All posts by rachel_eaton

SMEs in Ghana: Take it to the bank

November 7, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

The World Bank Group recently published a 2014 Doing Business Report titled Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises in which Ghana topped the ECOWAS region. Overall the report compares the rate of reform among 189 countries as an indicator of how easy it is to start a business from a regulatory perspective.

Last week at The Economist Conferences’ Ghana Summit there was much discussion of the kinds of business Ghana needs to cultivate in order not to fall foul of Dutch Disease* – a term coined by economists to describe negative impacts of natural resource discoveries. More agricultural processing, manufacturing in general and services were highlighted as being of key focus for job creation.

As a services company entering the Ghana market from the UK, our experience is that once you have made your choice about whether to joint venture with a local Director, or create a wholly owned subsidiary, it’s fairly straightforward. The next step is to get yourself a business bank account. But where to start?

According to Wikipedia there are 1,800 banks in Africa. Very few of them are making a play for international business outside of Africa – Ecobank and GT Trust being the two exceptions that spring immediately to mind for their ad campaigns. It would be great if there was a resource that made it possible to compare banks and get recommendations from customers – happy or otherwise.

African banks have a reputation for being conservative and charging high interest rates for business loans (if they give them at all). Here’s hoping that someone will build a website that compares rates and functionality in key areas such as online banking as well as customer service. That’s a great way to give a boost to the ‘missing middle’ of SMEs in Africa and to tip the balance of power back in their direction, enabling them to partner with banks who are the most competitive and who try hardest.

*The Financial Times Lexicon definition of Dutch disease is the negative impact on an economy of anything that gives rise to a sharp inflow of foreign currency, such as the discovery of large oil reserves. The currency inflows lead to currency appreciation, making the country’s other products less price competitive on the export market. It also leads to higher levels of cheap imports and can lead to deindustrialisation as industries apart from resource exploitation are moved to cheaper locations. The origin of the phrase is the Dutch economic crisis of the 1960s following the discovery of North Sea natural gas.

Insight

Powering Nigeria

October 29, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Sarah Caddy

“By 2050, there will be more Nigerians than Americans”. The wake-up call to the country’s capacity for prominence came from the BBC’s Komla Dumor (@BBCkomladumor), chair of a morning panel at EMPEA and This Is Africa’s most recent African private equity conference in London.

Komla was speaking to a converted audience; his panel on ‘Realising Africa’s economic promise’ focused almost entirely on the opportunities for investment in that country. The sector of preference was also clear, with Jan Rielaender, Economist at The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) citing access to power as the leading concern for small companies – and drivers of growth – in Nigeria. With investors vying for the opportunity to provide capital, infrastructure and expertise to rehabilitate the Nigerian power sector following its privatisation process, it awaits to be seen how long it will take for a steady power supply to run. Predictions in the coffee breaks centred around the 4-5 year mark.

Speaking in a keynote session, Arunma Oteh, Director General, at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria also highlighted technology as a particular focus for fundraising. Well she might: Nigeria’s internet subscriber base grew from 200,000 in 2000 to over 44 million by 2010, and the country’s internet business is estimated to be worth $250 million. The fact that the future of the technology sector’s success also depends upon power infrastructure investment merely highlights that for now, the focus must be on powering up Nigeria.

Insight

What do journalists want?

October 9, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Sally Maier

Last week I attended a Gorkana media briefing with Jonathan Grun, Editor at The Press Association. In his view, “interesting stories” and “speed of response” are the secret to building long-lasting relationship with journalists.

Having worked in the PR industry in various cities for almost a decade, I wondered if other journalists shared the same view. With this in mind, I asked a few media industry friends what they thought made a good PR. Here are their responses:

TV producer, Channel NewsAsia TV news station, Singapore: “Journalists want to tell the best story within deadline, outshine rival media outlets, and be first with the news. PR folk who understand this and help provide the stories they need (with good multimedia elements) earn lots of goodwill and become good friends”

Reporter, Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong: “Regular catch-ups help and casual chats can build up friendships. If possible, say lunch every few months. For those who are in a different country, call or send a Christmas card”

Freelance writer, The Guardian, UK: “I generally contact PRs when I need information or a quote, often at short notice. The PRs that I go back to time and again are those who are quick to respond to inquiries, who are competent in their subject area and who have the ear of their clients so they can get the ball rolling”

Reporter, China Daily Europe: “I think it’s personal interest and friendship as opposed to work. My PR friends don’t talk about their clients when we meet for lunch, coffee or other things. We just become friends.”

UK-based freelance writer, Billionaire.com, Singapore: “Keep supplying relevant information that can be used going forward – or that builds a clear picture of the fields in which your key strengths/contacts lie”

So, my unscientific poll suggests Jonathan Grun is right – interesting news stories and speed of response are key to cultivating long-lasting relationships between PRs-Journalists. But so are regular, informal face-to-face catch-ups. Lunch anyone?

Insight

Women rule in Rwanda

September 25, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Isabelle Alenus-Crosby

Last week, the ruling party in Rwanda won a resounding victory in their parliamentary elections. This surprised no one. What surprised everyone was that during the last election Rwandan women won a 56% representation in the Lower House and that this number has now leapt to a staggering 64%.

Female politicians are consistently beating their male counterparts in openly-contested seats making Rwanda the world’s only parliament where women form a majority. Women are very much underrepresented in almost every national parliament around the world, so what makes Rwanda different?

1) By law, women in Rwanda must have at least 30% of the seats in government, including local government. This is President Kagame’s brainchild, seeking to end the blatant inequality between the sexes still typical across the whole of Africa.

2) The Rwandan population is 60% female. If you compare this to China, where there will be approximately 30 million more men than women by 2020, it makes sense that the Chinese parliament has less women and that the Rwandan parliament has more.

3) Since 1994, Rwandan women have been at the forefront of rebuilding the nation and are now being rewarded for it.

In a vote of confidence, the US government agreed recently to ratify a new trade pact with Rwanda, without questions asked. Rwandan women are obviously doing something very right.

Insight

Currency in Africa

September 19, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

With investors increasingly bullish on Africa, the time should be ripe for African central banks to come up with a long-term view on exchange rate policies.

Stable exchange rate regimes are essential to ensure competitiveness and to continuously attract foreign capital. This is precisely why African countries began liberalising their foreign exchange regimes in the 1990s and that the difference between the official and parallel exchange rates became minimal relatively quickly.

Another direct result is that two decades on we are witnessing improved growth rates as well as per capita income across most of Africa. With more investors looking at the continent every day, a long-term view on exchange rate policies might become crucial to entice the more reluctant among them and reduce the lingering anti-export bias. Many structural reforms are already in place clearing the way for exchange rate liberalization.

A stronger foreign exchange regime should additionally encourage increased domestic investment. Domestic investment is necessary to create employment, which is not growing quickly enough in Africa according to the IMF (2012) . This is one of the reasons that African leaders all agreed on the establishment of a continental free trade area during the last African Union Summit. Intra-African trade definitely needs to be boosted in order to maintain the continent’s current (and stellar) growth. The reason that exchange rate policies are top of the African Union’s list for next year’s summit is a clear sign that everything is coming together quite nicely.

Africa is after all “on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago” (World Bank 2011).

News

Garden City selects Gong Communications

September 11, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

GARDEN CITY SELECTS GONG COMMUNICATIONS

11 September 2013, London: Gong Communications today announces that it has been selected to provide full service PR, marketing and creative services to Garden City, a 32-acre mixed use real estate development in Nairobi.

Garden City will be built over the next four years and will be home to the largest shopping mall in East Africa, 420 apartments and houses, 20,000m2 of office space and a 3-acre central park. The contract is effective immediately with initial activity focused on creative aspects of the project – refreshing the logo and developing a new website for this $250m project.

Commenting on the win, Gong’s MD, Narda Shirley said, “The scale and ambition of Garden City is a tangible example of the ‘Africa Rising’ story we so often read about. We’re particularly proud to build our real estate practice with a project of this pedigree and to be providing a full suite of services from reputation management to creative design.”

Mike Kingshott, Director at Garden City’s development manager, Aspire said, “Garden City is a flagship project in the East African market and is emblematic of Nairobi’s position as a growing base for local and international brands. Gong’s experience in the region, paired with their sleeves-rolled-up attitude make them the ideal partner for this development.”

About Garden City
Garden City is a $250m mixed-use development located on Nairobi’s newly expanded Thika Superhighway. Designed to be a city within a city, serving communities across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the first phase of construction will be completed by the end of 2014 with subsequent phases to 2017. Garden City is backed by sub-Saharan Africa’s most experienced private equity real estate investor, Actis, working alongside project and development managers, Aspire and Mentor Management.

Ends

Insight

What has the G20 in St. Petersburg (Sept 5-6, 2013) meant for Africa?

September 9, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Isabelle Alenus-Crosby

Africa may have only one seat at the G20 table (South Africa), but the continent accounts for 14% of the global population.

And not only does it represent the largest untapped source of oil, gas and minerals, but also the world’s most rapidly growing consumer market. These are all rather significant statistics. It therefore came as quite a shock when Oxfam announced that Africa had lost more in tax revenue over the last 30 years than it gained in development aid.

Such an issue can only be dealt with on a global scale and such a perspective is precisely what the G20 provides. Although initially much attention was on Syria, a global tax reform seems to have been discussed at length on day 2. Various media outlets have reported that G20 leaders endorsed the idea that countries should exchange information in order to catch tax evaders.

If transparent beneficial ownership is enforced, then the use of tax havens, shell companies, and multi-layered company structures will become illegal. Properly designed and effectively implemented these global reforms will benefit Africa in particular by making available a fairer share of revenues which could have enormous consequences (such as an end to development aid). In addition, companies doing business in Africa will benefit from predictable business environments, with much clearer regulation.

Let’s hope that the implementation process will be done swiftly.

Insight

Running the Numbers: Chinese Social Media and Dangote Industries

September 6, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Tom Griffiths

Last week, we at Gong were treated to a lunchtime talk by Jonathan Smith of Hot Pot Digital. Jonathan runs a bespoke service, representing a number of the UK’s brands on Chinese social media sites like Sina’s Weibo (China’s Twitter-equivalent in both micro-blog format and number of users). His talk raised a question in my mind: what share of voice does African business news have on Chinese social media channels, as compared with Twitter?

China-Africa trade receives a lot of attention, both positive and negative, in English and French social media. Simply search for the words “China” and “Nigeria” on Twitter and receive a stream of news, statistics and viewpoints. This is of little surprise given China’s perceived importance in many of Africa’s economies. I was interested if a similar ‘conversation’ exists on Weibo.

The story I decided to test my hypothesis on was this week’s news that Dangote Industries, a Nigerian Conglomerate, intends to invest US$9billion in building the country’s biggest oil refinery along with petrochemical and fertiliser plants. Dangote Industries’ founder, Aliko Dangote, announced that his company will be putting up US$3 billion and seeking US$6 billion in loan capital.

My admittedly less than rigorous method of investigation was to compare mentions of “Dangote” on Twitter with mentions of “Dān gē tè (丹格特)” on Weibo over the 5^th of September. Before going into the findings I would like to note that I recognise Twitter is widely used in Nigeria when compared with Weibo. I have looked at geo-tagged tweets from users outside of Nigeria to try to negate this bias however I realise any findings were always going to be heavily weighted towards Twitter.

The results: Weibo had only two posts that mentioned the story. Both simply stated the facts without commentary and provided a link to a longer write up. Both posts were made by petroleum industry trade publication’s Twitter accounts. Twitter, on the other hand, held a huge number of tweets on the news. Many of these came from Nigeria, however there were also many hundreds from Kenya, the US, Britain and Indonesia. Most tweets simply restated the facts, however a number commented on the potential job creation of the new factories.

The results were striking, even with the obvious bias in the experiment: 2 Weibo posts compared with thousands of tweets. It seems that the new Nigerian refinery just wasn’t a talking point on Weibo, despite the resource trade between China and Africa being so well publicised. However, as many African countries’ economies rise, will we see an increase in discussions on African business on Weibo?

It would be interesting to repeat the test on a piece of news that directly involves both China and an African country: an experiment for a later day.

Insight

The Art of Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity

August 27, 2013 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

Sally Maier

This month marks my two-year anniversary at Gong Communications and my four-year anniversary of living and working in London.

Having worked in the public relations industry in Hong Kong, Singapore and now London, people often ask me questions like “How do you find working in London as opposed to Asia?” or “I am moving to Hong Kong/Shanghai/Beijing. Do you have any tips for me?”

I still remember the single most valuable piece of advice, given to me by my old boss in Singapore before I moved to London. He said, “Sally, when you work in London, you have to try to be less blunt.”

I said: “What do you mean?”

My boss said: “For example, instead of saying ‘Do this for me please’, say ‘When you have a spare moment, would you mind doing this for me please?”

I said: “Oh, isn’t that a bit of a long winded way of saying the same thing?”

My boss said: “You will learn.”

This is just one of the many examples of cultural differences between working in the East and the West. The art of building cross-cultural sensitivity and awareness in the workplace and in our everyday life has become ever more important in today’s globalised world. For instance, at Gong Communications we are a small team but between us were born, brought up or have lived in countries including China (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong), Singapore, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, France, Italy, New Zealand, UK and the US.

Here is a checklist of cultural sensitivity and awareness based on my personal experiences of working in the UK and Asia and working with companies around the world:

1. Communications method: When communicating with Asian or African markets where English is often not the native language, identify the preferred method of communication (both verbal and non-verbal). For example, in most Asian countries, emailing is often preferred as the primary communications channel, as this provides people sufficient time to digest information rather than feeling obliged to give an immediate response over the phone. Also consider if translation is needed. At Gong, I have found that Asia or Africa based clients or suppliers often prefer emailing to phoning whilst UK-based clients usually prefer calls. Having said that, regular face-to-face meetings are still crucial for effective communications.

2. Degree of politeness: As a Hong Konger working in London married to a French man, I realise the way Chinese people communicate can sometimes come across as “blunt” or even “rude” in the Western world whilst the way Westerners communicate can be considered “too polite” or even “fake” to someone from the East. My old boss’ advice is an example of this. It is not for me to say which is wrong or right, but it is important to bear this difference in mind to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings or hard feelings.

3. Reading between the lines: Since I was young I have loved learning English, but it was only after I moved to London that I started to fully experience and understand the depth of English as a daily means of communication. I found it confusing and frustrating at times as I made mistakes by literally taking people’s words at face value. Being aware of this cultural difference has enabled me to become a better communicator/manager at work. I now have a more complete understanding of what clients or colleagues are asking for or of picking up on the nuances within a piece of feedback.

4. Brainstorm: I found the working culture in London (and especially at Gong) to be generally collaborative, creative and entrepreneurial whilst in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) it tends to be more hierarchical, formal and practical. For example, in London, work brainstorm sessions are very common whilst in Asia they are not as popular as people are not used to randomly contributing ideas in front of a big group of people. Instead they often prefer to do their own research and then come up with ideas individually. This is important to know when trying to gather information and ideas effectively and efficiently from colleagues of different nationalities.

5. Trust: As the world has become more culturally and ethnically diverse, work ethics such as honesty, respect and diligence remain of vital importance in the global work place. Trust is still the most essential foundation on which to build a long-term relationship with clients, bosses, colleagues and friends regardless of their nationality or where they live. In this more digitalised and mobile age, there are no secrets and the safest way to communicate is to live up to your own principles and be yourself while being sensitive to the cultural differences of those around you.