Tar95

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi: “These people feel there is no future”

•N GOs: Is foreign assistance a blessing or curse?

• Mauritius: New life after tax onslaught • New STAR: The Steinhoff shuffle

N ° 9 5 • N O V E M B E R 2 017

w w w.t he a f r ic a r ep o r t .c om

Winnie

“It’s time for a change” Former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela says Zuma has led ANC to its lowest point JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Algeria 550 DA • Belgium €5.90 • Canada CA$ 7.95 • DR Congo US$ 9 • Denmark 60 DK • DOM 8 € • Ethiopia 90 Birr • France €5.90 • Germany €5.90 • Ghana GH¢ 10 • Italy €5.90 • Kenya KES 410 • Morocco 40 DH • Netherlands €5.90 • Nigeria 800 NGN • Norway NK 70 • Portugal €5.90 • Rwanda RWF 6,000 • Sierra Leone LE 15,000 • South Africa R40 (tax incl.) • Spain €5.90 • Sweden SEK 70 • Switzerland 9.90 FS Tanzania TZS 10,000 • Tunisia 5.4 DT • Uganda UGX 10,000 • UK £4.50 • United States US$ 6.95 • Zambia 48 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 4 • CFA Countries 3,500 F CFA • Euro Zone €5.90

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi: “These people feel there is no future”

• NGOs: Is foreign assistance a blessing or curse?

• Mauritius: New life after tax onslaught • New STAR: The Steinhoff shuffle

N ° 9 5 • N O V E M BE R 2 0 17

w w w.th e af r ic ar ep o r t . c o m

Winnie MadikizelaMandela: “It’s time for a change”

• Kenya: Odinga plays the long game • Mauritius: New life after tax onslaught • Nigeria: Lamido Sanusi, the king in the north

N ° 9 5 • N O V E M BE R 2 0 17

w w w.th e af r ic ar ep o r t . c o m

Winnie MadikizelaMandela: “It’s time for a change”

3

• Kenya: Odinga plays the long game • Mauritius: New life after tax onslaught • NGOs: Foreign assistance, blessing or curse?

N ° 9 5 • N O V E M B E R 2 0 17

w w w.th e af r i car ep or t . c om

NGOs

Africa wants to break free Blessing or curse?

The bitter debate over foreign assistance

Winnie

“These people feel there is no future”

“It’s “I ’ time i ffor a change”

Former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela says Zuma has led ANC to its lowest point

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Algeria 550 DA • Belgium €5.90 • Canada CA$ 7.95 • DR Congo US$ 9 • Denmark 60 DK • DOM 8 € • Ethiopia 90 Birr • France €5.90 • Germany €5.90 • Ghana GH¢ 10 • Italy €5.90 • Kenya KES 410 • Morocco 40 DH • Netherlands €5.90 • Nigeria 800 NGN • Norway NK 70 • Portugal €5.90 • Rwanda RWF 6,000 • Sierra Leone LE 15,000 • South Africa R40 (tax incl.) • Spain €5.90 • Sweden SEK 70 • Switzerland 9.90 FS Tanzania TZS 10,000 • Tunisia 5.4 DT • Uganda UGX 10,000 • UK £4.50 • United States US$ 6.95 • Zambia 48 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 4 • CFA Countries 3,500 F CFA • Euro Zone €5.90

THE AFRICA REPORT # 95 - NOVEMBER 2017

JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP

The Emir of Kano seeks a northern renaissance

JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP EAST AFRICA EDITION

Algeria 550 DA • Belgium €5.90 • Canada CA$ 7.95 • DR Congo US$ 9 • Denmark 60 DK • DOM 8 € • Ethiopia 90 Birr • France €5.90 • Germany €5.90 • Ghana GH¢ 10 • Italy €5.90 • Kenya KES 410 • Morocco 40 DH • Netherlands €5.90 • Nigeria 800 NGN • Norway NK 70 • Portugal €5.90 • Rwanda RWF 6,000 • Sierra Leone LE 15,000 • South Africa R40 (tax incl.) • Spain €5.90 • Sweden SEK 70 • Switzerland 9.90 FS Tanzania TZS 10,000 • Tunisia 5.4 DT • Uganda UGX 10,000 • UK £4.50 • United States US$ 6.95 • Zambia 48 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 4 • CFA Countries 3,500 F CFA • Euro Zone €5.90

WEST AFRICA EDITION Algeria 550 DA • Belgium €5.90 • Canada CA$ 7.95 • DR Congo US$ 9 • Denmark 60 DK • DOM 8 € • Ethiopia 90 Birr • France €5.90 • Germany €5.90 • Ghana GH¢ 10 • Italy €5.90 • Kenya KES 410 • Morocco 40 DH • Netherlands €5.90 • Nigeria 800 NGN • Norway NK 70 • Portugal €5.90 • Rwanda RWF 6,000 • Sierra Leone LE 15,000 • South Africa R40 (tax incl.) • Spain €5.90 • Sweden SEK 70 • Switzerland 9.90 FS Tanzania TZS 10,000 • Tunisia 5.4 DT • Uganda UGX 10,000 • UK £4.50 • United States US$ 6.95 • Zambia 48 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 4 • CFA Countries 3,500 F CFA • Euro Zone €5.90

06 EDITORIAL Revolutionary justice

BUSINESS

24

08 LETTERS 10 THE QUESTION

60 RETAIL The Steinhoff shuffle South African billionaire investor Christo Wiese tries new ways to get companies he has invested in to work closer together

BRIEFING

64 AGRIBUSINESS Food for thought, and for growth

12 SIGNPOSTS

COVER CREDITS: INTERNATIONAL EDITION: VINCENT FOURNIER/JA - EAST AFRICA EDITION: CSA IMAGES/ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; V.FOURNIER/JA - WEST AFRICA EDITION: VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

14 PEOPLE Winnie Kiiza, leader of the opposition in parliament, Uganda

66 REPUBLIC OF CONGO Gunvor, the Kremlin, oil and corruption

16 INTERNATIONAL

68 LEADERS Tariq Sijilmassi, chief executive, Crédit Agricole du Maroc

18 CALENDAR 20 OPINION Elnathan John, author of Born on a Tuesday, Nigeria

70 FINANCE Rolling out the printing press

FRONTLINE

71 HANNIBAL

24 NGOs Blessing or curse?

The debate over the role of non-governmental organisations in development, humanitarian and civil society is raging across the continent

30

72 Vodacom’s eastern pivot The South African mobile operator is looking to Kenya and Tanzania in its quest to capture new markets 76 SMARTPHONES Your guide to the latest affordable handsets

POLITICS 30 INTERVIEW Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former first lady, South Africa The activist and politician speaks on the rise of racism in the country and corruption in the ruling ANC party 36 INTERVIEW Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, Nigeria 40 KENYA Cruising for a crisis 45 ANANSI Magufuli’s pinch

47 MAURITIUS Change without end Tough new rules on tax havens are forcing the country’s offshore banks to evolve •

N° 95

•

78 SOFTWARE Engineering opportunity

ART & LIFE

36 47

82 DIGITAL ARTS Uncaped crusaders How African comic authors and illustrators are using their talent and technology to tell black people’s stories 86 ART Zeitz shines a light on the contemporary scene 87 FASHION For the love of leather

COUNTRY FOCUS

THE AFRICA REPORT

DOSSIER TELECOMS

N OV E M B E R 2 017

89 TRAVEL Low-rise and laid-back Dahab in Egypt 90 DAY IN THE LIFE US-Nigerian social entrepreneur Angel Adelaja

www.liquidtelecom.com

AFRICAN. We can bring world-class banking to all of Africa.

We believe better, more accessible banking can help unleash Africa’s unlimited potential. It’s why we’ve built Africa’s largest fibre infrastructure and provide an award-winning satellite network, capable of making systems faster, more dependable and more secure across the continent. Because we are not just a telecoms company.

We are your technology partner.

Building Africa’s digital future

6

THE AFRICA REPORT A Jeune Afrique Media Group publication

BY PATRICK SMITH

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

Revolutionary justice

CHA I R M A N A ND F O UND E R BÉCHIR BEN YAHMED P UB L I S HE R DANIELLE BEN YAHMED publisher@theafricareport.com

T

o the barricades as the African sun beats down, comrade judges. You have nothing to lose but your horsehair wigs and billowing black robes. But surely the idea that the courts, deep in pomp, would constitute a revolutionary guard against the global tide of authoritarianism and political crookery is naive in the extreme?

Why would this elite cadre of judges flaunting their self-belief as they pass judgements have any interest in challenging the status quo? Yet, for the past few years, the courts have shown a thrillingly robust spirit as better organised activists use them to show governments the limits of their power. In the US, the courts struck down Donald Trump’s ban on Muslim immigrants; in Britain, they forced Prime Minister Theresa May to consult parliament before she signs its divorce with the European Union (EU).

This has extended to Africa where lawyers, in and out of court, find themselves on the frontline of political battles. The ruling by Kenya’s Supreme Court on 1 September to annul presidential elections because they did not meet the standards set out in the electoral law was held up as a triumph for judicial independence.

The court’s decision was also a side-swipe at international observers who had rushed to endorse the election and lecture the losers about the need to move on.

It may have been helpful for the court that Kenya’s chief justice, David Maraga, is a conservative and deeply religious figure with no record of radical affiliations.

Critics accuse the court of heating up Kenya’s political climate; in fact, it was already on the boil.

The judges were doing what they

should do: testing the provisions of the constitution against realities on the ground to make the political system more accountable to the people. Far better that arguments about fair elections and legitimacy should be hammered out in courtrooms or council chambers than settled on the streets.

Kenyan activists took a cue from their Ghanaian counterparts, who launched a monumental appeal against the 2012 election results.

Although those petitioners failed after eight months of detailed public hearings, the case helped change electoral law.

That laid the groundThe courts work for last year’s far more credible and are opening accountable elections. up ways for In South Africa, people to the courts are being dragged into the organise a centre of the political more honest arena. Asked to rule on the reliability of propolitical vincial and the African system National Congress’s elections, they have been handing down verdicts inimical to President Jacob Zuma’s interests. Most of all, the tacticians of the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance have been scoring successes in their efforts to ensure that the 783 charges of corruption and racketeering against Zuma are tested in court.

There is no immutable plan for all this. The activists and petitioners are losing as many cases as they win. But by pushing back against arbitrary power, the courts are opening up ways for people to organise a more honest and accountable political system. That’s radical, if not revolutionary, justice.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

E X E CUT I VE P UB L I S HE R JÉRÔME MILLAN M A R K E T I NG & D E VE L O P M E NT ALISON KINGSLEY‑HALL E D I T O R I N CHI E F PATRICK SMITH M A NA G I NG E D I T O R NICHOLAS NORBROOK editorial@theafricareport.com A S S O CI AT E E D I T O R MARSHALL VAN VALEN B US I NE S S E D I T O R MARK ANDERSON R E S E A R CH & P R O D UCT I O N OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI RE G IO NA L E D I T O R S CRYSTAL ORDERSON (SOUTHERN AFRICA) BILLIE ADWOA MCTERNAN (GHANA) S UB - E D I T O R S ALISON CULLIFORD, ERIN CONROY P R O O F R E A D I NG KATHLEEN GRAY A RT DI R E CT O R MARC TRENSON DESIGN VALÉRIE OLIVIER (LEAD DESIGNER) SYDONIE GHAYEB CHRISTOPHE CHAUVIN (INFOGRAPHICS) CAMILLE CHAUVIN R E S E A R CH SYLVIE FOURNIER P HO T O G R A P HY PIERANGÉLIQUE SCHOULER SAMUEL BOUAROUA SALES SANDRA DROUET Tel: (33) 1 44 30 18 07 – Fax: (33) 1 45 20 09 67 sales@theafricareport.com CONTACT FOR SUBSCRIPTION: Webscribe Ltd Unit 4 College Road Business Park College Road North Aston Clinton HP22 5EZ United Kingdom Tel: + 44 (0) 1442 820580 Fax: + 44 (0) 1442 827912 Email: subs@webscribe.co.uk ExpressMag 8275 Avenue Marco Polo Montréal, QC H1E 7K1, Canada T : +1 514 355 3333 1 year subscription (10 issues): All destinations: €39 ‑ $60 ‑ £35 TO ORDER ONLINE: www.theafricareportstore.com A D VE RT I S I NG D I F CO M INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATION AGENCY 57‑BIS, RUE D’AUTEUIL 75016 PARIS ‑ FRANCE Tel: (33) 1 44 30 19‑60 – Fax: (33) 1 44 30 18 34 advertising@theafricareport.com PRINTER: SIEP 77 ‑ FRANCE N° DE COMMISSION PARITAIRE : 0720 I 86885 Dépôt légal à parution / ISSN 1950‑4810 THE AFRICA REPORT is published by GROUPE JEUNE AFRIQUE

8

SECURITY IN THE SAHEL

W

Olusegun Obasanjo: “Buhari is the last of the Mohicans”

• South Africa: KZN, the kingmaker province • Sahel: Searching for African solutions • Oil: Kenya’s burst pipe dream

hile foreign assistance and military interventions in the Sahel have been labelled ‘short-term solutions […] driven by the outside world’ in your piece [‘Sahel: Breeding insecurity’, TAR94 Oct 2017], it is important to Raila remember that the 2013 French Opération Serval, Odinga as well as all subsequent multilateral operations “We want the UN tto ensure and initiatives, were negotiated and implemented free and fair elections” in agreement with local governments and ECOWAS. In addition, the G5 Sahel regional initiative is a step in the right direction. Even though financial and coordination issues have slowed implementation of the G5, it has become clearer than ever that Sahel countries want to take full responsibility for their own security. It is now time to strike the right balance between long-term capacity-building of regional military forces and immediate security threats.

In this dire context, development, unfortunately, remains a solid runner-up.

Kamissa Camara, Founder of Sahel Strategy Forum and African political analyst N ° 9 4 • O C T O B E R 2 0 17

w w w.t h e a f r i c a r e p o r t .co m

Nasa push for an overhaul of Kenya’s electoral commission

JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Algeria 550 DA • Belgium €5.90 • Canada CA$ 7.95 • DR Congo US$ 9 • Denmark 60 DK • DOM 8 € Ethiopia 90 Birr • France €5.90 • Germany €5.90 • Ghana GH¢ 10 • Italy €5.90 • Kenya KES 410 • Morocco 40 DH Netherlands €5.90 • Nigeria 800 NGN • Norway NK 70 • Portugal €5.90 • Rwanda RWF 6,000 Sierra Leone LE 15,000 • South Africa R40 (tax incl.) • Spain €5.90 • Sweden SEK 70 • Switzerland 9.90 FS Tanzania TZS 10,000 • Tunisia 5.4 DT • Uganda UGX 10,000 • UK £4.50 • United States US$ 6.95 Zambia 48 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 4 • CFA Countries 3,500 F CFA • Euro Zone €5.90

villages at the lake’s edge, powered, as one of my fellow passengers explained, by a government-backed solar lamp initiative. While the lamps were initially handed-out freely, villagers who signed up to the scheme were later expected to contribute half their cost. The problem was that few people were paying their contribution. Retribution, I wondered, for being re-located from their initial place of dwelling when the lake came into existence.

Peter Gostelow, UK

DREAMS AND VALUE CHAINS

Before funding agricultural zones or inventing financing mechanisms for new agripreneurs, it is vital to seek comprehensive government support from the countries where the projects disclosure, KPMG will serve as an are intended to take place [‘There’s KEEP PUSHING MIGHTY example for other audit firms in Africa. gold in that dirt’, TAR92 July/August GUPTAS It might also be the only option left 2017]. In many parts of Africa, Your article [‘Who audits the auditors’, for KPMG to salvage whatever little manufacturers have moved their TAR94 Oct 2017] raises far-reaching is left of its reputation in South Africa. plants outside the continent due Jannie Rossouw, Head, Wits School to an unfavorable economic climate. questions about the conduct of external of Economic and Business Sciences A solution is necessary to address auditors. As a fall-out from its audit of companies owned by the Gupta the plight of these investors before family in South Africa, the executive inventing any new financial support management team of KPMG has mechanisms. Another concern is LAKE OF SERENITY AND resigned. However, given the scale of soaring food prices due to the effects RETRIBUTION the suspected rot […], this is insufficient of climate change. It is important This photo essay [‘A queen serene’, action. KMPG should indeed stand for to protect vital water catchment zones TAR94 Oct 2017] reminds me of ‘Keep Pushing Mighty Guptas’. KPMG and rainforests to alleviate any my own journey on the Yapei Queen should lead by example and publish casualty to the agricultural economy, all its dealings with the Gupta family and seven years ago. Under a starlit sky otherwise the dream of removing I remember tracing the silhouette of the Africa from the bottom of the global their companies including conditions shoreline as we chugged north to Kete of appointment, management letters value chain will remain an illusion.

Kokil K. Shah, Kenya Krachi. Dim lights flickered out from and audit opinions. Through such HOW TO GET YOUR COPY OF THE AFRICA REPORT

On sale at your usual outlet. If you experience problems obtaining your copy, please contact your local distributor, as shown below.

ETHIOPIA: SHAMA PLC, Aisha Mohammed, +251 11 554 5290, aisham@shamaethiopia.com – GHANA: TM HUDU ENTERPRISE, T. M. Hudu, +233 (0)209 007 620, +233 (0)247 584 290, tmhuduenterprise@gmail.com – KENYA: LASTING SOLUTIONS LIMITED, Anthony Origi, +254 723 320 108, a.origi@yahoo.com – NIGERIA: NEWSSTAND AGENCIES LTD, Marketing manager, +234 (0) 909 6461 000, newsstand2008@gmail.com; MAGAZINE CIRCULATION NIGERIA LIMITED (MCNL), Distribution manager, +234 (0)803 727 5590/805 357 0984, mcnl3@yahoo.com – SIERRA LEONE: RAI GERB ENTERPRISES, Mohammad Gerber, +232 (0)336 72 469, raigerbenterprise@gmail. com – SOUTHERN AFRICA: SALES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: ALLIED PUBLISHING, Butch Courtney; +27 083 27 23 441, berncourtney@gmail.com – TANZANIA: MWANANCHI COMMUNICATIONS, Milli Makula, +255 716 500 500, mmakula@tz.nationmedia.com – UGANDA: MONITOR PUBLICATIONS LTD, Micheal Kazinda, +256 (0)702 178 198, mkazinda@ug.nationmedia.com – UNITED KINGDOM: COMAG, Mark Swan, +44 (0)1895 433791, Mark.Swan@comag.co.uk – UNITED STATES & CANADA: LMPI, Sylvain Fournier, +1 514 355 5610, lmpi@lmpi.com – ZAMBIA: BOOKWORLD LTD, Shivani Patel, +260 (0)211 230 606, bookworld@realtime.zm – ZIMBABWE: PRINT MEDIA For other regions go to www.theafricareport.com DISTRIBUTION, Ian Munn, +263 778 075 147, ianmunn@mweb.co.zw

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX MCB GROUP p 2; LIQUID TELECOM p 4-5; EMIRATES p 7; STANDARD BANK p 9; REP. OF DJIBOUTI p 11; TURKISH CARGO p 17; AFRICA CEO FORUM 2018 p 19; PRIMATURE SENEGAL p 22-23; REP. OF TOGO p 34-35; REP. OF COTE D’IVOIRE p 41-44; BEACHCOMBER p 46; SBM p 51; ROGERS p 53; AXIAN p 55; BANK ONE p 57; TAR MONTS NIMBA p 67; AMOS SPACECOM p 75; AFRAA p 75; DSTV MEDIA SALES p 77; AFRICA 2017 IC EVENTS p 79; AFRICA COM p 81; FED AFRICA p 81; CNN EMEA p 91; MAROC TELECOM p 92 THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

“Room for growth?”

“As far as the eye can see.”

Best Investment Bank in Africa

In Africa, opportunity takes many forms.

Having the right partner, with the right connections, to help you build, shape and grow your prospects is crucial.

It’s how we progress, together. standardbank.com/CIBinsights

Corporate and Investment Banking

Authorised financial services and registered credit provider (NCRCP15).

The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (Reg. No. 1962/000738/06). Moving Forward is a trademark of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited. SBSA 279004 10/17.

10

In September, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo launched his government’s flagship education programme, the free senior high school (SHS) policy. Critics argue that the policy is not sustainable.

Should education be free?

Yes ELIZABETH AKUANYARKO PATTERSON Founder/ executive director, Girls Education Initiative of Ghana

I believe education is a human right and accordingly should be free and accessible to ALL people. In most nation states, basic education or education at the primary/elementary level is ‘free’.

However, free isn’t really free. In my experience, working in education especially with underserved populations in Ghana and the United States, there are costs to education that make quality education inaccessible for ALL. While basic education is ‘free’ every term and every school year, there are fees that the Girls Education Initiative of Ghana (GEIG), my organisation, caters for that ought to already be provided as part of education. Specifically, we have purchased desks and chairs for our girls. How do you provide quality education without desks and chairs? In the past, students with learning difficulties were struggling in school and the assumption was/is they’re not trying hard enough to succeed.

However, after GEIG’s intervention it was realised the students are dyslexic and have visual impairments. Because schools aren’t equipped with professionals to diagnose learning difficulties, these students often don’t access free and quality education. Neoliberal economic practices have proliferated private schools and privatised education, therefore making ‘free’ education not so free for many.

No JOHN R. A. GADZEKPO Former director, Ghana Institute of Languages

Free education, in principle, is laudable and mandated by the constitution, but ‘free’ is relative.

The constitution itself underscores this by making only basic education free and compulsory, while stipulating the progressive introduction of free secondary and tertiary education.

The obvious reason for this caveat is availability of resources – infrastructure, human resources, funding. We have come a long way from 1992, but those posits are still valid and education takes around 6% of gross domestic product. That was why, for the free SHS policy, the former government adopted a phased or ‘progressive’ approach, prioritising certain aspects for immediate application; it is why the current government has downgraded it from the promised ‘universal’ coverage to another phased schedule, starting with first-year students. Except in specially targeted distress situations, why should government bear ALL costs, including school uniforms and footwear? Will that not reinforce the dependency syndrome and encourage parents to abandon their stake in their children’s education and welfare, and end up eroding parental control and authority? Meanwhile, as the ‘free bonto’ influx mounts pressure on the infrastructure of public schools, jeopardising the quality of service delivery, private schools are experiencing empty classrooms.

What does all this augur for the future of secondary education? Can we sustain it? Subsidised, not free, appears to be the way forward.

In my country, Eritrea, all education is free, including higher education.

In fact, housing for the students is governmentfunded. Food is cooked for the students by a government employee.

Education should be free and everything that a student needs should be provided so that the poor will not face difficulty.

Merhawi Haile For far too long the heads of most African countries were convinced that all they needed was primary education: knowing how to read and write.

This led to poor development of SHS, hence few Africans completed SHS education.

African governments need to heavily invest in SHS education, which is critical for employment and university entrance.

On the other hand, it is unsustainable for government to run a free education for SHS. Hence government needs to develop a mechanism to benefit from the students of SHS education.

Sima Ma I like free state education, and then money spent on in-service training of teachers.

All children in a country should have similar access and quality of education.

The system in Finland seems to work: all free state education, a lot of in-service training, keeping the status of teachers high develops good state education.

Margareta L. Walker

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

At the crossroads of Africa, Asia and the Arab World

The future is on the move

A diversified economy A regional logistics and transport hub International standard infrastructure and services New tourism opportunities

A home port for investors

Š V. FOURNIER for J.A. - and DR

An environment conducive to innovation

12

KENYA Supporters of oppositionist Raila Odinga took to the street in October to protest the lack of fairness in preparations for the re-run of the presidential election.

O

No

68.5%

GeoPoll is the world’s largest mobile surveying platform and sample provider in Africa, enabling companies and organisations to gather quick, accurate and in-depth insights.

To conduct your own mobile survey using GeoPoll’s easy-to-use platform visit Research.GeoPoll.com

SOURCE: GEOPOLL

Yes

EGYPT Wadi Al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales) continues to

reveal its secrets: the UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to the fossils of some of the world’s earliest whale species.

Weah for the win?

I don’t know

26.4%

FITMA Fashion Week hit the catwalk in Abidjan.

LIBERIA

In conjunction with GeoPoll, The Africa Report asked Do you trust the country’s judges?

4.9%

CÔTE D’IVOIRE

AGRICULTURE GREEN GAP

nce a celebrated striker for AC Milan, George Weah is on the brink of scoring the most important goal in his career – winning the Liberian presidency. After a hectic campaign with 20 contenders in the first round of voting on 10 October, Weah emerged the clear leader with 39% of the votes. He grew up in the slums of Monrovia with little access to education and healthcare, and his story of fighting against the odds to become a football star resonated with Liberians.

He will take on the establishment candidate, vice-president Joseph Boakai, in the second round of voting on 7 November. The momentum is with Weah, and he says he has learned

his lesson from the 2005 elections when he was leading in the first round but was easily defeated by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after she stitched together a coalition of the smaller parties. Boakai will struggle to do that, having fallen out with veteran politician Charles Brumskine, who was running third with 9.8% of the votes. And most supporters of Alex Cummings, a former Coca-Cola executive, and Prince Johnson, a militia leader turned evangelical preacher, look set to back Weah. But two questions haunt Weah: his close relations with jailed warlord Charles Taylor, whose ex-wife Jewel Howard is Weah's running mate; and the source of finance for his glitzy populist campaign.

A recent report by the World Bank and China Development Bank argues that agriculture is one area where Africa could leapfrog other continents with targeted investments in hybrid seeds and fertilisers, for example.

Green revolutions elsewhere have led to rapid rises in productivity.

Cereal Yield (kg/ha)

4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1965 70 75 80 85 90 95 2000 05 2010

CRISTINA ALDEHUELA/AFP

5,000

East Asia & Pacific South Asia Latin America & Caribbean Sub-Saharan Africa SOURCE: WORLD BANK

6,000

George Weah is the front runner in the upcoming vote THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

BRIEFING 13

RWANDA In a crackdown on the opposition, police

arrested Anne Uwamahoro, a sister of Diane Rwigara, who attempted to run against President Kagame this year.

EGYPT Alexandria

celebrates recent finds at Cleopatra’s sunken city.

NIGERIA Nigeria defeated Zambia 1-0 on 7 October

in a World Cup 2018 qualifying football match. Nigerian midfielder Abdullahi Shehu took a yellow card for his moves.

TONY KARUMBA/AFP; SIA KAMBOU/AFP; ZHAO DINGZHE/XINHUA-REA; CYRIL NDEGEYA/AFP; MENG TAO/XINHUA-REA; PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP

“Raila is in Europe seeking

ENERGY RENEWABLES ON THE RISE

support for the formation of a mediation team, which will not be allowed. Kofi Annan is not welcome in Kenya”

16.6%

Renewables

1%

Coal

6% Hydro-

electric

RAINER UNKEL/REA

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said the 26 October presidential re-run would go on without Raila Odinga, who chose to boycott it

PRIMARY ENERGY CONSUMPTION 2016, Africa

13%

Oil

Natural gas

58%

22%

M&A 2017 BRINGS A REBOUND FOR DEALS With total deals valued at $24.1bn in the first nine months of the year, mergers and acquisition activity targeting Africa is at its highest since 2013. Much of the interest comes from foreign companies, as deals with companies from the continent have slowed.

GROWTH BY SOURCE 2015-2016, Africa 4.9%

16%

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

11% 8%

fri

ca ur it Se ius yc he lle s Ge rm an y Au str ali a Ind ia

5%

Ma

$4.8bn (-0.5%)

So •

11%

Inter sub-Saharan African M&A

ut hA

ca

a

fri

ut

hA

ue

ny

Ke

biq m

Mo za

UK Fr an ce

US A

11%

SOURCE: BP 2017

Re n

34%

23% 22%

THE AFRICA REPORT

Most targeted countries

l

Most acquisitive countries

So

26%

OUTBOUND M&A

83%

Most targeted countries

Most acquisitive countries

2.8%

ew ab les Na tu ra lg as Hy dr oele ctr ic

INBOUND M&A

33%

3.4%

Outbound $3.9 bn (-56%)

(+59%)

Oi

Inbound $12.2bn

SOURCE: THOMSON REUTERS

Albeit from a low base, renewables are the fastest-growing source of energy on the continent. The World Resources Institute predicts that solar and other mini-grids will sprout up in rural areas, with some 100,000 of them operational by 2040.

14

SPOTLIGHT

Winnie Kiiza In Uganda, the firebrand leader of the opposition in parliament is standing up to the government, which is using strong-arm tactics to change the constitution and allow Museveni to stay in power

BY THE TIME the sergeant at arms in Uganda’s parliament stopped security operatives from manhandling Winnie Kiiza during a nasty brawl over a constitutional amendment on 27 September, the legislator and leader of the opposition had seen enough. In that bareknuckle fist fight, where members of parliament threw whatever weapon lay closest to them and an army general punched and bruised a young

opposition legislator, Kiiza saw the country’s political dynamic change.

“You see, those goons were coming for every opposition member,” Kiiza tells The Africa Report about the security personnel. Whatever respect Kiiza, the first female leader of the opposition in parliament, had for the ruling party, it appeared to vanish that day. “Before, I had respect for [President Yoweri] Museveni. At some point, I pretended we were in some

sort of democracy. But now I am coming to terms with the reality of a dictatorship,” Kiiza says, hitting a thick table for emphasis, in her spacious office on the fifth floor of parliament.

Wearing red – a colour that has become a symbol of opposition to a plan to scrap the constitution’s age limit for presidential candidates, granting Museveni a chance to run for the presidency in 2021 – Kiiza says Uganda will be destroyed if Museveni extends his rule beyond 2021.

She says the experiences of her district have prepared her for the fight to come. In late November 2016, gunfire rocked the palace of the kingdom of Rwenzururu in Kasese district, where Kiiza is member of parliament (MP). The clashes started after government security officials accused King Wesley Mumbere of offering militia a safe haven in the palace. The army bombed the palace GROWTH OF A LEADER 26 November 1972 Born in Nsenyi, Kasese District, Uganda 2006 Elected to parliament to represent Kasese District

TWITTER STATE HOUSE UGANDA

May 2011 Chosen to be chief whip for the FDC in parliament 2012 Won re-election to parliament May 2016 Becomes first female leader of parliament’s opposition

“Sudan has fulfilled all the necessary conditions relating to the roadmap […] and therefore we expect the sanctions to be lifted ” Sudanese foreign affairs minister Hamed Momtaz is optimistic about the US.

“Congo is losing every day, every minute, every second Mr Kabila is in office” Opposition leader Moïse Katumbi, who faces arrest, says he will return to the Democratic Republic of Congo in December.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

BRIEFING 15

The Nigeria-born and US-based artist won a $50,000 MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ in October. Her art explores the themes of transnational experiences.

TIRUNESH DIBABA The Ethiopian long-distance runner handily won the Chicago Marathon in early October with a time of 2:18:31. It was the first marathon victory for the threetime Olympic gold winner and 5,000m world-record holder.

In a televised speech to mark the anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, President Muhammadu Buhari sent a message to “highly irresponsible groups” who he said were calling for the “dismemberment of the country”.

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

Togo’s president has been under heavy pressure from street protests to amend the constitution to make political competition fairer. One of the opposition’s top demands is presidential term limits.

JOSHUA SANDLER The South African’s Nairobibased company Lori Systems won TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Africa competition.

Lori’s platform seeks to do for cargo transportation what Uber did for personal transport.

“We cannot and we will not allow such advocacy”

THE AFRICA REPORT

FAURE GNASSINGBÉ

HERVÉ HÊHOMEY JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; SILVERHUB/SHUTTERSTOCK/SIPA

UN PHOTO/CIA PAK

Jeff Mbanga in Kampala

NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY

VINCENT FOURNIER/JEUNE AFRIQUE; PRÉSIDENCE DU BÉNIN; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

after Mumbere reportedly refused to surrender, killing more than 50 people, and the king was arrested.

“I have lost any respect for Museveni. The people who killed are the ones who were promoted,” Kiiza says, referring to Brigadier Peter Elwelu, who commanded the attack and was promoted to major general.

For most of the heated political events over the past 10 years, Kiiza – a former district councillor – has been a quiet voice, preferring to represent her people rather than take centre stage. There were moments between 2012 and 2014 as the chief whip of the opposition that she ruffled some feathers. But Kiiza, who turns 47 next month, has since become a fierce critic of the ruling National Resistance Movement, hitting out at another grand plan to introduce a new land policy that would grant the government permission to take over land for a developmental project without immediately compensating the owner.

And yet, she senses some hope.

The emergence of a number of MPs from the ruling party against the constitutional amendment appears to have re-energised her. Kiiza has already promised to defy police orders should there be a plan to block planned countrywide rallies, where she will lead members of parliament from the opposition to educate the masses about the dangers of amending the constitution.

“This thing of the age limit is not about the opposition. This time it is for all of us, not a particular side,” Kiiza says. It is a message she intends to drum up wherever she goes, hoping that, like the people of Kasese, more will come to the realisation that the ruling party has reached its limit.

Benin’s President Patrice Talon fell out with and sacked his infrastructure and transport minister in mid-September.

Once considered untouchable, Hêhomey was a rising star and a key ally of Talon’s.

PATRICK CHINAMASA With the Zimbabwean economy feeling more pain, President Mugabe sacked the finance minister in October. Chinamasa now heads a new ministry for cyber security, better known as the ‘ministry of WhatsApp affairs’.

16

1

UNITED STATES

1,975km/h

Cruising speed of the future Spike Aerospace S512 Quiet Supersonic Jet. An unmanned smaller test version of the jet, the SX-1.2, flew for the first time on 7 October. The company plans to begin delivering jets in 2023, with a three-hour London-Dubai flight time.

4

PALESTINE

Peace, partially

2

ZUMA PRESS/ZUMA/REA

Pro-independence Catalans are not ready to back down

The latest deal between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, signed in Cairo on 12 October, has been greeted optimistically by many observers, largely because of the even-handed role played

by Egypt in the negotiations. The deal includes the re-opening of the Rafah Crossing to Egypt under control of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority (PA) guards, and PA resuming government of Gaza in December. Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007 but has faced a blockade and isolation from all sides because of its refusal to disarm.

SPAIN/BRITAIN/IRAQ

Breaking up is hard to do

5

“Those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops ”

Claiming independence is easier said than done, as activists in Britain, Catalonia and Kurdistan have recently found out. As The Africa Report went to press, the Spanish constitutional court declared Catalonia’s 1 October referendum illegal and unconstitutional. Five days earlier Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy had threatened to suspend the Catalan government. Madrid’s heavyhanded approach initially helped crystalise opinions, but the independence movement has since split between hardliners and those interested in dialogue with Madrid.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the Baghdad government is fighting off a Kurdish independence drive that followed a late September referendum that overwhelmingly called for independence. Military skirmishes began in October, with the Iraqi authorities seeking to arrest the leaders of the Kurdish Regional Goverment.

What happens in Kurdistan is crucial for other countries in the region, like Turkey and Iran, which also have sizeable Kurdish populations.

Britain’s leaving the EU is proving sticky in other ways. Prime Minister Theresa May triggered exit talks in March, but the two sides are at loggerheads over a trade deal. If a deal is not in place by the time the two-year negotiation period comes to an end, this could make for a rough landing for the British economy.

AUSTRIA

Shifting right

Sebastian Kurz, 31, of the Österreichische Volkspartei is set to be Austria’s new chancellor after his party came out with the highest percentage of the vote in October. While recent elections in France and Germany suggested that left and centrist parties would hold sway in Europe, the world’s new youngest leader is a nationalist who campaigned against foreigners and Islam. Kurz says he will strengthen border security and reduce the number of refugees that the country accepts.

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

3

US/NORTH KOREA

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said that talks with the North Koreans would continue despite President Trump saying Tillerson is wasting his time.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Sao Paolo •

• Prague

Paris •

• Kano

Riga •

Antananarivo •

• Johannesburg

(Madagascar)

Turkish Cargo, having one of the biggest transport networks of the world, carries your business to more than 295 destinations in 120 countries.

18

FILM AFRICA 27 Oct. – 5 Nov. LONDON | UK In venues across London. filmafrica.org.uk

AFRICA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 29 Oct. – 4 Nov.

COP23 chief negotiator Nazhat Shameem Khan says the show must go on

GLOBAL BUSINESS FORUM - AFRICA 1-2 November DUBAI | UAE globalbusinessforum.com

AFRICACOM 7-9 November CAPE TOWN | SOUTH AFRICA tmt.knect365.com/africacom/

SUB SAHARAN AFRICA POWER SUMMIT 8-10 November LUSAKA | ZAMBIA Annual industry summit on power infrastructure. ssapower.com

AFRAA SUMMIT 12-14 November KIGALI | RWANDA The African Airlines Association holds its AGM and air transport conference. aga49.afraa.org

WATER AFRICA AND WEST AFRICA BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION 14-16 November ABUJA | NIGERIA ace-events.com

ALICE CHICHE/AFP

LAGOS | NIGERIA afriff.com

COP23 6-17 November

BONN | GERMANY

After the historic climate-change talks in Paris and Marrakech in 2015 and 2016, the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) will be presided over by the Republic of Fiji and hosted in Bonn, Germany, home of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. With US president Donald Trump having declared that his government is opting out of the Paris agreement, and following a season of devastating environmental disasters, delegates from the 197 participating countries will have a lot to discuss as they bicycle between the two conference venues. newsroom/unfccc/int

AFRICA INDUSTRIALISATION DAY 20 November unido.org

FORUM BRAZIL-AFRICA 23-24 November SÃO PAULO | BRAZIL forumbrazilafrica.com

TANZANIA INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW 24-26 November DAR ES SALAAM | TANZANIA growexh.com/tanzaniatradeshow/

CHINA-AFRICA INVESTMENT FORUM 27-28 November MARRAKECH | MOROCCO Stakeholders from China and the continent will forge deals and strengthen relationships. chinaafricainvestmentforum.com

MSGBC BASIN SUMMIT & EXHIBITION 28-29 November DAKAR | SENEGAL Flagging up petroleumdriven opportunities in the five-country West African region stretching from Guinea to Mauritania. oilandgascouncil.com

WEST AFRICA PROPERTY INVESTMENT SUMMIT 28-29 November LAGOS | NIGERIA wapisummit.com

EU-AFRICA SUMMIT 29-30 November ABIDJAN | CÔTE D’IVOIRE Triennial summit of African and European Union heads of state to draw up roadmaps for moving beyond a donor-recipient relationship. africa-eu-partnership.org

FUTURE ENERGY EAST AFRICA 29-30 November NAIROBI | KENYA future-energy-eastafrica.com

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Next edition

Abidjan 26-27 MARCH 2018

Shaping the future of Africa

THE FOREMOST INTERNATIONAL MEETING FOR AFRICAN CEOs, BANKERS AND INVESTORS With more than 700 African and international CEOs as well as nearly 300 investors active on the African continent participating, the AFRICA CEO FORUM is the largest event dedicated to the development of the African private sector.

FIND new financial partners

EXPAND your network of top-level business contacts

Take part in the AFRICA CEO FORUM on 26 and 27 March 2018 in Abidjan and seize this unique opportunity to be a driver of Africa’s economic growth and promote your company’s activities on an international stage.

www.theafricaceoforum.com CO-HOST

ACCELERATE the expansion of your activities

AFRICA CEO FORUM ORGANIZERS

AFRICA CEO FORUM

@africaceoforum #ACF2018

20

Ellnathan John Authorr of Born on a Tuesday, Nigeria

Why pythons must dance

I

t is a truth universally ack­ nowledged, at least in Nigeria, that a group in opposition to the government, and espe­ cially its army, is in desperate need of a clampdown by the Nigerian security forces.

I have worried about this all of my life, sometimes swimming against the tide of public opin­ ion – albeit with a small band of co­swimmers – either by ration­ alising post­protest massacres or celebrating it and praising the army for a job well done. So, I understand if you are initially un­ comfortable with the arguments in this article. But stay with me on this: I think the Nigerian state and its army are right after all.

Let us look at the current crisis in Nigeria’s south­east, where there are secessionist agitations, and consider the evidence that, at the least, the Nigerian state and its policy of reacting to protests with the full weight of its army is the best one. But first, a short trip down a bushy path called Memory Lane – a patch of land not quite popular in Nigeria.

Not to worry, I won’t take you too far. I won’t go back to the years when we used to write dates differently, like 1999. Let’s start in 2001, October, when 19 sol­ diers were abducted and killed in Benue State in northern central Nigeria. Later that month, sol­ diers from the 23rd Armoured Brigade of the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian army, in an apparent retaliation, carried out an operation in the areas of Logo and Zaki Biam that ended in the deaths of more than 100 non­combatant civilians.

but you know, peace and quiet comes at a price. Think long term.

Which brings me to the south­east. According to Human Rights Watch, in February and May 2016, “police killed at least 40 pro­Biafra members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) during protests and processions,” separating them

I know 100 seems like a dis­ proportionate response, but you have to think of the effects and consequences of that operation: silence. Silence from the Nigerian army in response to rights groups who denounced the atrocity, but more importantly silence in Zaki Biam. Massacred civilians can’t scream. Sometimes, you have to think long term.

Now walk forward with me to 2015. In December, soldiers, for the heinous crime of standing in the way of the army chief ’s convoy in Zaria, north­west Nigeria, killed and buried at least 347 members of a Shia Muslim group that calls itself the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.

Don’t ask me why people expect to remain alive after a dis­ agreement over right­of­way with soldiers. I am only a writer, not a sage. In fact, on 25 July 2014, 33 members of this group had been killed in similar circumstances.

Again,don’taskmewhytheyneed­

Don’t ask me why people expect to remain alive after a disagreement with soldiers ed to march so badly they decided to get killed by the Nigerian army.

Now, granted, I was incensed when I first heard of these killings, but I am now stepping back to look at the facts dispassionately.

Since December 2015, when hun­ dreds of Shias were massacred, there has been no violence on this front. When 33 wasn’t sufficient, 347 proved to do the job. Again, it may seem like a high price to pay, THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

BRIEFING 21

permanently from their family and loved ones. When agitations continued, the army – in a show of force – announced the launch of Operation Python Dance II, which some have claimed has already led to cases of abuse.

Now, one might ask why, in res­ ponse to a group that has engaged in mostly non-violent political agitation, is the army sending py­ thons to dance, leading potentially to the deaths of civilians?

Reading the news from a con­ tinent where we take many of our democratic pointers from Europe, I have seen how the Spanish gov­ ernment’s belief in human rights has led to the Catalans doing a thing as audacious as attempting to decide for themselves if they want to govern themselves or be governed by Spain. I will not be surprised if there are Nigerians in Catalonia giving them dangerous

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

ideas. But now the Spanish gov­ ernment has seen the light and is visiting Catalan secessionism with the force it deserves. They are finally learning from the Nigerian army.

Now some people may talk about respect for human life and dignity. Some may even blame President Muhammadu Buhari for alienating an already impover­ ishedregionbyimplyingthatthose who did not vote overwhelmingly for him do not deserve equal treat­ ment by his government.

These are distractions. I am more interested in peace and stability. After all, we don’t want people running around exercising things like rights to free speech and assembly.

Also, this has nothing to do with development and the economy.

It is simply about unruly people

N O V E M B E R 2 017

seeking to disturb the peace. If you allow everyone to gather, you never know what will happen. Too much freedom is what produced things like Mr Trump, who, in an unprecedented nightmare, won the American gameshow where one is rewarded with nuclear codes and the best-equipped army on earth.

This is why I encourage America to support Nigeria. It recently

While the army is practising with secessionists it frees the police to direct traffic refused to consider the IPOB a terrorist organisation even though a court in Nigeria had classified IPOB as such. We need America to agree with us so that it will become easier for soldiers to separate more separatists from life and liberty. We really don’t want our solders to kill people and then find themselves facing war crimes charges in the near future.

The US should think long term.

In fact, I would suggest that the Nigerian army do preemptive operations in civilian areas with armoured personnel carriers (APCs) – and, just to lighten the mood, have ‘APC’ emblazoned on them and leave people guessing if it stands for the acronym of Nigeria’s ruling party.

I am well aware of the peo­ ple who want to walk deep into Memory Lane with all its weeds and dangerous animals lurking, people who want to go far into the reasons why the agitations of the south-east persist and why it might be important to take de­ velopment and integration to a region which was the centre of the only civil war we have fought seri­ ously. But I say it is irresponsible to complicate a simple matter. It is important to keep the Nigerian army active and engaged just in case we get attacked by an external force. Also think of the added benefit: while the Nigerian army is practising with civilian secessionists, it frees the police to do things like directing traffic and other important transactions with motorists.

SENEGAL

© Y. LENQUETTE /JA

Oil and gas

A new engine of growth for Senegal’s development

A Senegalese resource rush

Over the past three years, oil companies have made an increasing number of oil and gas discoveries in Senegal. Wells with proven potential are set to go into production by 2021.

S

ince 2014, international companies have made an increasing number of hydrocarbon discoveries in Senegal. The economic interest of these discoveries initially drew medium-size companies, such as the US company Kosmos Energy, which discovered the Senegal-Mauritanian “Grand-Tortue” gas field, but is now attracting some of the sector’s biggest multinationals.

Stimulating competition: the President’s winning bet France’s Total took a foothold in early May by signing two exploration agreements and the UK’s BP joined forces with Kosmos in December 2016. China’s CNOOC acquired the offshore “AGC Profond” exploration block in March, while Russia’s Gazprom and a Nigerian company will soon join this new resource rush. The American giant Exxon and the Italian major ENI are jostling for the acquisition of exploration blocks as the prospects for new discoveries in oil and gas are encouraging. In this respect, the President conducted successful negotiations with ENI delegations in July and discussions between the Exxon teams with COS-PÉTROGAZ, the Ministry and PETROSEN are fully underway.

This means that President Macky Sall’s strategy for attracting as many multinational

oil and gas companies as possible and stimulating competition so as to ramp up investments, which have reached as much as $400 million for the exploration of just one single block in the past, has paid off.

Production expected to start in 2021 To date, the main hydrocarbon reserves in the region are gas, including 700 billion cubic metres (15 TCF) discovered at “Grand-Tortue”, the largest deposit in West Africa. However, companies are regularly announcing new discoveries. Cairn Energy, which updated the resource evaluation of Sangomar Deep block, expects to be able to produce its first barrels in 2021. The first natural gas liquefaction plant, established by Kosmos and BP, is set to go into operation between 2021 and 2022.

A Senegal-Mauritanian agreement for “Grand-Tortue” in the pipeline

Meeting with the CEO of Kosmos Energy

Discussions with the CEO of Total.

The Senegalese president met with his Mauritanian counterpart in New York in September at the UN General Assembly. Presidents Macky Sall and Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz reaffirmed their willingness to reach a framework agreement on the joint operation of the “Grand-Tortue” mega-gas field off the coast of their countries. This agreement could be finalised before the end of the current year.

ADVERTORIAL

Transparent, sustainable and inclusive exploitation

T

o meet new stakes and challenges, President Macky Sall set up the Strategic Oil and Gas Steering Committee (COS-Pétrogaz) in December. He chairs this strategic steering committee, which assists the government in the definition, supervision, evaluation and control of state policy in the development of oil and gas projects, in conjunction with the Emerging Senegal Plan. His permanent secretary, Mr. Ousmane Ndiaye, a high-level and well-known figure in Senegal’s national oil company Petrosen, is assisted by Mr. Mamadou Fall Kane, trained at the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris.

Official setting up of COS-Pétrogaz.

A training institute for sustainable hydrocarbon management In December last year COS-Pétrogaz announced that they would be setting up a National Oil and Gas Institute (INPG). Its construction in Diamniadio will take just over a year, at a cost of 20 billion CFA francs, half of which has already been made available by the oil companies. The INPG will train engineers, through a 2-year Masters in petroleum engineering, and technicians (platform operators) in initial training. Ongoing job training will also be provided to

civil servants and private petroleum sector players (law, economics, finance, etc.).

Pay attention to environmental impact Senegal is keen to align itself with the most stringent international standards in terms of social and environmental protection, so that the exploitation of hydrocarbons does not compromise any other economic activity, especially fishing. COS-Pétrogaz will thus ensure that the recent constitutional rights of the population over natural resources are respected.

Resources “for the benefit of the people”

Model of the planned National Oil and Gas Institute.

Strengthening key sectors of the Senegalese economy

An oil code under review In order to complete the administrative framework for the sector, the Petroleum Code, which has regulated the hydrocarbons sector since 1998, is currently being revised. The new mining code, revised and adopted in 2016, provides for production sharing contracts, promotes local development, increases transparency requirements and changes the way royalties and taxes are calculated.

Signing the agreement at the IFPEN, former French Petroleum Institute.

“An economy cannot be based on a single source of income,” said the Head of State in December 2016, calling for the “diversification of our economy in order to remain resilient and robust”.

Hydrocarbons should strengthen key sectors of the economy, providing employment, exports and value-added, such as agriculture, agro-industry, services and fisheries.

DIFCOM/DF - PHOTOS: DR UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.

One of the main objectives of COSPétrogaz is “to promote the optimal operation of our oil and gas resources for the benefit of the population”, explained the President of the Republic after the setting up of the committee. Key to achieving this are: “Transparency and accountability, rigorous, inclusive and sustainable management.” COS-Pétrogaz is thus strengthening overall transparency in the management of natural resources, following Senegal’s joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2013.

24

In many African countries, people look to NGOs, not governments, to provide services

NGOs

Blessing or curse?

Everyone agrees that the way NGOs work in Africa is outdated and it is time to shift funds to local actors. In the face of restrictive measures by some governments, how can NGOs maintain their freedom to hold power to account?

W

hen Ethiopia’s parliament passed a law in January 2009 aimed at raising the transparency and accountability of civil society organisations, the backlash from international human rights groups started immediately. “The government is conducting an all-out assault on any kind of independent criticism,” said Georgette Gagnon, Human Rights Watch’s Africa director at the time.

The law passed in Addis Ababa stipulates that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can only receive a maximum of 10% of their funding from abroad. The government, which is extremely suspicious of foreign influence, said the law

would ensure greater openness. In a stroke, Ethiopia became one of the harshest environments for NGOs on the continent. Today, Egypt is following suit and the Nigerian government is considering strict new restrictions on NGOs (see box page 29).

The world’s biggest charities have taken notice of this onslaught against their work. “Many governments out there maybe have seen and are trying to avoid developments that happened a couple of years ago in the Arab Spring,” Wolfgang Jamann, chief executive officer of CARE International, tells The Africa Report. “Civil society, of course, played a crucial role in overthrowing lots of democratic governments, so I assume that could be part of the general perception.”

SVEN TORFINN/PANOS-REA

By Mark Anderson in Nairobi

26 FRONTLINE | NGOS: BLESSING OR CURSE?

Meanwhile, in Kenya an entirely different stance can be found. Kenya is one of the continent’s most active hubs for foreign aid money. The number of aid organisations based in the country grew by more than 400% between 1997 and 2006. Kenya is now home to more than 12,000 NGOs that work in healthcare, education, human rights and civic engagement.

In November, Oxfam International, one of the largest aid agencies in the world, will complete the relocation of its global headquarters from Oxford, UK, to Nairobi. “I’ve championed the move to Nairobi in some small part for the powerful symbolism of Oxfam’s global headquarters being situated in Africa,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, tells

The Africa Report. “But in a much larger part [it is] in recognition that the world is changing, power is shifting, and we are making an active organisational change ourselves in that. Oxfam is doing the right thing in becoming ever closer to African people and standing in solidarity with us in our struggle to overcome poverty.”

PRESSURE ON ELITES

One of the biggest criticisms of NGOs is that they break the transmission line that historically has driven progress the world over: popular pressure on national leaders. In many African countries, people look to NGOs rather than governments to provide services. Firoze Manji, an academic and former Africa director for Amnesty International, says:

“I worked for a number of development agencies […]. I realised that what we were doing, whatever our intentions were, was taking away agency.” Worse, he adds, is the business model, which perpetually frames Africans as victims in order to gain funding.

Critics argue that cutting the popular pressure on elites makes leaders less engaged with the fundamental uplifting of Africa’s economies. Ethiopia, with its opposition to NGOs, appears closer to providing jobs for the huge demographic wave that is about to hit the continent than Kenya is.

According to the Center for Global Development (CGD) think tank, Ethiopia is the most likely African country to lure manufacturers away from Asian countries. “Fashion brands like

INT E RV I E W S

Winnie Byanyima

Executive director of Oxfam International

“We open doors to decision-makers” TAR: Much of Oxfam’s work is focused on the African continent. What are the most compelling reasons for Africans to support Oxfam’s work?

WINNIE BYANYIMA: I believe the profound historical reasons that have caused African countries to have lagged so far behind others in developing their economies – trapping so many African people in extreme poverty for generations – are breaking. We now have the understanding and means to break them in far more profound and sustainable ways, if we choose to: new technologies, particularly in communications and trade, rule of law, growing democracies, better utility and governance of natural resources, more definitive African political influence in the old and newer corridors of power. Civil society organisations play an important part in all these kinds of struggles.

Do you see a crackdown on the work of NGOs and civil society organisations in African countries today?

Yes, civil society crackdowns are happening. They’re happening against NGOs. They’re happening against media.

Civicus recently found that among all UN countries just 3% of the world’s population lives in areas where civic space is truly open, where one can peaceably oppose the state.

Over 40% are in places where the right to free expression is repressed or oppressed. We live in a very big world where civic freedoms are the exception, not the rule. That to me is objectively extraordinary, as much as it is worrying.

There is much talk in the NGO community about raising the role of local civil society partners.

What is your plan to do this?

Last year Oxfam worked with 3,249 partners.

This number grows by the year. Last year, 41% of the partners we worked with were national NGOs, for instance, and 10% were women’s organisations.

We also partnered up with co-operatives, coalitions, research groups, local government agencies, the private sector. Some were long-term development relationships, some were shorter-term strategic alliances, some were geared to advocacy or campaigning – globally, Oxfam has a huge, colourful and diverse partnership profile.

Oxfam often seems to speak for particular groups – the poor, rural women, and so on – but what mandate does Oxfam have to play this role?

I do not ‘speak for’ poor people, or rural women, or refugees, or victims of crises. But I do represent an organisation whose work opens doors to decisionmakers that affected people often cannot reach.

I’m very conscious that is a privileged position that is not available to all the people who Oxfam works with and supports. So if I can help them to raise their voices and concerns, even in their absence, I will. But I’m happy to say that every time Oxfam is at a major summit – for example at the UN General Assembly in New York or at the [IMF and World Bank] Annual Meetings in DC – we try to ensure that local partners from Africa and around the world are part of our delegation.

Interview by M.A. THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

NGOS: BLESSING OR CURSE? | FRONTLINE 27

H&M, Guess, J. Crew and Naturalizer are now finding potential in Ethiopia, one of the few African countries being proclaimed for having cheap labour,” says a recent CGD study. The country’s political elite have – for all their faults – provided the cheap power and logistics to poach low-wage manufacturing work.

As the poorest region in the world, sub-Saharan Africa is a natural target for aid agencies. For decades these organisations have been using foreign money to boost access to education and healthcare, try to prevent famines and natural disasters and promote human rights and democratic engagement.

Kenya and South Africa have embraced the work of NGOs and made their governments available for partnerships.

For example, Nairobi is working with

One Acre Fund to educate and finance smallholder farmers. South Africa has worked closely with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

WASHINGTON SAYS, AFRICA DOES

Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University and author of The End of Poverty, is perhaps the most prominent proponent of NGOs. Sachs points to huge success in China and India in eradicating poverty over the past two decades as evidence that NGOs can play an effective role in boosting livelihoods.

‘The issue is not “yes” or “no” to aid,’ Sachs wrote in Foreign Policy in 2014. ‘Aid is needed, and can be highly successful. The issue is how to deliver high-quality aid to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.’

After independence, many European governments established bilateral aid agencies responsible for improving lives and eradicating poverty in former colonies. The role of these groups was heightened during the 1980s and 1990s, when structural adjustment programmes were being imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund across the continent.

These multilateral finance institutions urged African governments to implement austerity measures and turn to foreign NGOs to mitigate the socioeconomic damages resulting from lower public spending on key areas such as healthcare and education.

One of the most vocal African critics of this approach was Ethiopia’s former prime minister Meles Zenawi.

Firoze Manji

Former Africa director of Amnesty International

“NGOs take away agency from working people” TAR: What is the argument against NGOs? FIROZE MANJI: Whether they are foreign NGOs or local NGOs, the point is this: they are part of what I would describe as the ‘white saviour’ complex. And the white saviour complex depends on having victims because without victims they have nothing to do.

They take away agency from working people, from ordinary people whose own struggles to liberate themselves, to free themselves, to emancipate themselves are denied. This is true as much of the development NGOs as it is of the human rights NGOs. The latter use the courts or international instruments as a means for both victimising and for taking away agency.

I was the Africa director for Amnesty International many years ago. I know how it operates, and I know how agency is taken away. A lot of the reports they produce are taken from people on the ground who have done the hard work at great risk and are then published in Amnesty’s name.

And that’s the norm of how these people behave.

Most NGOs are not organisers, and they are accountable only to a select group of people that they have appointed on their boards, who are usually accountable upwards to their donors. So we have a problem.

What do you think NGOs are trying to accomplish?

They are part of a political economy that is part of the exploitation. It’s a part of the way in which they facilitate the exploitation by transnational corporations. Many

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

of these organisations – Oxfam, Save the Children and others – have constantly turned to seek alliances with transnational corporations, especially in the mining sector.

If you look at most Canadian aid today, it is transmitted to support NGOs providing social welfare inside the countries where Canadian mining companies are destroying the environment and extracting wealth and natural resources. This is happening across the continent and especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The same thing goes with those who collude with Bill Gates and the genetically modified organism industry and Monsanto and so on. They seek to provide a cover under which these transnational corporations can exploit our people, pay poor wages and undermine people’s own agency, and in fact reverse the gains that we had at independence.

Do you see any role anywhere for NGOs on the continent?

If there are organisations that are confronting the exploitation of transnationals of our countries, if we have organisations which are membership organisations and who actually enable the agency of people to organise in their own interest, then we are talking about a different ball game. But the reality is that there are relatively few of those. The jargon for the development world is ‘we are underdeveloped, in need of modernisation’. And the reality is that we have to find ways not just to reclaim our humanity, to claim that we are indeed humans, but to actually invent what it actually means to be human.

Interview by M.A. in Nairobi

After the country’s parliament Grants by private agencies and NGOs ($BN) approved restrictions on NGO funding, 35 Meles lauded the move.

“These NGOs were initially seen as an 30 antidote to what was seen as the main problem in Africa – the bloated state,” he 25 said at the time. “This was supposed to 20 be an alternative. You reduce the role of the state, including your social services, 15 and you encourage NGOs to provide as much of the public services as possible.

10 In the end we argue that the NGOs have 5 turned out to be alternative networks of patronage. NGOs have not provided an 0 alternative good governance network.”

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 15 Much of the funding from these state-run agencies – such as the of a rebel movement trying to topple the government, intercepted foreign aid UK’s Department for International destined for the central government at Development (DfID) – is now chanthe time. The media frenzy surrounding nelled into multinational NGOs. For the famine, which left more than one example, Oxfam Great Britain chief million people dead of starvation or executive Mark Goldring said in 2016 malnutrition, turned Oxfam and CARE that DfID provided as much as 15% of into household names. But, at the same the organisation’s budget. time, it taught Meles a valuable lesson: The foreign aid landscape in Africa aid can be used to topple governments. is made up of national development Opponents of the Ethiopian governagencies, multilateral funders and ment say Meles’s campaign to eliminate NGOs. The former are by far the largest source of funding for the world’s biggest NGOs. The bulk of the funding In 2015, the 30 members poured into NGOs comes from of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation foreign governments andDevelopment(OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee – including the European Union, UK, US, Canada, Japan and Australia – spent a combined $31.5bn on development programmes.

But it is hard to know exactly how much money has been spent by NGOs Oxfam and where it goes. One of the biggest handouts criticisms of these organisations is in Zimbabwe: that their funding is opaque and their colonialism impact is hard to measure.

foreign funding to local organisations has put the country on a dangerous path. While the government still happily accepts aid from foreign governments, the narrowing of civil space in the country continues to cause problems.

Independent media and pro-democracy organisations have long been vanquished. As a result, many groups feel locked out of power. Protests by the Oromo community, the country’s most populous group, have deepened ethnic divisions to near breaking point.

Another criticism is that foreign NGOs often seek to represent marginalised people without their consent.

Sally Matthews, a professor at South Africa’s Rhodes University, tells The Africa Report: “NGOs are playing an increasingly prominent role in many sectors and are often seen to speak for particular groups – the poor, rural women and so on. But what mandate do they have to play this role?”

LOCAL PARTNERS

CARE International’s Wolfgang Jamann says that foreign aid agencies have been grappling with this question for decades, but the answer lies in ceding power to local actors. “The work of international NGOs has changed significantly over the last decade or so in that we are seeking much more engagement

in another form

DESMOND KWANDE/AFP

CO-OPTING AID

Linda Polman, a Dutch journalist and author of The Crisis Caravan, has said that the overarching goal of the world’s largest NGOs is to secure funding. “Aid organisations are businesses dressed up like Mother Theresa,” says Polman.

As a result, she contends that aid organisations have unwittingly drawn out conflicts in Ethiopia and Rwanda by providing humanitarian assistance that is captured by combatants.

Meles knows something that most do not. Ethiopia’s famine from 1983-1985 turned the East African country into a symbol of foreign aid. Meles, at the helm

SOURCE: DETAILED AID STATISTICS:OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE FLOWS

28 FRONTLINE | NGOS: BLESSING OR CURSE?

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

with local partners, community-based organisations,” he tells The Africa Report.

“Of course all those entities will have a legitimacy that we need in the operational environments […] where we want to make an impact.”

But how to protect these local groups from hostile governments who often see them as proxies for foreign agendas?

The answer is not easy to come by. “At times an international umbrella like CARE International is able to help to protect the space that our local entities require,” Jamann says. “But we also need to be careful that we don’t delegate the risk of our partners, because political engagement and speaking up of course does come with risks, and, depending on the context, there needs to be a very smart and a very collective approach to trying to maintain or broaden the space for our partners.”

NGOs have a valuable role to play on the continent. Healthcare, education, civic engagement are all areas where they can contribute. But they must be more accountable to the people they purport to help.

Development agencies and NGOs frame Africa in terms of being underdeveloped or in need of modernisation, says Manji, the former Amnesty director.

“The whole experience of colonialism and its continuity after independence has been one of the dehumanisation of people,” he says. The only way Africa can fight back – and learn to depend on its own institutions – “is to actually invent what it means to be human. For me that’s the big task that we face,” he says.

Manji points to Shack Dwellers International as an example of the ideal NGO because it is controlled from the bottom up. Founded in South Africa and India with grassroots funding, it now works in 32 countries across the world with the aim of helping the urban poor. In Africa, the bulk of the funding poured into NGOs comes from foreign government donors. If more NGOs were set up with grassroots funding, Manji believes they would better serve grassroots interests.

But without funding, NGOs will struggle to scale up to the size needed to have impact. Critics say this leaves local NGOs reliant on funding from international and national NGOs, which play out old colonial-era relationships. In order for NGOs to retain their relevance in the years ahead, a new funding model is needed.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

Nigerians demonstrate against Amnesty International

SODIQ ADELAKUN/ANADOLU AGENCY/AFP

29

NIGERIA

Banana republic or free country?

The tabling of a bill that would create a new body to regulate NGOs has tempers flaring on both sides

N

igeria’s development organisaCritics are interpreting this to mean an intended clampdown on free tions are the latest on the contispeech and the right to association nent to be drawn into a boxing matchwithparliament.Thefightisover by the presidency of Muhammadu a bill proposed by Umar Buba Jibril of Buhari, given his authoritarian tenthegoverningAllProgressivesCongress dencies during his first coming as that aims to establish a commission to military head of state. regulate NGOs. The governing party In August, theNational Broadcasting is divided about the bill, which was Commission issued a new directive for media houses to censor what it terms proposed in 2016, but parliament is ‘hate speech’ by cutting down on the expected to approve it. number of people who phone in to Those in Jibril’s camp say they want to make public the sources that fund news programmes.

NGOs in a bid to improve accountAyodeji Osowobi, executive direcability and transparency. Like many tor of Stand to End Rape, says the other African countries, Nigeria has laws would hurt the independence cracked down on NGOs in the name of NGOs. “NGOs are not parastatals under government’s control,” she tells of fighting terrorism. “Some NGOs The Africa Report, “it is therefore barare used to fund the activities of terrorists and insurgents,” Jibril said in September.

“If NGOs desire to hold “Nigeria is and should government to account they not be a banana republic must be accountable” where anything goes.”

Charities and aid baric to expect an NGO to get approval groups are fighting the bill, saying it from an institution it seeks to demand will hurt basic freedoms. Under the accountability from.” proposed law, all NGOs would be But there is some support for the required to register with the commission and secure government approval bill within the NGO community. for their projects.

Tope Fasua, president of the Institute for Service Excellence and Good One of the bill’s sternest opponents is Chidi Odinkalu, the former chair Governance, is one of those fervently of Nigeria’s National Human Rights backing the legislation. “If NGOs desire to hold government to account, it is Commission. “If this law passes, say goodbye to a free country,” Odinkalu compulsoryforthemtobeaccountable tells The Africa Report. “The freethemselves, after all it is said that he doms that define our political life who comes to equity must do so with – free speech, assembly, association, clean hands,” he wrote recently.

Eromo Egbejule in Lagos non-discrimination – will all be dead.”

30

INTERVIE W

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Former First Lady, South Africa

31

It is time for change of leadership President Jacob Zuma has led the governing ANC party to the lowest point in its history due to corruption, and South Africa is reverting to the racist state, says the activist, former first lady and ANC stalwart Interview by François Soudan for Jeune Afrique

WINNIE’S WAY

T

26 September 1936 Born in Bizana, (now in) Eastern Cape 1956 Earned a degree in social work from the Jan Hofmeyr School 1958 Married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela 1969 Began 18 months of solitary confinement in Pretoria Central Prison

2007 Elected to the ANC’s national executive committe May 2009 Elected as a member of parliament

V.FOURNIER/JEUNE AFRIQUE

1994-1996 Served as First Lady and deputy arts minister

he images of the strikingwomanoncecelebrated as the ‘mother of the nation’ marking her 80th birthday, in September 2016, surrounded by South Africa’s political and business elite testify to her resilience.

In one photograph, two of the country’s rival presidential contenders – billionaire businessman Cyril Ramaphosa and firebrand radical Julius Malema – have their arms entwined around Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, all three smiling broadly for the camera.

Madikizela-Mandela’sinfluence today ismore thannostalgiafor the glory days of the liberation struggle when she – as the consort of jailed African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela – became the most powerful symbol of the anti-apartheid movement.

For millions of South Africans today, Madikizela-Mandela

personifies those hopes of liberation two decades after the demise of white rule. That is why, in 2007, shewon themost votesinelections for the ANC’s powerful national executive committee. And when Madikizela-Mandela laments the lackofeconomicliberationandthe corruption engulfing government and business, it resonates widely.

The tragic arc of MadikizelaMandela’s biography has hardly dented her popular appeal. In 1989, when 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi was discovered beaten to death over rumours that he was a spy for the apartheid regime, the man convicted of the murder – one of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguards – saidshehadorderedit.In1991,she was acquitted of all charges bar the kidnappingofMoeketsi.Attheurging of Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997, MadikizelaMandela apologised to Moeketsi’s family and admitted “things went horribly wrong”.

In 2003, her prosecution for fraud forced her to resign all leadership positions within the ANC, but she remains one of the party’s most popular figures. Whatever Madikizela-Mandela has to say about her country, its leaders and policies,willfindaneageraudience.

F.S.: You said last July that the ANC had “messed up” under President Jacob Zuma’s leadership. What do you mean by messed up?

32 POLITICS

W I N N I E M A D I K I Z E L A MANDELA: We are in trouble in the sense that we have never been so weak and never had the attacks we have from all over the country.

Youpickupanewspaper,everyday one leader or other is discovered to have been corrupt. Corruption is our weakest point in the ANC. [...] It is tragic that we have great policies as the ANC, we have a problem in implementing them because we do not as government go out there to implement the policies we pass in the legislature.

After Jacob Zuma leaves the presidency, do you think he will be charged and prosecuted?

Well, obviously if what [the opposition] say is true, obviously it is time for change of leadership. […] Surely the remedy is that new

blood must take over, and we hope that that new blood will take the mantle from us and run the last mile of total freedom.

The unemployment rate is at 27% and a third of South Africans live on or below the poverty line. Has the ANC failed?

We have just discovered that very little has been done since liberation in this country. We are reverting right back to the racist state, now and again you see in the newspapers remnants of white racists who are calling us those racial names of yesterday.

Of course, unemployment is a most dangerous thing for South Africa. All the figures you have quoted are true, and I have stated in my speeches now and again that unemployed youth in South

Africa are a ticking time bomb, and God help us should there be the next revolution.

Do you think that Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters can fix the crisis?

I don’t think it will come from him alone, but he is definitely the future of this country, as I stated years ago when he was expelled from the ANC. I told them what Julius would do and he has done exactly as I predicted; that he would break away from the ANC, he would form a party that was going to attract the youth at a time when the ANC is in trouble. It is true that hundreds and hundreds of our youth from the ANC are joining his ranks; there is nothing we can do about it until we go to conference in December.

Patrick Smith

Editor-in-chief, The Africa Report

When the business of impunity meets the impunity of business

T

he apologias from multinationals embroiled in South Africa’s ever-expanding Guptagate scandalhaveahauntingfamiliarity.Theymimic an earlier non-apology: the submission by former president F. W. de Klerk on behalf of the National Party to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up after South Africa’s first free elections in 1994.

In practised lawyer-speak, De Klerk asserted that “mistakes were made” during 50 years of apartheid, but that its leaders were “good and honourable men”.

Unfortunately, said De Klerk, while trying to counter the“menaceofinternationalcommunism”a“context” was created in which “abuses by security personnel were not sufficiently discouraged”. Surveying the human costs of National Party rule – more than 21,000 killed in political violence – the commission rejected De Klerk’s formulation and concluded that apartheid was indeed a crime against humanity.

In London in September, De Klerk was asked for his view on the involvement of Bell Pottinger public

relations company, KPMG auditors and McKinsey consultants in schemes that looted the South African state treasury and undermined honest officials. Ever the lawyer, De Klerk replied: “It is too early to tell.”

KPMGandMcKinseyplayedapologypoker.Starting with a low bid, they opened with a general statement of regret to no one in particular, coupled with a few early retirements, a suspension here, a sacking there. When people such as ex-finance minister Pravin Gordhan started talking about legal action, the parent companies paid attention. Partners from New York and London flew to Johannesburg, conveying personal regrets to Gordhan and other top officials.

Threats to these companies are multiplying. There are direct financial ones. How much did McKinsey’s and KPMG’s actions cost the treasury? State utility Eskom is asking McKinsey to refund the R1bn ($73m) it earned from a contract in partnership with Trillian, owned by a Gupta associate, Salim Essa. The status of THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

POLITICS 33

The ‘Rainbow Nation’ – is it a myth or is it a reality?

Well, to me, it was a myth from the beginning. The rainbow colour does not have black.

Mi ght

yG

tas

Kee

Pa

g n i y

party that was called proportional representation. And at the time this proportional representation was meant to protect the white minorities or any other minority group so that it wasn’t only the big parties that went to parliament, but obviously that didn’t work.

We would have to at one time or another revisit the constitution and go to parliament according to our constituencies, and perhaps we’d be able to weed out this degree of corruption and people will be more accountable because they will be accountable to their constituencies.

up

p

After the release of Nelson Mandela, you disagreed with him politically. Is it true to say that for him the priority was peace and for you it was justice?

Yes, we disagreed on a number of issues. Firstly I think we lost it when we were negotiating the future of South Africa. I think when we were negotiating at that table we made a lot of mistakes. […] In dealing with the land, for instance […] we came up with a policy that stated that there should be a willing buyer and a willing seller. Even the ANC has conceded that that policy was wrong. Where were we going to get the money to buy the land? [...]

So we need to revisit the constitution of our country, I still believe so. I think it was not right for us to go to parliament as a

that contract, judged illegal by several independent lawyers, is being tested in court. KPMG, according to one of South Africa’s top economists, Iraj Abedian, could be held liable for the loss of “tens of billions” of dollars caused by its damage to institutions and investor confidence.

Despite their apologias, both companies refuse to admit wrongdoing or legal liability, and South Africans’ anger towards them grows. KPMG International has been slow to launch an internal investigation into why its local company produced a politically charged critique, now withdrawn, of an anti-tax evasion unit that was troubling the Gupta brothers and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane.

Guptagate could presage stronger demands for corporate and political accountability. It exposes more THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

How deep is the racial gulf in South Africa?

We are discovering almost daily that it was a facade that there was any transition. We haven’t transited at all into the new democracy as we find out right now that every now and again blacks are called monkeys, every now and again there are racial slurs and there are people who are assaulted at KFC depots, and the question of racism is raising its ugly head again. And racial incidences are cropping up all over the country. So it was really a facade that we were totally free, we are not. […] We do not have economic freedom and we haven’t dealt at all with the question of racism, because here we are back to the days of apartheid when we were called names because we are black.

clearly the mechanics of grand corruption. Successive mediareports conjureanimage of predatorpoliticians dragging reluctant multinational companies into a web of illegal and mispriced contracts from which mega-profits are laundered through tax havens. But Guptagate points to a different dynamic. Here, the company is the predator seeking out compliant and greedy politicians with whom to do business. What has developed in South Africa is a high-tension battle between independent regulators and courts on one hand taking on a criminal business-political condominium on the other.

ButbeforeanyonegetstoosmugaboutMcKinsey’s and KPMG’s discomfiture, the revival of 783 charges against President Zuma reminds us of the origins of the current wave of grand corruption. In the mid-1990s, Western governments such as Britain, France, Sweden and the US – resolutely backing their national arms manufacturers – sold South Africa’s new government some $6bn of weaponry. Much of it was irrelevant to the country’s strategic needs, and almost all of it was at inflated prices, pumped up by third-party commission agents.

Politicians such as Zuma are accused of cutting themselves into the deal; some diverted cash into the coffers of the ANC to fund election campaigns.

In fact, it was similar to corruption under apartheid rule. Then, politicians took their cut from the mining conglomerates and laundered their profits overseas.

The main difference today is that journalists can report it without having security restrictions slapped on them. Mistakes were made, indeed.

REPUBLIC EPUBLIC OF TOGO

Lomé, financial capital of Africa

HEADQUARTERS OF THE INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT BANK OF THE CEDEAO (BIDC).

Togo’s banking sector is booming. In recent years, several foreign banking groups with pan-African ambitions have opened their doors in the country and are supporting its economic development.

T

he financial attractiveness of Lomé is not new. Since 1985, Togo’s capital city, Lomé, has been home to the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the financial arm of the Economic Community, and the West African Development Bank (BOAD), common to the eight WAEMU member countries.

Lomé is also where African banking group Ecobank, the biggest on the continent by number of establishments, chose to set up its new headquarters, facing the Atlantic, in 2011. This decision affirmed the credit granted to Togo by this increasingly powerful private group, especially since its establishment in neighbouring Nigeria. Orabank, the leading pan-African bank in terms of its balance sheet total, also chose Lomé as the location for its headquarters.

On the road to the bank of the future To continue banking the unbanked population, Togo is counting on the digital revolution. This is why country is focused on modernising its Internet network so that people can enjoy all the advantages of broadband, especially in terms of banking and financial inclusion. Ecobank, Orabank and the Banque Togolaise pour le Commerce et l’Industrie have already established partnerships with mobile operators in order to offer their customers the possibility of managing online accounts and carrying out financial transactions.

Ecobank is even organising the Fintech Challenge in Lomé – a pan-African competition aimed at transforming finance through innovation and technology.

The network has doubled in size in 10 years The political crisis in the country slowed down Togo’s financial ambitions. Since it ended, around ten years ago, the banking network has doubled. In 2005, Togo had only a handful of banks. In 2006, when it set up in the country, Banque Atlantique set in motion a trend that continued to gather momentum.

Nigeria’s Diamond Bank opened its branch in 2011, Attijariwafa Bank took over BIA-Togo in 2013, Bank of Africa entered the market by opening its first agency in Lomé the same year and Orabank merged with the Banque Togolaise de Développement (Togolese Development Bank), when it privatised in 2014. In 2015, following the trend, Coris Bank International and Société Générale were the newcomers, and United Bank for Africa is expected to follow suit.

MESSAGE

A bank for every budget Société Générale is positioning itself in Togo to attract big companies and the State, whose projects it is keen to support, in particular infrastructure. A number of other institutions, such as Attijariwafa Bank, are set on improving the national banked population rate by choosing to woo the general public, pushing into the hinterland to build a clientele of private individuals.

This year Orabank benefited from an African Development Bank loan so that it could better contribute to the financing of SMEs and projects developed by young entrepreneurs. This ambition is in line with the Supporting Employability and Youth Inclusion Project (PAEIJ-SP).

HEADQUARTERS OF THE WEST AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (BOAD).

Increased security Since 1 July 2017, Togolese banks have been obliged to raise their capital to 10 billion CFA francs. This measure, designed to guarantee their solvency, synonymous with security from a customer point of view, is part of the implementation of the WAEMU recommendations on raising the minimum capital of banks.

An active and attractive market

Encouraging ratios

The reasons for this enthusiasm are numerous, starting with an economic growth above 5% for the past three years.

Added to this is the clear improvement in the business climate.

In recent years Togo has invested so that it can provide businesses with the administrative and physical infrastructure necessary for their growth. Economic operators, many of whom have taken advantage of these opportunities, attract banking structures keen to be a part of this boom. The political stability of a country that is expecting to reap the dividends from its investments is also likely to reassure businesses.

Bolstered by its economic development, urbanisation and increased infrastructure deployment, Togo is now seeing the emergence of a middle class and an industrial fabric with growing and diversifying banking and financial services needs. Togo’s banked population rate is now the strongest in the WAEMU zone, having risen from 3% to 8.5% in the last five years.

According to Central Bank of West African States data, the deposit/GDP ratio is 38%, well above the WAEMU zone average of 25%.

DIFCOM © J. TORREGANO POUR JA

HEADQUARTERS OF THE PAN-AFRICAN GROUP ECOBANK.

36 POLITICS

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Emir of Kano, Nigeria

These people feel there is no future Muhammadu Sanusi II talks to The Africa Report about anger in Nigeria, insecurity in the Sahel, the West’s hypocrisy and the relationship between Islam and politics

S

tepping regally out hypothesise that he is committing of a vintage but prisclass suicide or has embarked on a long-term clandestine camtine pale-blue Rollspaign for the presidency.

Royce, sporting exquisite damask robes By all accounts, neither interpreand a colour-coordinated turban, tation is right. The Emir of Kano is a the Emir of Kano Muhammadu philosopherkingwhorevelsinnew Sanusi II is an unlikely tribune ideas, determined to modernise northern Nigeria. He stands out of the people. His aristocratic because so few of his counterparts lineage stretches back centuries intherulingelitetakeonthisroleof and the young Sanusi seemed destined for a charmed existence, publicintellectual,especiallywhen a none-too-demanding ascent to it involves delivering inconvenient truths to the bastions of power. one of the most powerful positions Sanusi’s first big clash with in Nigeria’s rarefied northern elite.

That proved altogether too authority was on his return from dull for the young Sanusi Lamido studying Islamic law and finance Sanusi.Instead,hechartedhisown in Sudan in the early 1990s. Then course, making sure to take aim at General Sani Abacha, another the financial, political, and, most recently, reSanusi stands out because ligious establishment so few in the ruling elite on the way up. speak truth to power A fiercely articulate speaker, he seems compelled to attack the shibboKano man, suspected Sanusi of leths of the ruling class from which mobilising a grassroots movement he sprung. His fan base across the againsthisoppressiveregime.After country fluctuates, but he remains dodging that bullet, perhaps literally, Sanusi went on to head one tremendously popular with young of the top commercial banks in Nigerians, reaching out to all ethnicities and religious faiths. the country, First Bank of Nigeria.

Some just enjoy the spectacle It was as governor of the central bank that Sanusi rose to superof a scion of the aristocracy laying stardom in Nigeria and around into the country’s ruling class with such abandon and evocative lanthe world. His first campaign guage. More conspiratorial minds – against grand corruption in the

RULING-CLASS RADICAL 1977-1983 Bachelor and Masters degrees in economics from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria January 2009 Appointed group managing director of First Bank of Nigeria June 2009 Appointed governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria 2011 Named Forbes Africa Person of the Year June 2014 Crowned 14th Emir of Kano

banking sector – sent shockwaves across Nigeria in 2009. He took six commercial banks into administration under the central bank’s tutelage and had two of their chief executives arrested. By so doing, he had averted a meltdown of the financial system.

Five years later, he shocked Nigerians again, announcing that some $20bn in oil revenue due to the central bank for sales between 2012 and 2013 had not been transferred from the state oil company and was unaccounted for in official financial reports.

Affronted by the message that he was presiding over an administration skilled in grand larceny, President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Sanusi, and security men confiscated his passport.

By June 2014, Sanusi was back in the spotlight as the newly enthroned emir of Kano. Taking the helm of Kano’s 700-year-old kingdom has not diminished Sanusi’s appetite for straight talking. Within monthsofPresidentMuhammadu Buhari’s election in April 2015, Sanusi was criticising the government’s economic policy, including its refusal to float the naira and its plans for heavy foreign borrowing.

Then, in April of 2017, addressing an investment forum hosted by his friend Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, Sanusi lambasted the northern elite for holding the region back: “Other Muslim nations have pushed forward girlchild education. They’ve pushed forward science and technology.

We [in northern Nigeria] have adopted an interpretation of our culture and our religion that is rooted in the 13th century […], that refuses to recognise that the rest of the Muslim world has moved on.”

Conservatives, such as Ango Abdullahi – who chairs the

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

POLITICS 37

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

Asia to the Atlantic and to Europe.

The cities of the Sahel – Timbuktu, Gao, Kano, Agadez – were the richest cities in Africa before the steam ship, before colonialism.

Many of the countries in the Sahel are part of a great Arab Islamic civilisation – the official language of communication was Arabic. If you take Kano, for 600-700 years the official language was Arabic.

We had British colonialism for 60 years, and today the official language in Nigeria is English.

Arabic is not an official language.

Northern Elders Forum – and Zamfara State governor Abdulaziz Yari, hit back quickly. A Kano journalist, Jaafar Jaafar, followed with an acerbic critique of Sanusi, reminding him that his grandfather had been dethroned as emir. Their campaign to oust Sanusi has run into the ground for now.

Pressure from such critics might have persuaded others to moderate their views, but not Sanusi. He remains as enthusiastic as ever for radical change, as he explained in an interview with The Africa Report in Paris.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

TAR: The crisis in the Sahel is deepening on all levels (see TAR 94 Sept. 2017). What should be done as a matter of priority?

SANUSILAMIDOSANUSI:When the French talk about the Sahel, they are talking about how many more French troops you need to deal with these terrorists in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

When China talks about the Sahel, it’s about reviving trade routes […].

That’s the kind of conversation we need to have. The Sahel was a major part of global commerce; it was the transit point of trade from

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Whataretheimplicationsofthis?

Millions of children study the Koran and Arabic, understand the language – but on paper they are illiterate because they don’t speak English. That means there is no opportunity for them to become medical doctors, to become engineers, to become economists, to become historians.

If you study Arabic, you can study Arabic phonology, you can study the hadith, you can study the Koran, you can study Islamic law – which is fine. But you do not have other areas of knowledge that open opportunities for you in a modern economy. Now, the result is you have disgruntled people who end up in the hands of some radical scholar who sets them against the system, and they become extremists and terrorists.

When we are concerned about security, we must go back in the history of the Sahel and look at the rebalancing of our cultural priorities, the reopening of trade routes. I would like to see the French go to look at Niger and say: ‘How many solar panels do we need to generate 10,000MW of electricity? How many industries can we produce? What kind of crops can we encourage to halve desertification and give the farmers access to European and Asian markets?’ So you combat an environmental problem that has created poverty, and you also create economic empowerment for the population.

Do you think Morocco should integrate more closely with West Africa and join the Economic

38 POLITICS

Community of West African States (ECOWAS)?

If you look at what it has been doing in its expansion into the African banking industry, links with its phosphate industries, selling fertilisers, attempts to improve cultural ties with Tijaniyyah and other Sufi brotherhoods, Morocco is one country that has taken the conscious decision to find strength from its history. If you think of the trans-Saharan trade routes, you can think of West Africa and the Maghreb as one single economic block – the bigger the better.

Europeis expanding.Turkeywants to become European. Turkey has never been European, but it wants to be. The cultural and historical affinity between, say, northern Nigeria and Morocco is much stronger than affinity between Turkey and France.

Should West Africa rethink its trade routes and economic communities?

The countries in West, Central and North Africa need to understand that while they are political entities based on maps drawn by empires,theyarealsopartofsomething that’s much bigger. Kano and Kaduna are part of Nigeria, but they are also part of Sahel.

Every time we think of development, it is how do you move goods from Lagos to the north, and goods from the north to Lagos? We’re not thinking of how do you move goods across northern Nigeria to northern Ghana without coming to Lagos. You’ve got to think of ECOWAS both as consisting of coastal states and as a Sahelian region and try to make that connection.

The thing is to look at countries like Morocco and this attempt to engage with Africa rather than just dismiss it as: ‘These are Arabs going to West Africa’. There is some sense, given the history, to what they are doing. There is a way in which we can reach some arrangement beneficial to both Morocco and to us in West Africa. When Morocco said it wanted to join ECOWAS, there was this seminar in Abuja that urged the government to reject it as an attempt to

challenge Nigeria’s supremacy in West Africa and said that this country [Morocco] has nothing in common with West Africa.

Is the West hypocritical about democracy?

This idea that we want people to have democracy but we only accept the results if it conforms to what we want […], I mean look, I don’t want Donald Trump, but I wouldn’t ask for his assassination. I would vote him out after four years. But that’s who Americans voted for, and we’ve got to live with that. What we want is for the West to accept that if the Arabs vote for a Muslim Brotherhood party, let them vote for them. After four years, let the people in those countries decide they do not want them.

How worried are you about this tide of ultra-nationalism and growth of neo-fascist parties?

The world goes through these phases. You’ve had an economic crash. When people get into difficulty, they look for who to blame. They turn around, and it’s the Muslim, it’s the black, it’s the foreigner, it’s the Jew – it’s always happened historically. What we need is a sufficiently large number

Surrounded by the pomp associated with his role as Emir, Sanusi arrives at the salah durbar in Kano.

Above all he wants to see radical social and economic reforms

of sensible and calm hands who will say to people: ‘This is wrong.’

The West has the advantage of having at senior levels of political leadership highly educated, cosmopolitan people – whether they are on the right or on the left – who understand the long-term implications of encouraging these kind of movements. I think Trump is an exception, I don’t think you’ve had an American president before – not even Reagan was this bad – who encouraged this kind of reaction. I don’t think it’s going to be a trend. I don’t see that it’s possible in France or in Germany or in the Netherlands.

If economic conditions don’t improve in Africa, do you think you will see the growth of mass protests, mass political mobilisation against the ruling classes?

It depends on what you’re looking at. What is Boko Haram? What are the herder-settler clashes?

What’s all this kidnapping and robbery in Nigeria? In a sense this is the Nigerian version of people coming to the streets to demonstrate. These people are marginalised, they feel there is no future.

They are against the system – they just do it the wrong way. If you have bad governance, if you have

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

POLITICS 39

Percentage of people living in absolute poverty

Katsina Zamfara

Kebbi

CHAD

NIGER

Sokoto

BENIN

Yobe

Jigawa

Borno

Kano

Kaduna

Bauchi

Niger

Gombe Adamwa

Kwara

Nasarawa

Oyo Osun

AKINTUNDE AKINLEYE/REUTERS

Ogun

poverty, you will see a reaction.

Whether it’s the kind of reaction you want where people come out on the street and demonstrate in Venezuela, or radical armies that want secession or they want an Islamic republic, […] these are expressions of different forms of discontent. It’s difficult to turn a large number of people into radical Islamists or drug gangs if they have jobs and security.

How has the introduction of sharia law changed Nigeria’s politics and economy?

I was against the politicisation of Islam. I did not believe that those who said they wanted sharia understood what sharia was. For them, implementation was cutting off the hand of a thief, stoning adulteresses. It was just punishments without laying the foundations.

You’ve got mass poverty, mass hunger. You’ve not provided education, you’ve not provided healthcare, you’ve not provided jobs for people, and all you want is to cut off the hand of a man who steals. And you think that is sharia.

When you look at Islamic law, the punishments account for less than 2% of all the teachings of the law.

Zamfara State was the first state in Nigeria to implement sharia; it THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

Ekiti Ondo

Lagos Gulf of Guinea 200 km

Kogi

Benue

CAMEROON

Enugu Edo Anambra Ebonyi

Cross Imo Abia River Rivers Akwa Bayelsa Ibom Delta

has the highest incidence of poverty. So what conclusion would you draw from that? We need to address the issues of education, healthcare, life expectancy and domestic violence.

A movement calling for independence for south-east Nigeria has been labelled terrorist. Do you see it as a major threat?

There’s a discourse today about Biafra, people thinking that they can have another civil war. Nigeria had a civil war from 1967 to 1970.

“It’s difficult to turn large numbers into radical Islamists if they have jobs and security” It was Nigerian troops against Biafran troops. If you have a civil war today in Nigeria between, say, the north and other parts of the country you’re going to have Islamic State come in, you’re going to have Al-Qaeda come in, Boko Haram, you’re going to have Christians and Muslims. It’s going to be a religious war. It is not going to be an internal war, not after Libya. The world has changed.

Do you agree that the south-east has been marginalised?

N OV E M B E R 2 017

Taraba

0-29.9 30-49.9 50-59.9 60-69.9 70-79.9 80+

Where do you have the lowest levels of electricity? Where do you have the lowest life expectancy?

Where do you have the lowest per capita income? Where do you have the highest rates of unemployment? You’ll find that it is in the Muslim north. The south-east in terms of human development indices has been much, much better than the north. So this idea that they are marginalised, I don’t know.

When [General Olusegun] Obasanjo was president, the finance minister, the central bank governor, the director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the director of the stock exchange were all from the south-east. The entire economy was in the hands of the southeast. So they need to get back into the ruling party or get their party to win elections.

Many of the Igbos have their investments outside Igboland.

They have houses all over the country, they’ve got investments all over the country. There are more investments by Igbo outside Igboland than in Igboland. So if you break up the country, they’ve got more to lose.

Interview by Patrick Smith and Nicholas Norbrook

SOURCE: NIGERIA NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Plateau

40 POLITICS

Riot police charge towards a small group of protesters in Nairobi on 16 October

BEN CURTIS/AP/SIPA

Odinga’s goal is to deliver a boycott of the polls in as many constituencies as possible. Under the constitution, voting must take place in each of the 290 constituencies in order for an election to be valid. Michael Chege, a professor at the University of Nairobi, explains: “Nasa will make it impossible for the election to take place in their areas and go to court to say this is an invalid election […]. This crisis is just beginning."

President Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto are crisscrossing the country on a relentless campaign schedule. The pair have swatted away Nasa’s calls for reforms. The Nasa campaign is out of money and they are stalling, senior Jubilee officials say.

Parliament passed legislation in October that makes it more difficult KENYA for the Supreme Court to annul an election and stipulates that if one candidate withdraws from a re-run of the presidential election, the other one automatically wins.

The country was braced for clashes as opposition Ruto told reporters on 17 October leader Raila Odinga called for mass protests in support that Odinga knows he will lose the rerun and is boycotting the vote to save of his boycott of the 26 October repeat elections face. “Odinga is running away from a humiliating defeat,” he said. “He has to find this excuse and that excuse and the week before Kenya’s 26 October At the centre of these was the call to election the sound of pressure other excuse to try and justify his exit.” replace Ezra Chiloba, the IEBC’s chief The stage is set for widespread convalves hissing was almost deafexecutive officer, who had presided over the flawed elections. Nasa made other frontations between the security services ening, with growing fears of violence on and opposition supporters around the the streets. Having urged his supporters demands, including stricter rules on the to boycott the vote, leaving President use of technology in vote tallying and 26 October election as the millions Uhuru Kenyatta to run unopposed, the transmission of results, of people who voted for and the appointment of oppositionist former candidate Raila Odinga deal with being new returning officers in locked out of the country’s Odinga of the National Super Alliance political system. With con(Nasa) upped the ante by calling for all 290 constituencies. cerns mounting, internal mass protests on the day. security minister Fred BOYCOTT STRATEGY The very same day Odinga made Announcing his withdrawMatiang’i issued a ban on his rallying cry – 18 October – news al from the election to a protests in the central busibroke that a senior member of Kenya’s packed press conference ness districts of Nairobi, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Mombasa and Kisumu.

Commission (EIBC), Roselyn Akombe, on 10 October, Odinga said: had resigned and fled to the United “The new election will be Kenya’s security services The number as corruptly conducted as States amid death threats. In a statement continue to be lambasted of constituencies to the press, Akombe cited fear, intimi[8 August] and its outcome for their heavy-handed in Kenya, all of which dation and “legal advice […] skewed to will in no way represent the response to the unrest must vote in order for fit partisan political interests” among will of Kenyans.” the election to be valid that followed August’s elecOdinga travelled to the tions. Human Rights Watch reasons she believed the election would not be credible. issued a damning report on 15 October UK to appear at Chatham House a few Odinga’s elation at the Supreme that claimed as many as 67 protesters days later to drum up international had been killed in Nairobi’s slums and Court judgement to annul the 8 August support for his campaign to reform presidential election due to irregularthe electoral commission. A confident in western parts of the country. ities was soon tempered when he saw Mark Anderson in Nairobi and Odinga told reporters: “The 26th is a Patrick Smith in London Nasa’s demands would not be met. no deal. You can take that to the bank.”

Cruising for a crisis

A

SOURCE: IEBC

290

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

© NABIL ZORKOT

EUROPE IN ABIDJAN REACHING FOR THE FUTURE Europe will be Africa’s guest when, on 29 and 30 November, Abidjan hosts the fifth AU-EU summit. The first, held in Cairo in 2000, brought together the members of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the European Union (EU) to lay the foundations for a new partnership between the two continents. Now, in a new Côte d’Ivoire, having undergone a metamorphosis that demonstrates President Alassane Ouattara’s will to build an emerging nation, this year’s summit, will give new impetus to the cooperation between the countries of both unions.

ADVERTORIAL

Democratic revolution "10 million young people enter the labour market each year"

T

he decision for Côte d’Ivoire to host this event was taken during the AU Summit held in Kigali in July 2016, illustrating Côte d’Ivoire’s return to the diplomatic arena and symbolising the international community’s confidence in the Ivorian government. To ensure the success of the summit, vitally important to both continents, an organising committee was put in place, headed up by the Vice-President of the Republic, Daniel Kablan Duncan.

L-R: Presidents Alpha Condé (Guinea and the AU), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Frank-Walter Streinmeier (Germany), Alassane Ouattara (Côte d'Ivoire), Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (Mali) and Nana Akufo-Addo (Ghana) in Berlin on 13 June 2017.

Redefining the partnership The meeting that will take place in Abidjan on 29-30 November can only be called a true top-level encounter, being

This fifth AU-EU summit is the occasion to redefine the roadmap for relations between the two continents

held for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa.

For two days, Côte d'Ivoire will host over 6,000 participants and nearly 80 heads of state and governments from both continents.

The Bingerville Mother-Child Hospital, near Abidjan.

!

32

billion €uros

invested in Africa

by the European

private sector in

2015, which is one

Emmanuel Macron will officially launch the construction of the future metro while in Abidjan.

third of all Foreign

Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa.

for the years 2018-2020 and, more generally, the new conceptual partnership framework. It comes at a crucial time for African and European institutions, both of which are undergoing profound changes that will have important repercussions on their partnership in terms of peace and security. In particular, the AU has embarked on institutional reforms designed to make it more responsive, efficient and financially independent. For example, Brexit will certainly have consequences for EU relations with its African counterpart, starting with the renegotiation of the Cotonou Agreement, which remains valid until 2020.

Future focus Ten years after the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), this summit is a landmark in strengthening political and economic ties across the Mediterranean in terms of peace and security, governance and migration. However, determined to look to the future, the leaders of the two institutions are also seeking to make significant progress on trade, investment, education and skills development issues, with a focus on youth and employment, the official themes of this fifth edition.

Enterprise at the heart of discussions

Earlier this year the 4th Africa-Europe Youth Summit had already launched festivities in Abidjan from 9 to 11 March.

This presented an opportunity for young people from both continents to develop proposals in the run-up to the November meeting. Another highly anticipated event takes place on the fringes of the summit: on 27 November, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire is hosting the 6th EU-Africa Business Forum, a not-to-bemissed meeting point for the business community aimed at stimulating investment across the continent. This edition will pay particular attention to the issues of young and female entrepreneurs.

21

billion €uros

contributed to Africa by the EU and its member countries in 2015, representing 50% of total Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the continent.

5th Founding Act The Abidjan summit is the fifth organised by Africa and the European Union.

The first, held in Cairo in April 2000, brought together the members of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the EU, to lay the foundations for a new partnership between the two continents. A joint strategy (JAES) and an action plan for the years 2008-2010, based on common guidelines, were drawn up at the second summit held in Lisbon in December 2007. Three years later, in Tripoli, in December 2010, a joint declaration extended the timetable to a period spanning 2011-2013, in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The fourth summit, held in Brussels in April 2014, aimed to deepen cooperation on migration and mobility in order to maximise its development impact. Now, Abidjan puts the focus on youth and employment, so as to better prepare a common future together.

ADVERTORIAL

!

Presidents Ouattara and Macron at the Elysee in August this year.

"

A Europe-Africa Erasmus For this fifth summit, EU leaders have taken into account the African vision developed by the African Union in their Agenda 2063, an action plan adopted in 2015 and aimed at making Africa a prosperous continent by 2063.

In addition to issues related to peace and security, to which Brussels has contributed 2 billion Euros since 2004, this framework also focuses on the development of skills and training for young people, particularly with a view to a future African industrial revolution. Agenda 2063 thus proposes the setting up of a Europe-Africa Erasmus programme, with the launch of a Youth Empowerment initiative to facilitate the exchange of young people, teachers and vocational training modules between the two continents.

This summit will lay the foundations for a reworking of relations between our two continents

© JACQUES TORREGANO/DIVERGENCE

EMMANUEL MACRON

More than ever, the partnership that will be redefined in Abidjan must foster “the empowerment of young people in Europe and Africa”, wished for by both institutions. More generally, this 5th summit will strongly emphasise “African solutions to African problems”, with the help and support of Europe, by investing especially in youth. This dovetails with the plans for a sustainable future for both continents, as well as for the very special relations they have maintained over the last ten years.The time has come for the European Union to go beyond its role as the continent’s main donor and offer its African partner a “New Deal”. This was confirmed by President Emmanuel Macron on 31 August when President Alassane Ouattara was in Paris for a preparatory meeting. “This summit will lay the foundations for a reworking of relations between our two continents.”

Europe can draw inspiration from the example of France and Côte d'Ivoire.

Urgent need Putting young people to work Throughout the 21 st century, Africa will be looking at a real demographic revolution.

The population is expected to rise from the current 1.2 billion to 2.7 billion by 2060. By that time, around half of all Africans will be under 35 years of age. As nearly 10 million young people enter the labour market each year, there is an urgent need to find solutions today that will enable them to find work tomorrow. By making youth employment the central theme of their fifth summit, the EU and the AU will address their concerns over a crucial issue that has – and will continue to have – an impact on relations between the two continents.

ADVERTORIAL

DIFCOM/DF - PHOTOS: © Ministère de la République de Côte d'Ivoire unless otherwise stated.

© KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU / AFP

African solutions supported

by Europe

45

Magufuli’s pinch

E

tched in the minds of the cleaners at Dar es Salaam International Airport is a photo of Tanzania’s President John Magufuli sitting in the economy class section of an airplane. His money-saving measures have inspired a new generation of frugal citizens. At the onset of every task, they ask themselves: What would Magufuli do?

These days, everyone in Dar es Salaam is trying to save a penny. From the traffic cop stopping cars from using roundabouts (considered a waste of petrol) to waiters serving two The business drinks at a time (it makes for less community walking) the efficiency drive can be seen everywhere. and top But Magufuli’s reputation as a officials in heroic anti-corruption crusader took a turn for the sinister after the governing an assassination attempt on his party greatest critic, opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu, on 7 September. worry that Lissu had mocked Magufuli for Magufuli’s bungling his plan to revive Air Tanbrash zania, the national carrier. He had also called Magufuli “a petty diccrackdown tator”, which did not sit well with will scare the man nicknamed the ‘Bulldozer’.

Magufuli’s focus on Air Tanzaoff foreign nia had mystified the country. He capital said he wanted to boost tourism and start direct flights to the US. But with dozens of international flights every day, Dar es Salaam is already well connected to many major cities. And the process of getting clearance to fly directly to the US is a long and complicated one.

All along the city’s shaded terraces, hushed conversations about Magufuli’s real motives in office can be heard. He is doing away with presidential term limits.

He will declare himself president for life. He is learning dictatorial habits from his best friend, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

He has been threatened by multinational companies intent on reversing his controversial changes to the mining code. He has a squad of commandos protecting him from international hitmen.

Being astride a fast-growing economy in a region seen as an economic bright spot can bring complications. Tanzania THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

is ranked as the continent’s ninth-most attractive investment destination in this year’s African Economic Outlook. Trade and industry minister Charles Mwijage said in May that Tanzania registered 393 projects worth a combined total of $2.4bn in the first 18 months of Magufuli's presidency.

But all that could be about to change. The business community and top officials in the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi party are worried that foreign direct investment could stall as Magufuli’s brash crackdown scares off foreign capital. At the swimming pools and tennis courts of Dar es Salaam, foreign investors are spooked. They whisper of staff deportations and airport detentions.

But it is Magufuli’s slapping of London-listed gold producer Acacia Mining with a $190bn tax bill, the highest since Chad asked ExxonMobil to pay $74bn, that is the talk of the town. After Acacia refused to pay that staggering bill in July, Magufuli slapped a ban on mineral shipments. Acacia has seen a build-up of approximately $265m worth of gold that it cannot ship due to the ban. The firm also has been forced to scale down operations.

South African producer Petra Diamonds is also in financial trouble because of Magufuli’s crackdown on foreign miners. Petra suspended its operations in the country after its staff were detained upon arrival at the airport and the government seized a shipment of its diamonds.

Party insiders worry that foreign investors’ uneasiness in the mining sector could seep into the country’s nascent gas sector.

The government hopes to partner with Shell, ExxonMobil, Statoil, Pavilion Energy, BG Group and Ophir Energy to build a $30bn liquefied natural gas plant in Lindi.

Even Aliko Dangote, the richest man on the continent, is worried about Magufuli’s crackdown. Dangote was forced to suspend operations at his $650m cement plant in the country amid regulatory challenges. “[Tanzania's government has] scared quite a lot of investors, and scaring investors is not a good thing to do,” he told a conference in London. “Once an investor complains, the rest will run away. They don’t even want to hear the details.”

Where the Beauty of the place inspires

P i c t ure t a ke n at Para d i s B ea c h comb er Gol f Resor t & Sp a

the Beauty of the heart

S TA R T C O L L E C T I N G YO U R B E S T M O M E N T S O N W W W. B E AC H C O M B E R .C O M

47

Mauritius

Change PICTURE ALLIANCE/BLICKWINKEL/MAXPPP

without end The pro-business state is helping Mauritian companies venture into Africa

Tough new international rules on tax havens are forcing Mauritius’s offshore banks to evolve. Like other parts of the economy, the financial sector is looking to Africa for growth as it also moves away from plain vanilla services to provide more sophisticated financial products

By Nicholas Norbrook in Port-Louis

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

F

oracountrythatpridesitselfon being plugged into the global flows of disembodied capital, many parts of the Mauritius economy feel reassuringly solid. A sleek, scarlet-orange Spanish tuna boat sits in the 130-metre dry dock of the Centre Naval de l’Océan Indien (CNOI), a shipyard specialised in servicing fishing fleets plying the Indian Ocean, as well as the French navy.

The yard has thrown itself into ship-building, too. A prawn-hunting vessel sits up on blocks. Sparks are flying from busy welders. “It’s the first of a series

48 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

of eight such vessels – and, if all goes well, two dozen, for an Australian client,” says Arnaud Lagesse, chief executive of the island’s largest conglomerate, IBL Group,themajorityshareholderinCNOI. It is just as well that economic diversification has real substance in Mauritius – a country whose top three exports are tuna, clothing and sugar – because the headwinds for its offshore financial sector are mounting. After the 2008/2009 financial crash, several decades of multinational companies using hubs like Mauritius to ingeniously structure their tax strategies, and years of stagnant wages in the West, there has been a populist backlash. Global capitalism, it appears, is not floating all boats. The results can be seen in the Trumps and the Brexits.

THE TAXMAN COMETH

But the pushback against opaque international financial centres has also come from new rules driven by the club of rich countries known as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). And also, in the case of Mauritius, in the amendment of a double taxation avoidance agreement signed with India in 1982.

While the Indian media often criticises that deal for facilitating tax dodging, the chairman of the State Bank of Mauritius puts up a robust defence: “We are paying the price of our success,” says Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing (see interview page 58).

“More than two-thirds of the foreign investment into India was channelled from Mauritius. If today India has been able to achieve development, Mauritius

had a big role to play.” Whatever the case, that money and the associated fees that Mauritius derives from it are drying up, especially from United States investors who had previously used Mauritius to structure investment into India. In 2012, Mauritius represented almost a third of all foreign portfolio flows into India. By 2016, it was not even a fifth.

To comply with new OECD directives, Mauritius has to demonstrate that it has a financial sector of ‘economic substance’ – that is to say, not a tax haven littered with anonymous boiler-plate companies that have shopped around to get an advantageous tax rate. The financial system must instead provide real services. Ominously, the list of things that the OECD does not consider ‘substantial’ includes things like providing treasury services and servicing the headquarters of a group of companies. That, says Mauritius’s minister for financial services, Dharmendar Sesungkur, is under discussion with the OECD “because the rules which have been imposed are quite stringent” (see interview page 50).

To manage the transition to the OECD rules, the government is drawing up a new 10-year blueprint for the global business sector, a newish term for offshore finance. Here, the government of Mauritius is doing what it does best – leveraging private-sector expertise. “I’m very happy to see that there are work streams by stakeholder,” says Huns Biltoo of KPMG Mauritius, “so then you’ve covered the whole [financial] ecosystem.”

Can the local players change their game soon enough? The lifecycle of

India-focused funds suggests that a large chunk of them will cash out their investments around 2021, according to Biltoo. Mauritius by then will no longer be quite so appealing on the tax front, so investors would need to have other reasons to stay.

The Mauritian economy has evolved before. It is a stalwart of the ‘value-chain’, economic jargon that means creating ever-more-valuable products, analogous to selling refined petroleum instead

Alphabet soup of regulation India is getting serious about tax, too. The double tax avoidance agreement has been revised, changing the economics for India-focused funds that channelled money through Mauritius to avoid paying tax twice – because, for some unscrupulous individuals, it was used to avoid paying tax even once.

India is also bringing in its GAAR – General Anti-Avoidance Rules – which will further tighten up the system. Meanwhile, the US has passed the FATCA or Foreign Account

FDI into India, top international financial centres (USD million) 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0

UAE Cyprus Singapore UK

Netherlands Mauritius

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Tax Compliance Act, making it harder for US-based funds to avoid the taxman.

Mauritius is responding with its own alphabet soup: a slew of licences to attract a new generation of more

sophisticated offshore service providers. They include the GLAS, or Global Legal Advisory Services licence, and the fintechoriented RSL or Regulatory Sandbox License.

N.N.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

SOURCE: GLOBAL FINANCE MAURITIUS

A BLIZZARD OF LETTERS is battering the offshore financial sector across the globe. One of the more existential threats comes from two Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development directives: on BEPS – Base Erosion Profit Shifting – and the other CRS – the Common Reporting Standard. These force offshore hubs like Mauritius to prove that they are an economic jurisdiction of substance, rather than just acting as a place to help companies avoid tax.

MAURITIUS | COUNTRY FOCUS 49

“Big banks are leaving Africa because of the cost of compliance,” he says, leaving a gap in the market for those who can specialise in mergers and acquisitions.

He predicts that this will only grow as African companies start to engage in more cross-border trade. And Bundhun adds that Mauritius can score with investors in and around Africa because of its political stability and faith in its court system. Due to an accident of colonial history, the Mauritian final court of appeal is the UK’s Privy Council, formerly the court of appeal for the British Empire.

PLAN FOR THE HINTERLAND

of crude oil. Companies in the sugar, textiles and tourism sectors have become more sophisticated or managed to outsource production to cheaper locales, such as Madagascar, often with the help of an Asian-style pro-business state that helped coordinate activities.

Now, it is time for the offshore financial sector to do the same and move on from providing plain vanilla services to providing more sophisticated financial offers. And while this may appear daunting, some argue that there are opportunities to be seized during the crisis – in particular, those related to the vast amounts of data thrown up by new anti-money-laundering and compliance procedures that financial services companies now have to follow. “Using that data we will be able to propose new services to our clients and in real time,” says Shamima Mallam-Hassam, chief executive of fund manager Alter Domus Mauritius.

CHICKEN-AND-EGG

The transition will also require a new take onskillsdevelopment,accordingtoRama Sithanen, formerly finance minister for a decade under the previous government.

“We graduate new chartered accountants every three months,” he says, “but do they have the ‘domain knowledge’ that more sophisticated financial services require?”

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

SOURCE: GLOBAL FINANCE MAURITIUS

SYDONIE GHAYEB FOR TAR

Mallam-Hassam of Alter Domus Mauritius agrees about the prospects for business in Africa: “Only 15% of our business today is with Africa, but we are seeing lots of our clients heading for the continent now.” And it is not just the banks. All the big conglomerates on the island – there are five, most of which have a colonial-era French sugar estate family as their root – have Africa plans. This is in part due to a small and In spite of the new regulations, shrinking domestic market. Mauritius will suffer serious demographic conMauritius’s stability remains traction in the years to come, with the an attraction to foreign investors population projected to fall from 1.3 million now to 900,000 people over He cites the chicken-and-egg nature of learning about aircraft leasing finance the next three decades. as an example. It’s something that few The old sugar companies are conin Mauritius have any experience of, so verting some of their substantial landno aircraft leasing is done in Mauritius, holdings into property developments, making it hard to gain experience. including projects for universities and Upgrading flexibility in luxury apartments. They higher education will are doing this with the therefore be essential. explicit aim of targeting Finance professionals on African high-net-worth the island say Mauritius individuals and students. can take a leaf out of the “It’s all about getting bums on seats,” says Thierry book of other successful Sauzier, the chief executive hubs. Singapore is often of Medine, which is creatcited, having made its fortune offering commodity ing a university city that trading and treasury serhas already attracted the vices for Southeast Asia Mauritian campus of the Average share of total UK’s Middlesex University. in the 1990s. Many argue FDI into India from Mauritius can do the same “Andthedemandforhigher Mauritius over the for Africa. education in Africa already period 2000 to 2017, Ziyad Bundhun left a outstrips supply by a large ahead of financial factor,” he explains. safe job as chief financial centres such as Singapore and the UK Mauritius’s pro-business officer of Rogers, a large state is already busy copyMauritian fund manager, to bet on the growing need for financial ing what Asian countries have done on and advisory services on the continent. the continent – opening special economHe set up New African Advisors partly ic zones with solid infrastructure – in because much of the private-equity a bid to help Mauritian companies money that went into the continent is successfully venture into Africa. “They have comfort because the government now looking for an exit. Another reason:

34%

50 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

Meanwhile, some Mauritian com­ panies are going whole hog: ditching the offshore finance sector to focus on African opportunity. CIM Finance sold its global finance business to SGG this year despite making 40% of its profits in the sector. “The board felt the growth opportunities weren’t there,” explains CIM Group chief executive Mark van Beuningen.

Instead, it has managed to crack a nut many have felt was impossible: Ethiopia, where it will be offering lease finance services to Ethiopian and foreign cor­ porates. Another East African economy also looms large on its radar.

Kenya attracts the Mauritian business community. State Bank of Mauritius bought Fidelity Bank in 2016 and fol­ lowed that up in October of this year with the purchasing of the best assets of the failed Chase Bank. The combina­ tion of large concentrations of Indian and Chinese investors in Africa’s east, and Mauritius’s geographical position between the two, suggests we will see more of this in the years to come.

Many factors could kick against this.

Some see the government as not the most credible partner for reform: opacity in a huge light-rail project will be one red flag. Others point to looming debt crises for both the corporate and public sector, and the presence of tough competitors in the financial hub bracket, such as Dubai and Johannesburg. Others worry about the curse of the ‘middle-income trap’.

But most Mauritians are relaxed: content to trust in their gift of re-invention.

Dharmendar Sesungkur

KESHIMI PURBHOO

of Mauritius is there, says Yash Manick, the CEO of the Mauritius Africa Fund. A partnership agreement is going through Ghana’s parliament for a technology city outside of Accra, while in Senegal phase one of an industrial park has been com­ pleted in the new city of Diamniadio.

It is not necessarily easy for these Mauritian companies on the continent.

AfrAsia Bank, for example, struggled and eventually left Zimbabwe in 2015 after buying Kingdom Bank Zimbabwe in 2012. “We sinned in a lack of prepa­ ration,” says Lagesse, whose IBL Group has a substantial shareholding in AfrAsia.

Likewise,IBL’sagreementwiththeGabon government to create a marine products factory came to nothing. Nevertheless, IBL’ssugarcompanyinTanzaniaisseeing good results, and it is building a new fish canning factory in Côte d’Ivoire.

Minister of financial services and good governance, Mauritius

A blueprint for tomorrow TAR: How will the amended tax deal with India affect your business?

DHARMENDAR SESUNGKUR: So far, the feedback we have received on the basis of the new treaty is that there are a number of professionals coming from India. They believe that Mauritius can be an interesting platform for debt structuring because we have leverage. We have advantages compared to countries like Singapore, for instance. So there is hope that large conglomerates will still use Mauritius as a platform to structure their debt to sort of take advantage of what has been negotiated.

which are coming into play. And I know that despite being a new financial centre, Mauritius has acquired a good reputation to service international firms.

What are the new services that you might offer?

Fintech will be one of the key pillars under the new blueprint which we’re preparing for the financial sector.

So we want to become a reference in the fintech sector. There have been workshops. There has been a subcommittee working on that to see what kind of regulatory framework that we need to help those businesses, to help those investors and also what kind of facilities we need to put at their disposal.

It is true that Mauritius has made a huge step ahead in terms of telecommunication facilities, where we are sitting today. It’s a cyber city with significant bandwidth, significant power of communication.

What else will there be to convince investors to stay?

Look, as I always say, Mauritius is not competing only on tax efficiency.

We have a lot of other advantages, a lot of other benefits which we give to businesses – for instance, the ease of doing business, which I’m sure we are much, much better in terms of ease “Mauritius is not competing of doing business only on tax efficiency. We have compared to the Indian a lot of other advantages” administration to get a permit or to exceed your capital. In terms of foreign Does Mauritius feel tossed exchange control, there is no about on the waves of a global exchange control. We don’t have conversation about the merits tax on dividends. We don’t have tax of globalisation? on capital gains. So these are Yes, so it is a matter of concern advantages which will still be there. because a small country like Mauritius And in terms of diversifying has been benefiting from globalisation, our market base, we are not only from the flow of capital. In the case of relying on India. We are also looking the US they feel that China is not at other emerging countries like playing their part in the global trade China, like the African continent process, because they are only taking where I think we, as a member of the advantage. So probably we will need African Union, must learn to work a kind of a new debate, a new together for our mutual benefit. China approach how these issues can be has chosen Mauritius as their centre resolved because personally I don’t for renminbi, the Chinese currency. think that protectionism will be in the So I think I am not so concerned about interest of anyone, it will affect the the new [Organisation for Economic quality of living, it will affect the N.N. Cooperation and Development] rules volume of trade.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Mapping new frontiers in Africa

SBM Holdings Ltd is one of the largest banking and financial services institutions listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius with a market capitalization of approximately USD 700 million as at 31 July 2017 and total assets of over USD 5 billion as at 30 June 2017. It has a Moody’s Ratings of Baa3 and is ranked among the top 1,000 banks in the world by The Banker. SBM Group is present in Mauritius, Madagascar, India and Kenya, and is pursuing its expansion strategy to enter new markets in the Indian Ocean and East Africa.

SBM Group is a one-stop-shop provider of banking, non-banking financial services and non-financial investments.

SBM is embracing digital banking, making its services accessible anytime, anywhere.

– Global Business & International Banking – Investment Solutions – Treasury Services – Cross-Border Financing – E-commerce – Trade Finance – Wealth Management – Investment Banking

T: (230) 202 1111 E: sbm@sbmgroup.mu | www.sbmgroup.mu

52 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

Harvesh Seegolam

Regulator on a tightrope ARVIND YADAV/HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

The new chief executive of the Financial Services Commission has a challenging task to position Mauritius’s financial services centre as an important jurisdiction while ensuring that local regulations comply with international standards. As the key regulator, Seegolam has to steer the process to create a 10-year blueprint for the industry. Its goal is to identify highervalue niches and tackle current barriers such as skilland infrastructure gaps. With new challenges like Brexit on the horizon, Seegolam has his hands full.

Navin Ramgoolam

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Never wants to see another courtroom After his defeat in the 2014 general elections, it seemed to be the end for former prime minister Navin Ramgoolam.

More than Rs200m ($5.9m) were seized from the Labour Party leader’s house in 2015, and he has been forced to face justice in 11 cases – 10 of which he has won, with only one remaining.

The last charge is for money laundering, and is ongoing.

Back in the political arena, he now promises to break with the past if he is re-elected. His support in the rural areas – crucial for winning elections in Mauritius – remains strong. He regularly criticises Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth for his lack of leadership. Ramgoolam is promising to work for poorer Mauritians, saying politics as usual only benefits those who are already rich.

Somaskaran Appavoo

A little turbulence on entry for new Air Mauritius boss

People to watch Tricky times, even for the thickest skins The string of ministerial resignations and corruption scandals of recent years does not necessarily mean the island has a new set of faces Kervin Victor in Port Louis

New ‘Reform Party’ seeks to position itself ahead of elections Roshi Bhadain resigned as financial sevices minister and as a member of parliament this year. He had managed the BAI crisis when he was in office, which he described as the island’s biggest Ponzi scheme. Following his resignation – in part because of the government’s determination to push on with a controversial light-rail project, he created a new party, the Reform Party. He wants to position it as a key political player in the near future. “It’s not just a one-man show,” he assured supporters at a recent rally, and says it will run 60 candidates in the next legislative elections.

Paul Lam Shang Leen

Cleaning up the drug money Paul Lam Shang Leen, a former chief justice, chairs the Commission of Inquiry on DrugTrafficking, set up in 2015 after the seizure of Rs2bn of drugs. He has already interviewed politicians, lawyers, businessmen and prisoners, among others. Many are waiting for his conclusions to find out who is pulling the strings of drug trafficking in Mauritius. He has yet to say whether he will call in Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth for an audience.

KESHINI PURBHOO

Roshi Bhadain

Air Mauritius finally got its new chief executive on 14 July after a six-month wait. As a former pilot, Appavoo will bring a certain perspective to the job.

That has started with some industrial relations work – ironing out a pilots’ strike.

But he will also concentrate on the fleet overhaul that Air Mauritius has begun, including a large order of planes: two A350-900s before the end of the year and four more longhaul planes in 2018. Mauritius has signed up to certain provisions of global open skies agreements, which should see a greater deal of competition. Certainly, tourism operators have been pushing for more flights for some time. Air Mauritius will have to ensure it maintains cruising speed if it wants to keep up with the continental behemoth, Ethiopian Airlines, or the various Gulf carriers who ply routes across Africa.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Energy drives performance.

Since our establishment in 1899, we have been actively contributing to the economic development of Mauritius and have grown to become an Investment Holding with international ambition. Building on our strong heritage, it is with the same dedication and ardour that we serve our clients from Mauritius and through our network of offices across Africa, the Indian Ocean, Asia, and Europe in four main markets: Hospitality, Travel & Leisure, Property Investments, Logistics and Financial & Business Services.

Focused Energy, Every Day

F I N T E C H

|

H O S P I T A L I T Y

|

L O G I S T I C S

|

P R O P E R T Y rogers.mu

54 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

AFRICA

Businesses want access to the bigger markets on the continent, and a number of economic players say Mauritius needs to open up to African immigration

O

SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF MAURITIUS

n a Friday afternoon a civil the new city of Diamniadio, is complete, servant hurriedly talks into his with 13ha to be rented out. “The demand phone, making the finishing we have been getting far outstrips suptouches to a framework agreement on ply,” assures Manick. “This is something that we have done before. We know how a new ‘technology park’. It is a legal to industrialise and create special zones.” document that will channel Mauritian investment into a special economic zone ThelogictopushMauritiancompanies (SEZ) outside of the Ghanaian capital, into Africa seems clear. When faced by Accra. The following week, the agreea declining population and a domestic ment will be approved by the Ghanaian market unable to keep pace with the parliament, hence the pressure to finish. ambitions and capital stock of its largest Yash Manick, the chief executive conglomerates, you need to seek a hinof the Mauritius Africa Fund, says he terland. When you add a global push to should have moved offices regulate offshore finance to Ebene, the new busihubs, you create the curness headquarters of the rent climate in Mauritius: island, but for the moment a search for a toehold in is still in downtown PortAfrica across the board.

Louis. “I don’t mind!”, says MITIGATING RISKS Manick. “It gives me access to the unlimited powers In the world of finance, this of the government when I push to greater sophisticaneed to get things like this tion is already happening, done in a hurry.” says Rama Sithanen, a forThe Mauritius Africa The Mauritius Africa mer minister of finance Fund’s contribution who is now chairman Fund will be familiar to to the construction students of recent Asian of the Diamniadio of IFS, a trust and fund special economic zone economic development: a administrator recently quasi-governmental agenbought by the Jersey-based cy, run as a public company to streamline Sanne Group. “It’s a work in progress, to decision-making, but whose goal is ecobe fair,” he says, “it’s significantly better nomic-nationalistinscope.Whileinitially than when we started 25 years ago.” That sets up Mauritius, Sithanen argues, to it was set up to take small equity positions act as a hub for investors who want to inMauritiancompaniesthatareinvesting in Africa, that quickly became tough to take advantage of the continent’s growth opportunities but who are wary of getmanage. The new direction is to first get government-to-government support and ting money stuck in unstable countries. then build SEZs into which Mauritian “Investing directly in places like India and other companies can settle. and Africa is no fun. People realise that,” says Sithanen, who also acts as chairman For now, there are zones planned of the Rwanda Development Board. in Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and “You need to identify and price the risk”.

Madagascar. Senegal’s first phase, in

$9.7m

PRÉSIDENCE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE DU SÉNÉGAL

Building a two-way street

Senegal’s President Macky Sall prepares for business at the Diamniadio special economic zone

For Sanjiv Bhasin, the CEO of AfrAsia bank, “the ability to set up special purpose vehicules in Mauritius helps in managing that risk”.

Banks like the State Bank of Mauritius say they like the fact that the Mauritian government is giving them back-up at the national level – again, a kind of economic diplomacy that successful Asian developing economies are good at.

Relations with African countries work in other ways too, and South Africa is an obvious target for some projects. Mont Choisy is a property company offering a new development around Grand Baie in the north of the country – a Mauritian residency permit is included in the price of the apartment, which is attractive to some South Africans. “They make up about 40% of the new development,” says Jyoti Jeetun, the chief executive of Mont Choisy.

But while Africa is the watchword for the government, some say the island needs to think seriously about immigration, from Africa and elsewhere.

Arnaud Lagesse of the island’s largest conglomerate, IBL, says: “Look at the demographics. We need to start thinking about selective immigration, at the very least.” Opening up the residency laws would be one option, argues Jeetun, who is also an ardent promoter of the need to think about immigration differently.

“Right now it is a taboo subject,” she says, “but Mauritius is too small. We want to be Singapore and Dubai. But we don’t want to open the doors like they have.”

Nicholas Norbrook in Port-Louis

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

56 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

return home. “There is a huge shortage of skills in Africa and a real problem with talent-poaching,” says Sauzier.

He is trying to persuade corporates to think about sending their local staff for One sugar conglomerate is diversifying into degrees in Mauritius as a way of keeping an education hub, aiming to lure African students expatriate worker costs down. That is often a difficult ask: “Human resources with the promise of a European degree for less directors often have a two-three-year time horizon. They need to start seeing rank – not his real name – is a things over the long term.” sugar cane fields slope gently slope down student from Uganda who is in to the picturesque Flic-en-Flac beach.

Medine first had the idea of creating a For the moment Middlesex students ‘smart city’ on the land of its former sugar the second year of a master’s have all this to themselves, but the Uniciti cane plantations. Figuring out who would course in computer network design live there was more difficult: “Building campus is designed to host several edu­ at the Mauritian campus of the UK’s cational establishments, a city in Singapore and Middlesex University. “It’s kind of quiet,” he says. “I have already done all the bars sharing the sports facilities Mauritius is not the same and restaurant. around here, and it is still the first week of thing,” says Sauzier. “In term.” Whether Frank’s parents approve Singapore, you are in the of the lack of distraction is unknown.

NOT JUST middle of a market of 350 A UNIVERSITY But the associate director of Middlesex million people,” whereas University Mauritius, Dominique “There is a wider, proMauritius is in the middle Arlanda, certainly approves of her Africa philosophy here, of the Indian Ocean. new campus. A gaggle of students hang [it’s not] just a university,” The choice of education says Thierry Sauzier, the came from looking to the around the common spaces, two of them riffing on guitar and bass. The smell of newly minted chief execmarket on the doorstep: 1,524 international new building hangs in the air. The lecture utive of Medine Group, continental Africa. To atstudents were in theatre is comfortable and state-of-thetract students, Medine has which is building the Mauritian universities art. “Last year [before they came to the pitched prices at around education hub. An old in 2015, with 236 from South Africa new campus] we were bursting at the half of the cost of a degree Mauritian conglomerseams. We even had to run classes on a in Europe, including living ate, its goal is to create Saturday,” says Arlanda. The expansion costs. Studying at Uniciti will cost around a ‘knowledge cluster’ for Mauritius.

Rs250,000 ($7,300) per year, it says. allows the university to offer new courses Medine will make money out of property Frank’s classmate, Nathan Phiri of in law and nursing, and an international surrounding the campus; students will foundation programme to prepare for shop at the mall and live in accommoMalawi, says he is very happy with the a degree-level course. dation created by Medine. tranquillity of his surroundings and the Sauzier says educating African quality of the lectures. “I am working on Across the road from the campus, getting government services to people on workers are racing to finish a sports graduates in Mauritius will benefit the centre before the opening in November, continent. Whereas an African student their mobile phones, and getting cheaper with an Olympic-length pool, basketball who leaves to study in Europe or the US networks are key.” An affordable degree and five-a-side courts and a football should help him reach those goals. will often end up staying on after, those who study in Mauritius are likely to Nicholas Norbrook in Flic-en-Flac pitch. From the top of the club house,

A class of its own

SOURCE: TERTIARY EDUCATION COMMISSION OF MAURITIUS

F

MEDINE

A smell of fresh wood rather than musty books as students settle in to Middlesex University’s new Mauritius campus

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

at the c

i n t e r n a t i o n a l

nfluence of innovation

b a n k i n g

16, Sir William Newton Street, Port Louis, Mauritius T: +230 202 9200 | E: SalesteamIBD@bankone.mu bankone.mu/international

58 COUNTRY FOCUS | MAURITIUS

Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing Chairman, State Bank of Mauritius

Any failure is a good lesson for us The Mauritian bank is taking careful steps in its expansion in East Africa, purchasing two Kenyan assets this year after a few years of turbulence in that market

B

uying banks in Africa is not easy, and State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) keeps that in mind as it expands its operations in East Africa. SBM has kept its sights trained on Kenya recently. Purchasing Fidelity Bank in May – “a baby step in a long march”, according to SBM chairman Kee Chong Li Kwong, who is widely known as KC – it has since plucked the best assets out of failed Chase Bank.

“Any failure, if we can call it so, is a good lesson for us,” says KC, as his institution embarks on an African bank hunt. One recent example of trouble is that of Bob Diamond, the former Barclays CEO, who piled into African banks at the top of the market in 2013, buying a string of financial institutions. The shine has come off Diamond’s Atlas Mara group, leaving investors disappointed at profits of barely $1m in the first half of 2016.

As Diamond discovered, purchasing financial institutions on the continent can be tricky because of levels of opacity and questions over ownership. Before KC’s arrival as chairman at SBM,

his predecessor was interested in buying another Kenyan bank, the now infamous Imperial Bank, whose scandalous wreck was the talk of Nairobi in 2015.

“When I took over, I said: ‘Is this bank really worth this much? Let’s do some proper due diligence,’” says KC. He recalls being wined and dined by Imperial Bank chairman Alnashir Popat at the Capital Club with Kenya’s political and business elite. The bank’s chief executive, Abdulmalek Janmohamed, however, brushed him off with protestations of too

“We are going [into Africa] eyes wide open, and that’s why we have taken our time” much work: “He said: ‘I’m working overtime. The only time I leave the office is to go to the mosque’.

He was so proud. I thought then there must be big problems. One month later, he died, and I found out he was cooking the books.”

KC claims his nose also helped avoid purchasing Chase Bank before it collapsed under similar circumstances in 2016. “So, for us it is a risk. We are going [into

Africa] eyes wide open, and that’s why we have taken our time. First of all, we had to make sure that we have enough capital. Secondly, enough management bandwidth so that we know how to run the business. And then we go also when we have a very good risk management framework,” says KC. He adds that Kenya is lucky to have such a good bank governor in Patrick Njoroge – “straight guy, no nonsense” – and that the deals for Fidelity and Chase were eventually straightened out because the governor understood that SBM is there for the long term.

LUCK AND COMMON SENSE

Dodging bullets aside, Mauritian banks will continue to look at Africa as a land of opportunity because of two big structural changes. First, Mauritius is being forced to offer more substantial THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

MAURITIUS | COUNTRY FOCUS 59

BOUYANT BANKER 1974-1975 Worked as a lecturer in public finance at the University of Mauritius 1976-1983 Worked as project manager at Mauritius Cooperative Central Bank 1983-1988 Served as adviser to the finance minister 1989-1991 Was chief executive of the National Mutual Fund

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

1991-1992 Was chairman of the Stock Exchange Commission

financial services to keep its offshore banking sector because of a raft of new global regulations (see page 48). Second, Western banks are leaving Africa because of a different set of global financial regulations, which make compliance costly.

This is why the Mauritian government has announced a shakeup of the industry, with a new overarching vision in the works – the much-heralded Blueprint for the Mauritius International Financial Centre – to set new prior­ ities. It is being coordinated by the executive director of Harvard Law School, James Shipton.

But SBM’s KC – perhaps counterintuitively for a man who was an adviser to the finance minister during the first economic miracle of the 1980s – does not set much store by the government’s ability to shape the coming THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

transition. Rather, he argues that the island has been blessed by luck and common sense, and benefits from the hardheaded decisions of the private sector.

“It’s the people who drive things,” KC says, laughing off the suggestionthatMauritiushasbeen well-served by institutions like the Joint Economic Council, a body that brings together private-sector and public-sector officials to set policy and guide decision-making.

“All these people are buffoons. You tell me these fools have contributed anything? It’s just by sheer luck that Mrs [Indira] Ghandi came here. There was a crisis.

Mrs Ghandi said: ‘Ok, let us give Mauritius a good deal [the double taxation avoidance agreement].

They are stupid enough. We hate these types of Indians. These are French-speaking Indians who have no culture.’ Mrs Gandhi came

N O V E M B E R 2 017

1993-2010 Served as managing director of Mauritius International Trust May 2010 – October 2014 Worked as a member of the National Assembly June 2015 Chosen as chairman of the SBM board

to exploit Mauritius, because Mrs Gandhi thought of using Mauritius to go into Africa and get their mines, then bring [the money] back into India without tax.” Who would have expected that it was Mauritius who would then be res­ ponsible for channeling so much investment into India? says KC. BLUEPRINT IS FOR SHOW

The second bit of historical good fortune, says KC, was French fears over socialism breaking out across the Indian Ocean territories of Réunion, Madagascar and the Seychelles. To win Mauritius over, Paris invited the country into the Yaoundé Convention, France’s pan-African market, eventually allowing Mauritius to have early market access into Europe.

For KC, the current drive to produce a blueprint for the future of the financial sector in Mauritius is just to keep politicians busy.

“Otherwise, we will start fighting each other. We need politicking, we need blueprints, we need masterplans because we like to show off. And also because the Western people want it,” says KC. “Have you seen the Australian fromHarvard school coming here?

Doyouthinkhe will teach me, with 30 years’ experience in finance?”

Instead, KC argues that greater progress will come from having better coordination between government departments. “We don’t have the right initiatives done from the right quarters because each one has got his own interest – some with the price of sugar falling want to get subsidies, some in offshore finance who have been getting a field day with India wanting to protect India. Who is thinking about the country?”

This more long-term thinking may, he concedes, come from a new economic planning department that the government is currently designing. “This is what the population wished all the time,” he says, “so that we know what we are doing and we don’t have haphazard development left, right and centre, which is unsustainable.”

Interview by Nicholas Norbrook in Port-Louis

DEAN HUTTON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

60

RETAIL

The Steinhoff

COMPANIES & MARKETS 61

W PEP (top left) and Rochester (left) are two of the retailers bundled in the new STAR listing, which also owns call options in ShopRite (below left)

atch footage of the opening of ShopRite stores in Angola, and you may think you are witnessing examples of Black Friday shopping madness in the US. Thousands of shoppers rush in as the doors open and empty the shelves within minutes.

These sell-out openings reflect the huge demand for supermarkets in many under-served countries in Africa, where most large retailers fear to tread but where ShopRite continues to expand.

Whiletherearesupply-chain,infrastructure and foreign-exchange challenges in some countries, the group continues its charmed expansion on the continent. Its success outside of South Africa is unique among retail chains. Some companies – like the upmarket Woolworths, which pulled out of Nigeria in 2013 citing the cost of doing business – got their fingers burnt. Others bumble along tentatively, with Pick n Pay in only six countriesoutsideSouthAfrica,and Massmart, the owner of Makro and Game, having just 39 stores in the

shuffle

After failing to merge major retailers Steinhoff and ShopRite last year, South African billionaire investor Christo Wiese is trying new ways to get the companies he has invested in to work closer together as they expand across the continent

By Marcia Klein in Cape Town

rest of Africa. But ShopRite has forged ahead: revenue from outside South Africa now accounts for almost 20% of its revenue, which recently reached R130bn ($9.5bn).

A comparison with its main rival Pick n Pay – which had been the dominant retailer in South Africa for many years – is telling. Pick n Pay reported revenue of R77.5bn in the year ending 26 February 2017, with R4.3bn earned outside South Africa. “How the mighty has fallen,” says Mark Ingham, director of South Africa's Ingham Analytics.

SHOPRITE STORMS AHEAD

Ingham calculates that ShopRite’s Africa operations outside South Africa will have pre-tax profits of around R1.7bn in 2018, and R2bn within two years. “To put that in perspective, ShopRite will make as much profit in Africa next year as Pick n Pay’s South Africa operations. That’s how big it is.

It is remarkable.”

While the comparison gives a sense of the scale of growth of ShopRite’s business, that is not the full extent of the continental aspirations of major ShopRite shareholder Christo Wiese. A series of complex deals involving the major investments of the South African billionaire will forge the business of ShopRite and the African interests of retail group Steinhoff International closer together. Wiese held 16.9% of ShopRite and 23% of Steinhoff International at their latest year ends, and is the largest single shareholder of both companies.

In phase one of these deals, Steinhoff Africa Retail (STAR) – representing the African operations of the Frankfurt-listed but South African-formed Steinhoff International – listed separately from the holding company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in September. After the next phase, including STAR’s proposed exercise of call options and share repurchase, it will wind up with 23.1% of the economic interest and, importantly, 50.6% of the voting rights in ShopRite.

The STAR group’s revenue was more than R51bn in the year to September, with operations (see

62 BUSINESS | COMPANIES & MARKETS

graphic on page 63) in 12 African countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As of March, it had 4,498 stores in South Africa and 310 in the rest of Africa. ShopRite, with turnover of R130bn in the year to 2 July, has 2,689 stores in 15 countries, with 437 stores outside South Africa and 43 new stores planned for the financial year.

Last year, its supermarkets outside of South Africa generated an 11.7% increase in turnover.

Supermarkets in Angola and Nigeria increased customers by 35.7% and 38.2%, respectively.

There are now 30 ShopRite stores in Angola, which accounts for the lion’s share of non-South Africa sales, and 23 in Nigeria.

STAR and ShopRite are, collectively, a major force in retail on the continent. While ShopRite dominates the grocery sector, STAR sells apparel, footwear, household goods, furniture, appliances, consumer electronics and building materials, and provides financial and mobile services.

Between STAR and ShopRite, “they can almost fill a shopping centre”, Ingham says. “There is a complementary nature to the retail stores that they have.”

STAR expects numerous bene­ fits from its closer association with ShopRite. “The acquisition of ShopRite will assist STAR in realising its vision to be the preferred destination for the African consumer, by providing everyday essential products at affordable prices and serving the consumer at their convenience,” it said.

It will enhance its relevance to African consumers: “The food and grocery segment is the largest market segment in Africa with strong, defensivegrowthprospects.Access to this segment and its customers will significantly increase STAR’s market penetration in the continent’s formalising retail market.”

And STAR argues that ShopRite will benefit “from the Steinhoff Group’s sourcing, scale advantages, shared best practices and strategic direction as part of one of the largest global discount retailers.” ShopRite has not elaborated on developments, with

Top STAR brands Discount clothing & homeware

Furniture & DIY

SEARCH FOR SYNERGIES

This means that from a real-estate point of view, there may be synergiesbetweenthecompanies.There are other synergies too, including thepossiblemergerofthefurniture businesses of the two companies, which may spark competition concerns. But that is unlikely, as ShopRite’s furniture division is a small part of its total business.

SteinhoffandSTARareunwilling to comment about their plans, says Ian Nel, a manager at Steinhoff International. STAR’s pre-listing statement, however, offers insight, with STAR saying the listing would offer a direct investment into “the African growth story”, enable it to be independently valued “as an emerging market, Africa-focused, retail company”, and give it access to capital to grow – including throughitsinvestmentinShopRite.

Electronics & appliances

Fashion

Shoes

chief executive Pieter Engelbrecht saying it will be business as usual.

The investment community is not yet convinced about the deals, but it is used to, and not necessarily in favour of, Wiese shuffling around his assets. Pepkor, a major element in STAR, was incorporated into Steinhoff some years ago in a hugely lucrative deal for Wiese.

Heabandonedanattemptlastyear to merge Steinhoff and ShopRite.

This time, however, at least part of his plan is going ahead.

RING-FENCED BEE

Analysts say the STAR listing may be an estate-planning exercise for Wiese. Evan Walker, a fund manager and analyst at 36One Asset Management, says the deals represent Wiese solidifying control overhisinvestmentsandattheend of the process, through Steinhoff, he has effective control of both retailers. “This is quite a phenomenal platform to grow the business with a sizeable balance sheet and cashflows all the way through.”

Walker says Wiese and Steinhoff International chief executive Markus Jooste may want to “to sit in Stellenbosch” and look for deals.

But he is sceptical, saying Steinhoff overpaid for its past few deals. “He [Wiese] is effectively hitching his wagons to the Steinhoff locomotive,” says Ingham. “Jooste is a very successful businessman, and they are kindred spirits.” Wiese was also a fan of ShopRite’s former chief executive Whitey Basson, who was widely believed to have been against any merger with Steinhoff.

There are also other reasons for hiving off STAR, including black economic empowerment (BEE) imperatives set by the South African government. “What we have now is quite a clever concoction – with tacit acceptance of the [government pension fund investor] Public Investment Corporation – to use STAR as a ring-fenced company for BEE,” says Ingham. A company called Lancaster, headed by businessman Jayendra Naidoo, has been introduced as STAR’s BEE partner, with an 8.8% stake in the company.

While Wiese and Jooste may be looking for deals, these are likely to THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

COMPANIES & MARKETS | BUSINESS 63

ShopRite and STAR Nigeria

Angola Angola is the third-largest market in terms of stores for STAR, and the fourth-largest for ShopRite. As in Nigeria, the recent drop in oil prices has caused concern for retailers. ShopRite’s 2017 annual report says that Angola is second only to South Africa in terms of revenue-generation and that its customer numbers rose by more than a third last year.

PEP launched its first store in Angola in 2008. Meanwhile, in 2014 ShopRite signed a deal with South African brand Debonairs Pizza to open outlets of the restaurant in some of its shops.

Angola is also home to more of the brands in the ShopRite family, with 13 MediRite pharmacies and plans for wholesaler TransPharm to begin operations.

Southern Africa gets the most attention from both ShopRite and STAR brands, but Nigeria is also a key growth market.

ShopRite launched there in 2005, and now has 23 stores, mostly in the south.

PEP is a leader for STAR, and the clothing and housewares retailer now has 20 shops around Lagos. ShopRite plans on opening two new stores and recently purchased a new distribution centre for Nigeria. It employs 2,650 people and is also growing the number of local companies in its supply chain, with an estimated three-quarters of its goods coming from Nigeria.

Southern and Eastern Africa From South Africa, STAR and ShopRite gradually expanded into neighbourhing countries including Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. East Africa has some of its own strong retail brands and so expansion there has been slower. ShopRite has just opened two stores in Uganda after starting there in 2000. ShopRite has not been very active in francophone countries, but opened a first supermarket in the DRC in 2012. The growth of retailers is boosting the number of malls on the continent. The new Kabwe Mall in Zambia opened in August, with ShopRite, OK Furniture, PEP and Ackermans.

be through Steinhoff International rather than the African interests, where acquisition opportunities of scale are limited. This means growth from African operations will have to be organic.

This is where collaboration between STAR and ShopRite may help. At the moment, the two groups’ brands will stay separate, says Michael Treherne, a portfolio manager at Vestact. “If Steinhoff International is wanting to get efficiencies out of the companies it has bought, I don’t know how many more efficiencies there are,” he says, “but [I]do think they will have increased bargaining power, if, for example, they go to a mall saying: ‘We can bring all these brands to the party.’”

low. 36One Asset Management's Walker warns, however, that he is “negative on the landscape”, saying that lower-earning consumers are feeling the effects of difficult economic conditions.

STAR and ShopRite focus on the same customer base, and their strategies are aligned. Both are aiming to increase customer numbers by offering essential products at affordable prices, a strategy that has worked for both so far.

STAR’s Africa presence (Number of stores) South Africa

79

4,498

78

KEEPING PRICES LOW

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

55 40 SOURCE: STAR

They also have competitive power.

“ShopRite does well in Africa because it has the big organisation and cashflow behind it, and competitors don’t. Size and scale is generally a good thing,” Treherne says, enabling them to keep prices

36 15 7

Zambia Angola

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Mozambique Zimbabwe

Nigeria Malawi

Uganda

Walker makes the point that they have first-mover advantage, and there is still significant scope for growth, though not through acquisition.

Whether this growth will be of a similar scale to previous years is unclear. “We don’t know the scope of growth prospects ahead,” says Ingham. “ShopRite created markets where markets did not exist, and if we take that as an example, they could dig around and create somethingnoonehasseenbefore.”

Ingham doesn’t see ShopRite’s growth to date as organic – “it is a greenfield approach,” he says. It continues to create demand, but the extent of this pent-up demand is unclear. Experience seems to indicate that as long as STAR and ShopRitecontinuedoingwhatthey do, demand will follow.

“You don’t often know what the demand is if there is no supply,” Ingham continues. “In some markets, they [ShopRite] go in and it is like Christmas. For many consumers, relatively affordable foodstuffs are a dream come true.”

64 BUSINESS | COMPANIES & MARKETS

AGRIBUSINESS

Food for thought, and for growth

The September launch of a feedmill by Olam, and anouncements of new projects by Dangote Group, show investors are ready to commit to Nigeria’s diversification the resumption of duties after 103 daysofmedicalleave.Buharispoke briefly about the significance of the launch as the country readies itself to diversify and wean itself from decades of overdependence on oil.

Agriculture minister Audu Ogbeh then delivered Buhari’s address.

Olam’s plant can produce 1.6m chicks weekly, contributing to Nigeria’s 1.5m tonne poultry needs

SIGN OF RECOVERY

Buhari stressed that the new facility shows Nigeria is on the road to recovery, calling it “clear evidence that, in spite of all odds, economic growth is taking place, especially in the agricultural sector. […] It is our article of faith and our earnest belief that agriculture offers the most viable and all-encompassing option in our attempt to diversify our economy,” Ogbeh said on behalf of the government.

The whizzing machines in the feedmill are so loud the engineers have to empty the building and let the self-automated process take over. Just outside, its boiler purrs softly to life, using agro-waste (corn cob fuel) rather than fossil fuel. The strict biosecurity process is powered by smooth-rolling automated generators across the facility.

Olam’s 2016 revenue (S$bn)

20.6

6.8

(32.8%) SOURCE: OLAM

W

ith oil prices on the skids, local and international players – like Dangote Group and Singapore’s Olam – are investing big bucks on a long-term strategy to feed the growing masses of Africa’s most populous economy. With Nigeria expected to be the world’s third-most populous country in the world by 2050, companies are moving to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

Dangote Group, owned by Nigerian billionaire AlikoDangote, announced this year its plans to invest $3.8bn in sugar and $800m in dairy products over the next three years (see box). Olam International has grown from a small-volume cashew exporter in Nigeria back in 1989 to a conglomerate with a presence in 70 countries. Now its household staples come from its 18 factories and 115 warehouses across Nigeria.

Early this September, Olam launched a new animal feedmill and hatchery with a capacity to produce an estimated 1.6m chicks weekly in Chikpiri Gabas, a village just outside Kaduna, 209km north of Abuja. The facility, sitting on 850ha of land donated by the Kaduna State government, includes a 10,000km² warehouse for raw goods, another for finished goods at half that capacity and four breeder farms.

Olam’s$150minvestmentspans not just its new Kaduna facility but also another new integrated poultry and fish feed mill in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, where production has also begun.

President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Kaduna facilities, making his first public outing since

Africa

Global

Key to investors’ hopes is the government’s recent hardline stance on frozen poultry imports.

Imported frozen poultry was first banned in 2003, but 1.2m tonnes continued to be smuggled in per year. Now, in a bid to increase self-sufficiency and integrate the poultry value chain into the economic recovery plan announced by vice-president Yemi Osinbajo in April 2016 there has been a real crackdown on the smuggling.

This has been rewarded with an uptick in investments going into the agro-processing subsector.

Olam, one of the largest non-oil exporters in Nigeria in the last decade, is looking to capitalise on it and offer small-scale farmers improved options for the long run.

Keshav C. Suresh, global head of Olam’s grains division, tells The Africa Report: “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” He adds: “We’re getting confident from what government is saying, so we’re bringing in all this foreign direct investment in the hope that government follows through to help the small-scale farmer. We’ve seen it in the rice sector, so we THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

TYSO SADLO/OLAM

COMPANIES & MARKETS | BUSINESS 65

hope they follow through in other subsectors of agriculture, given the rural population numbers.”

Olam’s optimism in Nigeria, even with the difficulty of doing business there, is understandable.

Its operations in Nigeria accounted for a large chunk of the 16% of its 2016 revenues that came from Africa – S$3.3bn ($2.4bn) of the S$20.59bn global total.

The company says it is dealing with 300,000 smallholder crop farmers to source the bulk of raw materials for its animal feed mills, including soybeans, corn and cassava. Beyond that, it is also collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan to use seed varieties from its research to boost smallholder yields.

GOOD FOR SMALL FARMERS

Olam is also worried about the optics of its investment. Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, president of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, told reporters at the launch event: “Itisnotathreattosmallproducers […]. It’s a threat to the big players because small farmers would THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

even get the pullets cheap and they would also have feed because they are also producing feed there.”

The new facility aims to cut losses along the value chain that are caused by a lack of personnel to verify chick health as well as issues like transport and husbandry techniques. Olam’s automated processes run non-stop, consuming

a lot of energy in a country where electricity supply remains shaky.

Accordingtothecompanymanagement, Olam chose Kaduna for its conducive weather and investor-friendly government, with governor Nasir El-Rufai alluding to his administration’s willingness to secure the investment. “I pleaded with President Buhari to turn down his invitation to attend the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 so I could meet with Olam”, El-Rufai said. “Our September 2015 meetings with Olam in Singapore produced a meeting of minds, and the company made a firm decision to invest further in Nigeria and in Kaduna State.”

To fill the personnel gap, Olam is targeting new veterinarians from 10 universities across the country by offering 80 of them a two-year internship. One of them is 25-yearold Mary Chisom Esonu, who met Olam staff when they went on a recruitment drive during the 2016 oath-taking ceremony for new vets at Ahmadu Bello University.

“This is my first experience in practical terms,” she tells The Africa Report. “And it is an opportunity for me to use some of the facilities that I’ve previously seen only in books. The facilities are nice.” Esonu, whose goal is to become an academic, will get a stipend and accommodation within the Kaduna premises.

Eromo Egbejule in Chikpiri Gabas

Grow your sugar, eat your cake LOCAL BUSINESS PLAYERS ALSO SEE the potential in Nigeria’s agribusiness. Having made his fortune as an importer of goods such as rice and cement, Aliko Dangote is now a magnate at the head of an empire that is producing more and more on the continent. Dangote Sugar Refinery is investing in two big sugar projects: one worth $450m in Niger State and another worth $700m in Nasarawa State. The Nasarawa deal, signed in July, includes plans for a 60,000ha plantation and two factories with the capacity to produce 430,000tn per annum. In August Dangote signed with Niger State government to build a 16,000ha farm that will operate on an outgrower basis.

Abdullahi Sule, acting group managing director for Dangote Sugar Refinery, told local media in October that there are many stumbling blocks on the road for Nigeria to meet its goal of sugar self-sufficiency. They include difficulty in getting access to land and finding talent in the local labour market. The company has also made the point that government needs to do its part to help farmers, saying the lack of good roads in rural areas is holding back the development of agricultural markets. In September, at the Corporate Council for Africa confab in the US, Dangote quipped that the current environment is a good one for investments in long-term growth, such as in agribusiness: “We should pray that oil prices remain low. We must take oil to be the icing on the cake. We already have the cake.”

E.E.

N O V E M B E R 2 017

66 BUSINESS | COMPANIES & MARKETS

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Gunvor, the Kremlin, oil and corruption Swiss courts are investigating a series of opaque business deals linking members of the Brazzaville elite and a major commodities trader company known as Asperbras, which was the main beneficiary of the government contracts, “billed its services to the Congolese state at prices up to 10 times higher than charged in other countries for similar services”. Asperbras also paid Gunvor commissions for help in winning the contracts.

Gunvor’s sweeteners for Congo included influence with President Putin

T

he government in Brazzaville is in the midst of a major corruption scandal relating to its relationship to Geneva-basedcommoditiestrader Gunvor after a Swiss non-governmental organisation (NGO) unconvered evidence of corruption.

“Between September 2010 and June 2012, Gunvor secured [two] untendered contracts to export 22 tankerloads of crude valued at about$2.2bn,” saystheNGOPublic Eye as part of its findings following a two-year investigation into the world’s fourth-largest independent oil trader and its operations in the oil-rich Republic of Congo.

In exchange for these contracts, Gunvor signed six pre-financing agreements with the Congolese state-owned oil company, the Société Nationale des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC), each worth €125m ($149m).

The deals involve some of the most powerful officials in Congo. Public Eye’s report entitled ‘Gunvor in Congo: Oil, Cash Payments and Embezzlement’

22

Number of tankerloads of crude oil Gunvor secured from Congo, valued at about $2.2bn SOURCE: PUBLIC EYE

exposes the main players at the centre of the billion-dollar bribery and corruption scheme.

Gunvor offered other sweeteners as part of its Congolese activies. Gunvor co-founder Gennady Timchenko has close ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and the firm assured Congo it would sign an economic cooperation agreement with Russia – one was duly signed on 31 August 2011 – and get political support from the Kremlin on the international scene. The Genevabased company also paid substantial sums, as much as $31.9m, to intermediaries suspected of corrupting Congolese officials.

Initially intended for the development of new oil infrastructure, the funds from the pre-financing dealsfinancedpublicprocurement contracts “valued at more than $1bn, whose award led to various suspicious payments,” claims the Zurich-based NGO in the 68-page report published in September.

The report further explains that a Brazilian construction

MAXIM SHIPENKOV/AP/SIPA

PRESIDENT’S SON

According to the NGO, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso – the son of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the official responsible for all the SNPC’s crude oil sales – is at the heart of the deals with Gunvor. Four legal proceedings in Switzerland have already been opened to investigate any potential crimes linked to those transactions.

In video footage obtained by Public Eye and dating back to 2014, someone presented as a person close to Denis Christel is seen complaining to a Gunvor director that the president’s son is not receiving enough money for the exercise of his influence.

In the same video, a Gunvor representative explains that the Swiss oil trader is willing to pay commissions via a Russian company, which will be a discreet way of avoiding any “trouble”.

Contacted by Public Eye, the president’s son, who signed the agreement with Gunvor, said that “Congo is a sovereign state that has the legal standing to choose who it does business with, as all countries do, all of which is done in a thoroughly transparent and legal manner.” For its part, Gunvor said it could not comment when it was contacted by the French online investigative journal Mediapart, which co-produced the report.

The reason given was that legal proceedings are still ongoing. The Swiss trader has since ended all business dealings in Congo.

Charles Bouessel du Bourg

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Subscribe online:

theafricareportstore.com

c ti as t Fan subscription off er Print edition

Digital edition

Up to

60o% ff Subscribe now! now w!

Your benefits

• Monthly delivery of The Africa Report in print • Full access to each month’s digital issue via The Africa Report apps for iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows 8 or through ZINIO platform • Receive the gift of a beautiful MONTS NIMBA pen • Free access to theafricareport.com • Up to 60% saving on newsstand price • The Africa Report new daily newsletter direct to your smartphone or inbox

❏

YES, I would like to subscribe to

THE AFRICA REPORT PRINT + DIGITAL

and receive the gift of a beautiful MONTS NIMBA pen SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM SEND TO: Webscribe Ltd: Unit 4 College Road Business Park College Road North, Aston Clinton, HP22 5EZ, United Kingdom Email: subs@webscribe.co.uk - Tel: +44 (0) 1442 820580

Your gif t WWW.MONTSNIMBA.COM

PAYMENT IN

❏ US Dollars ❏ £ Sterling ❏ Euros ❏ Cheque enclosed payable to THE AFRICA REPORT ❏ Visa ❏ Mastercard ❏ Amex N° Expires Last 3 numbers on back ❏ Send me a receipt of payment PLEASE COMPLETE

❏ Mr

❏ Ms

❏ Mrs

Name..........................................................................................Surname..................................................................................

Address...............................................................................................................................................................................................

Print

Digital edition

(10 issues) + MONTS NIMBA pen

❏ 2 years

Print

Digital edition

(20 issues) + MONTS NIMBA pen

UK only

Other countries

€118.70

£94.40

$141.30

€212.40

£166.80

$254.60

€47

€88

£40 £72

$67

$125

Zip code...................................................................................City................................................................................................

State ..........................................................................................Country .....................................................................................

Tel. ................................................................................................E-mail .........................................................................................

Date and signature:

Offer valid until 31/12/2017. In accordance with Article 34 of the Information Technology and Freedom law, you have the right to access, modify or delete data concerning you by contacting The Africa Report.

TARMN17

❏ 1 year

Euro Zone

68 BUSINESS | LEADERS

Tariq Sijilmassi

Chief executive, Crédit Agricole du Maroc

Capitalising on its strong results, state-owned Moroccan bank Crédit Agricole du Maroc is preparing to go public and expand into Africa

T

arik Sijilmassi looks relaxed and poised as he sits down ready to answer questions , but he makes it clear that he will not talk about politics.

Having worked in banking for the past 30 years, the chief executive of Crédit Agricole du Maroc (CAM) and HEC business school graduate has become a major figure in the country’s economic life.

Known to close friends as ‘Sejil’, he was born in Rabat and works in the heart of the city, which has not hampered his understanding of the problems of the bank’s largely rural clientele.

Today, the banking group – which is 75% state-owned, with 15% held by insurers MamdaMCMA and 10% by the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion – is doing well. Capitalising on its positive results, CAM, one of the main funders of the Plan Maroc Vert launched in 2008, is setting out its new ambitions to expand its operations to sub-Saharan Africa and share its expertise there.

V.FOURNIER/JEUNE AFRIQUE

A real revolution has occurred

Your group used to make losses, but it has gradually become profitable, as your 2016 and first quarter 2017 results show. How did you get things back on an even keel?

TARIQ SIJILMASSI: When I took over the reins of the company in 2003, our branches in the rural areas were mainly focused on their public service mission, and this had a negative impact on the bank’s profitability. Today, thanks to a multichannel banking model, the profitability ratio in these areas is higher than that of the big cities, where we are competing with other banks.

Basically, we have focused our activities based on our clients’ profiles. We offer microcredits to small farmers through the Ardi Foundation, while the services of ourmeso-creditsubsidiaryTamwil El Fellah, which we manage in partnership with the state, go towards medium-sized farmers who are not eligible for traditional bank financing. Lastly, we offer agribusiness financing, and with

PLANTING SEEDS 1 December 1963 Born in Rabat 1986 Graduates from HEC Paris and joins Banque Commerciale du Maroc 2001 Joins CAM as deputy director 2003 Named CAM’s chief executive 2008 Government launches Plan Maroc Vert

that we can say a real revolution has occurred. For some years now, we’ve had only one client, and one with a high risk profile.

But now farmers have become an interesting group for traditional banks. We are trying to maintain a balance between these different targets, which helps us to maintain a comfortable financial situation.

You have been criticised for providing only a few insurance products. Are you satisfied with your partnership with the insurer Mamda?

Mamda and CAM feed off each other. For example, we send them clients for drought insurance.

But I think that neither of us is totally happy with our level of co­ operation. We want more because we see that there is huge potential. However, when Morocco is going through difficult times, the joint action taken by Mamda and CAM, against the backdrop of the provisions made by the Plan Maroc Vert, help to avoid any disasters. As a result, during

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

LEADERS | BUSINESS 69

What is the latest on the bank recapitalisation announced some time ago? Do you still have plans to list on the stock market?

CAM has fought hard to reach a level of capital that complies with the current regulations. We are in good standing in regard to the solvency ratio, but in Morocco the banking sector is particularly strong and resilient, with levels of capitalisation that far exceed the regulatory requirements. As a result, we want to go beyond the legal requirements and seek an extra level of security, as our peers have done. Our past and future subordinated debt issuance give us a solvency ratio between 13.5% and 14%. With regard to the Tier 1 ratio, we are at 9%. And we can strengthen this through the injection of capital, which could happen through the bank’s listing on the stock market. It is up to the stakeholders to decide and choose a date. What I can say is that we’ve met all the necessary prerequisites for listing.

So CAM will go public in 2018?

I’d say more likely in 2019, but this is not an official announcement. Once again, it does not depend on me. We are doing our part: we are releasing quarterly reports and we have put in place the necessary internal tools. And I would like to remind you that, according to the law that set up CAM, the state has to remain a majority shareholder and maintain at least 51% of the shares. For now we have 75%, which still leaves us a good capitalisation margin without the need for new regulations.

YouwerepartofKingMohammed VI’s delegation during his recent African tours. Do you have any plans for sub-Saharan Africa?

We’vebeenlookingatthisregion for some years now while asking THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

some fundamental questions. Yes, we want to go there, but we have to knowhowandwhy.Therearethree Moroccan banks –Attijariwafa, BMCE and BCP – that are already well established in many African countries, and they often control a significant share of the market. So to introduce a fourth bank may not necessarily be relevant, albeit the need for financing in rural areas has to be addressed.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa want to embark on key changes in their agricultural policies and the need for a financial partner is becoming increasingly obvious.

Nevertheless, Morocco’s agricultureminister hasimplementedthe Adaptation of African Agriculture initiative, and we have decided to be a partner for this initiative.

For us, our goal is not to make equity investments in local banks because we don’t want to shoulder the responsibility of their financial health. What we can and want to do is to enter into partnerships to help deploy models that have worked well in Morocco.

Have you already started the process?

We have signed agreements with about 15 establishments.

The idea is to build a network of agricultural banks in Africa that

“The idea is to build a network of agricultural banks in Africa to share best practice” will share their best practices, in order to export some of ours and learn from others. When it comes to digitalisation, for example, we can learn from banks in anglophone East Africa. So that is how I envision our roll-out into Africa, using the right expertise and project partnerships. We signed an agreement with a subsidiary of Natixis – Mirova – which manages a $300m grant from the United Nations to fund projects combating land degradation. CAM will be a distribution mechanism for these funds.

N OV E M B E R 2 017

Interview by Jules Crétois and Stéphane Ballong for Jeune Afrique

Nana Aïssa Ango Kousso The former Banque Atlantique Niger boss was appointed chief executive of Banque Internationale pour l’Afrique au Niger in September. Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire bought BIA-Niger in July and is looking to expand its operations.

Rebecca Miano The former KenGen legal affairs director became the company’s first female top boss in late August when she became acting chief executive to replace Albert Mugo, who retired.

Miano, who trained as a lawyer, is overseeing the development of new solar and geothermal projects.

Priscillah Mabelane In late August, Mabelane – then the chief financial officer – was named chief executive of oil company BP Southern Africa. The group covers the company’s activities in the key markets of Angola, Mozambique and South Africa.

TAGAZA DJIBO FOR JA; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

the last drought, Mamda paid out D1bn ($106.4m), the state launched a global programme worth D5bn and CAM put in place approximately D1.5bn of special financing for the planting of late crops. This shows that working together bears fruit.

BUSINESS | COMPANIES & MARKETS

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia says the state is close to bankruptcy

RYAD KRAMDI/AFP

70

ALGERIA

Rolling out the printing press The government has been slow to adjust to the period of low oil prices, and will now print money instead of turning to foreign lenders for help in avoiding a catastrophe

T

he experts at the Inter­ national Monetary Fund (IMF) had sounded the alarm. In September 2014, a del­ egation headed by Mauritania’s Zeine Ould Zeidane met with senior Algerian officials to discuss the crisis brewing due to the drop in oil prices. The IMF’s prescribed solution included deep structural reforms, reducing public spend­ ing, trimming the astronomical import bill and gradually ending subsidies. “If the government does not put things right within three years, the country is heading for disaster,” Zeidane told one of his hosts. Three years later, and Zeidane was proved right.

The country has never experi­ enced such a crisis since President Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to pow­ er in 1999. Prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia says the state is close to bankruptcy and must choose from two equally dangerous paths: print money or borrow it from international financial institutions.

But is the threat overblown or underestimated?Giventheopacity of the Algerian political system and the paucity of reliable statistics, it is difficult to say. But this financial crisis,inadditiontotheuncertainty about the health of Bouteflika, is having a deep and sustained im­ pact on Algeria’s future.

To plug the gap in the 2017 budget, the government needs to find $2bn. “And [next year] will be even more complex,” Ouyahia told the ministers of his government.

The state needs an injection of about $20bn to pay the treasury’s deficit and allow it to pay govern­ ment salaries. But civil service pay is not the only problem, as many state­backed infrastructure projects have stalled.

Algeria relies on its oil and gas for 98% of its exports, 70% of government revenue and about half of gross domestic product. For the past 15 years the country lived large, and the authorities spent without counting. But the shoe

eventually dropped in June 2014.

Algerian hydrocarbon revenue plunged from $60bn in 2014 to just $31bn in 2017.

“Algeria survived three years thanks to its savings,” says a former minister who requests anonymity, “but it melted away like snow in the sunshine.” The government spent the money from the Fonds de Régulation des Recettes – which amounted to $41bn at the end of 2014 – on successive deficits. And the country’s foreign­exchange reserves have suffered a similar fate, dropping from $194bn in early 2014 to $103bn in August 2017. At this rate, that lifesaver could be wiped out in four years if the price of oil does not make a spectacular recovery. And this has led the government to print money – rather than lose face by working with the IMF – in order to avoid a catastrophe.

For the government to begin issuing more currency, the leg­ islature needs to first amend the 1990 law on money and credit.

Then, the Banque d’Algérie will be able to create money to allow the treasury to pay off its debt, to pay off the public wage bill, to pay back $7.8bn to state oil company Sonatrach and to buy $6.1bn in debt from Sonelgaz.

Ouyahia says that public banks will then have the liquidity to finance investments.

SERIOUS REFORMS

D73,000 $640 is the monthly salary needed for the basics for a family of five in 2017, up from D30,700 in 2006.

The minimum wage is just D18,000.

SOURCE: SYNDICAT NATIONAL AUTONOME DES PERSONNELS DE L’ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE

Economist Alexandre Kateb, who worked on the prime minister’s panel of experts, says the sums in­ volved are huge: “The central bank could acquire $35bn in treasury bills in 2017.” The government has a five­year plan to rebound from the crisis, and it includes serious economic and financial reforms.

Economic experts have unan­ imously criticised the govern­ ment’s idea. “It is a Venezuela sce­ nario for Algeria,” says economist Kamal Kheffache. Businessman Ferhat Aït Ali is also pessimistic: “The swelling of the money supply will quickly lead to a rise of the price of industrial inputs and consumer goods, the increase in price of imported goods, a rise in interest rates, a drop in local

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

71

production and the erosion of citizens’ spending power.”

Algerians are already feeling the pain. The price of fruit and vegetables rose by 25% in a year. A teacher in a school in the suburbs of Algiers explains: “With a salary of D60,000 ($525) for a family of five, I cannot make ends meet.

How am I going to get by if prices double or triple?”

DÉJÀ VU

Algeria’s recent history shows that the same causes produce the same effects. In the middle of the 1990s the country ended up in the arms of the IMF due to the drop in oil prices, stratospheric external debt of $33bn and a sustained period of terroristattacks.Themanincharge of implementing austerity under IMF supervision was none other than prime minister Ouyahia. With breakneck structural adjustment, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, and companies closed. The psychological impact ofthoseeventsisstillfelt today,and this is one of the reasons that the government has refused to turn to foreign lenders this time around.

For personal and political reasons, Bouteflika does not want to be indebted to the IMF ahead of elections planned for 2019. Isolated in his hyper-secure medical suite in Zeralda, he has one major goal: to hold on until 2019 and get a fifth term in office. In addition, since coming to power, Bouteflika has made the restoration of Algeria’s international image his top priority.

And that has meant doing work at home. To ensure peace on the domestic front, the government introduced generous direct and indirect subsidies for things like fuel, housing, health, education and consumer goods. Social transfers now cost the treasury $27bn per year. If peace has a price, the state no longer has the money to buy it. Businessman Aït Ali concludes: “It is in times of crisis that you do painful reforms.

Algeria has lost three years. We do not have long […] so mark your calendars for late 2018.”

Farid Alilat in Algiers for Jeune Afrique

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Pension fund audits HANNIBAL CANNOT HELP but wonder when South Africa’s financial shenanigans will come to an end. Public Investment Corporation (PIC) boss Daniel Matjila, who manages the pension funds of state workers, came out in September saying that he was the target of a political cabal and was under pressure to use funds to bail out failing state-owned enterprises like South African Airways (SAA). Finance minister Malusi Gigaba – who said that nothing was amiss – explained that he was authorising an audit of the PIC to make sure that nothing was amiss. The end of September marked another financial hiccup for President Jacob Zuma’s government as Gigaba had to dip into the National Revenue Fund to pay back one of SAA’s loans, as Citibank refused to roll over the financial lifeline.

Oil is opaque IN OCTOBER IT WAS REVEALED that Nigeria’s oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has complained to president Muhammadu Buhari about dodgy dealings at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Buhari was elected in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform, but Kachikwu says NNPC management signed off on $25bn in contracts without following the proper procedures. The senate has promised to launch an investigation, but previous claims of billiondollar rot in the oil industry have not led to major shake-ups.

Corny causes WITH AN ELECTION DUE before the end of the month, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta announced in early October that the government would spend up to $60m to buy maize and subsidise the price of maize flour, a staple food.

He said the government would buy “all the maize offered for sale by our farmers during this 2017/18 season.” Such lofty promises may not have been necessary – at least in terms of the electoral calculus – as several days later oppositionist Raila Odinga announced that he was boycotting the re-run of the August presidential election because he does not believe the electoral commission will do its job properly.

Odinga had campaigned saying that the cost of living was too high and the government was doing too little about it.

Death spirals and dollars WITH PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE announcing a possible cabinet reshuffle, vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa claiming he was poisoned and rumours swirling about the potential collapse of the bond notes the government has been issuing to replace scarce US dollars, the situation is getting bleaker in Zimbabwe. Central bank governor John Mangudya has blamed “indiscipline” and “rent seeking” for the fact that people have more confidence in cold hard cash than the government’s word. Knives are out for Mangudya, with more voices in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front saying publicly that a new financial man is needed to right the ship before elections in 2018.

72

DOSSIER TELECOMS

Vodacom’s ea Vodacom, majority owned by the UK's Vodafone, is looking to Kenya and Tanzania in its quest to capture new markets outside of South Africa, where it leads the sector

By Erin Conway-Smith in Johannesburg

F

aced with a heavily saturated domestic market, hamstrung by an anaemic economy, Vodacom is turning its attention to business outside South Africa’s borders. Its glowing red logo has long shone like a beacon over downtown Johannesburg from a giant advertisement atop Ponte City, the tallest residential building in sub-Saharan Africa.

With more subscribers than any other mobile operator in South Africa, the firm is dominant on its home turf – perhaps too dominant, according to the country’s competition commission, which on 4 October announced an investigation into Vodacom’s exclusive contract to provide services to the government (see box).

The company sees dynamic, fast-growing East Africa as a lynchpinofitsgrowthstrategy.InAugust, Vodacom Group wrapped up its R34.6bn ($2.6bn) acquisition of a 35% stakein Safaricom,theleading THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

73

stern pivot communications firm and mobile operator in Kenya, from parent company Vodafone. The deal took the form of an equity swap, with Vodacom issuing 226.8m new shares to UK-based Vodafone, which is seeking to divest from African companies in order to look for a tie-up in Europe. Under the terms of the deal, Vodafone will retain a 5% holding in Safaricom, while the Kenyan government will keep a 35% stake.

A FORMIDABLE PLAYER

WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Vodacom is expanding its internet offering to offset a decline in revenue from mobile voice services

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

The transaction, described by Vodacom as “transformational,” was the largest in the company’s history. “It provides us with a unique opportunity to diversify [Vodacom’s] financial profile in a single transaction,” Vodacom chief executive Shameel Joosub tells The Africa Report.

Joosub points to Safaricom’s successes in Kenya, where it has a market share of 71%. “This is an exciting deal,” he says. “It provides our shareholders with access to a high growth, high margin and high cash-generating business in the attractive Kenyan market.”

He adds: “It will also increase our presence in East Africa and make Vodacom a formidable player in financial services on the continent.”

Kenya also offers room for expansion, Joosub says, noting that the country has a mobile penetration rate of 88% – well below that of South Africa, at 146%.

Dobek Pater, a telecoms expert and managing director of the Africa Analysis consultancy, says Vodacom is looking to solidify its position in Africa against competitors such as MTN Group. While

Vodacom is South Africa’s biggest mobile carrier with 39.4 million subscribers, it lags far behind South Africa-based MTN in terms of subscriber numbers across the continent. MTN has 231.8 million African subscribers, far more than Vodacom’s 69.3million(see chart).

The Kenyan market is expanding, and is suffering growing pains.

“Safaricom is a very successful entity with good revenue generation, profitability and cash flow. Vodacom stands to benefit from that,” Africa Analysis’s Pater says. But just as Vodacom is in the regulator’s spotlight for its dominance in South Africa, the Communications Authority of Kenya commissioned a report this year that suggested Safaricom should be broken up because it has too much control of the market. The government has come to Safaricom’s defence, but the company has become a target of opposition criticisms after the contestedAugustpresidentialelection.

‘PLAYING CATCH-UP’

Unlike rival MTN, which has aggressively pursued new markets – notably, Nigeria – Vodacom has taken a more cautious approach.

Joosub cites Vodacom’s “discipline” in evaluating new markets when asked where the company might be looking to expand next.

He has previously stated that Vodacom is only interested in acquiring significant players in markets of scale on the continent.

Derrick Chikanga, a telecoms analyst at research group IDC, says: “They are really playing catchup in terms of expanding their operations outside South Africa.”

74 DOSSIER | TELECOMS

TANZANIAN IPO

Vodacom’s pivot to East Africa also bolsters the company’s position in Tanzania, where it owns a 65% stake in Vodacom Tanzania and has 12 million customers.

Vodacom Tanzania had its initial public offering (IPO) in August after the Tanzanian government ordered all telecoms companies operating in the country to sell at least a 25% stake on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in a bid to boost domestic ownership in the fast-growing sector.

Initially undersubscribed, the IPO was extended to allow prospective investors more time to participate. Vodacom Tanzania

Subscribers on the continent (millions, as of June 2017)

Africa

South Africa

231.8

31.2

was the first telecoms operator to list on the exchange and became its largest IPO to date, drawing some 40,000 local investors. Many ofthemwerefirst-timeparticipants in the country’s stock market.

Pater says the fact that the telecoms IPOs were forced, not voluntary, may have led to reticence on the part of investors. “I think in general there is a cautious approach towards those information and communication technology stocks, perhaps in juxtaposition to mining stocks that probably present a better option at this time for investment,” he says.

BackhomeinSouthAfrica,there areconcernsthattelecomscompanies will be increasingly affected by the country’s grinding economic woes under President Jacob Zuma’s government. Vodacom, as with other South African firms, has been hurt by the volatile currency, and there are concerns that should local debt be downgraded to junk status, borrowing costs will

69.3

SOURCE: VODACOM/MTN

Vodacom also hopes its Kenyan acquisition will help drive growth of M-Pesa, Safaricom’s signature mobile-money service that launched a decade ago and now has 19 million active users across the continent. The major exception to this success is South Africa, where M-Pesa was shuttered last year after poor uptake from consumers. “The conditions in the local [South African] market are different, from a regulatory and market development perspective – both in the financial sector and the mobile sector,” Pater explains.

Pater says Vodacom will likely try to replicate the success of Safaricom’s mobile-money platform in new markets as mobile money and financial services become increasingly important for African wireless operators to have in their portfolio.

39.4

2.5m Number of customers Vodacom added during the quarter ended 30 June 2017, to reach nearly 70 million customers across the Group SOURCE: VODACOM

Trouble on home turf IT WAS A SHOCK ANNOUNCEMENT that sent Vodacom’s share price tumbling: South Africa’s Competition Commission announced on 4 October that it was investigating the country’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers for abuse of its dominant position. In 2016, Vodacom won a R5bn ($367m) contract to supply voice and data services to the government’s 20 highest-spending departments until 2020, following an open tender process by the treasury.

In a statement, the Competition Commission said it “has reasonable grounds to suspect that the exclusive contract may constitute an exclusionary abuse of dominance by Vodacom in contravention of the Competition Act.” The treasury has defended the deal, saying the aim was to save money instead of having different government departments negotiate separate contracts.

Vodacom says it is confident it followed the proper procedures. “While we are surprised by this investigation, we are committed to fully cooperating with the commission," Vodacom chief executive Shameel Joosub said.

E.C.S.

rise. Consumer spending is also expected to take a hit.

Telecoms firms including Vodacom have faced declines in revenue from mobile voice services. While data services have been profitable, growing public pressure to reduce prices have added to their woes.

REPLACING LOST REVENUE

Vodacomsaysithasloweredprices through better-value data bundles but admits that more needs to be done to lower voice and data costs.

“We embarked on a pricing transformation strategy three years ago and as a result, our customers have benefited from a 44% reduction in data prices and a 42% decline in the cost of voice calls over that period,” Joosub says.

“Weneedtoexpand4Gcoverage still further and keep pace with an increase of more than 45% in sustained data traffic demand,” he adds. “Both of these come at a cost, and we have invested some R32.7bn over the last four years. However, lack of access to spectrum is hampering our ability to drive down infrastructure costs and in turn, enable us to pass savings to the consumer.”

Africa Analysis’s Pater says wireless operators want to ensure that data revenue replaces lost revenuefromvoiceservices.“From anoperatorperspective,youwould want to sustain data prices higher rather than lower in order to realise a quick return on investment and maintain higher revenues,” he says. “It’s not cheap to provide data services,” Pater adds. “Significant funds and capital expenditure are committed to build infrastructure.”

IDC’s Chikanga adds: “The telecommunications industry is becoming very, very competitive [...] A lot of the operators are under pressure in terms of margins due to the decline in revenues from voice. They see that data is the only area that’s going to generate revenue for them. Reducing that would be suicide for their operations.” He concludes: “It’s all about broadening your operations [..]

It’s in [Vodacom’s] interest that they expand, especially within the East Africa region.”

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Our beams cover billions of viewers.

Our focus is only on you.

More Coverage. More Throughput. More Services.

Across the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia.

See us at

Spacecom’s AMOS satellite constellation, consisting of AMOS-3 & AMOS-7 co-located at 4°W and AMOS-4 at 65°E, provides high-quality broadcast and communications services across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. With AMOS-17 planned for launch to 17°E in 2019, Spacecom will further expand its reach, reinforcing its position as a leading satellite operator.

AfricaCom November 7- 9, 2017 Cape Town Booth # E82

www.amos-spacecom.com

76 DOSSIER | TELECOMS

SMARTPHONES

Your guide to the latest affordable handsets As African phone-makers enter the largely Asian-dominated field, The Africa Report takes a look at four devices under $100 that have hit the market this year

By Oheneba Ama Nti Osei

ONYX 401 Africa-made first O S Scheduled for launch in November, the ONYX 401 by South A African startup ONYX Connect boasts of being the first smartphone to be manufactured in Africa. The company w will sell the entry-level smartphone at a retail price of $40, slightly more expensive than the $30 initially announced.

T The handset runs on Android version 7 and sports a 4-inch sc creen, with low-quality specifications that go hand-in-hand with the budget-friendly price tag. The Johannesburgw based startup also launched a 3G and Wi-Fi-enabled b fe eature phone earlier this year, which costs about $20.

Price: $40 Screen resolution: 480 x 800 pixels Rear camera: 2MP RAM: 1GB Battery: 1500mAh

Freetel ICE 2 Targeting Nigeria’s consumers In September, leading South African telecoms operator MTN partnered with TD Mobile, the biggest mobile devices distributor in sub-Saharan Africa, to launch the ICE 2 smartphone, which is designed for the Nigerian market. Built in partnership with Japanese manufacturer Freetel, the device runs Android version 7 and comes with 8GB of internal storage.

Price: N13,000/$40 Screen resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels Rear camera: 5MP RAM: 1GB Battery: 2800mAh

Oukitel U7 Max Low-cost and high-def

Infinix Smart X5010 More power, more chatter Fresh on the market towards the middle of the year was the Smart X5010, the first smartphone in the Smart series

by Hong Kong’s Infinix. The device runs Android 7 and has a battery capacity higher than the 2,000 mAh of an average smartphone. Other features include a 5-inch HD display, a 2MP front camera and 16GB of internal storage.

Price: $58-$70 Screen resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels Rear camera: 13MP RAM: 1GB Battery: 2500mAh

Price: $80 Screen resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels Rear camera: 8MP RAM: 1GB Battery: 3060mAh THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Adding to the chain of low-cost smartphones that hit the African market this year is the U7 Max by Chinese phone manufacturer Oukitel. The 3G smartphone, which was unveiled in February, runs Android version 6 and provides a 1GHz quad-core processor, a dual-SIM slot and a 5.5-inch HD display.

HUSTLE SEASON 2

GO HARD OR GO HOME

20:00 CAT ON

FOR ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT DORIS OHAHUGO, DORIS.OHANUGO@DSTVDM.COM ABIOLA KILA-ONALAJA - ABIOLA.KILA-ONALAJA@DSTVDM.COM

78 DOSSIER | TELECOMS

ROBERT OPIYO/ANDELA

Andela trains African software developers then finds them clients to work for

SOFTWARE

Engineering opportunity

Technology startups like Andela are creating chances for Africa’s youth to gain new skills that are essential to transforming the continent’s future

T

olu Komolafe has loved video games since she was six years old. Her fascination spawned an early interest in computers that morphed into a decision to study computer science. But on enrolling at Nigeria’s Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, she quickly realised that her ambition to become a programmer would be tough to realise: the course curriculum was based on Pascal, a programming language designed in the 1960s that is more suitable for teaching good practices than building innovative programmes.

Disappointed, Komolafe persisted with the course, but spent her personal time trying to learn up-to-dateprogramminglanguages. Upon graduating, she found a private computer-science academy that offered lessons in C#, a language that is part of Microsoft’s .NET framework and on which its desktop and web applications are built and run. Unable to afford the fee, Komolafe struck a deal with the owner of the academy to teach

lessons in fundamentals that she had acquired through school and personal study in exchange for enrolling in the course.

At the end of the year, she began looking for her dream job in software development. However, most of the job offers she got came from banks and professional service firms. “At some point I had to sit down and say: ‘I don’t want to do this’. I know nothing about auditing. I know nothing about accounting aside from the little I learnt in school. I don’t think I have thepassionforit,” Komolaferecalls.

A few months later, her luck turnedwhenshecameacrossafree programming boot camp offered by a company called Andela. It promised a full-time job in software development to those who made it through the two-week camp and a six-month internship.

Komolafe enrolled with a hint of scepticism and was accepted for an internship along with seven others. That was in 2014. In August 2017, she was celebrated as the first developer to ace Andela’s most

complex software engineering test in its three-year history.

Komolafe’s story reflects the life-changing opportunities that technology and tech-driven startups have made possible for young people in Nigeria and other African countries. Only a few years ago, her experience would have been highly unlikely, as Nigeria offered few opportunities for software engineers.

4

SKILLS FOR THE CONTINENT

The number of software engineers from Africa, out of every 100 developers in the world SOURCE: VISIONMOBILE

Today, the pace of technological change that is sweeping through the world and spawning startups means that Komolafe and many like her across the continent are being given fresh opportunities to channel their talents into careers that make the best use of their abilities. Competent and poised, this new breed of engineers is on a mission to help solve some of Africa’s biggest problems.

Africa is experiencing a second mobile revolution, in which an estimated half a billion people will go online for the first time.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Under the High Patronage of H.E. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi President of the Arab Republic of Egypt

Business for Africa and the World

Driving Investment for Inclusive Growth 7th - 9th December 2017 Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Join us at Africa’s Leading Business and Investment Forum Africa 2017 builds on the success of the inaugural Africa Forum in 2016 which saw the participation of 6 heads of state and more than 1,000 delegates from 45 countries. This year, the programme has been enhanced to include more case studies and industry and expert briefings as well as a Young Entrepreneurs Day bringing together a group of young and dynamic leaders from across the continent at the helm of promising projects and new businesses.

Africa 2017 is a must-attend event for anyone doing business in Africa or wanting to gain unique insights into latest developments across key markets in Africa, including latest trends and updates For more information, please contact: info@businessforafricaforum.com www.businessforafricaforum.com

Organi nisers

Sponsors

80 DOSSIER | TELECOMS

AFRICAN TALENT

This is partly why technology startup Andela was founded in 2014.

Having observed the shortage of software engineers globally, the company’s founders set out to harness the talent of Africa’s youth.

From its offices in Lagos, Nairobi and Kampala, Andela supplies companies with developers via an offshoring model that sees them build and support web platforms andsmartphoneapplicationsfrom their bases on the continent.

Andela has placed more than 200 developers with clients since it was founded. Its goal is to train 100,000 developers, directly and indirectly. With the backing of

SOURCE: CRUNCHBASE/ANDELA

$40m

Andela’s funding rounds $24m $14m $3m September 2014

September 2015

June 2016

October 2017

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Andela raised $40m in October.

Seni Sulyman, Andela’s country director for Nigeria, says that most of the company’s clients are familiar with the challenge of finding competent software engineers or developers, which is why its services are compelling to them: “By the time they get to us, it’s because they’ve looked around.

They’ve probably tried poaching from Google, Facebook or some of the schools in the area and are just not finding people,” he says.

Andela trains engineers for a minimum of six months before placingthemwithcompaniessuch as Microsoft and IBM, as well as startups. However Andela’s tendency to serve clients in the US has raised questions about whether it is contributing to Africa’s brain drain. Sulyman says that Andela’s

“ This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa.

The energy here is amazing and I’m excited to learn as much as I can ” Mark Zuckerberg meeting developers and entrepreneurs during his first visit to Nigeria in September 2016.

developers rarely leave the continent: “If every single Andela developer left Nigeria, I’d be worried. But I think by default many of them actually want to stay because they have family, they have friends, this is home.

And they want to represent Africa”.

He says that the training the developers receive, and the experience they gain from working for companies at the cutting-edge of innovation, enables them to build expertise faster than their peers.

PROMPTING ECOSYSTEMS

ROB LATOUR/SHUTTERSTOCK/SIPA

The enthusiasm generated by the first wave of the mobile revolution about two decades ago gave birth to the phenomenon known as ‘leapfrogging’. When most African countries went straight to mobile phones without first passing through the phase of fixed-line phones this suggested that the innovative application of mobile technology could lead African countries to become technologically advanced despite their infrastructure deficits.

In his recent essay ‘Leapfrogging Progress: The Misplaced Promise of Africa’s Mobile Revolution’, the renowned Harvard professor of internationaldevelopmentCalestous Juma says the potential of leapfrogging has been unfulfilled.

According to Juma: ‘The mobile revolution has hardly served as a stimulus for broader industrial development and appears to have had little impact on African innovation policy.’ He argues that since infrastructure is inherently technological, the continent requires significant technical capacity to develop its infrastructure, and a prerequisite for this is a large pool of researchers and engineers.

Africa needs software engineers, not just civil and mechanical engineers. Estimates from the researchers at the analytical firm VisionMobile show that the continent contributes only four out of every 100 developers in the world, despite having around 14% of the world’s population.

The ripple effect of developer communities being spawned in cities where Andela operates is another factor that upends the brain-drain argument, says Sulyman. He cites the example of a former trainer at Andela’s Nigeria operation who started the country’s first online communityforsoftwaredevelopers to share ideas and best practices.

But while companies like Andela offer much promise and opportunity for Africa’s youth to discover themselves and express their talents, how healthy is startup culture? Startups across the world, including in Kenya, have faced allegations of discrimination, bullying, and sexual harassment.

Some have even faced lawsuits about their business practices.

Critics say these are tell-tale signs of a broken industry culture.

Industry players respond that while startup promoters should be held accountable for the culture they allow to develop within their organisations, the problems they face with respect to business practices are no different from those of other industries.

Making this point, Eghosa Omoigui, founder of EchoVC Partners, concedes that the giddiness that comes with rapid success and the fast pace of activity found in most startups means it is inevitable that they will break things.

However, he says, this should not detract from the fact that startups and the technology industry are ultimately a force for good. “The bad news is always magnified. In the overall scheme of things it’s probably very small.”

THE AFRICA REPORT

Charles Idem in Lagos •

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

Conference & Exhibition: 7-9 November 2017 Cape Town International Convention Centre South Africa

THE PLACE TO SHAPE AFRICA’S DIGITAL FUTURE

THE LARGEST TELECOMS, MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY EVENT IN AFRICA. EXPECT 13,000 ATTENDEES, 450 EXHIBITORS AND 400 VISIONARY SPEAKERS FROM ACROSS THE ENTIRE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM. Launching the Technology Arena: A new exhibition space featuring the AHUB, AfricaCom 20/20, TV Connect Africa, the new Innovation Stage.

Launching AfricaCom 20/20: A brand new content stage at the centre of the Innovation Hall dedicated to navigating digital disruption and mapping Africa’s journey towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

To find out more and to register, visit tmt.knect365.com/africacom KNectAfrica #africacom

Africa Telecoms, ICT & Media Group

knectafrica

Connecting Africa

82

DIGITAL ARTS

Uncaped

crusaders Armed only with a pen and a mouse, everyday African heroes are fighting back against the white and Western overlords of the creative universe, telling their own stories

By Kamaria Balkisson in Johannesburg

DENZEL ODURO

O

n the weekend of 15-17 September social media was flooded with artwork – drawings, paintings, portraits, illustrations, cartoons – with one thing in common: all the artists were black. It started with the hashtag #drawingwhileblack, a ‘snowclone’, or play on words, based on ‘driving while black’, which calls out racial bias by American police.

The arty hashtag was created by 19-year-old Annabelle Hayford, also known by her Twitter handle @sparklyfawn. As a young GhanaianAmerican animator and illustrator in the US, Hayford didn’t see herself fittingly represented in the global art industry. So she launched the virtual

campaign as a means to prompt artists to showcase their work and be recognised for their talent.

The internet has no borders, and art flooded in from all over the globe, but particularly the African continent. It ranged from portraits carved with a razorblade on burnt wood by Nigerian Alex Peter (@alexpeter_art), to @pengrapher’s hand-printed Banta jean-jacket backs, @koke_xavier’s Yoruba-influenced body art, and all manner of comic book and digital art.

The campaign gave artists a chance to link to their own sales platforms, visibility to cooperatives like @arteasynigeria and @chococitycomics who promote black artists’ work, and most of all encouragement from the chorus of ‘likes’ and comments.

Many of the contributors are not professional artists. One of them is Princess Karibo (or @princess_kay__ to her followers), a 23-year-old illustrator from Nigeria. “I’m still a long way from where I want to be,” she says. Karibo has refined her illustrative talent by watching YouTube tutorials and engaging with other artists that inspire her. Her dream is to eventually publish her own art book, featuring unseen artworks and how-to guidelines to help others improve their drawing. Currently, she sells her art on her society6 store for purchase and accepts commissions now and then.

Young artist Denzel Oduro, whose portrait of the model Angel Johnson opens this article, also uses Tumblr as an online gallery for his work. “Social media has been really helpful THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

DIGITAL ANGEL Denzel Oduro (@artbydenzel), a 20-year-old digital illustrator from Ghana, discovered digital art in 2012. His work gained a large following during the #DrawingWhileBlack campaign.

“Some people think creating art is easy, especially in my digital medium,” he complains. “It’s not a matter of just clicking and coding art into existence.

Art appreciation [in Ghana] is very low. Some people I’ve met consider art to be cheap but it actually involves a lot of hard work.”

84 ART & LIFE

in building a following. The online engagement and interaction, in terms of likes and followers has been massive,” he says.

Another artist enjoying thousands of followersisITstudentBenjaminKwashie.

When he is not programming, he works on custom portraits but says trusting customers online is tricky. “I usually take at least 50% of the payment upfront but many customers suggest I draw before a payment is made. I’ve actually had some bad experiences where they claim they don’t have money at the moment or just do not reply to my mails.” Despite this, the internet and social media has helped. “[The internet] is a free space and has a greater audience. At galleries, or other physical exhibition spaces, people have to be available to see my works.”

MULTI-PRONGED PRESENCE

The hashtag lives on, and as The Africa Report went to press #drawingwhileblack had 3,806 Instagram posts. One thing that is striking from the online gallery is that the work is not only by, but 99% of the time also depicts black people. It reflects a need to assert a multi-pronged black presence in a world where diversity and inclusion are still lacking in both commercial and fine art. Black and African characters with European features will not do. The pressure is twofold: big publishing houses, animation producers and advertising agencies unwilling to put the money into what they see as a minority audience, and an older generation of Africans not viewing art as a viable profession.

“There was a time in Ghana where artists were seen to be unemployed, uneducated people who were just looking for an easy way to make money,” says Xane Asiamah (@xaneasiamah), a 20-year-old self-taught realist artist. “[Now it’s been realised] that most of these artists actually have a strong educational background and pursue art out of their own interest and passion.”

Asiamah’s thoughts are echoed by Ayodele Elegba, the 38-year-old CEO of Spoof Animation and founder of Lagos Comic Con, which brought together comics, gaming, animation and film fans in Lagos for its sixth edition – coincidentally on the same weekend that #drawingwhileblack hit social media.

“Back then, someone like me reading a comic book would make me look like a layabout without a job,” says Elegba. “In the first year of Lagos Comic Con only

BALLPOINT VIRTUOSO Benjamin Kwashie (@benkwash) is a 20-year-old ballpoint-pen artist from Ghana who says he can spend between 25 and 50 hours completing a portrait. For Kwashie the devil is in the detail, so for accuracy he sometimes draws a grid with pencil before continuing with his hyper-realism portraits, for which he uses only a Bic pen and a sheet of paper. Kwashie has drawn a number of celebrated figures, from Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie to the country’s first president Kwame Nkrumah and Hollywood superstars like Morgan Freeman (pictured), as well as the everyday faces that can be seen across the continent.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

ART & LIFE 85

LAGOS’S GHETTO HERO

HIE IN KWAS BENJAM

ELEGBA AYODELE

Ayodele Elegba’s comic characters and their tribulations are based on his own experiences. Having to deal with poverty as a child, Elegba felt helpless in his situation and powerless in the hands of the government. His character Boxsa, born Ismalia Kazeem, shares his frustration and uses his powers to stop corruption in Lagos and becomes a “ghetto hero”. Boxsa is one of four titles recently released by Elegba’s own publishing company Spoof Animation, taking the imprint’s total number of titles to six.

RAZOR-MAN TO THE RESCUE

UK BILL MAS

U

Like Elegba, Zimbabwean Bill Masuku was inspired from personal experiences and decided to make comics based on his own journey to find his identity. After his dad passed away, Masuku channelled his grief into creativity. His character RazorMan is forced to cope with grief entangled with other themes such as classism, spirituality and even the 2008 financial crisis. Other themes that come to the fore in Masuku’s comics are race, gender and ableism. masuku is also the founder of the independent publisher enigma comix africa.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

300 people attended. This year we’ve of honour and heritage of samurais and grown to over 3,000 people.” shoguns isn’t seen as backward. This is what I want to see for Africa,” he says.

Since childhood, Elegba has enjoyed Masuku notes that a major challenge reading comics: “In secondary school I usedtomakeandsellcomicbooksforfun. faced by young artists, especially those Iusecomicsasanoutlettosharemyideas self-published, is a lack of sponsors and local marketing. “The African market andtellmystorieswithoutanyhindrance.

As an adult I realised Nollywood wasn’t is tied to its own societal bias. Things ready, or resourced in terms of CGI, to made in Africa are still seen as not good enough. In contrast, sales from overseas depict the stories I wanted to tell. In a have been more favourable,” he says. comic book you can draw whatever you The internet has helped with the disimagine with just a pencil and a pen. It’s tribution of work, with outlets like Kugali an alternative for me to share my stories Media, an online database of comics, and ideas with the public,” he says. gaming and animation from Africa and Jinx, one of Elegba’s creations, centres on an orphan who is bullied. In the story the African diaspora. Their website inthere are rumours that she is cursed cludes a YouTube channel, podcast and a and no one adopts her but the curse blog which assists artists with networking and engaging on industry-related topics. turns out to be a special gift. The story Another online platform is Accra-based follows her as she grapples with her Squid Mag, which publishes the latest power, and learns to use it for good. “I comic, animation and gaming news, didn’t have the joy of growing up with interviews, reviews, jobs and opportuniboth my parents,” says Elegba. “I also relate to Jinx because growing up I had ties from and for creators and audiences many talents. I could draw, sing, write across the continent.

The rapid growth in enthusiasm for and play sport, but I had no one to guide me and show me who I was.”

African comics shown by the turnout Through his African superheroes, at the two conventions suggests this is Elegba intends to instil awareness in just the beginning. Nigeria alone now African readers of their capabilities and has 10 major comic book publishers. power. His only setback, like many other artists, is their only setback: the financial: the profit margin profit margin in making in making comics is still very slim. “Nigerians are comics is still very slim still not comfortable with buying things they can’t hold in their And Marvel has taken note, introducing the Nigerian comic book heroine hands. Readers will prefer to pay for a hard copy and wait a week for delivery, Ngozi in September, written by sci-fi than reading an e-copy,” he says. novelist Nnedi Okorafor. The US comic Zimbabwe, too, is going crazy for behemoth is also busy making a bigbudget film of its 1960s black comic home-grown comics, and celebrated the third year of its own digital arts convensuperhero Black Panther, which has tion, Comexposed, on 14 October. One been criticised by African comic creators prominent participant is Bill Masuku, for “cherry-picking” African motifs and the 24-year-old founder of independent presenting a Western view of the contipublisher Enigma Comix Africa and nent. By delving deep into pre-colonial author of Razor-Man and Arcadia history, creating characters that resonate with young Lagosians, Harareans or Knights. Though the former is his most Jo’burgers, and confronting African popular comic, it is Arcadia Knights, his newest creation, that Masuku confesses problematics through their soaring to being most excited about. imaginations, African comic authors are doing something other than simply LOOKING FOR SPONSORS colouring Western superheroes brown.

Masuku’s comics, based on the modern For Elegba his work should go beyond lives of everyday African people, tell the pages of his comics into commustories that elicit a deep connection to nities and society. “Africa needs more heroes without capes,” he says. “I hope the generations that came before.He sees comics as contributing to an already rich my comics inspire someone to be a hero in their circle of influence.” And in his culture of oral storytelling, utilising both image and text. “I often draw a parallel mind he hasn’t even scratched the surto how advanced Japan is. Their culture face of what he intends to accomplish.

86 ART & LIFE

KERIMA AHMED

LONDON | UK Hwami draws on inspiration from family photographs and incorporates painting to invoke feelings of nostalgia and longing in this exhibition. tyburngallery.com

KERIMA AHMED: SURREAL LIFE 22 Sep. – 18 Nov. ADDIS ABABA | ETHIOPIA In this series Ahmed keys in on human experiences, translating them into her abstract visual language. addisfineart.com

NNENNA OKORE: UKWA RUO OGE YA O DAA – THERE’S A TIME FOR EVERYTHING 26 Oct. – 2 Dec. LONDON | UK Taking from an Igbo axiom, Okore’s sculpture confronts decay and renewal in the context of climate change. octobergallery.co.uk

SAMMY BALOJI & FILIP DE BOECK: URBAN NOW – CITY LIFE IN CONGO 29 Sep. – 31 Dec. TORONTO | CANADA This multimedia collaboration interrogates urban living in Congolese cities. thepowerplant.org

Art Zeitz shines a light on the contemporary scene The continent’s largest museum of contemporary art has at last opened its doors in Cape Town

T

he V&A Waterfront is a landmark every Capetonian knows for its shops, restaurants and leisure activities. Now, with the opening of the multi-million-dollar Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, it will also become the go-to destination for art lovers worldwide. “ This museum is a symbol and an icon of the confidence we feel about being Africans,” chief curator Mark Coetzee said at the launch in September. “The confidence we feel about our place in the world.”

A public, not-for-profit museum, it is the largest contemporary art museum on the continent, with a total area of almost 10,000m2 including exhibition space of 6,000m2 spread over nine floors, dedicated to exhibiting the best of African, diaspora, and international art.

It is already being dubbed the Tate Modern of Africa.

The tubular museum was carvedoutofanold,disused grain silo that was once one of the tallest structures in the country by British architect Thomas Heatherwick over the past two years. In a nodtothestructure’sformer use Heatherwick formed corn grain-shaped cutouts around the museum.

The Zeitz houses 80 separate gallery spaces displaying the talent of the ‘new school’ of African art. Its collection includes work from Angola’s Edson Chagas, Zanele Muholi fromSouthAfrica,Kudzanai Chiurai of Zimbabwe, Nandipha Mntambo from

IWAN BAAN COURTESY HEATHERWICK STUDIO

KUDZANAI-VIOLET HWAMI: IF YOU KEEP GOING SOUTH YOU’LL MEET YOURSELF 29 Sep. – 15 Nov

The sculptural museum is carved from a honeycomb of giant concrete tubes in the former grain silo

Swaziland, and Cyrus Kabiru and Wangechi Mutu, both from Kenya.

C h a g a s ’s L u a n d a , Encyclopedic City, an installation consisting of 23 stacks of 5,000 massproduced images from the artist’s photographic series, features in the opening exhibition. This work was part of Angola’s maiden pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013, which won a Golden Lion award. Another mustsee exhibit is South African Nicholas Hlobo’s iimpundulu zonke ziyandilandela,

whichtranslatesfromXhosa as ‘all the lightning birds are after me’. The work, which was originally created for the 2011 Venice Biennale, combines rubber inner tubing, multicoloured ribbons, an animal skull and pink theatre lights.

The Z eit z mus eum adds an edge to the V&A waterfront, which is still an ideal location to enjoy a sundowner drink overlooking Robben Island and the expansive Atlantic Ocean.

THE AFRICA REPORT

Crystal Orderson in Cape Town

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ART & LIFE 87

Leather from Femi Handbags (left) and Hanker + Reech (below)

Fashion For the love of leather Nigeria’s leather industry has been getting a home-grown luxury makeover

N

igeria’s leather industry has always produced bags, shoes and accessories, mainly catering to a local, traditional audience, with a slightly anonymous and hippie feel to the product. But a new breed of entrepreneurs is looking to change that and appeal to a younger, more brand-conscious consumer market. The drive to vamp up the industry was behind the recent three-day Lagos Leather Fair organised by designer Femi Olayebi, the founder of FemiHandbags (femihandbags.com).

The Bank of Industry in Nigeria says that leather earned the country N24.5bn ($700m) in 2016.

Seun Babajide-Duroshola, founder of ManStyle (@ManStyleng), a company that produces made-to-order sandals

for men, sources leather from markets in Lagos, Aba and parts of the north, producing in Nigeria to international standards. “We havecustomerswhobuyandsendortake with them to their relatives abroad and the feedback is always [that] they don’t believe it is made in Nigeria. […] That’s mission accomplished for us,” she says.

Ejumabone Otejire, who owns Hanker + Reech (@hankerandreech), a leather goods company targeting the upwardly mobile Nigerian man, says that while the worldhasbecomeglobal,Hanker+Reech is keen to be known as a Nigerian brand and capitalise on the country’s reputation for swagger, popularised through the music of Afrobeats stars. It mirrors other recent developments in fashion, not least

the recent collaboration between the musician Davido and the Lagos-based fashion label Orange Culture.

Otejire says he was inspired to start his business after initially sourcing products from the Far East: “I bought some leather bags from China, which were good […] but I had the feeling that I could make similar or better bags.”

His words are echoed by Matiu Gordon, founder of Nodrog St., which makes leather bags and accessories in striking bold colours. “There’s definitely a renaissance of customers wanting to have a connection with what they buy,” says Gordon. “Hence buy Nigerian or buy African.”

Like many other designers, these entrepreneurs have been quick to capture Instagram as a platform for selling to Nigeria’s digitally addicted urban population. It helps that prices are favourable, compared to imported, branded goods.

ManStyle’s slippers are in the range of N8,000-N9000; ($23-$25). Nodrog St.’s prices for bags and accessories seem like a bargain next to mid-range Western brands like Mulberry and Michael Kors, with a typical item going for N20,000.

“Nigerian fashion is evolving into something great – so are the leather goods: amazing designs, remarkable packaging and high quality,”says Lagosbased media consultant Ogaga Sakpaide.

He notes that there is room for improvement in the industry but adds: “With time things would fall in [to] place.”

The Hamburger That Killed Jorge

translated by Alex Macbeth Ethale Publishing/Bahati Books Mélio Tinga’s eponymous short story, ‘The Hamburger That Killed Jorge’, is part of this debut anthology of Mozambican crime stories by emerging voices experimenting with the crime narrative.

Jorge, an adorable and quirky stickler for daily routines and his customary THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

lunch of fish and tomato hamburger, witnesses an argument between two men. The commotion suddenly takes a fatal turn, ending in a brutal murder.

Jorge’s life now hangs in the balance as the perpetrator of this dreadful crime seeks to silence him. In Alex Macbeth’s

N OV E M B E R 2 017

translation from Portuguese into English the language colourfully maintains its distinctive tone and vibrant prose.

Dele Meiji in Lagos

The narrative elegantly pulsates with verve and fast-paced action, and the author’s humorous tone and simplicity of expression brings to the dark genre of crime fiction a sparkle of human warmth. With its 14 companion stories drawn from 60 submissions, The Hamburger That Killed Jorge is truly a welcome contribution to the growing genre of urban noir.

Henry Brefo

88

TWITTER TRENDS #ONECORNERCHALLENGE

Natacha Baco

Ghanaians are back with a new dance craze after Patapaa’s #OneCorner song went viral… and now Nigerians are getting in on the act

In her Paris studio, Franco-Congolese designer Natacha Baco is reinventing ways to wear wax

Irene London @irenelondon2131

What is your greatest extravagance?

Some of my loved ones would say it’s my relationship with my business. I give my all for my company 24/7!

No this is one corner lmao Faces in Things @TheFacePics

What are you and your friends discussing around the dinner table?

A rare horny tree

I love debating and at the moment we are discussing a lot of spirituality and religion during meals.

Which famous deceased people would you invite to your birthday party?

Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston without any hesitation, because I know that with them it would be quite a party.

Ibia @Ogisa_

The next President of Nigeria must promise to build a wall and Ghana will pay for it, we can’t let things like one corner dance get in.

Where do you feel most at home?

In all the places where I feel good vibes and which put me in a state of total peace and tranquillity.

AYO @GODMANAYO

America and northkorea are about to end the world in a nuclear pissing contest But we in Africa are busy doing #onecornerchallenge

Who are you listening to?

The artists I listen to vary according to my mood, but I listen a lot to Sade, and Congolese rumba including Koffi Olomidé and Fally Ipupa when I work.

ObibaKofi HIGHEST @CletusClegy

Is the #onecornerchallenge hitting the parliament anytime soon....

KungLao @itz_laolao

What are you reading?

Oya Ghana let’s exchange.

Give Nigerians those One corner guys and come and take Mr Eazi abeg.

What job would you be doing if you weren’t in fashion?

Interior designer.

Interview by Diane Audrey Ngako

VINCENT FOURNIER/JA

The last book that I read was Purple Hibiscus

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Marzuq Ungogo @Marzuq_Ungogo

May your enemies be confused n become busy with things like Ghanaian #onecornerchallenge Ameen.

THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

ART & LIFE 89

JAN WLODARCZYK/AGE FOTOSTOCK

DAVID SILVERMAN/GETTY IMAGES

AHMED GOMAA/XINHUA-REA

TRAVEL EGYPT

Mediterranean Sea Port Said Cairo

Jewel of the Red Sea Low-rise and low-key, Dahab, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, is the perfect base for diving or a mountain trek

F

lanked by sparkling turquoise water on one side, and rocky mountains and desert on the other, is Dahab, a small coastal town along the Red Sea coast in the Sinai region. As far as destinations in Egypt go, Dahab is low-key. It doesn’t have the wow factor of Cairo’s grand pyramids, or Luxor’s views of the Nile; archaeologists don’t flock to Dahab in search of ancient Egyptian wonders and it can’t compete with the romance of Alexandria. But what Dahab lacks in historic grandeur it more than makes up for with a relaxed bohemian vibe and its location as a base for day trips to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in Israel, Petra in Jordan, or a hike up Mount Sinai to catch the sunrise.

The town makes a great first impression. The promenade is filled with seafood restaurants, curio shops selling perfumes, teas and spices, rugs and Bedouin crafts and jewellery, and THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N OV E M B E R 2 017

Sinai

Dahab

Charm el-Cheikh

a massage parlour. It’s also great for people-watching: men in swimming shorts with rock-hard torsos take their poodles or huskies for walks by the sea.

For water babies Dahab is paradise with an abundance of swimming, diving and snorkelling options. One is Blue Hole, a 120-metre sinkhole known by the macabre nickname of ‘diver’s cemetery’.

If nothing else, Blue Hole offers comedic value with countless people contemplating the dive. Other less intimidating spots for a dip include the Blue Lagoon and Ras Abu Galum. There are several locally owned tour companies in town, which makes a huge difference on the budget. Organised travellers will want to book all activities online, but don’t: the difference in the price tag locally makes it worth waiting until you are there.

For those not too fond of the water, a 4x4 track to the desert and day trips to Petra, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem

are all good alternatives, and at Happy Life Village, a collection o family-friendly beachfront of caafés about 15 minutes away from m Dahab central, you are more lik l to see mums and aunts wading likely in the water with toddlers than you are deepwater divers.

A locally organised trip to the beach between Dahab town and Happy Life Village comes with a meal cooked Bedouin-style on a open fire. Though it is not quite in the mountains – as it is often sold by tour operators – a traditional dinner under a dark sky with thousands of stars and a moon peeking from behind the clouds is just as romantic.

It’s not just the cultural and religious references that make a visit to Mount Sinai a must. The trip is a two-hour camel journey up the mountain and then a further one-hour stretch on foot.

Hiking groups returning with injured toes and scratched legs are proof of how gruelling the climb can be on foot.

Moses may not have stood in this exact spot, but a view of a cloudless sky and sharp, rocky mountaintops that stretch to the horizon feels like the right way to end your stay on the highest note.

Lerato Mogoatlhe in Dahab

90

their crops and sell them, creating income for themselves.

When I moved back to Nigeria from the US, I got a job working as a part-time consultant to the Office of Economic Development and Partnerships, Osun State, Nigeria. In this role, I began to understand the degree to which agriculture is a part of the culture of the Nigerian people. I also got to see up close how the government definitely would not be able to solve problems in the sector alone and that it needed the help of the private sector. So I decided to contribute.

FRESH DIRECT/FACEBOOK

ROADBLOCKS

Growing a future Angel Adelaja moved back to Nigeria from the US and started an urban container farming venture that enables young people with relatively little startup capital to rent space and become entrepreneurs in their own right

T

hough all my training is in the medical sciences – from a BSc in biochemistry to a PhD in epidemiology – I have always loved agriculture. I was born in London, but moved to the US at the age of three. From age 15, I worked every summer.

One summer, volunteering at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, I met one of my mentors, who is Russian. From the first day, she gave me a logbook and made sure I documented every activity, every experiment in the lab. I am very interested in the how or why something works or doesn’t work, and this helps me make better decisions for the future.

This is one of the things that has helped me build my business – Fresh Direct Nigeria (FDN).

FDN is an urban farming company that makes use of stackable container farms in Abuja. We bring together communities and advanced technology, to grow premium fruits, vegetables and other processed end products in these containers and in urban areas. My goal is to create opportunities to attract young people into profitable agricultural ventures, empower them with employment and finally provide them with the experience to be successful future employers.

Young people who cannot afford land or the capital-intensive means to prepare it for crop growing now have an alternative. They can rent space in the container farms at a dramatically reduced cost. There, they grow

I wanted to invest in agriculture, but then realised how difficult it really was to enter a sector that should be so accessible.

So, if I faced such challenges, what about other youth? I really was pushed by a need to make it simpler for myself and others.

Growing up, my parents used to tell me it was important “to live a life of service”. I have held on to this, and it informs how and why I do what I do today.

My days start with prayer, an early morning run, yoga or dance class and a little desk work. Then my day can include supervising and participating in farm work or delivery, talking to staff to see where we can improve, quality control, strategising with my partner on technical improvements, searching for new customers/markets, balancing books, social media, and meetings. It usually proves a very tight schedule.

What keeps me going is my personal motto: ‘Even if you give a little, you can change a lot.’

I’m motivated by and driven to do my part to make a difference and shape my community. I’m optimistic about the future, too, and other people contributing to making a difference. I see a productive Nigeria, driven by Nigerians. I moved back to be part of the solution. No one had to ask me.

Interview by Ayodeji Rotinwa THE AFRICA REPORT

•

N° 95

•

N O V E M B E R 2 017

For the global perspective on art, fashion and design cnn.com/style CNN name, logo and all associated elements

TM

& Š 2017 Cable News Network. A TIme Warner Company. All rights reserved.

LA PERFORMANCE VOUS OUVRE

LE MONDE* GROUPE MAROC TELECOM

Maroc Telecom Group, the leader in Africa for telecom solutions, teams up with Teddy Riner, the two times Olympic Gold medalist and nine times World champion of Judo. With shared values of trust, respect and generosity, those two champions could not help but come together.

As a united team, we aim at the same goal : to communicate our expertise and our unique success model in order for anyone to reach maximum effectiveness.

We are building up the same dream : Giving to every african the power and ability to carry out his projects, to learn and understand one another, to take action and contribute to reducing the gap between nations and the differences between people. * Performance opens up the World !