African Business articles from February 2009

African Business archives from February 2009

Force of character.(Obama and Africa)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... It is often suggested that we Americans suffer from terrible parochialism, that we are obsessed with our own country and are hopelessly out of touch with events in the rest of the world or, at least, view them with a totally skewed American...

Thoughts on Nigeria's budget.(A post-oil economy)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... I should like to share my thoughts on the issues raised in your Nigeria Countryfile report (African Business January 2008, The "if-only" budget'). The assessment of the reporter, that little was completed in terms of infrastructure projects...

The media and literacy.(Broadcasting's role in Africa)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... Your coverage of the First Africa Broadcast and Convergence Conference (African Business, November 2008 issue) caught my attention. Africa broadcasting could finally represent our opportunity to present a more positive image of our...

A divide and conquer strategy?(The trouble with China)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... Matthew Morgan hits the nail on the head when he writes: "Chinese imports have raised the living standards of many Africans but they have also cemented the industrial status quo by preventing African businesses from growing their processing and...

Botswana ratings remain stable.(Economic outlook)
February 1, 2009... Botswana has been able to escape a downgrading by international rating agencies. Standard & Poor's (S&P) has confirmed that Botswana foreign currency credit rating has a stable outlook. In a statement, S&P said Botswana will be able to contain...

Zimbabwe defies SADC on new land regulations.(Law)(South African Development Community )(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The government of President Robert Mugabe says it will defy a South African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruling to stop the seizure of white-owned farms. In December, the tribunal ruled that Zimbabwe's planned seizure of dozens of...

Indians buy 60% stake in Bourse Africa.(Exchanges)(Financial Technologies India)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Financial Technologies India (FTIL) has acquired a 60% stake in Botswana-based Bourse Africa, allowing it to set up a spot exchange in commodities, currencies, bonds and diamonds. The licence also allows it to trade in derivatives. The...

Nigeria satellite 'parked for repairs'.(High Tech)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Nigeria's Chinese-made and launched communications satellite has not been 'lost in space' as previously reported in the media, but was parked away from orbital traffic for safe storage while it was being repaired. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Panic leads to gold coin rush.(Investment)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The global supply of gold coins is drying up, says the South African Gold Coin Exchange. "Unsurprisingly, coin dealers the world over are starting to run out of stock of all manner of gold coins," reports Alan Demby, executive chairperson of...

Transhipment used for massive smuggling racket.(Crime)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Smugglers are using the busy overland trade route through Botswana to shift tons of Chinese contraband clothing to big retail stores in South Africa. The goods are landed at the Namibian port of Walvis Bay and then trucked or railed by the...

Cut taxes--demand Zambia's foreign miners.(Taxation)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Foreign owners of Zambia's copper mines have asked the government to cut fuel prices and taxes to help them survive the commodities downturn. Zambia's Minister of Mines, Maxwell Mwale, reports that mine owners also want a reduction in...

Unilever drops hoodia as slimming agent.(Pharmaceuticals)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The development of a product that signalled quick weight loss for the world's obese, and big financial reward for some of the world's poorest people, has been abandoned by Unilever. Based on the Namibia desert's hoodia plant, used by...

Create jobs for Africa's young, says WB.(Employment)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... African countries should focus their job creation initiatives on reducing youth unemployment levels, says the World Bank's African Development Indicators 2008. According to the report, three in five of the total number of unemployed are young...

East Africa integration gets new funds.(Development)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Britain is test-driving its recently instituted, Arusha-based Regional East Africa Integration Programme with a $30m grant to the East African Community to upgrade key transport corridors linking member states. The cash will be used to...

Walking tall: journeys to inspire.
February 1, 2009... "I AM THINKING NOW". Words to make Descartes proud. But to Patrick Awuah, founder and president of the first liberal arts college in West Africa, this bold epiphany from a freshman provided the proverbial beacon of light confirming his new...

Changing the world.(Editorial)(inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama)
February 1, 2009... One of Britain's most respected newspaper columnists, Polly Toynbee, described Barack Obama's magnificent inauguration as an event that has changed the world forever. This sentiment was broadly echoed in the European media, which welcomed the...

Aid who benefits?(COVER STORY)
February 1, 2009... The word 'development' has become a sacred cow that can never be questioned and neither can the effectiveness of the vast, global development industry. But who, if anyone, is benefiting from the aid industry? Why is aid still required in Africa...

How aid works (or doesn't).(COVER STORY)
February 1, 2009... The term 'aid' appears to be able to take on a variety of meanings depending on various viewpoints. This allows both 'donors' and 'recipients' to complicate and fudge the issue to such an extent that the public is left floundering in a morass...

Top three donors.(Aid)(foreign aid)
February 1, 2009... Sweden is ranked first in terms of the quality and per capita quantity of foreign aid, with the country contributing 1% of its GNI. Swedish aid has increased by 9.7%, from $3.99bn in 2006 to $4.33bn in 2007. Sub-Saharan Africa received $876m,...

The big land sell-off: with vast tracts of land being sold in Madagascar, and Sudan and other African governments actively seeking investors in agricultural land, are we witnessing a neo-colonial land grab or will the investment result in greater food productivity to the long-term benefit of recipient nations? M J Morgan ponders the possibilities.(FOOD PRODUCTION IN AFRICA)
February 1, 2009... In November, South Korea's Daewoo Logistics made the startling announcement that the company had secured a 99-year lease on 1.3m hectares of land, an area roughly half the size of Belgium, from the government of Madagascar. Daewoo's investment...

Zim image damaging 2010 brand: distressing images of suffering in neighbouring Zimbabwe are threatening the entire branding campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Tom Nevin reports on the implications.(WORLD CUP WATCH)
February 1, 2009... Millions of rands have been spent by the South African government in branding the country as the place to be in the lead up to the World Cup, for the event itself and somewhere to return to after the 2010 event has been and gone. But for how...

Airports will be the best they can be-transport chief.(Logistics)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... When the first planeload of football fans touches down in South Africa in June next year for the start of the 2010 soccer world Cup, it will be at an airport specially upgraded for the event, equipped with the best of everything global aviation...

'Excuse me, my 2010 is ringing!'.(Communications)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Another dimension has been added to the ways football fans will watch the matches of the 2010 Fifa World Cup--the cellphone. Following agreement by South Africa's Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) to issue two mobile television...

Back to the coal age: South Africa has dumped the atom and reset its sights on fossil fuels to generate almost all of its energy for the next two decades.(ENERGY)
February 1, 2009... The decision by the South African government to sideline its new-generation nuclear build has wiped clean the energy canvas painstakingly crafted by state utility Eskom of what the region's electricity landscape could have looked like in 20...

World Bank leads South Africa's power rescue package.(Project financing)
February 1, 2009... After years of resisting World Bank intervention, South Africa has finally turned to the group for substantial financing in loans to help pay for new power stations. After exploring other options, including massive consumer tariff hikes...

Waiting for the storm to pass.(Mining in Africa)
February 1, 2009... One might have expected that with the global economy still tottering and the demand for minerals at its lowest for a decade, investment in the sector would show a severe decline. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Both foreign...

Mittal deal is the key.(MAURITANIA)(Arcelor Mittal)
February 1, 2009... Like Guinea, Mauritania's mining industry future relies upon improved political stability in the country. A coup in August 2008 unsettled foreign investors in the country and it remains to be seen whether the new government will honour existing...

Junta uncertainty clouds Guinea mining sector: the death of one of Africa's longest-reigning heads of state, Guinea's Lansana Conte, has cast a pall of uncertainty over the country's mining sector. In terms of mineral wealth, Guinea is one of the most richly endowed countries in the world.(Mining in Africa)
February 1, 2009... The death of President Lansana Conte on 22 December has shed a great deal of uncertainty over the fate of Guinea's mining industry. Conte had ruled the country with an iron grip since 1984 and so the relationships developed with mining...

Manganese shores up black mining companies.(SOUTH AFRICA)
February 1, 2009... Despite lower global demand for most mining products, the black empowerment firms that have invested in South Africa's manganese sector over the past two years are making strong progress. Most have formed joint ventures with the established...

DR Congo's $24 trillion fortune.(Mining in Africa)(Democratic Republic of Congo )
February 1, 2009... The total mineral wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is estimated to be some $24 trillion--equivalent to the GDP of Europe and the US combined, but this vast region, larger than the whole of western Europe, remains staggeringly...

Tragic history.(CONGO)(politics)
February 1, 2009... The political fortunes of the country have constantly been inversely correlated with its material endowment. Early English colonisation gave way to the brutal Belgian occupation, well documented in the 1998 book King Leopold's Ghost (and...

Mining in Africa.(National Congress for the Defence of the People )(Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda )
February 1, 2009... KIVU CONFLICT The fighting escalated in August when CNDP rebel leader Laurent Nkunda launched offensives against the government army accusing them of inability--or unwillingness--to disarm the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda...

Statistics and other lies: while statistics have become an essential element of government and business planning across the world, just how accurate are the figures that African governments and other organisations involved with the continent churn out?(LETTER FROM EAST AFRICA)
February 1, 2009... One of the perennial problems facing research scientists who work in Africa, is that they sooner or later come to realise that they cannot take any official statistics about the continent at face value. This is not because there are no...

Britain, US could lead visitor charge.(Tourism in Africa)
February 1, 2009... A change in travel trends in 2009 could spearhead an economic turnaround for many African countries. Tourism is one of Africa's largest foreign exchange earners and it will no doubt attract more travellers from Britain now the pound has edged...

Bongo who goes slowly, goes surely: Christian Lapeyre interviews Gabon's president Omar Bongo, who is one of the longest-reigning heads of state in the world.(GABON)(Interview)
February 1, 2009... African Business: Your many years' experience as Gabon's Head of State have allowed you to build close relations with all the presidents of France. How do you describe your relations with the former colonial power? President Omar Bongo: I...

CNLCEI leading Gabon's fight against corruption: Gabon is the only African country to have established a commission mandated to fight corruption, the illicit diversion of funds and capital flight. In this interview, the president of Commission Nationale de Lutte Contre I'Enrichissement Illicite (CNLCEI), Vincent Lebondo Le-Mali, provides an insight into the organisation's mission and the importance of good governance.(GABON)(Interview)
February 1, 2009... As with other countries in Africa, 2003 proved a significant year for Gabon in terms of tackling corruption and illicit gains. In May of that year, the UN Convention of Maputo, known as Merida, put in place fresh international legislation. In...

How Botswana avoided the 'resource curse'.(GUEST COLUMN)
February 1, 2009... Why is it that natural resources such as oil and minerals have led to the phenomenon known as 'resource curse' in Africa, while the same natural bounty in the Middle East, Asia and Europe has led to growth and some of the highest living...

Can the 'great escape artist' do it again? The favourite to become South Africa's next president has one more legal mountain to climb. Can he beat the odds in his biggest challenge so far and claim the throne? Tom Nevin reports.(SOUTH AFRICA)
February 1, 2009... Nelson Mandela rightly earned the accolade of 'South Africa's Great Survivor', becoming a global icon after nearly 30 years of imprisonment and deprivation. Now that title is seriously being contended by another political leader, but for...

'Ma' Mbeki ditches ANC.(Communication)(African National Congress )(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The mother of former African National Congress chief and national president Thabo Mbeki stunned the party faithful when she quit the venerable party and joined its bitter political opponents, the Congress of the People (Cope). The move...

The search for price stability: while Nigeria's new budget continues to get slammed both in parliament and on the high street, the country is now debating the merits of national policies aimed at inflation control. Williams Ekanem spoke to several experts to gauge opinion.(NIGERIA)
February 1, 2009... There have been few budgets in recent years that have attracted so much criticism from economists and the public alike as Nigeria's N2.87 trillion ($3.5bn) 2009 national budget presented by President Umaru Yar'adua. Many have described it as a...

How the elephant bit the dust: how did John Atta Mills and his NDC party win the closest-ever elections in Ghana's history? What aces did they have up their sleeves? Baffour Ankomah, a Ghanaian himself, returned to his homeland to see how it all happened.(GHANA)
February 1, 2009... Eight years now appears to be the longest term the Ghanaian electorate is prepared to give any president they elect. In 2000, the people voted out President Jerry John Rawlings' National Democratic Congress (NDC) when he was about to finish his...

Professor John Evans Atta Mills.(Profile)
February 1, 2009... Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, 64 (above), owes his political career to former president Jerry Rawlings, who plucked him from the anonymity of academia in 1996 and made him his vice-presidential running mate in that year's elections....

The charcoal conundrum: the good news is that the charcoal trade in Malawi is booming and thus supporting a livelihood for the urban poor; the bad news is that this is leading to massive environmental damage. Lameck Masina reports on initiatives to resolve the dilemma.(MALAWI)
February 1, 2009... The booming charcoal trade is damaging Malawi's reputation as an evergreen country. About 140,000t of charcoal are produced per year in Malawi but this means that the country loses about 50,000 hectares of indigenous forest every year--the...

Shire-Zambezi waterway link will boost trade.(Communication)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... For Malawi, being landlocked clearly presents difficulties to developing international trade, as exports for international markets need to be transported long distances to the nearest seaports, leading to high transportation costs. One...

Success under scrutiny: asking awkward questions.(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Do Bicycles Equal Development in Mozambique? By Joseph Hanlon & Teresa Smart [pounds sterling]45 James Currey ISBN: 978-1-84701-319-4 Mozambique is frequently described as an African triumph, as an example of how a country can...

Tropical treasures from the archives: Congolese rumba to the roots of zouk.
February 1, 2009... Bon Voyage!! By Ry-Co Jazz RetroAfric Retro22CD The purveyors of some of the finest historic recordings of African music, the venerable RetroAfric label, are now offering a second sweet helping of Ry-Co Jazz's inimitable...