JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African electricity utility Eskom said on Thursday that construction of a railway line linking its Majuba power plant with the main coal line would be completed at the end of 2017.
The 68-kilometre corridor is the first large green field freight rail infrastructure project to be carried out in South Africa since 1986, Eskom said.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by Jason Neely)
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Purchases of cocoa in Ivory Coast’s mid-crop season that starts in April have ground to a halt because of a lack of rain and harsh winds that have also hit quality, farmers and buyers said.
Forecasts for the April-October mid crop say it could drop to between 380,000 and 390,000 tonnes, a 24 percent fall from 502,000 tonnes in the same harvest last year, according to several trading houses and cocoa producers.
The West African country is the world’s biggest producer of cocoa, with output of around 1.8 million tonnes per year, of which the mid-crop represents about 30 percent. Dry weather has already reduced forecasts for the 2015-2016 season to around 1.6 million.
Many exporters have reduced or stopped buying altogether as a lack of rain has made beans smaller and twice as acidic as usual.
“The quality is … at a level where we would prefer not to buy at the moment,” said the director of an exports company in Abidjan, who declined to be identified. “We will see in June if that changes.”
Only seven of more than 100 accredited operators have bought beans and opened their factories so far. About 80 percent of exporting companies have stopped buying, exporters said.
On Monday exporters bought 2,800 tonnes of cocoa in the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, down significantly from the normal haul of 20,000 tonnes.
While smaller beans may be bought by local grinders instead of exported, they produce more acidity and less butter than larger ones, forcing grinders to purchase more for the same result. Acidity levels, or FFA, stood at 3.5 percent against a usual level of 1.75 percent, exporters said.
As a result, grinders have largely foregone purchases so far this mid-crop season, opting to wait for any improvements in the crop that may appear toward the end of the harvest.
Recent rain in the main cocoa-growing regions was too late to affect the development of pods on the trees, farmers said.
“We are happy with the rain’s return, but it’s too late for the production,” said Salomon Lohami, who owns a seven-acre cocoa plantation in Kahin. “If it was January or February, that could change the harvest, but not at this point.”
(By Ange Aboa. Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and David Holmes)
Anghami, a recently launched Lebanese music listening platform, is facing fierce competition from the French company Deezer, which recently announced an expansion into some Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Mobile music listening platforms have rapidly become the norm, and with an ever-expanding variety of services, competition is fierce between geographically isolated competitors. Anghami, a newly launched Lebanese mobile music platform, gained more than half a million users in its first three months on the market, leaping to the top of iOS app lists in 12 MENA countries. A reported 30% of Anghami subscribers use the app daily, indicating strong staying power, and the app has already been shortlisted for a variety of MENA technology start-up awards.
While Anghami has burst into the scene as a regional leader, it is now being threatened by French music platform Deezer. Deezer, which boasts more than 7 million active users, announced that it would be putting $130 million towards an expansion into the MENA region. Deezer will soon be available in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen, encroaching very seriously on Anghami’s territory.
While Deezer may have more experience than Anghami, Anghami was specifically created for Arab users. Anghami’s founder, Elie Habib, was very conscious of his demographic’s needs: consumers in the MENA region prefer mobile music that can be easily shared with friends, and so Anghami is only available on smartphones. Anghami is widely available on most smartphone platforms to cater to its clients’ varied phone plans.
Unlike Anghami, Deezer is available both on smartphones and through the web, but is more limited in terms of platform compatibility because its current, mostly European users have a smaller variety of phones.
Anghami is also conscious of its users’ interest in learning about new music through the app. To meet this need, Anghami has a personal DJ function that enables users to discover new music. Deezer has no such function. While currently in English, Anghami is reportedly working on an Arabic version to drive home its local focus. Currently, 75% of Anghami’s users’ phones are set in English, and 25% are in Arabic. Creating an Arabic language version would create a better sense of inclusion for 25% of users and may increase appeal amongst Arabic speakers around the region. Anghami is very MENA focused, and is only available in 15 countries. Habib points to this as one of their strong points: they are focused on a very niche group, and can better tailor the app to meet their needs and changing demands, unlike Deezer, which is now expanding for a more global reach.
In keeping with its regional focus, Anghami not only provides its users with access to international music, but has specific sections for Arabic music as well. Users with premium access can download songs from Anghami to their phones and listen when there is limited or no internet available. This is especially important for a region that does not have 100% internet coverage. For users in, say, the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, being able to download music would be incredibly important.
Anghami’s premium service enables users to share downloaded music with friends on social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, and is ad free.
While Anghami boasts many intriguing aspects, Deezer’s global reach and larger consumer network has made it much more globally attractive. Not only does Deezer provide a similar new-music service, but the app tracks listening trends and personalizes playlists. Users with the premium app can opt to see the lyrics of their favorite songs in real-time, thus preventing the age-old embarrassment of belting out nonsense. Since Deezer is available across language barriers, this may be a very interesting feature for people whose first (or second) language is not English. Anghami has not specifically addressed this feature, but it seems as though it would be a good opportunity to incorporate into their Arabic language platform.
Co-founders Eddy Maroun and Elie Habib did their due diligence before launching Anghami, securing deals with key regional and international labels. Several Arab artists have released their albums only through Anghami, making the appeal of new music even greater. Deezer has similar contracts with one major exception: Anghami has an exclusive three-year contract with Rotana, one of MENA’s biggest labels, for streaming in Lebanon, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Not only is Anghami strategically linked with important labels, but it is also working on partnerships with telecom companies. For a platform solely available on mobile networks, this is the key.
The question is whether users will move from Anghami to Deezer once their playlists and preferences have been set. Deezer has a much larger catalog of music (more than 40 million titles), but, as Habib points out, “most people only listen to 100,000 songs. What you really care about is the core catalog…by May or June we’ll have 5 or 6 million songs.” As demonstrated by their soon-to-be dual language platform that caters specifically to smartphone users, Anghami is focused on regional appeal, rather than the number of songs available.
Habib has a very positive outlook for the future of Anghami in MENA, even after the arrival of Deezer. “We’re pretty excited to have Deezer coming in. It validates that we are in the right place at the right time. We’re looking forward to having a healthy competition. At the end of the day, the user benefits from it,” says Habib.
Anghami is shiny, new, and specifically designed for an Arab clientele; Deezer is nearly a decade old and has millions of followers from most regions of the world. Anghami’s website features popular Arab artists as well as internationally known musicians, and has photos that are likely a more accurate representation of their users. Perhaps Deezer has plans to use some of its $130 million commitment to design an Arab-friendly website as it expands into MENA, but Anghami’s specific design will, hopefully, give it a boost.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand edged up against the dollar on Wednesday but was still off recent four-month highs, with local political uncertainty as well as overall low risk appetite seen capping any significant gains.
Stocks opened slightly firmer, with the JSE securities exchange’s Top-40 index up 0.5 percent from Tuesday’s close.
At 0714 GMT the rand traded at 15.0350 to the greenback, gaining 0.4 percent from its previous close in New York.
The rand has however lost significant ground since rallying to 14.6050/dollar last week as investors cheered a court ruling that President Jacob Zuma unconstitutionally ignored a directive to pay for some of the state-funded upgrades to his home.
Zuma, who has been dogged by controversy since becoming president in 2009, survived an impeachment motion by the opposition on Tuesday thanks to the ruling African National Congress’s majority in parliament.
Investor sentiment has been shaky since Zuma inexplicably fired the former finance minister in December, raising fears that Pretoria might veer away from prudent fiscal policies.
“The rand is back above 15.00, but not only because of domestic events,” Standard Bank said in a note, pointing to a general sell-off in emerging market currencies.
“We still believe that the currency will struggle to maintain a foothold below 15.00 into mid-year.”
In fixed income, the yield on debt due in 2026 eased 2 basis points to 9.24 percent in early trade.
(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
CAIRO (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is expected to sign a $20 billion deal to finance Egypt’s petroleum needs for the next five years and a $1.5 billion deal to develop its Sinai region, two Egyptian government sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The agreements are tabled to be signed on Thursday during a visit to Cairo by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, a rare foreign trip.
Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf oil producers, has pumped billions of dollars into Egypt’s flagging economy since the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
The Gulf Arab countries see the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat. Egypt is struggling to revive an economy which unravelled following an uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The development deal for Sinai comes at a time when Cairo is fighting an Islamist militant insurgency there and discontent and poverty among the population there is rife, residents say.
The petroleum financing will have an interest rate of 2 percent and a grace period of at least three years, the sources said.
Separately, the deputy head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council said on Tuesday that Saudi businessmen will invest a total of $4 billion in projects including the Suez Canal, energy and agriculture, and had already deposited 10 percent of that sum in Egyptian banks.
(Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Michael Georgy and Raissa Kasolowsky)
A tax dispute behind it, Djezzy receives approval to expand its 3G network in the fast-growing mobile market.
Djezzy, a long-troubled Algerian telecom, says it is on a path to growth after receiving approval to upgrade its network to 3G nationwide.
The upgrade could put Djezzy on a par with rival companies Mobilis, which offers 3G coverage in all 48 of Algeria’s provinces, and Ooredoo, which offers 3G in 36 provinces.
Djezzy currently has more than 18 million subscribers, almost half the market, but it offers 3G coverage in only 30 provinces. The company, in which the Algerian government has a 51 percent stake, said it would extend service to the remaining provinces this year.
Algeria’s mobile market is booming. However, Djezzy’s growth has been slowed by a lengthy dispute over back taxes that culminated in the Algerian government’s purchase of a majority share in the company in 2014.
VimpelCom, owned by Telenor ASA of Norway and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, retained the remaining 49 percent of the Djezzy, and continued to operate Djezzy through their Optimum Telecom Algeria.
VimpelCom recently reaffirmed its commitment to the Algerian market.
Vincenzo Nesci, executive chairman of Optimum Telecom Algeria, said in March that the company had received government authorization to deploy 3G services in all provinces of the country and would implement the expansion during the during the ‘first months’ of 2016.
The expansion follows a long period of crisis for the company.
The Algerian government barred Djezzy from importing SIM cards and other equipment starting in 2010 and the Algerian central bank blocked overseas transfers of funds – including paying dividends to the parent company – in a dispute over taxes Algeria said the company owed.
The government said Djezzy, at the time the country’s largest operator with 14 million subscribers, owed $600 million in back taxes.
Algerian regulatory hurdles also derailed a proposed sale of Djezzy to MTN, a telecom based in South Africa, for $7.8 billion.
Instead, the Algerian government bought a majority stake in Djezzy in 2014, in a deal that provided the parent company with $4 billion in cash and dividends after paying a fine of $1.3 billion to settle the Algerian tax claims.
Djezzy faces competition from two other major mobile network operators, Mobilis and Ooredoo, seeking to serve Algeria, which has a population of about 40 million.
According to an August 2015 report by Algeria’s Post and Telecommunications Authority, Djezzy leads in the total number of subscribers with 18.6 million, nearly half of the market. Mobilis has 13 million subscribers and Ooredoo has 11.7 million.
However, Mobilis leads in 3G subscribers, with 3.8 million, followed by Ooredoo with 3.4 million. Djezzy brings up the rear in 3G with only 1.25 million subscribers.
The regulatory agency said the market grew by 22.7 percent in 2014, compared to 2013. The total market generated revenues of about $3 billion in 2014, 8 percent higher than in 2013.
One study found that Algeria was one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the region along with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while the market was stagnant in Egypt, Kuwait and Israel.
Mobile revenue in the Middle East and North Africa was expected to grow from a total of $50.4 billion in 2013 to $59.1 billion in 2018. As more people consume information on their mobile devices, the study said primarily spending on handset data would drive growth.
ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s presidency appointed Abdul Issahaku as governor of the central bank on Monday, promoting the deputy governor to replace Henry Kofi Wampah, who is ending his four-year term early, a statement said.
The bank has worked to reduce inflation that has been persistently above government targets, just one of the problems facing a country following an International Monetary Fund aid programme to stabilise its economy.
(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
GENEVA/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa is considering imposing emergency tariffs on some iron and steel imports, it said in a filing to the World Trade Organization published on Monday.
South Africa’s steel industry body requested the temporary trade barrier because a surge in import volumes had caused the industry “serious injury” in the form of lower sales, output, market share and capacity utilisation, the filing said.
It blamed a global steel glut and measures by other countries to protect their steelmakers, as well as new investments by current steel importers, which meant South Africa could expect further increases of imports, the filing said.
The analysis was based on data from ArcelorMittal South Africa, which accounts for 70 percent of local production of the affected goods.
South Africa’s steel sector is facing catastrophe and ArcelorMittal may have to close down if the government does not act soon, labour union Solidarity said.
“If there are no concrete plans on the table to assist the struggling steel industry by the end of April, the primary steel industry in South Africa will perish,” said Solidarity’s steel spokesman Marius Croucamp. Another steelmaker, Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium, shut its doors in February, shedding around 2,200 jobs in the process. South African trade authorities indicated earlier that they would decide in June whether to aggressively protect steel manufacturers, Solidarity said, but this would be much too late according to the union. ArcelorMittal last month said it would raise steel prices from April as it tries to stabilise its business after heavy losses due to competition from cheap imports. South Africa last year slapped a 10 percent tariff on imported steel, but the emergency tariff, which would not apply to imports of stainless steel or silicon electrical steel, would provide much greater protection.
(Reporting by Tom Miles and TJ Strydom; editing by John Stonestreet)
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s General Prosecution is investigating around 15 exchange bureaus after the central bank reported them for hoarding dollars and contributing to Egypt’s currency crisis, two prosecution sources told Reuters on Sunday.
Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer is battling against a black market which is sucking up hard currency liquidity from the banking sector and hurting the pound, which has weakened to record lows of 10 per dollar versus an official rate fixed at 8.78 per dollar.
Amer met the general prosecutor on Saturday and requested an investigation be opened targeting around 15 exchange bureaus which he accused of fuelling a dollar crisis, prosecution sources said.
“Based on his request the prosecution … requested from the unit in charge of public funds to investigate these (bureaus),” one prosecution source said.
“(Amer) accused them of causing the dollar crisis by hoarding dollars and refusing to sell, which caused a rise in the price of the dollar,” he said.
Market sources say traders at exchange bureaus often do not sell at official rates, saying they do not have the dollars to sell. They then offer dollars at higher rates, unofficially, outside the exchange bureaus.
The central bank does not have an official spokesperson and officials are not available for comment.
Egypt, which relies heavily on imports, has been facing a dollar shortage since a popular uprising in 2011 drove away foreign investors and tourists, both major sources of hard currency.
The country’s foreign reserves had tumbled to around $16.5 billion in February from $36 billion in 2011.
On March 14 the central bank devalued the pound to 8.85 per dollar from 7.73 and announced it would adopt a more flexible exchange rate. Two days later it strengthened it to 8.78 per dollar and has held to that rate since.
Bankers and traders on the black market say the devaluation is failing to narrow the gap between official and unofficial rates because the demand for hard currency is high and the banks do not have the dollars to meet it.
In previous attempts from the central bank to narrow the gap between official and unofficial rates, officials from the central bank met with exchange bureaus and agreed on a range to curb prices on the parallel market.
In February, the central bank revoked the licences of four exchange bureaus after the first meeting failed to cap the price of the dollar at 8.6 per dollar.
(Reporting by Asma Alsharif, Ahmed Hassan; editing by Jason Neely)
