No-nonsense Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr hopes to check Super Eagles late comers and those who like to “misbehave” by insisting the team train in Abuja before they head off to a match venue. That is why the experienced Franco- German coach has fixed training camp in Abuja for next month’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Algeria even though it will be played in Uyo.
Updated 3 Years ago

It has become increasingly difficult for Ukraine to secure Western support in its fight against "Russian aggression" and a full-scale invasion from Russia cannot be ruled out, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.
Updated 3 Years ago

In the nine months to September this year, the performance of Nedbank, the JSE-listed lender, continued to reflect actions the firm had taken in expectation of tough economic conditions, CEO Mike Brown, said. “We are focused on the drivers of long term value creation for our shareholders as we build our transactional banking franchise and our pan-African banking network,” Brown said in a trading update on Monday.
Updated 5 Years ago

The management of Famous Brands, the JSE-listed food retailer, on Monday said it expects that the current tough trading conditions of reduced consumer spending will persist for a lot longer than expected. However, despite the constrained consumer discretionary income, management has high expectations for the forthcoming peak trading period.
Updated 5 Years ago

MTN Group disclosed today it plans to lay off about half of its 850 managerial staff in South Africa, its home market. The announcement is well below the number of job cuts predicted by South Africa’s Solidarity union in August. Stiff competition especially at home and abroad has stalled MTN’s growth. The company’s revenue from South Africa fell by 7 percent to R19.2 billion ($1.8 billion) in the first half of this year while margins also declined. Its market share dropped by nearly three percentage points to 31.9 percent. In its largest market of Nigeria, MTN said tougher regulation has contributed to a sluggish subscriber growth.
Updated 5 Years ago

Juhayna is likely to post a better set of numbers in the next financial year (2015), Egypt’s biggest maker of packaged juice and dairy products, said this week. Safwan Thabet, the chairman of Juhayna, made this comment after a surge in the prices of raw materials squashed margins this year. Thabet, speaking in an interview with Reuters at the Middle East Investment Summit, admitted that 2014 had been a tough year for the firm with earnings falling 67 percent at the half-year period.
Updated 5 Years ago

The business community has said that pressure from regulatory agencies is stifling the growth of micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. They add that overlapping functions of these agencies at both federal and state levels often result in endless intimidation, time wasting as well as high operational costs to business owners who are merely struggling to survive in a tough environment. Remi Bello, president, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), singled out agencies whose overlapping functions pile heavy pressure on businesses.
Updated 5 Years ago

In all of the coverage of Derek Jeter’s fairytale end to a fairytale baseball career, one fact goes unmentioned: across 12,000 plate appearances, Jeter struck out over 1,800 times placing him 13th on the all-time strikeout list. And yet, Jeter is widely considered to be the greatest ballplayer of his generation. He, much like Babe Ruth before him, trained himself to overcome the fear of striking out in pursuit of getting on base. Great salespeople do the same thing everyday. Being a sales professional requires a special kind of mental toughness to ignore all of the times the wordno is spoken in pursuit of yes. In my experience, there are five traits found in every extraordinary salesperson that help define this resiliency.
Updated 5 Years ago

JSE-listed grocer, Pick ‘n Pay, on Monday said it is set to post an improved financial performance in the first half of the 2015 financial year despite a sluggish South African economy and tough operating conditions. Pick ‘n Pay, which is likely to publish its results early next week, said turnover is expected to grow 6.8 percent during the period under review.
Updated 5 Years ago

Chinese top banking watchdog announced an updated policy of internal control forcommercial banks on Sunday as it tries to strengthen risk control and daily businessmanagement. The latest guideline is a revised version of one released in 2002 and aims at keeping pace withdevelopment of commercial banks' regulatory policies, said the China Banking RegulatoryCommission (CBRC).
Updated 5 Years ago