Africa News Headlines for 19 June 2014

Nigeria’s Bid to Cut Oil Smuggling
Source: Wall Street Journal

India overtakes US as Nigeria's biggest oil importer
Source: BBC News

President Uhuru Kenyatta tells EU to buy more African goods
Source: Standard Digital

Kenya Travel Warning
Source: U.S. Department of State

Is Africa's meteoric rise to riches sustainable?
Source: Christian Science Monitor

US imposes sanctions on Uganda for anti-gay law
Source: BBC News

“The Chibok Girls—Nigeria’s Side of the Story”
Source: Africa in Transition

Uganda Reserves $8 Billion in Rail Plans for Chinese Bidders
Source: Bloomberg

Poaching elephants: Africa's wars take toll on wildlife
Source: Chicago Tribune

Using outsourcing to help alleviate poverty in Africa and South Asia
Source: The Guardian

Huge demand for ivory threatens to wipe out Africa's elephants
Source: Detroit Free Press

Why illegal fishing off Africa's coast must be stopped
Source: The Guardian

Media Advisory: ‘A Glimpse of Africa: Five Cultures from the Continent’
Source: Wake Forest University

Why Crowdfunding Can Fuel Economic Development in Africa
Source: Crowdsourcing.org

Investors who overlook Africa risk losses
Source: Moneyweb

In Africa Counterterror Pivot, a Focus on ISR
Source: DefenseNews

State bureaucracy slows down Africa’s growth, says report
Source: Standard Digital

Rebranding Africa isn’t just about image
Source: Zambia Daily Mail

Singapore Billionaire Bets Big on Energy in Africa, Asia
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Africa's Sahel region 'threatened by Islamist violence'
Source: BBC News

Africa’s first online learning platform wins innovation award
Source: Cape Business News

Africa facing terrorism “storm”—Senegalese president
Source: Asharq al-Awsat

UN investigator says thousands flee Eritrea every month
Source: EIN Newsdesk

East Africa's elegant antelope on the verge of bowing out
Source: Christian Science Monitor

Ghana ranked 4th top investment destination in Africa – Report
Source: GhanaWeb

Chinese envoy calls for coherent, effective int'l support for Sahel in tackling security threats
Source: Xinhua

Nigeria’s move to muzzle media invites wrath
Source: Oman Tribune

Facebook Improves Its App By Testing It In Africa
Source: Ubergizmo

New Africa Book of the Day - 1 May 2014

The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel: A New Tool for Understanding Tropical Africa's Export Agriculture by H. Laurens van der Laan

Release Date: May 1, 2014
Publisher: Routledge [Kindle Edition]

If you feel you have a disjointed, or unbalanced, view of the global system of demand and supply, you are probably correct. Most studies leave out a very important part of the system--the marketing channel. That is why Laurens van der Laan developed and wrote this book, The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel. To help you understand what happens to export crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, groundnuts, tea, and tobacco, between their country of origin and consumer markets, this book analyzes the roles of different actors in trans-oceanic trade, inherent differences between world markets, export diversification policies, and the commercial and institutional forces at play.

The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel will give you a strong background in marketing channel concepts, and because of its focus on the exporter rather than on the government, it will provide you with an excellent model for microanalysis. As you read about the special features of trans-oceanic trade, you will also learn about:

- trade associations and their role in shaping world markets for trans-oceanic crops
- the uneasy relationship between exporters and shipping companies
- the selling conduct of agricultural exporters in Africa
- the tendency of actors in Africa to accelerate the trans-oceanic product flow
- the effectiveness of export marketing boards as channel leaders
- private enterprise, the chief agent of development
- the theory of “exporter preference”

The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel invites policymakers, international businessmen, professors, and students to examine the opportunities, problems, and policies that confront the various players in trans-oceanic trade, especially the exporters. As the book discusses the divergent institutional arrangements in the world markets for agricultural products and their differential effect on African exports, you will become keenly aware of how vertical marketing systems differ from conventional marketing channels. No other book brings together the three fundamental sections of export agriculture, the country of production, the channel through which the products flow, and the country of destination, to provide you with a complete understanding of trans-oceanic marketing.

H. Laurens van der Laan is author of Dutch Enterprise in Colonial Africa: Some Notes and Comments (2003) and The Ambivalent Relationship Between Agricultural Cooperatives and the Marketing Board ONCPB (1988).