AFP
Ethiopia are in Group C along with Ghana, Libya and Congobrazaville in the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN). Ethiopia have wowed their fans with much improved record that has taken them to the next round of play-offs that will lead to the 2014 World Cup. Will they keep the momentum, and live up to the expectations of the soccer-crazy nation? Major rivals South Africa and Nigeria were drawn together on Wednesday in the first round of the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
Mali and Mozambique complete a tough Group A in a tournament for home-based footballers to be staged between January 11 and February 1 in South Africa.
The rivalry between South Africa and Nigeria is among the most intense on the continent with the west Africans having a distinct advantage since it began 21 years ago.
More than half the South African side are locals while eight of the 23 Nigerians at the 2013 Confederation Cup in Brazil play at home.
South Africa are competing at the CHAN for the second time with a makeshift team losing to Algeria in the 2011 quarter-finals in Sudan.
It will be the first appearance by the Nigerians, who edged Ivory Coast 4-3 overall in a qualifying thriller to secure a place.
The mini-league will be hosted by Cape Town, as will Group B, which comprises Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Morocco.
Ghana, runners-up in the inaugural CHAN tournament four years ago, are in Bloemfontein-based Group C with Libya, Ethiopia and Congo Brazzaville.
Democratic Republic of Congo, who beat Ghana to win the first edition in 2009, were placed in Group D, which is based in Polokwane, along with Gabon, Burundi and Mauritania.
Burundi and Mauritania will be playing in a CAF senior national team tournament for the first time and were the most unexpected of the 15 qualifiers.
Kenya and 2011 bronze medalists Sudan were the victims of Burundi, while Mauritania eliminated Liberia and 2009 semi-finalists Senegal.
Both surprise packets have foreign coaches with Egyptian Lofty Naseem guiding Burundi and widely-travelled Frenchman Patrice Neveu handling Mauritania.
The Nations Championship follows the traditional Confederation of African Football (CAF) format with group winners and runners-up advancing to the quarter-finals.
CAF headquarters in Cairo was the draw venue and those who attended included the president, Issa Hayatou, and the secretary-general, Hicham El Amrani, of the organisation.
Qualifiers are played on a regional two-legged basis with defending champions Tunisia among the casualties as they fell 1-0 to Morocco.
Angola, defeated 3-0 by Tunisia in the 2011 final, also failed to make it, going out on the away-goal rule to Mozambique after two draws.
DR Congo,Ghana and Zimbabwe have reached all three tournaments and Gabon, Libya, Mali, South Africa and Uganda two each.
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique and Nigeria are the eight debutants.
Draw
Group A
South Africa, Mali, Nigeria, Mozambique
Group B
Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Morocco
Group C
Ghana, Libya, Ethiopia, Congo Brazzaville
Group D
Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Burundi, Mauritania
AFP
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Al Amoudi, Jordan's Hikma Pharmaceuticals strike healthcare business deal in Ethiopia
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Jordan's Hikma Pharmaceuticals has formed a joint venture with Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi's MIDROC Group to enter the Ethiopian healthcare market, where health spending is likely to more than double in the next few years.London-listed Hikma said the joint venture, HikmaCure, would create an Ethiopian operating company, build a local manufacturing facility and would begin marketing and distributing pharmaceutical products in Ethiopia.
"Ethiopia is still very underdeveloped in terms of the pharmaceutical market," Mazen Darwazah, executive vice chairman and chief executive of Hikma's Middle East and North Africa business, said in an interview.
"It's a market that has huge potential for growth. We are expecting an increase in expenditure on healthcare: today is $400 million but we are expecting it in the next couple of years to go up to $1 billion."
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has seen a decade of double-digit growth, and it has leapfrogged neighbouring Kenya to become sub-Saharan Africa's fifth biggest economy.The country's population of 91 million people is served by just 5,000 doctors, compared with 40,000 doctors in Egypt for 85 million people, Hikma said.
Hikma and MIDROC will provide up to $22.3 million each to the joint venture, Hikma said.
Hikma manufactures and sells branded pharmaceuticals in Middle Eastern and North African markets including Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. It also has a U.S. focused generics business and an injectables unit.
Jeddah-based MEDROC, which has operations in sectors including petroleum, agriculture, engineering and construction, is a major investor in Ethiopia, where it has based its African operations. The group's chairman, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, is of Ethiopian-Yemeni heritage, according to his website, and he is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia.
Analyst James Vane-Tempest at Jefferies said the joint venture was a positive for the company and it added further credibility to its expansion strategy.
"Ethiopia is one of the largest markets in the region and in our view offers strong long-term growth potential," he said.
Shares in the group were up 0.9 percent at 1,036 pence by 1016 GMT.
LONDON (Reuters) - Jordan's Hikma Pharmaceuticals has formed a joint venture with Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi's MIDROC Group to enter the Ethiopian healthcare market, where health spending is likely to more than double in the next few years.London-listed Hikma said the joint venture, HikmaCure, would create an Ethiopian operating company, build a local manufacturing facility and would begin marketing and distributing pharmaceutical products in Ethiopia.
"Ethiopia is still very underdeveloped in terms of the pharmaceutical market," Mazen Darwazah, executive vice chairman and chief executive of Hikma's Middle East and North Africa business, said in an interview.
"It's a market that has huge potential for growth. We are expecting an increase in expenditure on healthcare: today is $400 million but we are expecting it in the next couple of years to go up to $1 billion."
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has seen a decade of double-digit growth, and it has leapfrogged neighbouring Kenya to become sub-Saharan Africa's fifth biggest economy.The country's population of 91 million people is served by just 5,000 doctors, compared with 40,000 doctors in Egypt for 85 million people, Hikma said.
Hikma and MIDROC will provide up to $22.3 million each to the joint venture, Hikma said.
Hikma manufactures and sells branded pharmaceuticals in Middle Eastern and North African markets including Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. It also has a U.S. focused generics business and an injectables unit.
Jeddah-based MEDROC, which has operations in sectors including petroleum, agriculture, engineering and construction, is a major investor in Ethiopia, where it has based its African operations. The group's chairman, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, is of Ethiopian-Yemeni heritage, according to his website, and he is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia.
Analyst James Vane-Tempest at Jefferies said the joint venture was a positive for the company and it added further credibility to its expansion strategy.
"Ethiopia is one of the largest markets in the region and in our view offers strong long-term growth potential," he said.
Shares in the group were up 0.9 percent at 1,036 pence by 1016 GMT.
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