A new study from theUnited Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance provides findings about the large potential gains for governments, businesses and citizens when digitizing payments.

Many emerging economies are grappling with how to modernize their economies, improve transparency, drive sustainable growth and advance financial inclusion. This study on Tanzania’s digital payment initiatives reveals the very strong results achieved by the government so far.

By digitizing the payments businesses and people make to the government, Tanzania has already:

• Empowered its tourism sector by reducing economic leakage from cash payments, such as conservation park entry fees, by over 40 percent, supporting investment and employment.
• Cut bureaucratic inefficiencies, including reducing import customs clearance times from nine days to less than one day.
• Increased transparency between citizens and governments, by digitizing tax payments which hasprovided electronic proof of payments and protects people against fraud.

The study also provides important insights on how further expanding digitization of payments in Tanzania can fast-track the country’s economic modernization. Digitizing Value Added Tax payments and supporting formalization of businesses could increase tax revenue in Tanzania by at least US$477 million per year, a significant increase for a country with a total GDP of around $US47 billion and a low tax/GDP ratio of around 12 percent.

The new report reveals how Tanzania overcame obstacles of adopting digital Person-to-Government (P2G) and Business-To-Government (B2G) payments. For example, when small traders were reluctant to digitize their point-of-sale payment capabilities because they were required to bear the full costs of purchasing electronic billing machines, the government partnered with the Tanzania Trader’s Association to subsidize the costs.

Furthermore, these digitization efforts contribute to benefits beyond just the economy. They have wide-ranging positive impacts across society, such as driving social inclusion within Tanzania. For example, Sheru Hadha, a Tanzanian customer noted how digital financial inclusion has empowered her in her daily life.

Other countries in the region have initiatives to digitize payments and, while many are in the early stages of their transition, the benefits are quickly being realized and becoming evident. For example:

• Kenya is targeting to double tax collections over the next three years through its tax filing electronic system, iTax.
• In Uganda, the Kampala Capital City Authority’s automated tax collection system boosted revenue by 167 percent in a single year.
• Rwanda drove nearly 80 percent adoption of electronic VAT payments made by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

SunTrust Bank is parading itself as a modern banking institution. But it seems it has not got the memo on empowering women. It is simply unbelievable how a modern bank in Nigeria can have all the Management staff men with no single woman, at of Sept 18, 2016.

These are the men. They need to find a lady and put there to inspire women in that bank. It does not make SunTrust look modern with no woman in its Management.

President Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo  including Cabinet Ministers and other political appointees pocketed the sum of N2.295 billion as official salaries and allowances in the last one year, Economic Confidential can report.

The breakdown is presented below.

Africa is clearly ripe with business opportunities and is home to many fast-growing companies in a variety of sectors—not just resources, but also financial services, food and agri-processing, manufacturing, telecommunications, and retail. Yet compared with other emerging regions, we find that Africa is still heavily underrepresented in both the number and size of large companies. This matters because, in any economy, large firms are the primary drivers of growth, investment, corporate tax contributions, exports, and productivity.
The reality is that South Africa is indeed Africa in this game. It hosts 49% of Africa’s largest companies. Nigeria has only 9%.

Large companies in Africa are growing faster than their peers in the rest of the world, raking in $1.4 trillion in annual profits and contributing to government taxes and higher wages, a new report finds.

The continent has 700 companies with annual revenue of more than $500 million, 400 of which generate more than $1 billion, says the new study from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). These large companies consist of both African-owned brands and foreign-based multinationals operating within the continent across a wide range of sectors.

Corporate Africa needs to step up its performance to make the most of these opportunities. The continent has 400 companies with revenue of more than $1 billion per year, and these companies are growing faster, and are more profitable in general than their global peers. Yet Africa has only 60 percent of the number of large firms one would expect if it were on a par with peer regions—and their average revenue, at $2 billion a year, is half that of large firms in Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, for instance.

No Africa owned company is in the Fortune 500. Companies looking to grow across the continent should develop a strong position in their home market, use that as a base for expanding into markets well beyond their immediate region, adopt a long-term perspective and build the partnerships needed to sustain success over decades, and be ready to integrate what would usually be outsourced.

They should look for opportunities in six sectors that MGI finds have “white space”— wholesale and retail, food and agri-processing, health care, financial services, light manufacturing, and construction—with high growth, high profitability, and low consolidation, and invest in building and retaining talent. ?