Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[BigMan]

‘Invest in Namibia 2016’ considers doubling venue size

October 13, 2016

by Edgar Brandt

Windhoek

The aggressively promoted upcoming international investment conference, Invest in Namibia 2016, which was launched and marketed by President Hage Geingob in New York on September 22 and again in Johannesburg on October 6, is attracting so much attention that organisers are considering doubling the size of the venue.

The November 8-9 event, which is being organised by the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development, initially planned to cater for 500 participants, but the permanent secretary in the trade ministry, Gabriel Sinimbo, yesterday told New Era that significant interest from international investors has led the organisers to consider doubling the size of the venue.

“We were surprised at the excellent turnout (of interested investors) in New York, as well as the impressive turnout in Johannesburg. We have really received a resounding response to date,” said Sinimbo.

He went on to explain that the conference, which was initiated by Geingob to raise the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, is a targeted investment conference, in the sense that the trade ministry has already identified close to 20 projects in specific sectors considered important to the growth of the local economy.

Priority areas identified for investment include manufacturing, land servicing and affordable housing, tourism, transport and logistics, infrastructure development, renewable energy and agriculture.

While admitting that the relatively small Namibian market is not always attractive for investment, Sinimbo encouraged investors to look to the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) market, which has a population of some 280 million people.

“The Port of Walvis Bay and the excellent corridors in Namibia are strategically positioned to give an investor a competitive positioning as a transport hub for all regional and international trade between SADC countries, Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world,” said Sinimbo.

He added that some of the reasons investors are attracted to Namibia include its sound democratic governance architecture, a high degree of political stability, economic stability and consistent growth, a business-friendly environment, market access and external trade relations, as well as the independence of the judiciary.

Simimbi said to further attract investors, government put in place certain incentives, particularly for registered manufacturers that can add value to local products.

These incentives include a special building allowance, a transportation allowance (which offers 25 percent off land-based transport in the country), export promotion allowance, an incentive for training, 50 percent off industrial studies and cash grants that provide 50 percent off the direct costs of approved export promotion activities.
Sinimbo said in January the ministry invited proposals for projects that would be attractive to investors and have the potential to significantly boost the economy.

After over 600 project proposals were received the ministry appointed consultants to identify specific projects with the potential to attract foreign investors.

He said: “Thusfar we’ve identified 19 projects, but this number may still change before the conference,” he said, noting that not all the projects belong to government. Indeed, the majority belong to private individuals and institutions. The project owners will be present at the conference. The ministry will assist and coach private project owners on how to pitch their ideas to the investors.”

‘Invest in Namibia 2016’ considers doubling venue size

@Poitier @KidStranglehold what Namibian jawns look like

 

[Poitier]

 

[Poitier]

@Poitier @KidStranglehold what Namibian jawns look like

On average, like South Africans but with even more Khoi admixture/features and then you have tribes like the Himba who are more "stereotypically" bantu

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

I hate Buhari with all my heart.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Cant see video.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Cant see video.

There!
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari: My wife Aisha belongs to my kitchen - BBC News

 

[Bawon Samedi]

There!
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari: My wife Aisha belongs to my kitchen - BBC News

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

I hate Buhari with such passion!

He's ruining Nigeria. I may start a "Buhari Watch" thread in the Root.

 

[Red Shield]

the pic makes it



Better not sign that epa shyt

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Progress in Ethiopia can come only from unity, not ethnic rivalry

The October 11 World article “Ethiopia imposes state of emergency amid unrest” highlighted the widespread and proactive dissent that the undemocratic government is facing and the desperate measures it is taking. The situation is a consequence of the ruling party’s 25 years of dominance and its brutal suppression of human rights and political opposition.

Every segment of Ethiopian society, regardless of ethnic affiliation, has been victimized by the government’s unfair and misguided policies. The people of Ethiopia, therefore, in unison, are saying enough to a quarter-century of abuse. That is the reason there are active opposition movements throughout the country. This should not overshadow, however, the destructive presence of secessionist groups and liberation fronts that will further threaten Ethiopia’s unity and stability. Such groups and their agendas will add only unmanageable chaos to the situation.

The current popular movement can become effective only if it is channeled through a unifying, not a separatist, leadership. The people of Ethiopia are demanding that type of leadership to bring a sustainable, democratic change to their nation. Promoting and fighting for the interests of a single ethnic group will never be the solution for Ethiopia’s persistent political problems. Unity is the key to establishing freedom, equality and justice.
Progress in Ethiopia can come only from unity, not ethnic rivalry

 

[Bawon Samedi]

DR Congo threatened with sanctions by the EU for delaying elections
Twenty-eight European Union countries after formally requesting on Monday that elections be held in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2017, have threatened to sanction individuals who oppose the process.

An EU diplomat in Brussels who spoke to AFP on Friday said foreign ministers of the 28 countries have asked the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini to “identify personalities opposed to the elections for possible sanctions”.

The source did not name the targets already identified but mentioned people around President Joseph Kabila.

“We need strong enough evidence to punish them,” he added.

DRC is facing a lot of criticisms and sanctions after the electoral commission postponed the country’s election date from December 20 to the end of 2018 due to “logistical constraints”.

A court earlier this year ruled that if the country fails to organize elections later this year, Kabila could stay on as president. These events have created a lot of friction in the country.

Belgium has already limited the visa duration to be granted diplomatic officials from the country to six months and the United States has adopted financial sanctions against two senior military officials close to Joseph Kabila.
DR Congo threatened with sanctions by the EU for delaying elections | Africanews


The DRC needs that Burkina Faso event and fast...

 

[Bawon Samedi]

On the slightly bright side though...


DRC economy: The giant awakens

Most news headlines from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have one thing in common—their focus on conflict, particularly in the eastern part of the country. True, conflict is not new in the DRC, which has seen outbreaks in one form or another over the past three decades.

Of late, however, worries are mounting over presidential elections slated for November this year. President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, is bound by term limits to step down after having won elections in 2006 and 2011. His one-time ally now turned rival, former governor Moïse Katumbi, has declared his intention to run for the presidency, a decision that has not gone down well with some of President Kabila’s allies who would like to see him run for a third term.

At the same time, the sentencing of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former Congolese militia commander, last month, by The Hague-based International Criminal Court, for war crimes and crimes against humanity was a reminder of the most tragic episodes of the violent conflicts—use of child soldiers, sexual exploitation, rape and pillaging—that have marred the DRC and parts of the African Great Lakes region over the last two decades.

Yet beyond the troubling media headlines and the reminders of a bloody past, the country’s economy is performing almost unscathed. Except for a slump in 2009, when the economy grew by only 2.8%, economic growth has averaged 7.7% over the last five years. According to the World Bank, this is “well above the average in sub-Saharan Africa.” Economic growth in 2016 is expected to rise to 8%, which will make DRC’s one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Minerals and investments

The DRC may not be the most developed country in the Great Lakes region, but its vast and varied mineral resources present huge development potential. The country is a major supplier of cobalt, copper, diamonds, coltan and tin to global markets.

While minerals like copper, diamonds and tin are well known to the general public, it may not be the case with cobalt and coltan. Yet fights over access to these important resources have been one of the causes of the long and simmering instability in the DRC.

Cobalt is used to make magnets and turbines—jet or gas turbines—because of its resistance to high temperatures. According to 2013 US Geological Survey figures, the DRC supplied 48% of global cobalt and has about 47% of the world’s cobalt reserves.

Coltan, a contraction of columbite tantalum, is used in portable devices like mobile phones and surgical implants because of its high resistance to corrosion. It is also used in laptops, pagers and all other electronic devices fitted with miniature circuit boards. At a relatively high price of $200 per kilogramme, the country supplies 17% of global needs, amidst constantly high demand from electronics manufacturers.

In spite of weakening global economic growth and a decline in both demand and price for minerals, DRC’s economy is expected to remain resilient, according to the World Bank, because of the increase in public and private investments, particularly in infrastructure, that have accompanied the recent mineral boom. The annual average foreign direct investment in the DRC is about $2.07 billion, although it decreased to $1.7 billion in 2015, according to World Investment Report 2016 published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

From Congo outward

At the same time, signs of the country’s transformation can be seen in the capital, Kinshasa, and other major cities, from improved road infrastructure to multiple building sites and towering cranes across the city.

To support the DRC’s remarkable economic growth, the UN, which has a peacekeeping force operating in the eastern part of the country, organized an investment conference to promote the DRC and the Great Lakes region as an attractive destination for foreign
investment.

Meeting in September 2013, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region—a group of 12 countries with the goal of promoting lasting peace and development in the region—joined South Africa to agree on a UN-brokered peace, security and cooperation framework.

The 13 countries pledged “to strengthen regional cooperation, including economic integration with special consideration for the exploitation of natural resources.”

In February 2016, representatives from the 13 countries gathered in Kinshasa to discuss investment opportunities, including two dozen key development projects that needed immediate financing. Their objective was to lure international private investments to the DRC with its land and mineral potential, and then to the rest of the Great Lakes region.

In highlighting the economic attractiveness of the region, the Great Lakes countries are making their case for what they call the “seven key drivers for economic growth” across the region: tremendous natural resources, an abundance of arable land, water and growing food demand; a youthful fast-growing population; an increasingly educated and middle-class population; expanding export markets, trading partners and donors; an improving governance and business environment; increasing focus on infrastructure development; and competitively high returns on investment.

The Great Lakes region boasts 244 million hectares of arable land, according toInvesting in the Great Lakes Region: An Investment Opportunities Brief, a review commissioned by the 13 countries to help make their case to international investors. As demand for food worldwide increases, the region’s arable land represents an opportunity to increase food production for both domestic and global consumption, says the brief.

The high financial return on investments is another key reason for investing in the DRC and the region. While no specific figures are available for potential investors, a 2014 DRC country mining guide by KPMG, a global financial consultancy, says DRC’s mining sector presents a “high-risk high-return opportunity.”

Looking forward

Investors may be profiting from government policies, but Congolese nationals know that the DRC is still a poor country struggling to end a long-running conflict. The impact of the growth has not trickled down to its citizens. DRC has one of the world’s lowest gross national incomes per capita, and UN Human Development Index 2015 ranked the DRC 176 out of 188 countries.

Responding to the criticism that growth has not produced any noticeable social impact, the country’s prime minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo, told Radio France Internationale, a Paris-based broadcaster, that economic progress “has helped fund education by quadrupling public expenditure” over the past few years.

The latest World Bank assessment of the country shows that, although still high, the rate of poverty fell from 71% in 2005 to 63% in 2012. And thanks to prudent policies by the country’s central bank, the rate of inflation, which was 53% in 2009, dropped from 3% in 2012 to an average of about 1% over the past three years.

While the conflict in eastern DRC is unlikely to end soon, the country’s economic prospects remain positive. This is in spite of fears that should the global mineral market fail to recover soon and the level of public and private investments continue to decline, the country could find itself facing problems arising from conflict, political instability and economic hardships, giving credence to the news headlines with which the public is familiar.

DRC economy: The giant awakens | Africa Renewal Online

The DRC needs to hurry and push for quality government, stabilization of the eastern region, ending its long conflicts and a push for better infrastructure like more roads and rail roads and FAST! So much potential so little time. Country is bigger than the whole size of Mexico. Anyways if it does what I listed I believe development would come more smoother.

Again so much potential.

 

[Yehuda]

AfDB approves 570 million rand loan to finance affordable housing in South Africa

12/10/2016

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a Senior Loan of ZAR 570 million to South Africa’s Housing Investment Partners Trust 2 -HIP2), also known as Vulumnyango Trust, to help finance affordable housing programmes in the country. The loan will help improve access to long-term affordable housing finance to South Africa’s lower-middle income earners currently with limited opportunities to access affordable mortgages.

It will also consolidate the growth of a strong affordable housing sector within South Africa. The project provides a demonstration effect of tapping local currency capital from Africa’s premier development bank, local asset managers and a State Owned Enterprise to foster South Africa’s economic growth through affordable housing. The project also reduces fiscal pressures on the South African government in respect of housing for a specific market segment and enables HIP2 to mobilize funding from other sources, including eventual access to South Africa’s capital markets.

Although South Africa is one of the more developed economies in Africa, the country still faces acute shortage of affordable housing in its main urban areas, estimated at 3 million units in 2014. This has resulted in more than 2,600 informal settlements springing up around 70 of South Africa's major urban areas, making it very difficult for the government to reduce inequality and achieve inclusive growth targets.

Despite several government direct interventions in the sector, especially through the Reconstruction and Development (RDP) program which between 1994 and 2015 delivered over 2.9 million low cost houses for vulnerable and low income households, the housing needs of the lower-middle income earning households (otherwise referred to as the Gap Market) remain huge and unaddressed. HIP 2, which has now raised ZAR1.82 billion from National Housing Finance Company, Old Mutual Group, Futuregrowth and AfDB is targeting at offering more than 4,000 affordable mortgages to South Africa’s lower-middle income earners.

The intervention will generate other significant benefits including moving 2,500 – 6,500 out of informal settlements and create about 3,250 permanent jobs mainly for the youth. Overall, financing 4,386 affordable housing units is expected to generate over 10,000 jobs, including 950 - 1,296 direct jobs for women.

Stefan Nalletamby, Acting Vice President for Infrastructure Private Sector and Director, Financial Sector Development Department said: “The approved intervention will assist HIP2 in expanding and deepening South Africa’s housing finance sector and encourage orderly urban development for the provision of basic utilities such as water, sanitation, roads and electricity. In this respect, it will improve the lives of South Africans whilst also assisting in creating new employment opportunities.”

Presenting the project to the Board, Stella Kilonzo, Head of Financial Markets Division noted that “by extending this Senior Loan, the AfDB adds onto its existing initiatives to support affordable housing, development of mortgage finance institutions and deepening of local currency capital markets on the continent.”

“This is an excellent example of how we can intervene in middle income countries, such as South Africa, with developed financial systems where we generate impact through private sector on the quality of life of lower middle income earners in a sustainable manner. It opens up opportunities for the Bank to intervene in the sub sovereign debt markets and offer policy solutions on urbanization. This is hugely important given the fact that, at 3.4%, Africa’s urbanization rate is the fastest globally,” added Senior Vice President Frannie Leautier who chaired the Board meeting.

The Bank’s intervention is in line with its High 5 priorities which build on the Ten Year Strategy for 2013-2022, and specifically the 5th priority of Improving the Quality of Life for the People of Africa. The five focus areas are key to transforming the lives of the African people and therefore consistent with the United Nations agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It will also have multiplier effects on industries related to the real estate sector and the creation of jobs in the construction industry. The loan will complement South African government’s efforts to develop a self-sustaining long-term affordable mortgage market in the country.

Furthermore, the project fulfils one of the Bank’s priority objectives to support investments that contribute to the widening and deepening of financial markets in Africa, and enabling the private sector to mobilize and access long term-local currency funding from local financial markets. The project will contribute to the growth of bonds backed by affordable housing mortgages as an investible asset class on South Africa’s bond markets.

AfDB approves 570 million rand loan to finance affordable housing in South Africa

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Nigeria Still Lags Behind Angola In Oil Production, September OPEC Figures

Despite some increases, Nigeria’s crude oil production rate for September is still behind that of Angola—the country that unseated Nigeria as Africa’s top producer in March.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released the West African country’s production data on Wednesday, showing that Nigeria’s output rose by 280,700 barrels per day to 1.385 million bpd in September, which is still lower than Angola’s 1.649 million bpd rate.

Secondary sources cited by the Energy Mix Report put Nigeria production rate at 1.524 million barrels per day last month, up from 1.429 bpd in August.



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When Nigeria lost its title as Africa’s largest producer earlier this year, its output fell to 1.677 million barrels per day, as opposed to Angola’s 1.782 million bpd.

Attacks on Nigerian oil infrastructure earlier this year dragged the country’s daily crude production down by 700,000 bpd, figures by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from July showed.

As the destructive summer passed, production incrementally increased, though the country is still arms’ length away from full capacity.

The Niger Delta Avengers - who claim to fight for socioeconomic equality rather than religious causes – agreed to a ceasefire against further attacks over a month ago, but the group bombed a Bonny crude pipeline at the end of September.

According to the NDA, the pipeline was bombed in response to government attempts of “over dramatization of the so-called dialogue and negotiation process on the side of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government.”

Lagos has also sued Chevron, Eni, Total, Shell and Petrobras for illegally exporting crude without reporting the trades to the government. Nigeria claims the companies owe the government $12.7 billion for violations between 2011 and 2014.
Nigeria Still Lags Behind Angola In Oil Production, September OPEC Figures | OilPrice.com