government Archives - African Financial & Economic Data

29 May

Ethiopia’s 27th National Day: U.S. restates support for PM Abiy’s govt

On the occasion of Ethiopia’s National Day, the United States has restated its support for the current government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.

Washington said it was committed to helping Addis Ababa in the area of sustainable development, democracy, human rights, peace and good governance.

In a statement released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Department of State stressed that Premier Abiy had their unalloyed support in his bid to ring governance changes promised by the ruling coalition.

Full text of U.S. Department of State press statement:

On behalf of President Trump and the people of the United States, I send my best wishes to all Ethiopians as they celebrate their National Day on May 28.

The United States and Ethiopia share a long and deep friendship based on our commitment to sustainable development, democracy, human rights, peace, and good governance, as well as on our important and influential population of Ethiopian-Americans, who contribute so much to our own country.

Congratulations to your new Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who has our full support in his determination to bring greater political openness to Ethiopia and to continue the great economic gains made in recent years. I offer best wishes for a joyous and safe holiday, and I reaffirm the commitment of the United States to our enduring friendship.

Abiy’s Premiership and task of political reforms

Abiy was sworn into office on April 2 this year, taking over from Hailemariam Desalegn who resigned to allow political reforms to be undertaken after close to three years of deadly anti-government protests across the Oromia and Amhara regional states.

The ruling Ethiopia Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced reforms in January 2018. The coalition said the reforms were to help foster national unity and open up the democratic space.

Hundreds of people – including top opposition chiefs and journalists – have been released after the government dropped charges against them. Abiy is tasked with continuing with reforms as the country heads to its next polls in 2020.

To read the full article, click here.

17 May

Zim electoral body tells opposition parties to ‘back off’

Zimbabwe’s electoral body has reportedly said that it would not be pressured into disclosing who the suppliers of ballot papers for this year’s crunch elections are.

According to NewsDay, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said that there was no law compelling it to involve political parties in its procurement deals.

ZEC said that it would make such information available at an appropriate time and would comply with current legislation’s.

“… there is no legal provision which requires Zec to involve political parties in its procurement processes for the ballot paper and the printer. Section 52A of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13] only requires the commission to disclose the following information to all political parties and candidates contesting an election, and to all observers — (a) where and by whom the ballot papers for the election have been or are being printed; and (b), the total number of ballot papers that have been printed for the election; and (c), the number of ballot papers that have been distributed to each polling station,” the electoral body was quoted as saying.

ZEC indicated recently that it won’t go to tender over ballot printers. It said that it had already selected the company that would print ballot papers for the forthcoming polls and won’t put the job out to public tender because there was not enough time, the state Sunday Mail reported.

“Government has selected a company to print ballot papers and supply indelible ink for the forthcoming harmonised elections…. due to security and time considerations,” the report said.

“The tender would normally have been announced in the Government Gazette [but]…it was felt there was not enough time to follow this process,” the paper continued.

To read the full article, click here.

11 May

Stranded South Sudan govt begs U.S. against assistance review

South Sudan’s government urged the United States on Wednesday not to “abandon” the country after Washington said it would review its assistance programs because it could not continue a partnership with leaders perpetuating “endless war”.

“We are asking the United States not to abandon this country (South Sudan) because we need them … their role to assist the population of South Sudan is crucial and cannot be ignored”, said foreign affairs ministry spokesman Mawien Makol Ariik.

The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to South Sudan, which has been in the throes of a civil war since late 2013 that has displaced around a third of the 12 million-strong population and killed tens of thousands of people.

In a sharply worded statement on Tuesday the White House said the United States was a “proud and hopeful supporter” of South Sudan when it gained independence in 2011.

“Seven years later, the leaders of this country have squandered this partnership … killed their own people, and repeatedly demonstrated their inability and unwillingness to live up to their commitments to end the country’s civil war.”

The U.S. funding provides aid to millions of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda and lifesaving assistance such as food to people still inside the war-torn country.

Washington’s statement says the United States is committed to saving lives but does not want its assistance to “prolong the conflict” or facilitate corrupt behaviour by elites.

Production in some of South Sudan’s oil fields has been shut down due to the conflict, but the government says around 130,000 barrels per day of oil are being produced. Juba spends well more than half ifs budget on weapons and paying soldiers, according to U.N. experts.

To read the full article, click here.

23 Feb

Congo Bribery Probe Puts Israeli Billionaire’s Future on Hold

A 20-year friendship that helped turn Dan Gertler into a billionaire has left the Israeli businessman with a lot fewer places to go.

The U.S. government accused Gertler of corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and said he acted as a middle-man to enrich his longtime buddy, President Joseph Kabila.

The two have been close since Gertler arrived as a young diamond merchant during a civil war in 1997, and Congo — one of Africa’s poorest countries — is the main source of his wealth.

“Most of my business is in the Congo and my faith is in the Congo,” Gertler, 44, said in a rare interview on Dec. 21, just hours before the U.S. government imposed economic sanctions against him.

At the time, he remained defiantly optimistic about his businesses even as he was being singled out by American and British investigators conducting prolonged bribery and corruption probes related to some of his Congo deals.

“I am a strong believer in the future of the Congo,” he said. But doing anything inside and out of Africa has gotten a lot harder for him in the past two months.

Sanctions have shut Gertler out of the American financial system, halting access to the dollars that are the main currency used in Congo and in global raw-material deals. U.S. companies are banned from doing business with him. Former partners are distancing themselves.

“All our payments have ceased forthwith,” said Mark Bristow, the chief executive officer of Randgold Resources Ltd., which has a gold exploration project with Gertler’s Fleurette Group in northeast Congo. “We’ve got U.S. directors, and we are listed on the Nasdaq. We cannot entertain doing business and transacting in any form.”

To be sure, Congo’s government stands by Gertler, who still holds mineral and oil rights in the country and funds education and health centers.

To read the full article, click here.

23 Feb

Ghana Risks the Anger of 800,000 Cocoa Farmers

The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo in Ghana will struggle to sidestep one of its most difficult decisions since coming to power a year ago: telling a crucial constituency to accept a pay cut.

The New Patriotic Party-led government has little choice but to end subsidies for its 800,000 farmers that will likely cost almost $450 million this season.

Ghana Cocoa Board, the industry regulator in the world’s second-biggest producer, is running out of cash with few options for funding left other than to sell short-term debt to local investors at rates as high as 22 percent.

Justifying a decision to end the support will be tricky. The NPP swept to power in the December 2016 polls after pledging to invest in farms and increase prices.

Farmers are unimpressed with the prospect of the government going back on its promises even though international prices have slumped by more than a third since the middle of 2016.

“If the government cannot afford to pay for its own loose talking, then it must borrow,” said Michael Acheampong, 37, a cocoa farmer in Kwabeng, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of the capital, Accra. “To announce a cut after promising to help us is a sacrilegious crime. We will not accept that.”

Ghana has little room to support prices even if rising output from new oil fields are supporting an economic revival.

While the World Bank forecasts that the economy will expand by 8.3 percent in 2018, the fastest rate in Africa, the country remains bound by conditions for disciplined spending that are attached to an almost $1 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, agreed to in April 2015.

Ghana Cocoa Board is losing the equivalent of about $600 for every metric ton of the 850,000 tons that it plans to purchase this season until September, the regulator said earlier this month.

To read the full article, click here.

10 Jan

South Africa’s Zuma Says He’ll Name ‘State Capture’ Commission

South African President Jacob Zuma said he would appoint a commission of inquiry into allegations that the Gupta family was allowed to influence state decisions and that he would abide by a court ruling for the Chief Justice to select its leader.

The High Court in December rejected Zuma’s arguments that he alone can set up the commission and ordered him to pay the cost of the case. While the president has appealed the cost order and the judgment regarding the duties of the president to appoint commissions, he said in a statement on Tuesday he is taking further legal advice on this.

“I am concerned that this matter has occupied the public mind for some time now and deserves urgent attention,” Zuma said. “The allegations that the state has been wrestled out of the hands of its real owners, the people of South Africa, is of paramount importance and are therefore deserving of finality and certainty.”

Zuma’s about-turn comes a day before the new top leadership of the ruling African National Congress meets for the first time on Wednesday. A proposal to order Zuma to step down before his term ends in 2019 will be discussed at the gathering in the city of East London, according to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity. Zuma’s scandal-tainted tenure has eroded support for the ANC and he lost control of the party to his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, at an elective conference last month.

‘Political Interference’

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said in November 2016 that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng should appoint the head of the inquiry because the president had a conflict of interest. Mogoeng has selected Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Zuma said on Tuesday. Zuma didn’t say who the commission’s other members will be.

Madonsela had ordered the inquiry into allegations that the Guptas may have influenced the appointment of cabinet members in Zuma’s administration and received special treatment for a coal business linked to the family and one of the president’s sons. Zuma and the Guptas have denied wrongdoing.

“The commission is a step towards ridding the country of corruption, and must do its work without delay,” Mmusi Maimane, the head of the main opposition Democratic Alliance said in a statement. “It must be properly staffed, fully funded and free from any and all political inference.”

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-09/south-africa-s-zuma-says-he-ll-name-state-capture-commission

14 Dec

‘Make-or-Break’ Time for South Africa as ANC Chooses New Leaders

Almost a quarter-century after Nelson Mandela led the African National Congress to power at the end of apartheid and the world heralded the birth of the “rainbow nation,” South Africa stands at a crossroads.

As delegates of the ruling African National Congress meet this weekend to choose a successor to President Jacob Zuma as party leader, they face a clear choice: his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who favors the president’s push for “radical economic transformation” to redistribute wealth to the black majority, or his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, who’s pledging to fight corruption and revive a moribund economy to cut a 28 percent unemployment rate.

The leadership conference comes as Zuma’s immersion in a succession of scandals is eroding the 105-year-old party’s support to such an extent that it’s now at risk of losing its majority in 2019 elections. The run-up to the vote by 5,240 delegates that’s scheduled for Dec. 17 and is too close to call has caused deep rifts in the ANC, weighed on the rand and nation’s bonds and unnerved investors seeking political and policy clarity.

“What’s really at stake now is the future of South Africa, not just the ANC’s continued governance of South Africa — everyone needs to understand that,’’ David Makhura, the 49-year-old premier of the nation’s richest province, Gauteng, where an overwhelming majority of ANC branches back Ramaphosa, said in an interview Tuesday. “Even people who don’t vote for the ANC are hoping that we will make one move that will bring South Africa back on track.”

Support for the party slipped to an all-time low of 54 percent in last year’s municipal elections, from a peak of almost 70 percent in 2004, and it lost control of Johannesburg, the economic hub, and Pretoria, the capital, to opposition coalitions.

Fifty-nine percent of 2,100 people who said they’d voted for the ANC favor Ramaphosa to take over as leader, while 19 percent backed Dlamini-Zuma, a computer-generated poll published this month by survey company RatePop found. The party will probably struggle to retain power in 2019 with her at the helm, according to the survey.

To read the full article, click here.

04 Dec

Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s Nephew Quits Politics

Former Public Services, Labour and Social Welfare minister Patrick Zhuwao is quitting politics and does not intend to return home soon after former president Robert Mugabe was toppled last month.

Zhuwao, who is Mugabe’s nephew, said he had no regrets serving under the 93-year-old ruler who was forced to resign by the military on November 21. “I am proud to have served under President Robert Mugabe,” he said in an interview from South Africa at an undisclosed location.

“I was loyal to him during his tenure as president and I even today I am still loyal to him, much than loyalty I could have exhibited as his nephew,” Zhuwao added. “From a personal point of view, I am grateful to those who stood by Mugabe. “My political life existed for the duration of President Mugabe’s tenure.

“The options that were there politically for me was to become disloyal to him and that to me was not acceptable. “The decision by him to accept to be forced out was largely informed by his desire not to see the people of Zimbabwe go into a period of turbulence.

“My appeal to those that keep our faith, religious people, is for them to pray for those who are in power to be humane and not persecute people.” Zhuwao, a son of Mugabe’s late sister Sabina, said his safety was not guaranteed if he returned to Zimbabwe. He said workers at his farm outside Harare had been attacked during the army’s operation.

29 Nov

Paralysis Grips South Africa Government With ANC Facing Election

An acrimonious battle for control of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has paralyzed several government departments, as ruling party leaders focus on electioneering and officials delay taking decisions until they learn who their new political masters will be.

The front-runners to replace Jacob Zuma as ANC leader next month are his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former chairwoman of the African Union Commission and Zuma’s ex-wife. The victor will probably also succeed Zuma as president in 2019, or even earlier if the party decides to replace him before his second term ends. Ramaphosa has stressed the need to reignite growth and restore investor confidence, while Dlamini-Zuma has called for the nation’s wealth to be more equitably distributed.

These are some of the key issues that are likely to remain in abeyance until after the ANC’s Dec. 16-20 elective conference:

1. Resolving a standoff over black mine-ownership laws

The government and mining companies have been locked in dispute for months over a new Mining Charter, which seeks to compel companies to maintain a minimum 30 percent black shareholding. The industry argues that the previous threshold of 26 percent should be retained and sales of stakes to black investors who subsequently divested should be taken into account when assessing their compliance. Court hearings on the dispute are due to resume Feb. 19. Ramaphosa has called for the standoff to be amicably resolved.

2. Allocating new broadband spectrum to mobile-phone companies

While mobile phone companies have been clamoring for additional spectrum, the telecommunications minister sued the industry regulator last year to prevent it from holding a planned auction, arguing that the sale was premature and proper regulatory procedures weren’t followed. The case remains unsettled. Telecommunication laws are meanwhile being amended to give the government greater control over spectrum allocation.

To read the full article, click here.

29 Nov

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg Gem Smuggling Thwarts Revival of Central African Republic

In the lounge of a luxury hotel in Bangui, the capital of war-torn Central African Republic, soft-spoken diamond dealers cautiously sidle up to guests.

Their whispered offers of gems for sale are a visitor’s first hint of the thriving illegal market for the precious stones in a country that five years ago was ranked as the world’s 10th-biggest diamond producer and is now mostly controlled by armed militias.

The illicit sales are bad news for the Central African Republic as it lobbies for the removal of an international ban on exports of its diamonds. The embargo, which was partially lifted last year, was imposed because of concerns over gem sales funding conflict. Yet while diamond exports offer a potential source of desperately needed government revenue, authorities so far have been powerless to curb the underground trade.

The government is aware that smugglers come to Bangui to buy diamonds but doesn’t have the means to stop them, said Mines Minister Leopold Mboli Fatrane. He cited the example of an Italian traveler arrested recently with scales and other diamond-evaluation equipment in his luggage.

“If you’re caught in the act, we’ll deport you,’’ Mboli Fatrane said in an interview in Bangui. “But we have a big country and barely any means to investigate.’’

Diamonds have been both a blessing and a curse for the Central African Republic since its independence from France in 1960, providing a crucial source of income for the poor while fueling corruption and armed conflict among the elite. Under Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who wore a gem-encrusted crown when he proclaimed himself emperor in 1976, diamonds became a byword for the megalomania of the nation’s politicians.

In his workshop where decades-old equipment is collecting dust, diamond-cutter Joseph Guinot, 65, remembers those days fondly.

To read the full article, click here.