By Ola Noureldin

CAIRO (Reuters) – Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr signed licensing agreements on Sunday for the operation of 4G mobile broadband networks in Egypt in deals that will allow the country to introduce long-delayed high speed telecoms services.

Egypt is selling four 4G licences as part of a long-awaited plan to reform the telecoms sector and raise much-needed dollars for depleted government coffers.

Its three existing mobile network operators – Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat – had initially all turned down the 4G licences saying the amount of radio spectrum on offer was inadequate.

The Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr agreements come after Orange signed a deal last week, agreeing to pay $484 million after the regulator amended conditions for buying additional spectrum.

“The terms and conditions we signed last night are different from three weeks ago, we consider the terms now completely satisfactory to launch top quality 4G services,” Stefano Gastaut, CEO of Vodafone Egypt told a news conference announcing the deal.

The change in terms was related to the frequencies offered by the telecom regulator, Gastaut said, adding that this new acquisition makes Vodafone Egypt the biggest holder of spectrum in the country.

The regulator said previously that it would consider running an international auction for the remaining 4G licences if the country’s existing mobile carriers refused to do a deal.

Telecom Egypt, the state’s fixed-line monopoly, was the only company to take up the state’s original offer, buying a 4G licence in August for 7.08 billion Egyptian pounds ($797 million) to enter the mobile market directly for the first time.

“Now that the four companies have signed the 4G licence, the telecom sector has raised $1.1 billion, in addition to 10 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.13 billion)for the state budget,” Telecom Minister Yasser al-Qadi said.

Companies had originally objected to a requirement that half the licence fee be paid in dollars. Orange Egypt agreed last week to the provision. Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr did not disclose what portion they would pay in foreign currency.

The regulator announced last week that operators that paid for a licence entirely in U.S. dollars would be given priority in buying additional spectrum.

Vodafone Egypt agreed to pay $335 million in a deal signed in the early hours of Sunday morning, the regulator said.

Etisalat Misr, the Egyptian unit of Etisalat agreed to pay $535.5 million and plans to purchase 10 megahertz (MHz) of additional spectrum after the deal, a company official said.

Telecoms regulator head Mostafa Abdel Wahed said all payments will be made in full, without instalments, and the companies will have one month to complete any foreign currency transfers.

Both Etisalat Misr and Vodafone also agreed to buy fixed line phone service licences for $11.26 million each, the regulator said.

($1 = 8.8799 Egyptian pounds)

(Additional reporting by Nadine Awadalla; Writing by Asma Alsharif and Ola Noureldin; Editing by Mark Potter, Greg Mahlich)

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By Matthew Mpoke Bigg

ACCRA (Reuters) – Illegal miners operating at AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine in Ghana have ignored a government deadline to leave, delaying company plans to restart production.

Up to 5,000 miners were still working at Obuasi in the Ashanti region on Friday, four days after a deadline for them to leave, said Benjamin Annan, spokesman for the Association of Small Scale Miners. He said relocation plans that would enable them to move were yet to be finalised.

“We will move immediately the Minerals Commission representative has done the demarcations,” Annan told Reuters.

AngloGold officials say previous deals to get the miners out were ignored and as a result it could not attract new investment or complete a study on how much it would cost to bring the mine back to life.

The Obuasi mine began production a century ago and is crucial to gold mining in a country that also exports cocoa and oil. Output was halted and almost all staff laid off in 2014 when falling gold prices made it uneconomic to access new and deep-lying reserves. Gold prices have since recovered somewhat.

Crime and unemployment have since soared in Obuasi town and in February men broke into the concession, digging shafts that intersected with the mine’s official tunnels and allowed them to access ore thousands of feet underground.

At least 130 illegal miners have been killed, according to AngloGold’s figures.

The illegal miners were due to move to a different part of the AngloGold concession under a deal worked out by a committee that included small scale miners set up by the government regulator, the Minerals Commission.

“We are counting on them to leave on their own, or be pushed out and also lose the ground that we have earmarked for them,” said Toni Aubynn, chief executive of the commission.

Local officials said security forces were unlikely to evict the miners ahead of a presidential election in December, given that many families rely on the miners’ income.

The apparent decision not to force the miners out is an example of what many business leaders say is a slowdown in government decision-making as the election approaches.

“All we can do is continue to monitor and hope to see results on the ground,” Eric Asubonteng, managing director of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana, told Reuters. The company is also pursuing arbitration in Washington with the government, he said.

(Editing by Edward McAllister and Mark Potter)

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand slipped in early trade on Friday, dragged back towards one-month lows by concerns that local political turmoil was undermining growth, along with signs of a rebound in the U.S. economy.

* At 0645 GMT, the rand traded at 14.2825 per dollar, 0.23percent weaker than its overnight close in New York. * Standard & Poor’s Africa head says “political turmoil andtension” causing concern ahead of a ratings decision onDecember. [nL8N1CJ51I] * President Zuma late on Thursday moved to block release ofresults of investigation into interference by his wealthyfriends. [nL8N1CJ41J] * Yield on the benchmark government bond due in 2026 adds 1basis point to 8.915 percent. * Blue chip futures index up 0.49 percent, indicating JSEsecurities exchange opening higher at 0700 GMT. * Finance Minister Gordhan, charged with fraud this week,due to address Thomson Reuters conference in Cape Town. * U.S. retail sales data and remarks from Federal Reserveofficials expected to bolster expectations of interest rate hikethis year.

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Orange Egypt has submitted a request for a licence allowing it to operate fourth-generation mobile phone services in the country, an official at Egypt’s telecom regulator said on Thursday.

The official said the regulator was considering the request and would continue its deliberations until October 23.

There was no immediate comment from Orange.

Egypt is selling four 4G licences as part of a long-awaited plan to reform the telecoms sector and to raise money for stretched government finances.

It gave its existing four operators priority to acquire 4G licences, but the only company that took up the offer was Telecom Egypt, the state fixed-line monopoly, which has long sought a way to offer mobile services directly.

Telecom Egypt said in September it was considering buying more spectrum, weeks after acquiring its 4G licence for 7.08 billion Egyptian pounds ($797 million).

The country’s three existing mobile phone operators – Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat – initially all turned down the 4G licences saying the amount of spectrum on offer was not sufficient to allow them to offer 4G services efficiently.

(Writing by Amina Ismail,; Editing by Lin Noueihed and Jane Merriman)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt received a $2 billion central bank deposit from Saudi Arabia in September, the prime minister told Reuters on Thursday, confirming it had been accounted for in the previous month’s foreign reserves total, which stood at $19.6 billion.

The timing of the deposit makes clear it was received before a suspension of petroleum aid by Saudi Arabia, which began on Oct. 1 and had raised questions over the fate of Saudi aid destined for Egypt.

Egypt’s central bank said late on Wednesday that it had received a $2 billion deposit that could bring it closer to clinching a $12 billion IMF lending programme aimed at plugging the country’s deficit and balancing its currency markets but had not clarified when the money was received.

Egypt secured a preliminary agreement for the loan in August, but head of the IMF mission in Cairo Chris Jarvis told Reuters at the time that Egypt would have to secure $5-6 billion in bilateral financing before the board grants final approval.

The Saudi deposit follows an agreement by the United Arab Emirates in August to give Egypt’s central bank a $1 billion deposit for six years.

Egypt is also in talks with China. An IMF official said during its annual meeting last week that the IMF and Egypt had made “good progress” on securing the funding but did not specify how much might still be needed.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Alison Williams)

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By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday after OPEC said its production had risen to the highest level in at least eight years and following reports of an increase in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Brent crude futures were trading at $51.46 per barrel at 0645 GMT, down 35 cents, or 0.68 percent, from their previous close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 42 cents, or 0.84 percent, at $49.76 per barrel.

Traders said oil markets had come under pressure after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reported a rise in output, despite the producer cartel having plans, potentially with non-OPEC producer Russia, to cut production in a bid to rein in a global glut.

“Crude responded predictably, with both Brent and WTI falling,” said Jeffrey Halley of brokerage OANDA.

OPEC on Wednesday reported its oil production climbed in September to the highest in at least eight years, and raised its forecast for 2017 non-OPEC supply growth, pointing to a larger surplus next year despite the group’s proposal to cut output.

The group pumped 33.39 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 220,000 bpd in August.

“In the absence of any OPEC-Russia headlines to give crude its daily adrenaline shot, the market looks nervously to the EIA crude inventory figures due in the U.S. this evening,” Halley said.

The Energy Information Administration is due to publish official storage inventory data later on Thursday.

The private American Petroleum Institute reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels to 470.9 million barrels in the week to Oct. 7. This would be the first rise in oil stocks following five straight weeks of declines.

“Seasonally softer gasoline consumption, flagging demand from China and the return of refineries from maintenance will likely drive up global stock levels over Q4,” BMI Research said, but added that it did not see stocks returning to 2015 highs.

But the market received some support from China, which imported record volumes of crude oil last month, eclipsing the United States as the world’s top buyer of foreign oil for the third time in a year, in a trend that could soon put the Asian nation at the top of the world’s oil import table permanently.

China’s September crude imports rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 33.06 million tonnes, or 8.04 million bpd on daily basis, customs data showed, compared with the U.S. four-week average of 7.98 million bpd.

Oil imports hit a record despite a worse-than-expected 10 percent fall in Chinese exports and a 1.9 percent drop in imports that cast a gloomy outlook on its economy.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Amrutha Gayathri)

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya has won a two-year extension of sugar import limits from a regional trade bloc to give it more time to overhaul its ailing sugar sector, a local daily newspaper said on Wednesday.

The arrangement capping cheaper imports from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) was scheduled to expire soon.

The deal was struck at a meeting of COMESA in Madagascar, the Standard newspaper quoted a top official in the country’s ministry of industrialization and trade as saying.

The government is selling shares in some of its sugar factories, hoping to bring in capital and the expertise needed to pull the sector out of the doldrums.

Kenya produces about 600,000 tonnes of sugar a year, compared with annual consumption of 800,000 tonnes. The deficit is covered by strictly controlled imports from COMESA.

Experts have blamed the high cost of production for the problems facing Kenya’s sugar industry. Poorly funded government factories have aging machinery that is prone to breaking down. The roads in most sugar growing areas are also in poor shape.

The Kenya Sugar Directorate estimates the cost of producing a tonne of sugar at about $570 in western Kenya compared with $240-$290 in rival producers such as Egypt.

(Writing by Duncan Miriri; editing by Elias Biryabarema and Louise Heavens)

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