Thursday, 13 March 2008

Support for Womens Education

A helping hand for women
By Ben White

Published: March 9 2008 17:04 Last updated: March 9 2008 17:04

When Iman Youssry, a 27-year-old Egyptian furniture designer, needs help finishing a customer’s order, she often calls her friends. And they call their friends. Anyone who can spare the time turns up to help get the work done.

Often it is not enough and deliveries are late, a problem Ms Youssry finds deeply embarrassing. Her marketing efforts are similarly rudimentary. She has no real cash management system and no website to display her work, which includes tables, small wooden crafts, candle holders, coasters and other items.

“I just have so many problems and challenges trying to run my business,” said Ms Youssry, a softly spoken fine arts graduate of Helwan University in Cairo.

To upgrade her management and marketing skills, Ms Youssry will be the first participant in 10,000 Women, a major philanthropic effort announced last week by Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank.

Goldman committed an initial $100m to the programme, among the bank’s largest ever single grants. The money will help fund mostly short-term, pragmatic certificate programmes designed at upgrading business skills of 10,000 women over five years in emerging and developing countries.

Ms Youssry, for instance, will attend a five-week course at American University in Cairo to improve her basic business skills.

Tullow Strike Oil in Ghana

Tullow strikes light oil in Tano Basin
By Toby Shelley of FT
Published: February 25 2008 09:01 Last updated: March 12 2008 09:01

Tullow Oil on Monday reported mixed exploration drilling news from its main areas of operation.

The Odum-1 well off Ghana has discovered oil but the Ngassa-1 well in the Lake Albert area of Uganda has been suspended for technical reasons and will be redrilled from a different location.
The Odum discovery has different geology from the large Jubilee discoveries 10 miles away, opening up the possibility of a new “play” in the Tano Basin region. Tullow has a 22.9 per cent stake in Odum.
The drill ship discovered the light oil at Odum has moved to appraisal work on Jubilee. The partners on the field have secured a platform for the field development and production is now forecast to start as early as 2010.

The technical problems with Ngassa follow delays in drilling caused by the political unrest in Kenya. Tullow, which holds 100 per cent of the licence said the partial results from the drilling had been encouraging.

Although the suspension of Ngassa is only a deferral, it is disappointing for Tullow as a success could have transformed the commerciality of Ugandan operations. Potential production will need to cross a volume threshhold to justify building a pipeline to export markets.

Tullow has been shifting more of its time and money to Africa during the past two years. Work there will consume 75 per cent of the £400m capital expenditure budgeted for this year.

12th March
The company’s operations in Ghana and Uganda each have the potential to double Tullow’s size, said Tom Hickey, finance director, although Aidan Heavey, chief executive, conceded that until the new reserves began producing, profits were likely to be flat.

Last month, Tullow said first oil from the Jubilee discoveries was planned for 2010. On Wednesday it confirmed the nearby Odum discovery was commercial and said two other prospects to be drilled over the next 12 months could each hold half a billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Emerging Markets Investor Services



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Executive Directors:
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Non Executive Directors
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Monday, 10 March 2008

Emisco

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We aim to provide on the ground analysis of business opportunities in emerging economies.

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