Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a leading pan-African multilateral development finance institution and project developer, announces that Dr Sarah Alade, its Chairman, representing the Central Bank of Nigeria, from which she officially retired on 22 March, 2017, has also stepped down from her position as Chairman of the AFC Board of Directors with effect from today.

Dr Alade will be succeeded by Dr Joseph Nnanna, Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria. Dr Nnanna has over three decades experience as an economist and banker. He has served as a consultant to the government of Nigeria, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and, on the Board of the International Monetary Fund.

Dr Sarah Alade, said: “It has been a privilege to serve as Chairman of such a dynamic and fast-growing organisation.

“I have had the pleasure of overseeing some of the company’s milestones, including the Company’s inaugural Eurobond, Swiss Franc (CHF) and Sukuk issuances, expansion of country membership from 9 to 14, expansion of the Corporation’s operational footprint to 28 countries, growth in the balance sheet to US$3.4 billion, and, the creation of the African Power Platform vehicle with Harith General Partners of South Africa. I have no doubt that the Corporation will continue to flourish under my successor and wish both him and AFC the best in the future.”

Andrew Alli, President and Chief Executive of AFC, paid tribute to Dr Alade: “We are all very grateful for the notable contribution that Dr Alade has made to AFC during her time as Chairman of the Board.

“Over the course of her tenure the Corporation has expanded rapidly, and approximately US$ 4billion has now been invested in projects across 28 African countries, helping to drive economic and social development. We welcome Dr Nnanna to his new role and look forward to working with him to continue this success in the future.”

AFC will celebrate its 10th anniversary 15th – 16th May 2017 at the AFC Live Summit, which will bring together many of the top international players in African infrastructure investment for high level discussions on the industry’s many challenges, and potential solutions.

Financial Results

Meanwhile AFC has announced its 2016 fiscal year results.

Robust financial performance
* US$115.3 million in Total Comprehensive Income, up 64% year-on-year
* US$109.4 million in Net Profit, up 51% year-on-year
* US$3.4 billion in Total Assets, up 13% year-on-year
* US1.4 billion in Total Equity, up 6% year-on-year
* US$192.8 million in Interest Income, up 21% year-on-year
* US$21.9 million in Fees, Commissions and other Income, up 121% year-on-year

Continued strong operational performance
* Key milestones achieved:

Everyone is complaining that Facebook is imitating Snap. Please if you can find someone to copy, legally, do so immediately. The key is making sure it is done legally. We are all copying in this world. Do not be worried with feeds like this from Fortune:

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Facebook likes to flatter Snapchat so much the two companies should just drop the charade and get hitched down at City Hall in front of a justice of the peace and whoever they can find at the bus station to act as a witness.

Of course, Facebook famously tried to arrange a marriage with Snapchat in 2013, but the smaller company rebuffed its advances. And now, Snap has grown into a massive competitor, with a market valuation of close to $28 billion following its initial public offering.

Facebook, meanwhile, has continued adding new features that either imitate or flat out duplicate popular features on Snapchat. This morning, it ramped that flattery up even further, with the addition of a camera function with customized filters and the launch of Facebook Stories.

The camera interface, with a button that lets users add animal faces or animations to their photos and videos, is almost identical to Snapchat’s interface. And the new Facebook Stories feature—a way of collecting and sharing photos and video and sharing them with specific friends or on the timeline—is almost identical in both function and name to Snapchat’s version.

Facebook has a long history of trying to duplicate Snapchat’s features, and most of those efforts have been forgettable. But Instagram’s launch of a similar Stories function recently appears to have eaten into Snapchat’s market share, according to some reports.

Snapchat has clearly found a niche with younger users, but Facebook has almost unlimited resources and a dedicated user base of more than 1.5 billion. If the ability to add funny filters to a video or photo is what Snapchat was hoping would be its unique offering for the consumer marketplace, it might have another think coming.

Now, go and copy someone, legally.

To mark the 10th anniversary of ground-breaking mobile money service M-PESA, WorldRemit has released new data showing that the Kenyan diaspora is the biggest sender of digital remittances to mobile accounts.

Transfers to mobile money accounts make up 93% of WorldRemit transactions to Kenya now – showing that Kenyans continue to be early adopters of innovative technology, even when abroad.

Mobile money has played a key role in the growth of WorldRemit’s Kenyan customer base, attracted by the low price, speed and convenience of sending instant remittances from the app or website directly to a mobile phone in Kenya.

• In January 2017, WorldRemit customers transferred more than $140m (at annualised rate) to Kenya, making WorldRemit one of the largest remittance companies serving the Kenyan diaspora.
• Top remittance-sending countries are the UK, Australia, US, Germany, Canada and Nordic countries.
• Around three million Kenyans live abroad, with large communities in North America, Europe and Australia.
• Remittances play an important role in Kenya’s economy – inward remittances reached a record value of just under $161m in November 2016, according to the Central Bank of Kenya, making it one of the nation’s top earners.
• WorldRemit is now connected to over a fifth of all mobile money accounts – 112 million of 500 million mobile money accounts around the world.
• 74% of all international remittances to mobile money accounts coming from money transfer operators are sent via WorldRemit.

The company has pioneered mobile to mobile remittances, sending to 32 mobile money services in 24 countries – more than any other money transfer service.

Globally, WorldRemit customers send more than 580,000 transfers every month to over 140 destinations. WorldRemit makes sending money as easy as sending an instant message.

Ismail Ahmed, Founder and CEO at WorldRemit, comments: “Kenya is famed for leading Africa’s digital transformation, and today it’s Kenyans abroad who are at the forefront of digitising international money transfers. Most of our Kenyan customers use our mobile app, demonstrating the strong demand for convenience when sending to friends and family.

“With half a billion registered accounts worldwide, mobile money continues to transform lives by allowing people to access financial services for the first time. WorldRemit customers now send more than 65,000 transfers to the country every month from the WorldRemit app and website with over 90% going to M-PESA”.