African Business articles from July 2008

African Business archives from July 2008

The Kenyan nightmare.(Soaring cost of food)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Thank you for your excellent cover story ("The soaring cost of food"--African Business June 2008). Here in Kenya, people are increasingly unable to afford food commodities due to rising prices. 'Hunger' is fast replacing 'Raila' and...

The South-South revolution.(African strategies are vital)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... African Business has done its readers a great service in shedding light on a new and evolving phase of South-South collaboration and the promise it holds out for Africa. ("The South--South revolution", May 2008 issue). The article...

Leaders, management and capitalism.(Monkeys and Crowns)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I was very touched by the question you posed in your editorial "Monkeys and Crowns" (African Business, June 2008). To myself and perhaps most other people, the sound of the word 'leader' sparks a mental image of such historical figures such as...

The Japanese are coming.(Trade)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Africa in general and Tanzania in particular will soon experience an influx of Japanese investors keen to boost enterprises involved in agriculture, infrastructure, mining, and science and technology. Tanzania's foreign affairs and...

Africa's economy grows by 6%.(Economy)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Africa's economy will expand by 6% in 2008 and by a similar margin next year, thanks to windfall prices for oil and demand for commodities that shows no sign of slowing. The African Development Bank (AfDB) says in new research, carried out...

Rwanda wants to be Africa's high-tech hub.(ITC)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... The Rwandan government wants to use advanced ICTs--information communication technologies-to transform its traditionally agricultural society into "the Singapore of Africa". It is part of a $65m programme to transform Rwanda from a largely...

World Bank funds Zambian power feasibility study.(Energy)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... A feasibility study for a billion dollar power station in Zambia will be funded by the World Bank, officials have confirmed. The $6m study should be complete by end-2008. "In the next three years, we expect the physical construction of the...

France and the US still biting their SA nuclear nails.(Power)(South Africa)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Nuclear power station builders Areva of France and the United States' Westinghouse will have to wait another few anxious months to see which bidder has won the R120bn ($16bn) contract to install South Africa's new generation nuclear power...

Let's change Africa for good-Odinga.(Elections)(Raila Odinga)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... African leaders have been rapped over the knuckles for not speaking out on Zimbabwe's flawed election. Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, told the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town that the days were gone when Africa and the rest...

Microfinance help for DRC's entrepreneurs.(Development)(Democratic Republic of Congo)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... New microfinance assistance for Africa's emerging businesspeople has been launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The establishment of Advans Banque Congo with funding of $1.1m by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC)...

Global investment resource targets African leisure sector.(Tourism)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... TourismROI, claiming to be the world's premier centralised source for Travel & Tourism management and investment information globally, has launched its Africa Tourism Investment campaign with what its MD Trevor Ward describes as "perfect...

South African government must pay up.(Law)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... A watershed ruling by South Africa's Constitutional Court will force the government to pay litigants who have been awarded judgements against it. The country's highest court has struck down as unconstitutional a section of the State Liability...

Ethiopia's very good year.(Industry)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... The economy of Ethiopia will expand by 7.5% this year and 7.4% in 2009 in response to growth in the country's industry, agriculture and service sectors. The UN and AfDB report that the growth was broad-based and notably boosted by the...

SA power famine to drive up platinum prices.(Metals)(South Africa)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... South Africa's precarious and prolonged power generation shortage will continue to propel platinum upwards for at least the next year. The authoritative Commodity Online website quotes market analysts in predicting a 25% price rise to an...

UN seeks CDM 'green' investment for Africa.(Emissions)(United Nations, Clean Development Mechanism)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... With global trade in carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) soon expected to top $100bn annually, the UN has introduced a programme it hopes will help African governments and businesses attract billions of dollars in...

Right and wrong skill-sets.(employee performance)(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... About three months ago, I received an invitation to attend a two-day seminar in Amsterdam to "look at the state of management in the world today" and was told some of Europe's top managers would be present. I went. I was informed that the...

Africa's progress report; Goodbye Gleneagles; hello Hokkaido G8 summit.(Cover Story)(Group of Eight)(Cover story)
July 1, 2008... What has happened to all the generous pledges made to Africa at the Gleneagles G8 summit? Has Africa moved ahead? Have the donors put their money where their mouths are? What does the Hokkaido, Japan G8 summit have in store? A new report by a...

A little helping hand.(economic aid for Africa)
July 1, 2008... Three years ago, during the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, the world made a firm commitment to give Africa that final little push it needed to escape the endemic poverty that has held the continent in its clutches for over a century. Tony Blair,...

Members of the Africa Progress Panel.(The panel)(Brief article)(List)
July 1, 2008... Kofi Annan Former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Laureate [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tony Blair Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Promises and prospects: edited extracts from the Africa progress report.(Africa's Development:)
July 1, 2008... Gross domestic product per capita in Africa has risen steadily since 1994. According to the most recent estimates of the IMF, the rate of growth reached 6.6% in 2007-a rate expected to be maintained broadly in 2008. This is not as high as Asian...

Rwanda's IT revolution: Rwanda has identified information technology (IT) as its route out of poverty. The government has started a vigorous campaign to transform the economy through greater knowledge and the application of technology. Can Rwanda pull it off? Nitay Artenstein reports from Kigali.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
July 1, 2008... Queen's Internet Cafe, in the impoverished Kigali suburb of Nyamirambo, is teeming with children throughout most of the day. "Most of these kids are street children," says the owner, Pacifique Bayongwa. "I feel bad about letting them in, since...

Safaricom float beats all records: when president Mwai Kibaki rang the stock exchange bell in the second week of June to mark the beginning of Safaricom's trading, he was as optimistic as the day he launched the IPO. Dennis Onyango reports.(IT KENYA)(Initial Public Offering)
July 1, 2008... Just a month after the end of its record-breaking Initial Public Offering (IPO), Safaricom, the Kenya based mobile telephone company began trading its shares at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). But if some of those who bought the shares...

Is Mboweni stoking stagflation? While Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni relentlessly pushes up interest rates to combat inflation, economic growth forecasts have been cut to just 2% and the danger of stagflation 100ms larger. Which way should South Africa go? Tom Nevin has been investigating.(SOUTH AFRICA)
July 1, 2008... Savage and relentless interest rate hikes, power cuts, demands by the government-owned electricity monopoly for a real 60% price hike, budget-decimating food price increases and an out of control fuel price have mauled the South African economy...

Boom time for African construction: Chinese and Arabs lead construction charge.(Construction)
July 1, 2008... Several factors have come together to create the greatest construction boom in Africa since the heady 1970s. While the 2010 World Cup has led to a frenzy of construction projects in South Africa, the rest of Africa is also riding the crest of a...

Region by region.(Construction)(tourism promotion)
July 1, 2008... North Africa Algeria, with billions of petro-dollars in its treasury has embarked on a substantial construction programme. It awarded the UAE-based EMAAR Properties licenses to start the development of a $20bn complex of tourism,...

Battle for Cup tourist dollar: the hospitality industry reasonably expects bumper income from World Cup fans come 2010. The competition's hotting up-not only between hospitality groups, but entire countries within the sub region. Tom Nevin reports.(WORLD CUP WATCH)
July 1, 2008... Karikoga Kaseke, chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Tourism Board, says it best. "We are all very much aware that a great number of tourists will fail to get accommodation in South Africa. However, we must remember that Zimbabwe is not the...

Battle deepens over power upgrade: industrial strife looms on the horizon as South Africa's electricity monopoly seeks massive tariff increase to pay for urgently-needed expansion in supply capacity.(ENERGY)
July 1, 2008... Members of the South African government's ruling tripartite alliance are once again at each other's throats. This time the altercation is over the African National Congress's proposal to stagger a 53% increase in the price of electricity over...

A tribute to African entrepreneurs: this month, July, sees the presentation of the first ever CBC - African Business Awards in London. Companies and individuals from all over Africa vied for awards in 16 different categories. African Business editor Anver Versi has the details.(CBC - African Business Awards)
July 1, 2008... Encouraged by the runaway success of our African Banker Awards last year, we decided to plunge even deeper into what is for us still the relatively new world of award presentations by announcing the CBC-African Business Awards. ...

The Delta-our abused, neglected child: the troubled Niger Delta is the linchpin of Nigeria's economy and one of the world's most important sources of oil and gas. But the troubles continue to rumble on with no real solution in sight. Oilman Osamede Okhomina * warns of the dire consequences of a failure to find answers.(Essay)
July 1, 2008... One rainy, confused, chaotic day in Lagos, I was in a taxi going down Falomo Bridge and approaching Saka Tinubu junction in Victoria Island. As we drew near, I saw a young beggar-girl, aged five or so and disabled by polio, crawling through a...

Diversity is the key: diversity is the key to improving Africa's export capability. After six decades of losing market share, Africa actually increased its share of world trade in 2006. This begs the question whether recent trade expansion is sustainable?(VIEW FROM THE CITY)
July 1, 2008... In 2006 Africa's share of global exports rose to 3.1% from 2.4% in 2003. The Economist Intelligence Unit in London remarked, "International lending agencies and donor countries are desperately keen to believe that the increase marks the start...

'Shoot 'em dead', police are told; It seems the gloves are off. South Africa's violent criminals have been warned by Susan Shabangu, the country's deputy security minister, that she wants the police to shoot them dead. Tom Nevin reports on the reaction.(SOUTH AFRICA)
July 1, 2008... It has been a couple of months since Susan Shabangu, South Africa's deputy safety and security minister, exhorted the police to "kill the bastards if they threaten you or the community", referring to the country's criminal element and how to...

The great green fuel conversion; Malawi has taken up Brazil's lead and is now planning to switch from petrol to ethanol as the main vehicle fuel. Experiments on converting cars to run on this fuel have gone well and greater use of ethanol will be healthy for the economy. But is this campaign too soon and too ambitious? Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.(MALAWI)
July 1, 2008... As the price of crude oil keeps on rising, the Malawi government has embarked on an ambitious drive to ensure that all vehicles in the country switch to the cheaper alternative fuel--ethanol--in a few years' time. Statistics show that the price...

Spontaeous combustion or organised violence? The world, including most of Africa, was shocked and horrified as mobs in South Africa rampaged against foreigners. Most of the victims were Zimbabweans trying to eke out a bare living. What led to this sudden outbreak of violence? Was it spontaneous or was it organised? Tom Nevin has gathered together a few clues.(TOPIC)
July 1, 2008... As scenes of rage and terror and bloodied and burning bodies in South Africa's townships flashed across television news screens and jumped out of newspaper front pages across the world, the rand slumped against major currencies, tourism was...

Feed the world: a global emergency.(Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... Stuffed and Starved Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System By Raj Patel [pounds sterling]16.99 Portobello Books ISBN 978-1-84627-010-9 With the price of food likely to remain at record highs for the...

The unforgettable fire; Afro-Celtic connections.(In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2008... In the Name of Love Africa Celebrates U2 Various Artists Shout Factory WRASS 216 This album celebrates the music, culture and future of Africa, as well as serving as a musical homage to Bono and U2 for their ongoing...