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South Africa’s Amplats sees FY profit plunging on impairments

25 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum Ltd (Amplats) on Monday flagged a sharp fall in full-year earnings due to impairments, write-downs and restructuring costs in bid to survive plunging in commodity prices.

Headline earnings per share, the main gauge of profit that strips off certain one-off items, is expected to be down to between 25 cents and 55 cents compared with earnings of 301 cents a year earlier.

Amplats, a division of Anglo American Plc, is undergoing tough cost cutting to deal with plunging prices and low demand for its precious metals and the effects of a crippling five-month strike in 2014 at its biggest operation.

The top platinum producer said the fall in profits was due to efforts to make the business more efficient, cash generative and lean by reorganising operations and structure.

Anglo American, the world’s fifth-biggest miner by market value, is on a drive to sell more assets and whittle its business down to three divisions to cope with sharp fall in commodity prices.

Amplats said headline earnings per share would have risen to 412 cents if it had excluded the impact of the restructuring costs, a loan to its joint-venture partner Atlatsa and the increase in inventory.

 

(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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Rwanda tops the UN Human Development Index

24 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Featured, Politics

rwanda

The Human Development Index, or HDI, celebrates its 25th anniversary since its induction into economic thought with its report published last month by the United Nations. And notably, this year’s report included a section that evaluated the progress economies have made since 1990- reporting that Rwanda has made the most progress out of all countries in the last 25 years.

This fact is all the more impressive given that its level of development fell during the genocide of 1994. Rwandans can now expect to live almost 32 years longer than in 1990, and spend twice as long at school.

China, the frequently lauded growth powerhouse of the world, comes in at number two.

Kagame’s Rwanda

Rwanda’s ability to move from the recovery of genocide towards a service-dominated economy in one generation highlights the impact proper governance can achieve in lower income economies. Rwanda has one of the lowest corruption rates in the region, and is currently still led by Paul Kagame, the man who led the Rwandan Patriotic Front when the armed wing of the party ended the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Currently, Kagame’s presidency is attracting local and international debate as the Parliament recently passed a nation-wide referendum concerning limits on Presidential terms. With the new constitutional amendment and overwhelming popularity Kagame holds, it seems that the President is set to lead the country through at least 7 more years of economic development.

Despite his popularity and demonstrated effectiveness as President, the referendum has attracted global criticism from other world powers. Both the U.S. State Department and the European Union have condemned the results of the referendum, calling Kagame to step down and “foster a new generation of leaders in Rwanda.”

The international community largely fears another life-long leader in central Africa, a region that has witnessed many saviors-turned-tyrants in the post-colonial era. Many neighboring nations are still ruled by dictators such as Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, or Cameroon’s Paul Biya, men who have held power over these territories for decades.

However, Kagame has expressed disinterest towards becoming a life-long president. At 58 years old, he said, “I don’t think that what we need is an eternal leader.” The results of the referendum coincide with other leaders in the region seeking constitutional term extensions as well (in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo), and foreign critics’ fears may be largely attributed to what precedent Rwanda’s referendum may set in the region. In neighboring Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term sparked violent protests resulting in over 100 deaths since the announcement.

How does one measure progress?

Most markers of economic progression deal with money: such as gross domestic product or national debt. The HDI paradigm acknowledges something we all know: it’s not all about money. The health of an economy is also expressed in the welfare of its people and how able they are to contribute to this economy.

The index takes into account measures for household income, life expectancy and education into a single development score, which gives a holistic sense of how an economy is doing on a human basis. The report’s philosophy on progress is explained in its introduction, “development is about enlarging people’s choices—focusing broadly on the richness of human lives rather than narrowly on the richness of economies.”

And for once, it’s mostly good news: the fastest progress was seen among low human development countries. Progress on the HDI has been considerable at the country level. For example, Ethiopia increased its HDI value by more than half; Rwanda by nearly half; five countries, including Angola and Zambia, by more than a third; and 23 countries, including Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nepal, by more than a fifth.

The five fastest developing countries in the world are Rwanda, China, Iran, Singapore, and Mozambique.

Rwanda’s reforms serve the bottom 50%

Rwanda’s success can be attributed to conscious economic reform geared towards strengthening the ability of the bottom 50% to engage with business and finance. Last year’s reforms boast an astounding reduction in the number of days required to transfer property from 370 to a mere 32, and jumping from a score of 2 to 19 out of 20 on an index that rates the ease and efficiency of obtaining credit according to a World Bank report published in 2015.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America over 30% of surveyed firms reported access to credit as a major constraint to growth. Rwanda’s new credit guarantee scheme enabled the country to become a major exporter of specialty coffee in one year alone. By creating a financial system inclusive to lower-income households, policy makers have allowed for structural transformation and the creation of work among the bottom 50%.

Rwanda sets the bar for highly developed countries

And Rwanda’s structural transformations that allow for creation does not limit itself to expressions of finance. Their Gender Development Index score is almost perfect at 0.957 out of a maximum score of 1. Rwanda, despite being #163 on the HDI Index, in terms of gender equality scores higher than even highly developed countries such as the Republic of Korea, Greece, and the Netherlands.

Even Switzerland, considered as one of the most developed and egalitarian countries in the world, comes in at only 0.950 in comparison to Rwanda’s 0.957. Rwanda is one of only two countries in the world with a female majority in the national parliament.

And put in perspective, Rwanda’s ability to surpass China is more incredible than it seems. As one of the smallest countries in Africa’s mainland, the country is mired by a lack of natural resources. The growth witnessed over the last 25 years is mostly attributed to a surge in the service industry.

Rather that fear the impacts Kagame’s track record may set in Africa, the foreign community would be amiss to ignore the major successes and beneficial precedents he has set as well, demonstrated in the hard numbers published by the UN’s HDI report in December 2015.

In the same month, an overwhelming 98% of Rwandan voters lifted constitutional bans that would allow Kagame to preside over another 3 mandates, meaning that Kagame could be president until 2034. “What is happening is people’s choice,” said Kagame, adding that Rwandans are a people that “have their future in their own hands. Ask people why they want me.” Given the progress highlighted by the UN Report, the answer seems pretty clear.

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South African entrepreneur is first black woman to launch an airline

23 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

Siza Mzimela

Siza Mzimela, a longtime aviation executive, is CEO of Fly Blue Crane, which operates flights to several locations in South Africa.

South African entrepreneur Siza Mzimela is making an important mark on aviation as the first black woman in the world to start an airline.

Mzimela is founder and CEO of Fly Blue Crane, a fledgling airline that flies to several destinations within the country and hopes to expand to regional cities.

Mzimela said she is tapping her years of experience leading other airlines, including South African Airways, the country’s largest airline, to shape Fly Blue Crane to meet customer expectations for consistent, on-time travel. The CEO promised convenient, problem-free booking and travel with competitive fares.

New airline is based in Johannesburg

Blue Crane, based at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, launched in August offering several flights daily to Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Nelspruit.

Blue Crane later added flights between Kimberley and Cape Town and between Bloemfontein and Cape Town, but announced that flights to Nelspruit would be discontinued in January because of lack of capacity.

The airline hopes to find success serving provincial and regional capitals in southern Africa.

Mzimela said that airports in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town had more than enough air service. But Fly Blue Crane wants to fill gaps in the market in smaller cities such as Kimberley within South Africa and then expand to regional centers.

She wants to use the airline to open new routes that will help improve the economies of smaller markets, she said.

fly blue crane

Regional expansion is a goal

While service within South Africa is the immediate priority, the new airline wants to expand beyond those borders. Mzimela hopes to add destinations in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fly Blue Crane operates a fleet of four fuel-efficient 50-seater Embraer Regional Jet 145 aircraft, which enables quick turnaround and efficient crews.

The new company is taking off at a time when the airline industry in Africa is poised to expand. According to the African Airlines Association, there is opportunity for African carriers to expand intra-African and domestic travel for a growing middle class while global carriers dominate intercontinental travel. More than 20 carriers are based in South Africa, the largest being South African Airways with a fleet of 65 planes.

Founder has headed two other airlines

Launching an airline isn’t the first “first” for Mzimela.

She was the first female CEO at both South African Express Airways and South African Airways. At South African Airways, she introduced non-stop flights to New York and Beijing  – a first in the history of the airline.

Mzimela also was the first woman in 67 years named to the board of directors of the International Air Transport Association. She serves on the South African Tourism Board and is a member of the board of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

In 2012, she was named one of the 10 Greatest Female Leaders in Africa Today by Ventures Africa.

Mzimela also founded Blue Crane Aviation, an aviation services company providing African airlines with consulting, and legal and aircraft management services. She serves as the company’s executive chairperson.

She graduated with a degree in economics and statistics and began her career in banking before moving into the airline industry as a researcher.

Few women rise to the top in the airline industry

Mzimela said being a woman executive in the aviation industry has posed challenges. Globally, only 12 of 248 airline CEOs are women, fewer than 5 percent. Sexism and lack of female mentors are cited as factors that hold women back from executive posts.

“I don’t know how many times I walked into meetings and people just assumed I probably was the one who was going to be taking notes,” she said.

Mzimela said her success managing established companies motivated her to want to “build something better from the ground up.”

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Nigerian Billionaire Aliko Dangote Takes On a New Industry: Tomatoes

22 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

nigeria tomatoes

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has built a giant tomato processing factory which aims to boost Nigeria’s tomato production, domestic output, and jobs.

Nigeria grows around 1.5 million metric tons of tomatoes each year, making it Africa’s second largest producer and the world’s 13th. And yet Nigeria is not on the list of official exporting countries of tomatoes or tomato products. In fact, to meet local demand of more than 2 million metric tons of tomatoes, the country imports large quantities of both fresh and processed tomatoes, mostly from China. It is the world’s largest importer of tomato paste, seeing over 300,000 metric tons ($360 million) of tomato paste imported annually.

It’s a situation comparable to Nigeria’s oil industry. While it is the largest oil producer in Africa, gasoline shortages are a regular occurrence as a lack of infrastructure, poor maintenance, and mismanagement have left refineries working below capacity and forced a reliance on imports. Oil makes up just 14% of GDP, while 38% of the country’s imports are petroleum products.

In explanation of the tomato statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria reports that the approximately 200,000 Nigerian farmers growing tomatoes lose about half of their harvest each year, due to poor food supply chain management and inadequate infrastructure of water, storage, and power supply facilities. The remaining half of the harvest is then subject to price depression, caused by the perishable nature of crops, pests and disease, high rains at peak season, poor marketing, multiple levies by state and local government agents, corrupt practices by officials at air and sea ports, and the costs of processing, packaging, and storage machinery and equipment. Farmers are unable to consistently make a profit, and as a result, many have stopped cultivation.

Dangote Tomato Processing Factory

Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote

But Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is looking to change the future of Nigerian tomatoes. Aiming to create jobs and boost Nigeria’s tomato production and domestic output, he has spent the last five years building a $20 million tomato processing plant outside the country’s second largest city, Kano (a city which has been blighted by poverty and unemployment, and the Islamist group, Boko Haram).

Set to open next month, the Dangote Tomato Processing factory will be Africa’s largest: the size of 10 football pitches set within 17,000 hectares of irrigated fields. It is expected to produce 430,000 tons of tomato paste per year. And it will directly employ 120 people, buying tomatoes from 50,000 farmers. The factory will employ modern farming techniques and improved seed varieties and chemicals (funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria) which are expected to increase yields and encourage farmers back into growing tomatoes.

The factory’s general manager, Abdulkarim Kaita, said: “Nigeria is such a huge market for tomato paste that we will find quite challenging to satisfy. Already local tomato paste packaging companies have placed orders with us which we will have to work hard to satisfy. We are set to begin operations. We are only waiting for the tomatoes which are ripening in the fields.”

Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote is the founder of the Dangote Group, one of Africa’s leading conglomerates. He comes from Kano, now home to his tomato factory, where, in 1977, he started the Dangote Group as a small food-trading company. Helped with a $3,000 loan from an uncle, he went on to transform this small business into an import and trading company with interests in flour, sugar, and salt. And almost four decades later, the Group is active in 15 African countries, and has expanded to cement, steel, real estate, telecommunications, haulage, port operations, polypropylene packaging, and oil and gas.

Dangote Cement is Africa’s largest cement producer, and counts plants in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Tanzania, producing more than 30 million metric tons annually. And, dominating the sugar market in Nigeria, the Dangote Group sugar refinery in Lagos is the second-largest in the world.

Despite a weak Nigerian currency and domestic difficulties which saw his net worth plunge $5 billion over the past year, Dangote is still Africa’s richest man. With an estimated net worth of $14.3 billion dollars (Jan 2016), Forbes ranks him as the 67th richest person in the world.

The Dangote Group

But while undoubtedly Dangote has seen huge success in Nigeria, there are also concerns that his actions are not entirely positive for the country.

Dangote Cement Factory

Dangote Cement Factory

For example, thanks to Nigeria’s characteristic power cuts, the Kano factory is to rely on diesel generators for electricity, something which will significantly add to production costs and therefore reduce the factory’s ability to compete with imported products. This status quo has so far led to the closing of numerous factories in the state of Kano, including two of Dangote’s own factories. As a solution, the Nigerian government plans to put restrictions on tomato imports in place this year, giving Dangote a forced competitive edge. The vice-president of Nigeria’s manufacturers union, Ali Madugu, comments: “Once the government can place restrictions on the import of Chinese tomato pastes… the sky’s the limit for the Dangote tomato paste because the market is there for them to exploit”.

Some fear that this policy of government assistance – whether higher tariffs, restrictions on imported products or outright bans – is creating damaging monopolies in Nigeria, which push up the local prices that everyday Nigerians must pay. For example, Dangote Cement makes a profit margin of 60% per bag of cement in Nigeria, but a margin of between 6% and 13% across the rest of Africa. Nigerians pay, as a general rule, twice or three times more than any other African country for cement. Restrictions on imported paste (which could be sold at prices that undercut the Dangote Group) could have the same effect, placing Dangote Tomato Processing in a position of monopoly, able to control pricing, production, and jobs.

Again aligning his own interests with those of the nation, as his businesses often seem to have done, Dangote has also announced a move into Nigeria’s precarious oil industry. The 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Company, located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, is scheduled for completion by early 2018. Promising to reform the Nigerian oil industry, increase productivity, and create more jobs, the facility will produce gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel / household kerosene, polypropylene, and fertilizer, and will be the fifth-biggest in the world.

Senior General Manager, Madhav Kelkar, said Dangote’s plant would not just supply the domestic market, but could lead to a self-sufficient Nigeria that could export to other parts of the world. And perhaps this is so. But for now, only the longer-term local price of tomato paste will reveal whether this tomato processing factory has been a positive development for the people of Nigeria.

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South Africa’s MTN aims to settle Nigerian fine out of court, shares jump

22 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A judge has given South African telecoms company MTN Group until March to try to reach a settlement with the Nigerian authorities over a disputed $3.9 billion fine, sending its shares 8 percent higher.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) imposed the penalty on MTN last year for failing to disconnect users with unregistered SIM cards.

Nigeria has been trying to halt the widespread use of such SIM cards amid worries these are being used for criminal activity, including by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

MTN has been lobbying against the fine and has already seen it cut from an initial figure of $5.2 billion.

The judge at the Federal High Court in the Nigerian city of Lagos on Friday adjourned the case until March 18 to allow the parties to try to reach an agreement, MTN said in a statement.

The prospect of a lower fine boosted MTN shares.

Dobek Pater, the managing director of research group Africa Analysis, estimated that a fine that could satisfy both parties would between $1 and 2 billion.

MTN, which is led by Executive Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko makes about 37 percent of its revenue from Nigeria, and the current fine equates to more than twice its annual average capital spending over the past five years.

Nhleko was put in charge for up to six months in November to help to steer the company through the crisis.

The group is also fighting allegations for not paying tax in Cameroon..

 

(Reporting by Thekiso Anthony Lefifi; Editing by Keith Weir)

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Zimbabwe gets $200 mil Afreximbank loan to import maize

22 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has secured a $200 million loan from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) to import maize following a drought that will see 10 percent of the population facing hunger, the central bank governor said on state radio on Friday.

The Southern African nation of 13 million people said early this month it planned to import up to 700,000 tonnes of the staple maize this year to avert hunger as the El Nino weather pattern brings poor rains and affects crops.

“We have arranged a facility of $200 million from Afreximbank and we will be importing from anywhere in the world,” John Mangudya was quoted saying by state radio.

He did not say how much the country would import.

Mangudya said Zimbabwe had 250,000 tonnes in its strategic reserves, adding that the country had enough maize to last until September. Private millers have previously said maize stocks would not last beyond June.

The United Nations World Food Programme said some 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern.

Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption is 1.5 million tonnes but the 2015 harvest was half that following another drought.

Agriculture is critical to Zimbabwe’s economy, generating 30 percent of export earnings and contributing 19 percent to GDP, while 70 percent of the population still survives on farming.

 

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia)

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Ivory Coast set for GDP growth of 9.8% in 2016

21 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s economy will grow by 9.8 percent this year, up from 9.5 percent in 2015, Budget Minister Abdourahmane Cisse said during a news conference on Thursday.

The world’s top cocoa grower, and French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy, has averaged growth of around 9 percent over the past four years, according to the government, as its economy has rebounded from a decade of political turmoil and civil war. The International Monetary Fund last year predicted average growth of 8.4 percent in 2015 and 2016.

 

(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Joe Bavier)

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Kenya’s current account deficit to fall: central bank

21 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s current account deficit will fall in 2015 and 2016 and the country’s economy will be supported by macroeconomic stability and low oil prices, its central bank governor said on Thursday.

Patrick Njoroge said the current account deficit was forecast to fall to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2015, from 10.4 percent the year before, and narrow further in 2016.

The currency of the East African country is expected to remain stable after losing 11 percent of its value against the dollar in 2015, he told a news conference.

“We are now closer to the fundamentals,” he said, citing the narrowing current account deficit.

The central bank kept its benchmark lending rate at 11.5 percent on Wednesday, saying its current stance was adequate to dampen inflation.

Njoroge said that high commercial bank lending rates, at above 17 percent in December, were “troubling” but that liquidity was now evenly distributed among banks after getting skewed following the collapse of one bank.

Njoroge said he was open to “real” dialogue with shareholders of Imperial Bank – under receivership since October – and reiterated the fate of the bank will be clearer in March.

 

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by George Obulutsa; editing by Edith Honan and Toby Chopra)

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South Africa’s Finmin says new investment law no ‘deal-breaker’

21 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday defended a controversial investment law, saying investors had nothing to fear.

Pretoria let bilateral treaties agreed with European nations shortly before the end of apartheid lapse in 2013, triggering concern among foreign investors over whether the replacement law will offer the same protections.

President Jacob Zuma signed the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill into law last month. The law would come into force on a date yet to proclaimed by Zuma.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, reappointed last month after a bungled cabinet reshuffle, told 702 Talk Radio investors would be adequately protected.

“I don’t think it should be a deal-breaker because we provide world-class investment protection,” Gordhan is qouted as saying.

The law rolls over existing guarantees against state seizure of assets from a raft of individual, 20-year old treaties but removes the explicit possibility of recourse to international arbitration in the event of a dispute.

European nations affected by the lapse in bilateral treaties include Germany, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

Europe accounts for around three-quarters of all foreign direct investment in South Africa, although Pretoria has been pushing hard to attract capital from other big emerging markets such as China.

 

(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore tells union to brace for lay-offs

20 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Australia, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Kumba Iron Ore has told South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) it will issue lay-off notices this year if low prices persist for the steel-making ingredient, the union’s general secretary said on Wednesday.

“The price has put them in dire straights and there is a prospect of them issuing a Section 189 notice at Sishen mine,” NUM General Secretary David Sipunzi told Reuters.

He was referring to the regulatory process South African employers must follow before they lay off staff.

“They have been trying to sensitise us to this possibility. If the price remains like this for a few months they will have no choice but to issue a Section 189,” he said.

Officials from Kumba were not immediately available for comment.

The group has said it plans to reconfigure its Sishen mine, the largest iron ore operation in Africa, and was targeting 2016 production there of 26 million tonnes, down from a previous guidance of 36 million tonnes.

Lay-offs are a politically thorny issue in South Africa, where the jobless rate is around 25 percent and local elections are expected this year. The NUM is also a key political ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Sipunzi said he expected to see more lay-off notices this year from other sectors but the union wanted to work with companies to find ways to minimise job cuts.

In line with other commodities, prices for iron ore have been sliding due to oversupply and and slowing economic growth in China, the world’s bigest metals consumer.

Mining giant BHP Billiton said on Wednesday that it saw no recovery in iron ore or coal prices in the next few years.

 

(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by James Macharia)

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