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Stability, democracy and curbing corruption
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Anne
Gazeau-Secret |
Africa is achieving progress, despite suffering from many domestic, political conflicts, says Anne Gazeau-Secret, Managing Director of International Cooperation and Development at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
And the continent will become more stable when living conditions improve and there is greater democracy and less corruption.
Investing in Africa today is good for investors and good for the world, she says, maintaining that “win-win partnerships” can be formed between French and other European and African businesses. These are very important for Africa as they involve the transfer of skills and technologies, as well as access to markets. For French companies, it means supplies of raw materials and energy.
A call to boost Africa’s financial services
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Marilou Uy
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One long-standing issue in Africa is the limited access many people have to finance. According to Marilou Uy, Director for Private and Financial sector in Africa with the World Bank, this varies considerably from one country to another – but there is potential for more Africans to have access to the banking system.
The next challenge in Africa is to increase private-sector lending, says Uy. She maintains that recent banking reforms have achieved good results. However, she states banks would be more comfortable with lending if credit information was better.
She says the World Bank is now taking into account the impact of the current financial crisis on African countries.
“We are trying to see how we could respond rapidly to a potential balance of payments crisis, for example.”
“We will continue to support reforms that would involve restructuring or improvement in the financial sector,” she adds. “We clearly are in support of many of the initiatives that would be on improving access to finances – lending to SMEs, for example.”
Investing in Angola and Gabon
Angola’s civil war, which began after the end of the war for independence from Portugal in 1975, was formally brought to an end in 2002. The conflict resulted in the destruction of the country’s infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges, says José Severino, President of the Industrial Association of Angola.
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José Severino |
During the civil war, he says many terrified people flocked to the villages for safety and these are still overcrowded today. Consequently, people need new housing, water, power, sewerage and cleaning operations, so he says there are many opportunities for outside investment.
International investors could also team up with local entrepreneurs to form partnerships in sectors such as transport and telecommunications, urban roads, ports, railways, and airports.
Tourism, he says, is another area that is ripe for investment.
Gabon is an oil-producing and mining country – it’s the world’s second leading producer of manganese - and has enjoyed peace and stability for many years, according to Paul-Marie Ntoko, Director of the Development Bank of Gabon.
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Paul-Marie Ntoko |
Entrepreneurs looking to start up businesses can have the benefit of a “one-stop shop,” he says, adding that companies can be operating within twenty days.
During the first three years of a start-up, a business does not pay any tax. Tax is then paid after the fourth year, and then only on 75 per cent of its profits.
Ntoko says there are a number of potential investment sectors within Gabon’s economy. The first is eco-tourism. The country is developing 13 national parks, and as Gabon lies within the Congo basin, he says it is rich in natural resources and bio-diversity.
Another sector is agriculture and fisheries. The country has been importing staple food, even fish – despite its huge coastline.
Some 80 per cent of Gabon is covered in forest and it has wood processing facilities. Another sector for investment is social housing as, according to Ntoko, 100,000 units are needed.
Investing in Africa’s agriculture
Green 2000 has been investing in agricultural projects and activities in Africa for the past ten years.
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Rafael Dayan |
It’s involved in construction, ongoing management of projects and marketing. The company handles agricultural supplies, seeds, pesticides, irrigation equipment, machinery, implements, and green houses. It is now building agricultural training centres and is working in Southern Sudan, Angola, Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea.
“In each one of the projects we educate the local management team – we invite them to Israel and we give them the best know how so that afterwards they can make the know how faster in their own country,” says Rafael Dayan, CEO of Green 2000.
It also builds farm houses for the local people, cooling chambers for fresh produce, pumping stations, and operational water reservoirs.
Weather station networks
In a special session on science and technology for growth and competitiveness at the Forum, Bernhard Pacher, strategic development director for ADCON in Austria gave a presentation on how his company is making inroads in increasing crop yields and cutting farmers’ costs.
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Bernard Pacher |
ADCON has also devised low-power radio networks, primarily aimed at helping farmers manage irrigation and prevent disease. He says its weather station networks are already helping farmers in Mexico and Austria.
“Farmers don’t really need to have internet access. There are a lot of means to disseminate information. It can be as simple as putting up a red flag in the middle of your village – and if the red flag shows ‘spraying’ – it means you have a risk.”
“And believe it or not, that’s how we do it in Austria. In many little villages
in the countryside where the grape farmers run an average farm size of 1.3 hectares and not larger, these farmers usually have no internet. Every night they drive through the main square and look (to see) if the red flag is out; and if the red flag is there, he knows he has to spray.”
According to Pacher, other farmers get faxes, SMS or telephone calls.
Encouraging women entrepreneurs
African women perform domestic tasks, work in the fields for up to 18 hours a day and when they get home, they cook the evening meal, but eat last – if there is any food left.
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Margaret Muhanga-Mugisa |
“So that is the situation of African women,” says Margaret Muhanga-Mugisa, a former journalist who has become a politician in Uganda and now campaigns to highlight the plight of women and encourage them to become entrepreneurs.
Some 88 per cent of Ugandans live in the countryside but women, who contribute 82 per cent of the agricultural workforce, own only seven per cent of the land.
Muhanga-Mugisa says women in Uganda are poor because they have limited access to productive resources, low literacy levels and the men take control of the cash-crop profits. Other factors are unemployment and the HIV/AIDS pandemic which increases the burden on women, as it falls to them to look after the sick.
It is also hard for women to obtain the finance to start their own enterprises - commercial banks are city-based and few reach the rural areas. In addition, says Muhanga-Mugisa, they do not target the small to medium enterprises, interest rates are high and they demand collateral.
A ‘New Dawn’ in Nigeria’s Benue State
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Dooshima Yemisi Suswam |
In the state of Benue in Nigeria, HIV/AIDS has been depleting the labour force and “consequently has adverse, negative effects on the economy of our people that are largely in the agricultural sector,” says the First Lady of Benue State, Dooshima Yemisi Suswam.
An agro-processing centre has been set up in the state, along with a clinic and a crafts and skills centre. It’s called ‘Sev-Av,’ which translates as ‘New Dawn.’ It is hoped further centres will follow if funding can be found.
“A New Dawn for the jobless youth – too many youth have no work, and are school drop-outs,” she says, “and a New Dawn in our agricultural produce, rotting away on the farm when the masses are dying in abject poverty.”
The Project Incubator Award
A microfinance institution from Cameroon, MUPECI, was awarded the EMRC-Rabobank Project Incubator Award of $10,000, which aims to help boost the economy of an African country. The funds will be used to help finance farmers to produce soy.
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Pierre van Hedel
of Rabobank Foundation
and Idit Miller of EMRC
with Augustin Yemene of MUPECI. |
By funding organised groups in rural areas, Augustin Yemene, MUPECI chairman, says he hopes to reduce poverty and food shortages, curb the exodus from rural areas and bolster the country’s supplies of soy.
DT 01/09
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