Foreign direct investment into Africa to double by 2014: UN

Johannesburg (Reuters) – Foreign direct investment inflows into Africa fell in 2011 for the third consecutive year but could more than double by 2014, as stronger economic growth, ongoing reforms and high commodity prices improve investor perceptions, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The decline in investment, from $43.1 billion in 2010 to $42.7 billion in 2011, was largely due to reduced inflows to North Africa as social and political unrest in Egypt and Libya deterred investors, according to the 2012 World Investment Report. Africa’s share of global FDI also dropped from 3.3 percent in 2010 to 2.8 percent in 2011.

However, inflows to sub-Saharan Africa jumped 25 percent to $36.9 billion in 2011, close to its peak of $37.3 billion in 2008, as commodity-rich countries in west and central Africa saw a rise in new projects.

The report, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said Africa’s FDI prospects for 2012 were promising and forecast average flows of between $55 billion and $65 billion in 2012. It projected this would grow to $70-$85 billion in 2013 and $75-$100 billion in 2014.

“Inflows to Africa are expected to recover as a result of stronger economic growth, ongoing economic reforms and high commodity prices, as well as improving investor perceptions of the continent, mainly from other emerging markets,” the report said.

For the first time, FDI inflows from developing economies into Africa, outstripped those from developed economies, the report showed.

“In terms of green field (new) projects, which account for over 90 percent of total FDI, the largest developing-economy investors in 2011 were India, South Africa, China, Korea and Mauritius,” said James Zhan, director of UNCTAD’s investment and enterprise division.

Africa’s emerging middle class has also spurred the growth of FDI in the services sector, though FDI to the extractive industries tends to attract more attention, Zhan said.

The study highlights the contrasting fortunes of North Africa, traditionally the recipient of a third of inward FDI to Africa, and the rest of the continent. Inflows to the region halved to $7.69 billion in 2011, dwarfed by the $16.1 billion investors poured into west Africa and the $8.53 billion into central Africa.

Commodity-rich countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, attracted the bulk of FDI in their respective regions. Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation, received inflows of $8.92 billion, representing a fifth of all flows to the continent.

However, the report said new oil- and gas-producing countries such as Ghana, where commercial oil production started in December 2010, and Mozambique, where major discoveries of gas reserves are expected to transform the economy, should experience strong FDI growth in the future.

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Africa’s True Mobile Revolution Has yet to Start – HBR

I saw this article submitted by Bright B. Simmons on Havard Business Review (HBR) Blog network and thought i should share with you.

By Bright B. Simons  |  For : Havard Business Review

The United States economy is nine times the size of Africa’s, but Africa has twice as many mobile phones.
This tantalizing statistic would seem to indicate that, in the mobile era, Africa’s time has come. But the mobile subscriber numbers are only part of the story. So far, the buzz about African mobile has been about the consumer side of things. I believe, though, that it is at the enterprise level that mobile could truly become a game changer for Africa, enabling the building of massive fortunes, and perhaps even the much anticipated recycling of innovation from Africa to the West.

The focus on consumers up to now has been perfectly understandable. That is where the results are already visible. It is consumers that have made Africa the fastest growing mobile market in the world. It is consumer spending that is driving all the value added services — including mobile payments — that everyone seems so excited about. Whilst the subscriber growth has been astounding, a critical look at value creation however show how much more needs to be done before mobile can shift African economies. For instance, the United Kingdom, with barely 7% of Africa’s population, has a bigger telecom industry in terms of revenue. That’s why the enterprise side of things has seized my imagination.

To the extent that the African enterprise has been relevant in the mobile story so far, it has been about the telephone companies themselves. It is amazing how enthusiastically African telecoms have, for instance, embraced the cloud, where “cloud” means accessing the enterprise’s intellectual assets more in the way one accesses a utility, like tap water, instead of a local resource, like, say, a borehole.
African telecoms have in fact done more than embrace the cloud; they have unpacked their infrastructure: selling radio masts to third parties and leasing them back; grabbing seamless, turnkey solutions for billing, customer discovery, relationship management, and service delivery from big vendors with a gusto that would make a western CIO gulp for air.

Much of the esoteric quibbling about private and public clouds and legacy infrastructure that has frustrated vendors like IBM, HP, SAP, and the rest in Europe and America has been bypassed in Africa as telecom companies prioritize cost and comfort over culture and security.
Given how open-minded African telecom companies have been about the cloud, they should have no qualms about pushing enterprise mobility; they have no hang-ups.

This puts African telecom companies in a position to promote an open-minded, hang-up free approach to enterprise mobility. But so far they’ve concentrated their marketing power at consumers, and invested in selling mainly broadband-related products to the corporate sector. On enterprise mobility they’re still at the starting line.
Which is why the opportunity is so thrilling. The market is completely open. It could be anyone’s game.

To understand what I mean by “enterprise mobility,” look at your own recent working practices. How often do you use your mobile phone or tablet for work-related activity? Do you have a company-issued mobile phone or tablet? Is its use governed by company-level policies? Are you allowed access to critical company data outside the four walls of the business? What does “four walls” mean if you are a travelling salesperson, or on call after work hours to respond to crises? How does the company judge whether it is really you making that call or pulling that piece of data from its vaults? In low-infrastructure settings like Africa, these questions are double-pressing.

Most African corporations, especially in the private sector, are only now in a position to think deeply about information technology (IT). Unlike in the West, where corporate policies on IT easily date back five decades, and where systems deployed two decades ago are still in operation, the African enterprise has discovered IT just at the onset of cloud-thinking. The dissolving of corporate boundaries is not science fiction to the average African manager; she contends with the realities and frustrations every day.

Intriguingly, the African IT manager has very little influence over the enterprise as a whole. The notion of the CIO is still in its infancy. When it becomes obvious that IT is a bottom-line matter, it is the CEO who usually has to make the call.

If the CEO gets what’s at stake, then — given the unique advantages of the African setting for all things mobile — the whole enterprise is likely to embrace cloud and mobility with a seamlessness and finality that is impossible to achieve in the West. And when such a bug successfully infects one company it could very easily affect its entire industry, because mobile has always been a viral technology.

What do we have here then? Surely, it is the perfect mix of ingredients for a massive boom: a huge, self-defining, market opportunity; incumbents without a clear plan; limited penetration by established vendors; motivating cost factors; favorable surrounding culture (i.e. mobile is hot); and massive latent needs. Just the sort of environment likely to spawn a host of medium-sized innovators, always the right catalyst for a boom.

There is, however, one really big if. African economies are still hyper-dependent on government spending — a legacy of the socialist infrastructure put in place after independence. For there to be an enterprise mobility boom, there also needs to be a broader enterprise boom and rebalancing of economies away from government and toward the private sector.

Such economic change typically comes in stages. The current consumer boom in Africa is based on the first steps toward private sector empowerment that were taken in the 1980s, when most African countries’ economies were shrinking. Now, with the consumer boom spurring real growth all over the continent, we may be due for an even bigger spurt of private sector expansion.

Simply put: the consumer boom could fuel an enterprise boom which would in turn keep consumer spending rising. And this enterprise boom offers the platform for a mobile explosion so dramatic that it could dwarf the change and growth Africa have seen so far in the mobile-enabled space — and launch Africa into the global economic big leagues.


There’s no guarantee that all this will happen, of course. But the ingredients are in place.

Bright B. Simons    is based in Accra, Ghana, he invented the SMS shortcode system for authenticating pharmaceuticals, and currently leads the effort by the company he founded, mPedigree Network, to deploy the system across Africa and South Asia.

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Ecobank Kuendelea Kuikopesha NHC Ijenge Nyumba

Benki ya Ecobank imeahidi kuendelea kulikopesha zaidi Shirika la Nyumba la Taifa  (NHC), katika mradi wa kujenga nyumba na kukopesha ili kuhakikisha Watanzania  wengi wanapata nyumba bora na za bei nafuu.

Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa benki hiyo, James  Cantamantu-Koomson, ametoa ahadi hiyo wakati baada ya hafla  iliyoandaliwa na NHC kwa ajili ya kutiliana saini mkataba wa mkopo na taasisi  tisa za fedha juzi jijini Dar es Salaam.

Katika hafla hiyo, Ecobank ilisaini kutoa mkopo wa Sh bilioni 2.1 na imeahidi  kuwa itaongeza kiasi kingine cha fedha siku zijazo ili kufanikisha mradi huo  wenye manufaa kwa wananchi.

Mkurugenzi huyo alisema Ecobank inawajali Watanzania na imeahidi kuunga mkono  kwa dhati mpango huo wa NHC ili kuwakomboa Watanzania wengi ambao hawana makazi  bora kutokana na kipato kidogo.

“Sisi Ecobank mradi kama huu si mgeni kwetu, tunajali na kuthamini sana  masuala ya makazi, karibu nchi zote 30 tunazofanya kazi zetu tunashiriki miradi  kama hii, kuwapa wananchi nyumba bora ni jambo la muhimu sana,” alisema.

Ndugu Cantamantu-Koomson alisema ingawa benki hiyo ina miaka miwili tu tangu ianze kutoa huduma zake  nchini, imejitahidi kutoa huduma zinazokidhi mahitaji ya Watanzania na kushiriki  katika shughuli mbalimbali za kijamii.

Mwishoni mwa mwaka 2011, NHC ilipewa kibali na Serikali kukopa kwenye taasisi  za fedha za ndani na nje ya nchi ili kuendeleza miradi ya ujenzi

Kwa ujumla Shirika la Nyumba la Taifa (NHC) limesaini mikataba ya mkopo wa Sh bilioni 165 kutoka kwa taasisi nyinginezo  tisa za fedha kwa ajili ya kuendeleza ujenzi wa miradi ya ujenzi wa nyumba pamoja na ununuzi wa ardhi ya akiba.

Taasisi za fedha zilizotoa  mkopo huo pamoja na kiwango walichotoa kwenye mabano ni pamoja na CRDB (Sh bilioni 35), ECO Bank (Sh bilioni 2.1), TIB (Sh bilioni 22), BancABC  (Sh bilioni 4.2), NMB (Sh bilioni 26), CBA (Sh bilioni 24), LAPF (Sh bilioni  15), Azania (Sh bilioni saba) na Shelter Afrique (Sh bilioni 23).

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Vodacom yatumia Zaidi ya mil.120 kuboresha mawasiliano‏ Maonyesho ya Sabasaba 2012

Kampuni ya simu za mkononi ya Vodacom Tanzania imesema imetumia zaidi ya Sh  milioni 120 kuboresha sekta ya mawasiliano katika Maonyesho ya Sabasaba yanayoendelea jijini Dar es Salaam.

Imesema fedha hizo zinatumika katika kuwezesha mawasiliano na machapisho  mbalimbali katika maonesho hayo.

Akizungumza na waandishi wa habari baada ya kukabidhiwa Tuzo ya udhamini wa  maonyesho hayo, Mkuu wa Mawasiliano na Masoko wa Vodacom Tanzania, Kelvin  Twissa, alisema kuwa fedha hizo zinatumika katika kuzalisha machapisho na  mawasiliano kwa vyombo vya habari katika maonesho hayo.

“Tunatambua umuhimu wa vyombo vya habari katika kutangaza Maonesho haya ya  Kimataifa ya Sabasaba kwani yanakusanya watu wengi kutoka sehemu mbalimbali na  vyombo vya habari vinao mchango mkubwa katika kutoa taarifa kwa Watanzania ndio  maana tumeamua kuwekeza kiasi hiki cha pesa katika kuhakikisha masuala yote ya  mawasiliano yanafanyika vizuri ili kurahisisha upatikanaji wa taarifa katika  maonyesho haya,” alisema Kelvin .

Maonesho ya Sabasaba yanayodumu kwa siku 10, hukusanya watazamaji zaidi ya  350,000 na kutoa fursa kwa watazamaji kulinganisha ubora wa bidhaa na kufanya  ununuzi.

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Tanzania Yaruhusiwa Kuchimba Madini ya Urani Selous

Serikali imeruhusiwa kurekebisha mpaka wa Pori la Akiba la Selous ambalo ni eneo  la urithi wa dunia kwa ajili ya kuruhusu uchimbaji wa madini aina ya urani.

Waziri wa Maliasili na Utalii, Balozi Khamis Kagasheki ameyasema hayo Dar  es Salam wakati anazungumzia kikao cha 36 kinachoendelea katika Jiji la Saint  Petersburg nchini Urusi kilichokutanisha Kamati ya Urithi wa Dunia ya Shirika la  Umoja wa Mataifa la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni (UNESCO).

Balozi Kagasheki amesema katika kikao hicho, Tanzania iliwasilisha tena ombi  lake la kutaka kurekebisha mpaka wa Pori hilo la Selous ambalo lina ukubwa wa  asilimia 0.8 sawa na kilometa 200.

Balozi Kagasheki amesema kutokana na kukubaliwa ombi hilo, itakuwa ni fursa  nzuri ya kutimiza malengo ya taifa kiuchumi na kijamii kwa wananchi pamoja na  kulihifadhi eneo litakalobaki na kuliendeleza.

Pori hilo la Akiba la Selous lina ukubwa wa kilometa za mraba 50,000, na ni  mojawapo ya hifadhi kubwa duniani zenye viumbe mbalimbali.

Ni eneo maarufu kwa nyanda kubwa za tambarare zenye nyasi na misitu ya miombo  pamoja na aina nyingi za wanyamapori.

Wakati huo huo, Wizara ya Maliasili na Utalii imesema Tanzania inatarajiwa  kuwa mwenyeji wa kongamano la kimataifa juu ya utalii endelevu pamoja na kulinda  maeneo ya hifadhi ambalo litafanyika Oktoba 15 hadi 19 mkoani Arusha.

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Slowing Chinese economy will cool growth in East Asia

A slowing Chinese economy will cool growth in  East Asia this year, but China has significant fiscal resources to help engineer a “soft  landing” and could cut taxes and raise s welfare spending, according to the  World Bank. In its twice-yearly report on the region, the Bank said Chinese  gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 8.2% in 2012 compared with its  previous forecast of 8.4% – - before recovering to 8.6% in 2013.
Growth remains strong in developing East Asia and  Pacific, although it has slowed from its post-crisis peaks.
With the global  slowdown expected to continue, the region needs to reduce its reliance on  exports and find new sources of growth, says the World Bank in its latest East  Asia and Pacific Economic Update released yesterday.
According to the report, entitled “Capturing New  Sources of Growth,” developing East Asia and Pacific grew by 8.2% in 2011 (4.3%  excluding China), a sharp decline from the nearly 10% growth rate recorded in  2010 (7.0% excluding China). The region’s performance is still impressive on a  global scale.
In 2011, growth was about 2 percentage points higher than the  developing country average world-wide, and poverty continues to fall.
 ”The number of people living on less than US$2 a  day is expected to decrease in 2012 by 24m. Overall the number of people living  in poverty has been cut in half in the last decade in East Asia and Pacific,” said Pamela Cox, World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional vice  president.
“Despite this success, about one-third of the people in the region,  roughly half a billion men, women and children still live in poverty. In an  uncertain global environment, more needs to be done to create new sources of  growth that provide opportunities for all.” Slowing in 2011 was largely due to lower than  expected growth in manufacturing exports as well as supply disruptions in the  wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and severe flooding in Thailand.  Domestic demand and investment were generally strong, aided by loosening of  monetary policy in some countries.

For 2012, the report projects that annual growth  will moderate further to 7.6% with slower expansion in China pulling down the  regional aggregate. Excluding China, growth will increase to 5.2% as Thailand  returns to normal levels of production.

Commodity exporters, which experienced a  boom in 2011, may be vulnerable in the event of a faster than anticipated  slowdown in China, which could trigger an unexpected drop in commodity prices. “Most East Asian economies are well positioned to  weather renewed volatility.

Domestic demand has proved resilient to shocks. Many  countries run current account surpluses and hold high levels of international  reserves.

Banking systems are generally well-capitalized,” said Bert Hofman,  World Bank chief economist for the East Asia and Pacific Region. “Still, risks  emanating from Europe have the potential to affect the region through links in  trade and finance.” The EU, along with the US and Japan, accounts for more than  40% of the region’s exports, and European banks provide one-third of trade and  project finance in Asia.

As external demand is likely to remain weak,  countries in developing East Asia and Pacific need to rely less on exports and  more on domestic demand to maintain high growth.

Already, many countries are  moving in this direction, but there is further scope for rebalancing.  “Some countries will need to stimulate household  consumption. In others, enhanced investment, particularly in infrastructure,  offers the potential to sustain growth provided this does not exacerbate  domestic demand pressures,” said Bryce Quillin, World Bank Economist and lead  author of the report.

 “With a changing financial sector in the aftermath of the  financial crisis, new ways to finance higher levels of infrastructure investment  need to be developed. Governments would need  to focus on accelerating the  preparation of infrastructure projects.

” In the medium-term, investment will enhance  productivity and drive growth through higher value-added activities and  innovation. Although large gains have been made in labor productivity across the  region since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, there is still large room  for further gains.

Policies to support the movement of labour among  countries can also be improved, suggests the report.  Improved regional  migration policies could enhance the gains from regional economic integration  and allow countries with declining working age populations to meet labor  demand.

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