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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Tomorrow, in Addis: implementation strategy meeting for the AU’s Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025
Launching, 13 July in London: Achieving financial stability and growth in Africa (co-edited by Stephany Griffith-Jones, Ricardo Gottshalk)
World Investment Report 2016: investor nationality, policy challenges (UNCTAD)
FDI flows to Africa fell to $54bn in 2015, a decrease of 7% over the previous year, according to the World Investment Report 2016. An upturn in investment into North Africa was more than offset by decreasing flows into sub-Saharan Africa, especially to West and Central Africa. In particular this was because low commodity prices depressed FDI inflows in economies based on natural resource. Dynamic flows into Egypt boosted FDI to North Africa. FDI flows to Kenya reached a record level of $1.4bn in 2015, resulting from renewed investor confidence in the country’s business climate and booming domestic consumer market. In Southern Africa, inflows to Angola reached $8.7bn largely due to intra-company loans, while lacklustre economic performance pushed FDI in South Africa to $1.8bn – the lowest level in 10 years.
Zambia: Beating the slowdown - making every kwacha count (World Bank)
Zambia relies on copper for 77% of its exports, and as global prices have fallen, the current account surpluses enjoyed in recent years were replaced by deficits in 2015. Trade deficits have been recorded in each of the quarters since Q1 2015, led by a decline in the value of copper exported to international commodity firms and directly to China, following lower global demand, softer global copper prices, and an increase in the value of imports following the depreciation of the kwacha (figure 10). The value of copper exports in 2015 was US$5,234 million, 31% lower than their level in 2014, despite the marginal increase in 2015 copper production. Preliminary data suggests that the US$ value of copper exports fell by 19% in Q1 2016 relative to Q4 201518.
After growing strongly since 2010, non-traditional exports (i.e. goods other than copper and cobalt) declined by 36% in 2014, before declining by a further 23% in 2015 to reach US$1,865 million. In Q1 2016, non-copper exports declined by 3.3% compared to Q4 2015. Non-copper exports include maize, tobacco, sulphuric acid and precious stones. The recent decline follows poor crop production in the 2014-15 agricultural season and uncertainty about the availability of permits to export maize. Key non-copper export destinations are the DRC (7.7% of exports and mainly sulphuric acid for mining) and South Africa (6.8% of exports). At the same time, the total value of imports declined by 12% to US$8,433 million in 2015 from US$9,530 million in 2014. Higher prices for imported goods in kwacha terms have led to substitution effects and in Q1 2016, the volume of imports has continued to fall further and decreased faster than exports. Consequently, the trade deficit has started narrowing.
ZRA launches trade logistics single platform (Daily Mail)
The national electronic single window will improve trade by enhancing the business environment and ease the cost of doing business in Zambia, which is high on the World Bank rankings. ZRA Commissioner General Berlin Msiska said as an implementing agency, the ZRA connected the Zambia Bureau of Standards to the multi-agency risk management platform on customs services (ASYCUDA World) to all borders. Mr Msiska also noted that other targeted government agencies have not yet been connected because of inadequate country-wide connectivity capacity but was optimistic that this would done by the end of the year.
Kenya aims to enhance efficiency in cross-border trade with e-portal (Business Daily)
KenTrade, with the support of TMEA and UNCTAD, began to install the online platform just a month ago. Dubbed, TradeNet, the portal will also document step-by-step transit procedures at the Mombasa port and airport facilities, providing contact information on enquiry points and access to forms and other documents required.
Kenya to feel the pain of Britain’s possible EU exit (Business Daily)
Standard Chartered head of research for Africa Razia Khan said the shilling was likely to come under pressure if Britain exits and subsequent investor capital flight to relative safe havens such as US treasuries – ultimately triggering a stronger dollar. The Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge, who is a former IMF economist, said East Africa’s largest economy would “feel the shock wave” alongside other global economies should Britain vote to leave the EU.
Lift freeze on new staff, urges EAC Secretariat (The Citizen)
The EAC secretariat has made a plea to partner states to unanimously agree on lifting a freeze on the recruitment of new staff with the imminent mandatory retirement of 52 professionals. There are fears that the mass exit will have adverse effects on the operations of the EAC if the vacant posts in the executive organ of the regional bloc are not filled promptly, The Citizen has been told. [EALA's sensitisation programme: 'EAC Integration Agenda: accessing the gains']
Public-private sector ventures key to devt of Africa’s mining sector, says AU expert (New Times)
Frank Mugyenyi is a senior advisor for the department of trade and industry at the African Union Commission, and the brain behind the new African mining treaty. Mugyenyi was in Rwanda recently, and met local sector players to discuss how to boost the country’s and Africa’s struggling mining sector. Business Times’ Peterson Tumwebaze caught up with him to expound on this and other strategies the commission is putting in place to make the sector more vibrant and competitive.
Botswana: Govt to empower citizens in mining sector (Mmegi)
Botswana Geo-Science Institute director, Koketso Mojaboswa says the minerals draft policy will give more rights to locals as against foreigners. Addressing a full Central District Council meeting last Wednesday, Mojaboswa stated that the mining industry is currently dominated by foreigners rather than locals but added that the draft policy that is currently at consultation stage will change the status quo.
Zimbabwe: Government issues licences for gazetted products (The Herald)
Minister Bimha emphasised the Statutory Instrument (SI) was not a ban on the importation of the listed products but rather a removal of the goods on Open General Import Licence (OGIL). “It’s not a ban. Whoever wants to import will be issued with a licence if he/she provides a satisfactory explanation why the goods are needed in the country. We cannot ban imports as Zimbabwe is bound to other countries under various trade agreements and there is always the fear of reciprocity.” Minister Bimha said the controls were not peculiar to Zimbabwe and more importantly were time bound. [Related: CZI's manufacturing sector survey set for August (NewsDay), Zim government seizes SA imports from vendors(IOL), Zim finalises arrears clearance strategy (The Herald)]
Mauritius eyes Nigeria, other Africa markets to grow tourism (Bloomberg)
Mauritius is targeting Nigeria and other African nations to help sustain growth in tourism revenue that’s expected to reach almost 10% this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism Minister Xavier Luc Duval said. The country received 114,796 visitors from Africa in the first five months of this year, accounting for 22% of the total, according to Statistics Mauritius. Of the visitors from Africa, more than half came from the nearby island of Reunion, and 37,168 from South Africa, the Port Louis-based agency’s latest data show. Tourism accounted for 7.6% of Mauritian gross domestic product last year, making it the fourth-largest industry in the country. The industry is expected to grow 6.4% this year, compared with 8.5% in 2015.
Pan-African lender Ecobank may close some operations (The East African)
Ecobank is reviewing its expansion strategy following a decline in profits and may pull out of some African countries to focus on its most promising markets, chairman Emmanuel Ikazoboh told Reuters. Ecobank is based in Togo and operates in 36 African countries, making it a rare example of a pan-African bank that has developed outside South Africa, home to giants such as Standard Bank and FirstRand. But falling global commodity prices that have hit economies in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana have caused revenue to slow, profits to fall and triggered a shift in approach.
Indian government team leaves for Mozambique to explore pulses imports (Economic Times)
To tame spiralling prices of pulses, government today sent a high-level delegation to Mozambique to explore short and long-term measures to import the commodities on a government-to-government basis. Besides Mozambique, India is also exploring options in other African nations like Malawi to lease farms for growing pulses to meet India's demand. A decision to explore pulses import on a government-to- government basis was taken last week in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
EU-Africa Business Forum: update
A follow-up workshop of the EU-Africa Business Forum took place in Brussels on 15 June as a side event to the European Development Days. The workshop was structured around two thematic sessions: sustainable energy enterprises and the role of public-private partnerships, impact investment.
China-Africa Finance and Industry Cooperation Summit: date for meeting in Beijing tbc
South African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum: comments by Rob Davies (GCIS)
“It is not a secret that we are facing very tough challenges in the economy of South Africa. Most of the challenges come from developments in the world economy over which we have no influence. As a result of structural changes taking place particularly in China we have a very sharp reduction in demand for mineral commodities resulting in various countries experiencing a sharp contraction in their growth rates including us and many other countries in the African continent,” said Minister Davies. “Diversification should follow the path of industrialisation. Industrialisation means that we have to open ourselves to opportunities and investments coming from leading companies around the world applying highly robotised and digitised production methods,” said Minister Davies.
South Africa: Presidential Labour Working Group meeting statement (GCIS)
We need to recognise that SA operates in a context of global low growth and weak confidence – this affects our ability to trade with the outside world and has an impact on the fiscus as well, as we collect lower taxes due to declining revenues and profitability. We face the challenge of high administrative prices like broadband costs and port tariffs which are higher than those of our global peers. There was an agreement to create a ten person task team that will deal with some of the urgent matters identified by the meeting whose primary task will include doing work towards the Jobs Summit which will involve all stakeholders in society.
French firm Bolloré to invest Sh2bn in Nairobi logistics hub (Business Daily)
Paris-headquartered Bolloré Group is set to merge its logistics business into one global entity in a move that will see it change its brand name in Kenya for the second time in four years. Under the changes, which take effect from 1 July, the firm also plans to invest Sh2.2bn (€20m) to create a new logistics hub in Nairobi as part of its expansion effort.
You either shape up or ship out, Kenyan firms told (Daily Nation)
A continental institute has advised Kenyan companies to embrace modern management and entrepreneurship strategies to ward off stiff competition from foreign firms. The Africa Management Initiative (AMI), which conducted a year-long study jointly with the Institute of Human Resource Management, said companies must strive to be efficient and profitable by reducing wastage, maximising output by staff and ensuring their processes are cost-friendly. In their report, Best Practice in Workplace Learning and Management Development in Africa, the two organisations said continued removal of trade barriers will usher in "highly versatile" companies that have perfected commercial practices.
KK’s gone public, security is private, the state is vanishing (The East African)
Just over two weeks ago there was a story that didn’t make the front pages of newspapers or set social media alight. It should have. It was reported that KK Security, the Kenyan company that provides security services in seven countries, is considering listing on the stock market to help it expand. That would be a first for an East African security company. KK, it was reported, has an annual revenue of more than Ksh100 billion ($100 million), and was said to be expecting increased business from the oil and gas industries in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Nothing unusual there. Then we got into some truly eye-popping numbers. KK, it was said, employs almost 22,000 people. [The author: Charles Onyango-Obbo]
Egypt's budget deficit rises 18% in Jul-Apr on high debt service (Ahram)
BRICS bank to issue debt in members’ currencies (IOL)
Nigerian FG unveils 3-year debt management strategy (Vanguard)
ARSO selects first female president: Zimbabwe's Dr Eve Gadzikwa (The Chronicle)
The future of the Internet is at risk if we don’t act now, global experts say
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