Africa

Re: Africa

Postby winston » Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:03 am

China equity fund to invest $300 mln in Africa
Fri 27 Jun 2008, 10:27 GMT
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

KIGALI (Reuters) - A Chinese private equity fund set up a year ago for ventures in Africa plans to spend about $300 million on projects in 2008, its vice-president said on Friday.

The China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund) was launched in June 2007 with an initial $1 billion provided by the China Development Bank and plans to eventually grow to $5 billion, the fund's vice-president Hu Zhirong said.

It has invested $60 million in the first glass factory in Ethiopia, a power station in Ghana and a chrome plant in Zimbabwe. It is also working with several Chinese firms to form a holding company that will manufacture construction materials in all African countries.

"The fund is very young...in our plan we are willing to invest about $300 million in Africa by the end of this year," Hu said.

Hu spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of a conference held by the five-nation East African Community.

Bilateral trade between China and Africa has soared this decade to $73.8 billion in 2007 from $10.8 billion in 2000, while foreign direct investments grew from $500 million to $13.7 billion during the same period, he said.

Hu said China was intervening in Africa through government aid and concessionary loans, but that direct investment was the best way to aid the continent in creating wealth.

"Pure economic aid is something like a blood transfusion. It is necessary and effective during a certain stage of development," he told a conference in Rwanda to promote investment in the east African region.

"However, the ability of blood generation is what will deliver vibrant, sustainable growth," he added.

AFRICA NOT HOMOGENOUS

He said that in the fund's experience the continent was not homogenous.

"Every country has a different regime, different laws, different investment environment. China has a very good relationship with African countries but we have to learn a lot of things about them," he said.

"We want to know what they really need. So we always talk with African governments to know what they want to do and what they need from China."

Although the idea to set up the fund was mooted at a China-Africa cooperation summit in Beijing at the end of 2006, the fund finances private sector projects, he said.

CADFund's priorities are in agriculture and manufacturing industries, infrastructure development, natural resources and industrial parks.

Critics say China's investment in Africa has been unfeeling to citizens of countries with despotic regimes.

The 120 million people trade bloc wants to sell itself as a single investment destination.

"The fund recognizes East Africa as an important target area for our investment activity. We are evaluating several projects from this region at this very moment," he said.

Exponential growth in China and India have supplied a model for successful growth to Africa's developing nations.

Economic expansion on the continent was an average 5.8 percent in 2007, according to the United Nations.
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Re: Africa

Postby winston » Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:20 pm

Bloomberg: South Africa heading for a recession, Moody’s says

“South Africa may be heading for a recession by the end of the year as higher interest rates and surging inflation curb consumer spending, Moody’s Investors Service said.

“A power shortage has also ‘cut into economic activity’, while an increase in electricity prices is ‘further complicating monetary policy decisions,’ Moody’s said in an e-mail today.

“South Africa’s Reserve Bank has increased its benchmark interest rate six times since June last year as it forecasts that inflation, currently at 10.9%, will exceed the 3% to 6% target range for the next two years. Africa’s biggest economy expanded 2.1% in the first quarter, the slowest pace in more than six years.

“‘The housing and vehicle markets have slumped and both business and consumer confidence indicators now suggest that the economy could veer towards recession at the turn of the year,’ Moody’s said.

“Moody’s put South Africa’s Baa1 foreign currency rating on a positive outlook in June last year, prompted by an increase in foreign currency reserves, low foreign debt levels and a government budget surplus. Baa1 is the third-lowest investment grade and eight levels below the highest Aaa rating.

“Consumer confidence had its biggest drop in 24 years in the second quarter, increasing the likelihood of recession, First National Bank said on July 2. Higher interest rates have crimped spending on cars, with sales dropping an annual 22% in June, the 15th consecutive monthly decline, an industry body said on July 2.

“House-price growth slowed to an annual 3.8% last month, the slowest pace since September 1999, Absa Group, the country’s biggest mortgage lender, said yesterday.”

Source: Nasreen Seria, Bloomberg, July 8, 2008.
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Re: Africa

Postby winston » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:17 pm

China to step up Africa acquisitions - report

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China is preparing to move into Africa on a far greater scale than previous dealings, the Financial Times reported, citing executives from South Africa's Standard Bank, which is helping lay the groundwork for some of the transactions.

High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Standard Bank are examining potential targets in Africa's oil and gas, telecoms, base metals and power sectors, executives at the Johannesburg-based bank told the newspaper.

Clive Tasker, chief executive of Standard Bank's business in Africa excluding South Africa, said the potential deals are likely to be at least as large as ICBC's 5.5 bln usd acquisition of a 20 pct stake in Standard Bank last year.

That deal was the largest foreign direct investment in post-apartheid South Africa.

"I would be disappointed if I couldn't point to a big juicy deal by Christmas," the newspaper quoted Tim Thackwray, Standard Bank's head of investment banking for Africa, as saying.

Nigeria and Ghana are ripe for Chinese deals, with Mozambique and Congo close behind, the newspaper said, citing Thackwray.
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Re: Africa

Postby mocca_com » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:26 pm

Zimbabwe to introduce 200-million-dollar note
Posted: 07 December 2008 0009 hrs


Photos 1 of 1

A new 100 million dollar note



HARARE: Inflation-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200-million-dollar note just days after a 100-million-dollar note came into circulation, the government announced Saturday.

The 200-million-dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million per cent.

On Thursday the central bank introduced 100-million, 50-million and 10-million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies.

The 100-million-dollar note is worth only about 14 US dollars, and its value erodes by the day.

Cash can now only be withdrawn once a week from banks, according to the latest measures by the central bank.

Ordinary people can withdraw 100 million dollars a week while companies are permitted to withdraw 50 million dollars.

Prices of basic goods and services rose sharply on Thursday when the
100-million-dollar note was introduced.

Long queues in banks and cash shortages are commonplace in Zimbabwe as people take hours to withdraw money which is still not enough to see them through the day.

The 100,000 banknote is worth only one US dollar on the widely-used parallel black market and is only half the amount needed to buy a loaf of bread.

Zimbabwe's political leaders are currently deadlocked over who should control key ministries in a power-sharing deal brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after March elections thrust the country into crisis.

Once the region's bread basket, the country is facing widespread food shortages while cholera has killed 575 people, the UN said on Friday.

- AFP/ir
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Re: Africa

Postby kennynah » Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:27 am

i am a real turtle looking out of a well about africa

it is such a large continent and yet, only a few things about her come to my mind

a) special money delivery service - aka nigerian scam
b) gold and diamonds found in their river streams. which fund c)
c) internal wars and acts of genocide
d) people running around in desert waiting for a can of coke to drop from the sky
e) man gobbling snakes; anacondas the size of double deck bus
f) lions and other big cats chasing after preys all day and night long in their unending safaris

Tu go tu AhFreeKah, oo must laugh AhFreeKah....We is Free --- Kunta Kinte
Options Strategies & Discussions .(Trading Discipline : The Science of Constantly Acting on Knowledge Consistently - kennynah).Investment Strategies & Ideas

Image..................................................................<A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control-Proverbs 29:11>.................................................................Image
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Re: Africa

Postby blid2def » Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:51 am

(g) Supplies the French national football team.
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Re: Africa

Postby winston » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:46 am

The Chinese are still building a lot of infrastructure in Africa eg. dams, highways, railways etc., in exchange for their Commodities.

If you happened to be at BJ airport, you may notice the contingent of Chinese workers and Engineers, heading off to Africa.
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Re: Africa

Postby mocca_com » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:19 am

Mugabe Prepares to Take Over Mines, Isolation Deepens By Brian Latham

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is preparing to take over key businesses in mining, banking and manufacturing as his international isolation deepens, two members of the ruling party’s politburo said.

The 84-year-old leader said two days ago that he may form an “Economic Revolutionary Council” to overcome sanctions, the officials said. They declined to be identified because the talks of his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party two days ago weren’t public. Meantime, a South Africa opposition party called for African nations to join the sanctions.

Mugabe’s plans suggest he doesn’t intend to bow to calls to step down as the economy collapses and cholera spreads. The top U.S. envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said Dec. 21 that Mugabe has “lost it.” Zimbabwe is in its 10th year of recession, with an annual inflation rate of more 230 million percent and an unemployment rate more than 80 percent.

“We are seeing the endgame,” Marian Tupy, an Africa analyst at the Washington-based Cato Institute, said yesterday. “It’s an indication of how short of money Mugabe is.”

The emergency measures would seek to curb inflation and lift productivity, which has slumped to less than 10 percent of manufacturing capacity, the officials said after the meeting in the northeastern town of Bindura. These may include nationalizing banks, mines and factories and could go as far as declaring a state of emergency, they said.

‘Economic Revolution’

“President Mugabe has said that Zimbabwe needs an economic revolution to counter the effects of illegal sanctions imposed by the dying Bush regime and Britain,” George Charamba, a spokesman for the Zimbabwean leader, said in an interview from Harare today. “Now we hear that Bush’s administration wants to step up those illegal sanctions. Must we sit and watch that happen as a sovereign country.”

He declined to say whether there were plans to nationalize companies.

While Zimbabwe is not the subject of formal economic sanctions, the U.S. and the European Union have imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Mugabe and his allies.

Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the world’s second-biggest platinum producer, and Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third- largest mining company, own assets in the country. Barclays Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Plc operate in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean government has already said it plans to force foreign companies to sell 51 percent of their assets to black Zimbabweans. It has yet to implement that decision.

Power-Sharing

“Mugabe is the elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe and is free to propose any economic reform, revolutionary or otherwise,” Charamba said.

Mugabe has resisted a power-sharing agreement brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki in September after presidential run-off elections in June were boycotted by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Talks over enacting the deal have stalled because of his refusal to give up key ministries.

“Credible power sharing” with Mugabe isn’t possible, said Frazer, the U.S. official.

Calls in South Africa for sanctions against Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has had since independence from Britain in 1980, are growing.

Mugabe’s neighbors should cut off supplies of commodities to force political change, said Mosiuoa Lekota, the leader of the South Africa’s Congress of the People party, known as Cope. Cope was formed by dissidents from the ruling African National Congress after Mbeki was ousted as president. Lekota is a former ANC chairman and defense minister.

“It’s no good to mouth beautiful slogans, there must be implementation,” Lekota said in an interview in Johannesburg yesterday. “Simply refusing supplies of commodities” to Zimbabwe could spur political change.


Source: Bloomberg
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Re: Africa

Postby winston » Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:02 pm

RPT-FEATURE-China marches on in Africa despite downturn By Alistair Thomson

DAKAR, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Chinese businessmen are taking a long-term view and pursuing strategic expansion in Africa even though China's multiplying investments on the continent have lost some lustre in the global downturn.

Beijing and Chinese companies have pledged tens of billions of dollars to Africa in loans and investments mostly to secure raw materials for the world's fastest-growing large economy.

That long-term interest remains intact, despite a worldwide economic slump that has hit China's exports to the rich world and a sharp decline in Africa's mineral shipments to China.

China-Africa trade has surged by an average 30 percent a year this decade, soaring to nearly $107 billion in 2008.

"China is in Africa for the long term, and strategically," said David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso who teaches at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

"They will not veer from this, in my view," he said.

Far from retreating, many Chinese businessmen are hunting for bargains.

Chinese and Indian firms have expressed interest in taking over Zambia's top cobalt producer Luanshya Copper Mines since it halted operations in December, Zambian state media reported.

South Africa's Standard Bank, itself 20 percent owned by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), said last month it was advising Chinese mining clients on buying opportunities in Africa and elsewhere.

"They are looking at 2009 and saying 'This is a time we see as a very big buying opportunity. We've got the backing from government, we've got the financial means'," Thys Terblanche, the bank's head of mining and metals investment banking, told Reuters.

Beyond mining, Chinese state companies are pushing ahead with strategic energy sector investments and infrastructure; private outfits are continuing to expand in technology areas.

"Some developed Western countries hit by the financial crisis are reducing their investment in Africa. Objectively, this is a powerful opportunity for Chinese businesses to expand their investment and market share in Africa," Cui Yongqian, a former Chinese ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, told a China-Africa trade forum this month.

Trade with Angola, China's biggest source of African crude oil, reached $25.3 billion in 2007 and Beijing has offered Luanda $5 billion in oil-backed loans.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies, China's biggest telecoms equipment maker, is pushing south from its established stamping ground in North Africa.

"I see no reason why they would want to decrease their investments in the telecommunications sector, because that's profitable for them," said George Washington University's Shinn.

"It will vary according to sector and country ... It's very dangerous to generalise about the China-Africa relationship," he said. "They will certainly make tactical retreats where the economy requires it."

LONG-TERM VIEW

Even China's slower economic growth far outpaces that of other major economies. Beijing says it can achieve 8 percent growth in 2009. The IMF says it may cut its forecast to about 5 percent, from the 9 percent it predicted in October.

While competitors lay off workers and delay new projects, China Non-Ferrous Metals Corporation is opening a copper smelter this month in Chambishi town, which Zambia has transformed into a tax-free economic zone to attract Chinese investment.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda and China's Trade Minister Chen Deming launched a second economic zone this month near the capital Lusaka, where Chinese firms will assemble electrical goods such as television sets and cellphones for export.

"Zambia is still an attractive investment destination (and this will give) confidence to existing firms operating here not to start scaling down their operations," Banda said.

Zambia's Copper Belt is witnessing a growth in Chinese deals.

"In Zambia, mining investment is large-scale and long-term," said Xing Houyuan, director of multinational business at China's Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is affiliated to Beijing's Commerce Ministry.

"I don't see any likelihood of a pullback ... Companies won't give up investment plans because of the short term. The biggest impact is likely to be on projects that are still in the planning stage, where the money had not really been committed yet," Xing said.

In Liberia, China Union has just signed a $2.6 billion contract to develop the Bong iron ore deposit.

CONGO AND GUINEA

China also insists the slowdown will not dampen interest.

"We will continue to have a vigorous aid programme here and Chinese companies will continue to invest as much as possible in Africa because it is a win-win solution," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in South Africa in mid-January.

However, the global slowdown has forced some Chinese businesses to close operations in Africa and prompted a re-think of some of the multi-billion-dollar mega-deals that blazed a trail across the world's poorest continent.

Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea are cases in point.

DR Congo rode the boom in commodities to attract a wave of foreign investment in its rich but long-neglected copper, cobalt, gold and other mineral resources after post-war elections in 2006. Now that dream is fading.

"We have one processing mill and several workshops in Congo. We have closed them. There are many Chinese-invested firms in Congo and I understand most of them have shut down their operations," said a marketing director at a private firm in China's eastern province of Zhejiang, which supplies cobalt and nickel compounds for use in mobile phone batteries.

"I don't think we will resume production in the factories in Congo any time soon. We expect the economic slowdown could worsen in this year and weigh on the prices further," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Africa's heavy dependence on resource exports means it feels any squeeze more painfully. Global trade fell an annualised 3.7 percent between September 2008 and November last year, its biggest drop since 2001.

Congo's franc has fallen 20 percent against the dollar in less than four months and foreign reserves are at a five-year low. The government is seeking a $200 million bailout from the International Monetary Fund's Exogenous Shocks Facility.

A much-trumpeted $9 billion package of Chinese loans, investment and infrastructure projects in return for Congolese minerals contracts may be cut back to $6 billion, a diplomat in Kinshasa said, partly to appease the IMF which has expressed voiced concern at Congo taking on such huge debts.

Guinea, the world's top exporter of bauxite aluminium ore, had hoped for its own multi-billion-dollar deal with China to build hydropower dams, roads and bridges in return for mines.

Talks have dragged as the economic climate has worsened, hampered by Guinea's instability and a coup last month after the death of President Lansana Conte, said Ahmed Tidiane Diallo, director-general for mining projects at the Mines Ministry.

Gabon, similarly eager to cement a 1.6 trillion CFA franc ($3 billion) contract to develop the 360-million-tonne Belinga iron ore deposit, has accused its Chinese partners of dragging their feet amid the uncertain economic environment.
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Re: Africa

Postby winston » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:42 pm

Audiitor: Kenya lost millions in corrupt food deals

Auditor: Kenya lost millions of dollars in corrupt food deals on maize meant for the poor

Staff
AP News

Feb 11, 2010 08:38 EST

A senior private auditor says Kenya lost 2 billion shillings ($26.1 million) through corrupt deals in a government program meant to provide subsidized maize to the country's poor.

Philip Kinisu, Kenya CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the money was lost when a government agency sold subsidized maize to ghost companies and sold more than had been authorized. Kinisu says delays in maize imports also forced the country to pay a higher price than planned.

Kinisu spoke to journalists Thursday.

The government hired PricewaterhouseCoopers in August to audit its subsidy program. The program was mired with allegations of corruption, causing a public outcry that forced the government to call in private investigators.

Source: AP News
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