Kwame Som-Pimpong

  • No. 41: Three Things in African Markets You Need to Know This Week – October 28

    President Zuma Skips Monday’s innovaBRICS & Beyond Conference – link South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma cancelled his scheduled Monday appearance in London at the innovaBRICS conference, hosted by Deloitte. South African publication City Press reported that President Zuma cancelled his appearance due to not being able to secure a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron,…

  • No. 40: Three Things in African Markets You Need to Know This Week – October 14

    Oil Discovered Off Senegal’s Coast – link The wave of West African countries discovering oil continues with Cairn Energy, a Scottish Oil Company, striking oil about 100km off the coast of Senegal. The company is not yet sure about the size of the discovery – a first for Senegal. When Ghana discovered oil in 2010,…

  • No. 39: Three Things in African Markets You Needed to Know Last Week – October 9

    Here’s the rundown on last week’s episode of New Rules Africa. Check out the video for our deep dive into Africa’s stock exchanges: Link Marriott Plans to Build 50 Hotels in Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt by 2020 – Link Marriott is putting both feet in Africa, where it projects to have its highest revenue growth through…

  • No. 38: Sovereign Wealth, IPOs, Cool Jobs, and Cities

    Cherae and I had a great time on New Rules Africa this week, covering: Zimbabwe established sovereign wealth fund Rocket Internet filed for IPO in Germany African Development Bank opened Young Professionals Program Read the summary below to get up to speed on what we covered, and check out the show. Zimbabwe Establishes Sovereign Wealth…

  • No. 37: Nigeria’s Inclusive Growth Prospects

    Nigeria has tremendous growth potential and risks. My friends and I hopped on a Google Hangout to discuss.

  • No. 36: The Fight Continues for Governance and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Independence

    Key Points 1. The saga around the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria governor continues; 2. The Central Bank governor is handily backing up his reputation; 3. President Jonathan could get a black eye from this fight; and 4. The independence of the Central Bank of Nigeria is in the balance. The Saga The February 20…

  • No. 35: What I’m Reading Today

    Davidson profiled Muna Musiitwa on her work in Africa. Great nuggets on key questions for mapping the way forward on the continent – [http://buff.ly/1ojta8X] Jason Njoku does some nice analysis on property values in Lagos in parallel with tech investments – [http://buff.ly/1ojtfsY] Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has paid a good bit of attention…

  • No. 34: Zendesk IPO Predicts Dropifi’s Future

    The Dropifi team probably felt chills running through their bodies while watching Zendesk’s share price rise 49 percent on day one of its IPO on Thursday, and then reach a $1B market cap on its second day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s why: 1. Big Sandbox – In its Form S-1…

  • No. 33: What’s Your Reputation?

    Campbell Brown says @DanielLoeb is like a Marine— 'There is no better friend and no worse enemy' http://t.co/WUyoHkI067 @SuccessCharters — Julia La Roche (@JuliaLaRoche) April 29, 2014 Your reputation is powerful. I recently sat in on a workshop covering best practices for managing one’s reputation. The three prevailing themes were: 1. What do you perceive…

  • No. 32: Reflections from NYU Africa Economic Forum

    “I don’t feel pressure from being the President of the Toronto Raptors. I feel pressure from Africa.”  The energy that entered the room when Masai Ujiri said that at yesterday’s NYU Africa Economic Forum is why I am still awake. Masai went on to say that his work would be a waste if he didn’t…

  • No. 31: Here’s My Issue with the IMF/World Bank Africa Rising Seminar

    When I first saw, the agenda for the Africa Rising seminar at this year’s IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, I posted a tweet: There's a peculiarity in the agenda for IMF/World Bank Spring Meeting seminar on "Africa Rising." What is it? http://t.co/wiuvyow1We — KWAME (@KwameSomPimpong) April 7, 2014 Probably not the wisest thing to not provide any…

  • No. 30: I Enjoyed Speaking at Yale’s Sankofa54 Conference

    I am on the train headed back from Sankofa54: The Youth Empowerment Conference, nicely put on by the Yale Undergraduate Association of African Peace and Development. I spoke on a panel addressing Africans Investing in Africa, an issue that has kept me awake at night since high school. The other panelists were Solomme Lemme, founder…

  • No. 29: West Africa Vocational Education Set to Disrupt Unemployment

    Nigeria has some of the most successful entrepreneurs across the African continent. Individuals like Titi Odunfa, Tony Elumelu, Adenike Ogunlesi, and Jason Njoku have made their mark across a range of industries. While these individuals may not call themselves social entrepreneurs, their motivation to improve the lot of Nigeria and its people comes through in…

  • No. 28: Kenyan Social Enterprises Attract Impact Investors Because of a Focus on Sustainable Growth

    Kenya has garnered lots of attention for Nairobi’s tech scene and the pending completion of Konza City – enticing talking heads to debate Nairobi’s status as the Silicon Valley of Africa. Yet, the technology space is not the only sector sector seeing exciting growth. Participants in the Geeks Gone Global’s 2013 Africa Innovation Excursion witnessed…

  • No. 27: Innovation in Ghana’s Social Enterprise Space

    The Geeks Gone Global team is excited to lead you on an excursion to check out the innovative things happening in the social enterprise space in Ghana, Nigeria, South African, and Kenya. Check out the first of four country and company profiles to prep you for the trip. Ghana is among the fastest growing economies in the world. The…