been an interesting journey. You have all these ideas. We only ever thought we would have at best 90 stores – that was our grand plan back in 2000. We now have 600 across all our businesses. The way that entrepreneurs work is that you have an idea but you grow within things that you think you can add value to and you can do better. Who would have thought that a couple of guys who did pizza and cappuccinos would grow like this,” he says.
He’s always been quick on the draw, he set a record for delivery in South Africa. His next challenge? Delivering a pizza to Las Vegas in 39 hours. He broke a world record but Domino’s soon broke that record. Not one to accept defeat, he aimed for a new record.
“We decided to deliver a pizza by motorbike to London. In 2007, my dad, who retired last year, and two colleagues and I drove through Africa in 39 days on our bikes – we delivered to my 94-year-old grandmother living in Italy and to the Springboks for the [Rugby World Cup] finals in France. The final pizza went to the South African ambassador in London in Trafalgar Square. If we got it to the ambassador in 40 days then she would get it for free.”
“We made it in one of our Scooters shops and put a freezer on my motorbike. We traveled unsupported, just four motorbikes. We went up the east coast of Africa – into Ethiopia, left into Sudan, into Egypt and to Tunisia, through Libya, caught a ferry to Italy, drove all the way up Italy, rode down to France, up through France and to London.”
In exactly 39 days, they just made it. The South African ambassador had to pay.
Gonzaga is up for any new challenge. Taste Holdings has been on a mission to have the world’s best brands for the last four years.
“As we see the future of South Africa, as we become more global, the brand is an important part of how the customer makes up their mind. We would rather own the best brands in the world in the long run. When we started, we said we would happily convert our Scooters into a Domino’s or even a Pizza Hut.”
After going through various fast food options, he decided to stick with what he knows best – pizza. Now with Domino’s under his belt, he’s bringing Starbucks to South Africa.
“I spent two weeks having Starbucks for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I visited 11 countries – from South Korea, Shanghai, Istanbul to London. I wanted to make sure that the brand would work,” he says.
“There’s this idea of the third place, which Starbucks is really about, which is perfect for South Africa. A lot of people live in small houses where home isn’t really a place where people get to do the stuff they want to do. And work? Everyone goes to work. There’s an opportunity for Starbucks to bring a third place to South Africa. An environment of safety – appeals to people, youth, women,” he says.
With the first few stores set to roll out in the province of Gauteng in the next two years, Gonzaga sees room for 200 stores. Starbucks’ baristas are given three month’s training, they’re sent overseas to learn it all. With 87,000 combinations of coffee available – Starbucks’ baristas are like Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail – they can make it shaken or stirred. Every store is designed specifically to the area it is in. And to the naysayers who are worried about prices and independent local coffee shops? Gonzaga says to expect prices translated to the South African market and comradery between Starbucks and independent brands – together they’ll push coffee.
Five restaurant chains; three jewelry chains and now the world’s biggest coffee company – for Gonzaga, it’s just ordering up the retail world in 39 minutes.

The Pizza Man

In ancient Egypt, color was often used to provide insight on important matters. This use of color continues today. In psychology, color can be used as a tool for understanding your behavior and character traits. In the world of business, it is believed that one can use color to encourage sales, calm a crowd and boost the morale of a team.
When it came time for Mike Nyinaku to choose a name for his business seven years ago, he settled on the BEIGE Group. Under the color theory, beige is dependable, conservative and flexible.
Nyinaku is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the BEIGE Group, a hospitality, trade, real estate and logistics company. BEIGE Capital is the flagship brand in the group’s portfolio. The company currently controls around 30% of the total assets and liabilities of the savings and loans market in Ghana.
Despite Nyinaku’s success, it has been a long and tough journey.
“I have failed at probably a lot more than I have been successful and even the ones we succeed at, we failed at least five times before getting it right,” says Nyinaku.
Although relaxed, Nyinaku is dressed smartly with a shirt and bow tie, giving him an aristocratic look. Born to a banker mother and an accountant father, Nyinaku grew up with two siblings and had to fend for himself early in life when his dad was not around.
“I became an entrepreneur out of necessity,” says Nyinaku, as his voice resonates in his expansive, but minimalist, office.
“I started working at the age of 14 to raise extra money to take care of myself during the summer holidays. I was walking down the neighborhood and came across an overgrown lawn and asked the owner if I could mow it for a fee.”
He graduated from the Institute of Professional Studies in Ghana, where he studied accounting. While studying, Nyinaku needed money to feed himself. This forced him to go to small shops to offer his bookkeeping services.
“It was not that easy in the beginning. Out of every 20 to 30 shops I visited, I was able to make one sale, but that sale was enough to take care of my needs for about three days,” he says.
He managed to build a group of clients; around 25 small businesses used his general accountancy services, bookkeeping and savings planning. However it was his appointment at Deloitte which enabled Nyinaku to hone his skills. As an audit trainee, he gained invaluable exposure to practical accountancy.
“At Deloitte, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the financial reports of so many different companies across several different industries. If you are lucky, you get to do about 50 audits a year, you cannot place a value on that level of experience,” says Nyinaku.
As he completed more and more accounting jobs, Nyinaku came in contact with influential people across a number of sectors. One of those contacts made him an offer he could not refuse and, after two years, Nyinaku became a senior financial officer at OIC International, a United States-based organization with an office in Ghana that runs poverty alleviation programs. During this period, Nyinaku kept his private clients with Prime Consult, a firm he had started. He would dedicate two days in the week to meet his clients and manage their financial reports.
After eight years at OIC, Nyinaku’s private business grew and he could no longer manage the two. He made the difficult decision of quitting his job at OIC so he could focus on his own business interests. Nyinaku decided he wanted to venture into banking.
“I got introduced to the stock exchange during the windfall years where the stock exchange was making a lot of money for a lot of people and I had made quite a bit of money,” he says.
He had made around $500,000 which he used to start a micro-finance company. It was not smooth sailing. He applied for his micro-finance license from the Bank of Ghana but his application was rejected. The bank told Nyinaku he needed $1 million in start-up capital. He found a way around this by applying for a license through the Ghana Police Service. At that time, an alternative way of applying for a license to become a micro-finance license in Ghana was through an initiative with the police. This initiative gave birth to Nyinaku’s first banking company.
From humble beginnings, BEIGE Capital has grown to a company with 700 employees and an average return on equity of about 20% since 2010.
Nyinaku is frank about how he got this far.
“I have staked everything I have in my business. I believe if I want someone to invest in me, I have to make the commitment of investing everything I have and that is what I have done.”
Nyinaku took the risk of walking away from a promising corporate career to create something new. For many that risk can mean losing everything, for Nyinaku it was the starting point on his path to riches.

‘I Have Staked Everything I Have In My Business’

Murray Legg likes to build things. By the age of seven, he mastered carpentry and made money out of it.
“My grandfather loved woodwork and he showed me how to make little things like letter boxes, bird nesting boxes and tomato boxes. I sold these to my friends and made money out of it,” he says.
At 15, he bought his first shares. At 21, he built a business from the ground up. At 31, he hopes to change the face of medicine.
“I have always had a passion for math, science and biology. I have always been very happy looking for solutions to problems.”
Born the son of a miner in Klerksdorp, in the North West province of South Africa, Legg moved from mining town to mining town. He was a bit of a nerd who spent Saturday nights doing calculus.
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Legg holds a biomedical engineering PhD; has four years investment banking experience and is an entrepreneur. He hopes to give people a new lease of life though his innovative business – SA Cardiosynthetics – that makes heart valve replacements.
The heart has four valves which open and close, preventing a backflow that could kill you.
According to Legg, half a million heart-valve replacements are performed around the world each year. Current devices only cater for patients in rich countries.
The idea for his business came to Legg while working at a medical devices company in Pretoria where he met valve surgeon, David Wheatley, and they set up SA Cardiosynthetics.
“My understanding of engineering and his understanding of the human body provided an opportunity for us,” he says.
Together they created a cheaper heart valve for emerging markets.
“Rheumatic fever is prevalent in the BRICS countries and heart valve replacements are needed to give the patient an extended life.”
Following successful animal trials and fatigue tests, the pair will bring in a global valve manufacturer to run human trials on its way to world approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Other valves are made out of carbon, cow or pig tissue. Our valve is made out of biostable polymer designed to offer patients a much longer life without the need for continuous medication.”
Legg says it will also create jobs through manufacturing.
These heart valves are expected to be in operation by 2016. SA Cardiosynthetics has been granted patents in the United States, Europe, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Canada.
Starting the business was difficult because funders don’t always understand high risk investments. Now that Legg has the money in place, he believes it was woodwork, hard work and being different that got him there.
“At the time, everyone thought I was a nerd but I was very interested in how stock and equity markets work.”
It was at university where necessity proved the mother of invention.
“My dad said if I go to a university other than the University of the Witwatersrand I should pay for my own accommodation, so I took the risk because I wanted to study at the University of Pretoria.”
He had to make a plan to cover costs. It was a risk, but his marks convinced an engineering company to give him a bursary. Then he started a tutoring company, in his second year.
“Maths and science were problems for many people so my friend and I started a tutoring company. We would employ tutors for these subjects and the company started to grow.”
Penguin Tutoring is now franchized across the country.
“Stay at home mums work on the system we created, all they have to do is make calls and arrange with tutors… Over the course of 10 years, through this platform, we have created about 6,000 jobs for students,” he says.
Penguin Tutoring turned out not to be as big a money spinner as they would have hoped. Legg’s digital passion however grew and he partnered with Mike Sharman, in 2010, to start Retroviral Digital Communications, a digital agency that helps business improve online.
“We loved the idea of using digital to take out the right messages and make them go viral. That’s why we called it retroviral.”
In 2012, Legg founded Webfluential; a global platform that allows brand campaigns reach the right target market.
Webfluential is designed for social media, with a means to generate new revenue streams off the posts they have created. It employs 2,800 people.
According to Legg, technology businesses that address global challenges are on the rise.
“I have to be working in the entrepreneurial world rather than a corporate. All the things I do sound very different but they all have great commercial sense because they are very scalable and they have intellectual property which is protected.”
Legg may have been a nerd 20 years ago, but in the 21st century he has the heart an entrepreneur.

An Entrepreneur With Your Heart In His Hands

Chris Bishop: You believe that US foreign policy is becoming more isolationist. What does that mean for Africa?
Steve Forbes: In terms of the US turning its back on the world, it’s not good for Africa. Turning outward to the world means more trade, greater sense of security which means more investment. Africa has enormous opportunities, even beyond a commodities boom and a lot of entrepreneurship there. What you need is more and more of an environment, structures where entrepreneurship can build real assets. That’s where things like the World Banks’ survey of doing business is helpful, structural changes that you need to make… people don’t realize that there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of people in Africa – that’s a big place.
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Bishop: What about the visit of President Barack Obama to East Africa?
Forbes: He was going to get applause, and he got some, but I don’t think he fully recognizes what you need to do to get an economy growing. And Africa is up for it. Take Kenya, who would have thought that a place like Kenya would be at the forefront of electronic banking, or world banking, but they are.
Bishop: What would be your advice for foreign policy towards Africa?
Forbes: Well, certainly in the north, you’ve got to have more sense of security and the sense that the bad guys are not going to have the sway in places like Nigeria. Then urge people to put in reforms. What you don’t do is let the IMF give the advice, they still give mostly bad advice, economic malpractice.
Bishop: What about the entrepreneurs of Africa?
Forbes: Without entrepreneurs you don’t flourish, you don’t get the breakthroughs and there’s no lack of energy in Africa.
Bishop: If you were the president of a country in Africa, would you say flat tax from tomorrow?
Forbes: Yes I would. I’d ask the IMF what to do and do the opposite. Putting in a flat tax, tying the currency to the euro, which many African countries have already done. So even though the euro is not the best currency, people trust that more than they do a local currency. So you can say, ‘don’t worry about our central bank, we’re with the euro or the dollar’, so we’ll invest with the sense of security that you’re not going to have a hyper-inflation like it hit Zimbabwe. Then you do that and you put in ease of starting a business. Start practicing real property rights, then you’re going to start to see, rapidly, an emergence of a middle class.
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Bishop: And how likely do you think that is, reading the situation from this side?
Forbes: I think that people recognize that foreign aid was a disaster for Africa. That the Africans are quite capable, in an economic environment, of prospering? I think they’ve already demonstrated that.
Bishop: You haven’t missed a column for 43 years. As a fellow journalist I’d like to say that’s quite something. What sort of legacy do you want to leave in the world of business journalism?
Forbes: I think simply carrying out my grandfather’s vision when he said: “The purpose of business is to produce happiness, not pile up money.” So whether it’s books, or anything else, laying out how we can create that environment where entrepreneurs can flourish, because when they flourish we flourish.

FORBES ON AFRICA IN NEW YORK

The idea of the EcoMobility World Festival was an experiment to ease pressure on the hard pressed roads of African cities. So, traffic police bearing fences moved in to seal Sandton, the business district and home to Africa’s largest financial institutions, where 75,000 cars arrive every day. The idea was to keep most of the cars out and push public transport.
This hasn’t gone down well with many motorists, who struggle to find an alternative.
“This is the biggest load of crap,” shouted a lady as she drove by Sandton’s main artery, West Street, which has been reduced to one lane.
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“It’s just not practical. All big businesses are in Sandton and I’ve got to go company to company. I’ve just left Merrill Lynch now and I have to be in Randburg in 20 minutes, which wouldn’t be a problem. Now I just might need to cancel because of this,” says Sharoma Mahal, a consultant working in Sandton.
“It’s our first visit to Sandton during the EcoMobility Festival so far and we’ve come by Gautrain instead of by vehicle for a meeting. There aren’t too many disruptions so far, just that we have to walk 400 meters,” says a passing businessman.
“It hasn’t been too much of a change, traffic has picked up in areas like Midrand but it hasn’t been a huge change,” says Geoffrey Sugden, who works in Sandton.
Business too felt the pinch, as many customers ended up on the other side of the fence. Petrol station owner, Shane Singh, says he has lost money and is considering cutting jobs.
“It’s a real challenge because we need the vehicles. People need to use their vehicles so we can put petrol in them. If that’s not happening then our business really suffers. If you look at my forecourt, I’ve got one car with like four petrol attendants,” says Singh.
The Mayor of Johannesburg, Parks Tau, is behind the idea and thinks it is the future.
“We’ve built relationships with corporates. The role that corporates are going to play relates to, amongst others, introducing incentives for people to use different modes of transport,” says Tau.
True to the entrepreneurial spirit, whenever there’s a hurdle to overcome, you will find an entrepreneur. In the midst of the festival and its challenges, a business has mushroomed near the Gautrain station in Sandton.
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Santa Scheepers hired out motorcycles for short trips around Sandton.
“A shared use system is important, especially having alternative transport which will be eco-friendly as well. That is the motivation behind the electric motorcycles, that and making money of course,” chuckles Scheepers.
If the EcoMobility concept works, it could become permanent in Africa’s golden square mile and maybe spread across the continent. Watch out for fences first thing in the morning.

Good Green Intentions But…

More black industrialists and entrepreneurs are needed to save Africa’s richest province. So says Paul Mashatile, the political head of African National Congress in Gauteng, South Africa.
“We want more black industrialists who will run businesses and factories. We don’t want people who are happy with equity (deals) there and there. We want people who can create employment. Jobs are critical in this country. We need to make sure this empowerment is not just people sitting at home because they own shares in companies,” says Mashatile, the provincial chairperson of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), and former Gauteng premier.
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It has been tough times for Gauteng, the province that is home to Johannesburg. In recent years, it has seen the closure of gold mines, high youth unemployment and service delivery protests.
“In Gauteng province the emphasis is the transformation of the economy through modernization and re-industrialization. For the South African economy to grow, the Gauteng province has to grow faster – above the levels of four to six percent – and then you can drive growth nationally. The focus in the next five years has to be on the transformation of the economy. We want to be part of the re-industrialization on the continent. People are talking about Africa rising and we think Gauteng should be the gateway into the continent, to ensure that we are part of this growth on the continent,” says Mashatile.
With the gold mining prospects in decline in the West Rand region of Johannesburg, Mashatile says alternative economic plans are underway.
“Because mining is on the decline in the West Rand, so we have decided to put more emphasis on the green economy,” he says.
Mashatile says the province has partnered with the private sector and institutions of higher learning to train unemployed youth.
“There are a lot of young people in the townships that are graduates who are unemployed. We are turning them into entrepreneurs; now we start hearing about the township economy that is absorbing a lot of youth,” he says.
David Makhura, the Premier of Gauteng, in his state of the province address in February, said private investment in mixed residential property developments – in places such as Rietfontein, Modderfontein and Midrand – will create about 260,000 jobs in the next 20 years at a cost of $13 billion.
Shanghai Zendai, a Chinese company, in September launched the first phase of the $6.2-billion infrastructure development of residential, industrial and commercial space in Modderfontein, east of Johannesburg.

‘We Can’t Just Sit At Home’

Finally, Nigeria’s ministerial list is out. The four-month-long search for the country’s “impeccable characters” with outstanding records of achievements in business, politics and society came to a quiet end at the end of September.
Senate President Bukola Saraki read out the names of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 21 nominees, the first batch of nominations, for the Senate’s consideration, on October 6.
Constitutionally, the president could end up making more than 2,000 appointments over the next four years of his administration, all things being equal. Every decision, every appointment a Nigerian president makes is subjected to constitutional, political, religious and ethnic scrutiny.
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After a year-long season of political campaigns and elections that left the economy largely unattended to by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Buhari’s decision not to appoint cabinet ministers in the early days of his administration was a hugely unpopular move.
Nigerians therefore realized very early on that this was going to be a new kind of president.
“Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place,” Buhari told Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper in July.
“Integrity and experience will be central to President Buhari’s actions and decisions,” Babatunde Kwame Ogala, a lawyer and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party told FORBES AFRICA. “Beyond the need for a few political compromises here and there, you can see that the president is not someone that can be tele-guided by anyone or any interest group. He’s got a totally independent mindset.”
By delaying and downplaying appointments, the Nigerian leader was not only consolidating his hold on power, he was clearly hoping to replace the profligate culture of the past with a new political ethos. Previous presidents had used these appointments to settle political IOUs, compensating cronies, party chieftains and political sponsors. Consequently, the onerous task of nation building wasn’t always left in the hands of the most capable citizens.
This time around, the Abuja rumor mill was abuzz right after Buhari’s inauguration in May with tales of ministerial nominees failing the president’s integrity test. A glimpse of the first batch of ministerial nominees for Team Buhari reveals what political scientists always said about politics – a game of constantly shifting interests and horse trading.
On the Nigerian leader’s ministerial list were five former state governors, namely, Rotimi Amaechi, Babatunde Fashola, Chris Ngige, Kayode Fayemi and Ogbonnaya Onu; a former national chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); former state commissioners; seasoned technocrats and the current head of the national oil company. The president didn’t assign portfolios to his list.
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Also on Buhari’s list is Chief Audu Ogbeh, 68, chairman of the PDP between 2001 and 2005. Appointed Minister of Communications in 1982, and later Minister of Steel Development, his term of office was truncated by Buhari’s military coup in 1983.
Another nominee, Emmanuel Kachikwu, was in August appointed group managing director of state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He is a former executive vice-chairman of ExxonMobil Africa. Within 24 hours of his appointment, Kachikwu received the president’s permission to sack all the divisional heads of the NNPC. His place in Buhari’s economic management team is assured.
Oil exports account for 70% of government revenue. With oil prices dropping below $50 and likely to drop even further when Iran resumes supplies, continuous adjustments in budget benchmarks look certain. The Central Bank has announced a temporary ban on local transactions in dollars. Devalued first in November 2014, and again in February 2015, the Nigerian currency, the naira, still remains under immense pressure as the World Bank continues to counsel for more devaluation. An import dependent economy, a weaker naira will certainly make life more expensive for Nigerians. Analysts say Nigeria is likely to record its poorest fiscal performance in decades this year.
Other folks on Buhari’s list are: Lai Mohammed, a lawyer, businessman and stalwart of the APC; Udoma Udo Udoma, a lawyer, two-term senator between 1999 and 2007 and chairman of several entities, including UAC of Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Amina J. Mohammed, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning; Kemi Adeosun, a former Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State, western Nigeria; Abubakar Malami; Abdurahman Bello Dambazzau; Aisha Jumai Al Hassan;  Adebayo Shittu;  Solomon Dalong; Dr. Osagie  Ehaneri; Suleiman Adamu; Ahmed Musa Bello; Ibrahim Usman Jubrin and Senator Hadi Serika.
Was the wait for this list worth it? Will this group of ministers, when and if eventually confirmed by the Nigerian Senate, bring a new kind of thinking to the Buhari administration?
Expectedly, the opposition party, the PDP has lampooned the list, saying the president’s proposed cabinet were “a bunch of failed politicians and loyalists who lacked integrity to move the country forward”.
Only time will tell.
<h3>The Faces Of Business</h3>
Babatunde Fashola: The former Govenor of Lagos State did a remarkable job in transforming Lagos over the past eight years. During his tenure, Fashola, a lawyer, boosted infrastructure and made Lagos safer. Based on his track record, Fashola could head the Ministry of Works or the Federal Capital Territory.
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Rotimi Amaechi: The former Govenor of Rivers State was instrumental in getting Port Harcourt back on track during the Niger Delta crisis by securing the city, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and developing infrastructure. While in Rivers State, he made education a priority. The Ministry of Education could be a good fit.
Kayode Fayemi: The former Governor of Ekiti State is considered an expert in policy formulation and will be seen as a great asset regarding policy direction and implementation. Fayemi, who has a doctorate in war studies, has also been seen next to Buhari in recent diplomatic visits. He may be chosen for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Amina Mohammed: She led the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) office in Nigeria. The UN later appointed her in a development capacity role. The Ministry of Health may suit her.
Kemi Adeosun: The former Ogun State Commissioner of Finance made a significant contribution to the development of the region over the past four years. With her background as a banker, she could get a financial position in the next cabinet.
Emmanuel Kachikwu: He was just appointed the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. There is speculation that he will be named as a junior minister for petroleum resources, since Buhari made it clear he will manage the oil and gas sector himself.
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Tag: November 2015

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