African Business articles from June 2007

African Business archives from June 2007

Real cost of coal: mitigating climate change.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I read with considerable interest Yogesh Vyas' and Daniele Ponzi's cover story on global warming (Avoiding disaster--Climate change in Africa, African Business May 2007 issue) and a related article in the same issue regarding South Africa's...

Tackling global warming: address deforestation.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Thank you for an excellent article regarding global warming and Africa (Avoiding disaster--Climate change in Africa, African Business May 2007 issue). It certainly raises my hopes that with clear thinking officials like Yogesh Vyas' and Daniele...

Mass migration: global warming to add to the problem.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Your cover story last month (Avoiding disaster--Climate change in Africa, African Business May 2007 issue) perhaps understated what the effects of steadily rising temperatures will be over the next few decades. A recent Christian Aid report...

Plastic scam: fraudsters target tourists.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I thought that your readers should know that a credit card scam has been exposed involving cashiers at the Johannesburg metropolitan police department. Tourist's credit card details have been used to fraudulently pay motorists' fines. Anyone...

The power of language: keeping culture alive.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I very much enjoyed Dr Hippolyte Fofack's article regarding Africa's cultural achievements (Africa: Cradle of Civilisation--African Business May 2007). Please extend to him my heartfelt thanks for his scholarly exposition. I am sure that I am...

A contrary view: put rankings online.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Jacob Ucheku's letter (African Business May 2007) raised an interesting point regarding your top companies' reports, but I have to say I take a contrary view. The last thing I really want from my favourite magazine is pages of company...

Woolmer mystery: the Jamaica whodunit.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I noticed the small mention you made of Bob Woolmer's 'murder' in Jamaica. (Countryfile South Africa, 2010: Too much of a good thing? African Business, May 2007 issue) and wondered just how your magazine can be so certain that a crime lay...

Businesswomen's summit.(Events)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... A group of 300 of the world's most powerful businesswomen are due to arrive in South Africa next September for the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World (LWEW) summit. This organisation was founded in 1997 to honour, promote and encourage...

G8 business group meets.(Private sector)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The private sector can help lift Africa out of poverty provided governments create the proper framework, business leaders of the world's richest nations announced at the first ever gathering of its kind taking place ahead of the G8 summit in...

CCA meets in Cape Town.(Conference)(Corporate Council on Africa)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) has announced that the next business conference between the US and the nations of Africa will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. The biennial US-Africa Business Summit is scheduled for 14-16 November 2007...

Iran clinches Gambia deal.(Automotives)(The Gambia)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Iran's leading automotive manufacturer, Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD), is set to export heavy and commercial vehicles to The Gambia. A $2bn deal signed by IKD's deputy manager, Ali Ebrahimi and The Gambia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Bala Garba...

Cape Verde posts strong growth.(Economics)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Middle-income nation Cape Verde is continuing its strong economic growth, new statistics reveal. This year and last, economic growth was at around 7%, with a booming tourism industry stimulating most of the growth. According to Maitland...

Liberia boasts region's lowest telecom prices.(Telecoms)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Four competing mobile operators in Liberia have produced some of the cheapest domestic and international calling rates in the region. The telecom operators also claim they will achieve 80-90% coverage of the country's population in the next two...

Kenya lands sugar agreement.(Trade)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Kenya has secured an additional 1,031t of sugar quotas to EU markets this year in addition to the 16,000t it already has under an existing EU trade agreement. The decision was reached at the 10th special ACP ministerial conference on sugar held...

Cameroon's unregistered hotels.(Tourism)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Cameroon's tourism minister, Baba Amadou, has revealed that his ministry believes that there are over 1,300 hotels operating in the country without the required authorisation. At least 200 of these premises are located in the commercial capital...

AB guide to African currencies.(Briefs)(Statistical table)
June 1, 2007... AB Guide to African Currencies Country Currency [pounds sterling]STG Algeria (Dinar) 139.77 Angola (New Kwanza) 149.43 Benin (CFA) ...

The G8's empty promises.(management of promises to developing countries by Group of 8)
June 1, 2007... Africa, we are assured, will once again top the agenda at the next G8 Summit in Germany, as it did two years ago at Gleneagles. The Gleneagles meeting was a Blair/Brown/Geldof British extravaganza during which donors pledged an additional $50bn...

The labours of Umaru Yar'Adua.(Nigeria)(Cover story)
June 1, 2007... For the first time in its independent history, Nigeria has successfully changed leadership at the top through the democratic process. Although the elections remain controversial and court cases await, a new civilian administration has been...

Islamic banking strides across Africa: Islamic banking, already a significant factor around the world, is now making substantial inroads in Africa. New sharia compliant banks have opened in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and more are on the way, says Neil Ford.(Finance)
June 1, 2007... Islamic banking has become increasingly popular across the Middle East, as both local and international banks begin to offer banking products that comply with the main tenets of the Islamic faith. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is also...

Innovation brings success.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The poor state of most African ports is now accepted as part of the problems facing the continent in its desire for faster and deeper economic growth. It explains, in part at least, why Africa's share of world trade remains dismal and why the...

Thinking big, thinking smart: Sub-Saharan African ports are beginning to catch up with their northern counterparts. Several new projects, some recently completed, are slowly but surely bringing Africa's once dilapidated harbours structure into line with modern best practice.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... Many causes have been given for the apparent failure of African economies to grow at anything like the same rate as their Asian counterparts over the past 40 years. Colonial rule, government mismanagement and the lack of power, water and...

Coega ready for take-off.(Investment)
June 1, 2007... Aside from expanding capacity at existing facilities, South Africa is also seeking to develop a new port from scratch. Coega, which is the first new port to be constructed in the country since RBCT in 1976, is now expected to be a success...

Djibouti enters major league.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... The port of Djibouti already has an importance out of scale with the size of the small state in the Horn of Africa. Yet it now looks set to become even more important, following the signature of a 20-year door-to-door cargo transit agreement...

Southern Africa: accent on new capacity.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... South Africa Black empowerment programmes have permeated most parts of the South African economy but have made little headway in the port sector to date. However, the government has insisted that empowerment mining companies now be given...

West Africa: focus on public-private synergies.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... Nigeria As by far the most populous country in Africa and potentially a huge trading nation, the efficiency and capacity of Nigeria's ports is important to the vitality of trade across the continent as a whole. In the past, Nigerian...

East Africa: looking beyond the two cities.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... Tanzania The East African port sector is often depicted as a tale of two cities. The ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam have dominated transport links in the region since railway lines were developed to link them to the interior during the...

North Africa: glut of foreign investors.(African Ports and Harbours: Special Report)
June 1, 2007... Egypt North Africa is excellently positioned to take advantage of increased global trade. The Suez Canal provides access to the Gulf, South Asia and the booming economies of East Asia, while sailing times across the Mediterranean to...

Tripoli set to push gas development: while investment in Libya's oil sector has been growing steadily, the country now wants to capitalise on its vast gas reserves to further develop its export potential, particularly to nearby Europe.(Energy)
June 1, 2007... Foreign investment into the Libyan oil sector has begun to pick up, as the winners of the various licensing rounds begin to take up their acreage. Projects that were suspended during Libya's long years of isolation have also been restarted as...

Why African Banker?(AFRICAN BANKER)(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... Welcome to the first issue of African Banker. We have been persuaded to add this quarterly title to our stable of publications at IC for several very good reasons. The first, as Donald Kaberuka, the president of the African Development...

Tax avoidance impoverishes Africa.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Levels of capital flight from Africa are estimated at more than $150bn a year--and are being achieved with the connivance and co-operation of many of the West's best known financial institutions, according to Tax Justice Network for Africa...

AfDB approves grid links.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a total of $48.6m for Ghana, Benin and Togo to link up their power grids as a way of reducing poverty in the subregion. The project is aimed at improving reliability of...

Bluetooth banking adverts.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Given the growing number of mobile phones in Africa, it may not be too long before banks begin marketing their financial services with unsolicited messages delivered by bluetooth technology. Bluetooth is a short-range radio-based technology...

Zenith Bank opens UK office.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Zenith Bank plc has opened a wholly-owned London subsidiary, Zenith Bank UK, following a rigorous approval process by the UK's Financial Services Authority. Zenith, in addition to offering banking services to UK-based customers, will also...

Nibbled notes.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(mouse)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Bank customers in Estonia got something of a surprise when using an automatic teller machine last month. They got their cash but noticed that much of it had been nibbled away. When the bemused customers reported it to the Hansapank Bank in...

Warning to Nigerian banks over 'dubious loans'.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Economic and Financial Crimes Commission)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned banks to stop the granting of 'dubious loans' and other facilities to some parastatal and government institutions. The EFCC said that intelligence reports indicate that some banks...

CEPGL to be revived.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Comission Economique pour les Pays des Grand-Lacs)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Rwanda, Burundi and the DR Congo plan to revive the defunct economic bloc CEPGL (Comission Economique pour les Pays des Grand-Lacs). The CEPGL was established in 1976 and comprises institutions shared by Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The project...

Banker sues health guru.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(ING Barings)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Angus Blair, former head of ING Barings' North Africa and Middle East investment banking division, has issued a $560,000 writ against his former health advisor and spiritual guide, Mojdeh Danesh. Now the Cairo-based head of research for...

Eland Platinum signs R800m term sheet.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Eland Platinum Mines (Pty) Ltd)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Eland Platinum Mines (Pty) Ltd, the subsidiary of Eland Platinum Holdings Ltd, has signed a credit-approved Term Sheet with Nedbank Capital in respect of Eland Mines' Project Finance Facility. Nedbank Capital will act as sole arranger and...

Ecobank delivers record results.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Ecobank Group)(Financial report)
June 1, 2007... At its 19th Annual General Assembly held in Cotonou late in April, the Ecobank Group declared record results for 2006. Its balance sheet grew by 59% to $3.5bn while gross revenues increased by 46% to $419m and profit before tax made a 75% leap,...

Africa's economy grows again in 2007.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... An UN report declared African economies are expected to grow by 5.8% in 2007, though reforms are needed to strengthen fragile conditions. According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the continent's economies will grow by 5.8% on average...

Ghana launches Microfinance policy.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... At this years Media/Small Scale Entrepreneurs dialogue in Accra, Dr John Agyekumhene, CEO of the microfinance and small loans centre (MASLOC) announced the launch of Ghana's Microfinance Policy. MASLOC aims to service the nation's 4m poor whose...

WB plans Africa's progress.(AFRICAN BANKERS WORLD)(World Bank)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The World Bank and the IMF want to introduce a new strategy to improve the quality of life and boost economic growth in Africa. The Bank's revised Africa Action Plan aims to strengthen the private sector, increase the economic empowerment of...

Gill Marcus appointed as Chair of Absa.(RECENT APPOINTMENTS)(appointment of Gill Marcus)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Professor Gill Marcus has been appointed as Chair of Absa Group Limited and Absa Bank Limited. Professor Marcus is currently Executive Chairperson of Western Areas Limited and Professor in Policy, Leadership and Gender Studies at the Gordon...

Dashen Bank appoints new promotions' manager.(RECENT APPOINTMENTS)(appointment of Lemessa Hordofa)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Dashen Bank has hired a new customer relation service manager, Lemessa Hordofa. Before this appointment, Lemessa was general manager of the Co-operative Bank of Oromia S.C. Lamessa has a degree in accounting and economics, has worked in...

Nedbank Namibia gets new deputy MD.(RECENT APPOINTMENTS)(appointment of Erastus Hoveka)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Erastus Hoveka has been appointed deputy managing director of Nedbank Namibia. The 38-year-old former chief financial officer of the Development Bank of Namibia is an MBA graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, US. His previous...

New VP for WB Africa.(RECENT APPOINTMENTS)(appointment of Obiageli Ezekwesili)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Obiageli 'Oby' Ezekwesili was appointed vice-president of the World Bank's Africa operations. An accomplished businesswoman, her career include serving as chairperson for the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and as...

Mark Williams is new CEO for Teba Bank (SA).(RECENT APPOINTMENTS)(appointment of Mark Williams)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Mark Williams has been appointed the new Chief Executive of Teba Bank, the microfinance services company. A former director of retail at Barclays Africa, he is originally from the Eastern Cape. He began his career as a bank filing clerk and...

Move microfinance to the centre.(OPIONION)
June 1, 2007... It is now recognised that the poor--urban and rural--part with a large portion of their income for utilising basic financial services as most of them exist outside the formal banking sector. For better economic development, it is imperative to...

Actis' Nkosana Moyo: a question of emotional ownership; Nkosana Moyo, erstwhile Zimbabwe's minister for industry and trade and now head of the Africa region for Actis, talks about Africa's economic options and argues that unless Africa's institutions connect culturally and emotionally with the people, they are bound to fail.(IN FOCUS)(dialogue with Nkosana Moyo)(Interview)
June 1, 2007... AFRICAN BANKER: WHAT is the relationship between Actis and CDC? NKOSANA MOYO: Actis is a manager of long term funds in emerging markets, and Africa is one of our key markets. The linkage between Actis and CDC goes back to 1997 when the...

Donald Kaberuka: Africa's unique window of opportunity; Africa is poised for an exciting new era in its economic and social transformation. In this interview with African Banker editor, Anver Versi, African Development Bank president, Donald Kaberuka explains how the Bank has taken the leadership role in driving African economies forward.(THE INTERVIEW)(Interview)
June 1, 2007... AFRICAN BANKER: Why is the AfDB holding its annual meeting in Shanghai? KABERUKA: The Bank responded favourably to an invitation from the Chinese government to hold its annual assembly in Shanghai. China has been a non-regional member of...

The African Development Bank: fighting fit; Before his visit to the African Development Bank headquarters in Tunis, African Banker editor Anver Versi questioned the role the institution was playing in Africa's development. When he finished his tour, he had learnt a new respect for this African institution. This is his report.
June 1, 2007... For years the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) was one of those institutions, like the Economic Commission for Africa, that hummed away in the background but you were never quite sure about what it actually did. There seemed to be a lack...

The Africa Finance Corporation a stunning home grown triumph.(INVESTMENT)(Africa Finance Corporation)
June 1, 2007... Acknowledged as the author of the most significant financial reform ever undertaken in Africa--the restructuring of Nigeria's banking sector--Chukwuma Charles Soludo CFR has now turned his attention to creating a new investment bank for the...

What makes Ecobank unique.(INVESTMENT)
June 1, 2007... ECOBANK is unique in many ways. Above all, Ecobank has been successful because it is considered an independent regional institution belonging to no one country or interest group. Each of our subsidiaries is viewed as a local bank, even though...

Cecilia Ibru: meet Nigeria's First Lady of banking.(PERSONALITY)(Oceanic Bank International)
June 1, 2007... Cecilia Ibru, managing director and chief executive officer of Oceanic Bank International, one of the fastest and most profitable banks in Nigeria, is by any measure a remarkable person. She confounds all expectations of what a banker must be,...

How independent is the South African Reserve Bank: cracks are appearing in the wall of autonomy the SA Reserve Bank surrounds itself with and South Africans are increasingly asking themselves how independent the Reserve Bank is from the government, and how much clout the governor, Tito Mboweni, and his board have in deciding crucial fiscal direction.(ECONOMY)
June 1, 2007... Recent events indicate that the government is exerting greater influence in getting its way on how the economy should be focused, at the expense of the Reserve Bank's independence. The country's Constitution confers awesome responsibility on...

UBS' Tutu Agyare: a flood of capital is returning to Africa; Tutu Agyare is the head of emerging markets division at the Zurich headquartered UBS, the leading global wealth manager, a top tier investment banking and securities firm and one of the largest global asset managers.(EMERGING MARKETS)
June 1, 2007... Tutu Agyare has worked in the financial services sector for nearly 20 years--since graduating from the University of Ghana with a degree in mathematics and computing. He then moved to London where he was offered a job with O'Connor Securities,...

Morocco looks south: while South Africa's banks are inexorably moving northwards, North African banks are crossing the Sahara in greater numbers as they seek to deepen their presence further south.(VIEW FROM THE NORTH)
June 1, 2007... The latest move in this development came in March when Othman Benjelloun's heavyweight Morocco based BMCE Group acquired 35% of the rapidly rising West African multinational, AFH/BOA. According to Benjelloun, the deal "is in line with BMCE...

We see doors opening left and right--Standard Bank: the South African headquartered Standard Bank has posted a 10% increase in earnings mainly on the back of its expansion into other African countries. Graig Bond, the man in charge of the bank's African network tells the African Banker why Standard now sees itself as a big pan-African bank.(VIEW FROM THE SOUTH)(Financial report)
June 1, 2007... South Africa's Standard Bank Group is reaping the dividends of its expansion into other parts of Africa and other parts of the world. In its most recent annual results, the group posted a 10% increase in earnings, much of it contributed by its...

Trevor Manuel's financial Holy Grail.(FINANCE)
June 1, 2007... Trevor Manuel has been South Africa's Finance Minister for 11 years. He inherited an economy that was virtually bankrupt and a country that was hideously lopsided in terms of black and white. Many predicted that majority rule would lead to an...

Reginald Ihejiahi: big effects of small things; In the storm following Nigeria's banking reforms, a number of institutions and careers sank without a trace but others moved on to bigger and better things. One such is Fidelity Bank under the leadership of Reginald Ihejiahi.(PROFILE)(Biography)
June 1, 2007... Among the new breed of top bankers thrown up by the 'Soludo dispensation', Reginald Ihejiahi, MD/CEO of Fidelity Bank, may be one of the less familiar, but is proving to be one of the most quietly effective. As a methodical strategist, he...

Dr Gideon Gono: how sanctions are ruining Zimbabwe; In this Opinion piece, Dr Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe clearly spells out how sanctions and the suspension of international support have devastated economic and social life in his country. The heaviest blows, he argues, have fallen on the poor, the young and ill.(MY VIEW)
June 1, 2007... In response to our land reform programme, sanctions have been imposed on Zimbabwe by the multilateral financial institutions. They suspended all forms of balance of payments support, technical assistance, grants and infrastructural development...

How euphoria turned into tragedy: in the final part of his three-part series on the history of Africa's economy from the ending of the slave-trade to the present day, Dr. Hippolyte Fofack retraces the steps that turned initial euphoria in the 1960s into an economic tragedy by the late 1990s.(Topic)
June 1, 2007... Although the slave trade was abolished two centuries ago, it took most African nations more than 150 years to assume full responsibility of the management of their economic affairs because of the subsequent rise of colonialism. The following...

Cape Town June 2007: World Economic Forum on Africa.
June 1, 2007... Africa's economic development and investment potential are to come under the spotlight at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa 2007 in Cape Town this month (June). The WEF is perhaps best known for its annual meeting of world political and...

Bananas--science comes to the rescue: a radical new technique in the practice of banana cultivation in Uganda is producing some impressive results. African Business' Stuart Price met the people behind the technology and witnessed at first hand the fruits of their work.(Agriculture)
June 1, 2007... African business is agriculture," declares Proscovia Esther Kayizzi, the wife of a banana farmer in Mukono district, 30km east of Uganda's capital Kampala. "These tissue-cultured plants have provided much value addition to our crop; they are...

Fair trade movement gathers strength: the fair trade movement, which seeks to provide actual producers and growers with a better slice of the returns from their labour, is expanding rapidly and Africa appears poised to benefit from this ethical stance. Neil Ford reports.
June 1, 2007... While international efforts to improve the terms of trade for African exporters have had some success over the past two years, they have broadly been rebuffed by determined resistance from established producers. In the agricultural sector in...

Power from the sea: South Africa, often criticised as 'the dirty man of Africa' in terms of environmental pollution, is now determinedly going green. Tom Nevin reports on a new project which will use the power of the sea to generate electricity.(South Africa)
June 1, 2007... South Africa's attempt to generate energy from ocean waves moved up a gear with the completion of the preliminary site evaluation and selection process for a 20MW wave energy project. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] An...

Toure wins second terms with ease: Mali's presidential elections have been settled at the first time of asking, as the incumbent, Amadou Toumani Toure, won his second and final five-year term by a wide margin. Environmental issues will form a major challenge of his administration, says Neil Ford.
June 1, 2007... The election confirmed Mali's re-emergence as a democratic nation but the president will face a number of massive challenges over the next five years. Environmental concerns should perhaps be top of the list but the Sahelian state is one of the...

Dreaming the dream: although Sao Tome and Principe is not yet producing any oil, hopes are high that the current exploration activity will soon discover substantial commercially exploitable reserves. What will the oil windfall mean to the ordinary citizens? Neil Ford discusses.
June 1, 2007... The government of Sao Tome and Principe has announced that it is to launch a third licensing round for acreage in the joint development zone (JDZ) that it shares with Nigeria. Commercial volumes of hydrocarbons have yet to be discovered in...

Lifting of gems ban raises spirits: the announcement that the UN Security Council has lifted a ban on the export of diamonds came as a shot in the arm of an economy that is slowly but surely edging towards recovery. Neil Ford reports.(Liberia)
June 1, 2007... Liberia received another piece of welcome news at the end of April, when the UN Security Council announced that it had voted to lift the ban on the export of diamonds from the West African country. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] The ban was...

A garden of love.(art exhibition by Yinka Shonibare )
June 1, 2007... Born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria, Yinka Shonibare MBE (right) currently lives and works in London where he has gained international attention by exploring issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture,...

Celebrating independence: modernising the traditional.
June 1, 2007... Authenticite The Syliphone Years Sterns Cat: STCD 3025-26 The music that dates from the immediate post-independence period of Guinea Conakry is some of the most haunting, sublime and moving that the continent has ever...