African Business articles from August 2008

African Business archives from August 2008

The benefits of clean water.(Health)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... Few factors have such a heavy influence on the relative poverty of different societies as public health. People in a state of ill health cannot reasonably carry out any sort of trade. East Africa as a region has a great many diseases that...

Unacceptable border delays.(A trader's experience)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I read Dr Mohan Kaul's ariticle (African Business, May 2008 issue) with great interest, as a professor of international business management and a trader in the Ecowas region. The most interesting idea and surely the one that would have an...

The public-private debate.(Healthcare for all)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I was fascinated by your book review, Establishing Private Health Care Facilities in Developing Countries (African Business, May 2008 issue). Would that our law makers had read this, especially your reviewer's comment that "attracting private...

The way forward.(Stabilise food prices)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I very much welcomed your report regarding the rising food prices and in particular their impact on our continent (The soaring cost of food--African Business June 2008 issue). It was a strong analysis of the current situation even if a little...

Call for change.(Old school economics)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... If South Africa's economy does go belly-up, as was speculated upon in South Africa--Looming Spectre of Recession (Countryfile South Africa, African Business June 2008 issue) we will know exactly who to blame--nobody but ourselves! Our...

Eskom board members bonus reversed.(Power)(Eskom Holdings Ltd.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Jacob Maroba, the chief executive of Eskom; South Africa's state-owned power utility, has turned down his annual bonus, reckoned to be about R1.5m ($220,000), as a measure of accepting responsibility for the electricity crisis that plunged...

$5bn for Africa's agri-development.(Agriculture)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The African Development Bank (AfDB ) will allocate $4.8bn from 2008 to 2010 to boost agricultural development in Africa. AfDB President Donald Kaberuka says that in 10 years, agricultural production in Africa has registered an average annual...

Anglo defends its Zim PG holdings ...(Resources)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Anglo American says it had no choice other than to proceed with a platinum project in Zimbabwe because the government there has said it will take over the US$400m project if Anglo withdraws. The British government is investigating the project...

Zambia to recall its greybeards.(Skills)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The enforced retirement of scientists in Zambia's public sector could be raised from the age of 55 years to more than 70 in order to address a chronic national skills shortage, reports The Standard newspaper. "It takes so many years for...

... while rival LonZim launches Fly540.(Resources)(LonZim plc will launch its pan-African airline Fly540)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... LonZim plc will launch its pan-African airline, Fly540, in Zimbabwe within the next two years, reports Zimbabwe's government-owned Herald newspaper. "The company has allocated a budget of $3.3m from its cash resources to establish the airline...

New funding for W Africa infrastructure.(Transport)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The World Bank has approved a $190m package to upgrade transport infrastructure in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. The project supports the Nepad transport agenda of "trade corridors without borders and barriers", which aims to encourage trade...

Mozambique suspends fuel duties and taxes.(Fuel)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The Mozambique government is Africa's first to ease its citizen's plight in hard economic times by suspending customs duties and value added tax on imported fuel products. Energy minister Salvador Namburete says the measure was taken to...

Africa hamstrung by drip-feed funding.(ITC)(information and communication technology)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... A lack of infrastructure funding is retarding rural telecentre proliferation in African information and communication technology (ICT). Experts told delegates at an ITC conference in Lusaka, Zambia, that private companies and donor institutions...

Cash boost for clinical trials.(Medicine)(Report)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is injecting over [euro]80m ($124m) into African medical research. The Science and Development Network reports that the money will be spent on malaria research, the...

Cycling history maker.(Sport)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Africa's latest high-quality export is a cyclist named Luthando Kaka. He's also a history-maker, being the first black South African road cyclist selected to ride for a top European professional cycling team. The 22-year-old Khayelitsha, Cape...

South Africa's den of postal thieves.(Crime)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Global mail order giant, amazon.com, will no longer ship goods to South Africa from the US because of what it called "rampant theft "by workers at the South African Post Office (SAPO). Shoppers wanting to order directly from the US-based...

'Afro-optimism' is called for.(Governance)(Worldwide Governance Indicators)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Many developing country governments are making important gains in the control of corruption, some of them matching rich country performance in overall governance measures, says this year's Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) compiled by World...

Africa must nurture the human side of e-learning.(Education)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Making the most of e-learning (learning via technology) is a matter of developing 'the softer' elements, such as training and human capacity building, as well as developing infrastructure, a continent-wide survey on e-learning in Africa has...

Nigeria plans floating liquefaction project.(Oil & Gas)(Mitsubishi Corp.)(Flex LNG Ltd)(Peak Petroleum Industries)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Flex LNG Ltd has signed a heads of agreement with Mitsubishi Corp. and Peak Petroleum Industries Nigeria to jointly develop and market the world's first floating liquefaction project off Nigeria. The partners will exploit natural gas reserves...

Agricultural infrastructure programme kicks off.(Farming)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Small-scale farmers in Ghana, Madagascar and Mali are the first beneficiaries of a multibillion dollar project to rehabilitate agricultural infrastructure. The project will later be expanded to other developing countries. The programme is a...

Nigerian oil regulator suspended.(Audit)(Tony Chukwueke has been suspended )(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Nigeria's national oil ministry has suspended Tony Chukwueke from his role as head of the nation's oil industry regulator while it investigates oil licences awarded last year under a former president. Chukwueke will take forced leave. ...

Campaign for uniform VAT across East Africa.(Tax)(value added tax)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... East African tax experts want finance ministers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to harmonise VAT (value added tax) charges in the region. They say the different rates cause headaches and confusion across the East African Community. Kenya charges...

Canadians tell S Africa to pull socks up.(Commerce)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The South African government has come under heavy fire from a Canadian business organisation for incompetence and shortsightedness. Canada-South Africa Chamber of Business president Bruce Shapiro told the African Mining Congress 2008 in...

First Bank opens Paris branch.(Finance)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... First Bank of Nigeria plc (FBN) extended its services to France in July with its UK subsidiary, FBN Bank (UK) Ltd opening a Paris branch. The inauguration of the Paris branch was witnessed by officials from the French central bank, Banque de...

Identify the core of your business.(Editorial)(Column)
August 1, 2008... While I was attending the annual African Banking Congress in Johannesburg, I had the good fortune of being able to participate in a master class on aspects of management. The master class consisted of a lecture and interactive simulations in...

Zimbabwe last chance saloon.(Cover story)
August 1, 2008... Was it Thabo Mbeki's 'quiet diplomacy' finally bearing fruit; or the harsh words from some of Africa's most powerful political leaders; or threats from the Eu or the printing of a Z$100bn banknote or indeed the country running out of paper on...

Africa holds its breath: the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Zimbabwe's three feuding parties is a last ditch effort to pull the country out of its political, social and economic quagmire. But Africa must hold its breath until the secret negotiations are concluded.(Cover story)
August 1, 2008... Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara cooled their heels for two weeks after the 21 June signing of a Memorandum of Understanding as a tentative first step to digging themselves out of the Zimbabwe quagmire. [ILLUSTRATION...

How Mugabe split the continent: How much did the hostile reception he faced from other African leaders at the African Union summit in Cairo persuade Robert Mugabe to seek a negotiated settlement? Can he continue to split the continent as a power-sharing deal is being thrashed out?
August 1, 2008... While an unprecedented number of Africa's leaders bristled with indignation as Robert Mugabe, having 'won' an uncontested election took his place at the African Union Summit in Egypt last month, President Mugabe handed down a challenge of...

Can Africa calm market fears? African oil is assuming greater global strategic influence almost by the week. It is cheaper to extract, better in quality, nearer to its markets and there is more of it than oil from other regions. Can Africa bring some stability to a volatile global market?(ENERGY)
August 1, 2008... Oil appears to have reached an endgame of sorts with prices remaining high, despite one or two false dips in July. It is certain that demand will remain unabated, but can Africa increase its output to shore up an increasingly meagre world oil...

Price boom a blessing and a challenge: the prices that Africa's commodities fetch in the world market have never been higher. Ironically, production problems, for example power shortages in South Africa, have served to raise prices even further. The question is, how can Africa best employ this commodity windfall?(COMMODITIES)
August 1, 2008... Wherever one looks in Africa there is increasing prosperity from commodity prices--and the best may be yet to come. The benchmark commodities index--the Jefferies-Reuters CRB spot index--had reached a record high at the end of last June. The...

Chinese are now black--official; Far from calming South Africa's historically choppy racial waters, the decision to officially declare South Africa's Chinese as black has caused a new tempest.(TOPIC)
August 1, 2008... Chinese South Africans at last know where in the Rainbow Nation they belong. After years on a Chinese checkers board, being shunted from the black squares to the white and black squares to the white and back again, they finally have a legal...

A Who's Who of the African business world: the first CBC-African Business Awards ceremony, held in London in July attracted over 450 participants from all over the world. It is now likely to become one of the major London-based African calendar events in the future.(CBC AFRICAN BUSINESS AWARDS)
August 1, 2008... The first ever CBC--African Business Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London's fashionable West End, attracted a veritable Who's Who of the African business world. Over 450 invitees poured in from practically every country in Africa...

Nigeria now Africa's biggest market.(Telecoms in Africa)
August 1, 2008... Moving to the next stage The extraordinary growth in the number of mobile subscribers in Africa shows no signs of slowing down--if anything, as the recent flurry of mergers and acquisitions indicates, competition among telecoms, companies,...

Southern Africa: MTN's fate in the balanc.(Telecoms in Africa)
August 1, 2008... A proposed merger between Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN collapsed in May, apparently because of the Indian firm's view that it would be taking over the latter. This was followed by an approach to MTN by another Indian firm, Reliance...

East Africa: Safaricom sale a success.(Telecoms in Africa)
August 1, 2008... The biggest development in the East African telecoms sector this year has been the IPO of a 25% stake in Safaricom by the Kenyan government. The listing was hugely popular and more than 400% oversubscribed. It has been reported that over...

North Africa: Libyan market saturated.(Telecoms in Africa)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... While the Kenyan mobile market now records a penetration level of 35%, Libya became the first African country to achieve a teledensity of more than 100% in April this year. The North African state achieved a figure of 104.9%, meaning that there...

Developing capabilities and capacities in African LDCs: a strategy of accessing international knowledge pools and pursuing deep and rapid trade and investment liberalisation will only suceed if Africa makes technical progress, an important report states.(VIEW FROM THE CITY)(least developed countries)(Report)
August 1, 2008... Technology is transforming the lives of millions of African entrepreneurs and citizens, opening up new markets and opportunities for industries and money transfers. Sustained economic growth and poverty eradication in the least developed...

S. Africa shudders at Fifa's 'Plan B'; Fifa's admission that it has a 'Plan B' to stage the soccer World Cup elsewhere if South Africa is not ready in time has sent shockwaves throughout the country--and Zimbabwe is becoming the spider on 2010's shoulder.(WORLD CUP WATCH)
August 1, 2008... A series of worrying events have jolted South Africa's confidence for a slick and trouble-free soccer World Cup in under two years' time. Fifa's admission that the football world body does indeed have a 'Plan B' to switch the Cup away from...

Ethiopia blazes branding trail; At long last, Ethiopia, which produces some of the world's finest coffee varieties has taken a leaf from the Western marketing and branding manual and decided to trademark its unique coffee crop, thus earning much higher retail prices.(SPOTLIGHT)
August 1, 2008... An exhibition of photographs--mounted in London by one of the UK's top brand architects, Brandhouse--depicting life in Ethiopia marked the completion of one of the most significant trade marking exercises for an African commodity. ...

Greedy banks under the spotlight; An official enquiry into bank fees finds South African banks cream more off the top than banks anywhere else in the world. Is this why they are the world's most profitable?(SOUTH AFRICA)(South African Competition Commission investigate South African Airways, Tiger Brands and bank industry)
August 1, 2008... South Africans have long been victim to high prices for food and other consumer goods and services-and the reason has little to do with the latest round of global price hikes. As a flood of evidence is now showing--thanks to a terrier-like...

Liquidity glut wreaks price havoc: Nigeria, like other African countries, has to balance rising inflation with higher interest rates and it would like to be able to do so without causing additional hardship to those on low incomes.(NIGERIA)
August 1, 2008... As attractive as the Nigerian business environment is said to be, a major disincentive is the rather high cost of doing business. A combination of factors such as poor infrastructure, high overheads, the cost of finance and uncertainty about...

The future is green: the island nation of Mauritius has decided to go green in a big way. The last budget contains measures which, if fully implemented will dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels and cut back on carbon emissions.(MAURITIUS)
August 1, 2008... Mauritius, which should win every award going for innovation in the face of adversity, has embarked seriously on a programme of 'going green'. Finance Minister Rama Sithanen announced several measures in his June budget that will set the island...

Boom time for tobacco sales? Despite the anti-smoking lobby, championed by the world health organisation, that has threatened the future of the tobacco industry in many African countries, for the past two-years Malawi has experienced a boom in tobacco sales.(MALAWI)(Report)
August 1, 2008... Last year's tobacco selling season, for the first time in seven years, saw the commodity fetch good prices on Malawi's auction floors. At the start of the 2007 selling season in April the average price of tobacco ranged from $1.40 to $1.70/kg...

A life without fear is priority; Burundi's next elections are still two years away but new presidential hopefuls are already attempting to make their mark on both the domestic and foreign realms. Tom Nevin met one such--Alexis Sinduhije, who was a radio broadcaster before entering politics.(BURUNDI)
August 1, 2008... "When I ask the ordinary people of Burundi who come to my political rallies what they most want in their lives in Burundi to day, they tell me 'To live without fear,'" says Alexis Sinduhije, leader of the recently formed Movement for Security...

Revealed! The world's largest untapped market: Africa's opportunities and its challenges.(Book review)
August 1, 2008... Africa Rising How Africa's 900m consumers offer more than you think By Vijay Mahajan $25 Pearson (US) ISBN 0-13-233942-0 As a reviewer, always seeking new books that meet this magazine's primary objective--to report that...

Rose-Innes wins the Caine Prize.(Jambula Tree and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing, 8th ed.)(Book review)
August 1, 2008... Jambula Tree and other stories The Caine Prize for African Writing 8th Annual Edition [pound strelling]8.99 New internationalist ISBN: 978-1-904456-73-5 The winner of this year's $20,000 Caine Prize for African Writing has been won...

Amharic hits; Ethiopia's beats.(Sound recording review)
August 1, 2008... A Town called Addis By Dub Collossus Real World Cat: CDRW155 Direct from Addis Ababa, this album is the result of a project that pulls together an extraordinary but little known African musical heritage, a labour of love...