Inspiring Africa's Sustainable Business Growth
WEST AFRICA – Kamtar, a Francophone logistics platform, has secured an equity investment form Kenyan tech-logistics startup Sendy and Toyota Tsusho Corporation Other investors in the round include Mobility 54 Investment SAS and CFAO’s corporate venture capital arm. Kamtar currently operates in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, and targets to expand to other French-speaking West African countries by the end of…
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SOUTH AFRICA – Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has invested almost US$198 million in South Africa for the production of the new Corolla Cross sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its manufacturing plant in Prospecton near Durban. In 2020 Toyota announced plans to invest around US$158 million in building a new passenger car in South Africa, one of its executives hinting…
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KENYA – I&M Bank Limited and Toyota Kenya have entered into an asset financing deal targeting the bank’s premium and business customers, as well as potential customers. The deal will see the bank offer up to 90% financing for Toyota Kenya’s passenger and commercial vehicles including Hino trucks, Hilux single and double cabs, Land cruisers, Prados, Fortuners, Rush and Rav…
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GHANA – Chinese vehicle manufacturing company Sinotruk, has begun assembling its plants under the Automotive Development Policy by government. According to Ghana’s Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, there are a number of other car manufacturing companies that have also begun assembling their plants and are start producing vehicles soon. Mr Nkrumah said that the German car giant Volkswagen is scheduled…
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SOUTH AFRICA – Mobility startup WhereIsMyTransport, has raised a US$7.5 million funding round from investors including Google and Toyota for further global expansion. Formed in 2016, WhereIsMyTransport is a big data platform for sustainable mobility in emerging markets, which connects and collects data and integrates this information on its open data platform. Its products are used by cities to coordinate…
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Ghana – Government has initiated processes to pass the Customs Amendments Bill into law to regulate the importation of vehicles into Ghana. Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs disclosed this in a radio interview on Okay FM, an Accra based Radio Station Tuesday morning. He said the decision to ban importation of accident and overaged…
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KENYA – Sendy, an on-demand logistic platform that connects clients to drivers and vehicles for goods delivery, has raised a US$20 million Series B led by Atlantica Ventures. Sendy’s US$20 million round includes an R&D arrangement with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment arm of Japanese automotive company Toyota, whose investment comes from a venture arm the company established…
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KENYA – Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) and Toyota Kenya unveiled a partnership to enable Small and Medium Enterprises buy new vehicles. The partnership will allow customers to acquire a car at 100 percent financing from DTB. Dubbed ‘Beba Leo’ the Motor Vehicle Financing Scheme is meant for SMEs, who will get financing to acquire either the Toyota Hilux or Toyota…
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JAPAN – Japan’s biggest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp has announced that its profits rose by 14% to 662.3 billion yen (US$6.1 billion) for the three months ending September 30. The Automaker also announced that it will buy back shares worth US$1.8 billion. Toyota’s impressive performance beat an average forecast of 592.3 billion yen (US$5.42 billion), based on estimates from nine…
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KENYA – Motor dealer Toyota Kenya has commenced the distribution of Michelin brand tyres across its service stations to increase their revenue generation, reports Business Daily. This comes three months after the car distributor’s local parent firm CFAO and Michelin was given the go-ahead by Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to form a joint venture to sell tyres locally and…
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