African Business articles from June 2006

African Business archives from June 2006

Learning from history: insist on full value for our resources.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... Blinded by the awesome wealth they have appropriated, it would appear that Africa's elites are ignoring one important fact. The resources that they rely upon to retain their positions are fast-depleting. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Damning...

Africa needs new models: the role of indigenous languages.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... As the African continent awakens to the need for alternative economic models, it is imperative that Africa's original nations also not forget a most fundamental aspect of entrepreneurship: language. The significance of language in...

Africa's management condumdrum: confused about branding.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... It was certainly very interesting to read the survey of management that constituted the cover story of the May issue of African Business (Africa's Management Conundrum). But, as interesting as this feature article was, I was left mystified as...

Human resources riddle.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... Kim Warren's article on the 'Human Resources Riddle' in Africa (African Business May 2006 issue) poses a couple of interesting challenges for the human resources (HR) profession in Africa. Firstly, the need for the HR function to develop the...

Worker's poverty growing: ILO report published.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... You may be interested to know that the International Labour Office (ILO) has recently released its Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) report. The message is that unfortunately, throughout the world, globalisation is failing to create...

Cash not food aid: how the US can help.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... I was very intrigued by your review of US Foreign Power and the Horn of Africa by Peter Woodward (Book Review, African Business May issue). Your reviewer argues that the US has an opportunity to win 'hearts and minds' in the Horn of Africa by...

Prize letter: win a free annual subscription!
June 1, 2006... African Business will award a free one year subscription to the reader whose letter is chosen as the Prize Letter for that month. (Existing subscribers will receive a free annual renewal). Your views on Africa and matters affecting Africa are...

SA goes for nuclear power.(South Africa)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... South Africa will probably build a second nuclear power station to meet the growing gap in its electricity generation capacity, public enterprises minister Alec Erwin has said. The facility is earmarked for the Western Cape Province where the...

Write-offs in force at last.(cancellation of their debt)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Thirteen African countries have qualified for the cancellation of their debt to the African Development Bank (AfDB). The institution has forgiven debt of $8.5bn owed by 33 countries. The move is part of an agreement signed by G8 nations last...

Vic Falls heritage status in danger.(Nations Education and Scientific Organisation)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Zambia and Zimbabwe's biggest tourist magnet, the famed Victoria Falls, could lose its World Heritage status because of careless effluent and trash disposal in the Zambesi River upstream. The fate of one of the seven wonders of the modern...

Steady progress in meeting the MDGs.(Millennium Development Goals)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Evidence of reduced child deaths in nine out of 10 developing countries surveyed, rapid gains in primary school enrolment, and reduced HIV/Aids infection rates in several countries suggest that strong economic growth, backed by improved...

The rewards of peace.(economic growth)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Since Mozambique's emergence from its brutal and long-running civil war, it has maintained world-beating years of economic growth, last year expanding by a robust 7.5%, a rate set to be repeated this year. The consistent GDP expansion was...

Africa maintains its high GDP-growth record.(gross domestic product)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Overall economic growth in the developing world has averaged 4.8% a year since 2000, more than that of high-income economies, which averaged 2% a year. While this robust record has been driven largely by rapid growth in East and South...

Price bonanza for Zim maize farmers ...(minister of agriculture )(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Zimbabwe farmers can now expect a whopping Z$31.3m (US$313) a ton for the maize they produce in the 2006/2007 selling season. The previous price was Z$2.2m/t (US$22). The Zimbabwe minister of agriculture Joseph Made says the new price will...

... but tobacco needs financing.(tobacco has dropped in production)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Zimbabwe needs more than $223m to finance its once-lucrative tobacco crop "The next tobacco crop requires funding to the tune of Z$19trillion (US$191.5m) and a foreign currency component of $32m," says a report in the government-owned Herald...

AB guide to African currencies.(table)(Table)
June 1, 2006... AB Guide to African Currencies Country Currency [pounds sterling]STG Algeria (Dinar) 134.51 Angola (New Kwanza) 151.93 Benin (CFA) ...

Black consumer power.(EDITORIAL)(apartheid in South Africa)(Editorial)
June 1, 2006... There have been disturbing noises coming from South Africa that while apartheid may be officially dead, it continues to live on at social and cultural levels. There have been reports that whites, who were able to pick and choose the best jobs...

African ports and harbours Africa's gateway to world trade.
June 1, 2006... The largest segment of Africa's international trade is with the outside world. This proportion is certain to increase as the demand for Africa's natural resources grows and as its own import needs also swell. The bulk of Africa's export and...

How free is your economy? The Index of Economic Freedom (IEF) published annually by the US-based Heritage Foundation and the World Street Journal ranks countries in terms of how free from state interventions their economies are. Africa has been doing better than most over the past five years.
June 1, 2006... The right-wing US think-tank, The Heritage Foundation, believes strongly that economic freedom provides greater opportunities and prosperity for citizens. It defines economic freedom as "the absence of government coercion or constraint on the...

Where does all the oil money go? With rising production and high prices, billions of dollars of additional income are being made in oil-producing African countries. But how much do African governments actually benefit from such a boom and how much of the money is invested in projects that benefit their citizens?(Central Bank of Nigeria)
June 1, 2006... Oil production is set to rise rapidly in Nigeria and Angola, while Sudan and Equatorial Guinea are establishing themselves as oil exporters of global importance. Coupled with oil prices that stubbornly refuse to move below $60 a barrel, it is...

Africa from all angles: the theme for this year's World Economic Forum on Africa (Cape Town, May 31-June 2) is going for growth. A host of African heads of state and ministers will join business leaders to examine and analyse Africa's current status and its future needs. Report by African business editor, Anver Versi.(Editorial)
June 1, 2006... Conferences by the World Economic Forum are nothing if not comprehensive. The organisers seem to have left no stone unturned in their quest for as thorough an analysis of African affairs as it is possible to imagine. The result is a programme...

Sangomas step out of the shadows: despite South Africa's determination to place traditional healing on a par with modern medicine, a new law has set alarm bells ringing in industry. Tom Nevin has the details.
June 1, 2006... The doctor's note that lets employees take a few days off work is the latest glitch in efforts to bring together under one umbrella organisation South Africa's traditional healers and biomedical doctors. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Although the...

Headache of Africa's biggest head count: just how big is Nigeria's population? Is it 100m or 150m or somewhere in between? No one is sure because Nigeria has never really had an accurate, all-inclusive census and demographic numbers are politically and economically very sensitive. Now the country awaits the results of the first census in 15 years. Neil Ford reports.
June 1, 2006... Nigeria's recent national census has both highlighted and tried to overcome major weaknesses in the fabric of the nation. Ever since the Biafran civil war, the country's political leaders have feared provoking another attempt at secession and...

Worries over widening income gap: Tanzania is among a handful of African countries that has remained politically stable, despite undergoing a long period of economic stagnation. Growth has been good recently but the income gap has also been growing, leading to a spate of criminality. Neil Ford reports.
June 1, 2006... Tanzania's economic progress over the past decade has been heralded as a major success. After the government decided to move away from the African socialism of the 1970s towards a more market-orientated approach, it took several years before...

Holding the door open for investors: the island state of Seychelles has been too dependent on the fickle tourism industry for a long time and it is now seeking ways of diversifying the economy. Recent changes in legislation will make the islands more investor-friendly. Neil Ford reports.
June 1, 2006... The government of Seychelles is making a concerted effort to widen its economic base, which is currently dangerously dependent on tourism. Although the sector is currently prospering and continues to fuel economic growth, overreliance on a...

Economy takes a turn for the worse: Zimbabwe's economic decline is being exacerbated by the devastating HIV/Aids pandemic that is sweeping the southern Africa region. Neil Ford reports.
June 1, 2006... The full extent of the economic and health crisis affecting Zimbabwe has been made clear by a new report from the World Health Organisation. Average life expectancy has fallen to 37 years for men and 34 years for women, which are among the...

Gas brightens power outlook: Botswana could soon join the ranks of Africa's gas producers, although its gas takes a different form to that from most other countries in the sub-region in that it comprises coal bed methane gas. The long-term economic implications, writes Neil Ford, could be immense.
June 1, 2006... Africa's oil and gas resources have generally been considered from an export point of view. Fields have only been deemed worth developing if they were large enough to justify the construction of transmission pipelines, oil export terminals or...

Battling bigotry: striving for an inclusive society.(Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa: Experiments in Democratic Persuasion)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa Experiments in Democratic Persuasion By James L Gibson & Amanda Gouws [pounds sterling]15.99 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-67515-4 The democratisation of South Africa is often...

Justice On The Grass.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Justice On The Grass By Dina Temple-Raston [pounds sterling]17.99 Free Press ISBN: 0-743-25110-5 The 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were massacred in just 100 days, was an...

Renewable Energy Policy and Politics: A Guide for Decision-Making.(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Renewable Energy Policy and Politics A Guide for Decision-Making Edited by Karl Mallon [pounds sterling]40 James & James ISBN: 1-84407-126-X This book examines the renewable energy sector and its stakeholders, analysing...

Africa is in Style.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Africa is in Style By Berenice Geoffrey-Schneiter [pounds sterling]12.95 Assouline ISBN 2-84323-800-5 The colours and rhythms of African style are frequently influential on the catwalks of Paris, New York or Milan. But African...

A Life Elsewhere.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... A Life Elsewhere By Segun Afolabi [pounds sterling]11.99 Jonathan Cape ISBN: 0-2240-7602-7 Winner of the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing, for the characters in Segun Afolabi's debut collection, 'elsewhere' is a place...

Searching for African Prospects: Life as a Mining Engineer in Nigeria and Angola.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Searching for African Prospects Life as a Mining Engineer in Nigeria and Angola By Diana Chads [pounds sterling]27.50 Radcliffe Press ISBN 1-84511-182-6 William Chads seems to have stepped straight out of the pages of...

Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to it.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Spike Lee That's My Story and I'm Sticking to it As told to Kaleem Aftab [pounds sterling]12.99 Faber and Faber ISBN 0571220401 For nearly 20 years now, Spike Lee has been one of Black America's most prominent cultural...

A Month and a Day and Letters.(Book review)
June 1, 2006... A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa Foreword by Wole Soyinka [pounds sterling]9.99 Ayebia ISBN: 0954702352 A Month and A Day & Letters includes an edited version of 'A Detention Diary'--Saro-Wiwa's own record of...

South Africa's royalty: long live the Queens!(Reign and Shine from The Mahotella Queens )(Sound recording review)
June 1, 2006... Reign and Shine The Mahotella Queens Wrasse Record Cat: WRASS177 There are few pop groups that are able to trace their history back over more than four decades, but the mighty Mahotella Queens can do just that. They began...