African Business articles from July 2002

African Business archives from July 2002

Diamond miner diversifies into hotels. (Business Briefs). (Debswana).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Botswana's 50-50 public/private diamond producer, Debswana, is planning on extending its leisure business. The company, the world's largest diamond producer, is in talks with international hotel and casino operator, Sol Kerzner, to initiate...

Zambia to streamline oil industry. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... Zambia's oil industry is to be streamlined with a $50m loan from the World Bank, a move that will also soften the impact of world price increases on ordinary citizens. Part of the funding will improve operations on the Tanzania-Zambia Pipeline...

Sharing income from indigenous plants. (Business Briefs). (for manufacture of cosmetics and drugs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Hope that big international companies may start to pay indigenous communities for the right to use localised plants for drugs and cosmetics has been sparked at a global environmental conference at The Hague, Netherlands. Some 166 countries...

SA a money-laundering magnet. (Business Briefs). (South Africa).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Hundreds of billions of rands from white-collar crime have been laundered through South Africa's financial system, but no convictions have yet been made, according to financial services giant, Deloitte & Touche in Durban, South Africa. The...

Three nation rail link-up. (Business Briefs). (Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Malawi and Mozambique are to merge their railway operations to provide constant freight transport services between the two countries, and provide a link with Zambia in line with the Nacala spatial development initiative. The operations...

Letters.
July 1, 2002... UNNECESSARY TRAVEL? A few months back you published a couple of letters from your readers bemoaning the state of African airlines. The tone of these letters seemed to imply that it was absolutely essential for these people to fly backwards...

AB Guide to African Currencies.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... AB Guide to African Currencies Country CURRENCY [pounds $US Euro sterling]STG Algeria (Dinar) 119.51 79.71 77.24...

Has Mugabe got his timing right? (Editorial).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Anver Versi At midnight on June 25, some 2,900 white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe were officially required to dawn tools and stop all work on their farms. An amendment in the Land Acquisition Act, inserted by Robert Mugabe's government...

The computerisation of Africa. (Cover Story).(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... Our in-depth report on the phenomenal growth of computerisation in Africa focuses on the progress that has been made in harnessing the benefits of information technology for the continent. Africa's information technology sector might be the...

New age for African telecommunications. (Special Focus: IT Africa).
July 1, 2002... As from May 27 this year it became possible for more than 12 million people in Africa to pick up the phone and make a call simultaneously thanks to the new undersea optical fibre communications cable SAT-3/WASC/SAFE now linking Europe and...

White-knuckle investment. (View from the City).
July 1, 2002... Don't invest in emerging markets unless you enjoy white - knuckle rides. As an asset class, emerging markets' (EMs) financial instruments are comparable with "junk-bonds" or sub-investment grade status. These small and illiquid markets in Latin...

Go for gold! (Mining Notebook).
July 1, 2002... In these unsure times, everybody wants a bit of certainty - and that means good, old fashioned gold. But for how long will the high prices hold? Is it time to invest in the yellow metal or pull out? In times of international uncertainties,...

MIGA increases its African presence. (Business News in Brief).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... The World's Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) has opened an office in Johannesburg, South Africa, to more quickly and efficiently deal with project proposals across Africa. MIGA promotes investment in developing countries...

Lesotho Water Project's phase II in doubt. (Business News in Brief).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... It now seems unlikely that the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) will proceed beyond the first phase. The most ambitious water storage and delivery system in the world, LHWP was designed to feed water into South Africa's industrial and...

Education under threat from Aids. (Business News in Brief).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... It kills teachers faster than they can be trained, makes orphans of students, and threatens to derail efforts by highly-infected countries to get all boys and girls into primary school by 2015, a new World Bank report warns. And yet a good...

Sort out your problems, NA and SAA ordered. (Business News in Brief).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The Nigerian and South African governments, fed-up with the bickering T between their national airlines, have ordered officials of Nigerian Airways and South African Airways to sir down and resolve their differences. Problems arose over the...

Teach a man how to fish. (Products & Processes).
July 1, 2002... Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you'll feed him for life, the saying goes. Does that apply to eels? Absolutely, say the forces behind a potential new R50m fishing industry in south-eastern Africa. ...

Coffee on the net - Kenya style. (Products & Processes).(entrepreneurs launch online coffee auction)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Two Kenyan entrepreneurs are on the brink of revolutionising the region's coffee trade with an online computer system that will link exporters with new buyers in Europe, America and Japan. The start to the venture was East Africa's first...

Harnessing the sun's power. (Products & Processes).(Development Bank of Southern Africa, Eskom studying solar energy system)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The provision of electricity to populations in remote rural areas is a problem wrestled with by power generators and distributors all over the world. Experiments are underway with wind, solar and even pocket-size nuclear plants. Now the...

Solar water-pump for rural irrigation. (Products & Processes).(Magnetic Gearing and Turbine, Rely Precision Castings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... On a smaller scale, but no less significant is a joint South African-Australian venture that could change the way crops are cultivated in remote rural areas, once again thanks to the sun. Magnetic Gearing and Turbine of Australia and Rely...

Space-age hairdressing. (Products & Processes).(CyberCut develops computerized system for cutting hair)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Well, it had to happen. The short back-'n-sides has been relegated to the dustbin of coiffure history by high-tech snipology. The haircut has given way to total hair design by computer. It's a good idea that had to happen and Johannesburg...

How to recharge your mobile in the bush. (Products & Processes).(Telltec International launches hand-crank for cellular phones)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Now you can take your cell-phone into the deep bush and not have to worry about a power source to recharge the batteries. Telltec International has produced a hand-crank cellular phone charger that provides alternative power when electricity is...

African stocks now on the web. (Products & Processes).(Liquid Africa offers online trading)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Investors with an appetite for Africa can now call on Liquid Africa for faster and easier access to 18 of the continent's 20 stock exchanges thanks to Cameroonian techno-wizard Cyrille Nkontchou. The entrepreneur has launched a web-based...

Cameroon looks for gas investments. (Oil and Gas).(Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures)
July 1, 2002... Speaking at the CWC Gulf of Guinea conference in London in May, Simon Tamfu, deputy exploration manager for Cameroon s state owned oil and gas company Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), called for increased investment in his country s...

Ongoing strife in Nigeria. (Oil and Gas).(Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its joint venture partners continue to clash over the issue of investment. The government is keen to increase the country's proven oil reserves from the current level of 22bn...

South Africa chooses green option. (Oil and Gas).(Oelsner Group receives license to build wind farm)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The South African National Electricity Regulator has granted its first independent power producer (IPP) licence to a renewable energy project. A wide array of small scale renewable energy projects have been initiated in the country but this is...

The Zambian fuel nobody wants. (Oil and Gas).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The trials and tribulations of the Zambian downstream sector continue to affect Indeni oil refinery. Energy and Water Development Minister Kaunda Lembalemba warned in June that oil marketing companies were sourcing their supplies from other...

The odd couple. (Dateline USA).
July 1, 2002... The celebrated pop singer and the hard-headed business man made an odd couple. Travelling on a US Treasury sponsored tour of Africa, Bono, the 42-year-old lead singer of the U2 pop group (14 Grammy awards with songs such as "Walk On" and...

African investments into Africa: South Africa is leading African-sourced investments into the rest of Africa but, Neil Ford wonders, how much good will these investments prove to the recipient countries? (Investment).
July 1, 2002... It is a truism to say that one of the main obstacles to real economic growth in Africa is a lack of investment, particularly in infrastructure. The kind of long term investment that is required in transport, power supplies, the water sector and...

Pirates still rule off Africa: despite tighter security, piracy in African waters is on the increase. (Shipping Focus).
July 1, 2002... Pirate attacks on ships African waters first increased during the quarter of the year, despite onboard security having being tightened throughout the industry. According to figures released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) there were...

Drought - a looming tragedy: a very serious food shortage, largely the result of drought and poor harvests, is threatening millions in Southern Africa. (Topic).
July 1, 2002... A crisis of enormous dimensions is facing nearly 13 million people in southern Africa. Jean Jacques Graisse, deputy-director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has described the situation as critical, saying the crisis is worsening by the...

Massive public support for Ben Ali. (Countryfile: Tunisia).
July 1, 2002... Public referendums, especially on such vital issues as amendments to the constitution of a country, can be dangerous things - as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe discovered last year when his citizens rejected changes to their constitution....

Obasanjo gambles with the economy. (Countryfile: Nigeria).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... At the beginning of March this year, Nigeria ended informal talks with the IMF 'in the interests of political stability, democratic consolidation, credibility and accountability'. Finance Minister Adamu Ciroma issued a statement saying that the...

Kenya loses FDI to neighbours. (Countryfile).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... Recent studies on foreign investment in East Africa paint a gloomy picture for Kenya, compared to Tanzania and Uganda. A study by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) indicates that Kenya began to lose out to its two neighbours from around...

Guns and Poses: Travels with an occasional war correspondent. (Reviews).
July 1, 2002... By Paul Moorcroft [pounds sterling]16.99 Millsteam Press ISBN0-9537977-2-4 Paul Moorcroft describes himself as a 'renegade academic turned journalist'. He has been, inter alia, an elected Welsh Nationalist local councillor, a...

In Search of King Solomon's Mines. (Reviews).
July 1, 2002... By Tahir Shah [pounds sterling]17.99 John Murray ISBN 0-7195-6324-0 King Solomon, the Bible's wisest king, also possessed extraordinary wealth. He built a temple at Jerusalem that was said to be more fabulous than any other in the...

Mugabe: Power and Plunder in Zimbabwe. (Reviews).
July 1, 2002... By Martin Meredith [pounds sterling]15.99 Perseus Books ISBN 1-903985-28-5 Robert Mugabe was once hailed around the world as a revolutionary hero. After a fierce civil war against white minority rule in Rhodesia he emerged as the...