In 2010, EarthWise was awarded $100,000 from the African Diaspora Marketplace competition sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Western Union Company.
EarthWise was one of 14 African business ventures to receive an award that year out of more than 700 entries.
The EarthWise team includes Ugandan, South African and American experts in business management and is led locally by Ugandans Calvin Echodu and Anthony Esenu.
In May 2011, EarthWise launched its first ferry, the MV Amani, connecting Kampala with the SseSe Islands in Lake Victoria. (In Swahili, Amani means peace.) Today, an estimated 1,600 people move from Kampala, Uganda, to Mwanza, Tanzania, daily. In the coming weeks, EarthWise expects to launch a second ferry. Like the first, it will be a two-level vessel outfitted with a state-of-the-art global positioning navigational system and sophisticated communication equipment to keep it on course and aware of safety issues relevant to passengers and crew.
“The ferries will restore and create a vibrant economic corridor that will in turn create jobs and uplift the poor,” Esenu said. “The focus of EarthWise Ferries Uganda is to rebuild infrastructure,” Smith said.
“By rebuilding water transportation, we hope to energize rebuilding of the rail sector, as one depends on the other in moving goods across the lake.”
Satellite technology, it seems, is thriving on the continent and is gaining popularity as a credible, cost-effective means of connectivity in Africa. This is one of the key messages to emerge from SATCOM Africa 2012.
Hotel Development in Sub Saharan Africa 2012
Top Countries by Number of Rooms
Rank Country Hotels Rooms
1 Nigeria 43 6,808
2 Ghana 11 1,752
3 Gabon 8 1,26
4 South Africa 8 990
5 Cote d’Ivoire 3 858
6 Angola 3 624
Nigeria, Africa’s largest country by population, the power house of West Africa (and tipped to overtake South Africa this decade as the largest economy on the continent) has almost 7,000 rooms under contract, up 2,000 on last year’s figure, with thousands more in the “nearly” category.
New openings recently have included Radisson Blu, Four Points by Sheraton, Ibis and Legacy in Lagos, and many groups have hotels under construction there, including Accor, Hilton, IHG and Protea, the last named increasing their presence in the country from 10 hotels to 16 hotels in the next three years.
SIX MINI-HYDROPOWER projects are to be constructed in rural Tanzania under a World Bank energy programme. The hydropower projects will be constructed in Mbeya, Iringa, Ruvuma, Arusha and Kigoma, with the help of the Global Village Energy Partnership International (GVEP International) and Tanzania’s Rural Energy Agency (REA).
The projects will be isolated mini-grids, not connected to the main electricity network, and will have a combined capacity of approximately 7.5 MW. They are estimated to cost more than $25 million, and will be financed through public-private partnerships, with the project developers contributing part of the equity.
Tanzania is one of the countries in the region experiencing energy problems due to a combination of factors, mainly vagaries of weather and constant infrastructure breakdown that has for long limited the capacity hydropower generation.
Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda have reached a formal agreement to construct a multi-billion dollar railway network, which would also serve South Sudan and tap into the bloc’s growing trade. The project, to commence in 2014, is expected to take three years and cost $4.7 billion. This will run alonsgside the $3 billion Tanga-Arusha-Musoma-Kampala railway line that is expected to be completed by 2015.
Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to undertake a feasibility study and implementation of the project, which will be the main gateway of Mwambani Port in Tanga, Musoma dock and Port Bell in Uganda. “We are expecting to handover the feasibility study by April while construction of the 880km railway line is expected to be completed by 2015.” the Chinese engineering firm managing director Wang Xiangdong said,
Mr Xiangdong said the railway line will be constructed to the 1,435mm, which is the standard gauge used in other countries and directed by both states.
African countries south of the Sahara are set to benefit from thier engagement with emerging economies like China, India and Brazil as these powerful economies outsource some of their industrial activities.
There is increasing indication that emerging economies seek to outsource some of their industrial activities, particularly in light manufacturing, to developing nations.
This would be a change of attitude from regarding developing countries, especially those in Africa, as sources of raw materials.
According to the latest International Monetary Fund global economic outlook report, the global rebalancing between advanced and emerging economies will play in the favour of developing nations as rapid industrial growth is anticipated in China and India.
The other benefit of Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries dealing with emerging economies is the availability of cheaper imports compared to the traditional partners such as Japan, West Europe and the US.
“This relationship would boost the economy of Sub-Saharan African producers, adding to low-cost manufactured imports that will benefit both consumers and producers,” said the report.
Such economic relationship will intensify trade and investment opportunities among the partners, leading to cheaper and less sophisticated technologies that may be catalysts to the level of developing countries progress.
Besides, the relationship will create intraregional integration which will help to engineer economic growth by creating economies of scale –increases in efficiency of production as the number of produced goods increases and improve allocation of factors of production within the region.
Growth of Internet use in Africa has superseded global average in the last decade reaching 2,000 per cent compared to the global’s 480 per cent.
The significant growth is attributed to information technology (IT) developments in the continent in recent years including improved means of connectivity such as links with the global fibre-optic cables, declining prices of computers as well as increasing access to mobile phone Internet enabled handsets.
However, a report by a market research company, Frost &Sullivan, still shows that Internet penetration is still lower in the continent compared to the developed world.
But there is also fresh interest in the technology sector, a development that is arguably epitomised by the interest being shown in the continent and its technology companies by the strategic investment arm of Silicon Valley chipmaker Intel.
Known as Intel Capital, the entity invests in start-ups and technology companies worldwide and it is seeing significant new opportunity in Africa’s technology value chain, in areas as diverse as infrastructure and content creation.
Intel Capital Africa regional director Sam Mensah says the prospectivity of the continent has also increased as local business adopts global best practices and introduces competent corporate governance structures.
In addition, the potential for growth in the technology value chain is material, given that Africa has about 15% of the world’s population, but only represents about 2% of personal computer users.
“The reason Intel Capital continues to invest in technological innovation outside our core business is because, in the long run, it is beneficial for Intel if a country has a vibrant technology ecosystem,” he adds.
“From the perspective of the companies in which we invest, the strategic value that a large Silicon Valley technology firm, with a global network, can bring to a local company looking to expand is significant and goes beyond the value of the investment,” he explains.
Construction of the $4.7 billion railway line linking Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania will begin in 2014, after the three governments finalise fund-raising activities.
Tanzania and Uganda have also reached consensus that the proposed joint commercial rail track running from Tanga-Arusha-Musoma to Kampala, will not cut through the Serengeti National Park, thus ending a long-standing row between the two countries.
“Rest assured that the railway line will be constructed 100km south of the Serengeti National Park border and will thus not interfere with the ecosystem,” said Omari Nundu, Minister for Transport.
The Tanzania-Rwanda-Burundi line will boost economic and social development through regional co-operation. Mr Nundu, said the design, engineering studies and development of financial, legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks have been completed. Feasibility studies were completed in June 2009.
“Eventually, we hope to develop a railway system that connects the agricultural, mining and industrial hubs of the three countries to the port of Dar-es- salaam,” he said.
