Business Times Africa Magazine 2017 /vol 9/ No2 BT2Edition2017_web | Page 12

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BRIEFS: WEST AFRICA
AMCON to sell Peugeot plant to Dangote
The Asset Management Company of
Nigeria (AMCON), the country's 'bad
bank' set up following the banking crisis,
is close to selling Peugeot Automobile
Nigeria (PAN) Ltd, a local car assembly
joint venture, to Africa's richest man,
Aliko Dangote, and two Nigerian states.
"We have concluded all processes on
the bids since about two months ago, all
we are waiting for (now) is the approval
of the central bank," Ahmed Kuru, AM-
CON's chief executive, told Reuters on
Friday.
PAN, a Nigerian vehicle assembly
plant located in Kaduna state, has PSA
Peugeot Citroen as its technical partner
with a capacity to assemble 90,000 cars a
year, according to its website.
Dangote, in alliance with the states of
Kaduna and Kebbi and the Bank of In-
dustry (BOI) development bank made a
bid to acquire a majority stake in PAN last
year as AMCON seeks to sell off some of
the assets it acquired in the wake of the
banking crisis.
Dangote's eponymous group of com-
panies is active in cement, oil, food and
sugar, and is expanding into farming.
The automaker is worth over 15 billion
Nigerian naira ($49 million) according to
its last valuation, Kuru said, but declined
to name the company Dangote and his
partners are using to acquire the auto-
maker.
AMCON, set up in 2010 to clean up
the banking system following a $4 billion
rescue of nine lenders that came close to
collapse, took over PAN after buying up
its debt and converting it to equity.
GetRooms launches to be a hostel ‘Airbnb’
for travellers and students in Ghana
GetRooms, an online room booking
platform for students and travellers has
launched in Ghana in a move expected
to simplify the student hostel booking
process which is majorly offline and un-
disrupted while the majority of students
are tech savvy.
Founded by Kekeli and Abigail Buck-
ner, GetRooms, which grew out of hostel
management platform Trackist, is target-
ing nearly 400,000 students per year who
join universities and colleges across the
country according to Ghana’s National
Accreditation Board’s 2015 Tertiary Ed-
ucation Statistics Report. With a growing
number of students each year there will
be a spike in demand for hostel facilities
which GetRooms aims to help meet.
Now with 3,000 plus student book-
ings, the founders say the platform is
currently the largest hostel booking
website in Ghana and offers a free plat-
form for hostel owners while charging a
small commission to students. The team
was inspired by the fact it’s frustrating to
10 Business Times Africa 2017
search, find and book a hostel in Ghana
online therefore students normally rely
on friends and family or walk door-to-
door to see the conditions of the hostels.
“If you have ever schooled or are still
schooling in any of the Universities or
tertiary institutions in Ghana then you
might have had that unique experience
of living in a hostel,” said the team. “Hos-
tels are fun, you cook your own food, live
with roommates, clean you room, plan
your day, you are practically living on
your own. For some living in a hostel is
their first taste of independence. Finding
a hostel that suits your pocket and needs
can be very difficult not because there is
a scarcity of hostels but because the hos-
tels cannot be found online.”
With GetRooms, users will search for
hostel rooms online, book it online and
pay for it so that hostel managers receive
payments and connect with the students
via emails and text messages. Uganda’s
RentHostels is relaunching to do the
same in Kampala, Uganda.