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378 posts tagged investment
President Mahama, who was giving the keynote address at “The Times” of London CEO Summit Africa which was held at the Savoy Hotel in London said the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projection of 10 countries with high annual growth rate on the continent, including Ghana, could become a mirage if the disturbing cycle of unemployment is not highlighted and addressed.
He stressed that the extent of joblessness could be better appreciated if one considers that Africa’s rapidly expanding labour force could hit 1.1 billion by the end of 2014, making “the continent’s collective labour force bigger than that of China and India”.
In calling for the effective management of the continent’s collective labour force, therefore, President Mahama pointed out that it ought to be understood as part of a bigger problem that provides opportunities for the provision of infrastructure to support the projected 50 percent of the population who will migrate to Africa’s urban centres within the next 15 years.
He cautioned that instead of urbanization merely resulting in the indiscriminate mushrooming of slums in African cities, Africa should seize the opportunity to provide equitably, infrastructure such as modern roads, social housing, commercial malls, safe drinking water, and reliable power generation and transmission systems for its rapidly growing population.
He observed that “If I am constantly calling for investment in Africa’s human resource, it is because I recognize that human capital, properly trained and harnessed, remains the key to Africa’s socio-economic and political development”.
He pointed out that Ghana has learnt lessons, both from its own past and the history of other nations. He stressed that these lessons have informed Ghana’s strategic decision to empower local participants as critical players in the country’s newly emerging oil and gas industry.
In order that its effect could be concretized, President Mahama said a draft legislation instrument on local content was being examined to ensure a perfect integration of the extraction of the natural resource with the local economy through gas processing, fertilizer production and refinement of petroleum products among others.
In view of this overarching objective, President Mahama continued,
“Africa is seeking partnerships for the mutual benefit of both investors and its people. A partnership that would transfer technology to the continent, a partnership that will create jobs, a partnership that will ensure growth and a decent life for its people”.
The Ghanaian government plans to double installed capacity from 2,800MW in 2010 to 5,600MW in 2017.
The majority currently comes from hydroelectricity: output from the 1,020MW Akosombo Dam is due to be joined later this year by another 400MW from the Bui Dam.
Deregulation of Ghana’s energy industry started in the mid 2000s and is ongoing. A clear legislative framework has attracted independent power investors.
A renewable energy law that came onto the statute books in December 2011 provides further incentives for renewable investors, such as an obligation to be connected to the network and feed-in tariffs that guarantee a price for their electricity.
Last year, energy ministry deputy director Seth Mahu said the government is looking for $1bn of investment in renewables
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama says with a collective workforce that will total 1.1 billion by 2040, it is critical to invest in developing the continent’s people. (via Invest in people, says Mahama | BiztechAfrica Business, Telecom, Technology & IT News Africa)
Source biztechafrica.com
Ghana Business News » Veep appeals to Brazil to help develop Ghana’s economic potentials
Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur on Thursday appealed to the Brazilian investor community to consider Ghana’s strategic position within the West Africa sub-region and work together to develop her economic potentials.
He said there were huge potentials for Ghana’s economic growth and government was ready to team up with investors and provide opportunities for the generation of power. At a meeting with a Brazilian business delegation, led by Ms Irene Vida Gala, the Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, the Vice President said the Government of Ghana was ready to collaborate with investors to tap into Ghana’s rich investment potentials within the overall national development agenda.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur noted that there were similarities between Ghana and Brazil and added that Ghana “was happy to meet with people of the Southern hemisphere.”
We are at a juncture which makes investment in Africa good business. Our economies are growing, financial markets are getting stronger and new and smart partnerships are being used to unlock agricultural potential.
Up until recently, we all looked at agriculture through a development lens. We need a fundamental shift in approach if we want to unlock its potential for wealth generation.
We must look at agriculture as a business, not as a development program.
Increasing agricultural productivity is the pinnacle for realizing sustainable growth, not only to reduce the hunger still affecting one quarter of our population, but also to create jobs.
We need to solve the paradox that despite an abundance of arable land, Africa remains a net importer of food.
As the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria is tackling this challenge through its Agricultural Transformation Agenda aimed at expanding food production and creating jobs.
We want to sustain the momentum initiated by the above average GDP growth rates we have achieved over the past decade by broadening the base of the country’s economic success. We have set course to diversify our economy from dependence on crude oil to agriculture.
With two thirds of our people still living in rural areas, only targeted investments in agricultural value chains and commodities sector will ensure employment creation and growth as well as lead us on the path to food security.
Significant foreign and local investments have already led to a number of proven successes in job creation as well as expanding domestic food production, reducing import dependency, and expanding value addition to locally produced agricultural products.
Our approach may well be the model for the whole region showcasing the positive role the agricultural sector can play in economic diversification, building resilience and reducing need for dependency on development aid.
Africa should maximise the economic benefit from its raw materials by lengthening supply chains and processing to add value rather than relying on exports.
In a report Making the Most of Africa’s Commodities published this week, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission called for commodities to be put at the heart of the continent’s industrial strategy.
The study cited the abundance of raw materials such as oil, gold and platinum and coffee in Africa and the current high prices on the global market for such materials as supporting factors.
The report explained that countries with rich deposits of prized raw materials are already reaping benefits through the export market. But it argued far greater benefits would be delivered if the continent worked together to use the commodities internally and maximise job creation through the supply chain.
“Primary commodity production and exports entail huge forgone income through lack of value addition, the export of jobs to countries that can add value, and exposure to high risks due to dependence on exhaustible commodities and fluctuations in commodity demand and prices,” it said.
“Instead of relying on exports of raw materials, the continent should add value to its commodities to promote sustained growth, jobs and economic transformation.”
Two institutions in Nigeria, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Japan to improve cassava production and processing in the country.
The partnership according to the Japanese government will help Nigerian farmers address challenges associated with the processing and production of cassava for Agbekoya farmers in Ekiti state.
A statement released by the IITA Communications Officer, Godwin Atser, indicated that the thrust of the MoU guarantees the provision of two cassava processing centers for the farmers by the Japanese while ABUAD will provide monitoring/training services. Meanwhile, IITA will provide the Ekiti State chapter of Agbekoya Farmers Association with 600 bundles of improved cassava cuttings.
“In addition, IITA will provide 30 Agbekoya farmers with training in the operation/use of cassava processing machines and 10 Agbekoya farmers with training in the maintenance of cassava processing machines,” the statement added.
Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Ryuichi Shoji, said the provision of the cassava processing centers was part of efforts to support the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government. He posits that the initiative would alleviate poverty and enhance food security.
(via Japan, IITA, ABUAD Partner To Improve Cassava Production - Ventures Africa)
Source ventures-africa.com
The question is all wrong. China is already transforming Africa, the question is how China is transforming Africa, not whether it can.
From the “China shops”— small stores selling cheap clothing, bags, and kitchenware — that have become ubiquitous in Southern Africa, to oil, infrastructure and mining projects across the continent, China’s government, private and state companies, and individual Chinese immigrants are changing the continent that the west gave up on sometime in the 1990s.
There are both very positive and negative aspects to the Chinese presence in Africa. I think arguments that China’s involvement in Africa is a form of neo-colonialism are both simplistic and prejudiced, but there also plenty of people looking at Chinese economic and political ties to Africa through rose-tinted glasses.
It is certainly refreshing for African countries to deal with an enthusiastic new global player with deep pockets and little interest in pushing an ideology.
It is up to African political and business leaders to make sure that their own countries do not get a raw deal.
(via Is China Transforming Africa? - ChinaFile - The Atlantic)
Source The Atlantic
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Banking - The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched open data platforms for twenty African countries including partner states of the East African Community (EAC) that is aimed at attracting more investors in the region.
The bank’s director for the statistics department Charles Leyeka Lufumpa said this will be possible because the platform facilitates the collection, analysis and sharing of data among countries and with international development partners ‘It therefore offers an opportunity for various users, such as investors, policymakers, analysts, researchers, business leaders around the world, to gain access to reliable and timely data on Africa,’ he said in a statement sent to East African Business Week in Kampala last week.
He said that the project that will be rolled out to all African countries started with twenty countries that include Algeria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Lufumpa explained that the open data program is part of the bank’s recently launched Africa Information Highway initiative aimed at significantly improving data management and dissemination in Africa.
”Source afriquejet.com
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In the emerging world of African private equity, Tope Lawani and his partner Babatunde Soyoye are flavour of the month. In 2011, the Nigerian-born founders of Helios Investment Partners had to cap subscriptions at $900m for their latest buyout fund, the largest fund dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa, after receiving investor pledges in excess of $1bn.
Not quite two years later, they have spent about 60 per cent of the money and are expected to start raising a new fund that could top that figure, according to people with knowledge of their plans. Yet Mr Lawani says investors still don’t get it.
Despite all the headlines – the Mali crisis, religious tensions in Nigeria and political instability in east Africa – investing in Africa is actually less risky than investing in developed markets such as western Europe, he argues.
“The major driver of risk is competition, it’s price and it’s leverage,” Mr Lawani says in an interview with the Financial Times at Helios’ London headquarters. “It’s not ‘the world blows up around you’, it’s really ‘you’re trying to buy what other people are also trying to buy in a world awash with capital’.”
Paying more for something makes private equity firms use greater debt to fund acquisitions, he says, which in turn makes the companies more vulnerable to hiccups in a more competitive environment.
”Source ft.com
