What are investors looking for in a Business Plan, and how do I find them

*Does your company need investment capital to expand?
**Are you currently searching for investors?
***How do you know you're ready? What will it take to qualify.
****How do you find potential investors?
Our panel of experts will walk you thru the process from A to Z to help you determine if outside investors are an option for your company. Our expert panel includes: Sheri Orlowitz, Principal at SLOCO Consulting Group; and David Bloom, Principal at Capital Idea Group;

Curious Wumi: Michelle Obama- The First Lady in Pictures

Curious Wumi: Michelle Obama- The First Lady in Pictures

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A Visionary African Leader- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

NEW YORK, April 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation today announced the appointment to its Board of Trustees of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Managing Director of the World Bank and former Nigerian Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs.

"Ngozi is an exceptional leader with an outstanding record of achievement in the field of poverty alleviation and economic reforms in Africa," said James F. Orr, III, the Board's chairman. "We have continued to add Trustees to the Board who can bring specific, diverse skills, experiences and perspectives that meet the needs of the Foundation as it advances its mission for the 21st century. The Board will benefit enormously from Ngozi's important insight into the major issues confronting today's globalized world."

"Ngozi has outstanding breadth and depth of experience and I will cherish her stewardship and counsel," said Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. "As we support a new generation of innovative solutions shaped by and for the people of developing countries, Ngozi's unique insight will prove immeasurably valuable."

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, 54, served from 2003 until 2006 as Nigeria's Minister of Finance, and earned international acclaim for her work on economic reform, fiscal transparency and financial stability During 2006, she also served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and was the first woman in Nigeria to hold the two posts. Previously, she worked for 21 years at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the post of Vice President and Corporate Secretary.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala graduated from Harvard and received a Ph.D. in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has received numerous awards and honorary degrees for her work and serves on the boards of the ONE Campaign, the World Resources Institute, the Nelson Mandela Institution, Friends of the Global Fund of Africa, and the African Institute of Science and Technology, among others.

The Rockefeller Foundation fosters innovative solutions to many of the world's most intractable challenges, affirming its mission, since 1913, to "promote the well-being" of humanity. Today, the Rockefeller Foundation works to ensure that more people can tap into globalization's benefits while strengthening resilience to its risks. 

Foundation initiatives include efforts to mobilize an agricultural revolution in sub-Saharan Africa, build new markets for Impact Investing, support strategies and services that strengthen economic security for American workers, inform more equitable, sustainable transportation policies in the United States, help communities cope with the impacts of imminent and worsening climate change, and assure access to affordable and high-quality health systems in developing countries. For more information, visit www.rockfound.org.

SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation

Nigeria: Three Banks Named Among World's Biggest- by James Emejo of This Day Newspaper

Lagos — Three Nigerian banks - First Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and Intercontinental Bank Plc - have made the Forbes list of top 2000 world biggest companies.

The trio, according to Forbes Magazine, are joining 248 other companies around the world to displace same number of companies that featured on the list in the 2008 ranking.

For Nigeria, the listing of these banks on the current Global 2000 is a cause for cheers. First Bank Plc is ranked at 1,375, while the UBA comes on the list at number 1,560. Intercontinental Bank Plc completes Nigeria's showing at 1,798.

Explaining the methodology adopted in arriving at the final compilation of the 2000 biggest companies, Forbes said that companies must have a publicity traded stock in order to qualify for the Global 2000. The Global 2000 companies have the top composite scores based on sales, profit, assets and market value.

First Bank Plc's composite score on the four metric measures shows a sales figure of $1.29 billion, a profit stated at $0.31 billion, assets metric calculated at 413.05 billion and market value stated at $2.89 billion.

The UBA's sales figure was stated at $1.44 billion with profit at $0.35 billion while its assets stood at $14.22 billion and its market value calculated at 41.43 billion.

Intercontinental Bank Plc incredibly returned a higher sales figure than the other two Nigerian banks on the list with its $1.48 billion position and a profit position of $0.29 billion with assets calculated at $11.90 billion and market value adding up to $0.88 billion.

This appears to be a confirmation of the 2009 global banking industry, which listed the three banks among top 500 banks in the world.

The global banking industry research and ratings for 2009 had listed First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc on the world's top 500 banking brands by the Banker magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London.

Nigerian banks made their first showing on the world's top 500 banks in 2007 when Intercontinental Bank came number 355 on the list while also emerging the fastest growing bank in the world. The bank has since then made the list moving up in 2008 to 334.

The three banks in Nigeria that made this year's list had emerged as industry leaders consistently since after the banking industry reforms introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2004.

Factors accounting for the drop off of the companies that were on the 2008 list but could not make the list in the 2009 ranking, according to Forbes, include mergers, weak financial performance and outright failure.

For instance, Forbes noted that the former 97th-largest company in the world, Lehman Brothers, fell into bankruptcy, while the weakness in the financial markets led to governments nationalising some big banks, such as Ireland's Anglo Irish banks and Iceland's Kaupthing Bank.

Speaking on the report, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said: "Even a depression is a place for opportunity if you have cash, scale and ambition. Many of the names on this year's Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's biggest companies will emerge on the other side of the trough far stronger when world economies snap back next year. For the strong corporations, there are rivals to buy, technologies to fund and new markets to enter - all at lower prices than we've seen in years.

"Despite the economy, it's important to think about what is possible."

Forbes' ranking of the world's biggest companies departs from lopsided lists based on a single metric, like sales.

Instead, it uses an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value to rank companies according to size. This year's list reveals the dynamism of global business. "The rankings span 62 countries, with the U.S. still dominant with 551 members, but that is 200 fewer than in 2004, when we first published this global list," Forbes said.

My Addition: Nigeria makes the Forbes 2009 top 100 Best countries for Business! That is good news inspite of all the negative media attention on the country.

Rank Company Cntyr INDUSTRY SALES ($BIL) PROFITS ($BIL) ASSETS ($BIL) MARKET VALUE ($BIL)
1375 First Bank of Nigeria Nigeria Banking 1.29 0.31 13.05 2.89
1560 United Bank for Africa Nigeria Banking 1.44 0.35 14.22 1.43
1798 Intercontinental Bank Nigeria Banking 1.48 0.29 11.90 0.88

A Better Way

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The Recession and Dave Ramsey Show

Millions of American have lost their jobs especially in the last couple of months . A few months ago , a TV show on FBN caught my attention . The show called : The Dave Ramsey Show has opened my eyes on how our finances should be handled . It's biblical view on money is what really caught my attention .

Being African , I should be disciplined in the way of paying CASH for everything, and I mean ery'thin. But no , I veered off the road and became an 'Americana' and got myself into some stupid stuff .

Most of Africa is a CASH market , the cars you see is paid for in CASH and the houses . How many people in other countries pay CASH for cars and houses ? What you see is paid for with good hard cash in Africa . How many people can say that in the rest of the world ?

There are so many opportunities even in the Congo's , and other African countries , Africa is the future market and the Chinese should not be the only people investing .

So why the change ? Why do people decide to use credit instead of saving up to buy the things they need ? Should the credit card companies be blamed for their marketing campaigns or should the consumer be the one responsible ? Should both parties be equally responsible ? Or should the blame be more on one party than the other ? Could it be a mental disease ? Or is there another explanation for it ?

I contracted the "I Can use Credit to buy anything and everything" syndrome and my first stupid mistake was buying a brand new mitsubishi galant . Anyways , Dave Ramsey has taught me a lot when it comes to debt and finances and I have decided to share it with the rest of the World . 

I know in the coming decades, when African countries begin to become more independent , Africans are going to follow the same course . But I am hoping its people are going to learn from this and not let history repeat itself in the continent. Enjoy the video !

Share your thoughts or comments :=)