The franc became the currency of Rwanda in 1916, when Belgium occupied the previously German colony and the Belgian Congo franc replaced the German East African rupie. Rwanda used the currency of Belgian Congo until 1960, when the Rwanda and Burundi franc was introduced. Rwanda began issuing its own francs in 1964. There are plans to introduce a common currency, a new East African shilling, for the five member states of the East African community.
Source: Wikipedia
By Cordie Aziz
Africa, for the longest time, was thought of as a place where savages and wild beasts roamed endless plains and jungles. However, as time has advanced so has Africa and its image. Now boasting some of the fastest growing economies in the world, countries like Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya are outpacing many developed countries. Other African countries, like Ghana, are now considered middle class countries, illustrating to the world that many African countries are ready to start competing intenationally.
So in the midst of all of this development and economic growth you have to ask yourself why aren’t more African- Americans following the trends of investing in Africa. Is it lack of knowledge of the opportunities, is it the fear of moving into an unknown continent or is it just lack of interest?
If you had a chance to read the job analysis featured on HBCU Money last week, you saw that overall blacks are still losing jobs in the American economy. They, in fact, still boast the highest unemployment rate of all the races, despite their educational level. So, at what point, will African Americans decide to do something different? What will it take for African Americans to not only see the potential in Mother Africa, but to help actualize it as well?
From cell phone apps to grocery and dry cleaning services, every part of the African market is expanding. Each day new opportunities are created and all the market needs is the right person to fill the gap. So why continue to waste your time fighting for crumbs and you can have a whole pie?
If you are young and have a few thousand dollars accessible to you, I would strongly recommend looking into investing overseas. Yes, you will have to do your research and find the right opportunity for you. But once you do, it will be a decision that you will never regret.
So now that you have some basic information, tell me what is stopping you from looking at investments in Africa?
Cordie Aziz, is a former Congressional staffer who moved to Ghana after losing her job in 2011. She currently is the owner of a cell phone rental company in Ghana and has the blog brokEntrepreneur.wordpress.com
Follow her on twitter @brokenEntrepren
Forget rappers or athletes. None make the list. Forget just America this list goes global. After all the African Diaspora represents approximately 1.2 billion people of African descent no matter where we are in the world. Just because we left home (or were taken) we are still sons and daughters of Mother Africa.
Initially, this list was supposed to be a top 10 as we assumed with a record 1,226 billionaires found this year through our source we surely expected to need a cutoff point. Couple that with the motherland being the richest natural source on the planet we thought we would unquestionably be well represented on the list. Unfortunately, we as often seems to be the case more times than not others are benefiting more from our contributions than we are because we rarely own or control the vehicles of which wealth is created. So the five you see listed below is actually all there was. It works out to us making up an abysmal 0.41% of the entire list despite us comprising 17.6% of the world’s population. There truly is work to be done.
1 – Aliko Dangote (pictured above)
Net Worth: $11.2 billion Residence: Nigeria
Industry: Sugar, Flour, Cement
2 – Ananda Krishnan
Net Worth: $9.9 billion Residence: Malaysia
Industry: Telcom
3 – Mike Adenuga
Net Worth: $4.3 billion Residence: Nigeria
Industry: Telcom, Banking, Oil
4 – Patrice Motsepe*
Net Worth: $2.7 billion Residence: South Africa
Industry: Mining
5 – Oprah Winfrey*
Net Worth: $2.7 billion Residence: United States
Industry: Television
*HBCU Alumnus
Source: Forbes
HBCU Money 