African Business back issues from June 2009:
Retrieving our wealth.(A them-and-us summit)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... In his review of the G20 summit (African Business, May 2009 issue), Anver Versi makes mention of the contribution tax havens have had to hindering Africa's development. If I might put it another way, the so-called 'wealth' of the African elite is a significant factor in the current global ...
Who are the real victims?(The pirate menace)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... I was very interested in Tom Nevin's article Pirates, high costs, hammer Egypt (African Business, April 2009 issue). Now that nearly 30% of the Indian Ocean, or around 2.5m sq km of its waters, is considered a high risk shipping region with the Somali-based pirates becoming ever bolder and ...
Telling it like it is, internet style.(internet in Africa)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Your East African correspondent Wyc-liffe Muga's (African Business, April 2009 issue) experience in journalism must have given him a very wide understanding of the media but perhaps it has sheltered him from the reality of the ordinary person. We look forward to the day when the internet ...
Encourage domestic investment.(The fallacy of foreign investment)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Once again, in the March issue of African Business, Omari Issa has provided us with a clear and succinct analysis of the economies of the African nations. I take my hat off to him. His article on FDI expresses very clearly the actions that need to be taken at home in order to benefit from ...
The democratic privilege.(SA expats can now vote)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... I would like to add my comments to the article in African Business, March 2009 issue, that described the strange anomaly of prisoners in South Africa being allowed to vote, but until recently, not South African citizens living as expats overseas. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
Capital flight concerns.(Africa's top companies 2009)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... What a comprehensive assessment of the comparative standing of the pillars of Africa's business community appeared in your April issue (African Business, April 2009 issue). Yet it seemed to me as I leafed through your numerous pages with a growing sense of unease, that basing your index on ...
A call for leadership.(Francis Fukuyama)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Congratulations to African Business on your interview with such a world-class figure (African Business, May 2009 issue). As Francis Fukuyama makes clear, if we cannot learn from history, then we are condemned to repeat it. The Washington Consensus is now largely discredited and we are on ...
Angola, Senegal invest in new refineries.(Oil)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Senegal and Angola have commissioned new oil refining projects to increase petroleum capacity and tap into regional demand. Angola, which imports 70% of its gasoline needs from the US, is to build a $8bn, 200,000 barrels a day facility near the port of Lobito. The plant is due for ...
SADC ready for single payment settlement system.(Finance)(Southern African Development Community )(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The central banks of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are installing systems designed to deliver a single payment and settlement means for the 15-state organisation. Dave Mitchell, head of the national payment system department at the South African Reserve Bank, ...
South African wine floods EU.(Trade)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The UK and continental markets are awash with cut-price South African wine, riding on the weakness of the rand against the euro. The flow of export wine comes at a time when South African producers face lagging sales at home caused by the global credit crunch knock-on, high interest rates, ...
East African leaders end property standoff.(Regional integration)(East African Community)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... An agreement by East African Community (EAC) presidents has broken a long-running impasse bogging down finalisation of a regional common market. A major sticking point hinged upon whether or not EAC residents should have the right to own property in any EAC territory, comprising ...
Corridor will boost trade income.(Logistics)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... A project that aims to upgrade infrastructure and untangle customs and regulatory procedures along trading routes through Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique could soon be launched. When it is in place exporters using the corridor could see transport cost ...
Africa to grow by 2%.(Economy)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The African region's economy will grow at 2.0% in 2009 and 3.9% in 2010, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. The report says "hard-won economic gains in Africa are being threatened by relatively weak financial linkages with advanced economies". The main shock ...
Maputo to host 2011 All-Africa Games.(Sport)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The Mozambican capital, Maputo, will host the 2011 edition of the All-Africa Games, after Zambia pulled out saying it could not afford to stage the event. The decision was made by the general assembly of the Supreme Council of Sports for Africa. Football is one of as many as 24 sporting ...
Carbon emissions provoking food shortages.(Climate change)(Report)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The longer term effects of climate change could mean a 50% cut in cereal and grain production in parts of southern Africa, leading to increased hunger and poverty says researcher Constansia Musvoto--and its reliance on coal for energy production is the reason why. Musvoto, a ...
Kibaki blasts Comesa telecom efforts.(ICT)(Mwai Kibaki)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Eastern and Southern African countries have failed to enhance communications in the region, says Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, also the chairman of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Branding their efforts to develop ...
New rapid rail system for Kenya.(Transport)(Kenya Railways Corp.)(InfraCo )(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... A public-private venture between Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and private infrastructure development company InfraCo will develop a rapid transport commuter system in Nairobi, increasing the number of rail commuters from the current 19,000 a day to over 100,000 in the next three and a ...
World bank triples health spending in Africa.(Health)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The World Bank is mobilising $3bn this year in health financing to help poor countries battle threats to their social services during the global economic crisis. This effectively triples Bank support from $lbn last year and will be used to strengthen health systems in poor countries, boost ...
Journeys to inspire walking tall.
Jun 01, 2009; ... LEONEL DA ROCHA PINTO Angola FROM REFUGEE CAMP TO BOARD DIRECTOR The story of an astonishing journey 1976: A refugee camp on the border between Angola and Namibia. A bleak, desolate area not far from the Namibian town of Rundu is now ...
The other side of the coin.(politicians and scandals)(Editorial)
Jun 01, 2009; ... It is an interesting coincidence that just when Africa once again comes under the baleful glare of the 'corruption police' with the publication of It's Our Turn to Eat an expose of corruption in Kenya--scandal upon scandal is engulfing the UK Parliament. It's Our Turn to Eat is ...
The Zuma era begins a practical, pragmatic cabinet: President Zuma has revealed a pragmatic approach in naming his new cabinet. His creation of new ministries, splitting of others and the individuals he has appointed has been broadly welcomed both in South Africa and abroad. Farhiya Ali Ahmed, reporting from Johannesburg, has the details.(Cover story)
Jun 01, 2009; ... South Africans and the international community have in the main greeted President Jacob Zuma's cabinet appointments as an appropriate response to public calls and concerns. President Jacob Zuma named his new cabinet at a media conference the day after his inauguration, announcing the ...
I am not a great man--I am a man of the people.(Interview)
Jun 01, 2009; ... South Africa's new President Jacob Zuma has endured an unenviable spotlight throughout his political ascendancy, a period which has seen him bear the brunt of lawsuits, acrimony and a barrage of negative media coverage during his nerve-tingling wait for what was his destiny--the presidency ...
Zuma--the man inside: just who is the real Jacob Zuma? This biography of Zuma by Jeremy Gordin slays some myths but raises others, as one of the most controversial and charismatic leaders in Africa takes over at the helm of one of the South's biggest and strongest economies.(Zuma: A Biography)(Book review)
Jun 01, 2009; ... As president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma's victory in South Africa's April general election completed an unlikely transition--from a herds-boy tending the family's livestock to president of the most economically powerful country on the continent. But just who is Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma? What ...
Politicians impaled by the satirist's pen: comedians and cartoonists had a ball poking fun at South African politicians in the run-up to the general elections. Tom Nevin reports.(MEDIA)
Jun 01, 2009; ... South Africa is a quickly developing society of the savvy, the smart, the trendy and the tolerant, the latter having blossomed in the last 15 years when the country's 42m or so black people suddenly found themselves part of a political society that is allowed to be irreverent towards its ...
Leader. ...(Cartoon)
Jun 01, 2009 ... AWULETH UMSHINI WAMI !! * TRANSLATION: ...
Landmark ruling allows apartheid victims to sue multinationals: in one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of the apartheid regime have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the apartheid regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, not only for Africa but globally. Khadija Sharife reports.(SPOTLIGHT)
Jun 01, 2009; ... In a landmark 144-page judgment last April, Southern District of New York Judge Shira Scheindlin found that some of the world's largest multinational corporations were engaged in aiding and abetting apartheid, torture, extrajudicial killing and other crimes. They could, therefore, be held ...
Aid flows to Africa under threat as world recession bites: since the 2002 Monterey Consensus, global aid to developing countries has been rising, but the severity of Western governments' financial woes could put a brake on future Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows, otherwise known as aid.(VIEW FROM THE CITY)
Jun 01, 2009; ... This reduction in aid flows could prevent the ambitious targets for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed in 2000--with a strong emphasis on education, healthcare and basic infrastructure--being achieved. "We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in ...
African ports thrive despite economic gloom: almost every sector in every country is suffering from the ongoing global economic crisis. Factories are being closed, GDP forecasts downgraded and belts tightened. Yet the African port sector is one of the few genuine examples of optimism, growth and new investment. Neil Ford reports.(Ports)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Logistics in Africa Many of the continent's seaports are bucking the global trend of weak economic indicators; trade volumes are rising, cargo-handling equipment is being upgraded and new ports are being constructed, as the world's biggest port operators compete to develop the ...
Ports: Pointe-Noire's new container port construction launched.(Ports)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, and Vincent Bollore, president of the Bollore Group, have officially launched the construction phase of the modernisation and expansion of the container terminal at Pointe-Noire. It is part of the development agreement ...
Vital North-South Corridor gets green light: Lusaka was the venue for perhaps the most important conference on African logistics to date. The high-level gathering, which included presidents and international institutions, came to grips with proposals to raise funding of some $2bn to undertake a massive logistical infrastructure project, the North-South Corridor. M J Morgan reports.(Ports)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Given Africa's perennial logistical difficulties brought about largely because of inadequate and underinvested infrastructure, it was with some excitement, as well as trepidation that 350 representatives from Tanzania, DR Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South ...
Beira Corridor.(Ports)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The end of the 16-year civil war in Mozambique has permitted the extraction of resources, an activity that had been untenable during the conflict, various major infrastructure projects are now under way to enable exports from the country and its neighbours. The Beira Corridor ...
South Africa's key corridor solutions: Transnet plans to upgrade five key corridors and ensure that rail capacity talks to ports capacity. Tom Nevin reports.(Down to the sea in trains)
Jun 01, 2009; ... To achieve our growth strategy--our horizon for the next few years--we felt that the most logical and pragmatic solution was to prioritise transport corridors, says Moira Moses, chief executive of Transnet Capital Projects. "We have identified five key corridors as a focus for our energy ...
Investment how to cut the cost of Africa's cross-border transport: it costs 60% more to transport an item in Africa than it does for the same item over the same distance in the US or the UK. Most of this expense is caused by unnecessary red tape and ends up costing African economies billions in lost efficiency and investment. What can be done? Asks Omari Issa.(Ports)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Stories about difficult trade experiences are commonplace in Africa--so much so that it is easy to overlook the very damaging impact that trade barriers can have on businesses and investor confidence. The implications for domestic businesses, which have to battle with delays and high costs ...
WEF--implications of the global economic crisis for Africa: with government and business leaders arriving in Cape Town for this month's World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF-Africa) summit, Omar Ben Yedder provides a preview of what will be one of Africa's most crucial meetings of recent times.(WEF SPECIAL REPORT)(World Economic Forum)(Conference news)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Last year, the talk at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Africa meeting was of a continent becoming an interesting and exciting investment destination. Oil prices were hitting record highs, commodity prices were booming and stock markets were peaking. There was a renewed optimism even if ...
Business responding to the TB challenge.(Investment)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Health is increasingly an issue of importance for the business sector. As was stated by Alex Azar, senior vice-president for corporate affairs with Eli Lilly, one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, "Businesses have a fundamental responsibility towards both their employees and ...
Ensuring Africa's voice is heard: African Business spoke to the Africa Director of the WEF, Katherine Tweedie, about this year's programme, which again promises to be invigorating and varied in terms of coverage.(World Economic Forum)(Interview)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Omar Ben Yedder: We now live in a fast-moving environment; what we've seen happening in the past year would have once taken five years or more to unfold. In terms of our response to these changing circumstances, is it more difficult to find an agenda that reflects the needs of African ...
Unscrambling Africa: one of the thorniest problems in Africa today, the issue of land reform and all its economic and political implications, was the theme of the last African Presidential Roundtable held in Berlin, Germany. African Business editor Anver Versi was invited to attend this usually closed event. Here are his reflections.(FORUM)(Conference notes)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The African Presidential Round-table in Berlin, (see African Business, March 2009) organised by Boston University's APARC, was a rare opportunity to sit with some of Africa's great leaders of the past and discuss current issues facing the continent. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
We will battle global crisis on equal terms--AfDB: this year, the African Development Bank's annual meeting focused on the critical issue of the continent's response to the current global economic crisis. It drew its largest-ever participation and arrived at some vital decisions in a bid to steady the continent in the face of the economic storms. Anver Versi was there.(EVENTS)(Conference notes)
Jun 01, 2009; ... There was no question that the 44th annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Dakar, Senegal, last month was easily the most critical of this decade. The theme said it all: 'Africa and the financial crisis: An agenda for action'. This time, no one can accuse ...
The myth of Africa's skills drain: while we tend to complain that professionals such as nurses are being lured by better salaries to work in Europe and the US while they are desperately needed at home, it now appears that these same professionals are not being offered jobs in their home countries despite the obvious demand for their services. Why is this so?(LETTER FROM EAST AFRICA)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Whenever I visit the US, I am constantly surprised at how little most Americans know of the various options available to foreigners seeking to become US citizens--and especially of the 'Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery', usually known as the 'Green Card Lottery'. [ILLUSTRATION ...
Indigenisation law triggers mining dispute: following the collapse of commercial agriculture, after the 2000 land redistribution, the country is now setting out on a path to redistribute ownership of companies that exploit the country's munificent resources--among others. M J Morgan reports on the controversy this move has aroused.(ZIMBABWE)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Jack Murehwa, the former president of the Zimbabwean Chamber of Mines, has criticised the new legislation requiring companies to divest their ownership to indigenous residents. Until now, industry representatives have been keeping their powder dry on the subject. [ILLUSTRATION ...
Piracy is 'killing' Ghana music industry: the Ghanaian economy is not totally immune to the effects of the global economic downturn although its impact has been relatively limited, reports Stephen Gyasi Jnr from Accra.(GHANA)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Once one Of Africa's leading lights, the Ghanaian music industry, has been heading south for the last few years. It urgently needs its stakeholders and the new government to put into place the appropriate structures and policies to arrest a downward spiral. In spite of the seemingly ...
Ghana's economy wobbles: the Ghanaian economy is not totally immune to the effects of the global economic downturn although its impact has been relatively limited, reports Stephen Gyasi Jnr from Accra.(GHANA)
Jun 01, 2009; ... When Dr Paul Acquah, governor of the Bank of Ghana, reported that private remittances coming into the country during the first three months of this year declined 7.3% to $1.98bn compared to last year, it was a clear indication that the global financial crisis was beginning to impact ...
Snouts in the trough: The notion of entitlement.(It's Our Turn to Eat: The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower)(Book review)
Jun 01, 2009 ... It's Our Turn to Eat The story of a Kenyan whistleblower [pounds sterling]12.99 4th Estate ISBN: 978-0-00-724196-5 When Michela Wrong answered the doorbell of her London flat and found her Kenyan friend John Githongo and a mountain of luggage on the step, ...
A world Vieux.(Sound recording review)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Fondo Vieux Farka Toure Six Degrees Records Cat: 65703 1158 Having a famous papa can be more of a curse than a blessing. For every Femi or Seun Kuti, the musician sons of Afrobeat star Fela Kuti (or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart come to that) who ...