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THE AFRICA REPORT

The

N° 107 • APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

In this issue:

PROFILE Ramaphosa’s agenda

QUARTERLY EDITION • N° 107 • APRIL - MAI - JUNE 2019

DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? INVESTIGATION Nigeria’s OPL 245 net widens DOSSIERS Bayelsa, East Africa, Logistics

most influential Africans

A constellation of the celebrated: barrier-busting business folk and power players on the continent. From the stars of the moment to those imagining Africa’s tomorrow JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Algeria 610 DA • Belgium €7.90 • Canada CA$ 12 • Denmark 80 DK • Ethiopia 200 Birr • France €7.90 • Germany €7.90 • Ghana GH¢ 35 • Kenya KES 900 • Morocco 45 DH • Netherlands €7.90 • Nigeria 2000 NGN • Norway NK 95 • Rwanda RWF 7,500 • Sierra Leone LE 67,000 • South Africa R75 (tax incl.) • Sweden SEK 100 • Switzerland 10.90 FS • Tanzania TZS 20,000 • Tunisia 15 DT • Uganda UGX 30,000 • UK £7.2 • United States US$ 15.99 • Zambia 80 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 6.20 • CFA Countries 3,900 F.CFA • Euro Zone €7.90

Experience the Progress.

Visit us at: Munich, April 8th – 14th Find out more at www.liebherr-bauma.com

www.liebherr.com info.lex@liebherr.com www.facebook.com/LiebherrConstruction

EDITORIAL

SIGNS OF AN AFRICAN SPRING By PATRICK SMITH editorial@theafricareport.com The mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of young people on streets across the continent demanding economic and political rights challenges traditional oppositionists as much as incumbent regimes. In each case, the demonstrators in Algiers, Bamenda, Harare, Kampala, Khartoum and Kinshasa are taking on systems of vested interests and dysfunctional politics that are holding them back. They are calling for sweeping change, not just different party colours in the presidency. Even in South Africa and Nigeria or countries where politics seems quiescent or dominated by competition between ideologically identical parties, these new movements send important messages. First is that the economic downturn has exposed the jobless growth of Africa’s boom years. The demographic reality of the world’s youngest continent means this issue will dominate African politics for the next three decades. Although most policymakers talk of structural reform, very few have a strategy and can implement it. Second, when regimes try to reform after years of stasis, they are at their weakest point. They have neither the legitimacy nor the resources to change the policy course. The protesters’ grievances run the gamut

of economic and social demands. The main targets are the spiral in youth unemployment, stagnant economies held prisoner by international commodity markets, together with deteriorating provision of education and training – a key ingredient to revive dynamism. Activists are finding new ways to organise and avoid the attentions of the police. They have brought together students, professionals, and trade unionists of all ages – even feuding family members – into a sprawling movement. Innovation is key to the organisational power of the new groups. Activists in Algeria are using WhatsApp groups of football fans to mobilise support. It worked. On the evening of 3 March, hundreds of thousands marched through the streets to call on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to refrain from standing for a fifth mandate in April’s elections. In Sudan and Zimbabwe, the governments have tried to shut down services like WhatsApp, so activists use virtual private networks to share information and send messages to the outside world. All this has prompted easy comparisons with the rebellions that swept across North Africa in 2011. The protest movements in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia started that way, so the argument goes, but ended in a new autocracy, bloody chaos or frustration and disappointment. There are parallels between today and 2011 but more importantly there are lessons. Above all, demonstrate in peace, is the message circulating relentlessly among activists in Algeria and Sudan. Many hope the form of the demonstrations themselves, heterogenous with a strong, sometimes majority, participation by women, can shape the political transitions. This may prove the hardest task: for a popular movement to take on the responsibilities and limitations of political power without betraying its supporters.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

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THE AFRICA REPORT 57-BIS, RUE D’AUTEUIL 75016 PARIS – FRANCE TEL: (33) 1 44 30 19 60 FAX: (33) 1 44 30 19 30 www.theafricareport.com

CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER BÉCHIR BEN YAHMED

Ramaphosa is working on his image as ‘an enigma’

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PUBLISHER DANIELLE BEN YAHMED publisher@theafricareport.com EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER YVES BIYAH EDITOR IN CHIEF PATRICK SMITH MANAGING EDITOR NICHOLAS NORBROOK editorial@theafricareport.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR MARSHALL VAN VALEN PRODUCTION EDITOR OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI To find the full editorial team, all our correspondents, and much more on our new digital platform, please visit: www.theafricareport.com SALES A JUSTE TITRE

03 EDITORIAL 06 MAILBAG 08 COFFEE WITH THE AFRICA REPORT / Bob Collymore 10 THE QUESTION 12 Q2 / April 14 Q2 / May 18 Q2 / June

63 EAST AFRICA FOCUS Policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects

FEATURES 22 PROFILE / Ramaphosa’s destiny Ahead of 8 May’s general elections The Africa Report talks to close contacts of the president over the years to build a picture of the man who says he can get South Africa out of its current mess

86 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars

122 INSIDE BAYELSA New projects are taking root in the Nigerian state after years of despoliation

36 INVESTIGATION / Nigeria’s billion-dollar oil scandal An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case, with nine executives from Eni and Shell now on trial in Milan

146 LOGISTICS DOSSIER

48 WIDE ANGLE / The youth wave

Ethiopia has high hopes for exports, and has made improving logistics a priority

Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall and #NotTooYoungToRun – a demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?

56 DEBATE / Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will revolutionise the economy or scare away investors

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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

156 ART & LIFE African designers are in the limelight when Black Hollywood stars choose their labels for red carpet ceremonies

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MAILBAG

Introducing a more technical curriculum doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the failing education system, as technology alone won’t fix our public schools [‘Yemi Osinbajo: Selling our crown jewels isn’t the solution’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. What ails our educational system ranges from poverty in early childhood to underfunded districts and poorly designed incentives for an overburdened faculty, all of which feeds the unequal access to quality education for the teeming population of schoolage children. Recruiting more qualified teachers into service requires more funding than the sector currently gets. The proposed reform of the school curriculum will level the playing field of access, but level fields do not necessarily translate to improved player skills, which is the entire point of education. Maryam Bello, Ibadan, Nigeria

62 COUNTRY FOCUS | NIGERIA

NIGERIA’S OBY RAISES CRUCIAL QUESTIONS

Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili

Presidential candidate, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria

The old order has delivered misery

STEPHEN LOVEKIN/SHUTTER/SIPA

THE POINT OF EDUCATION

For all your comments, suggestions and queries, please write to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis rue d’Auteuil Paris 75016 - France or editorial@theafricareport.com

The Nigerian presidential candidate talks to The Africa Report about the education crisis and the need for the politics of ideas rather than personality

B

lunt-speaking and a passionate advocate for women’s r ights, Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili has launched a groundbreaking run for the presidency, which looks like a logical stepin her professional and political career. Standing for the small Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), she is shaking up the election by running a grassroots campaign with a dedicated band of young volunteer helpers. Oby, as she is widely known in Nigeria, should not be underestimated as a campaigner. What she lacks in establishment backers and corporate donors, she could make up for in her own enthusiasm and that of her young supporters. She shot to global fame as one of the founders of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in 2014 demanding

that the government of Goodluck Jonathan find and rescue the more than 270 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok in Borno State by the Islamist Boko Haram militia. Oby and Hadiza Bala Usman, co-founder of the campaign, used social media to get the message around the world, and even US First Lady Michelle Obama was

“I would do a much better job than [Atiku] because government is not monolithic” pictured on social media brandishing a #BringBackOurGirls placard. That campaign was a major reason why Jonathan lost the 2015 election. An accountant by training, with amaster’sinpublicadministration from Harvard University, Oby has worked on development projects THE AFRICA REPORT

DOUBTFUL DOUBLING FOR MAURITIUS

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for much of her career. She joined then-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in 1999 as head of its Budget Monitoring Unit, where she earned the sobriquet ‘Madame Due Process.’ She later served as minister of mines and then of education before leaving government to join the World Bank as vice-president for Africa. Oby is a fiercely independent campaigner. At the launching of the now governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, she warned its members that they should stand for more than chasing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) out of power. But she is also critical of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, with whom she clashed in government. She tells The Africa Report that Atiku did “everything to undermine due process” when he was in government. N ° 10 6

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D E C E M B E R 2 018 - J A N U A R Y 2 019

Mauritius is keen to double the size of its financial sector in 12 years, but how will it find the growth strategies to achieve its dream in today’s global economic turmoil? [‘Mauritius: Offshore on the radar’, TAR105 Nov. 2018]. Various forecasts against a backdrop of new US government measures to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium have resulted in Turkey’s currency significantly

Oby not only has the educational qualification, she also has enough professional experience to be president [‘Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili: The old order has delivered misery’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. It is sad that Oby was not seen as a major contender. Instead, Nigerians were focused on two men who have been in power before and have shown that they have nothing to offer. Is it because Nigerians cannot yet wrap their heads around a female president? Lucia Edafioka, Feminist and brand communications manager, Nigeria

losing its value. Four countries – Egypt, Jordan, Argentina and Barbados – have suffered from high debt and deficits. Will Mauritius be successful in its expansion of its financial sector with new international investments when the general global economic outlook seems negative? Kokil Shah, Kenya

HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN ZIMBABWE It surely never rains in Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s

attempts to turn the economy around are yet to bear fruit [‘Zimbabwe 2019 Country Report’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. Fuel shortages have loomed, doctors are going on strike, teachers are going to work twice a week and there has been a sharp increase in the prices of basic goods and services. New uncorrupt blood is needed, human rights laws need to be respected and in a nutshell, a new government is needed. Jeff K. Chakanyuka, Zimbabwe

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THE QUESTION

SELORM BRANTTIE

MICHAEL K. SERCHIE

Global Strategy Director, mPedigree Network

Project Manager, Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation

YES

NO

The National Cathedral serves an aesthetic and Ghana’s National Cathedral offers more than a house of prayer. It is a critical avenue for social superfluous purpose. It does not directly reflect the nation’s founding goals. It is a piece of architecture transformation in enhancing the prophetic, advocacy and educational role of the church as a corporate body. For that is just going to change the skyline. In a country which has a majority Christian religious orientation, there are a country with an estimated 70% Christian population, the National Cathedral would serve as a sacred space for already mega-auditoria that seat, in some cases, three governance of the nation, host times the proposed capacity of the cathedral. These auditoria state and religious functions, serve as a convening centre for have hosted and still have capacity to host events of a national interfaith dialogue to improve nature. To date, there has been the cohesive relationship beno explanation for the cost of retween government and religious placement of structures that will leaders and create a visible and be demolished for this edifice, organic unity of the different which will cost tens of millions Christian denominations in the of dollars at least. While the country. Our commitment to somega-pastors are running around cial justice in encouraging social with statesmen to raise funds, no integration requires initiatives to building the needed various inGhanaian even knows the cost of the whole project, and the govfrastructures at all levels – local, ernment itself is not disclosing regional and national – so that Ghana’s government-backed its interests. For a monument our nation can develop faster multimillion-dollar project has to a religion that has truth and than it is currently. Building the received backlash for being transparency as its core virtues, cathedral and tackling the other a misplaced priority in the face this cathedral’s very foundations socio-economic challenges in show a contradictory attitude. the country are not mutually of harsh economic conditions exclusive. Monuments like the Ghana has done very little to protect its heritage, and yet revels National Cathedral, in addition in the imposition of a foreign religion, whose main propoto its tourism potential and socio-economic revitalisation nents shackled our forefathers and condemned our ways of the city, will create jobs, revitalise the landscape of as barbaric. So while the national museum steadily breaks Accra, serve as a catalyst for technology and skills transfer down in ruins just five kilometres away, a monument that into our country, and will play an important cultural role celebrates our mental slavery rises in its wake. in cultivating pride for our heritage and past.

Are national cathedrals a waste of resources?

No!! These resources in question are meant for the wellbeing of the citizens and the development of the nation. Religious beliefs are entrenched in Ghanaian society and form part of the national identity. Yes, a national cathedral may not be in the interests of the entire population, but it captures most of the citizen’s religious affiliation, which is Christianity.

It appears the project does not have universal appeal in Ghana, even among the Christian community. It is more a matter of political mobilisation for short-end electoral purposes rather than Christian ends. State support is not universally agreed, since many court cases are ongoing regarding the presidential donation of prime government land. Besides, all so-called national cathedrals are denomination-based or -owned.

Randolf B. Hackman, Email

Colin Essamuah, WhatsApp

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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

It is a vanity project. It’s management will be chaotic and at the taxpayers’ expense. It is the height of misplaced priorities. Kobi Annan, Twitter

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

To respond to this month’s Question, visit www.theafricareport.com. You can also find The Africa Report on Facebook and on Twitter @theafricareport. Comments, suggestions and queries can also be sent to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis Rue d’Auteuil, Paris 75016, France or editorial@theafricareport.com

ALET PRETORIUS/FOTO24/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

Quarter

The Africa Report’s exclusive guide to the quarter ahead features key events from the worlds of politics, business and culture. Find out more about how to plan your April, May & June, whether it is to find out who is planning for life after Bouteflika (see page 13), what happens next in the fallout from Steinhoff International’s accounting irregularities (see page 14) or understanding the battleground fights in South Africa’s election (see page 16). THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

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Q2

/ APRIL

‘We want to know how much debt Kenya is paying in pending bills and we want this done this year’

INVESTMENT Oil

interest

Despite low prices, several African countries are seeking investment in oil exploration in the months ahead 1 GABON The 12th licensing round is set to close in April 2019. 2 GHANA Its first formal licensing round should be complete in May. It has reportedly got the attention of 16 oil companies, including majors.

2

1 3 4

3 REPUBLIC OF CONGO Licence round phase II is due to close in June 2019. 4 ANGOLA The Marginal Fields Bid Round will be launched at the Africa Oil & Power conference in Luanda in June 2019.

World Bank leadership contest ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/ZUMA/REA; CAMILLE MILLERAND; ATUL LOKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES-REDUX-REA

PAUL ABUOR Kenyan MP calls the government to account over opaque debts as the government seeks to roll over big loans in April

POWER PLAYERS After president Jim Yong Kim’s surprise resignation, the race is on to name a replacement. Nominations ended in midMarch and a vote is due before the Spring World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington. Early talk was about breaking the US stranglehold on the presidency.

DAVID MALPASS The US Treasury official – a critic of multilateralism and former Bear Stearns boffin – is US President Donald Trump’s pick.

NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA The former finance minister of Nigeria has said that she would run for the World Bank presidency if nominated.

RAGHURAM RAJAN The former Reserve Bank of India governor could be a strong candidate for the Asian grouping of countries.

ARTWORK

Up for sale

SOTHEBY’S

Pieces from renowned artists such as El Anatsui and Chéri Samba are going under the hammer at Sotheby’s London on 2 April. Contemporary African art continues to do well on international markets. Congolese artist Samba’s piece (pictured) sold for £31,250 ($42,000) in an October 2018 auction at Sotheby’s, which netted £2,274,625 in total.

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$100m

Tech-focused Andela raised a large sum in January, and Africa-focused investors will be discussing that deal and others at the African Venture Capital Association in Nairobi 1-5 April

SAMIR SID

Thousands of protestors have marched in Algiers and other cities across the country

‘A combination of economic discipline and vibrancy will ensure that we will not have to be rescued’ KEN OFORI-ATTA

ALGERIA ELECTIONS

Ghana’s finance minister decribes what is needed when the country’s programme with the IMF ends in April

The street speaks

MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION The Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend at the Sofitel hotel in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on 5-7 April will play host to a new edition of The Africa Report Debates, with the question: “The new tech era: job killer or job creator?”

APPOINTMENT

SYDNEY MBHELE

SANLAM

The powerful clique behind President Abdelaziz Bouteflika may have waited too long to resolve their disputes about who should take over from the ailing 82-year-old president. They backed Bouteflika to run again in the planned 18 April elections, leading to hundreds of thousands of protesters – young and old – taking to the streets in late February and early March to send a message scrawled on handwritten posters and chanted by throngs of protesters that ‘enough is enough’. The economy, which is largely dependent on oil and gas projects, is hurting. Nearly everything had seemed on course for a non-event election where Bouteflika would win a fifth five-year term: the opposition is weak and divided, the regime holds a tight grip on the military and security services and Algeria’s young people were seen as disaffected and perennially frustrated by the country’s gerontocracy. Those around Bouteflika are now scrambling for a strategy. As The Africa Report went to press, the street had gotten wheelchair-bound Bouteflika to agree to a national conference on reforms and promise to step down before the end of the next term. In the days and weeks ahead, the protesters are seeking to press their advantage now that they have gotten the regime to make concessions. But questions remain as to how this generational change in the wind will eventually take shape. The Arab Spring examples of neighbouring countries show the pitfalls and possibilities. Will the opposition be able to rally around a candidate in time for the vote, if it will be free and fair? If Bouteflika steps down before the vote or his party fractures beyond repair, will oppositionists be able to exert enough pressure to push through generational change in the armed forces, many of whose leaders earned their pedigrees in the country’s war of liberation from France and the crushing of the Front Islamique du Salut group in the 1990s?

The new chief executive of brand at Sanlam takes up his post on 1 April. Sanlam’s focus has been on its 2018 acquisition of Moroccan firm SAHAM. Mbehele brings experience from rival insurance firm Liberty to the table.

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

13

/ MAY

DWAYNE SENIOR/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Q2

STEINHOFF INTERNATIONAL

Awaiting the auditors

ALIKO DANGOTE His $9bn Nigeria oil refinery is due to begin test production in May 2019. The investment is set to more than double Dangote’s annual revenue and allow large investments outside of Nigeria.

JACOB ZUMA South Africa’s former president will be back in court in May on corruption charges relating to a multibillion-dollar arms deal in the 1990s. He faces charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

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ERIC LARRAYADIEU/AFRICA CEO FORUM/JA; CIA PAK/UN

The reckoning for Steinhoff International, an Africa- and Europe-focused retailer backed by South African billionaire Christo Wiese, depends in part on the audited results for its group and subsidiaries in 2017 and 2018, due to be released in April and May 2019. Under the leadership of chief executive Markus Jooste, Steinhoff’s share price crumbled when accounting irregularities were discovered in December 2017. Auditing firm PwC is carrying out the investigation into Steinhoff’s recent operations, which will reveal the extent of the company’s problems. Since the 2017 crisis and writing down an estimated $12bn in assets, the company has been limping along as it conducts the restructuring of some subsidiary operations and preparing for court cases seeking billions of dollars in damages due to investor losses. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal – Steinhoff International is headquartered in the Netherlands – will hold a crucial hearing on 23 May to determine if it will go ahead with an investigation into the company. Steinhoff’s difficulties are also playing out in South African politics, where the opposition Democratic Alliance has been calling for the speedy launch of criminal investigations once the audited results become public. Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa could take years to complete their probes. Restructuring specialist Louis du Preez has been leading Steinhoff since November 2018 with the goal of saving the company from collapse. Plans for new stores – Steinhoff owns Mattress Firm in the US, Conforama in France and the Pep and Ackermans brands in Africa – have largely been put on hold until the company is on sounder footing. Steinhoff’s unaudited results for the last quarter of 2018 showed 3% total revenue growth from existing stores, with a 5% jump in Africa and a 4% drop in the US.

‘Whether we have accomplished fully what we had set up to accomplish? The answer is no. Corruption is worse […] It’s politics of patronage and appeasement.’ SAULOS CHILIMA Malawi’s former vice-president is running against his one-time ally, President Peter Mutharika, in May. Corruption and the economy are high on the political agenda.

Q2

/ MAY

$1bn

Ivory Coast plans to sell at least $1bn in eurobonds by May 2019 in order to finance the construction of new infrastructure projects.

‘It means having the law affirming our existence and validating that we – like all Kenyans – are protected under the law.’

SOUTH AFRICA

Poll pressure In May’s general election, President Cyril Ramaphosa desperately wants a strong turnout in favour of the governing African National Congress (ANC) so that he can sweep out corrupt officials linked to former president Jacob Zuma and clean up ailing state-run enterprises like Eskom and South African Airways (see page 154). Support for the ANC has been waning in recent years. It took 61.95% of the vote in 2016’s municipal elections, and an Ipsos opinion poll estimated its support in November 2018 at 61%. Another Ipsos poll released in February 2019 found that 59% of adult South Africans do not believe the government is handling the economy well, and only 29% believe the country is moving ‘in the right direction’. But the two main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters, do not seem to be making headway on the pocketbook issues that voters have been worried about the most. Here are three key provinces to watch:

MERCY NJUEH The Kenyan LGBTQ+ activist hopes the High Court will strike down a colonial-era law on 24 May that she says conflicts with the protections of the 2010 constitution.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; LOBNA TAREK/AP/SIPA

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

MOHAMED AL-GHEITI & MAHMOUD ABU ZEID World Press Freedom day will be celebrated in Addis Ababa in May. Last year, Egypt ranked among the top three countries for imprisoned journalists. AlGheiti got 12 months in January 2019 for interviewing a homosexual and Abu Zeid got a five-year term in 2018 for taking photos at the Rabaa massacre in 2013.

Phase II

The second phase of Kenya’s standard gauge railway, being built by China Communications Construction Company to link Nairobi to Naivasha, is due to be finished in May or June.

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WESTERN CAPE

GAUTENG

KWAZULU-NATAL

Poll watchers are not yet sure how much support former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille – who founded the Good political party last year – will pull away from the DA after her falling out with the party leadership. Western Cape is the DA’s strongest support base.

Voters in and around Johannesburg are critical of the ANC’s record on the economy and service delivery. The ANC lost control of the Joburg mayor’s office in 2016, so the vote in Gauteng will show if the opposition can make stronger inroads.

Zuma has been lobbying hard behind the scenes for his home province to split the vote, voting for his ANC allies in the provincial vote and against the ANC on the national level. The province is the biggest vote pool for the ANC.

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Q2

/ JUNE AFDB

Let’s meet in Malabo The African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina has about another year left before he could be up for re-election as head of the continental financial institution. He came into office in 2015 promising to transform the AfDB, but at the last general meeting, the bank’s governors said they wanted to see more evidence of reforms and the efficient use of resources before they would agree to Adesina’s request for a general capital increase to allow the financing of more projects. The AfDB is preparing for its annual general meeting in the Equatorial Guinean city of Malabo on 11-14 June as the continent’s growth engine continues to recover from a low in 2016. The AfDB predicts that growth will reach 4% in 2019, up from 3.5% in 2018. Those numbers hide regional variations, with the oil producers and mineral exporters of West and Central Africa performing relatively poorly when compared to the economies of Senegal and Ethiopia. Economic giants Nigeria and South Africa have been struggling to cope with lower commodity prices and other economic strains, and the new administrations in both countries will be looking for ways out of their current troubles. So Malabo makes a fitting backdrop for discussions about how natural resource-dependent economies can diversify and attract more investment – something the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been talking about for quite some time. With an annual infrastructure financing gap estimated at between $68bn-$108bn, attendees at the Malabo conference will be debating how African governments can raise more internal revenue, how to implement the planned continental free trade area and how to improve the mobility of the continent’s population in pursuit of better economic outcomes.

Japan will host its first G20 summit, which assembles the biggest economies in the world. South African diplomats will be present to represent the continent, and topics to be discussed include agriculture, health, green energy, trade and the digital economy.

‘What we want is a mindset change from everybody.’ ISMAIL MOMONIAT The National Treasury deputy director-general said in December that the planned introduction of a carbon tax in South Africa would force companies to think differently about their environmental impacts.

12.88 MTPA

‘We will (…) eliminate need for importing electricity from Uganda’ JOSEPH NJOROGE Kenya’s energy principal secretary announces a transmission line for June 2019.

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EMRE DORTER/TABANLIOGLU ARCHITECTS

US firm Anadarko is due to make an investment decision by June 2019 on two natural gas plants in Mozambique’s Offshore Area 1 with a capacity to produce 12.88 MTPA. The plants make up the key piece of infrastructure to the country’s planned gas boom.

Q2

/ JUNE SOUTH AFRICA

National Arts Fest ALET PRETORIUS/FOTO24/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

Art in nearly all of its forms will be centre stage in what is billed as Africa’s largest arts festival 27 June to 7 July. Amongst the singers, actors and painters, politically engaged South African photographer and multimedia artist Berni Searle will be in the spotlight.

AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS Cairo

$2.5bn

cup

After high drama about which countries will host the next two tournaments, African football fans are preparing to visit the land of the pharaohs for matches between 21 June and 19 July. As The Africa Report went to press, the qualifying matches had not yet been completed. But there were already some early favourites. Egypt, which came in second in the 2017 tournament, is expected to put in a strong showing. Fans of the home team, which automatically qualifies for the final tournament, will be cheering on Mohamed Salah, who scored a goal in each qualifying match.

Stanbic Bank Uganda, lead arranger for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline’s $2.5bn funding, expects the deal to close in June 2019.

‘Energy subsidy (cuts are also) a positive measure’

CAMEROON

NIGERIA

SENEGAL

Last year’s winners are expected to put in a good showing in Egypt. The team will need a good performance out of winger Christian Bassogog, who was the 2017 tournament’s best player.

Shanghai Shenhua’s Odion Ighalo was in fine form in the qualifiers, scoring six goals in four matches. But the side was in a pool of relative lightweights, so the Super Eagles will have to prove their mettle in the next rounds.

Star Sadio Mané, rated one of the continent’s top footballers, is a key player for the team, which was on course to qualify for the final tournament with the highest number of points.

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UG CO. K/SHUTTERSTOCK/SIPA; PRESSFOCUS/SIPA; ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP/SIPA

HASSAN AMIN Acwa Power’s director for Egypt says his firm will sign off on three solar projects by June.

Indian telecoms company Airtel Africa plans to raise additional funds of about $1.5bn by June in order to invest more and to help pay its debts. It raised $200m in early 2019 from the Qatar Investment Authority and $1.25bn in late 2018 from Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singapore Telecommunications and SoftBank. Plans are underway for an initial public offering.

DANIEL HAYDUK/AFP

Features

22 PROFILE Ramaphosa’s destiny Does the formula that is Cyril Ramaphosa add up for South Africa? Contacts of the president help to build a picture of the man who says he can get the country out of its current mess

36 INVESTIGATION How Dan Etete’s billiondollar deal ended up in court An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case, with nine executives from Eni and Royal Dutch Shell now on trial in Milan

48 WIDE ANGLE The youth wave Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall: A demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?

56 DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will scare away investors

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

21

FEATURES /

INVESTIGATION

How Dan Etete’s billiondollar deal ended up in court An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case. Nine executives from Eni and Royal Dutch Shell, and Nigerian officials, face charges in Milan over how they won control of a rich oil block 36

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

By HONORÉ BANDA in Abuja and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa On a biting cold day in Milan in January, Ibrahim Ahmed, a Nigerian investigator, and Colonel Alessandro Ferri of Italy’s financial police, hustle into the city’s imposing, marbleclad palace of justice. Ahmed is in Milan to explain to prosecutors Fabio de Pasquale and

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP

Sergio Spadaro what Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered when it started to investigate the award of one of the richest oil blocks in Africa to an obscure company called Malabu Oil & Gas in April 1998, which had been incorporated just five days earlier. After chatting to local police, Ahmed is shown into the court. A tall, slender figure in

a dark suit, he expertly guides De Pasquale through the sheaves of documents about the disputes over ownership of Malabu and the oil block OPL 245. The story takes in more than 20 years of deal making and politics in Nigeria. It started in the era of military rule; now Italy’s Eni and Royal Dutch Shell face charges of corruption in the race to secure rights to the contested oil block.

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FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court

As Abacha’s oil minister, Etete had cultivated a fearsome image

In Milan, De Pasquale asks Ahmed what triggered the investigation. “The initial directors of Malabu – Mohammed Sani Abacha and Pecos Energy – were complaining that their name was removed from the register of company directors.” After Abacha’s complaint to the Corporate Affairs Commission, A.G. Abubakar, the special assistant to the director of compliance, wrote a memo: “I confirm from database that Mohammed Sani [Abacha] had 10 million shares at the creation of the company. Other shareholders said modifications were not authorised.” A year later, Abubakar was shot twice and his car was set on fire in an attack that resembled an execution killing. An estimated 9bn barrels of oil were at stake. The EFCC discovered, Ahmed continues, “a new filing by Ademola, a legal practitioner, changing the directors of Malabu.” Other suspicious points about Malabu emerged as Ahmed investigated: “Since the registration of Malabu [up] to 2010, they don’t have a bank account. The only asset Malabu has are OPL 245 and 214, and they are not doing any business.”

Breach of Nigerian law

Ahmed explains that this had all rung alarm bells – Mohammed Abacha was the son of the military leader General Sani Abacha, who was poisoned in June 1998. His receipt of equity in an oil block awarded by the oil minister Dan Etete would have been a clear breach of Nigerian law. And oil minister Etete’s stake in the company that was initially awarded the block also would have been illegal and a conflict of interest. Now the list of charges against the subsequent owners of OPL 245 – Shell and Eni – is expanding and crossing jurisdictions. Alongside

the Italian case, the Dutch authorities are also preparing charges against companies and executives. Britain, which has a poor record of prosecuting corporate corruption cases, may yet start proceedings given the substantial British shareholding in Shell. Already, the Nigerian government is suing the US bank J.P.Morgan in the civil courts in London for negligence in transferring $801m of Nigerian state funds to Malabu. And the US authorities, which claim the right to prosecute any corruption case whose proceeds are denominated in US dollars, may yet join in. The most consequential case against the companies would be in Nigeria, where there is a demand by the EFCC to cancel the deal. Financial experts claim the Nigerian treasury could lose more than $5bn because of the poorly negotiated fiscal terms of the OPL 245 deal. That is on top of the $1.1bn that the Nigerian state has already lost due to corrupt payments, according to the Italian prosecutors. On the line are the reputations of two of the world’s biggest oil companies. Should the companies lose, their top officials could be gaoled, their share prices could crash and it may mean the death throes of a business model used in the oil and mining industries. That model is the dependence on secretive fixers and traders, lobbyists and spin doctors who help cut deals with political gangsters and military strongmen but keep the companies out of the courts. In most big corporate corruption cases in the US and Britain, companies go for plea bargains to avoid prosecution. In Milan, there is no immediate prospect of plea deals. The companies are up against De Pasquale (see box), one of Italy’s toughest prosecutors, and locked into a case that could take years to settle.

The ups and downs in Nigeria’s billion-dollar OPL 245 saga

1998

April Oil minister Dan Etete awards the OPL 245 oil block to Malabu (which he jointly owns with the son of the military leader Sani Abacha)

38

June General Sani Abacha dies in what was said to be a poisoning

1999

May Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated as civilian president

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

2001

Royal Dutch Shell agrees to buy 40% of the OPL 245 block from Malabu; the government revokes the licence and Malabu mounts a legal challenge

2002

Government awards OPL 245 to Shell under a production-sharing agreement for which Shell offers to pay a $210m bonus

2006

Government reaches deal with Malabu restoring its ownership of OPL 245 for a $210m signature bonus. Shell mounts a legal challenge

2007

Dan Etete is convicted of money laundering in a French court. The conviction is later overturned

$210m

Fixer fee for Emeka Obi (frozen by the courts)

Signature bonus

$800m

$1.1bn

for licence

NIGERIA government

MALABU controlled by Dan Etete

ABUBAKAR ALIYU

$520m*

and top Nigerian officials

Fixer fee in cash

$75m

Fixer fee for Ednan Agaev (frozen by the courts)

*$520m in cash weighs five tonnes

ENI

Within a year, Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired general detained under Abacha, was elected president. Urged on by Western governments nervous about terrorist financing and money laundering, Obasanjo launched a set of antigraft agencies, including the EFCC. He also started sporadic investigations into Abacha’s government and cancelled a few oil deals, but Etete held on to Malabu and his prize asset.

For journalists covering the trial, all the gory details of the companies’ operations revealed through hacked emails, wire-tapped phone conversations and secret memos are played out in court. The drama unveils the intersection of public life and private business in Nigeria. It is a rare glimpse behind the curtains at the combustible mixture of money, power, friendships and vendettas that frame the country’s history. The golden rule of doing deals in Nigeria is to do them quickly and quietly. The deal on trial in Milan – the fight over OPL 245 – was neither. That oil minister Etete was able to award a licence to produce billions of barrels of oil without scrutiny says much about the Abacha regime which he served. It was what happened next that started the problems for the would-be owners of this bonanza oil block. Three months later, Abacha was dead, found frothing at the mouth at his quarters in the early hours after a particularly energetic party.

2011

President Goodluck Jonathan is elected, the first president from the oil-producing Niger Delta

Under a new deal, Shell and Eni pay the government $1.1bn and the promised $210m bonus for the block. The government pays Malabu $1.1bn

2014

Nigeria’s house of representatives cancels the OPL 245 deal; Swiss and British authorities freeze payments linked to it

Tapes of conversations

As Abacha’s oil minister, Etete had cultivated a fearsome image – keeping a lion in the extensive grounds of his Abuja mansion. More squeamish visitors would try to avoid feeding time when Etete’s servants would bring in two live goats for the lion to chase and devour. But holding on to OPL 245 was not a done deal. In a submission to the national assembly in Abuja, Etete said he had been asked to dinner by vice-president Atiku Abubakar, whom he said had asked him for a stake

2017

Italy and Nigeria charge Shell and Eni executives with corruption; Nigeria also charges its former Attorney General with money laundering

2018

May The criminal trial of Shell and Eni executives begins in Milan

2019

Feb. London High Court rules that Nigeria’s case against JPMorgan for facilitating corrupt payments can proceed

March The Dutch government prepares criminal charges against Shell over its acquisition of a stake in OPL 245

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

39

SOURCE: ITALY’S MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL

THE BIG WINNERS IN THE FIGHT FOR OIL BLOCK OPL 245

$215m

FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court

OPL 245’s webs of influence Sani Abacha

Military leader, Nigeria (1993-1998)

After seizing power in 1993, General Abacha presided over the theft of $4bn of state assets and revenue, of which less than a quarter have been returned. Running a highly centralised and oppressive regime which executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists in the Niger Delta, Abacha’s mismanagement and corruption chronically weakened Nigeria’s economy.

Olusegun Obasanjo President, Nigeria (1999-2007)

Inheriting a corrupt and dysfunctional system from his military predecessors, Obasanjo struggled to push through economic reforms. Although he set up the EFCC, the anti-graft agency which launched the investigation into corruption around the OPL 245 oil block, Obasanjo’s government failed to protect the state’s interest in the fight over the block’s ownership.

Goodluck Jonathan STR NEW/REUTERS- MARK CHILVERS FOR TAR - UN PHOTO - HEINZ-PETER BADER/REUTERS

President, Nigeria (2010-2015)

Within a year of coming to power, Jonathan presided over a deal under which Eni and Shell committed to pay – via the Nigerian government – $1.1bn to Dan Etete for the OPL 245 oil block, whose ownership was disputed. Italian court documents accuse Jonathan, a friend of Etete’s, of benefiting from the deal. Jonathan denies all wrongdoing.

Dan Etete

Oil minister, Nigeria (1995-1998)

At the centre of the fight over billions of dollars and an estimated 9bn barrels of oil, Etete set up Malabu Oil & Gas with the son of military leader General Sani Abacha, then awarding the OPL 245 oil block to the company. With the Nigerian government's help, he later sold it on to Eni and Shell, which are embroiled in the Milan and other court cases.

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Mohammed Abacha had been arrested on charges of conspiring to murder opposition activists

in the block in return for not cancelling the licence. On top of that, Etete produced tapes of conversations involving Atiku’s intermediaries as well as some Shell executives offering large bribes. Shell and Atiku dismissed the tapes as proving nothing. Negotiations continued, according to Etete, with a fixer claiming to represent Atiku – who ran for the presidency in February of this year and lost – demanding Malabu sell its stake in the block. Meanwhile, Shell had offered to buy a 40% stake from Malabu. The government cancelled Malabu’s licence in 2001 and held an auction for the block. Shell bid $210m, some $150m more than ExxonMobil, and won the licence. At the same time, Nuhu Ribadu, the lively chairman of the EFCC, started investigating some of the more heinous deals linked to Abacha and his family. Shortly after his father’s death, Mohammed Abacha was arrested on charges of conspiring to murder opposition activists. With some chutzpah, Etete pushed Abacha junior out of Malabu, then started suing the Obasanjo government for illegally seizing the oil block, which he insisted was his company’s property. By 2006, the pendulum had swung back. A plan to get Obasanjo a third term in office had put him at odds with Atiku. Obasanjo pushed Shell out from OPL 245 and gave it back to Malabu, asking for a $210m signature bonus.

‘Unwarranted interference’

Shell’s regional vice-president Ann Pickard was quoted in a conversation with US ambassador John Campbell in leaked diplomatic cables saying that Etete was close to Obasanjo, having supported him against Atiku. She added that Etete had also played a role in “neutralising” former military leader General Ibrahim Babangida. She said Shell would fight the transfer of the block back to Malabu in the Nigerian courts. Meanwhile, Etete hired two experienced fixers: ex-Soviet diplomat Ednan Agaev and investment banker Emeka Obi. A few months later, in February 2007, Obi brokered a meeting between Etete and Lionello Colombi of Eni at the Four Seasons Hotel at London’s Hyde Park Corner, a favoured meeting place for Nigeria’s nomenklatura. After a convivial chat, Etete offered Colombi access to the data on OPL 245 for a “returnable” fee of $2.5m. News of the meeting leaked, prompting Shell’s Pickard to call Claudio

ALESSANDRO BIANCHI / REUTERS

FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court

Descalzi, Eni’s chief in Africa at the time, warning that any further negotiations with Etete would be regarded as “deliberate and unwarranted interference with Shell’s contractual rights”. In fact, Etete carried on talking to Eni but opened another channel to Shell at the same time. In a minor setback, the French courts convicted Etete of laundering payments from Addax, an oil-trading company with extensive interests in Nigeria. Etete, who had an extensive property portfolio in France, appealed the conviction. It was eventually thrown out on a technicality. Then Shell’s political adviser, John Copleston, who was formerly posted in Nigeria for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, met Etete for lunch to come up with a new deal in October 2009. According to leaked emails sent from Copleston to his colleagues Peter Robinson and Guy Colegate, a former officer in the British army, Etete asked Shell to make an offer for 40% of OPL 245. “Malabu planned to bring in two new investors to form an operator consortium,” reported Copleston, although he was sceptical about where Etete would find the money. “We said that Shell figures suggested $16bn capex [the investment needed to bring OPL 245 into production] and if Malabu no longer wanted to be carried they would have to find their 60% share. […] No real reply to this.” With some confidence, Etete told Copleston that if they reached a successful agreement, the Nigerian government “would not be allowed”

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Eni expected a high return on the deal because of the size of the block and the promised tax holidays

to derail it. Copleston added that Etete seemed in good spirits as the lunch had involved “lots of iced champagne”. Colegate was convinced that Etete would agree: “Etete can smell the money,” he wrote in an email that was forwarded to Shell’s then chief executive Peter Voser. “If at nearly 70 years old he turns his nose at $1.2bn, he’s completely certifiable.” Yet Etete kept up the dialogue with Shell’s rival, Eni. In February 2010, he agreed to meet Claudio Descalzi at the five-star Principe di Savoia Hotel in Milan, a ten-minute drive from the Palazzo di Guistizia, where both men now face trial for grand corruption. Along with Obi, they discussed what Eni would have to pay for the block. Etete exuded confidence about the future, based on a sense that politics in Nigeria was moving his way. Three months later, Etete’s friend Goodluck Jonathan took over the presidency in Nigeria after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua. Jonathan had been a tutor to Etete’s children and the two had stayed in contact.

Fractious talks, fraught dealings

Etete carried on talking to Eni but opened a channel to Shell as well

Just weeks later, the government confirmed Malabu as the rightful owner of OPL 245, prompting a crisis meeting between Eni and Shell officials. Taking a deep breath, the officials agreed to offer $1.3bn for OPL 245. A team of emissaries was sent to see Etete, who was holding court at Le Bristol, a stylish hotel near the Champs Elysées in Paris. Etete was outraged by the offer, dismissing it as “totally unacceptable”. On Le Bristol’s headed paper, he wrote that Shell’s involvement in the offer was a “gross insult” and that he would refuse any dealings with the company. He insisted he would accept nothing less than $2.2bn. It took another six months of fractious talks and then national elections giving Goodluck Jonathan another four years as president before a deal between the oil companies, the Nigerian government and Malabu could be sealed. It was more or less the deal that was offered in Le Bristol and previously thrown out by Etete. Drawn into some awkward discussions with President Jonathan and his close colleague, oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke – nicknamed “Fortunato and the lady” – the oil executives spelt out the details. Shell would pay the

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FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court

Within days, the companies’ version of events raised doubts

$210m signature bonus to the government, then Shell and Eni would pay a further $1.1bn to the government, which would be then paid to Etete and an array of middlemen. Company officials described it as a “safe-sex transaction”. The government was to be the prophylactic between the oil companies and Etete. Was it worth a decade of fraught dealings and a risk of prosecution for grand corruption? At that stage, the companies seemed to think so. Shell had spent hundreds of thousands, probably millions, trying to win the block. And it looked to be one of the most valuable in Africa. Eni, which operated an oil block nearby to OPL 245, expected a high return on the deal because of the size of the block, the promised tax holidays and the lack of a requirement that it would have to share the revenue with Nigeria’s national oil company. Shell said that it had made payments only to the Nigerian government and insisted that “it had not acted in any way that is outside normal global industry practice”. Eni said its payments to the government were made “in a

The OPL 245 case is not the first time that Fabio de Pasquale, the energetic Milan-based prosecutor, is taking on the Italian state-owned oil company Eni and its top officials. In the early 1990s, De Pasquale was one of a squad of prosecutors leading the ‘mani pulite’ (clean hands) campaign targeting political corruption in Italy. De Pasquale also took on Eni directly for bribing political parties. That investigation led to the conviction of Bettino Craxi, seen as a maestro of Italian politics, on 7 November 1994. In July 1993, Gabriele Cagliari, then Eni chief executive, was facing corruption charges. He committed suicide in jail, triggering a backlash from the political establishment. Justice minister Filippo Mancuso launched an investigation in 1995 against De Pasquale for abuse of power in a bid to rein in the judiciary after several high-profile arrests. De Pasquale was cleared of all charges after a few months. De Pasquale led the case that convicted veteran prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud in 2012. That conviction was De Pasquale’s most celebrated case in recent years. Now his focus, after promotion to procuratore aggiunto, is on financial crimes. Leading a team of nine financial prosecutors, De Pasquale is responsible for international financial crimes. He is also part of the Norwegian-funded Corruption Hunters Network.

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ANTONIO CALANNI/AP/SIPA

Prosecutor for the people

transparent way through an escrow arrangement with a major international bank”. Within days, the companies’ version of events raised doubts. Just after the signing, Nigeria’s attorney general Mohammed Bello Adoke, who had been closely involved in the negotiations, told the national assembly that the companies “had agreed to pay Malabu” while the government had acted as “facilitator”. Behind the scenes, the deal was already running into trouble. The Nigerian government could not find a way to transfer the $1.1bn from its London account to Etete after the transaction was flagged by regulators as suspicious and a Lebanese bank refused to make the transfer.

Jets and mansions

In the end, JPMorgan, which operated an account for the Nigerian government in London, sent over tranches of $400m and $401m to Malabu’s accounts with two banks in Lagos. It later emerged that about $520m of that money was to be distributed to politicians and officials who had helped cut the deal. “Malabu’s shareholders”, as Etete described them, would choose where to invest the remainder. Soon after the transfer landed in Lagos, a company associated with Etete called Rocky Top put a $54m down payment on a Bombardier jet, according to records obtained by Finance Uncovered, a London-based research group. The company also sent $34m to Dubai to a local company called Gunes General Trading, which bought an apartment in the Marina Residences complex. It also bought a mansion in the Emirates Hills district, where Pakistan’s Bhutto family and India’s Gupta brothers, having fled South Africa, own property. None of this might have raised alarms had it not been for Etete’s failure to pay the middlemen in the deal – Obi and Agaev – their agreed share of the winnings. Both men said they had arranged meetings for Etete with senior officials at Shell and Eni, and without these, there would not have been a deal. So they took their claims against Etete to court in London. Justice Elizabeth Gloster awarded Obi “at least $100m” for his fixer role. Agaev went to arbitration seeking a $75m fee and reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount. This changed everything. Graphic details about the pay-offs and financial shenanigans around the deal piqued the interest of

FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court

European prosecutors and anti-corruption activists, led by London-based Global Witness. It launched a campaign against Malabu, targeting the oil companies. In March 2016, Dutch financial police, in coordination with their Italian counterparts, raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague. A year later, Italy’s public prosecutor in Milan charged Shell and Eni with corruption. Back in Nigeria, after Jonathan lost the 2015 elections, campaigners wanted the new government under Muhammadu Buhari to take a more robust line over the Malabu deal, but it is divided on the issue. The EFCC wants to cancel the deal, which it considers corrupt and bad value. But attorney general Abubakar Malami, a close associate of Buhari’s and formerly a lawyer for the Abacha family, disagrees. He and minister of state for oil Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu want the OPL 245 deal to go ahead and work to start as soon as possible. For now, that looks unlikely with an expanding list of corruption charges. Two of the fixers, Emeka Obi and Gianluca Di Nardo, were convicted and sentenced in Milan by judge Giuseppina Barbara last September to four years each for international corruption. Neither was in court. The whereabouts of both men are unclear. But friends of Obi say he was watching Arsenal from his box at the Emirates Stadium in London two days before the trial. Since then, the pace of the Milan trial has picked up. Italy’s Colonel Alessandro Ferri has explained the evidence gathered from wiretaps on the oil company officials and the raid on Shell’s headquarters. Following him, Debra LaPrevotte, a former officer with the

US Federal Bureau of Investigations, produced numerous charts describing the bribe system set up around the oil block. She said about $280m had gone to Rocky Top, a company linked to Etete, and about $520m to Abubakar Aliyu, a well-connected businessman close to Goodluck Jonathan who is accused by the Italian prosecutors of distributing the bribes. LaPrevotte’s evidence, from analysing financial transfers and intercepts, bore out Judge Barbara’s statement at the trial of Obi and Di Nardo that the payments to Aliyu were intended for members of the government and other public officials. The bribe scheme allowed Shell and Eni to secure a prized asset at a bargain price. It would also enrich business people and politicians who had been, according to Judge Barbara, “circling their prey like hungry sharks”. As politics and business change in Nigeria, the small and close-knit elite that has dominated the country for two generations has been pulled apart, mainly by greed. The defendants in the main trial protest their innocence and both sides suggest they are likely to appeal the verdict if they lose, eventually to Italy’s supreme court, a process that could take years. As the legal arguments grind on, plans to develop the rich oil block are on hold. It is a test case for Buhari. If his government puts its anti-corruption rhetoric into practice, the Nigerian courts should try the case at the same time as their Italian counterparts. And with pressure mounting for a renegotiation of the fiscal terms – even ownership – of the fabled block, the point at which it produces oil is receding into the distance.

Both sides suggest they are likely to appeal the verdict if they lose

THE YEAR OF REFUGEES, RETURNEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS: TOWARDS DURABLE SOLUTIONS TO FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN AFRICA. Every year, the Heads of State and Government of The African Union decide upon a theme which focuses on a key issue facing the continent and which constitutes a focal area upon which the key activities and messages of the African Union will be anchored. In 2019 the annual theme of the African Union will be “The Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards durable solutions to forced displacement in Africa. The 2019 AU Theme is driven by the need for greater commitment by Africa to address the plight of its citizens in forced migration situations, by implementing strategic and relevant programmes and working towards the ratification of the various AU treaties and legal instruments addressing the plight of refugees and displaced persons to ensure we achieve the goal of Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063 to provide a peaceful and secure environment for all Africans on the continent. Various AU treaties governing issues related to refugees, human rights, governance and promoting peace on the continent include the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, OAU Convention for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa, OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Find out more about these treaties as well and their status of ratification by African states by visiting www.au.int About the 2019 Theme Logo: The logo for the Theme of the Year has been built around the crisis facing refugees in Africa. Whereas migration is a common phenomenon as people have always relocated for various reasons, in the case of Africa the continent is often painted as a miserable place because migration is as a result of civil strife, poverty and a myriad of other factors thereby promoting the narrative that Africa cannot care for its people. Africans and their governments have always opened their borders and welcomed into their communities their brothers and sister fleeing their homes for various reasons providing a safe haven as long as it is required. The 2019 AU theme logo shows a mother embracing Africa with its child which encompasses love and affection. Africa knows how to take care of its own in each regard no matter what.

www.au.int

African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243, Roosvelt Street W21K19, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 (0) 11 551 77 00 Fax: +251 (0) 11 551 78 44

US$ 3.9 BILLION

1.1 MILLION

INVESTED IN TRADE AND PROJECT FINANCE

JOBS CREATED

TRANSFORMING AND INTEGRATING THE REGION’S ECONOMIES By providing different types of financing,TDB fosters trade, regional economic integration and sustainable development, prioritizing projects with cross-border impact.

www.tdbgroup.org

FOCUS /

EAST AFRICA

EAC

The East African Community was formed two decades ago, but rivalry and diverging national interests threaten to curb progress

The trade ties that bind

The region has a long agenda for cooperation in the years ahead, but policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

63

The

100

most influential The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars

By ALISON CULLIFORD, OLIVIA KONOTEY-AHULU, NICHOLAS NORBROOK, OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI and MARSHALL VAN VALEN 86

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

The Africa Report is transitioning to a quarterly magazine with a special focus on the decision makers, the money takers and the thought shakers who are not only in the spotlight for their skills and strategies today but will continue to be so for years to come. Our 2019 ranking is based on three criteria: global reach (40%), trajectory (30%) and influence (30%).

00 Africans Global reach takes into account how many countries their activities touch and how well known they are. Trajectory is defined to capture people whose careers are on the up and those involved in crucial industries of tomorrow, like manufacturing, fintech and the creative sectors. And finally, influence is measured as to how much their voices matter in local

and global debates, and how much they are able to change the political, economic and cultural playing fields. The names that follow – including a Nobel Peace Prize winner, officials helping to run global institutions, a highly sought-after architect and billionaires with hotly awaited stock IPOs – are examples of the heights

of African leadership in the world, both at home and in the diaspora. They are coming up with innovations to spur financial inclusion and leapfrog technological stages, tackling climate change and human rights abuses in Africa and across the world, and telling heartbreaking and beautifully imagined stories that make the world a richer place.

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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /

Aliko Dangote

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Money talks

The sun keeps rising PLANET PIX/ZUMA-REA

Nigeria

1

He’s the richest black man in the world and Africa’s richest man, with an estimated wealth of $10.3bn. Within Nigeria, Senator Ben-Murray Bruce called him “more influential and powerful than (President Muhammadu) Buhari”. The billionaire’s latest project is a $10.5bn oil refinery that will be Africa’s largest, so Dangote will not be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to oilsector reform debates there. He is investing in the continent’s manufacturing and agribusiness capacity, and plans to launch the long-awaited London IPO of Dangote Cement in late 2019. Meanwhile, his philanthropy is taking flight.

Elon Musk

Rocket man

South Africa

2

The yo-yoing of his company shares, his hirings and firings and off-the-wall tweets keep Musk in the headlines. He may be a maverick but his ideas are shaping the future, from reducing global warming with his electric cars to urban transportation on a cushion of air and plans to establish a colony on Mars. His Boring Company could help a boom in urban public transportation, and he is a big pessimist about the impact of AI. He donates to both the Democratic and Republican parties in the US, saying it is necessary to pay up in order to have a voice.

Koos Bekker

Go-getter in Asia South Africa

3

When China-based Tencent sneezed in August 2018, Naspers share price caught a cold. It didn’t last long, but it showed how tied the fortunes of the South African media and entertainment behemoth are to its largest holding (Naspers owns 31% of the Chinese internet giant). Buying a stake in Tencent in 2001 makes Bekker the Buffett of Africa: the initial $32m investment has grown to $116bn since then, and Bekker famously waived a salary to get paid in stock options when he was CEO. With the bulk of South African pension funds invested heavily in Naspers and allegations of Gupta-style influencing in a 2017 broadcasting deal, Bekker said the company would work on its transparency at the 2018 annual general meeting.

88

THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Nigeria

The Nigerian author-cum-public intellectual continues her stratospheric ascent and is as often seen behind a mic as in print these days – engaging audiences about racism, sexism and the human condition. She started the year 2018 slaying a French journalist for her lack of knowledge about Nigeria and ended it on stage with former US first lady Michelle Obama. Who’s next?

Business

4

Entertainer

Power player

Disruptor

Trevor Noah

Mic wrecker

South Africa

7

Davido

Naija pop idol Nigeria

S. DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY

He has riches (he’s worth $16m), good looks, fast cars and political clout. Using his music to inspire Nigerians to vote in the 2019 elections, he also lent his star appeal to presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s campaign, seriously upstaging the 72-year-old politician. His next act will be to crack the tough US market, with his eyes set on a gig at Madison Square Garden, having filled the 15,000-seat O2 Arena in London in January.

Tidjane Thiam

Master strategist Côte d’Ivoire

6 STEPHEN VOSS/REDUX-REA

TAYLOR HILL/WIREIMAGE/GETTY

5

One of the US’s most prominent voices critiquing the presidency of Donald Trump, Noah has brought millennial-inspired thinking and an astute outsider’s view to The Daily Show and taught some Americans that Africa is not a country. With the renewal of his contract in 2017 his job is secure until 2022, which will carry him through the febrile US election season. He is also quite funny.

Thiam’s turnaround of Credit Suisse since 2016 has left bankers and analysts awestruck. Ignoring naysayers, the Ivorian CEO relegated the derivatives traders and recast the bank as a wealth-management operation focusing on emerging markets. He explained his view to Euromoney: “This is a fabulous bank. Or let me be more precise: it has always had a fabulous bank within it.” But it faces big blowback for its role in the Mozambique tuna bond scandal.

Enoch Adeboye Sacred networker Nigeria

8

In 2017 Pastor Adeboye’s resignation from leading his five-million-member church in Nigeria was greeted with dismay by congregations around the country. Nigeria’s highest-profile pastor, who numbers the Nigerian vice-president Yemi Osinbajo among his followers, had to step down from running the domestic operations of the church he had built up almost from scratch after a new law put a 20-year cap and 70-yearold age limit on the leadership of non-profit organisations. Adeboye could have argued that The Redeemed Christian Church of God was not, strictly speaking, “non-profit”, with Forbes quoting the net worth of the man born into poverty at €39m, but he chose not to.

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INSIDE BAYELSA /

BAYELSA

Change comes to the

STATE An auditorium at the University of Africa campus in Toru-Orua is taking shape

Delta

New projects are taking root in Bayelsa State, but the years of despoliation and false promises from governments and oil companies have left a legacy that will take generations to shake By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Photo reportage by KC NWAKALOR for TAR In the heart of the Niger Delta at Oloibiri there is an oil well – now rusting, with a steel cap screwed tightly over its head – that changed history. Oloibiri, in present day Bayelsa State, is the place where the Shell-British Petroleum consortium struck oil in 1956 after half a century of trying. Two years later, Nigeria’s first oil field came on-stream, gushing out 5,000 barrels per day. Within a couple of decades, the country was producing 2m barrels a day. In many ways, Oloibiri symbolises what went wrong with Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Today, the place has shrunk back into obscurity. A promise by oil companies and the central government to build a museum there has never been honoured. More importantly, the living conditions of many people around Oloibiri have scarcely improved although an industry that has generated more than $1trn started life in their community. Worse still, pollution caused by oil leaking into the creeks and swamplands has hobbled farming and fishing.

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INSIDE BAYELSA / Change comes to the Delta

Dealing with political unrest has gone hand-in-hand with investments in education, health, public service and logistics

That combination of stolen riches and environmental despoliation has haunted the people of the Niger Delta. With gas reserves of 18trn cubic feet, about a third of Nigeria’s total, and producing about a fifth of its oil, Bayelsa should be one of Africa’s growth poles, but politics has held it back. It comes down to a matter of resource control, insists Bayelsa’s governor, Henry Seriake Dickson: “We who have the resources are not in control. Some guy sitting in Abuja decides what happens to our resources and what we can do with them.” Frustrated by these contradictions over decades, angry youth confronted oil companies and government officials. Like many of its neighbours in the Niger Delta, Bayelsa was drawn into a low-level conflict pitting militants against police, soldiers and private security outfits.

Repairing the damage

To a great extent, the state government in Yenagoa has put those times behind it since Dickson took power in 2012. Instead, technocrats, civil servants and officials have been piecing together a strategy to bring sustainable economic growth to the region as well as repair much of the environmental damage. That strategy has to work within the current constitutional rules which, much to Dickson’s frustration, limit the capacity of a state to launch its own resourcebased projects. While the authorities in Abuja have repeatedly shelved Bayelsa’s plan for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant near the Brass River, the national oil company has more than doubled production at the Onne LNG plant over the past two decades in neighbouring Rivers State. More than 50% of the gas feeding the Onne plant comes from Bayelsa. “If we had control over

our mineral rights, our resources, I would be in a position to lead the charge,” Dickson tells The Africa Report. “I would be advertising for investors in Brass [the LNG project] and we would have delivered three or four times over.” Lacking that control over the multibillion-dollar resource projects, Dickson’s government has focused on diversifying the economy and investing in services and logistics. Key to that is a trio of new projects: an eco-industrial city; a deep seaport at Agge on the Atlantic Ocean; and a gas-fired power hub. With an estimated cost of $100m, Bayelsa Eco-Industrial City is growing up on a 400ha plot in the state capital. Working with private service providers offering continuous power and water, the state government is looking for companies to invest in manufacturing and

New projects include an eco-industrial city, a deep seaport on the Atlantic Ocean and a gas-fired power hub

124 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

processing, preferably using local raw materials. At the heart of the city would be a group of public-private ventures like a gas-gathering company and a power company. The city’s success will depend on how quickly the state government can navigate the federal bureaucracy to obtain the necessary licences and permits. It will also have to secure federal backing to use local gas production as feedstock for the city’s power company. Funkazi Koroye-Crooks, Bayelsa’s commissioner for trade and industry, says there has been a very positive investor response to the project.

Gas flare solution

There is some way to go, as the main construction on the site will not start until all the regulatory approvals are in and a “robust financial model” has been finalised, says Koroye-Crooks. The logic of the power hub project to be built at Gbarantoru, whose first phase should generate some 1,200MW, is its location just 1km away from Shell’s gasgathering facility at Gbaran Ubie. That facility supplies gas to the LNG export plant at Onne and is also reducing the vast amount

government is doing its best, but there are still the usual challenges with light [supply] and roads. [...] I have seen light in my studio maybe five times this year.” Planning and determination are going to be critical in the next few years, says Iyabi. “We have to deliver on those three big projects, but we also have to get the climate right.” By that, Iyabi means politics and security.

‘Less anger’

of gas flared in the region. Flaring both wastes energy and damages the environment. Building the power hub so close to the gas facility obviates the need for a long and expensive pipeline. Work has already started on the Agge port, which is in the vast estuary of the River Niger, the second-longest river in Africa which curls into the West African hinterland. Engineers from the Nigerian army and navy have surveyed the area, and have begun building a facility to provide security for the port. The Agge port will have a wharf, shipyard, back-up stock yard and oil storage tanks, as well as several multipurpose berths for fitting out ships, engineering work and general repairs. It will be the deepest port in the country. With ports at Apapa, Calabar and Port Harcourt overstretched, the government wants to develop Agge into the country’s most modern service centre for the oil and gas industry. French contractor Bolloré has joined discussions about the project, which could take two years to build. Duate Iyabi, an economic adviser to Dickson, says the state is now on an accelerated growth path.

40 km

Sagbama Yenagoa Kolokuma/ Opokuma

Ekeremor

Southern Ijaw

Ogbia Nembe

Brass

QUICK FACTS ABOUT BAYELSA POPULATION

2.5 MILLION NIGERIA’S ONSHORE CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION

40%

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

30.36%

FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX RANKING FOR NIGERIA

3RD POSITION

(Q3 2017)

LAND AREA

9,415.8 KM2

GAS RESERVES

18 TRILLION CUBIC FEET

(largest in Nigeria)

SOURCE: BAYELSA STATE GOVT/NAT BUREAU OF STATISTICS

“Ten years ago, the state wasn’t connected to the national grid, the roads were few and far between, big areas were accessible only by the creeks.” There are still complaints. Soibomari Dagana, a young fashion entrepreneur, explains: “The

Bayelsa is growing out of its reputation for instability and bad governance. According to Boma Spero-Jack, security adviser to Dickson, dealing with the crime and political unrest has gone handin-hand with the new investments in education and health. “There are more opportunities and better public services, so less anger,” says Spero-Jack. “But we have a lot of catching up to do. Many companies left the state during the years of criminality and conflict.” Although state governments cannot run their own police forces, they can set up small security units such as Spero-Jack’s Doo Akpo force. This unit, which bought 12 patrol boats and hundreds of fourwheel-drive vehicles, claims to have arrested more than 8,500 crime suspects and answered 39,000 distress calls since it was founded in 2012, when Dickson came in. However necessary such a unit may be, the question of security reform is ever more urgent. Many officials in states such as Bayelsa resent the diktats on security from the centre, particularly the imposition of police chiefs. Claiming there has been a marked fall-off in oil theft, SperoJack concludes that a security strategy without political vision will not work. “We had to persuade our people that we were serious about development and investment […] and it’s beginning to work.”

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INSIDE BAYELSA /

INTERVIEW

Henry Seriake Dickson ‘Bayelsa needs more control of its resources’ The governor of Bayelsa State talks to The Africa Report about the tug-of-war between federal and state government over development of the oil-rich Niger Delta Interview by PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s political soubriquet – ‘Ofuruma Pepe’, which translates as ‘Great White Shark’ – seems at odds with his public image as a conciliator and dealmaker. Dickson insists the simile refers to his political toughness rather than physical ferocity: he has swum against the tide and taken on the status quo. In fact, he takes a pride in having been written off by so many different players across the political spectrum. Many expected him to lose power in 2016 when he stood for re-election as governor of Bayelsa State on the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket. Dickson confounded those predictions and is now looking at his options as his term comes to an end – whether to return to his legal practice in the Niger Delta or to stay in politics and contest power at the national level, for the Senate or perhaps the presidency.

Henry Seriake Dickson: There is a lot of room for improvement in the quality of political leadership in the country. When this phase of our democracy started, people were more concerned about what they wanted the country to look like. They were far more idealistic, nationalistic and [thinking] in terms of getting our country back into

TAR: Politicians have a really poor reputation in Nigeria. How do you assess the quality of the country’s political leadership?

126 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

BAYELSA BOUND 28 January 1966 Born in Toru-Orua 1993 Bachelor in Law from the Nigerian Law School; called to the Bar 1996 Founded his chambers in Port Harcourt 2006-7 Attorney-general of Bayelsa State 2007 Elected to Nigeria's house of representatives for the PDP 2011 Re-elected to the national assembly 14 February 2012 Elected governor of Bayelsa State

civilian rule and democratic governance. These days people talk more about winning elections. So people have not lived long enough under a democracy, learning what I call the essential tools of political service. If we are able to improve on the quality of the electoral process, then over time we’re going to see more people coming into political service for the right reasons. But right now it’s a free-for-all, and it’s quite disturbing. How well does the federal system work in your state? You’re a member of the PDP, which is in opposition to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. This is the first time my state has been in this situation where we’re in a party that’s different from the party that controls the centre. In the 2016 state elections in Bayelsa, the president and his party deployed all the federal arsenal at their disposal, fairly and unfairly against me. They were not being gracious enough even to acknowledge my victory or congratulate me. There’s not enough acknowledgement by the centre of the need for collaboration on things such as security. I believe that the first duty of those of us in government is to collaborate on law and order, and security. Since 2015, there has been direct federal interference with the security architecture of my state. You support calls to restructure Nigeria. What does that mean in practical terms? It is the need for Bayelsa to have more control of our mineral

resources and wealth. We don’t have to apologise to anybody that we’re endowed with so much wealth. We want to utilise this for the development of our people. When we had independence in 1960, the arrangement that was fashioned at the time was for regions that had resources to keep them and to pay tax. But, you know, the military came and changed all

‘THERE’S NOT ENOUGH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY THE CENTRE OF THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION’

JACQUES TORREGANO/CEO FORUM/JA

that. So when we say restructuring in the economic sense, we mean a return to where we were, and that would give us the freedom in a state like Bayelsa to develop these resources. For example, on power: Why should I be running to the federal government for licences to use our gas resources to generate power? The growth of our country is stifled by over-centralisation. So it’s about how the oil and gas revenues are shared out by the government in Abuja? It’s about our right to manage and control the pace of our development. We produce all of this, and I have to wait every month for 13% [of total government revenues] to be paid over, which is grossly inadequate. It’s what the cabal in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] decides. The NNPC is the real government of Nigeria, even Buhari has not been able to break the grip of the NNPC. That would mean radical change in the state oil company, NNPC.

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INSIDE BAYELSA / Henry Seriake Dickson

Seriake Dickson introduced free boarding schools to counter the drift into militancy

Do you want to see it sold off to the private sector? What I support is an end to the fraud, an end to the cabal and the criminal manipulation of the wealth of this country, and centralised control. In the Niger Delta, our understanding is more than privatisation; we are talking about control. Control of the resources, not federal control. It could be the states, it could be communities. We can discuss the right model. But federal control has impoverished our people […]. I keep telling everybody that what all of you call oil blocks in Abuja and in all major capitals of the world are the ancestral properties of the people of the Niger Delta. What about the role of Nigerian oil companies? Benedict Peters’ Aiteo bought OML 29 from Shell, and the Bayelsa State government failed in its bid to buy some equity. How has that worked out? I feel very bad about that. The Bayelsa State government never was given an opportunity to manage that oil block, which is the single biggest oil asset in our country. Benedict Peters doesn’t have anything to do with us; he doesn’t want anything to do with this state. That’s the attitude of all the oil companies, local or foreign. They rely on the federal government that

‘AITEO, AGIP […] THESE GUYS ARE GOING TO HAVE A MAFIA-LIKE HOLD ON THIS STATE’ has given them the licences. They rely on federal security to oppress the locals. Since he got that oil block, Benedict Peters has not even come to the state. […] We read in the newspapers about the billions he’s spending supporting different federal causes […] but he’s not concerned about what happens to our state. Our not being in control has created an additional problem, which is actually a bigger problem, of security in the state. Aiteo, Agip, all of them, the security and surveillance contracts they give, the criminals they work with and so on… If care is not taken in the next couple of years, these guys are going to have a mafia-like hold on this state because of the resources they have and the mafia-like way they relate to criminal elements. What is the security position in Bayelsa State now? How did it change after the upsurge of militancy in 2016?

128 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Everyone in this state knows how seriously this government takes security, and we have built systems on the community level – with the youth leaders, community leaders – and then we support the work that the security men and women do in our state. That has made Bayelsa one of the most stable states. We are maintaining robust contacts with all the people and the young militants. You are devoting a lot of resources to education. How is that working out? Education is not just about preparing young people to be productive tomorrow, but there is also a social purpose. Where we lose the young people in this country is at that stage that they ought to be in secondary school. We want to reduce the number that will be wielding AK-47 rifles. We’ve got about 10,000 children in free boarding schools. This is the only state that runs free secondary boarding schools. What about political life after the governorship? Will you go into national politics, running for the senate or the presidency? I haven’t given any serious thought to the next steps. For now I’m concentrating on my work in this remaining lap.

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Driving progress in the Niger Delta

ABUJA

BAYELSA

SHARE OF THE STATE’S ECONOMY, 2017

Bayelsa State lies in the heart of Nigeria’s Niger Delta (the third largest wetland in the world), on a total area of approximately 9,400 km2, with a population of 2.5 million people. Despite its relatively small demographic base and size, Bayelsa is a major contributor to Nigeria’s

OIL SECTOR

68.4 % OTHER

31.6 % Source: Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics

economy, accounting for about a third of the country’s oil wealth: 40% of onshore crude oil production and 53% of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) resources utilised at the Bonny LNG plant. The State is also home to Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) world-class $4bn gas gathering facility located at Gbaran Ubie, the largest investment made by SPDC in Africa.

Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson Executive Governor of Bayelsa State

A sub-national powerhouse

B

coastline of over 237km, which is the longest in Nigeria.

ayelsa State is a natural access point for international trade for the whole of West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, providing excellent access to the Atlantic Ocean from a number of locations including Brass, Akassa, Oporoma and Agge, which has a natural deep sea port of significant depth. It also has a

In addition to the state’s strategic coastal location, Bayelsa is greatly endowed with vast reserves of oil and gas and other non-renewable mining resources including salt, granite, barites, marble, clay, fine

power generation, oil and gas industrial activities, petro-chemicals, refineries, agro-allied processing activities and light manufacturing.

sand, gypsum, phosphate rock, feldspar, limestone sand and gravel. The State also boasts vast agricultural resources,extensive hectares of arable land, abundant labour, and untapped industrial potentials. All of which give Bayelsa State comparative advantage in several industrial sectors including

This comparative advantage is further enhanced by the State’s Industrial Park, Power Hub, Airport and Heliport projects.

Bayelsa: map of natural resources and institutions RESOURCES & INSTITUTIONS

Agge Deep Sea Port

Sugar cane

Plantain / Banana

Raffia palm

Clay / Sand

Salt production

Cassava

Timber / Wood

Rice

Oil Palm

Fishery

Rubber

Oil / Gas

Cococnut

DELTA STATE

University of Africa Niger Delta University Amassoma

Eco Industrial Park

Ekeremor

Port

Airport

Cassava Processing Plant Ebedebiri Poultry

Eco Industrial City

Heliport

Asamabiri

SAGBAMA MA A KOLOKUMA

Sagbama OPOKUMA Ebedebiri Kaiama Toru Orua Gbarain

Ijaw National Academy

Ecumenical Center

YENAGOA NAGOA Yenagoa

EKEREMOR OR

OGBIA OGB BIA

Oporoma

Government House State Secretariat Castle Hotel Bayelsa Medical University Investment Towers Sports Complex Federal University Otueke

RIVERS STATE

Ogbia i

SOUTHERN IJAW

Federal Polytechnic Ekowe

Nigeria

Oloibiri Ol i

Nembe

BRASS

Gulf of Guinea

Brass

NEMBE

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Investment towers

500 pond Aqua Culture village at Igbogene, largest of its type in West Africa

Ease of Doing Business

Fiscal Sustainability

Bayelsa is ranked 1 amongst all the states in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and 2 nd in Southern Nigeria as a whole in the 2018 World Bank sub-national Ease of Doing Business Index for Nigeria. (Source: World Bank)

Bayelsa is placed 3rd on the fiscal sustainability index ranking for Nigeria. (Source: “State of States

st

An attractive investment destination

1 st

amongst Niger Delta region

2nd

in Southern Nigeria

Report” 2018)

Low Crime Rate Bayelsa is the safest state in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria and one of the safest states in the entire country, accounting for only 1.14% of total reported crime cases from the latest available reports (NBS: Crime Statistics 2018)

Investor Commitment Bayelsa State is the 2 nd highest beneficiary of investor commitment (with 26% commitment in favour of the state) out of $45.74bn worth of investment commitments made for 42 projects in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), within the first six months of 2018. (Source: NIPC)

BIPA: An investor’s home away from home

T

he Bayelsa Investment Promotion Agency (BIPA) was created by the Bayelsa State Government in 2012 to serve as a vehicle to drive investment generation, promote Bayelsa State as a preferred investment destination, and to provide investment facilitation services, including aftercare services, to investors at every stage of the investment process. BIPA utilises the one-stop centre model

through collaboration with all Ministries, Departments and Agencies relevant to trade and business facilitation—all working together to achieve a favourable investment climate in Bayelsa, and to make doing business easier. In 2018, the State Government launched the “Invest Bayelsa Brand” and One-Stop Investment Web Portal through BIPA

to strengthen already-established efforts and provide a conducive and investor friendly atmosphere, through direct and complementary policy formulation, tax reforms, infrastructural development, security of life and property, power generation and energy initiatives, and the provision of incentives for private sector participation.

ˮ

Taking Bayelsa to the world… and bringing the world to Bayelsa hinges on the fact that we work hand in glove with all relevant authorities and agencies, to ensure that when the world gets to Bayelsa, the synergy is profitable and when Bayelsa gets to the world, it is recognised as an attractive investment brand. We welcome you to explore and invest in Bayelsa the Glory of all Lands.

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Pre-Investment stage

Working hard for a greater Bayelsa State

I

n collaboration with various partners, institutions and organizations, BIPA helps foreign, indigenous, existing, and prospective companies in Bayelsa create and/or add value to their enterprises through a dedicated team who are knowledgeable on

the business environment and opportunities in Bayelsa State. We guide potential investors on available incentives within the State and in Nigeria as a whole, while providing multi-level services to assist investors before, during and after the investment process.

BIPA offers the following services:

Pre-investment/ inquiry stage • Point of contact for prospective investors • Provision of data/information on the state and/or specific sectors • Local business inquiry/ introductions • Bayelsa State investment framework and procedures

Bayelsa State Investment Team

• Point of contact for investors • OSIC (One Stop Investment Centre) • Facilitating Business registration • Issuance of Tax Clearance Certificates • Bureaucratic support for Permits and Licenses

Pre-Post-investment stage • Facilitating follow-up with key stakeholders • Host community relations

CONTACT: Bayelsa State Ministry of Trad ade,, Industry and Investment Address: Bayelsa State Secretariat, Annex 4, Road Safety Road, Yenagoa

Patience Oliemen Erica Abah

Director General, Bayelsa Investment Promotion Agency

Patmore Duate Iyabi FCCA - Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor of Bayelsa State

Maxwell Ebibai

Commissioner for Finance

Contact person: Mrs. Funkazi Koroye Crooks, Hon. Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment Phone: 08186867585 Email: funkazikoroye@bayelsa. gov.ng CONTACT BIPA:

Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment

Cyril Oyinbrakemi Akika

FCA, FCS - Special Adviser on Investment to the Governor of Bayelsa State

Timipre Seipulou

Special Adviser to the Governor on Treasury, Accounts and Revenue

Bayelsa Investment Promotion Agency Address: First Floor, State Secretariat Annex No.6, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State Phone: +234-703-732-3349 +234-703-732-0562 +234-7000-CALL-BIPA

Tamunoye (Tam) Zifere Alazigha MD/CEO of Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation/Company and Special Adviser to the Governor of Bayelsa State on Investment

Emi Faloughi

Director, New Yenagoa City Development Agency

Godwin Konyefa

Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure

Email: info@investbayelsa. by.gov.ng Website: www.investbayelsa. by.gov.ng

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Funkazi Koroye Crooks

INSIDE BAYELSA /

INTERVIEW

Warmate Jones Idikio

‘People tell me that soon crude oil will be useless’ The director general of the Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce talks to The Africa Report about economic diversification and the business climate in Bayelsa State Interview by EROMO EGBEJULE in Yenagoa TAR: What is the main role of the chamber of commerce here? We have done a lot of advocacy […] seeking synergy between the private sector, the chamber and government with regard to policy. People here are not as businesssavvy as in Lagos. We have predominantly small enterprises. The idea is to ensure they grow into medium, then large enterprises. We also ensure that big-ticket businesses worldwide see Bayelsa State as a destination for investment. What are the prospects in agriculture and fisheries as Bayelsa tries to diversify away from oil and gas? Bayelsa has one of the longest coastlines in Nigeria and about 13 rivers that criss-cross the state. That gives us a huge potential for aquaculture. [One of] our members has several hectares of plantain plantation – there are off-takers of the primary produce who turn that into plantain powder for amala

[a starchy food]. We are [also] trying to see how fish oil can be extracted and used in pharmaceuticals. What future do you see for the state’s oil production and its byproducts? People tell me that soon crude oil will be useless. So what do we do? One of the largest plastic production companies in this country is in the east, Innoson Industries. And where does it get its raw materials? The petrochemical plant in Rivers State. Why can’t we create wealth in the interim with available things? Oil may never be in such high demand as it used to, but the value chain will still be useful in future. Two projects have stagnated over the last few years: Brass LNG and Brass Fertilizer [BFPCL]. How are you trying to untangle whatever wires have crossed? Brass LNG is a federal government project involving oil majors, to process gas for export. Such projects have a huge financial outlay. Between 1999 and 2007,

a lot was done to ensure that it took off, but it stalled because one of the key investment partners pulled out to invest in a competing project. We are lobbying to ensure that key players understand its importance because Bayelsa produces almost 60% of Nigeria’s total exported gas. The state government has taken up some 10% equity in Brass Fertilizer […] the major problem is financing. Stakeholders need to be primed to help synergise and fund it. We have gone beyond a threshold where Brass Fertilizer can take off. For instance, it’s been able to acquire land and that’s a huge leap forward. So, it’s just a matter of time before it takes off. How has political will helped create an enabling environment for businesses? Political will has been stronger from 2012. For example, [there’s been work on] a network of roads planned in the 1970s that runs all the way to one of the fringe local government areas near Delta State. In that area, you have the Agge Deep Sea Port. The port in Lagos was instrumental in making the city what it is today. […] Agge Deep Sea Port, which is the deepest in Nigeria, will also provide that kind of growth for Bayelsa.

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New Yenagoa City

TOURISM

A mark of distinction Bayelsa is a land of remarkable scenic beauty with a natural terrain of criss-crossing rivers, creeks, sand bank islands, white sandy beaches

and a magnificent array of rainforests, mangrove forests and wetlands. This pristine and exotic beauty makes the State a natural choice for investors in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Sunset on a lake in Bayelsa State

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he New Yenagoa City will be the realisation of Bayelsa’s dream of providing high quality, mixed-use developments for investors and Yenagoa city residents, enabling them to live and enjoy leisure activities in a luxurious and serene setting.

Envisioned by the state government in 2018, the ultra-modern, smart city project will be located on a secluded island and is expected to provide state-of-theart facilities guarantying unsurpassed luxury, comfort and service.

Yenagoa has long been a ‘day trip’ destination with business travelers flying in on the 7am flight from Lagos and returning on the last flight out of town. However, with the development of luxury hospitality, including a golf course and polo club, there will be good reason to spend the night, and even the weekend, in Yenagoa.

New Yenagoa city

THE GOLF ESTATE

A course that stands above the rest

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cheduled for completion in Q3 2019, the Bayelsa Golf Course is an 18-hole PGA standard golf course designed and built to be eligible for Africa Professional Golf Association tournaments. A modern golf estate offering 2 to 5 bedroom unit apartments and detached houses will be integrated into the course’s design, and situated in close proximity to the Royal Tulip Castle hotel, Yenagoa Heliport and the State’s Government House.

The Golf Course complex will also be home to the Yenagoa Polo Club, with a 300 x 150 ft grass pitch, modern stables and 200-seater viewing stand for Bayelsans that are keen to learn the polo sport and invest in horses. Over 200 hectares of land has been earmarked for the development of the state’s first large scale Government Residential Area (GRA) featuring a police station, fire service station, gym, spa, casinos, restaurants and a shopping mall.

Yenagoa Eco-tourism and Cultural Tourism Hub • Ox-Bow Lake & Pavillion • Cultural Festivals • Akassa Light House • Agge Palm Beach • Brass Island, Twon-Brass • Okpoama • Akassa White Sand Beaches • Lake Efi-Sabagreia • Lake Okao-Toru Orua

Member of NYC Golf Course Management Team, Taking a Swing

ADVERTORIAL

THE CASTLE HOTEL

A royal experience

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ocated at the centre of the New Yenagoa City, the Castle Hotel is one of only 15 exclusive hotels in 9 countries that carry the Royal Tulip Luxury brand. Initially built and previously used as a Governor’s Mansion, its conversion into a luxury hotel is a testament to the government’s will to attract not only the highest cadre of Yenagoa’s society but also international and local visitors of discerning taste. The hotel is in close proximity to the golf course, polo field, private heliport, and two nascent housing estates. The first estate is a Government Reserved Area (GRA) where

‘Sites & Services’ will be provided, leaving homeowners to design and build to their own taste.The second estate is a planned 300-unit premium residential development, nestled within the 18-hole golf course, where residents can enjoy the serene greenery. Staying at the Castle Hotel gives potential investors a firsthand view of the investment opportunities within the New Yenagoa City and both tourists and investors alike can enjoy comfort and convenience as they explore what Yenagoa and the rest of Bayelsa State has to offer.

Royal Tulip Hotel in Bayelsa State

The Hotel Group Castle comprises 3 premises:

• The Royal Tulip Castle Hotel, comprising 20 exquisitely-designed VIP suites and set on grounds with fish ponds and gardens, a local chapel and great scenery. It’s a popular choice for destination weddings • The Royal Tulip Golf Hotel, located adjacent the Bayelsa Golf Club’s Hole One, incorporates the Club House with 25-suites for visitors • The Golden Tulip Onopa Villas, consisting of 14 five-bedroom villas, encircling a conference & exhibition facility, and also providing secure short let facilities

YENAGOA HELIPORT

Going places

ENTERTAINMENT

Buzzing and bustling

Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria Pageant

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ommissioned in 2017, the Yenagoa Heliport is an incentive to boost tourism and business operations in the State, by reducing travel time from Yenagoa to Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. Moving a notch higher, the Bayelsa state government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with UK-based Bristow Helicopters in 2018, aimed at developing seaplane transportation for commuters both within and outside the State. The landing of the first seaplane on the Oxbow Lake in 2018 is a sign of great things to come.

Cultural dancing during a local festival

Bayelsa International Jazz Festival • Bringing together International artistes • Includes master classes and arts journalism classes for participants

Caribbean American African Nations (CAAN) Music Awards • Facilitated by the Bayelsa Government and the State Tourism Development Agency

• Organized by Silverbird Group, the largest entertainment company in Africa • Produced the first and only black African Miss World in 2001

Bayelsa State Ministry t of Tourism

Africa Movies Academy Awards

Address: Bayelsa state Secretariat, Annex 3, Road Safety Road, Yenagoa

• Subsidiary of the African Film Academy • Popularly known as AMAA • Key objective is to unite Africa through film • Most sought after event in the African movie world • Most prestigious entertainment industry event of its kind in Africa

CONTACT:

Contact person: Mrs. Ebiere Musah, Hon. Commissioner for Tourism Phone: 08033013812 Email: ebiere.musah@ bayelsa.gov.ng

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Yenagoa Heliport

INSIDE BAYELSA /

EDUCATION

From Timbuktu to Toru-Orua Two institutions offer young people an education without distractions, ties to future employers and a chance to avoid the criminality rife in the Niger Delta’s creeks By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenegoa, Kaiama and Toru-Orua Kaiama is the spiritual headquarters of the Ijaw people. It is the birthplace of Major Isaac Adaka Boro, who declared the Niger Delta People’s Republic in 1966, a bold statement of independence for the region a year before the country was dragged into a devastating civil war in which he lost his life. That is why the Ijaw Youth Council chose Kaiama to make their landmark declaration in December 1998 demanding local control of the land and mineral resources, after decades of plunder and environmental damage by successive federal governments and transnational companies. Kaiama is also the home of the Ijaw National Academy, one of the best public secondary schools in the state with 1,100 students. It launched operations in 2017.

Little support

The academy is at the vanguard of another struggle, to equip the next generation of Bayelsans to modernise and develop the state. It is also the flagship for Bayelsa’s policy of free and compulsory secondary education, one of the only states in the federation to commit resources to that cause. Bayelsa gets little support from the federal government in this endeavour. It has to finance the entire cost of secondary education

in the state and 80% of the cost of primary education. This stretches the N23bn ($64m) that the state is budgeting for education this year. That is just over 10% of its statutory allocation from central government. In the middle of Kaiama, the Ijaw National Academy is expanding fast, with new teaching blocks and dormitories under construction. The aim is to have 3,000 students and maintain its policy of a strict 50:50 gender balance. There are four laboratories for chemistry, physics, biology and nutrition as well as a couple of libraries. According to Bayelsa State education commissioner Jonathan Obuebite, 96% of graduating students passed the last West African Examinations Council with five subject credits, including maths and English. Convening a lively school assembly meeting of hundreds of students during a visit by a reporter from The Africa Report, Obuebite asked the students what they wanted to do after graduation. Back came a cacophony

The aim is to have 3,000 students and maintain a 50:50 gender balance

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of enthusiastic answers: doctor, lawyer, engineer, tech pioneer, chemist, journalist. Obuebite enthusiastically defends the boarding school system in the state: “We’re bringing all the children together in these schools regardless of background […] They’re getting an education without distractions.” Poorer families, says Obuebite, would often take their children out of school to work on farms or fishing boats. The mission is to offer more than academic education, he says: “We’re trying to build social cohesion and break the culture of criminality that you can find in the creeks.” For years, local politicians and crime bosses have preyed on youths living on the margins

Working with the community and business is the ethos of the university, explains Samuel Agele, dean of the faculty of agriculture and a professor of crop physiology. The faculty is setting up a cassava processing plant to produce 50tn of industrial starch per year. This involves working closely with local farmers on inputs and cropping, as well as adapting manufacturing technology to local conditions.

Ijaw National Academy, one of Bayelsa’s best public schools

Funding research

in the Niger Delta’s labyrinthine networks of creeks, offering them pocket money to join gangs of thugs. Each election season brought a wave of violence sponsored by rival parties. That should now be consigned to the past, says Obuebite.

Higher education

Many older students at the academy are looking at the next stage of the journey: the University of Africa, which opened its doors to students two years ago in Bayelsa. Under vice-chancellor Valentine Aletor and his team of academics, it has four faculties: agriculture, arts and education, basic and applied sciences, and social and management sciences.

There is also a school of foundation studies to prepare school students specialising in arts or sciences with intensive computer training, before they begin full-time degree courses. The main campus opened last year at Toru-Orua, governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s hometown, and its goals of “innovation and sustainability” reflect his thinking on the curriculum and funding. Although Nigeria has 160 universities, their intake is just over a third of the 1.5 million students who apply every year. Apart from the lack of places, the biggest concerns are the standards of tuition and the relevance of courses, according to professors Olatunji Oyelana and Hassan Oikhenan.

Such agro-industrial projects, run under the auspices of the university, bring in investment from business and vital funding for the academic programmes. It also means that students have a much better sense of the world of work and develop ties to future employers, says Yerindideke Konyefa, the bursar. Business sponsorship is key to the funding model of the University of Africa, but other strategies should be considered, Turner Isoun, an eminent environmental scientist and former Nigerian minister of science and technology, told the university’s first matriculation ceremony last year. For example, the federal government should allocate $1bn from oil revenue to finance scientific research and innovation directly through Nigeria’s universities. Beyond money, Isoun urged the university to aim high. It already has the target of getting into the top 10 of the country’s 160 ranked universities within five years. Bayelsa’s newest university could take inspiration from another pioneering institution in West Africa: the University of Timbuktu, which a millennium ago had a student population of 25,000 in a city of 100,000. Students came from all corners of Africa in search of learning in the ancient city and produced advanced works on mathematics, medicine and law.

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Development projects The State of Bayelsa has launched an aggressive industrial and economic campaign to generate revenue, create jobs and attract private investment. Multi-million dollar projects in the power, oil and gas and aviation sectors are picking up steam and are expected to revolutionise the Bayelsan economy in the coming years.

BAYELSA POWER HUB

Powering through

ayelsa State, with its vast and abundant natural gas re s o u rc e , i s u n d o u b t e d l y a favourable region for investment in power generation. As a result, the new power hub in Gbarantoru will leverage the State’s abundant gas, and make it a power generation hub in the country. A 220-hectare site has been earmarked for this purpose in very close proximity to Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC)’s $4bn gas gathering facility at Gbaran-Ubie. An additional 10MW power plantis being planned for commercial purposes in the Yenagoa area in partnership with Nigeria

Agip Oil Company Limited which is providing access to gas. An initiative of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, the hub will be designed to attract and accommodate foreign and local investors interested in the development and construction of greenfield power plants within the hub. It will be strategically located and connected to key support facilities including Port Harcourt International Airport, Bayelsa International Airport, Brass Harbour (Brass) & Onne (Port Harcourt), the Agge Deep SeaPort in Bayelsa State (under construction), Sani Abacha Expressway and Shell Gas Facilities.

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Power hub

In 2010, SPDC began producing from the Gbaran Ubie integrated oil and gas plant and the power hub is expected to follow suit by enhancing the State’s power generation capacity via private sector participation.

Features: • 220 Hectares of dedicated land • Free Trade Zone Status • Greenfield project • Provision of Gas for power • Provision of Critical infrastructure (roads, drainage, security, communication) • In sync with Federal “Incremental Power” initiatives

ADVERTORIAL

Bayelsa International Airport

Air Peace flight landing at Bayelsa Airport on 14 February 2019

BOCL key assets: • Atala OML 46 Field • OPL 240 Field • Landed properties across Bayelsa, yet to be developed

BAYELSA OIL COMPANY (BOCL)

Exploring the potential Core Objectives: • Contribute to the internally generated revenue of Bayelsa State by exploiting its vast energy resources. • Foster and ensure the sustainable socioeconomic development of Bayelsa State • Create employment and manpower development opportunities for Bayelsans

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The vision of the company is to position BOCL as the foremost State Government-owned/Independent Oil and Gas Company in Nigeria, thus earning a spot on the list of top oil companies in the world.

BOCL aims to establish and nurture an integrated oil and gas company that will not only operate in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, but compete favourably with other oil and gas companies across Africa and in the world.

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ayelsa Oil Company Limited (BOCL) is an indigenous oil company, tasked with carrying on the business of oil and gas prospecting and exploitation and to acquire and own oIl fields/wells through licensing.

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Oil and gas exploration

BAYELSA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Going places

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he Bayelsa International Airport in Ammasoma, Southern Ijaw Council, was envisioned as a free-trade zone (FTZ) and a future hub for aviation services for the Gulf of Guinea region and beyond. The multi-million dollar development project is solely undertaken by the Bayelsa State Government, the only one to date, and will provide local and regional invest-

ment opportunities for refueling dump, aircraft maintenance services, duty-free shopping hubs, warehousing services, hotels and hospitality Services, a cargo hub, among others.

Features: • CAT 2 Instrument Landing System • Safely Land 747 Cargo Jet

3.5k runway at Bayelsa International Airport

On 14 February 2019, Air Peace airline operated the maiden flight from Lagos to Bayelsa, touching down on the airport’s 3.5km runway in a Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. Air Peace flight landing at Bayelsa International Airport in February 2019

BAYELSA ECO-INDUSTRIAL CITY

Clean and green

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he State Government is developing the Bayelsa Eco-Industrial City (BEIC), an industrial hub providing a one-stop investment location, with infrastructure, gas gathering and power generation facilities. Located in Elemebiri, the

400-hectare industrial city is estimated to cost about $170m and will be an ideal hub for industries looking to commence and expand their operations without incurring huge operational costs. The city will host the Bayelsa Gas Gath-

ering and Processing company, the Bayelsa Power Company, the Bayelsa Infrastructure Company and other related industries. The first phase of the Bayelsa Eco-Industrial City will create

about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs for locals and by the end of year 5, the Eco Industrial City is expected to generate employment for over 20,000 Nigerians and attract over $1bn worth of investments by the end of year 5.

Highlights: • 400 Hectares of dedicated land • Power plant of 30.5MW • Gas Facilitation from Agip/Shell and other producers • Security Facilitation • Commercial and residential development opportunities

Bayelsa Eco-industrial City: future aerial view

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ADVERTORIAL

Crude carrier

AGGE DEEP SEA PORT

Smooth sailing

he Bayelsa State Government has initiated plans to establish and build a deep sea port that will act as a transshipment port servicing the entire Gulf of Guinea and the hinterland of Nigeria.

Approximately 7,500 hectares of land has already been surveyed for the project and the required investment is estimated at approximately $800m.

The port area is being designed as a free trade zone to accommodate an industrial park that is expected to provide favorable tax abatement regimes and other administrative and regulatory incentives tailored to benefit the establishment and operations of companies in the area.

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The port will be located in the village of Agge in Ekeremor, which has one of the deepest natural coastlines in Nigeria. The Sea port and Port City will be collocated on approximately 10,000 hectares of land south of the River Ramos, an estuary of the River Niger, at Agge.

Highlights: • Open location to the Atlantic Ocean in the Niger Delta region • Military Forward Operating Base providing security in the area • Logistics base for the Oil and Gas industry • Positioned in close proximity to numerous oil platforms with air activity and supporting infrastructure (helipads, airstrips, etc.) • Close to major economic activities in the Oil and Gas sector (Bonny, Escravos & Brass Terminals) • Greenfield Project • Free Trade Zone Status

Bayelsa State Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment Address: Bayelsa State Secretariat, Annex 4, Road Safety Road, Yenagoa Contact person: Mrs. Funkazi Koroye Crooks, Hon. Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment Phone: 08186867585 Email: funkazikoroye@ bayelsa.gov.ng Bayelsa State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure Address: Bayelsa State Secretariat, Annex 6, Onopa, Yenagoa. Contact person: Mr. Godwin Konyefa Hon Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure Phone: 08032002053 Email: godwin.konyefa@ bayelsa.gov.ng

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CONTACT:

INSIDE BAYELSA /

AGRICULTURE

Feeding frenzy in the Niger Delta The government and private investors are backing projects to set up fish farms and to produce more staple crops, like cassava By EROMO EGBEJULE in Yenagoa Bayelsa State is a textbook example of the resource curse and the ills of an oil-backed economy. Agriculture has been a primary casualty, and despite the fertile soils, its rainforest and savannah climate, the production of staple root crops such as cassava has been badly hit. The state’s mangrove swamps and networks of creeks define its landscape, but it is onshore oil wells and gas pipelines that have dominated the economy at terrible human cost. Although the state produces over a fifth of Nigeria’s gas – the country has the ninth biggest reserves in the world – the population suffers from poverty and violent militancy. Over the past 50 years, millions of barrels of oil have leached into the creeks and farmland, destroying livelihoods and poisoning the water table. Also, much of the oil revenue stayed in the centre. Of the little that dripped into the state treasury, vast sums were hijacked by klepto­ crat politicians while only the small change was invested in schools, clinics and roads. Now the Bayelsa government wants to launch a “cassava revolution”, says Doodei Week,

The first Bayelsa Aquaculture Village in Yenegwe, Yenagoa

the state’s commissioner of agriculture. “We want to industrialise cassava […] because we have to create jobs through the production of by-products like cassava flour, tapioca, starch,” Week tells The Africa Report in Yenagoa. “Every day, starch buyers go to the Central Bank of Nigeria to change dollars. Look at how we are dispensing hard currency we don’t even have!”

Crop improvement

For decades, farmers in Bayelsa lacked almost any technological support such as improved crop and livestock varieties and extension services. The state government has made setting up a starch mill with an output of 60tn per day a top priority to kickstart the sector. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with a Danish firm to build a quasi-industrial farm linked to a network of smallholders and off-takers to boost Bayelsa’s self-sufficiency in food production.

1,500

Number of jobs the state intends to create through its aquaculture strategy: one complex in each local-government area.

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Bayelsa officials say the government is on the brink of signing a deal with private companies and the central bank to establish a 50,000ha oil-palm plantation, of which 1,500ha has already been concessioned. “We have earmarked land for it, done preliminary surveys […]. As soon as funds are provided, we’ll go into it,” says Weeks. “Once we get that right, then Bayelsa becomes the next Malaysia.” Such investments should be major revenue earners for the state when the oil and gas revenue dry up, argues Weeks. Elsewhere, the government is also fishing for support to take advantage of its swampland, including reaching out to Israeli firms to establish high-technology fish farms. “You cannot leave agriculture for government alone. It cannot be sustainable,” Weeks says. The first Bayelsa Aquaculture Village, a 500-pond complex in Yenegwe, is operating on a self-financing basis complete with processing facilities, feed mills and a restaurant. Two others are under construction. The grand plan is to build at least one aquaculture complex in each of the state’s eight local-government areas and create at least 1,500 direct jobs.

HEALTH

The hospital that rose from the dead The Bayelsa Teaching Hospital and Medical University will be a feather in the state’s cap for its public and private healthcare, forensics, education and research By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Drive through downtown Yenagoa and you cannot miss the new 500-bed teaching hospital and Bayelsa Medical University that is emerging alongside the gleaming new banks, hotels and state government offices. Strictly speaking, says Professor Ebitimitula Etebu, Bayelsa’s health commissioner, the “newness” of the hospital should be qualified. The expansive hospital was built more than 16 years ago during the governorship of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and state-of-theart medical equipment was flown in and installed. But Alamieyeseigha was arrested and impeached for money laundering in 2005. His successors had no appetite for completing the project. That is until governor Henry Seriake Dickson took over in 2012 and started working with Etebu to revive the project. In 2017, governor Dickson proposed the hospital should become a centre of excellence for medical treatment, teaching and research.

vice-chancellor. An ambitious project, complete with nine faculties, it aims to attract students from across Nigeria and West Africa. Bayelsa Medical University, which signed a training agreement with the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the US, is to take over the management of the 500-bed hospital. Like many of Dickson’s new projects, it will seek to raise funds from commercial operations, such as fees charged to private patients, as well as offering healthcare, financed out of the state budget, to Bayelsa citizens.

The forensic unit is the only one in Nigeria equipped to do both DNA and forensic tests

Within the Diagnostic Centre in the heart of the university is a state-of-the-art forensic unit. Its high-tech equipment can be used to check exhibits and evidence in electoral disputes and rape cases. The drug enforcement agency could also rely on its verification and analysis of contraband substances, says Oye Onifade, a veteran lawyer who heads the unit. “Election tribunals haven’t had much input from local labs, and we could replace the foreign labs they patronise,” adds Onifade. “We are talking to the attorney general of the state about plans to partition the office to have two prosecutors stationed there to handle child molestation cases,” Onifade says. Like Lagos, Bayelsa plans to set up special courts working in tandem with the forensic unit to expedite what could be a long list of cases, improve access to justice and serve as a deterrent to other possible offenders.

The Diagnostics Centre contains a full-scale forensic unit

International reach

Dressed in an elegant chieftain’s light brown robe, Etebu looks determined to see the project through as he shows visitors around the hospital’s refurbished wards and operating theatres. Most of the rehabilitation work has been done and the builders are putting the final touches on the living quarters for the nursing and other medical staff. Adjacent to the main hospital is Bayelsa Medical University, at which Etebu is acting

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Educational development is one of several critical solutions to a sustainable non-oil driven economic growth. As a result, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson declared a state of emergency in education in 2012, and has championed heavy investment in the sector, particularly providing free and compulsory education for primary and secondary schools students across the State. To further foster a learning culture, the government continues to seek partnerships with research institutions and investors in the information and communication technology (ICT) space to spur innovation in educational technology and steer the State to greater heights. Governor Dickson has launched two new universities; the University of Africa Toru-Orua and the Bayelsa Medical University in the capital Yenagoa, to provide students from Bayelsa and Nigeria access to state-of-the-art facilities and links to foreign Institutions, with training from internationally qualified academic staff.

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Students at Ijaw National Academy

Dedicated to excellence

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EDUCATION

High-quality educational resources

Ijaw National Academy

University of Africa

Toru-Orua ((UAT Est.2016)

Kaiama (Est.2016)

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n initiative of the Restoration Agenda by Governor Dickson’s-led government, 13 model schools have been established under the Ijaw National Academy, a highly- selective boarding school established to educate the best and brightest brains in the State. With over 1,000 pupils, the co-educational institution is equipped with modern amenities befitting of international standards. The vision and philosophy behind the academy, modelled after high Western educational standards, is to produce highly-qualified Bayelsans who can compete on the global stage.

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ayelsa State established UAT to offer more students the opportunity to complete their studies in the country. Through undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and research, the university focuses on internationalisation through transnational education partnerships, giving students international exposure on home soil. The public-private tertiary institution is also aiming at becoming a business hub in the areas of farming and agriculture, hospitality and tourism, shipping, health and security.

Niger Delta University

Wilberforce Island (NDU Est.2000)

NDU

is a Bayelsa State Government-funded university which is located in Wilberforce Island – an island of great historic significance – about 30 kilometres from the capital Yenagoa. NDU’s academic staff work together to create a conducive academic environment focused on developing students’ skills and abilities for academic and professional success. The existing 12 faculties provide diverse opportunities within a promising and growing learning environment that promotes the birth of new ideas and innovations.

CONTACT: Bayelsa State Ministry of Education Address: Education House, Water Board Road Onopa, Yenagoa Contact person: Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, Hon. Commissioner for Education Phone: 08033055986 Email: jonathan.obuebite@ bayelsa.gov.ng Ijaw National Academy theo.theodorou@bayelsa.gov.ng

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ADVERTORIAL

A farmer holding palm kernel seeds

A fisherman launching his net

Cassava plant

AGRICULTURE

Cultivating ideas for growth Agriculture is a key focus in Bayelsa, and one of the major tools utilised by the State Government to generate internal revenue and diversify the economy in preparation for a post oil and gas regime. To achieve its plans, the State Government has embarked on ambitious projects in the sector to move away from rural patterns of farming to mechanized and modern methods to promote efficiency and enhance productivity. Significant investments have also been made in human resource development with the training of over 500 rural

500 Pond Yenegwe Fish Farm, Yenegwe

farmers in the state on new and improved skills in fish farming.

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ocated in the state capital Yenagoa, Bayelsa Palm Plantation covers 1,200 ha of planted terena palm and is managed by the state-owned tertiary institution, Niger Delta University. The vision behind the palm estate is to promote agricultural education and drive revenue generation from commercialisation. The development strategy will reposition the legacy of Bayelsa Palm Plantation as the nucleus of a profitable oil development, processing and trading enterprise with global interests and recognition.

Aquaculture Cassava village processing factory

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ishing is one of the mainstays of the Bayelsan economy albeit it is done at the subsistence level. As a result, the government has a vision to turn the tide around and ensure that the state produces enough for both local consumption and export. As a consequence, one of several aquaculture investments in the State is the Bayelsa fish farm at Igbogene where a complete value chain system has been put in place to ensure the vision is achieved.

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he Cassava Processing (starch extraction) Factory is made up of a cassava processing plant and 400 hectares of cassava farm land at Ebedebiri in the Sagbama local government area of the State. The cassava farm project is the largest of its kind in the country and is expected to boost the state’s revenue through the export of starch. Cassava is an important raw material for a variety of products such as the widely-consumed staple food garri and with a capacity to produce 600 tons of industrial starch per annum, the plant will be key to the livelihoods of every household in the State.

CONTACT: Bayelsa State Ministry t of Agriculture and Natural Resources Address: Bayelsa State Secretariat, Annex 4, Road Safety Road, Yenagoa Contact person: Mr. Doodei Week, Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources Phone: 08064186007 Email: doodie.week@bayelsa. gov.ng

DIFCOM/DF - PHOTOS: DR OR AS MENTIONED

Bayelsa palm

LOGISTICS DOSSIER

Landlocked

blues

146 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

Ethiopia has high hopes for manufacturing and exports, but the country will not be competitive until it solves its logistical problems. To that end, the state is starting to liberalise the sector

Hawassa Industrial Park is a flagship facility for the textile industry

NICHOLE SOBECKI/VII/REDUX-REA

By TOM GARDNER in Addis Ababa In January, it emerged that Ethiopian exports had once again disappointed, undershooting the government’s six-month target of $1.96bn by nearly 40%. It was a sobering reminder that, for all Ethiopia’s rapid, state-led growth over the past decade, exports have consistently shown few signs of improvement. “Logistics is the number-one bugbear for anyone in exports and manufacturing,” says Graham Parrott, head of strategy at Ethiopia Investments Limited, which invests in local businesses. His words are echoed by many exporters, who say this challenge is rivalled only by the shortage of foreign exchange. The figures are telling. To trans­ port a 20ft container of garments from Ethiopia to Germany costs 247% more than from Vietnam and 72% more than from Bangladesh. In 2016, Ethiopia scored 2.37 in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index – significantly lower than neighbouring Uganda, which is also landlocked. The country ranked 159th out of 190 in the World Bank’s Doing Business index in 2018; Uganda came 127th. In key export sectors, such as textiles, speed is essential to competitiveness. Slow and expensive imports, meanwhile, are bad for all businesses. According to Daniel Zemichael, chief executive

of Freighters International, a local logistics company, goods take an average of 20-30 days to reach an Ethiopian customer from the port in neighbouring Djibouti. A 20ft container costs an average of $2,660 to import from its source to Ethiopia. “This is probably one of the most expensive corridors in the world,” says Serge Tiran of Massida Group, another logistics firm.

Mojo rising

The government has made improving logistics a priority. A $2.5bn, 750km railway connecting Addis Ababa with the port in Djibouti launched last year and should cut a three-day journey down to 12 hours. In an ambitious road-building programme flagship projects include a 200km expressway connecting Hawassa, home to the country’s largest industrial park, with the capital. Two years ago, the government signed a $150m World Bank project to transform Mojo, a poorly equipped and heavily congested dry port near Addis Ababa that processes more than 70% of imported containers, into a state-ofthe-art logistics facility. Meanwhile, Addis is helping a Dutch consortium, Flying Swans, to set up a cold chain along the railway to the coast. With the appointment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last April, logistics reform shifted up a gear. The new administration’s roadmap,

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SELORM (JAY) ATTIKPO/FULLISH ART FOR TAR

DAY IN THE LIFE

MOSHOOD BALOGUN in Accra I was born in Lagos in 1981. I got all of my formal education in the same city. Unfortunately, I did not get to complete my university education because I got into a series of troubles with the authorities and I eventually had to leave. My mother provided me with some money, and I travelled to Denmark in 2002. Over there, I got into a relationship with a Danish woman and lived with her for close to a year. We’d made plans to get married, but she betrayed me one day; she called the police on me and had me deported. Back in Nigeria, I reunited with my family: my parents, my children and their mother. Me and her are divorced now. We have five children in total. Two have passed. The eldest was born in the year 2000, on the ninth of July. In 2007, when my then wife was pregnant with our last child, I was involved in a very serious accident. I was seated behind a friend on a motorbike and […]

Searching for the right path Adebayo Hammed Ajibade’s passions and hopes have kept him going through lifechanging moments I don’t even know how the accident happened, but my friend lost his life in it. I came out of it with a broken leg. Although my life was spared, a lifelong dream of mine was killed. I could no longer play football. It had always been my dream to be a footballer. My father spent a lot of his money in pursuit of this dream of mine. After a few years, when things were not going so well in my life, my mother suggested once again

162 THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019

that I travel elsewhere. So I came to Ghana in 2013. In my very early days here, I was robbed. My bag, which contained the little money I had, my passport and a few other essentials, was stolen. I had to hustle to get back on my feet. I sold pure water in traffic – dusters, too. And then I got into working as a labourer, but the work was so hard. I reasoned that I’d die young if I continued with it. So I stopped. For a while, I had nothing to do. Until a fellow Nigerian living here in Ghana introduced me to selling books in traffic. I choose to sell solely African books because I’m proud to be African. These books I sell help me manage myself quite well financially. I get them from a wholesaler with whom I split the profits after I’ve sold the books. I’ve suffered a lot, and things are still not easy. But I thank God for my life because when there is life, there is hope. My dream now is to be a musician because I believe I’ve got a message to deliver. I just pray to God to point the right path for me soon.