Jewellery - Last year Rika Gaoses received a handmade necklace from her husband after he attended the Ongwediva Trade Fair. She looked at the piece and decided to try her hand at making jewellery. At first she based all her creations on this first necklace. Friends started noticing her jewellery and ask to buy pieces from her, and so Ricky Jewellery was born.

Government Institutions Pension Fund - The long-awaited Police investigation into the missing N$600 million of the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) will be concluded within the next four months. The Police are sifting through a number of complex transactions involving prominent Namibians who have directly benefited from more than N$600 million in GIPF loans. The persons who apparently benefited are senior retired politicians, prominent businesspeople, senior legal advisors and Cabinet ministers, The Namibian has learnt from people close to the investigation.

Domestic credit recorded an annual increase of 2.4trn/- in February 2012, compared with 1.9trn/- in the corresponding period a year before, out of which 63.4 per cent was held by private sector a 2.9 per cent up. According to the Central Bank (BoT) monthly economic review for March this year, annual growth of credit to the private sector was 24.3 per cent, slightly higher than 24 per cent recorded in February 2011. "Strong growth was recorded in building and construction as well as trade activities. However, credit to agriculture decreased following repayment by corporate clients," stated the report.

Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Tandahimba Newala Cooperative Union (TANECU), seeking to enhance processing of raw cashew nuts, adding value to the cash crop and creating wealth to farmers in Mtwara region. TIB Managing Director Peter Noni, speaking at the signing ceremony at the bank's Head Office in Dar es Salaam, said the signed deal will enhance value addition through construction of a processing plant to be built in Mtwara. Mr Noni said the processing plant will have monthly processing capacity of between 30 and 40 tonnes.

Economy - Over 100,000 investors in the Unit Trust of Tanzania (UTT) are currently getting best returns than anywhere in the money markets. UTT says its collective Investment Funds are offering over three per cent returns on a quarterly basis and a double digit, annually. This is largely for the income funds that provide a consistent inflow of earnings to the investor on a quarterly basis. UTT documents for instance show that one of the Funds, Umoja Fund has an annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent while Wekeza Maisha Fund grows at 13 per cent, Watoto Fund at annual growth rate of 15 per cent and Jikimu Fund at 14 per cent.

Munda Wanga offers bio-diversity training - MUNDA Wanga Environmental Park has embarked on conservation and biodiversity training programmes for schools aimed at empowering pupils with improved environmental conservation methods. Munda Wanga Environmental Park general manager Frederrik Hengeveld said more than 760 children would this year be trained in climate change and environment conservation.

Benghazi, Libya - The results of the first elections in Libya in decades, aimed at establishing a local council in the city of Benghazi and electing the city's representatives in the National Transition Council (NTC), were published Monday evening.

2012 European Champions League final - Still savouring Chelsea's victory in the 2012 European Champions League final on Saturday, father of Nigerian and Chelsea midfielder John Mikel Obi has said his son will soon emerge his team's top scorer.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has appealed for an urgent fund to help thousands of Malian civilians trapped in the conflict areas in the northern part of the country. IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy said in a statement obtained by PANA here that the organization is urgently appealing for US$3.5 million to provide immediate life-saving assistance to internally-displaced Malians, who have fled fighting and insecurity in the north of the country to seek shelter in the capital Bamako, the northern river port city of Mopti and the western city of Kayes.

Cape Town to host 8-nation football tournament - South Africa will host an eight-nation Under-20 football tournament from Thursday until 3 June at the Cape Town Stadium, venue of the 2010 World Cup semi-final, and the Athlone Stadium, organisers have announced. The eight teams taking part have been divided into two groups. Group A has host South Africa, Argentina, Nigeria and Ghana, while Brazil, Cameroon, Kenya and Japan are in Group B.

Liberia Telecommunication Authority - The interconnectivity fight among GSM companies in Liberia would not just go away as the latest scenario between two of the companies in the industry COMIUM and the Lone Star Cell MTN Communication Corporation seems to indicate. It took no smaller than intervention by the government regulatory body, the Liberia Telecommunication Authority to compel the four GSM companies here to comply with interconnectivity, which is essential to allow subscribers to freely communicate irrespective of which service provider they may subscribe to.

Price of military arbitrariness - As the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, intensifies efforts to end graft in Nigeria's oil industry and change the ways of doing business in the sector, Ejiofor Alike writes that the endemic corruption in the industry was a product of arbitrariness by the military and civilian administrations, as well as lack of focus by past administration of the oil and gas industry.

Hewlett-Packard's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Meg Whitman, plans to cut 30,000 or more jobs this week, according to officials familiar with the plan. Her goal, they said, was to spend the money she saved, on increasing the efficiency of the company's sales force and on creating new products. Whitman, the CEO since last September, is said to be focused on efficiency and new products. The executives, according to a report by the Jarkata Post, said last Friday that HP would seek layoffs and voluntary retirements from across the company. The total could be as much as 10 per cent of HP's 324,000-strong work force.

Micro-management - Overspending on projects, money paid to contractors for services not rendered, and inaccurate reporting of financial obligations, liabilities and contractual obligations have been taking place within Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) as far back as 2004. This is according to the NWR board, which yesterday admitted the company is facing several challenges. The board said it had problems with the company's management, including the "mis-reporting and under-reporting" of financial obligations, liabilities and contractual obligations.

The Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr Yomi Bolarinwa, has reiterated the Commission's stance transiting from analogue to digital come June 17, 2012. The DG who spoke to LEADERSHIP exclusively was very optimistic that the Commission would transit on or before the deadline, even as he hinted that the federal government has approved the white paper submitted by the presidential advisory committee currently waiting adoption by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Internet Exchange Points - The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in collaboration with the private sector has concluded plans to establish a number of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) across the country in a bid to enhance internet penetration in Nigeria at a cheaper and affordable rate.

How operators slowed down harmonisation - With the ongoing harmonisation of the subscriber identification module (SIM) card registration exercise carried out by telephone operators and independent consultants last year, facts have emerged on how the telecommunications operating companies slowed down the process. The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Mr Eugene Juwah, speaking in Lagos recently said the delay in concluding the harmonisation of the Sim card exercise was caused by operators. "The bulk of the old SIM has been registered. We have more than 109 million subscribers' data on our back-end network. Some of the operators had logisticS problems bringing their data to NCC to harmonise. It was at the end of February that all the operators brought in their data."

Polio vaccine - A massive intervention starts Tuesday morning to immunise at least 375 children aged under five who have not been vaccinated against polio in the ongoing immunisation programme in Kebbi state capital Birnin-Kebbi. The children, still unimmunised after three days of a fresh round of vaccination, all reside in one ward Nasarawa II, said to be a stronghold where parents persistently refuse vaccination against polio for their children.

Equipment, medicines - The Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashid, on Monday said that his ministry was considering increasing alternative sources of funds for procuring medicine and medical kits and equipment for public hospitals. Dr Rashid made the comments when talking to employees of the Medical Stores Department (MSD) in Dar es Salaam when he made a tour of the department.

Energy - Nigeria's Bank of Industry (BOI) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) are collaborating to support investments in the use of renewable energy resources to improve the access to modern energy services for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. The private Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that under the partnership, US$330,000 has been given to 11 organizations that showed creativity to facilitate investment in off-grid energy options.