OPINION: Four points that need attention to combat SA's unemployment.

The co-chairperson of Global Entrepreneurship Network,
Kizito Okechukwu. I Supplied

JOHANNESBURG - As Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) released its report last week, I was sitting with Dr Pali Lehohla, the former statistician-general of South Africa, and the question we kept asking ourselves was: “What has gone wrong?” Not "what could go wrong?" as the well-known Santam insurance TV commercial asks.

StatsSA revealed that our unemployment rate increased from 27.1 to 27.6percent while, in parallel, a Time magazine piece earlier this month stated that our society is the most unequal in the world.

So, to try and decipher what exactly went wrong, I compiled a few scenarios of what I think happened - and what we could do to solve this predicament.

To set a back story, South Africa prides itself on having some of the best policies and regulations in the world.

South Africa has a plethora of institutions - estimated at more than 400 - mandated or involved in creating jobs and supporting the growth of businesses, such as the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, the Small Enterprise Development Agency, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Industrial Development Corporation, the National Empowerment Fund, the Technology Innovation Agency, Provincial Local Economic Development Agencies, incubators, accelerators and various other private sector enterprise development initiatives and the list goes on and on.

Full story at IOL.

By Kizito Okechukwu.

British Steel collapses as administration threatens thousands of jobs.

File photo shows a flag with a British Steel logo at the
entrance to the steelworks plant in Scunthorpe,
England, now owned by British Steel.
(Anna Gowthorpe/PA via AP)

British Steel has fallen into administration, putting up to 25,000 jobs directly and indirectly at risk.

The announcement threatens thousands directly at Scunthorpe’s huge steel plant and hundreds more on Teeside – with around 20,000 jobs also at risk in the supply chain and could spell disaster for the local communities.

Britain’s second largest steelmaker had announced last Thursday that it had enough cash to continue to operate despite orders tumbling, after securing the backing of lenders and shareholders.

The firm had been hoping an emergency loan from the government would be enough to keep it afloat and stop it having to call in the administrators.

By By Tom McArthur.
Full story at Yahoo News.

Europe Stocks, U.S. Futures Advance as Bonds Drift: Markets Wrap.

Europe Stocks, U.S. Futures Advance as Bonds Drift: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks climbed with U.S. futures following a mixed session in Asia on Tuesday as the trade-war driven turbulence that has dominated markets this month showed dew signs of abating. The dollar strengthened while Treasuries were steady.

Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 indexes all traded in the green after the U.S. granted limited relief for consumers and carriers using Huawei Technologies, a day after the White House’s moves against the Chinese telecom giant battered stocks. European shares rose, with tech firms leading the advance. Chinese equities had the strongest gains in the Asian session, while their Japanese peers ended lower. A gain for Samsung Electronics Co. helped bolster Korean shares, on bets it may benefit from Huawei’s need to shift away from American suppliers.

Many risk assets have been whipsawed in May as the world’s largest economies ratchet up both rhetoric and action on trade, with the latest phase focused on Huawei and its suppliers and customers. For all the turmoil a gauge of global stocks remains within 5% of an all-time high, while the S&P 500 is about 3% from a record. Against that backdrop investors will be closely watching a slew of U.S. data this week as well as Federal Reserve policy-meeting minutes due on Wednesday.

By Yakob Peterseil.

Full story at Yahoo News.

Tories Turn to Leadership Race as May Puts Up One More Fight.

Tories Turn to Leadership Race as May Puts Up One More Fight

(Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. 

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May vowed one more push to get her unpopular divorce deal through Parliament but her party is already moving on, hurtling into a bitter leadership race that will define the course of Brexit.

Rival factions of the Conservative Party are staking out their positions and on Monday Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd will lead a group of 60 Tories seeking to stop bookmakers’ favorite Boris Johnson from succeeding May and pursuing a chaotic no-deal exit from the European Union.

The pound fell 2 percent last week as investors braced for the possibility that May’s successor could push for a hard split from the bloc -- the worst-case scenario for business.

By Jessica Shankleman

Full story at Yahoo News.

Here's why Nigeria's inflation rate rose to 11.37% in April – the first increase in three months.

How to get the best deals while shopping in Nigerian markets

Nigeria's inflation rate rose to 11.37% in April from 11.25% recorded in March 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

The Bureau, in its “CPI and Inflation Report’’ for April 2019 released in Abuja on Wednesday, said the figure was 0.12% points higher than the rate recorded in March 2019 (11.25%)

According to NBS, the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending April 2019 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.31%, showing 0.09% point from 11.40% recorded in March 2019.

The consumer price index (CPI) examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care in an economy.

By Aderemi Ojekunle.

Full story at Pulse NG.

AngloGold plans to sell last South African mine as era closes.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd plans to sell its last South African mine, marking the exit of Anglo American Plc and the companies it spawned from the industry that created Africa’s biggest economy.

Anglo’s creation in 1917 by Ernest Oppenheimer and the subsequent development of what was for decades the world’s biggest gold industry underpinned the development of South Africa into the continent’s pre-eminent economy.

Its retreat from the industry, which has become expensive and dangerous as mines extended miles underground, began in 1998 when Anglo merged its separate gold subsidiaries to create AngloGold Ltd.

“Other options in the portfolio present a higher return, which is why we’re focusing on those and we decided to consider divestment options.”

AngloGold announced on Thursday that it’s in the early stages of a sales process for Mponeng, the world’s deepest mine and its last underground operation in South Africa.

Full story at Graphic.

By Graphic Business.

Wages have kept on rising since the Brexit vote.

Wages are rising. Photo: Press Association

Britain has seen three years of rising average pay levels since the EU referendum, despite fears the Brexit vote could threaten jobs and wages.

But the cost of living has risen almost as fast, with inflation cancelling out much of the possible gains from higher pay.

That is one of the stark findings of the latest economic figures released today by Britain’s official data body, the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The fact prices have risen almost as fast as wages means many British workers will barely feel any better off, even if they are taking home more every year.

The cost of some basic goods has risen sharply since the referendum, partly because it pushed down the value of sterling as investors took fright, ,making imported goods more expensive.

By Tom Belger.

Full story at Yahoo News.

Vodafone Cuts Dividend After Revenue Falls.

Vodafone Cuts Dividend After Revenue Falls

(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.

Vodafone Group Plc’s dividend has cracked under the strain of falling revenue, soaring spectrum costs and a $21 billion acquisition, in a grim reality check for Europe’s struggling phone industry.

The region’s biggest telecom carrier slashed its full-year dividend by 40% to 9 euro cents per share, reversing Chief Executive Officer Nick Read’s goal to keep the payout unchanged. It was the first cut since the company introduced dividend payments in 1990.

The move allows Read to conserve cash as sales in major markets come under sustained attack from rivals offering no-frills contracts and former monopolies reasserting themselves with dominant networks. Vodafone is gearing up to spend billions of euros on mobile-network upgrades and the airwaves needed for the next generation of ultra-fast wireless services.

By Thomas Seal.

Full story at Yahoo News.

Ford 'set to announce up to 550 job losses' in the UK.

Ford is reported to be planning cuts in the UK.
Photo: Kris Tripplaar/SIPA USA/PA Images

The US carmaker Ford is reported to be planning significant cutbacks to its white-collar workforce in the UK, with an announcement expected within weeks.

A source told City AM the car giant would offer up to 550 office staff voluntary redundancies at its Essex office.

A Ford spokesman confirmed the offer of redundancies, but  told Yahoo Finance UK the number of affected staff in Britain was “still to be determined. ” He did not confirm which staff would be affected.

City AM suggests the shakeup is not expected to affect thousands of Ford employees at its manufacturing plants.

The spokesman said the redundancies were linked to a major turnaround project first announced in January, with the aim of returning Ford to “sustainable profitability” in Europe.

By Tom Belger.

Full story at Yahoo News.