African Business articles from August 2007

African Business archives from August 2007

Curious inclusions: Botswana's statistics.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... In a recent edition of your very informative magazine, there was a curious inclusion of Botswana in the article about per capita income by Tom Nevin (Statistics that Hide the Truth, African Business, July 2007 issue). [ILLUSTRATION...

Sustainable energy: meeting Africa's needs.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... As someone particularly interested in environmental issues, I was intrigued to read Danny Ross' letter to the Editor (Coal can be Clean, New technologies explained--African Business, July 2007 issue) in the light of a recent announcement from...

Presidential material? The Sexwale interview.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... Thank you for the interview you ran with Tokyo Sexwale, (African Business July 2007 issue). It gave a brilliant insight into the thoughts of this man who many believe should succeed Thabo Mbeki as the president of South Africa. Although there...

Zimbabwe's decision: bounce could take a generation.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... I was recently re-reading my back copies of African Business when I happened upon the April 2007 issue and Anver Versi's editorial 'Mugabe--The lost opportunities'. I generally have no quibble with Mr Versi's opinions, but I do think he is...

Equity watch call: further a share-owning culture.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... I have been a loyal reader of your magazine for many years, and have been wondering for some time why you do not cover Africa's increasingly active stock markets. It is widely agreed that Africa needs equity investment, rather than debt...

Algeria hosts games.(Sport)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The All Africa Games returned to Algeria for the first time in 29 years when the country's capital Algiers hosted the event, attracting some 9,000 athletes from 47 African countries. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 9th All Africa Games took...

Nairobi exchange to accept plastic.(Finance)(Barclays Bank Ltd.)(Nairobi Stock Exchange Ltd.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Kenya stockbrokers are now accepting credit card payments for shares in a move that is expected to increase access to the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Barclays Bank and NSE traders have formed a partnership that authorises the traders to take...

Africa's rich grow richer.(Survey)
August 1, 2007... Africa's super-rich saw their assets grow by more than 14% last year according to a Merrill Lynch sponsored consultancy report. The annual survey, undertaken by Capgemini for the investment bank, indicates the wealth of Africa's richest...

Malanje centre lands $324m.(Investment)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Angola will spend $324m on the Malanje agro-industrial centre located by the Capanda hydroelectric scheme. The aim is to revive agricultural and industrial development in the province that had been severely impacted by the civil war. ...

Infrastructure fund gets go-ahead.(Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) has been given the green light by African ministers who met during the AU summit in Accra, Ghana, early last July. The PAIDF will be headquartered in South Africa and have branches...

Annan to head Agra.(Agriculture)(Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa)(Kofi Annan)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has been appointed the first chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra). Agra was established last year with an initial grant of $150m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation...

South Africa wins bid.(Science centre)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... South Africa has won its bid to host the sixth Science Centre World Congress in 2011, fending off competition from Egypt to become the first African country to host the event. The congress will bring "hundreds of the world's best in the...

AB guide to African currencies.(Briefs)(Table)
August 1, 2007... AB Guide to African Currencies Country Currency [pounds sterling]STG Algeria (Dinar) 142.05 Angola (New Kwanza) 154.08 Benin (CFA) ...

Well deserved awards for African journalists.(Editorial)
August 1, 2007... African journalists are a special breed. They are some of the hardest working, most dedicated and honest bunch of professionals you will ever find anywhere. In many countries on the continent, they are also routinely underpaid, overworked,...

2020 vision: Nigeria's grand plan.
August 1, 2007... Nigeria's grand plan is to become one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 and also to be the African financial centre of choice by the same date. An impossible achievement? African Business editor, Anver Versi was invited to...

Africa's telecoms revolution: some have described it as being as significant to Africa as the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel. In this special survey, African business editor Anver Versi provides an analysis of the way that Africa's IT revolution is transforming communications across the continent.(Telecoms in Africa)
August 1, 2007... Africa is the most exciting communications market in the world" declares Julian Mcintyre, president and chief treasurer of Gateway Communications. He should know. His company provides satellite connectivity to Africa's growing number of...

Kuwait mobile giant looks to Africa for growth: the Kuwait based telecoms giant, MTC, which paid a record figure to purchase Celtel in 2005, is looking to Africa to provide more than three quarters of its expansion growth by 2011. Anver Versi has the details.(Telecoms in Africa)
August 1, 2007... IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, announced its largest ever financing for sub-Saharan Africa late in July--a $320m package for five operations of Celtel International B.V. Celtel, which is now a subsidiary of the Kuwait based MTC...

All Africa TV channel will bank on mobile technology: by next summer, Africa could well have its own 24 hour news channel thanks to the phenomenal growth of mobile phone ownership and the rapid advances in telecom technology. Anver Versi reports.(Telecoms in Africa)(television)
August 1, 2007... Salim Amin, son of the legendary media personality Mohamed Amin, is confident that by the summer of 2008, Africa will have its own independent 24 hour news channel. Salim now heads the Camerapix media empire headquartered in Nairobi. ...

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August 1, 2007... Dear Reader, Your opinion is invaluable to help us assess your information needs, as well as help our editorial, advertising and marketing departments to continue to develop the magazine in ways that we hope you find useful, interesting...

Hedging your bets: what do the terms 'hedging', 'put option' and 'call option' actually mean? How do these sophisticated financial instruments work? What are the risks and benefits involved? This month's View from the City explains some of the financial world's more complex instruments.
August 1, 2007... Hedging, a method of reducing the risk of loss in a commercial transaction caused by price fluctuations, has been an integral part of developed markets' financial systems for more than 30 years. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, with the...

Pros and cons of the Bujagali scheme: in this month's column, Neil Ford re-examines the controversial Bujagali HEP scheme in light of Uganda's chronic shortage of power.(Column)
August 1, 2007... As reported in African Business last month, Uganda's long awaited Bujagali hydroelectric scheme is finally to be developed with the support of the World Bank. There are certainly a number of social and environmental considerations to be taken...

International hotel chains wake up to African potential.(Travel and tourism)
August 1, 2007... In terms of the number of hotel chains currently present in Africa, the continent is still very much behind other regions. However, as Trevor Ward, the managing director of the W Hospitality Group, based in Lagos, Nigeria, explains, the...

East African waterways offer cheap and easy transport: the transport potential of East Africa's waterway systems, comprising lakes and rivers, has been neglected but could offer easy and cheap access to and from ocean ports. Neil Ford discusses the recent decision to revive inland waterway transport in the sub region.(Transport)
August 1, 2007... Africa's inland waterways have long been mooted as part of the solution to the continent's transport woes. While road and rail networks require constant maintenance and upgrading, navigable rivers and lakes have need of far less investment and...

With oil, we are going to fly--Kufuor: the discovery of economically viable oil reserves off shore Ghana is in danger of raising too many expectations. It will take quite some time before the oil can be commercially exploited. In the meanwhile, the economy has been performing well and, as Neil Ford points out, it might be best not to pay too much heed to the newly discovered oil.(GHANA)
August 1, 2007... A recent announcement by Irish firm Tullow Oil and Gas could see Ghana join the ranks of Africa's net oil exporters. The country has long produced a small quantity of crude oil that helped to reduce its oil import bill but government efforts to...

Pouring oil on Delta's troubled waters? The kidnappings and violence in Nigeria's main oil producing region, the Delta, remains a running sore in the country's body politic. New president, Umaru Yar'Adua, has called for talks to try and end the stalemate. Will he succeed? Report by Neil Ford.(NIGERIA)
August 1, 2007... Now that the dust has settled after the Nigerian elections and Umaru Yar'Adua settles into his job as Nigerian president, attention is once again turning to the future of the Niger Delta. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] The activities of the...

Crisis is a way of life: Tom Nevin, writing from Johannesburg, says that reports of Zimbabwe's imminent collapse now appear to have been premature. The trend has now shifted to searching for ways to halt the inflation and return the economy to an even keel.(ZIMBABWE)
August 1, 2007... Events in Zimbabwe apparently barrel along at breakneck speed, but most seem illusionary when you try to put a finger on them. A check on newspaper accounts of developments in that country a year ago shows that nothing much has changed except...

BAT closure could hit tobacco industry: BAT's decision to stop manufacturing cigarettes in Mauritius has dealt a severe blow to the island's small tobacco industry. Nasseem Ackbarally reports from Port Louis.(MAURITIUS)
August 1, 2007... At least 100 manufacturing jobs will be lost, but it is local farmers who will mainly suffer with BAT's (formerly British American Tobacco) decision to stop purchasing tobacco from Mauritian smallholder farmers. Tobacco cultivation in Mauritius...

Was strike political muscle flexing? Was the month long strike by South Africa's civil servants really about better salaries and conditions, or was this a flexing of political muscle by the country's largest trade union, Cosatu? Tom Nevin discusses.(SOUTH AFRICA)
August 1, 2007... South Africa's bruising, and at times brutal, month-long civil servants strike was as much about politicking as it was about forcing better salaries and conditions for nurses and teachers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] ...

Drowning in the devil's filth: big oil and corruption.(Book review)
August 1, 2007... Poisoned Wells The Dirty Politics of African Oil By Nicholas Shaxson [pounds sterling]15.99 Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-7194-3 This book has at its centre a simple premise--that the oil industry in Africa is uniquely...

Under the Tree of Talking.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2007... Under the Tree of Talking. By Wambu, Onyekachi Foreword by John Githongo [pounds sterling]11.99 Couterpoint ISBN: 978-0-86355-586-2 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This is a collection of essays by 18 distinguished thinkers and...

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are failing and what can be done about it.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2007... The Bottom Billion Why the Poorest Countries are failing and what can be done about it By Paul Collier [pounds sterling]16.99 Oxford Union ISBN978-0-190531145-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Global poverty is falling...

Dragons at your door: How Chinese Cost Innovation is Disrupting Global Competition.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2007... Dragons at your door How Chinese Cost Innovation is Disrupting Global Competition By Ming Zeng & Peter J Williamson [pounds sterling]16.99 Harvard Business Press ISBN 978-1-4221-0208-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The new...

Goodbye Lucille.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2007... Goodbye Lucille By Segun Afolabi [pounds sterling]11.99 Jonathon Cape ISBN: 978-0-224-07603-6 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is Berlin, in the summer of 1985. Vincent is an overweight, struggling photographer living in a...

Uganda's Monica Arac de Nyeko wins 2007 Caine Prize.
August 1, 2007... Uganda's Monica Arac de Nyeko has won the 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing--described as Africa's leading literary award--for Jambula Tree from 'African Love Stories', published last year by Ayebia Clarke Publishing. The chair of judges,...

More of Guinea's finest: the original four brothers.(African Virtuoses)(Guinean Guitar Group)
August 1, 2007... The Classic Guinean Guitar Group African Virtuoses Sterns STCD3024 Regular readers of this magazine will recall that the last CD review, Authenticite, (African Business June 2007 issue) featured recordings from the great...