Category: Business

Business

Nigerian ‘unicorn’ Interswitch sells stake to Visa

By Libby George, Alexis Akwagyiram

(Reuters) – Visa Inc (V.N) will buy a significant minority stake in Nigerian payments platform Interswitch, creating “an instant acceptance network across Africa” that will help drive expansion, both companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

Interswitch and Visa did not provide financial details but a source confirmed media reports that Visa would buy a 20% stake for $200 million.

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Business

African food truck diversifies food scene in West Campus in Austin, Texas

BY SARA JOHNSON

A new food truck opened last Wednesday behind the University Co-op, bringing the taste of African cuisine closer to campus.

African Delights offers a small, seasonal menu of West African cuisine and operates between 11:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., according to a sign on the front of the food truck.

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Business

President Uhuru Kenyatta woos American investors to Kenya

President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked US investors to make Kenya their investment destination of choice in Africa.

The President said his Administration’s Big 4 Agenda, particularly the manufacturing component where the Government’s plan is to lift the sector’s contribution to the economy from the current 8.4 percent of GDP to 15 percent by 2022, offers limitless investment opportunities for US companies

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Business

Egyptian Coffee Shop in New York stakes claim to being first hookah lounge in America

Sip coffee and talk politics at this landmark cafe in Astoria’s Little Egypt, a contender for the title of America’s first hookah bar. 

By REINA GATTUSO

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Business

Omega1: Ghanaian couple open African fashion house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

By Kristin Palpini

PITTSFIELD — Bright Abbey has been an entrepreneur all his life. He has owned a restaurant and a medical equipment shipping firm. Those were in Ghana, though. Omega1 African Fashion on North Street is his first business venture in America.

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Business, People

Meet the Nigerian-American NBA star, Andre Iguodala, who is driving tech investments in US and Africa

By Henry Ojelu

National Basketball Association, NBA star, Andre Tyler Iguodala is on his way to Africa. Iguodala was born in  Springfield, Illinois.  His mother is African American, while his father is Nigerian. Aside winning several laurels as an NBA star, Iguodala is also a tech-investor and a leading advocate for athletes in the NBA to invest in the technology industry. His partnership with entrepreneurs in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley has led to an annual event tagged Players Technology Summit.

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Business

Forget Popeyes: this Ethiopian restaurant has the best chicken sandwich in Washington D.C.

By Hannah Natanson

People had been losing their minds for days over the Popeyes chicken sandwich when someone threw out a suggestion for locals in D.C.: “Popeyes is cool and all,” the woman tweeted. “If you live in the DMV area you should check out the Roaming Rooster.”

It’s a family business owned by an Ethiopian immigrant who “has always been kind,” tweeted the woman, whose account gives her name as “La Hara” and says she is a musician.

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Business

Verve Global Card Launches 1st International Transaction In New York

Verve, a leading payments technology and card business in Africa, and Discover Global Network, the payments brand of Discover, today held an event to launch the Verve Global Card. Cardholders will now have the ability to use their Verve Global Cards on the Discover Global Network which provides acceptance in more than 190 countries and territories. This will expand Verve’s existing suite of tailored payment products and solutions for its customers.

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Business

Winning the East and West African Markets In the United States and Abroad

Bringing Africa Into the Fold

We talk about the United Kingdom. We talk about Canada. We talk about Singapore, Sweden, Australia, and Germany. In fact, when it comes to international expansion, there’s a buzz in just about every corner of the globe, but we rarely discuss the exciting progress taking place in several countries that make up the African continent. 

Even within the United States, companies looking to expand their target audience don’t often consider the growing African immigrant population right here at home. Traditionally, the entire African continent and the African diaspora have been largely left out of these conversations, but that’s all about to change. It’s high time we bring the youngest (and the oldest) continent, along with its people, into the fold. 

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Business

You’ll Soon Finally Be Able to Fly Directly From Philly to Africa

By Fabiola Cineas

American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, will finally fly to Africa. Its first-ever route to the continent will launch on June 4, 2020 and fly to Casablanca, Morocco from the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). The flight is PHL’s first scheduled service to Africa and makes American the only U.S. carrier with a direct flight to Casablanca.

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Business

South African Airways Cuts Washington To Dakar Flights

South African Airways has two destinations in the US — New York JFK and Washington Dulles. They fly nonstop between New York and Johannesburg and fly between Washington and Johannesburg with an intermediate stop in Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal

As of next month, South African Airways will fly daily to Washington via Accra. This is coming at the expense of the Dakar to Washington route, which will operate for the last time on September 1, 2019.

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Business, Communities

Former NBA star, Luol Deng, helps South Sudanese forge a path in America

Deng, the son of a former Sudanese education minister who has returned to Africa, has become an economic force as well as a substantial taxpayer.

By Neal St. Anthony

Luol Deng, a 15-year NBA veteran and former Minnesota Timberwolf, was hanging with a bunch of South Sudanese immigrants and their kids one weekend last month.

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Business

Finger-lickin’ Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba, New York

By Gabe Herman

Queen of Sheba has been serving Ethiopian food in Hell’s Kitchen for nearly two decades, and is still going strong with a wide array of tasty dishes from owner and chef Philipos Mengistu.

Before Mengistu moved to America in 1990 with dreams of opening an Ethiopian restaurant in New York City, he learned the craft in a restaurant that his parents ran in Addis Ababa.

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Business

Royal Air Maroc connects new England to Africa

By Iuliia Tore

Massport and Royal Air Maroc officials celebrated a new international service to Casablanca, Morocco, the first nonstop route from Boston Logan International Airport to mainland Africa. Boston is Royal Air Maroc’s fourth destination in the United States.

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Business

Ethiopian Airlines Launches Three Weekly Flights to New York’s JFK Airport

By John Wanjohi

Ethiopian Airlines has launched three weekly flights to New York’s John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport. The airline said the new flights to New York will make stopovers in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (West Africa).

Ethiopian currently operates four other weekly flights to Newark, via Lome (Togo).

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