(AFP (eng) 11/20/16)
Above the sacks of seeds and coal, three kerosene lamps gather dust in the tiny shed that Kenyan chicken farmer Bernard calls home. He prefers to use solar energy to light up his evenings, listen to the radio or watch television, after abandoning a diesel generator he said was expensive to maintain and burned fuel too quickly. "Solar panels are a good, cheap solution," he told AFP. Across the continent, consumers are opting for their own off-grid solar solutions to power homes and small businesses, even as African governments unveil massive new solar projects seemingly every month to expand their grids. According to International Energy Agency projections, almost one billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will...
(Agence Ecofin 11/19/16)
Thrice-listed mining firm Lucara Diamond has sold a 12 of its diamond totaling 1,098 ct, from its Karowe mine in Botswana. The firm said five of the diamonds have been sold for more than $2 million. It highlighted that a 224.5 ct type IIa stone was sold for $11.11 million, representing $49,497/ct, the highest average per carat sale price it recorded so far. Another 81.8ct stone was sold for $46,138/ct and a third 162.3ct stone was for $4.88 million ($30,117/ct). “It is fitting that this tender, the tenth Exceptional Stone Tender for the Company was concluded on the one year anniversary of the recovery of the historic 1,109 carat, Lesedi La Rona diamond,” said CEO of Lucara Diamond, William Lamb...
(The Guardian 11/19/16)
At COP22, the African Development Bank’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, tells of strategies to improve energy supplies and fight the impact of climate change “We lose 5% of our potential GDP every year, and African industries cannot be competitive without access to electricity,” says Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank. “I believe that’s why we can’t break away from reliance on exporting our raw materials – new industries will only go to where there’s power.” He is speaking on...
(APA 11/18/16)
The University of Botswana (UB) on Friday launched an experimental vehicle that uses biodiesel fuel. The vehicle uses blended fuel (B10) which is 90 per cent petroleum diesel (50PPM) and 10 per cent biodiesel produced by University of Botswana researchers. Launching the experimental vehicle, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and Student Affairs, Professor Martin Mokgwathi, said the vehicle was one of the key milestones of the research project. Professor Mokgwathi said it was also testimony that UB was Botswana’s premier research institution especially that its research projects were bearing fruit and beginning to benefit society. Dr Clever Ketlogetswe from UB’s Department of Mechanical Engineering observed that research on biofuel was aimed at
(Forbes 11/14/16)
Africa will have 1-billion mobile subscriptions by the fourth quarter of 2016, while data use will drive the next phase of growth in Africa’s telecoms market, according to researchers Ovum. Mobile subs will reach 1.02-billion by the end of 2016 and will reach 1.33-billion by 2021, says Matthew Reed, Ovum’s practice leader, for the Middle East and Africa. “The take-up of mobile broadband will rise strongly, as operators continue to roll out 3G and 4G LTE networks and as smartphones...
(MmegiOnline 11/11/16)
A consultant tasked with establishing the country’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) national response strategy says Botswana should consider setting up an office to coordinate all AGOA activities in the country. Speaking this week during the validation workshop of the draft AGOA strategy in Gaborone, George Makore said the AGOA office should be headed by a coordinator to be assisted by experts in export development, investment promotion, and information dissemination. “The process of setting up the institutional structure should be initiated within 60 days of approval of the strategy,” he stated.
(APA 11/07/16)
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Vincent Seretse is leading a high-powered Botswana investment and trade mission to Kenya. The Botswana government said in a statement on Monday that Seretse was leading a delegation of 14 private sector executives and seven representatives from parastatal organisations and government departments. It said the three-day visit to Kenya, which is scheduled to end on Wednesday, is a follow-up on commitments made by President Ian Khama on the occasion of the state visit by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to Botswana in June. According to the statement, Seretse and his Kenyan counterpart Adan Mohamed on Monday concluded the opening ceremony by signing
(The Telegraph 11/07/16)
Just a few months after being elected Conservative Party leader, David Cameron flew to Rwanda. It was a high-profile trip so he could see first-hand the development of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and launch his party’s review on globalisation and global poverty. On his first day, he visited a textile factory in Kigali, the country’s capital. Above the hum of the silk reels, he chatted to some of the workers and admired the quality of the patterned fabrics. Before...
(Reuters (Eng) 11/02/16)
South Africa's dams could take up to five years to recover even if the country experiences normal rainfall following a severe drought, authorities said on Tuesday, increasing the prospects of water rationing. Southern Africa has been affected by a severe drought that has prompted water restrictions by various municipalities, which have warned that water could be rationed if consumers do not heed calls to cut consumption. "We predict that it will take anything from two to three years and even...
(Cnbc Africa 10/28/16)
The World Bank recently released the Doing Business 2016/17 report. The survey tracks a set of regulatory indicators related to business start-up, operation, trade, payment of taxes and closure, by measuring the time and cost associated with various government requirements. However, the index does not track variables such as macroeconomic policy, currency volatility (an extremely important factor in many emerging market countries) or crime rates, which are also important in investment decisions. According to the most recent rankings, New Zealand...
(This Day Live 10/24/16)
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has provided $26.1 billion for African companies in the last 10 years, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema has said. Onyema disclosed this while speaking at the third “London & Lagos Capital Markets in Partnership’ conference held at the LSE at the weekend. According to him, eight Nigerian companies were among those that benefitted from the international capital raising on the LSE, noting that more African companies (112)...
(Lusaka Times 10/19/16)
Zambia and Botswana have signed a contract with Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group Company Limited of China (AFECC) for the construction of One Stop Border Post (OSBP) facilities at Kazungula Border on the Zambian side at a cost of more than K263 million. The contract valued at K263, 670, 419.98, which is funded through a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB), forms package three of the Main Kazungula Bridge Construction Project which is expected to be completed in December...
(Bloomberg 10/19/16)
Fifteen years ago, a South African media company invested $34 million in an obscure Chinese Internet developer. Today that stake is worth $88 billion. All Naspers Ltd., now Africa’s most valuable company, has to do is figure out how to make money from its other properties: The whole company is worth only $72 billion, less than its stake in Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd. Investors aren’t impressed with Naspers’s operations in pay-TV, newspapers and e-commerce in such countries as South Africa,...
(Reuters (Eng) 10/18/16)
Dubai - Emirates airline could reduce the frequency of its flights to African cities or cut routes completely if current economic and financial challenges on the continent continue, President Tim Clark told reporters. Foreign airlines flying to Nigeria have started to refuel abroad because jet fuel supplies there have become more expensive and scarce as the country battles a hard currency shortage. Emirates has started a detour to Accra, Ghana to refuel its daily Abuja-bound flight, a spokesperson said last...
(APA 10/17/16)
The Bank of Botswana’s Monetary Policy Committee has announced in a statement that it was maintaining the bank’s rate at 5.5 percent. A meeting by officials of the committee on Monday concluded that the outlook for price stability remains positive, with the forecast pointing to inflation being close to the lower end of the 3 – 6 percent objective range in the medium term. The statement released shortly after the meeting, revealed the country’s real GDP is estimated to have contracted by 0.3 percent in the twelve months to June 2016, compared to a growth of 3.1 percent in June 2015, thus reflecting a 23 percent decline in mining production.
(APA 10/12/16)
The government of Botswana on Wednesday said a decline in copper/nickel prices in the market and the high costs of operations are to blame for the shutting down of BCL copper and nickel mine. A statement from the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs states that as the sole shareholder of BCL LIMITED (BCL) the government decided to place BCL Limited and its subsidiaries under provisional liquidation. “The application on the same was granted on the 9th October 2016...
(APA 10/12/16)
Australian mining firm Mount Burgess announced Wednesday that drilling has begun at Kihabe Zinc Project in northern Botswana. In a statement, the company said the programme would primarily focus on Target 52, a geochemical soil anomaly. The geochemical soil results suggest a possible mineralised strike length of more than 5km, which is more than double that of the combined strike lengths of the Kihabe and Nxuu (also in northern Botswana) deposits, the firm said. It said it has identified six...
(Xinhuanet 10/11/16)
Nairobi - Kenya and Botswana will enhance their cooperation in the tourism sector, a Kenya government official said. Kenya's Ministry of Tourism Principal Secretary Fatuma Hirsi told a media briefing in Nairobi that Botswana has created a niche in the high end tourism sector while Kenya has excelled in attracting middle and low end tourists. “We, therefore, can collaborate and complement each other,” Hirsi said. A delegation from Botswana's ministry of tourism is currently on a benchmarking visit to Kenya...
(AFP (eng) 10/10/16)
Africa will come together to battle piracy and illegal fishing for the first time at an African Union maritime security summit that kicks off in Togo on October 15. The continent urgently needs to fight "extremely high stakes" piracy and illegal fishing in its waters by joining forces over policy and working to raise necessary funds, Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told AFP ahead of the meeting. - Why is this meeting being held? - "These are very high stakes...
(AFP (eng) 10/08/16)
World economic leaders gathered in Washington this week to defend globalization, delivering a single message in unison: Protectionism will not save you. But this glosses over the plight of Africa, which is sinking further into poverty despite years of free trade. According to the International Monetary Fund, which held its annual meetings this week with the World Bank, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is in free-fall this year, with a growth rate of 1.4 percent, down from 3.4 percent in 2015,...