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Japan offers African development aid to counter rival China

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

Japan Africa

Japan plans to support 60 projects in Africa as preparations get under way for the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Kenya in August.

Japan plans to provide development aid for 60 projects in Africa as it seeks to take part in the economic growth of the continent while countering the increasing presence of China.

The Japanese commitment is expected to be announced at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Nairobi, Kenya in August. The conference is sponsored by Japan, the United Nations and the African Union.

The total dollar amount of the assistance has not been determined. However, the Japanese aid will focus primarily on infrastructure development in the area around Mombasa port in Kenya, around Nacala port in northern Mozambique, and developments in Ivory Coast and surrounding West African countries.

In addition to port infrastructure and roadwork, the projects include development of an urban transportation network in Nairobi and development of natural gas extraction capabilities in Mozambique.

Program will distribute testing equipment

In Zambia, the Japanese will fund a program to distribute medical testing equipment in the wake of the Ebola outbreak. A student exchange program and a microloan project also are under discussion.

Japan has a history of significant aid and investment in Africa and has been the largest Asian source of investment in the continent.

Japanese development assistance to Africa nearly doubled from $1 billion in 2007 to USD 1.8 billion in 2012. In the private sector, Japanese companies accounted for $3.5 billion in 2014, more than 80 percent of the total private investment from Asian countries.

Japanese investors show interest in Africa

One investment expert says interest from private Japanese investors is growing.

“It is clear there is significant and increasing interest both in terms of the government and the trading houses in looking at Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. The Japanese see Africa as an important and inevitable market and, as with other emerging markets, it is somewhere that they need to be,” said Andrew Skipper of the London law firm Hogan Lovells.

The Japanese government has encouraged and attempted to facilitate private Japanese investment in Africa. For example, during his 2014 visit to Africa, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was accompanied by trade delegations from his country and pushed the idea of more Japanese private investment in the continent.

At a Japan-African Ministerial Meeting for Resources Development in Tokyo in May,

Yoichi Miyazawa, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, said the government wanted to take trade with African states “to a new stage.” A government statement added: “Japan aims to expand opportunities to bring about a mid-to-long term stable supply of mineral resources from Africa.”

Competition with China

The meeting also brought into focus the competition among investors from different nations. Martin Kabwelulu Lablio, mining minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, told attendees that China had committed $6 billion in investment in mining and infrastructure. Lablio encouraged Japanese investors to follow suit. “We want Japan to surpass this number,” he said.

As it seeks to raise its profile and its influence in the region, China has stepped up its investment in the continent, mostly through loans from Chinese banks rather than direct aid.

With its need for minerals and to gain footholds in strategic locations for its “one belt, one road” policy of creating trade routes to the West, China has issued a string of announcements about large investments on the continent.

For example, China has announced plans to build a naval base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. Other plans, with a price tag of $12.4 billion, include expansion of port facilities, two new airports, as well as a $4 billion rail link with Ethiopia, Djibouti’s land-locked neighbor.

Chinese bank pledges funds

According to one report, China heads the list of state-run development financiers, with the Export-Import Bank of China pledging $1 trillion in the next decade. Chinese institutions are the largest source of funds for infrastructure in Africa, accounting for $13.4 billion in 2013.

In December 2015, China pledged investment of $60 billion in Africa over three years, with most of it in the form of loans or export credits. However, China’s investment in Africa also declined by 40 percent last year as the Asian nation’s economy slowed.

Analysts said the change in China’s investment also might reflect a decrease in the nation’s need for minerals from Africa.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner. Trade both ways totaled $220 billion in 2015, with China primarily receiving minerals from Africa in exchange for manufactured goods.

Conference first in Africa

Japan seeks to rival the Chinese with increased investment in the continent.

The sixth Tokyo International conference is the first to be held in Africa. Previously staged in Japan every five years since 1993, but will now be held every three years and the Africans have been encouraged to take ownership of the process.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce the 60 aid projects during the Nairobi conference Aug. 27 and 28.

The Japan-Africa partnership is not without friction. In 2013, Japan announced financial assistance of $32 billion but African officials note that so far only about 20 percent has been disbursed. The Japanese, meanwhile, want to see appropriate technology and training in place before they commit more funds.

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Algeria’s Sonatrach awards $100 mil pipe deal to foreign firms

23 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s state energy firm Sonatrach has awarded a $100 million contract to supply oil and gas drilling tubes to five foreign firms as part of its drive to increase production, a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.

The companies named in the Sonatrach document are Germany’s CCC Machinery, Dutch firm Van Leeuwen, Vallourec Tubes France, Kurvers Piping France, and High Sealed&Coupled from China.

OPEC member Algeria, which has been hurt by a 70 percent fall in oil prices since mid-2014, is campaigning for more foreign investment to increase oil and gas production to sustain exports and meet growing local demand.

But recent bidding rounds have failed to attract much interest from foreign oil producers.

Sonatrach also said on Tuesday it had made a new oil find with Thailand’s PTTEP and China’s CNOOC following successful drilling in the Hassi Bir Rekaiz area in Algeria.

“This represents 20,000 barrels per day,” a Sonatrach source told Reuters.

Sonatrach holds a 51 percent stake in the project, with the other two companies owning 24.5 percent each.

The state energy company is focusing on developing areas around existing fields and hiking production at its mature fields. It will also invest $3.2 billion over four years to increase pipeline capacity as natural gas output rises from new and existing fields.

 

(By Lamine Chikhi. Editing by Patrick Markey and Susan Thomas)

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Nigeria central bank raises benchmark interest rate in surprise move

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

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s central bank unexpectedly raised the benchmark interest rate to 12 percent from 11 percent on Tuesday, changing gears to curb galloping inflation after cutting the rate only four months ago.

The bank also raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for commercial banks to 22.5 percent from 20 percent and it held the liquidity ratio at 30 percent, Governor Godwin Emefiele said.

Emefiele said after a meeting of its monetary policy committee that the central bank would keep the naira foreign exchange rate stable despite a sharp fall of the currency on the parallel market due to shortages of dollars.

Africa’s biggest economy is going through its worst economic crisis in years due to a slump in crude prices. Oil exports account for around 70 percent of national income.

Emefiele attributed the rate hike to the state of the economy and rising annual inflation, which hit 11.4 percent in February, a three-and-a-half year high and well above the central bank’s target band of 6 to 9 percent.

“The committee noted that excess liquidity in the banking system was contributing to the current pressure in the foreign exchange market with a strong path through to consumer prices,” he told reporters.

But some analysts saw the tightening of monetary policies as a signal that the bank would devalue the naira eventually. The currency has fallen some 40 percent on the parallel market as import firms struggle to get dollars from official channels.

“This definitely reflects a departure from policy in recent months and we interpret this as a leading indicator for a possible naira devaluation later down the line,” said Cobus de Hart, analyst at NKC African Economics.

“This may signal that the central bank is starting to lean towards tightening policy in anticipation of higher inflation following a devaluation,” he said.

 

WEAK INVESTOR CONFIDENCE

Eighteen of 20 analysts polled by Reuters had expected the central bank to hold interest rates steady at 11 percent.

Alan Cameron, an economist at brokerage Exotix, said the central bank had raised the benchmark rate as the previous loosening of monetary policy had not given a fillip to the economy.

“I think there is a realisation the liquidity they have been injecting wasn’t turning into overall lending in the economy because the confidence is not very high, so it made sense to withdraw that.”

Emefiele also called for swift approval of the 2016 budget, which on Tuesday was put on the agenda of the upper house of parliament for debate.

 

(By Camillus Eboh. Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Alexis Akwagyiram, Chijioke Ohuoha and Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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Libya joins Iran in snubbing oil freeze

22 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

LONDON (Reuters) – Libya does not plan to attend an April 17 meeting of oil producers about freezing supply to support prices, a Libyan OPEC delegate said on Tuesday, joining fellow OPEC member Iran in snubbing the initiative.

The absence of the two OPEC members would limit the impact of any freeze by producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with Russia, even though Libya’s output has been curtailed for many months by unrest and the chance of it increasing production swiftly is low.

“We are not going,” the Libyan delegate said, referring to the meeting in Doha next month. “Clearly, they have to allow us to go back to our production when the security situation in the country improves.”

Libya has made its wish to return to pre-conflict oil production rates clear since four countries reached a preliminary deal on freezing output in February.

Other producers understand this, the delegate said. “They appreciate the situation we are in.”

Qatar, which has been organising the meeting, has invited all 13 OPEC members and major outside producers. The talks are expected to widen February’s initial output freeze deal by Qatar, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, plus non-OPEC Russia.

The initiative has supported a rally in oil prices, which were about $41 a barrel on Tuesday, up from a 12-year low near $27 in January, despite doubts over whether the deal is enough to tackle excess supply in the market.

Iran has yet to say whether it will attend the meeting. But Iranian officials have made clear Tehran will not freeze output as it wants to raise exports following the lifting of Western sanctions in January.

The potential volume Libya and Iran could add to the market is significant. But conflict in Libya has slowed output to around 400,000 barrels per day since 2014, a fraction of the 1.6 million bpd it pumped before the 2011 civil war.

Iran produced about 2.9 million bpd in January and officials are talking about adding a further 500,000 bpd to exports. So far though, Iran has sold only modest volumes to Europe after sanctions were removed.

 

(By Alex Lawler. Editing by David Clarke)

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We can’t pay: Zimbabwe farmers resist compensating evicted white landowners

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

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s plan to win back international funding by paying compensation to white farmers forced off their land faces a major snag: the black farmers expected to stump up the cash say they don’t have it.

The new occupants working the land, many of who had few farming skills when they were resettled, say they can barely make ends meet, let alone pay an extra levy.

Their agricultural output is a fraction of the level seen before 2000, when President Robert Mugabe – saying he sought to correct colonial injustices – introduced land reforms which led to thousands of experienced white farmers being evicted.

They are also being hammered by Zimbabwe’s worst drought in a quarter of a century and toiling under a stagnating economy that has seen banks reluctant to lend and cheaper food imports from the likes of South Africa undermining their businesses.

“Are farmers able to pay? I will say no. Is the land being productive? I will say no again,” said Victor Matemadanda, secretary general of a group representing war veterans who led the land seizure drive in 2000 and are now farmers.

He told Reuters that many farmers could not even meet water and electricity bills and that it was the government’s obligation – not theirs – to pay the compensation.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union President Abdul Nyathi also said his members would not be able to pay compensation. “Most of the farmers face viability issues, the government will have to look at other ways of raising money,” he added.

Mugabe’s land reforms have led to about 5,000 white farmers being evicted from their land by his supporters and war veterans over the past 16 years, often violently. More than a dozen farmers have been killed.

The land seizures, along with allegations of vote-rigging and rights abuses – all denied by Mugabe – led to Zimbabwe being targeted by sanctions from Western donors. This compounded the economic plight of the country, which saw financing from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank frozen in 1999 after it defaulted on debts.

The IMF’s head of mission to Zimbabwe, Domenico Fanizza, said this month that improving fiscal discipline and re-engaging the international community should be priorities for Harare. He said this would “reduce the perceived country risk premium and unlock affordable financing for the government and private sector”.

 

DIVIDED OPINION

In an attempt to woo back international donors and lenders, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced a package of major reforms on March 9, including the farm measure and a big reduction in public-sector wages. He said it had the full backing of Mugabe.

The farm plan involves 300,000 families resettled on seized land paying an annual rent – based on the size of their farms – towards a compensation fund for those evicted.

If they are unable to pay, however, it could be a major setback for the government’s plans to shore up an economy that is stagnating after a deep recession in the decade to 2008, which slashed its output by nearly half, drove hundreds of thousands abroad in search of better paying jobs and has left the jobless rate at around 85 percent.

The finance ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the ability of farmers to pay the levy.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya told Reuters that the farmers’ situation should improve once the government grants them 99-year leases on their land, which he said would make it easier for them to secure financing from banks and to pay rent towards the compensation fund.

All agricultural land in Zimbabwe is owned by the government and, at present, farmers have no legal claim on their farms – which they say has made banks reluctant to extend loans to buy fertilisers, seed and chemicals so they can raise output. But the government says it will imminently grant the leases.

“We are saying that the land should produce, but we also know what the constraints are to increase production,” said Mangudya. “That is why we need to finalise on the 99-year land lease agreements to make them bankable so that farmers have security of tenure. With that there is no reason why farmers should not be able to pay (rent).”

Mugabe’s land reform programme is a highly emotive issue, which has divided public opinion. Supporters say it has empowered blacks while opponents see it as a partisan process that left Zimbabwe struggling to feed itself.

“The land revolution was a necessity and if the economy was running very well farmers would be able to pay the rent,” said Matemadanda of the war veterans’ group. “The prevailing economic conditions do not allow.”

The land seizures have led to a steep fall in commercial agriculture output; yields for the staple maize have fallen to an average 0.5 tonnes percent per hectare from 8 tonnes in 2000 when white farmers worked the land.

Mugabe acknowledged the skills of evicted white farmers last week, saying they had helped neighbouring Zambia to produce excess maize, which Zimbabwe was now importing.

 

ELECTIONS

A treasury ministry circular said that compensation would be paid out of rent from black farmers who benefited from the seizures. Chinamasa has not said when farmers would be expected to start paying the rents, or at what level they would be set.

When announcing the measures, he said production on black-owned farms was “scandalously low” and that the economy was under siege from the drought.

The white Zimbabweans who accounted for the majority of those evicted will be compensated only for the improvements they made to the farms, while the foreign owners forced out will be paid full compensation for land and improvements, under the plan.

Chinamasa said Harare broke bilateral investment agreements with other countries when it seized farms owned by foreigners.

Tony Hawkins, professor of business studies at the University of Zimbabwe, said the government was “going through the motions to keep the IMF happy”.

“They probably want the international community to see that they are doing something,” he said. “I doubt they will press with this ahead of the elections,” he added, referring to the 2018 general election. Farmers are an important voting block for Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party.

Hundreds of evicted white Zimbabwean farmers are now farming in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria, while others migrated to Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Hendrik Olivier, director at the formerly white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), said the government had not yet approached evicted farmers to discuss compensation, and also cast doubt on the plan’s viability.

The CFU, which once boasted 4,500 farmers who produced 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s export crops, including tobacco and horticulture produce until 2000, now only has 300 members.

“It’s a huge step forward, lets acknowledge that. In the past the government has said that it won’t pay compensation,” Olivier told Reuters.

“But if you are talking about new farmers paying a levy, that’s not gonna work, that’s not gonna pay our compensation.”

 

(By MacDonald Dzirutwe. Editing by James Macharia and Pravin Char)

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Kenya and Uganda presidents to meet oil companies over crude pipeline

20 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya and Uganda’s presidents and oil company executives will meet on Monday to hold further discussions on a route for a pipeline to transport the two countries’ oil, the Kenyan president’s spokesman said on Sunday.

Resolving the pipeline route is crucial to helping oil companies involved in Uganda and Kenya to make final investment decisions on developing oil fields.

“President Uhuru Kenyatta will host Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni tomorrow … They will discuss the construction of the Uganda-Kenya oil pipeline, a key plank of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects,” Manoah Esipisu said in a statement.

Last wee, Tanzania’s presidency said that Total, which has a stake in Uganda’s crude oil discoveries, had set aside $4 billion to build a pipeline from Ugandan fields to the Tanzanian coast and that Tanzania wants the three-year construction schedule shortened.

The comments raised the stakes in a competition to secure the pipeline with Kenya, which wants Ugandan oil to be exported across its territory and wants the pipeline to link up with Kenyan oil fields.

“Kenya favours the northern route through Lokichar, because as part of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project, it would transform infrastructure and the way of life of the people in the towns and counties across its path,” Esipisu said.

He added that officials from Tullow Oil, Total and China’s CNOOC had been invited to the meeting.

Total has previously raised security concerns about the Kenyan route. Sections of the Kenyan pipeline could run near Somalia, from where militants have launched attacks on Kenya.

But industry officials have also said that connecting Kenyan fields, which have estimated total recoverable reserves of 600 million barrels, with those in Uganda would make the pipeline project cheaper because costs would be shared.

Both Kenya and Uganda, which the government says has a total 6 billion barrels of crude, have yet to begin commercial production.

Tullow Oil and partner Africa Oil first struck oil in Lokichar in northwest Kenya in 2012.

Africa Oil and Tullow were 50-50 partners in blocks 10 BB and 13T, where the discoveries were made. Africa Oil has since sold a 25 percent stake in those blocks to A.P. Moller-Maersk.

 

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by David Goodman)

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Bank of China targets Africa with Mauritius banking licence

18 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) – The Mauritius central bank said it has issued a banking licence to Bank of China, the first Chinese bank licensed to operate on the Indian Ocean island.

Zhang Xiaoqing, who is leading a team setting up the Mauritius unit, said Bank of China wanted to provide financial services to African businesses and serve multinationals and others doing business between China and Mauritius.

Bank of Mauritius Governor Ramesh Basant Roi told reporters on Friday the bank was expected to start operations in the next few months but did not give a date.

Mauritius has a growing financial industry and has been promoting the territory as a base for businesses working in Africa and beyond.

 

(Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alexander Smith)

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South Africa’s rand weakens on Zuma showdown, stocks open flat

18 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar early on Friday as investors turned focus to a political scandal that has jolted President Jacob Zuma’s government and a potential sovereign ratings downgrade.

At 0702 GMT, the rand traded at 15.2400 per dollar dollar, 0.46 percent weaker from Thursday’s New York close of 15.1700.

The currency had rallied more than 3 percent to its strongest in more than a week on Thursday after the central bank hiked interest rates.

“Factors to consider are any news on the political front, over the long weekend the ANC (African National Congress) is holding its NEC (National Executive Committee) Lekgotla and we await any news from Moody’s who are currently in South Africa,” Nedbank analysts said in a note, referring to a meeting of the top brass of the ruling party.

Analysts from Moody’s credit rating agency were due to complete their three-day visit to South Africa on Friday after putting its Baa2 rating on review, according to the Treasury.

Investors fear further political uncertainty could hasten a downgrade, with Fitch and Standard & Poor’s already rating the country just one step above junk status.

The government has been jolted this week by suggestions that a wealthy family with close ties to Zuma may have been behind his decision to sack the country’s respected finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December.

Zuma, who is due to hold a three-day meeting with top ANC officials from Friday, has denied being influenced by anyone in the appointment of cabinet ministers.

On the stock market, the benchmark Top-40 index was flat in early trade, sliding 0.02 percent.

In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark instrument due in 2026 down 3 basis points to 9.145 percent.

 

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia)

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Africa’s richest man Dangote bids for Peugeot Nigeria stake

17 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has teamed up with two Nigerian states to bid for a majority stake in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited, a local joint venture with the French automaker, the governor of Kaduna State said on Thursday.

Governor Nasir El-rufai said the states of Kaduna and Kebbi along with development lender Bank of Industry (BoI) and Dangote have submitted bids for the stake which AMCON, Nigeria’s state-backed “bad bank”, is looking to sell.

 

(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by Jason Neely)

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Zimbabwe expects first IMF loan in nearly two decades this year

16 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe expects a loan from the International Monetary Fund(IMF) in the third quarter of this year, the first since 1999, after paying off foreign lenders by the end of June, the central bank governor said on Wednesday.

President Robert Mugabe’s government last week agreed to major reforms including compensation for evicted white farmers and a big reduction in public sector wages as the government tries to woo back international lenders.

Central bank governor John Mangudya said the IMF would decide the exact amount of the loan to issue at a later date. The fund had agreed to double the amount available for Zimbabwe, known as a financial quota, to $984 million, he said.

“We are talking about the third quarter, that’s when you see most of the action happening,” Mangudya told Reuters in an interview, referring to when Harare expected the loan.

Zimbabwe would also receive an $896 million loan from an unnamed country to pay off arrears to the World Bank.

In addition, the African Export-Import Bank would provide $601 million for Harare to clear arrears to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Zimbabwe would then receive the same amount as a grant from the AfDB, Mangudya said.

The Southern African country’s foreign debt stands at $8.3 billion, of which $1.8 billion is arrears.

Zimbabwe is trying to emerge from years of international isolation, largely blamed on Mugabe’s policies, including the seizures of farms from white farmers.

The worst drought since 1992 has left 4 million Zimbabweans facing hunger.

Mangudya said the drought had forced the government to lower its growth target for 2016 to below 2 percent from 2.7 percent. The IMF and World Bank forecast growth of 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

Once Zimbabwe clears its arrears, it would be ready for rating by international ratings agencies, with a view to issue international bonds in future, said Mangudya.

Mangudya said he supported the government’s decision to take over diamond mining in Marange because the government was receiving little money from the operations.

“After the rating we will then go for the Eurobonds and all to raise money on the international capital markets,” he said.

The government had issued $250 million in treasury bills to raise money for its operations in 2015, Mangudya said, adding that the bank would soon start holding public auctions of treasury bills to enhance transparency in state borrowing.

The central bank also issued $1 billion in bills last year to creditors of the bank, which owes $1.35 billion.

 

(By MacDonald Dzirutwe. Editing by James Macharia and Tom Heneghan)

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