LAGOS, Nigeria—Two top Nigerian stock-exchange officials were removed and a fugitive former bank executive surrendered, as efforts to clean up the financial sector accelerate.

These developments, together with an expected cabinet reshuffle by President Goodluck Jonathan, come just months before January presidential elections. Mr. Jonathan’s effort to project a cleaner government is considered a centerpiece of his election platform—though he has yet to officially declare his candidacy—and a former head of the country’s financial crimes watchdog is expected to run against him.

On Thursday, Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission named Emmanuel Ikazoboh, a former chief executive of accounting firm Deloitte in West and Central Africa, as interim stock-exchange head.

The appointment comes a day after a shakeout at Nigeria’s Stock Exchange, Africa’s second largest. Stock Exchange Director-General Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was fired and the exchange’s president, Aliko Dangote, was suspended. Mr. Dangote, head of a business conglomerate, is one of Nigeria’s richest men.

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The Wide Use of Foreign Managers on Local World Cup Teams Has Some Fans on Edge

The opening of the World Cup in South Africa on Friday will give the soccer-mad continent a chance to show off many of the world’s top players on the six African teams participating in the tournament.

The problem, as some African soccer fans see it, is that only one of those teams is led by an African coach.

This World Cup will be the first on African soil, and there are more African teams here than have been at any other World Cup. But that Algeria’s Rabah Saadane is the only African manager at the tournament has provoked not a little hand-wringing among Africa’s soccer-obsessed fans. They fear that foreign coaches, who are frequently brought in at the last minute and are unfamiliar with a team’s players, may actually hamper their countries’ chances at the World Cup. (No team has won a World Cup with a foreign coach.)

“A lot of people [in Africa] still have that mentality that the European knows more,” said Thomas Mlambo, a well-known TV presenter and analyst on the South Africa-based sports network SuperSport.

Host South Africa is coached by Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, who won a World Cup coaching his country in 1994. Ivory Coast is using a Swedish coach, Sven-Göran Eriksson, who coached England in two World Cups but never got past the quarterfinals. Nigeria hired Swede Lars Lagerback, who coached his country in the 2006 Cup but failed as head coach to qualify Sweden this year.

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By WILL CONNORS and SARAH CHILDRESS

Foreign consumer-goods companies including Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé SA and Unilever PLC have been in Africa for decades without much competition from local players. Now, home-grown companies are expanding aggressively across the continent, eager to accommodate a growing middle-class among the billion-person population.

Among the most prominent of these consumer upstarts: African retailers such as Nakumatt Holdings Ltd. of Kenya, the top supermarket chain in East Africa, MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s largest cellphone provider, and South African restaurant chain Spur Corp. Nakumatt has expanded into three neighboring countries while 348-restaurant chain Spur has opened in seven other African countries.

Nakumatt chose to emulate an American icon: Kmart. On a visit to Florida in the 1980s, founder Atul Shah, a former mattress salesman, wandered into a Kmart and marveled at its cleanliness. He was so impressed at how the store sold food, household goods and furniture under one roof that he hung out there for hours a day for eight months. He became such a fixture that customers asked him for assistance. “Everybody was happy to be assisted by me,” said Mr. Shah.

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this story appeared on Page B1 of the Wall Street Journal

LAGOS, Nigeria—Despite some of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world, Africa has enticed Google Inc.

Lured by the continent’s growth potential, Google aims to convince entrepreneurs, students and aid workers to make use of its search, mapping and mobile-phone technologies. But Africa—with roughly one billion inhabitants, over 50 countries and many regions that have limited access to electricity—presents huge obstacles.

“The Internet is not an integral part of everyday life for people in Africa,” said Joe Mucheru of Google’s Kenya office.

Africa lags far behind other big emerging markets in Internet use. Africa has 4% of global Internet users; China has 21%.

The continent also has some of the world’s highest costs for mobile-phone and Internet service. In Nigeria, bandwidth for Internet carriers costs $3,000 to $6,000 a month per megabyte, according to Nyimbi Odero of Google’s Nigeria office.

By comparison, the cost in the U.K. is about $20 a month per megabyte.

Despite the expense of Internet service, Google executives say Africa represents one of the fastest growth rates for Internet use in the world. Nigeria already has about 24 million users and South Africa and Kenya aren’t far behind, according to the World Bank and research sites like Internet World Stats.

“The goal is to get more people online,” said Estelle Akofio-Sowah, the Google country head in Ghana.

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JINJA, Uganda—Whitewater rafting on the Nile, the world’s longest river, has become a hit here, and breathed life into the once-moribund town of Jinja, a few hours outside the capital, Kampala.

But plans for a massive dam loom over the river and those who earn a living from it. After more than a decade of false starts, diplomatic squabbling, and foreign companies getting cold feet, the dam is being built.

At the beginning of a recent trip down the river, our raft drifted past local fishermen casting their nets. Eagles circled the raft, and perched on overhanging trees.

In these calm stretches, our guide, a tanned New Zealander named Cam-O (His real name was Cameron but he insisted on being called Cam-O), would give us a nod and we’d be allowed to jump out and swim. Floating with the help of a bulky life jacket, the Nile whisked me past the raft. I stared up at the blue sky and at the vibrant, lush landscape surrounding us.

Our raft had opted for the “wild” ride instead of a “mild” one. We were soon trying to catch our breath between rapids with names like the Bad Place and the Dead Dutchman (where a man from the Netherlands actually died).

Suddenly, as we rounded a bend in the river, we saw a concrete behemoth: the Bujagali Dam. Still under construction, the dam dominated the landscape.

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Text Messaging Will Enable Consumers to Check Authenticity; Spate of Fatalities Included Antifreeze-Laced Cough Syrup

LAGOS, Nigeria—Biofem Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a Nigerian medicine distributor, wanted to arrest a slide in sales after a counterfeit ring targeted its best-selling drug. Sproxil Inc., a start-up founded by a Ghana-born Ph.D. student at Dartmouth, promised to do what Nigerian authorities could not: help companies and consumers detect fake pharmaceuticals.

Sproxil’s founder, 28-year old Ashifi Gogo, overcame initial skepticism and a lack of funding to persuade investors to back a technology that offers a quick counterfeit-drug test. The technology could pave the way for wary foreign drug makers to enter the huge African market. The market includes Nigeria, Africa’s biggest country by population but one rife with scams and scamsters.

“Initially it was challenging because venture capitalists run for the hills when they hear Nigeria,” Mr. Gogo said in a telephone interview. “They don’t even care if you’re making gold.”

The company has developed technology that allows customers to use their mobile phones to check on newly purchased drugs. Using scratch-off labels and ID numbers, customers can send a code via text message to a database in the U.S. to check whether the medicine they purchased is authentic. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest mobile-phone market, with more than 70 million users.

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LAGOS, Nigeria — Guinea’s military ruler Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara was flown to Morocco for medical treatment on Friday, a day after he survived an apparent assassination attempt, dealing another blow to the stability of the tiny, mineral-rich nation in West Africa.

Guinea’s ruling military junta, the National Council for Democracy and Development, placed troops at the airport and throughout the capital city, Conakry, according to Western diplomats. CNDD officials said the situation was under control.

Capt. Camara was flown out of Guinea on a plane provided by Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, according to a senior aid worker who has spoken with diplomats in Conakry.

Government officials said Capt. Camara was shot by Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite, the commander of the presidential guard and a former top aide. President Compaore, who has been leading international mediation efforts to quell Guinea’s political crisis, said Capt. Camara would need an operation to treat his wounds, Reuters reported.

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BY NGUYEN ANH THU IN VIETNAM, DARCY CROWE IN VENEZUELA, AND WILL CONNORS IN NIGERIA

The U.S. dollar, once universally accepted as the world’s strongest currency, has been trounced in recent months by everything from the euro to the Brazilian real to the South Korean won. But in the back-alley markets where business is done in many of the world’s developing economies, the dollar still reigns.

In jewelry stores in Vietnam, taxicabs in Venezuela and outdoor markets in Nigeria, black-market money-changers say the dollar is still the currency of choice, even though its value has fallen in some cases.

“The U.S. dollar is losing value, but not here in Vietnam,” said Vu Manh Quynh, a…

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By WILL CONNORS

LAGOS, Nigeria — The Vatican’s invitation to Anglicans could have far-reaching repercussions across Africa, where about half of the world’s 80 million Anglicans now live.

African clergymen have been some of the harshest critics of their Anglican colleagues in the West, whom they accuse of liberally interpreting the Bible. But it’s far from clear whether churches here, many of which have already distanced themselves from Anglican churches in the U.S., Canada and England, would see the need to embrace the Vatican’s offer.

Unlike the more tightly controlled Catholic Church, Anglican churches in Africa are largely autonomous, operating with a level of freedom that they wouldn’t likely enjoy under Rome’s fold.

Archbishop Peter Akinola, head of the Church of Nigeria, and the spiritual leader of Africa’s 40 million Anglicans, is “still weighing the implications of the Vatican’s offer” and is consulting with colleagues, according to an aide reached by telephone Wednesday.

Still, the Vatican’s offer may appeal to many who follow Africa’s conservative strain of Anglicanism. African church leaders have adopted an especially tough line on homosexuality, a cultural taboo across the continent. In many countries, homosexuality is illegal and associated with Satanism. Nigeria, home to 18 million Anglicans, recently beefed up its anti-sodomy law to include prison sentences for men who live together and for those who “aid and abet” gays.

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By WILL CONNORS

ABUJA, Nigeria – A number of foreign banks, including four South African institutions and a British firm, have expressed interest in buying into Nigeria’s troubled banks, said central bank chief Lamido Sanusi.

In August, Mr. Sanusi orchestrated a $2.6 billion bailout of five Nigerian banks, which the central bank said were teetering because of mismanagement and underperforming loans. Four additional banks were bailed out this month, with an additional cash injection of $1.3 billion.

Mr. Sanusi has suggested he’d try to find domestic and foreign investors for the troubled banks. In an interview Thursday, Mr. Sanusi said he expected a number of healthier Nigerian banks to express interest in stakes, probably with foreign partners.

He said, however, that the central bank wasn’t inclined to have any one bank attain more than a 20% market share in Nigeria’s domestic banking sector. He said the central bank would likely step in to prevent a deal that would create a combined bank with a greater market share.

“I would probably stop it,” he said.

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