Home food delivery and digital ways to pay for it are suddenly all the rage. That means it’s time for a fresh look at Prosus. The company, spun off by South African media conglomerate Naspers on the Amsterdam and Johannesburg stock markets in September 2019, is effectively Naspers trading under another label in the hope of attracting a broader investor base. Analysis of both Prosus and Naspers shares is usually dominated by the stake held in Chinese tech giant Tencent – and the discount to...

Bank Zero, the digital bank which in 2019 postponed plans to launch in South Africa until mid 2020, says it still plans to become operational in the face of COVID 19. “We are still on track to launch,” the bank’s co-founder and executive director Lezanne Human told The Africa Report, without giving a date. “The benefit of being a digital bank is that we can work remotely very easily,” and the group’s disaster recovery program can be carried out remotely. As a precaution, the bank’s team went...

Targeted regulations across Africa's insurance markets and the markets that companies want to invest in are necessary. A 'one size fits all' approach can't work says the CEO of Allianz Africa. Ethiopia is among the most attractive untapped insurance markets, and the opening of the sector to foreign investment is just a matter of time, Allianz Africa CEO Coenraad Vrolijk tells The Africa Report. Foreign direct investment in insurance is not allowed in Ethiopia. But there are very few countries...

The rand’s slide to a record low against the dollar prompted by the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of the country’s last investment grade rating at Moody’s risks setting the country’s solar power industry back years. The solar power market is dollar-denominated, so the rand’s decline means that panels cost more. “South Africa is one of the hardest hit globally,” since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, says Gero Farruggio, senior vice president and product manager for renewables at...

Rentokil Initial, the global hygiene and pest control company, aims to expand in Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia once the coronavirus pandemic has been brought under control, Nkosinathi Solomon, the company’s managing director for sub-Saharan Africa, told The Africa Report. The company is targeting Lagos, Abuja, Accra and Addis Ababa as priority cities for expansion, Solomon said. Rentokil typically expands by acquisition, buying up local companies and then upgrading their operating standards to...