Search Results for: South Africa

Covid-19 has ripped through the economy of the Indian Ocean country Mauritius, but it has helped island business advisory agency managing director Sheila Ujoodha make her case to clients that risk assessments and contingency planning are important.

The owner of SmarTree Consulting (SCL) since she created the company in 2018, Ujoodha is busy suggesting how businesses can cope with the pandemic, through its services of internal audit, risk assessment and regulatory consulting.…

The Covid-19 crisis has had many negative impacts, and one has been the undermining of legitimate businesses. In countries with strong organised crime traditions, this has meant more opportunities for money launderers to subvert hard-pressed entrepreneurs or take them over, to use their businesses as fronts for cleaning criminal proceeds.  …

The Internet has hardly developed a reputation for honesty, but blockchain technologies where different computers log transactions in separate units, connected to a web of entries (blocks), are tough to falsify.

Of course, blockchain’s most high-profile use has been to underpin the reliability of cryptocurrencies, but the principle of this unchangeable and autonomous web of ledgers has so many potential uses – the tobacco sector has been exploring them.…

Euromed University Fez, in Morocco, has been chosen as the regional academic partner to launch what is hoped to be a revolutionary agritech development hub aimed at transforming Moroccan small-scale subsistence farming into fully digitalised and innovative agri-food businesses.

The university – also called Université Euromed de Fès (UEMF) and based in the country’s second largest city – will help farmers to create an industry exporting quality products overseas, alleviating rural poverty and using farming techniques that counter ecological challenges.…

A consensus is growing within Somalia’s higher education services that the current tertiary sector needs to be better aligned with the country’s developing labour market demands as its economy emerges from years of conflict.

There has been a significant level of agreement to the conclusions of a new report highlighting such concerns – ‘Somalia’s Education Sector: Fostering Skills Through A Demand-driven Education System’, co-produced by a think tank the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and the City University of Mogadishu.…

REGULATING money laundering within the gaming sector needs to be tough because of the potential to move large sums of money through regulated casinos, sports and online betting services. While placing an accurate number on the amount of money laundered through the sector is impossible, the scope for doing so is illustrated by the sector’s huge size – according to international market researchers Research & Markets, the industry’s worldwide turnover should reach USD525 billion by 2023 (1).…

The South African clothing and textile sector is looking for action from the country’s government under a clothing, textiles, footwear and leather industry master plan unveiled in July (2020) to help it recover from Covid-19. Manufacturing of clothing and textiles in South Africa was already weak, having been buffeted by cheap exports from China for the past 14 years since the end of the World Trade Organisation’s multifibre agreement in December 2006.…

Growing Asian dairy markets are increasingly regulating the health claims that could be made on packs of food, a trend that is impacting international dairy exporters from Europe as much as local dairy producers.

A key example is Taiwan, that will in 2022 forbid the word ‘healthy’ on food items except foods that have received special health food permits.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released detailed proposals to create a new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), working alongside the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) but operationally independent under the IFRS Foundation. The goal would be integrating standards created by a wide range of existing sustainability initiatives, such as from the CDP (https://www.cdp.net/en…

TEXT fraud is maybe more dangerous that email fraud, given the tendency for mobile phone users to respond to texts swiftly and without careful thought, cyber-security experts warn.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created opportunities for fraudsters using texts and messaging services such as WhatsApp to launch fishing and other attacks on the unwary.…