Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[Poitier]

Africa Left in Dark as $9.7 Billion Obama Power Plan Falls Short


Toluse Olorunnipa ToluseO


Tope Alake
September 21, 2016 — 12:00 AM EDT
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Barack Obama attends the Power Africa Innovation Fair in Kenya in 2015.


Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
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• The president’s signature Africa initiative hasn’t panned out
• Officials say the project needs more time to show results

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President Barack Obama’s signature initiative for Africa -- a $9.7 billion plan to double electricity access in the world’s poorest continent -- has fallen well short of its goals, so far producing less than 5 percent of the new power generation it promised.

Obama announced Power Africa three years ago with an ambitious goal: to add 10,000 megawatts of power and supply electricity to 20 million households within five years. As he prepares to address the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York on Wednesday, the project has yielded less than 400 megawatts of new power after running into political and economic difficulties.

“If you look today at the number of megawatts that are actually on the grid directly related to the Power Africa initiative, it is very little,” John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric Co., said in May at the World Economic Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.


Power Africa, he said, “was a well-intentioned effort, with a lot of smart people, a lot of willing participants, financial institutions and yet, for some reason, it couldn’t come together.”

The program’s shortfalls mean that when Obama leaves office, the nation’s first black president and the son of a Kenyan farmer will not be able to claim a legacy-defining endeavor in Africa. By comparison, President George W. Bush’s signature initiative in Africa -- the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR -- provided drugs to fight HIV to more than 2 million people by the time he left office.

No ‘Magic Wand’
General Electric declined to make Rice available for an interview. Power Africa’s leaders say they are redoubling efforts to accelerate progress. U.S. agencies announced $1 billion in new loans and financing on Wednesday for projects in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and elsewhere.

Obama administration officials say Power Africa was never expected to change the continent’s energy landscape overnight. The goal was to persuade the private sector to tackle Africa’s power shortages, not simply provide a government handout, said Andrew Herscowitz, Power Africa coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development. Results will take years, he said.

“You can’t just wave a magic wand and have all the infrastructure appear -- it takes time to build things,’’ he said. “A huge project doesn’t get built overnight. Not in the United States, not in Europe, not in China, not anywhere.’’

Herscowitz said Power Africa is backing projects across the continent, showing that the private sector is responding to U.S. efforts. A burgeoning market for solar panels is cropping up in places like Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and companies have committed more than $40 billion to dozens of Power Africa projects, he said. USAID estimates the initiative will ultimately provide electricity to 60 million households in more than 20 countries.

But many of the successful projects claimed by Power Africa were underway long before the initiative began, and much of the progress touted on paper has yet to materialize in actual electricity.

Nigerian Outages
That’s evident on a visit to the main electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, where shouting street vendors compete with hundreds of roaring generators that spring to life daily during power outages that last hours.

Even in the nation boasting Africa’s most potent economy, electricity is fleeting, and far too sporadic to keep this sprawling market reliably up and running.

“There was power supply this morning, but hardly did it last for one hour before it went off,’’ said Olajide Opemipo, a logistics manager who works in the market.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s largest concentration of people without power. More than 620 million people in the fast-growing region lack a reliable supply of electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.

Power Africa enjoys some congressional support, suggesting it could survive Obama’s presidency. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the aim is that the private sector will continue to invest after Obama leaves office. He sponsored legislation, signed by Obama in February, that encourages future administrations to continue investing in Africa’s power sector.

“All of us understand that dealing in Africa in terms of development work is a long process,’’ he said. “You’ve got 600 million people in the dark in Africa without electricity --so it’s going to take time.’’

‘Many Years’
Obama pledged to provide “light where currently there is darkness’’ and double access to power across sub-Saharan Africa when he introduced Power Africa in 2013.

The initial five-year timeline for the program was later increased to 15 years, and the goal for increasing electricity access expanded to 60 million households by 2030, up from 20 million. The initial $7 billion commitment has increased to almost $10 billion.

“An undertaking of this magnitude will not be quick,’’ he said last year in Addis Ababa. “It will take many years.’’

Power Africa officials say they are on track to meet their target of adding 30,000 megawatts of power by 2030. The initiative has closed deals to add 4,600 megawatts to the grid, though plants producing less than 400 megawatts have been built so far.

In Nigeria, a U.S.-backed effort to privatize power plants would add about 2,500 megawatts to the grid. But the expected gains haven’t materialized and the country’s power generation has fallen to a decade low of about 3,000 megawatts this year.

“The situation is not getting better and we are not seeing results,” Opemipo said when asked about Power Africa. “If I were to rate them, I would give them zero because I don’t know when the initiative started and what they have contributed so far.”

Political Dysfunction
Policy decisions and political dysfunction on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have hampered the effort.

In the U.S., congressional gridlock over the Export-Import Bank has handicapped progress. The bank, which lost its charter for several months last year, was slated to provide $5 billion in financing out of the initial $7 billion U.S. commitment.

It has only provided $131.5 million so far, and hasn’t approved any additional financing since July 1, 2015. An aide at the bank said Senate Republicans’ refusal to fill vacancies on its board has left financing for several Power Africa projects stuck in limbo. Without a quorum, the bank cannot approve deals worth more than $10 million.

In Nigeria, a change in political leadership, currency controls and an economic recession sparked by falling oil prices have spooked investors.

Suspended Plans


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Transnational Corp. of Nigeria Plc, an affiliate of one of Power Africa’s largest partners, last month suspended plans to build a $1 billion power plant, citing a surge in militant attacks on oil pipelines. Another project, the Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant, was delayed for months due to regulatory obstacles. The 450-megawatt plant is now moving forward, in part due to legal assistance from U.S. advisers, Herscowitz said.


“The regulatory environment is quite rigid,’’ said James Nicholas, co-founder of Global Business Resources USA, which plans to build two solar plants in Nigeria. “It’s bureaucratic.”

Power Africa’s delivery of results in Nigeria and elsewhere could determine whether the next U.S. president continues to invest in the continent’s power sector. Obama hasn’t devoted much of his public time to Power Africa, and the project lacks a high-level champion in the White House, said Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington research group.

“I worry that the sustainability of the initiative is at risk when a new administration comes in and they have their own priorities,” said Moss, a former assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of African Affairs.

Royce said investors see promise in a region where many consumers spend billions of dollars on expensive and dirty diesel generators. Power Africa counts Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Citigroup Inc. among its corporate partners.

Recognizing the challenges and delays that come with constructing full-fledged power plants in the continent Power Africa is shifting its focus to faster, off-the-grid energy projects like solar panels, Herscowitz said.

Solar companies in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda serving thousands of customers have been funded by the program, he said.

“It’s challenging,’’ he said. “If it weren’t challenging, you would not need Power Africa.”

 

[Poitier]

Time for Mugabe to go, says Botswana President Khama
Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:42am GMT

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By Ed Cropley

GABORONE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe should step aside without delay and allow new leadership of a country whose political and economic implosion since 2000 is dragging down the whole of southern Africa, Botswana President Ian Khama said.

Despite his reputation as one of Africa's most outspoken figures, Khama's remarks are certain to raise hackles in Harare, where factions of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party are locked in a bitter struggle to succeed the only leader Zimbabwe has known.

Asked by Reuters if Mugabe, who came to power after independence from Britain in 1980, should accept the reality of his advancing years and retire, 63-year-old Khama responded: "Without doubt. He should have done it years ago."

"They have got plenty of people there who have got good leadership qualities who could take over," Khama, the UK-born son of Botswana's first president, Seretse Khama, and his British wife, Ruth, continued.

"It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is in, he's not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its predicament," Khama said, in comments that breach an African diplomatic taboo banning criticism of fellow leaders.

Botswana, the world's largest producer of diamonds, shares 800 km (500 miles) of border with Zimbabwe and has felt the full effects of its neighbour's economic collapse under the weight of political violence and hyperinflation since 2000.

Although the economy stabilised in 2009 with the scrapping of the worthless Zimbabwe dollar, a slump in commodity prices over the last two years has triggered a cash crunch that has fed through into unprecedented public anger at Mugabe.

No clear potential successor has emerged from the destabilising factional fight to take over after Mugabe.


Khama said the instability was damaging Botswana's efforts to wean itself off mining - which accounts for 20 percent of GDP and nearly 60 percent of exports - by promoting itself as a regional logistics and services hub.

The unrest was also forcing more and more Zimbabweans to leave the country, he added.

Botswana is home only to an estimated 100,000 Zimbabweans - a fraction of the 3 million believed to be in South Africa - although this is still enough to strain public services in a nation of 2.3 million people.

Botswana's jails held "significant numbers" of Zimbabweans, Khama said.

"It is a big concern," the British-trained former general said. "It is a problem for all of us in the region - and it is a burden. There's no doubt about that."



RESURRECTION MAN

In the latest controversy over his health, Mugabe left a summit of southern African leaders at the end of August without warning and went to Dubai, fuelling rumours he had been taken gravely ill or may even have died.

Khama did not discuss any specifics of Mugabe's condition at the meeting but said his counterpart looked tired. "We're talking about a 92-year-old man and there's just so much you can do at that age to try and keep up."


Mugabe frequently refers to himself as "fit as a fiddle" and hints at a desire to stay in power until he is 100. After his Dubai trip, which he attributed to a family matter, Mugabe joked about online reports of his imminent demise.

"Yes, I was dead. It's true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do. Once I get back to my country I am real," he told reporters at Harare airport.

Khama reiterated his government's concerns about the credibility of the elections Mugabe has won in recent years, but said irrespective of the results no leader should cling on to power for that long.

"My opinion has always been that 10 years leading any kind of organisation - not just a country or a government, any organisation - is pretty much the maximum," he said.

During its 50 years since independence, Botswana has emerged as a politically and economically stable nation that has used its mineral wealth prudently - a rarity on a continent where such treasures have been routinely squandered, stolen or the cause of civil war.

Khama's second five-year term in office ends in 2018 when he will hand over to vice-president Mokgweetsi Masisi in a carefully scripted political succession that makes instability almost impossible.

After 2018, Khama, a keen nature-lover whose wood-panelled office is adorned with pictures of the African savannah, said he wanted to dedicate his time to tourism and conservation.

Thanks to a focus on safari tourism and a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, Botswana boasts more than 150,000 elephants, a third of Africa's entire population of the animals.

But Khama said there was no room for complacency in the fight against the illegal ivory trade given the rampant poaching in other countries on the continent.


"One day if their animals become extinct and we still have viable populations, all the guns will be focused on us," he said.



(Reporting by Ed Cropley; editing by Giles Elgood)

Time for Mugabe to go, says Botswana President Khama | Top News | Reuters

 

[Sinnerman]

^Time has passed many of these leaders decades ago

will be headed to nigeria in a month or two, so I'll let y'all know what I see/hear

 

[Bawon Samedi]

^Indeed time has passed for them.

Clashes in Kinshasa leave 50 dead, say DRC opposition groups
Clashes in Kinshasa leave 50 dead, say DRC opposition groups

^^^This was a good read and I agree with @MansaMusa that a French style revolution may happen with all the elites getting chopped down.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Africa Left in Dark as $9.7 Billion Obama Power Plan Falls Short


Toluse Olorunnipa ToluseO


Tope Alake
September 21, 2016 — 12:00 AM EDT
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Barack Obama attends the Power Africa Innovation Fair in Kenya in 2015.


Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
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• The president’s signature Africa initiative hasn’t panned out
• Officials say the project needs more time to show results

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

President Barack Obama’s signature initiative for Africa -- a $9.7 billion plan to double electricity access in the world’s poorest continent -- has fallen well short of its goals, so far producing less than 5 percent of the new power generation it promised.

Obama announced Power Africa three years ago with an ambitious goal: to add 10,000 megawatts of power and supply electricity to 20 million households within five years. As he prepares to address the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York on Wednesday, the project has yielded less than 400 megawatts of new power after running into political and economic difficulties.

“If you look today at the number of megawatts that are actually on the grid directly related to the Power Africa initiative, it is very little,” John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric Co., said in May at the World Economic Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.


Power Africa, he said, “was a well-intentioned effort, with a lot of smart people, a lot of willing participants, financial institutions and yet, for some reason, it couldn’t come together.”

The program’s shortfalls mean that when Obama leaves office, the nation’s first black president and the son of a Kenyan farmer will not be able to claim a legacy-defining endeavor in Africa. By comparison, President George W. Bush’s signature initiative in Africa -- the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR -- provided drugs to fight HIV to more than 2 million people by the time he left office.

No ‘Magic Wand’
General Electric declined to make Rice available for an interview. Power Africa’s leaders say they are redoubling efforts to accelerate progress. U.S. agencies announced $1 billion in new loans and financing on Wednesday for projects in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and elsewhere.

Obama administration officials say Power Africa was never expected to change the continent’s energy landscape overnight. The goal was to persuade the private sector to tackle Africa’s power shortages, not simply provide a government handout, said Andrew Herscowitz, Power Africa coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development. Results will take years, he said.

“You can’t just wave a magic wand and have all the infrastructure appear -- it takes time to build things,’’ he said. “A huge project doesn’t get built overnight. Not in the United States, not in Europe, not in China, not anywhere.’’

Herscowitz said Power Africa is backing projects across the continent, showing that the private sector is responding to U.S. efforts. A burgeoning market for solar panels is cropping up in places like Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and companies have committed more than $40 billion to dozens of Power Africa projects, he said. USAID estimates the initiative will ultimately provide electricity to 60 million households in more than 20 countries.

But many of the successful projects claimed by Power Africa were underway long before the initiative began, and much of the progress touted on paper has yet to materialize in actual electricity.

Nigerian Outages
That’s evident on a visit to the main electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, where shouting street vendors compete with hundreds of roaring generators that spring to life daily during power outages that last hours.

Even in the nation boasting Africa’s most potent economy, electricity is fleeting, and far too sporadic to keep this sprawling market reliably up and running.

“There was power supply this morning, but hardly did it last for one hour before it went off,’’ said Olajide Opemipo, a logistics manager who works in the market.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s largest concentration of people without power. More than 620 million people in the fast-growing region lack a reliable supply of electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.

Power Africa enjoys some congressional support, suggesting it could survive Obama’s presidency. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the aim is that the private sector will continue to invest after Obama leaves office. He sponsored legislation, signed by Obama in February, that encourages future administrations to continue investing in Africa’s power sector.

“All of us understand that dealing in Africa in terms of development work is a long process,’’ he said. “You’ve got 600 million people in the dark in Africa without electricity --so it’s going to take time.’’

‘Many Years’
Obama pledged to provide “light where currently there is darkness’’ and double access to power across sub-Saharan Africa when he introduced Power Africa in 2013.

The initial five-year timeline for the program was later increased to 15 years, and the goal for increasing electricity access expanded to 60 million households by 2030, up from 20 million. The initial $7 billion commitment has increased to almost $10 billion.

“An undertaking of this magnitude will not be quick,’’ he said last year in Addis Ababa. “It will take many years.’’

Power Africa officials say they are on track to meet their target of adding 30,000 megawatts of power by 2030. The initiative has closed deals to add 4,600 megawatts to the grid, though plants producing less than 400 megawatts have been built so far.

In Nigeria, a U.S.-backed effort to privatize power plants would add about 2,500 megawatts to the grid. But the expected gains haven’t materialized and the country’s power generation has fallen to a decade low of about 3,000 megawatts this year.

“The situation is not getting better and we are not seeing results,” Opemipo said when asked about Power Africa. “If I were to rate them, I would give them zero because I don’t know when the initiative started and what they have contributed so far.”

Political Dysfunction
Policy decisions and political dysfunction on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have hampered the effort.

In the U.S., congressional gridlock over the Export-Import Bank has handicapped progress. The bank, which lost its charter for several months last year, was slated to provide $5 billion in financing out of the initial $7 billion U.S. commitment.

It has only provided $131.5 million so far, and hasn’t approved any additional financing since July 1, 2015. An aide at the bank said Senate Republicans’ refusal to fill vacancies on its board has left financing for several Power Africa projects stuck in limbo. Without a quorum, the bank cannot approve deals worth more than $10 million.

In Nigeria, a change in political leadership, currency controls and an economic recession sparked by falling oil prices have spooked investors.

Suspended Plans


Keep up with the race of a lifetime.
Get our politics newsletter daily.

Transnational Corp. of Nigeria Plc, an affiliate of one of Power Africa’s largest partners, last month suspended plans to build a $1 billion power plant, citing a surge in militant attacks on oil pipelines. Another project, the Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant, was delayed for months due to regulatory obstacles. The 450-megawatt plant is now moving forward, in part due to legal assistance from U.S. advisers, Herscowitz said.


“The regulatory environment is quite rigid,’’ said James Nicholas, co-founder of Global Business Resources USA, which plans to build two solar plants in Nigeria. “It’s bureaucratic.”

Power Africa’s delivery of results in Nigeria and elsewhere could determine whether the next U.S. president continues to invest in the continent’s power sector. Obama hasn’t devoted much of his public time to Power Africa, and the project lacks a high-level champion in the White House, said Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington research group.

“I worry that the sustainability of the initiative is at risk when a new administration comes in and they have their own priorities,” said Moss, a former assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of African Affairs.

Royce said investors see promise in a region where many consumers spend billions of dollars on expensive and dirty diesel generators. Power Africa counts Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Citigroup Inc. among its corporate partners.

Recognizing the challenges and delays that come with constructing full-fledged power plants in the continent Power Africa is shifting its focus to faster, off-the-grid energy projects like solar panels, Herscowitz said.

Solar companies in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda serving thousands of customers have been funded by the program, he said.

“It’s challenging,’’ he said. “If it weren’t challenging, you would not need Power Africa.”

Link?

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

^Indeed time has passed for them.

Clashes in Kinshasa leave 50 dead, say DRC opposition groups
Clashes in Kinshasa leave 50 dead, say DRC opposition groups

^^^This was a good read and I agree with @MansaMusa that a French style revolution may happen with all the elites getting chopped down.

Had a good conversation with a Congolese nationalist today. She wanted Kabila's family murdered. Getting real spooky outchea

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Had a good conversation with a Congolese nationalist today. She wanted Kabila's family murdered. Getting real spooky outchea

 

[Poitier]

Link?

Obama’s Africa Power Plan Falls Short, Leaving Continent in Dark

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Well look at what we have here... Look who is crawling back. @mbewane was right.

Morocco asks to rejoin the African Union after 32 years

Morocco has asked to rejoin the African Union (AU), 32 years after it quit the bloc in protest over a decision to make the disputed territory of Western Sahara a member.

In a message sent to an AU summit in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Sunday, King Mohammed VI said it was time for Morocco to retake its place.

"For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family," he said in a speech to African leaders as they began a two-day meeting.

"The moment has now come."

According to MAP, the official Moroccan news agency, the monarch said that although his country had left the organisation, "it never quit Africa."

READ MORE: UN chief regrets Western Sahara 'occupation' comment

Morocco considers Western Sahara an important part of the kingdom. The Sahrawi people's Polisario Front movement, which demands self-determination for Western Sahara, wants a referendum on independence.

Earlier this year, Morocco ordered the UN to pull out several of its staff members and to close down a military liaison office for the MINURSO peacekeeping mission in response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's use of the term "occupation" to describe Morocco's presence in Western Sahara.

In his message, King Mohammed urged the AU to reconsider its stance on what he called the "phantom state", saying that a political solution was being worked on under the supervision of the UN.

A UN-Morocco spat over Western Sahara


Western Sahara is not a member of either the UN or the Arab League, he said, adding that "at least 34 countries do not recognise it.

"On the Sahara issue, institutional Africa can no longer bear the burden of a historical error and a cumbersome legacy," the King said.

"Through this historic act and return, Morocco wants to work within the AU to transcend divisions."

Morocco's return to the AU would need to be validated by a vote

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Again @mbewane you were right. I'm actually surprised by this turn... I wonder what caused their change?

Morocco in Line with AfDB's High 5s

The day after his arrival in the Kingdom on his first official visit as president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina attended many high level meetings with the Moroccan authorities in Rabat on Wednesday 20 July.

He was accompanied by a delegation that included Resident Representative in Morocco Yacine Fal, AfDB Acting Vice President responsible for operations Janvier Litse, and Acting Vice President responsible for finance Charles Boamah.

In addition to paying a courtesy visit to the Head of Government Abdel-Ilah Benkiran, Adesina met Mohammed Boussaïd, the Minister of Economy and Finance and AfDB governor for Morocco and also with Salaheddine Mezouar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is chair of COP22, taking place this year in Marrakesh.

The meeting at the Ministry of Finance was followed by a working session attended by Minister of Agriculture and Marine Fisheries Aziz Akhannouch, Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics Aziz Rabah, and the Minister attached to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Investment and the Digital Economy, Mamoune Bouhdoud, responsible for small businesses and the integration of the informal sector. A final working meeting was held in Rabat with director of the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN, from the French) Mustapha Bakkouri.

Adesina was keen to stress from the outset the outstanding cooperation that unites the Bank with Morocco, one of its founding members and, especially, its first client. "Morocco is one of AfDB's best performing portfolios on the continent," he said, taking particular pleasure in the disbursement rate of 52%. The AfDB president also hailed Morocco's economic performance and its development strategies, on top of the importance of its role on the continent: "85% of your foreign direct investment is in Africa," said Adesina, who also applauded the wish expressed by Morocco a few days previously to re-join the African Union. The Kingdom of Morocco is the third largest exporter in Africa, after South Africa and Egypt.


AfDB cooperation with Morocco "is not merely a financial relationship," added the Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance. "The AfDB contribution to Morocco goes beyond that."

The numerous exchanges that took place in the course of this day of engagements and working meetings highlighted the convergence of views between the Bank and the Moroccan authorities, particularly around the 4 of the Bank’s High 5 priorities: "Lighting up and powering Africa", as witnessed by the great progress Morocco has made in the last 20 years in regard to electrical connections; "Feeding Africa", echoed in the Moroccan Green Plan, which focuses on the development of agriculture and agri-business (and thanks to which the impact of this year's serious drought was greatly reduced); Industrializing Africa, met by Morocco's industrial strategy; and Integrating Africa."

On COP22, which will take place in November 2016 in Marrakesh, "you can count on the full support of the Bank", assured Adesina (AfDB, which is already financing the extension of Marrakesh airport, is co-organizing the Africa Pavilion and working very closely with the Moroccan authorities throughout the preparations for this event "on African soil".

"My wish is that we work together", said Akinwumi Adesina in his address to Moroccan authorities, referring in turn to the challenges of climate change and requisite funding, the need for differentiated loan pricing for climate investments in fragile countries, agriculture and agribusiness, water and sanitation, financial integration (AfDB and ASEA have just signed, in mid-July, amemorandum of understanding that includes the Casablanca stock exchange)...

Among other pathways for enhanced collaboration, Adesina made a first concrete proposal: "To create with Morocco a private equity fund to boost investment in agriculture in Africa." The Moroccan authorities received this warmly and promised to reflect on it.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201607221044.html


Morocco eyes Africa for investment, political support
Opinion: Morocco's African Integration - ASHARQ AL-AWSAT

 

[mbewane]

Again @mbewane you were right. I'm actually surprised by this turn... I wonder what caused their change?

Morocco in Line with AfDB's High 5s

http://allafrica.com/stories/201607221044.html


Morocco eyes Africa for investment, political support
Opinion: Morocco's African Integration - ASHARQ AL-AWSAT

I'm no specialist, but from what I've heard/read :

Northern Africa, as we know, is more developped than a lot of sub-saharean countries. So a lot of students from there were already going north. But look at the other countries : Egypt has become more Arab than African, and the main languages are Arab and English. Lybia has become a disaster. Tunisia has the terrorism issue. Algeria still recovering from its own terrorist issue/civil war that kept it kind of out of the loop all these years, and less developped economically. On the other hand Morocco has been steadily developping for years, no wars, no real terrorist issue at home, Moroccans from Europe coming back with business ideas and capital, Euro tourists bringing in money, and the use of french which is interesting for francophone Africans. And also, a lot of French (and US I think) universities and businesses now have local sections in Morocco, so where do you go when you can't get a visa for Europe and don't have the money to go to the US? Morocco. They've been very smart on this. Also the fact it's a muslim country seems to convince muslim families to send their children there. But it's also open and tolerant enough to be interesting for non-muslims too. And as we know, a sizeable immigrant population attracts even more immigrants, because they'd rather go somewhere they know someone. So you this continued flow of students (mostly francophone) coming in Morocco.

So now you have all these sub-saharean africans who go to Morocco, study, work, build links, then go back home to open up their businesses. As Morocco, you're also reading everywhere that "Africa is the continent of the future". You're too small to play a role in the Middle-East (which doesn't respect you anyway, we never talk about xenophobia within the "arab" world but many Moroccans told me people from the ME look down on them), and Europe is closing its doors. Why not turn to your own continent, you share two languages (arab and french) with a lot of them, a religion (Islam) too. The Tijani path (not sure how to translate "confrérie") of Islam is big in Morocco and in a lot of Western african countries (especially Senegal, which is itself somewhat of a heavyweight in francophone Africa), so you have that solidarity and cultural closeness that goes back centuries. And you have all these people who know Morocco going back, why not do business with them. So now you have Royal Air Maroc opening up offices everywhere, because they know people are travelling more and more and a rising african middle-class is interested in travelling, but also not always necessarily outside of Africa. And they have a bank that is opening offices too in francophone Africa, I forgot its name now. What I'm trying to say is that there are already a lot of Africans with some "experience" of Morocco, and it's always easier to do business with people that know you/you know.

So all in all, it's good business. And that good business has allowed Morocco to continue to develop its tourism sector, which was already the most important in Northen Africa (TONS of Euros went to Morocco for holidays every year). It also allows Morocco to organize big meetings, congressess, all that stuff. More money, more people coming in. They know there's a rising demand in Africa for both (due to the rising middle-class and the civil society organizing itself) so they provide it.

All in all, very smart smart imo.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Very good post. Wish reps were back.

I'm no specialist, but from what I've heard/read :

Northern Africa, as we know, is more developped than a lot of sub-saharean countries. So a lot of students from there were already going north. But look at the other countries : Egypt has become more Arab than African, and the main languages are Arab and English. Lybia has become a disaster. Tunisia has the terrorism issue. Algeria still recovering from its own terrorist issue/civil war that kept it kind of out of the loop all these years, and less developped economically. On the other hand Morocco has been steadily developping for years, no wars, no real terrorist issue at home, Moroccans from Europe coming back with business ideas and capital, Euro tourists bringing in money, and the use of french which is interesting for francophone Africans. And also, a lot of French (and US I think) universities and businesses now have local sections in Morocco, so where do you go when you can't get a visa for Europe and don't have the money to go to the US? Morocco. They've been very smart on this. Also the fact it's a muslim country seems to convince muslim families to send their children there. But it's also open and tolerant enough to be interesting for non-muslims too. And as we know, a sizeable immigrant population attracts even more immigrants, because they'd rather go somewhere they know someone. So you this continued flow of students (mostly francophone) coming in Morocco.

Yeah, I find it ironic and funny that these so called "non-black superior" North African countries(excluding Morocco) are being in a decline, while the "inferior true negroid sub saharan" countries are slowly starting to see a rise especially with East Africa. Again funny.

As for Morocco attracting more African immigrants I just hope the racism/xenophobia is down because I've been hearing negative things in terms of that. Like blacks racing racism. I never been to Morocco but dated an Americanized Moroccan chick a long time ago and even she said that while she considers herself African and even black a good number of Moroccans don't. But to be honest this chick was raised around black culture heavy and fukked with it a lot.

So now you have all these sub-saharean africans who go to Morocco, study, work, build links, then go back home to open up their businesses. As Morocco, you're also reading everywhere that "Africa is the continent of the future". You're too small to play a role in the Middle-East (which doesn't respect you anyway, we never talk about xenophobia within the "arab" world but many Moroccans told me people from the ME look down on them), and Europe is closing its doors. Why not turn to your own continent, you share two languages (arab and french) with a lot of them, a religion (Islam) too. The Tijani path (not sure how to translate "confrérie") of Islam is big in Morocco and in a lot of Western african countries (especially Senegal, which is itself somewhat of a heavyweight in francophone Africa), so you have that solidarity and cultural closeness that goes back centuries. And you have all these people who know Morocco going back, why not do business with them. So now you have Royal Air Maroc opening up offices everywhere, because they know people are travelling more and more and a rising african middle-class is interested in travelling, but also not always necessarily outside of Africa. And they have a bank that is opening offices too in francophone Africa, I forgot its name now. What I'm trying to say is that there are already a lot of Africans with some "experience" of Morocco, and it's always easier to do business with people that know you/you know.

Yep I heard not just Moroccans but all North Africans from Sudanese, Algerians and even EGYPTIANS face racism in the Middle East and are even called abeed. Its crazy. So its no small wonder that Morocco is looking back to Africa. As for Europe I heard they too face racism like being called the N word even.

But as for the bolded I agree 100%. There is not only a cultural closeness in Africa but also in Europe. I hear many North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans in countries like France live in the same neighborhoods and heavily interact with one another. I can see Morocco and a stable country like Senegal being partners. I would have liked to include Mali but sadly things are not looking good for Mali.

As for the rest I definitely agree Morocco should take advantage of the slowly growing African middle class. This will hopefully encourage more intra-trade in Africa.

So all in all, it's good business. And that good business has allowed Morocco to continue to develop its tourism sector, which was already the most important in Northen Africa (TONS of Euros went to Morocco for holidays every year). It also allows Morocco to organize big meetings, congressess, all that stuff. More money, more people coming in. They know there's a rising demand in Africa for both (due to the rising middle-class and the civil society organizing itself) so they provide it.

All in all, very smart smart imo.

Indeed.

 

[mbewane]

Very good post. Wish reps were back.



Yeah, I find it ironic and funny that these so called "non-black superior" North African countries(excluding Morocco) are being in a decline, while the "inferior true negroid sub saharan" countries are slowly starting to see a rise especially with East Africa. Again funny.

As for Morocco attracting more African immigrants I just hope the racism/xenophobia is down because I've been hearing negative things in terms of that. Like blacks racing racism. I never been to Morocco but dated an Americanized Moroccan chick a long time ago and even she said that while she considers herself African and even black a good number of Moroccans don't. But to be honest this chick was raised around black culture heavy and fukked with it a lot.



Yep I heard not just Moroccans but all North Africans from Sudanese, Algerians and even EGYPTIANS face racism in the Middle East and are even called abeed. Its crazy. So its no small wonder that Morocco is looking back to Africa. As for Europe I heard they too face racism like being called the N word even.

But as for the bolded I agree 100%. There is not only a cultural closeness in Africa but also in Europe. I hear many North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans in countries like France live in the same neighborhoods and heavily interact with one another. I can see Morocco and a stable country like Senegal being partners. I would have liked to include Mali but sadly things are not looking good for Mali.

As for the rest I definitely agree Morocco should take advantage of the slowly growing African middle class. This will hopefully encourage more intra-trade in Africa.



Indeed.

Thx breh, appreciate it

Yep racism is indeed an issue in all of North Africa, including Morocco, I've seen/read stories too, but at the same time I know a lot of brehs go there (for studies, work or holidays) and things go well, so not having been there myself neither I wouldn't know how bad/not bad it is the whole discussion of them considering themselves Africans is an interesting one, decades of looking more towards East has done a lot of damage (as, of course, the history of Arab slave trade)...Algeria for example has a rich history of panafricanism (supporting Mandela during apartheid, organizing a big panafrican festival) but that was before the civil war...I have an Algerian friend who STRONGLY believes in that and always defines herself as African.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Thx breh, appreciate it

Yep racism is indeed an issue in all of North Africa, including Morocco, I've seen/read stories too, but at the same time I know a lot of brehs go there (for studies, work or holidays) and things go well, so not having been there myself neither I wouldn't know how bad/not bad it is the whole discussion of them considering themselves Africans is an interesting one, decades of looking more towards East has done a lot of damage (as, of course, the history of Arab slave trade)...Algeria for example has a rich history of panafricanism (supporting Mandela during apartheid, organizing a big panafrican festival) but that was before the civil war...I have an Algerian friend who STRONGLY believes in that and always defines herself as African.

Dang, I noticed that Algerians have been very pro pan-Africanism. They even welcomed the Black Panther party. Interesting.

My sister in Ethiopia had a Tunisian friend and she said that she was very pro Pan-Africanism and considered herself African. So I guess it kinda depends. I think North Africa straying away from the Middle East/Europe and focusing on Africa would spell many good things for Africa. And would make it more solid as a continent.

Just wish the AU would get their asses together.

 

[mbewane]

Dang, I noticed that Algerians have been very pro pan-Africanism. They even welcomed the Black Panther party. Interesting.

My sister in Ethiopia had a Tunisian friend and she said that she was very pro Pan-Africanism and considered herself African. So I guess it kinda depends. I think North Africa straying away from the Middle East/Europe and focusing on Africa would spell many good things for Africa. And would make it more solid as a continent.

Just wish the AU would get their asses together.

Damn right