MortimerHarvey - Africonsumption Trend Report

Mortimer HarveyTrend Report: Africonsumption

Source: http://trendwatching.com

Online Booking Platform: Jovago

• Jovago is an online hotel booking service founded by Africa Internet Holding (AIH). Jovago now has over 4 000 local listings across Africa, as well as regional headquarters in Lagos, Nairobi and Ivory Coast.

• After recently expanding into South Sudan in April 2014, the online portal Jovago is continuing to expand across Africa, bringing operations to Zanzibar, Djibouti and Malawi in order to offer easy and transparent hotel booking to users across the continent.

• Africa Internet Holding is the largest, fastest and most successful African internet group. Founded in 2012, AIH is supported by Rocket Internet and Millicom and is headquartered in one of the most vibrant continents in the world: Africa.

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2014/05/hotel-booking-platform-jovago-expands-to-zanzibar-djibouti-and-malawi/

Africa Internet Holding Properties

www.africainternetholding.com

Famous Brands in North Africa: Steers/Debonairs

• The South Africa-based franchisor is set to expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Iran and Egypt.

• “Our current footprint in the Middle East and North Africa is small, comprising three Debonairs Pizza restaurants in Dubai, four in Sudan, as well as one Steers restaurant,” said Mark Hedderwick, managing executive of Famous Brands for Africa, in a statement.

• The group is set to establish its Steers, Wimpy and Debonairs Pizza brands in all five countries, as well as the Mugg & Bean brand in Morocco and Egypt.

http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/southern-africa/2014/04/09/famous-brands-expands-its-middle-east-and-north-african-footprint

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Mauritian Online Startup: Oju Africa

• Following complaints by celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Tahj Mowry over a lack of racial diversity in Apple's emojis (the cartoon-like icons used to convey emotional context in text messages), an Apple executive told MTV that the tech giant was working to update its set of characters.

• The news quickly had Twitter buzzing as people joined the #EmojiEthnicityUpdate discussions – but that wasn't the end of the story.

• Without wasting any time, a Mauritius-based app company called Oju Africa announced a few hours later that it had already tackled the lack of racial diversity by introducing its own set of Afro emoticons on Google Play Store.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/30/tech/african-startup-trumped-apple-black-emoticons/

Pan African University

• The Pan-African University (PAU) project represents the culmination of efforts of the African Union to contribute to the revitalisation of higher education and research in Africa by nurturing quality and exemplifying excellence.

• The strategic vision of the PAU is the development of institutions for excellence in key areas of science, technology, innovation, social sciences and governance, which would constitute the bedrock of an African pool of world-class higher education and research.

http://hrst.au.int/fr/sites/default/files/comedaf%20panafrican%20university_0.pdf

iROKO Partners: Nollywood Online Distributor

iROKO Partners: Nollywood Online Distributor

• iROKO Partners is the world’s largest distributor of African entertainment.

• Since launching in December 2010, the company has built a global audience of over 6 million unique users from 178 different countries.

• What iROKO Partners does is buy the online licences of movies and music directly from producers and recording artists and stream them online to a global diaspora audience.

• iROKO Partners has assembled the world’s largest online library of African content and is now West Africa’s fastest-growing Internet company.

http://irokopartners.com

SABMiller in Nigeria

• SABMiller launched the Hero beer brand in South-Eastern Nigeria in 2012. According to an article on the Nigerian Brands blog, in a short time the brand has become a firm favourite in the local market.

• The logo of the beer, which depicts a rising sun just like the Biafran flag, has struck a deep chord among Igbo people. The Igbos fought a civil war as Biafrans against the Nigerian government. Memories of that war still linger and there are still deep-rooted sentiments among the Igbos for anything Biafran.

• Tapping into this connection is now proving to be marketing gold for the Hero brand.

• SABMiller asserts that Hero was developed as a result of deep local consumer insights and positive associations with the Igbo tribe.

http://www.africanmc.org/index.php/knowledge-portal/item/329-hero-beer

Ghana International Bank Expands into Africa

• The London-based Ghana International Bank PLC has entered into a Services Agreement with Benaba Limited, a Nairobi-based consultancy, to provide coverage and also oversee its penetration strategy into the Eastern, Southern and Central African markets, effected 1 April 2014.

• The bank seeks to replicate the successes achieved in the Western African market in the region where it has seen tremendous growth in its chosen areas of business.

http://www.thebftonline.com/content/ghana-international-bank-expands-eastern-africa

Foschini Group in Ghana

• South African clothing retailer, the Foschini Group, is expanding its West African presence and has plans to enter Ghana with four stores by the end of 2014, its financial director said.

• In 2013, Foschini broke into the region by opening two stores in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, as part of a strategy to double its stores outside of South Africa over the next three years to about 200.

http://www.fashionghana.com/site/south-africas-fashion-label-foschini-expands-into-ghana-but-waiting-on-kenya

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