Singapore Joins Scramble For Business Opportunities In Africa

VENTURES AFRICA – Asian tiger, Singapore, is looking to increase its investments in Africa, as the race for the continent’s promising long-term growth prospects intensify. The International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the government agency driving Singapore’s external economy, is set to open a centre in Ghana as part of the country’s plans to help Singaporean firms increase investments in Africa.

The IE Singapore documents that about 48 Singapore companies have business interests in 42 African countries.

Today, the IE is also expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to facilitate closer business collaboration between Singapore and Africa.

Lim Ban Hoe, IE Singapore’s group director for Middle East & Africa, noted that the MOU would make it easier for Singaporean companies to expand into Africa.

Ethiopia, African Development Bank Sign US$251-million Loan Agreement

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 29 (BERNAMA-NNN-AFDB) – Ethiopia and the African Development Bank have signed a US$ 251-million loan agreement for the “Promoting Basic Services” (PBS) Phase III Program.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony held at the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development here.

Ahmed Shide

State Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ahmed Shide, and the Bank’s Resident Representative in Ethiopia, Lamin Barrow, signed on behalf of the Ethiopia and the African Development Bank respectively.

The African Development Fund (ADF) loan will provide Ethiopia with earmarked budget support over three fiscal years mainly for block grants to the regions to support expanding access and improvements to the quality of decentralized basic service delivery in the education, health and agriculture sectors, as well as upgrades to rural roads, water supply and sanitation.

These services are crucial for raising the living standards of the population and for sustaining the gains made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ethiopia.

UNESCO Seeks More Investment In Africa’s Hydro-Power Potential

AGENCY REPORT News Politics -- UNESCO has urged investors to channel their funds toward harnessing Africa’s hydro powerpotential to boost the continent’s economy.

Prof. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, who is the Rector, UNESCO-IHE (Institute for Water Education), made the call in an interview with the NewsAgency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, in Stockholm, on the sideline of the 2012 World Water Week Commemoration.

UNESCO-IHE was established in 2003 to carry out research, capacity building and education in the fields of water and infrastructure.

He said that if Africa’s hydro power potential was adequately harnessed, it would generate adequate hydro power and create business opportunities for Africans.

“The business opportunity, which will be very important for the whole international community and for the investors, is to invest in the untapped hydro power potential of Africa.

Why young South Africans are turning away from Mandela and ANC

They are known to their countrymen as the 'born free' generation who grew up after apartheid. But in the wake of the shocking Lonmin mine shootings, South Africa's youth are frustrated and angry about the state of the rainbow nation.

Last year I began teaching a group of black South Africans at a Cape Town media project. Live Magazine is designed to give opportunities to young people from townships trying to find a route into South Africa's creative industries. As one of the professional mentors, I help the students make videos and tell stories from their communities about music, youth opinion and career advice.

Voices of young South Africa     photo by  Ed souter

All my class are aspiring film-makers, writers, photographers and designers. For them it is an amazing opportunity to gain work experience. For me it has been a wonderful chance to discuss the hopes, dreams and frustrations of contemporary South Africa with young black people in a city that, 22 years after the end of apartheid, remains highly racially segregated. The young interns all come from different areas of Cape Town but share one crucial characteristic: they are trying to make their way in a society where youth unemployment is 45% and the economic situation shows no sign of improving.

West’s perception of Africa is obsolete

Gulf News by Ian Birrell -- Usual stereotypes offer simplistic images of death and destruction while ignoring the new Africa powered by capitalism, embracing globalisation and finally shaking off the shackles of colonialism and the Cold War

Think of Ethiopia and what do you see? Perhaps a starving child, flies in her eyes and belly distended. Painfully thin adults dressed in rags, staring balefully at the camera in a fetid refugee camp. Or possibly a famous self-declared saviour from the West, striding purposefully past the decaying corpse of an animal beside a dusty road.

Think again. See, instead, a booming capital city, its cafes filled with graduates and cranes lining the horizon. A nation that is one of the world’s largest livestock producers and recently became the second country to take delivery of Boeing’s new 787 passenger jet. An economy that doubled in size this century and is growing at 7.5 per cent.

Few countries symbolise the disconnect between outdated western perceptions of Africa and fast-changing realities on the ground better than Ethiopia, the continent’s second most-populous nation, whose long-serving leader, Meles Zenawi, died this month. Although the example of one country can never fully explain a diverse continent, this ancient nation illustrates in many ways Africa’s progress, potential and problems.

Total eyes big investment in N Africa

Total has big plans for developing its E&P activities in North Africa.

It  is eager to invest more widely in Libya and explore and develop new resources, said the vice president of Total E&P North Africa.

Jean Daniel Blasco was speaking in an interview with The Energy Exchange to discuss the organisation’s opportunities in Libya and North Africa.

“For the year to come, we have two development projects in Algeria, Timimoun and Ahnet, that we would like to move forward,” Blasco added.

Libya has commenced activities on rebuilding its economy at an accelerated rate. The  IMF has reported that the Libyan economy is expected to surge by nearly 117 per cent in 2012 with oil production levels reaching 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.95 million bpd by 2015.

The Plan for a New World Order Stumbles on Geopolitical Realities

For four centuries, political leaders have tried to create an international order that governs relationships between nations and prevents wars.. While the principle of state sovereignty has yielded results, intergovernmental organizations have mainly reflected the prevailing balance of power. As for the ambitious U.S. New World Order, it is being shattered by new geopolitical realities. 

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The Plan for a New World Order Stumbles on Geopolitical Realities

Brazilian Investors Eye Investment Opportunities In Tanzania

Jakaya Kikwete

VENTURES AFRICA- Seven Brazilian companies dealing in soya, sugar cane, corn and cotton cultivation have expressed interests in investing in Tanzania, after a state tour to Brazil in April where the East African country’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, marketed the nation’s investment potential in the agricultural sector. A total of eleven representatives were sent by the investors to get first hand information on investment potentials especially on agriculture. While acknowledging the president’s visit as a stimulator for the investment outreach, Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) Acting Executive Director, Raymond Mbilinyi, said TIC gave the investors information on investment opportunities in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and the government’s Agriculture First initiative, popularly called ‘Kilimo Kwanza.’ The investors were also enlightened on other benefits and incentives that would be derived from investing in the country. According to Mbilinyi, such investors will help create a strong base of tax payers and develop the agricultural sector in the country by via new technologies and collaboration with local farmers. The delegation will also be visiting Mozambique, South Sudan and Ethiopia to seek investment opportunities.

South Africa mourns Marikana 'tragedy'

President Jacob Zuma has called on South Africans to come together as a nation as the country mourns the deaths of 44 people, including two police officers and 34 mine workers, in violent clashes in Marikana outside Rustenburg, North West province last week.

The President cut short his participation in an SADC Summit in Mozambique to return to South Africa on Friday after 34 protesting mine workers were killed and scores injured during clashes with police on Thursday.

Addressing the media following a visit to the mining town of Marikana on Friday, Zuma reminded South Africans that they had come together to overcome difficult moments in the country's past.

Prayer Service at Marikana site

Zambia records over $40m investment from Japan

Zambia Daily Mail by Kalonde Nyati -- ZAMBIA recorded over 

US$40 million (approximately K200billion) worth of investments from Japan between 2005 and 2011 with Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia alone investing about US$15million.

Deputy Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Keith Mukata, however, says there is need for Japanese investors to increase their presence in various sectors of the economy to contribute to the development of the country.
Mr Mukata says despite the investors contributing to the country’s growth, they stand to benefit as will easily access the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Sothern African Development Community (SADC) markets due to the country’s central location.

MINISTER of Finance Alexander Chikwanda (insert left) receives a gift from Hitachi Construction Machinery Company vice-president Yukio Arima during the launch of the multi-million dollar Japanese re-manufacturing plant in Lusaka recently. - Picture by JOHN NGOMA

“For companies that decide to invest in Zambia, our country’s central location in SADC and COMESA gives us a competitive market access to nearly 400million people,” he said.
Mr Mukata said this in Lusaka on Tuesday evening at the Alliance Forum Foundation Business seminar that seeks to strengthen business ties between Zambia and Japan.

U.S. Investment in Africa: Making Up for Lost Ground

Africa.com by Brandon Bennes, NYU -- African development has skyrocketed in the last five years, and the U.S. has risked missing a key window for investment.

This is the message that Robert Sichinga, Zambia’s minister of commerce, emphasized while in Atlanta one month ago, warning that, "Americans are falling behind other countries in the race to in tap investment opportunities in Africa, which has been unfairly characterized as a 'lost continent’... We are here to say to you—you, our American colleagues, are lagging behind.'" This is a stinging criticism of U.S. policy that has far too often discounted and marginalized the African continent.

David Shinn

Africans are also taking note of who has and has not supported their development in the past. A BBC poll in May that surveyed over 24,000 people around the world showed China’s popularity around the globe had outstripped that of America overall, and two of the nations in which China polled the most favorably are also two of Africa’s strongest emerging economies: in Nigeria and Kenya, 89 percent and 75 percent of respondents hold positive views of China, respectively.

Chinese officials have not been shy about leveraging this positivity and openness to Chinese economic support. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese exports to African countries amounted to $73.4 billion in 2011, more than any other nation, and most importantly, more than double the worth of U.S. exports to Africa, which stand at $31.5 billion.

MAP: Here Are All Of The Big Chinese Investments In Africa Since 2010

Business Insider -- Chinese investments in Africa have raised many eyebrows, as competitors like the U.S. argue that it's motivated by Beijing's desire to exploit the continent's resources. 

Earlier this year China promised $20 billion in investments to various African countries, and U.S. secretary of state Hilary Clinton said in a speech that African countries should consider partnerships with more responsible countries as against countries that exploit resources, in an unmistakable reference to China. 

This prompted Chinese state news-agency Xinhua (via the Guardian) to write, "Whether Clinton was ignorant of the facts on the ground or chose to disregard them, her implication that China has been extracting Africa's wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth."

China to Invest $20B in Africa, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Manufacturing Targeted

August 5, 2012 (Agro News) -- China will provide a US$20 billion credit line to African countries to help in developing infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, small and medium-sized enterprises, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, has said.

He made the disclosure on Monday night at a reception marking the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.

He said the Chinese Government will take measures in five priority areas to support the cause of peace and development in Africa and boost a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership.

He added that the fifth ministerial conference, a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was successfully held in Beijing, which gathered representatives from 50 African countries and AU Commission that reviewed with satisfaction the development of China-Africa relations, and evaluated the implementation of the follow-up actions to the fourth ministerial conference.

The Ambassador stated further that the conference reached a consensus on new ways to further deepen China-Africa relations by adopting the Beijing Declaration an action plan of the forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

In the past six years, he said China’s trade and investment in Africa have been expanding and in 2011, the two-way trade reached 166.3 billion U.S. dollars, tripling the figure in 2006.

Nigeria: World Bank Extends U.S.$200 Million Infrastructure Loan to Nigeria

August 2, 2012 (AllAfrica via This Day by Abimbola Akosile ) -- To help address the huge infrastructure deficit in Nigeria, the World Bank is poised to provide $200 million as a seed fund to set up a Financial Intermediary Loan (FIL) scheme under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.

Head, Legal and Governance, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr. Joe Ohiani, disclosed this at the inaugural ESQ Project Finance Summit, held in Lagos, and stated that some other development finance organisations have also agreed to contribute to the scheme.