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Elumelu Calls for End to Energy Poverty

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Mr. Tony Elumelu, African businessman and philanthropist has said that providing access to electricity for schools, hospitals, businesses and industries is the single most impactful intervention that can be made to transform the continent.  It has tremendous implications for job creation, health, food security, education, technological advancement and overall economic development.” 

Elumelu who is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation joined African economic and political leaders in Abidjan on Tuesday to call for an end to energy poverty on the continent. The leaders came together in Abidjan under the umbrella of the African Energy Leaders Group (AELG). 

The AELG was launched during the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The group brings together political and business leaders at the highest level to drive the reforms and investment needed to end energy poverty and to ensure sustainable fuel supplies on the continent.

Elumelu is a founding partner and Co-chair of the AELG. Other founding partners of AELG include Ivoirian President Allasane Ouattara; Ghanaian President John Mahama; President, African Development Bank Dr Donald Kaberuka; President & CEO, The Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; President ECOWAS Commission, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo; and President UEMOA Cheikhe Hadjibou Soumare.  

Providing access for all Africans to reliable, affordable energy services and efficient appliances by 2030 is a key goal of AELG.

The AELG objective of ensuring universal access to modern energy is in line with those of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative run by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative Kandeh Yumkella, one of the champions of the AELG. Mr. Elumelu pledged to support the work of AELG.

 “I am making a pledge to provide $150,000 over the next three years to support the operations of the AELG secretariat,” he said.  “I want to call on the governments of the member states of the ECOWAS region, and AELG members and partners to also step up with significant multi-year commitments to sustain the organization.”

Following Elumelu’s lead, pop superstar, Akon, who was also in attendance at the event to promote his Lighting Africa Initiative, pledged $200,000 to support the work of the AELG secretariat.

On the closing panel for the AELG meeting where Elumelu was joined by Akon, former presidents Obasanjo and Kufuor, Vice President Osinbajo, and the Prime Ministers of Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Benin, Togo, and Niger, he challenged the public sector leaders to follow the lessons learned from the democratization of the telecoms sector to unlock growth in the power sector.

In 2013, Tony Elumelu committed to investing $2.5 billion in the power sector in Africa through President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative.   

 Transcorp Plc, Chaired by Elumelu, acquired the largest gas powered generating plant in Nigeria, located in Ughelli, Delta State in late 2013.    By the end of this year, the Transcorp Ughelli plant will be generating 1,000 MW and the company is in discussions with GE to add an additional 1,000 MW soon after.

 


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Public Notice:  QNET Raises Alarm Over Misuse of Corporate Foundation’s Name for Fraudulent Activities in Nigeria

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QNET, a global lifestyle and wellness-focused direct-selling company, has recently become aware of fraudulent activities being carried out in the name of its CSR arm, RYTHM Foundation.

QNET

An individual had set up an office in Port Harcourt in the name of the RYTHM Foundation and was using online ads offering jobs in the foundation.

The incident came to light when a job seeker who had contacted the individual about the job was asked to pay a fee to secure it. Suspicion prompted the job seeker to verify the ad’s legitimacy by contacting the Foundation directly.

QNET promptly reported the incident to relevant authorities, which led to the arrest of the perpetrator. The matter is currently under investigation.

QNET is deeply troubled by the impersonation of the RYTHM Foundation for illicit activities, including fake job offers and other deceptive practices. RYTHM Foundation, QNET, and any of our affiliate companies are not associated with these activities and disavow any connection with the perpetrators. The company is committed to collaborating with authorities to apprehend fraudsters.

QNET warns the public to be vigilant and verify information before engaging in any such commitments.

QNET and any of its other affiliated companies do not offer jobs in exchange for a fee. The company urges the public to report any such job ads via the WhatsApp compliance hotline for Sub-Saharan African markets at +233256630005.

QNET remains dedicated to empowering individuals through life-enhancing products and micro-entrepreneurship opportunities. The company has undertaken educational and public awareness initiatives such as establishing the Direct Selling Disinformation Centre (DSDC) and launching the “Social Awareness Campaign” and “Say No! Awareness Campaign” to protect individuals from scams.

Direct Selling Disinformation Centre – https://www.directsellingdisinformation.org/ Say No Campaign – www.saynocampaign.org.

QNET reaffirms its commitment to maintaining trust with customers, partners, and communities. The company vows to conduct business with sincerity, integrity, and a focus on enhancing lives through its product offerings and entrepreneurial opportunities.

For more information, visit QNET’s website at www.qnet.net or our Africa blog at https://www.qnetafrica.com/


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Remedial Health Unveils New App with Digital POS to power operations for Africa’s Neighbourhood Pharmacies

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Remedial Health, a health tech startup that develops solutions to make Africa’s pharmaceutical value chain more efficient has unveiled an updated version of its customer-facing app, designed to function as an operating system for neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) across the continent.

The new app comes with a digital POS terminal to support payment collection, virtual business accounts to receive payments, an in-built barcode scanner feature for recording product sales and store-switch functionality to enable the seamless management of multiple stores, as well as inventory management solutions for restocking and easily identifying short-dated products.

The app also offers comprehensive financial reporting to manage profit and loss, and data analytics to inform decision making.

Despite accounting for 85 per cent of retail medicines sold in Africa’s pharmaceutical industry (projected to reach $70 billion market size by 2030), the absence of bespoke digital tools to manage their unique sales and inventory management needs means neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) are unable to run their operations as effectively and profitably as possible.

At the same time, the reliance on paper-based inventory and sales management processes means manufacturers have limited empirical insights into customer behaviour to inform their decisions on production and distribution.

The new Remedial Health app has been designed specifically for healthcare businesses in Africa, with tailored features that have been designed to support effective decision making to drive business growth and profitability.

Starting in Nigeria, healthcare businesses can access vetted medicines, and manage their sales and inventory on one easy-to-use platform, freeing up time and capacity to effectively serve their customers and communities.

The app also enables Remedial Health to provide consolidated, real-time data on market behaviour to manufacturers for increased profitability and better decision-making across the value chain.

According to Samuel Okwuada, CEO, and co-founder of Remedial Health, “Neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs represent the frontline of healthcare delivery in Africa but they have historically been left to their own devices to figure out how to be efficient and profitable.

“Our mission is to empower these essential service providers with the tools they need to manage day-to-day operations and seamlessly run their practices effectively. We spent a lot of time interacting with our customers in the process of delivering this product and the feedback has been great.

“We are excited by the opportunity to get the app into the hands of pharmacies and PPMVs across the country to support their ongoing success, as well as the health and wellbeing of the nation”.

In 2023, Remedial Health sold more than 300 million individual packs of medicines to 7,500 hospitals, neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs across all 36 states of Nigeria.

Its customers also improved their profits by 30 per cent on average, with access to more than 8,000 vetted products at the same, or better than, open-air medicine market prices.

They can also access same-day delivery and leverage inventory financing to minimise cash-flow friction for routine orders and maximise sales opportunities.


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EnterpriseNGR Expands Financial Centres to Three African Countries

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EnterpriseNGR has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up the Africa Roundtable of Financial Centres – a chapter of the World Alliance of International Financial Centres, in Mauritius, Morocco and Rwanda.

The MoU, signed recently in Mauritius, brought together EnterpriseNGR, the Economic Development Board of Mauritius, Casablanca Finance City Authority, and Rwanda Finance Limited to foster collaboration, promote investment opportunities, and drive sustainable development within the financial centres of its member countries and Africa at large.ort the exchange of best practices between members, enhance visibility regionally

A statement from EnterpriseNGR said that it was joining forces with the three countries to specifically pursue five key objectives.

These objectives include “Jointly strengthen the competitiveness of financial centres in Africa. Collaborate through projects, research papers, communiques, and events to position the African Continent, demonstrate the myriad of investment opportunities, and showcase the role that financial centres play within the African Continent.

“Conduct joint initiatives to supp and internationally, and provide African financial centres with a unified voice regionally and internationally.

“Facilitate the development of dialogue with major financial centres outside the African Continent and build communication channels with African institutions, including regulators and policymakers, as well as African financial services industry associations, and advocate for regulatory coordination amongst members of the Africa Roundtable to promote cross-border investments and financial services.”

Commenting on this collaboration, the Chairperson of the Africa Roundtable, Mr Ken Poonoosamy, said, “The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Africa Roundtable of the WAIFC represents a pivotal stride in fostering synergy among financial hubs within the African sphere, with the shared objective of catalysing economic advancement across the continent.”

Ms Obi Ibekwe, the Chief Executive Officer of EnterpriseNGR, represented by the Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Mr Lami Adekola, expressed her excitement over the development.

She said, “It is a historic achievement, and EnterpriseNGR fully endorses the Africa Roundtable of the WAIFC and is excited for the immense opportunities it represents for Nigeria and the African continent. Our collaboration with the four African countries promises to bolster financial competitiveness on the Continent and amplify Africa’s global presence.

We will leverage this Roundtable to unlock the full potential of African financial centres to drive prosperity and development for our nations and beyond.”

EnterpriseNGR became a member of WAIFC in 2023 during the WAIFC board meeting hosted by TheCityUK in London.

The MoU, which was signed recently in Mauritius, brought together EnterpriseNGR, the Economic Development Board of Mauritius, Casablanca Finance City Authority, and Rwanda Finance Limited, to foster collaboration, promote investment opportunities, and drive sustainable development within the financial centres of its member countries.

A statement from EnterpriseNGR said that it was joining forces with the three countries to pursue five key objectives.

According to the group, these objectives include “jointly strengthen the competitiveness of financial centres in Africa. Collaborate through projects, research papers, communiques, and events to position the African continent, demonstrate the myriad of investment opportunities, and showcase the role that financial centres play within the African continent”.

It added that it would enable it to “Conduct joint initiatives to support the exchange of best practices between members, enhance visibility regionally and internationally, and to provide African financial centres with a unified voice regionally and internationally.

Facilitate the development of dialogue with major financial centres outside the African Continent and build communication channels with African institutions, including regulators and policymakers, as well as African financial services industry associations, and advocate for regulatory coordination amongst members of the Africa Roundtable to promote cross-border investments and financial services”.

Commenting on the collaboration, the Chairperson of the Africa Roundtable, Mr Ken Poonoosamy, asserted, “The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Africa Roundtable of the WAIFC represents a pivotal stride in fostering synergy among financial hubs within the African sphere, with the shared objective of catalysing economic advancement across the continent.”

Ms Obi Ibekwe, the Chief Executive Officer of EnterpriseNGR, represented by the Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Mr Lami Adekola, expressed her excitement over the development.

She stated, “It is a historic achievement, and EnterpriseNGR fully endorses the Africa Roundtable of the WAIFC and is excited for the immense opportunities it represents for Nigeria and the African continent.

“Our collaboration with the four African countries promises to bolster financial competitiveness on the Continent and amplify Africa’s global presence. We will leverage this Roundtable to unlock the full potential of African financial centres to drive prosperity and development for our nations and beyond.”


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