Her appointment comes after her predecessor, Ebi Atawodi, was made Product Manager, Global Payments Growth for Uber worldwide.

She worked at McKinsey and Company for three and a half years, before joining Uber. She also worked as a governance adviser with the Liberian Presidency through the Africa Governance Initiative.

“I am immensely pleased to be joining Uber at a pivotal point in the company’s growth and expansion curve. My vision for West Africa, in particular, is to ensure that we are aligned with Uber’s overall objective of creating sustainable, alternative modes of mobility. In addition to creating value for driver-partners and riders, I will also be focused on ensuring that we continue to engage with our key stakeholders and relevant partners with a view to continuing positive impact across West Africa,” Lola said after she was appointed.

“As a company that is deeply committed to diversity and inclusiveness, we are excited to have Lola join the team of other incredible women at Uber who are pushing the envelope towards achieving the global vision of creating value for riders and driver-partners alike. In West Africa, Lola will be supported by a highly skilled and enthusiastic team covering Operations, Communications and Legal and Policy,” said Along Lits, General Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lola Kassim holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and an MSc from the London School of Economics where she was a Chevening Scholar.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @ojsarpong

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A Transport for London (TfL) spokeswoman confirmed that the meeting will take place next Tuesday.

“Following an approach from Uber and at the mayor’s request London’s transport commissioner will meet with Uber’s global CEO in London next Tuesday,” she told us.

The spokeswoman declined to provide any details of specific talking points for the meeting.

An Uber spokesman also declined to provide steerage on what arguments and concessions Khosrowshahi might be bringing to the meeting.

But a company spokesman told Reuters: “Our new CEO is looking forward to meeting with the commissioner next week. As he said on Monday, we want to work with London to make things right.”

Khosrowshahi has already apologized for “mistakes we’ve made” in an open letter to Londoners following TfL’s decision.

He also tweeted urging the regulator to “please work with us to make things right” — apparently signaling a change in tone for a company which, under founder Travis Kalanick, gained a reputation for being aggressive and abrasive in its approach to regulators and regulation.

Dear London: we r far from perfect but we have 40k licensed drivers and 3.5mm Londoners depending on us. Pls work w/us to make things right

— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) September 22, 2017

Last week Transport for London announced it would not be renewing the ride-hailing giant’s license to operate in a city where Uber claims to have some 3.5 million users and 40,000 drivers.

Its five-year license had been renewed for a further four months in May, as TfL continued to look into criticisms directed at Uber, including concerns about public safety. With no renewal granted, that four-month extension lapses at the end of this month. Though Uber will continue to operate in London while it appeals the decision — a process that could take many months.

Last Friday TfL listed four areas where it said Uber’s “approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility” — including how it reports serious criminal offences. London’s Met Police had highlighted this as a problem in a complaint letter to TfL, accusing Uber of failing to report allegations of serious crimes including sex attacks.

The regulator also said it was not satisfied with Uber’s explanation for its use of its ‘Greyball‘ software in London — software which the company apparently developed to try to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to its app and to prevent officials from undertaking regulatory or law enforcement duties.

In its statement following TfL’s decision to withdraw licensing, Uber appeared to confirm it has used Greyball in London — though it claimed it has not used the software for the regulation-dodging purposes TfL is worried about. “As we have already told TfL, an independent review has found that ‘greyball’ has never been used or considered in the UK for the purposes cited by TfL,” Uber said last week.

So the next obvious question there is what was Uber using Greyball for in London? Which will presumably be one of the concerns that London’s transport commissioner Mike Brown will be discussing with Khosrowshahi.

The new Uber leader has a heaped plate of corporate crises to deal with — from seeking to reform an internal culture of sexism and bullying, to privacy and security failings so massive Uber agreed to undertake two decades of oversight by a US regulator, to an ongoing legal battle with Alphabet over allegations of IP theft to name just a few — so it’s notable that he feels the London license loss merits him taking a fair chunk of time out from all that firefighting to personally fly to Europe for a sit down with regulators.

In itself, it’s a very large sign that he wants Uber to have a new public face at least. But regulators will want to be sure there are also changes of direction behind the scenes — and not just some high profile virtue signalling out front.

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Source: TechCrunch

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The two-day event, organized by South African giants TS Capital (PTY) LTD, with support from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, will be held at The Ghana Academy of Arts & Sciences on July 26 and 27, 2017.

It is expected to bring together industry experts from across the African continent for supply management and logistics professional development, training and networking.

Click here for the full list of speakers, including ministers of state from Ghana.

Known to many simply as “The Leading Supply Chain Event,” this Conference continually sets the bar for supply chain events around West Africa, says TS Capital executive, Thabani Sibanda.

This event convenes leading, cross-sector educational content; where the profession’s best and brightest converge every year.

Speakers at this year’s event, amongst them celebrated Ghanaians, are successful practitioners, experts in the field, sharing what works, who’s best-in-class and the tools required to implement significant improvements within an organization.

Ten sessions are expected to be taken at the Accra event and will cover the areas of Emerging Practitioners; Supply Chain Management Fuelling Growth; Global Supply Chain; Career Development; Talent Management; Business Acumen in Supply Chain; Logistics; Global Economic Indicators; Big Data, Analytics and Best Practices in Indirect Spend.

Mr. Sibanda said, “This is a conference at which West African suppliers will be able to learn about corporate policies, operations, and projects as well as procurement policies and procedures from senior procurement executives.

This is a definitive procurement and supply chain event which has a core focus intact – a determination to deliver development and learning in private and public procurement and supply chain management in West Africa.”

Aviation Minister Cecelia Abena Dapaah will be speaking at the event.

According to him, participants stand to gain enormous benefits that will have a lasting impact on their organizations and personal development.

Some of the benefits, he said, will include, opportunities to gain fresh insight into hot procurement and supply management topics; Guidance from expert speakers, procurement professionals and business leaders; a chance to raise your profile and develop new contacts during networking events; Meetings with international suppliers and discovery of innovative products and services; and Mining company procurement presentations.

President of Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, Ghana, Ebo Hammond is one of the Speakers.

Topics to be treated during the two-day event will include: The role of procurement in achieving national goals, provincial objectives and Supply Chain Management reform; How procurement is driving real worth to the bottom line, and value to the top line; The next level of supplier development and taking collaboration across industry sectors; Why the practice of incubating suppliers will only succeed with a collaborative model; Placing a magnifying glass on you and your supplier among others.

The Conference organisers say “the entire transport infrastructure value chain has the opportunity to participate at this year’s convention as exhibitors: public sector bodies, transport authorities and parastatals, contractors, engineering agencies, research & knowledge institutes, industry associations and suppliers of infrastructure products and services.”

Mr. Sibanda, who is Business Development Executive & Commercial Partnership said there are varied reasons why participants must exhibit at the Convention.

Some of the reasons, he stressed, include the fact that the event is the gateway to the West Africa and Sub-Saharan market place; it helps exhibitors touch base with their target market and share their latest products and services; it creates access to high-level decision makers and personal contact with them; generates new sales opportunities within West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa as well as serve as an avenue to showcase professional development and enhance your corporate reputation and brand image.

“Efficient Supply chain and logistics management,” Mr. Sibanda said, “are a driver of West Africa’s sustainability, growth and development.”

At the same time, efficient management of resources, collaboration, proper procurement procedures and risk management are the key factors that determine the creation of standard supply chain in West Africa.

Mr. Thabani Sibanda explained that “Local and International supply chain executives cannot ignore the African market.

Africa’s growth, expected to average six percent by 2020, will be fuelled by growing domestic demand, infrastructure development and an increase in continental trade.

With endless supply chain and logistics opportunities available as Africa places itself squarely in the middle of the global value chain, now is the time to assess opportunities and risks in the local markets and exploit opportunities that avail.”

The convention’s targeted participants are Chief Executive Officers, Chief Procurement Officers, heads of Supply Chain/Procurement/Sourcing, Commodity Managers, Logistics Managers, Category Managers, General Managers, Inventory Controllers/ Managers, Administrators, Purchasing Managers and operations Managers amongst others.
Sponsorship and Speaking Opportunities

The organisers say the forum will confer on sponsors “absolute authority and quality status in the transport and supply chain industry.”

In view of this, it will establish a sponsor as the pro-active industry player, and will “offer you unrivalled cost-effective and dedicated marketing exposure and brand recognition among key players in the industry. This is an unrivalled platform that presents you with an opportunity to develop a relationship with potential business and finance partners.”

Companies desirous of participating are expected to contact the organisers at [email protected] or [email protected].
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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Francis made similar comments when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires but his remarks to reporters on a plane returning from a Middle East trip were the first he has made since becoming pope.

“Celibacy is not a dogma,” he said in answer to a question about whether the Catholic Church could some day allow priests to marry as they can in some other Christian Churches.

“It is a rule of life that I appreciate very much and I think it is a gift for the Church but since it is not a dogma, the door is always open,” he said.

The Church teaches that a priest should dedicate himself totally to his vocation, essentially taking the Church as his spouse, in order to help fulfill its mission.

However while priestly celibacy is a tradition going back around 1,000 years, it is not considered dogma, or an unchangeable piece of Church teaching.

There has been pressure for change, particularly in the wake of recent sexual abuse scandals with proponents of optional celibacy in the Church arguing that sexual frustrations could drive some priests to sexually abuse children.

But the Church has rejected this argument, saying that paedophilia, whether in the Church or outside of it, is carried out by people with psychological problems.

Priests are allowed to marry in the Anglican and other Protestant churches as well as in the Orthodox Church.

Source: Reuters

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