There are now in Africa about 37.7 million Facebook users according to its Initial Public Offering (IPO) filing. At this number, it means that the penetration rate is less than 4% in the continent – so, the social media site has a big opportunity to grow in the continent. Since July 2010, the growth rate has been more than 165% for Facebook in Africa.
The Founder and leader of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom said the Progressive People’s Party is battle ready to capture power from the governing National Democratic Congress party in the December elections stating “we the progressives have a duty to respond to this call to bring incorruptible leadership into government to make Ghana great and strong. The PPP cannot sweep these problems under any carpet. We intend to work with a sense of urgency to liberate our people from these difficulties and produce positive results that are visible to each and every one of us”.
Speaking at the party’s first national convention in Accra on Saturday, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom said the PPP “…is a broad-based national progressive movement with people who have been crying for the “change we need” after experiencing less than fulfilling governance so far in the 4th Republic. We are a Progressive Political Movement guided by an agenda for change. The progress we are seeking is the one we will make together. It is this progress that will reinvent Ghana. This Movement will succeed because we aim to reinvent ourselves, our attitudes and our way of life as Ghanaians. The voices of the times have moved on and we have listened before gathering courage to stand before you today to speak to the nation”.
He added, “I am pleased to present to you our Political Platform for the 2012 elections. Ours is a simple, yet powerful agenda. We are not going to produce a huge book of promises and call it a manifesto. Ghana already has the Directive Principles of State Policies in our Constitution. The PPP wants the opportunity to implement an Agenda for Change that is built on Stewardship, Education, Healthcare and Jobs. We will implement the Agenda using the spirit of inclusiveness that will enable us to use the best Ghanaians; full participation of women and the youth; and above all a leadership that is incorruptible. By dealing with corruption, we can double government revenue which we will use to pay for our transformational initiatives in education, healthcare and job creation.
The PPP will create a just and disciplined society with a passion for excellence within ten years and with science and technology as the cornerstone, become a higher level middle income country. This will include modernizing agriculture and providing a market to sustain our farmers and fishermen”.
According to him, “the PPP will reform state institutions, make government efficient and raise revenue to be able to pay public servants well to motivate them to facilitate the work of the private sector and Ghanaian society in general”.
On Education, Dr. Nduom stated that “the PPP will provide Quality Education for Every Ghanaian Child. We will standardize school facilities from kindergarten to Senior High School with libraries, toilets, classrooms, kitchen, housing for teachers, playground, etc: and Ensure free and compulsory education in public schools from kindergarten to Senior High School (including computer training). We will deploy an “Education Police” or “School Tankassi” to enforce the compulsory aspect of our policy. An integral part of this objective will be an objective to significantly increase vocational training so that all school leavers gain employable skills. This will include a comprehensive sports programme to instil discipline and promote better health”.
“The PPP will ensure a cleaner environment free from preventable diseases like malaria, cholera and guinea worm. We believe that just like countries in Europe and elsewhere became malaria free, so can Ghana with the right leadership from PPP. We will ensure emergency care throughout the country to save lives. Our focus will be in the area of prevention where education is the key”, he added.
“We are asking Ghanaians to exercise their faith not just in church or in a mosque, but in daily living and give David PPP a chance! “We are asking Ghanaians to exercise their faith not just in church or in a mosque, but in daily living and give David PPP a chance!
“So I ask all of you. Can the PPP defeat the NPP and the NDC? Yes we can.” In Benin, candidate Yayi Boni came from nowhere to defeat the so-called major parties in Benin to become President.
“Can the PPP come from nowhere to defeat the so called major political parties in Ghana? Yes we can. Not long ago, candidate Michael Sata polled three percent of the presidential vote and his party won one seat in parliament. Today, he has become the President of Zambia. He did what some considered impossible.
“Now I ask you, can the PPP do the impossible in Ghana? Yes we can.”
There is a cool ad in the Economist by Google. It begins like this: “Hello David. What is your name again?”. Then Google went ahead to explain why it uses cookies to ensure it does not have to ask your computer its name and locations everytime you visit.
It is as Businessweek has it, Google is working hard to help people understand its one policy, one experience strategy where most of the products and sites have one privacy policy.
An effort by Google to implement a common privacy policy across its dozens of websites is drawing scrutiny from European data-protection agencies. The search giant says the change will make it easier for consumers to sign up for and use Google offerings such as YouTube and Gmail, but will also allow greater data sharing among the myriad services operated by the company. Regulators in Ireland and France on Jan. 25 said they plan to monitor the policy and ensure Google does enough to alert consumers to the change.
Europe is faltering in Electronics Contract Manufacturing. A bright spot can be discerned, however, coming from the industry’s single biggest growth engine: China. Overall expectations point to another round of high single-digit growth this year in that country, which already accounts for more than half of the contract manufacturing industry’s aggregate revenues.
China also has grown to be the world’s largest consumption market of smartphones and PCs—some of the end products it helps produce—so China’s pace of growth in those markets will determine how quickly those areas expand.
China, though, is no longer the nexus of cheap labor, instead sitting atop a list of countries characterized by low manufacturing wages. China in 2011 had wages averaging $2.19 for each worker per hour, which is rising at nearly 15 percent per year.
Despite this, IHS does not believe another region in the world is likely to emerge as a new low-cost manufacturing location. In most cases, the infrastructure—including power, water and transportation—of locations under consideration is simply not adequate or robust enough to support large-scale manufacturing, especially when compared to what the industry now deploys in two of its largest manufacturing locations in China or Mexico.
The worldwide contract manufacturing industry also will contend with other significant issues in 2012. For instance, the soundness of companies and their balance sheets will continue to be scrutinized after the bankruptcy filing in October 2011 of major player Elcoteq from Finland. In addition, there likely will be continued pressure on suppliers to ensure among customers that they are in compliance with all local labor laws given the recent announcement by Apple to allow outside monitors into its supplier facilities.
On a positive note, the continuing popularity among consumers of devices like smartphones and tablets means contract manufacturing in these areas can be expected to help compensate for slow growth elsewhere in the industry. A shift toward fewer product offerings in the notebook industry also will have positive impacts, leading to improved inventory velocity throughout the besieged PC notebook supply chain. Moreover, lower component pricing this year should help improve industry margins for the near term.
hese are some startups or entrepreneurial competitions in and across Africa. We have linked some sources that described them where the main sources are not readily available. Notice there are some with global dimensions.
Besides these ones below, there are many countless ones within national boundaries like the frequent competitions in ccHubNigeria. Kenya’s iHub has been running quality programs as well.