At the end of a CFR article that tries to deal with the political mess that is Nigeria, Richard Joseph, who knows Nigeria pretty well, ends on a somewhat positive note. His answer to anybody who asks him what he would like to do during the next elections: The response I advocate is to bolster… Read More »
Financialization and Everyday Life The 14th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality conducted by the Irmgard Coninx Foundation, the Social Science Research Centre Berlin and Humboldt-University Berlin, 25 – 29 June 2011 Topic The recent financial crisis has once more revealed the power financial markets hold over everyday life. The financial and especially the credit and loan… Read More »
The abstract of a paper of the same title: For the past decade, the U.S. economy has been driven not by industrial investment but by a real estate bubble. Although the United States may seem to be the leading example of industrial capitalism, its economy is no longer based mainly on investing in capital goods… Read More »
The Economist talks to China Europe Business School’s Africa Programme Director, Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, about the reason the Chinese business school decided to establish a branch in Ghana: CEIBS has been instrumental in developing the business talent that has helped China develop,…. The Europeans and Americans were the colonisers of Africa, but there was not much… Read More »
Thanks to Kola.
Check out this FT video report on what investors think of the current state of Nigeria’s financial sector. The reform of the financial sector has been targeted mainly at the banking sector, with the federal government’s decision to buy non-performing loans off the balance sheet of troubled banks. Some people, including the interviewee in the… Read More »
Off to Basel tomorrow for an African Borderlands Research Network conference. As part of a panel on a comparative study of cross-border trade networks in Africa, I will be presenting a paper titled “Benin-Nigeria secondhand clothing cross-border trade in historical perspective”. The abstract: Today, Benin Republic is the main supplier of secondhand clothing to Nigeria,… Read More »
President Goodluck Jonathan says Nigeria’s power industry can only grow through liberalisation: The government will sell 11 distribution companies created out of Power Holding Co. of Nigeria, the state-owned utility, and allow private companies to set up power plants using natural gas, hydro-electric dams and coal-powered stations, Jonathan said in a speech in Lagos, the… Read More »
Considering that Rwanda witnessed one of the most appalling waves of barbarity in history just 16 years ago, when around 800,000 people were hacked to death in three months, the efficiency is extraordinary. So much has gone admirably right in terms of development. But a lot is going depressingly wrong in politics. Mr Kagame has… Read More »
I first read of land acquisition deals in Africa about two years ago. It was between South Korea’s Daewoo and the Madagascar government, and the details included leasing the land for 99 years, mainly for farming. The produce was to be exported, but Daewoo promised to invest 6 billion dollars over a period of twenty… Read More »