Business Archives – Sky News Africa

Nigeria’s Energy coy JED, to give free meters, deduct funds later

Uzo Kingsley - May 29, 2022

Nigeria Nigeria's Energy company known as the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, (JED), in northcentral Nigeria, has said customers seeking to escape estimated billing now have the opportunity to procure meters and pay when...

Ethiopia starts partial power generation from Blue Nile dam

Mumbere Peter - February 22, 2022

Ethiopia Ethiopia has started generating electricity from the controversial mega-dam that is being built on the Blue Nile. The milestone was reached on Sunday morning when one of the 13...

Theft, vandals, fingered for low energy in Nigeria’s Plateau electricity

Uzo Kingsley - November 26, 2021

Nigeria Electricity theft and vandalism of electrical installations has remain a challenge for effective and efficient power supply in Nigeria, resulting to huge consequences in loss of revenue and danger to life, says electricity...

We”ll grow local trade abroad – Nigerian giant pipe producer vows

Uzo Kingsley - November 24, 2021

Nigeria A Nigerian pipe manufacturer has expresses readiness to build capacity, facilitate already existing process that will aid export of pipes produced by his company to be sold across Africa. The...

Nigerian Pipe giant tasks govt. on improved policies, business growth

Uzo Kingsley - February 15, 2021

NIGERIA Nigeria has often been lashed for its unfavourable business environment which is made worse by regulations that suffocate and stifle economic activities. Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, in a twitter...

sky news africa Christmas: NASCO to play host to Polo tournament

Christmas: Nigeria’s NASCO to host Polo tournament

Uzo Kingsley - December 23, 2020

NIGERIA Prominent Polo players across the globe will storm the city of Jos in north central Nigeria at Christmas, to feature in the Annual International Polo tournament usually put together by the food beverage...

Nigeria’s energy coy procures 20,000 meters

Uzo Kingsley - October 14, 2020

NIGERIA Electricity Company in Nigeria otherwise known as Jos Electricity Distribution (JED), Plc, said it has purchased 20,000 meters aimed at ensuring that every house hold within its jurisdiction is metered

Nigeria’s pipe company gets certification from Agency

Uzo Kingsley - September 9, 2020

NIGERIA Agency in-charge of certifying products in Nigeria, the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), on 9th September 2020, presented the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) certification to Nigeria first indigenous Pipe manufacturing company, NELMACO...

sky news africa “Wages are now useless because of inflation,” he said. “Everyone is crying.” Selling from cars is also prevalent in other parts of Africa. Joseph Chege used to be an electronics dealer on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, but anti-COVID-19 restrictions forced him to close his business. Faced with payments for loans he had taken to expand his now-shut business, Chege says he had to come up with a quick alternative to meet his financial obligations. He realized that demand for food had remained the same but there was a shortfall in supply in Nairobi because of movement restrictions. He also realized that the farmers in his community were not able to sell their produce because the local market had been closed by a ban on crowded places. Chege went around farms and bought the best produce at the cheapest price and then drove to the populated neighborhoods in Nairobi, parked his car, and opened the trunk to display the fresh produce. “It did not take long and before lunch-time I was out of stock, so I drove back and got more produce,” he said. Chege says that the profit from selling vegetables and fruits is significantly less than what he used to make but he is grateful to be able to meet some of his financial obligations when many people are losing their livelihoods. Although Kenya has now lifted travel restrictions, Chege says the economic downturn will prevent him from returning to his electronics business for a while yet. In Zimbabwe, selling items from the back of car trunks to beat economic hardships is not completely new, but it was mainly limited to those selling second-hand clothes. Now, newly unemployed people clog roadsides and street corners in both rich and poor suburbs in Harare to sell from their cars. Many said the items for sale are smuggled from neighboring South Africa, which has closed its border posts with Zimbabwe as part of lockdown measures. Zimbabwe’s economy had already shifted from full-time, salaried jobs to self-employed trading due to a steady trend of de-industrialization over the past two decades, and the coronavirus has just worsened the situation, said some economists. “We have seen the closure of companies, the closure of industries. We have seen more and more people actually eking out a living in the informal sector,” said Prosper Chitambara, a Harare-based economist. For Marshall Chinyani, who abandoned work as a schoolteacher three years ago to focus on a small import business that closed due to the coronavirus, selling from his car is the new normal. “I am here because of the coronavirus pandemic that forced some of us to leave our jobs (and go) into the streets to sell these,” he said, standing next to his car packed with vegetables on the side of a busy road in Belgravia, a Harare suburb with many embassies, U.N agencies and international aid organizations. “We were never used to this,” he said. “But we were forced to leave our offices and our shops.”

Many Zimbabweans sell goods from their cars in hard times

Mumbere Peter - July 15, 2020

ZIMBABWE Cars have become mobile markets in Zimbabwe where enterprising residents are selling goods from their vehicles to cope with economic hardships caused by the coronavirus. With their car doors and...

sky news africa African air travel at near-standstill in recent months Relatively few confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in Africa. Less air travel might be a factor after most countries closed their borders. But more are starting to resume passenger flights. Flight departures from international airports on May 20 by global region West and Central Africa 1 East and South Africa 21 South America 71 Middle East 113 Asia Pacific 633 Europe and N. Atlantic 673 N. America and Caribbean

Africa starts opening airspace even as COVID-19 cases climb

Andrew Mbeki - July 6, 2020

SOUTH AFRICA As COVID-19 cases surged in many parts of the world, the island nation of the Seychelles was looking good: 70-plus straight days without a single infection. Then the planes arrived.