MTN renews its license in Nigeria despite the prospect of a $5.2 billion fine

In the midst of negotiations over the payment of a record $5.2 billion fine to the Nigerian government, MTN has managed to get its operational license for Nigeria renewed and extended for an additional five years.

"With this renewal and extension, MTN’s operating spectrum which was issued along with the Digital Mobile License (DML) in 2001, has now been extended to 31 August 2021,”Africa's largest mobile phone company, said in a statement. The extension will cost the company $94.2 million and the amount needs to be paid by Dec. 31 for the renewal to take effect.

MTN, the leading mobile carrier in Nigeria, is in the midst of its worst business stretch since it entered the country in 2001. The fine issued last week was due to the company's failure to adhere to an edict by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect users with unregistered sim cards. The deadline to comply with the fine is Nov. 16.

The company is also a subject of an insider trading investigation in South Africa around trades made in the run-up to the announcement of the fine to shareholders. The whole crisis has been immensely costly to MTN. Since news of the fine became public, the company's shares have lost 22% in value, according to Bloomberg. Or put another way, over the course of a week, the company lost over $5 billion in market cap.

The decision by the regulator to renew MTN's operating license may be the Nigerian government's way of calming down jittery foreign investors. Ever since the fine's announcement, some analysts have suggested that the decision could undermine investor confidence about Africa's largest economy. "However way this ends, the lag effects will alter investors’ perceptions about the business environment in Nigeria," Manji Cheto, vice president of Teneo Intelligence, told Quartz.

By re-issuing MTN with a license, the Nigerian government may be saying to prospective investors that, as long as you follow the law, you are welcome to do business.

Just like Nigerians, Ordinary Angolans are asking: where did all the oil money go?

A few years ago, Luanda, the capital of Angola, was on every ambitious investor’s lips. With large infrastructure and housing projects rapidly changing its appearance, the city seemed to be leaving behind the country’s 27-year civil war. But hopes for renewal are slowly dissipating as the price of the commodity on which Angola’s future was being constructed – oil – steadily declines.

Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer. It is one of the countries that have been hardest hit by the fall in oil prices. The oil crash forced Angola to slash its 2015 budget by US$17 billion (a 25% reduction). Construction companies are having difficulties paying their workers, and the Angolan central bank has devalued the currency, the kwanza. Construction threatens to screech to a halt.

[pullquote]The fantasy built on oil is crumbling, showing the benefits were barely felt outside privileged sites of elite consumption.[/pullquote]

The fantasy built on oil is crumbling, showing that its benefits were barely felt outside privileged sites of elite consumption. As criticism of the government mounts and Angolans begin to ask what actually happened to the glut of oil dollars, Luanda acts as a lesson that spectacle is no substitute for substantial political and economic change.

The post-war oil boom

Angola’s economic challenges appear especially dramatic given the optimism the country inspired following the end of its civil war (1975–2002). The war left Angola shattered. Infrastructure was destroyed, an estimated 4.1 million people were internally displaced, and the economy outside of the oil sector collapsed. When peace was announced in April 2002, Angola’s future was uncertain.

This changed when the international price of crude oil rose from US$34.86 a barrel to US$146.12 at its peak in 2008. Combined with increased oil production, this meant that Angola went from financially fragile to stable.

Eschewing the Bretton Woods institutions which tried to impose financial governance conditionalities on loans for post-conflict reconstruction, Angola initiated a system of oil-backed credit lines predominantly, but not only, with China. The deals involved the creditor extending a line of funding in return for Angola selling a fixed amount of future oil to the creditor. Amounting to billions of US dollars, these credit lines gave Angola access to the resources for reconstruction.

The national reconstruction project outlined in the 2003-04 government program included initiatives for improved social services and poverty reduction. But the primary focus was on real estate and infrastructure.

Luanda, home to 6.5 million people – just under one-quarter of Angola’s population – was the centre of these investments. Oil profits were sunk into a number of redevelopment plans, including:

• state land reserves for urbanisation initiatives;
• the construction of a large rehousing zone, Zango, for people forcibly removed for reconstruction projects;
• the building of a satellite city, Kilamba, to eventually house 500,000 people; and
• high rises in the city centre and real estate developments in the city’s southern areas aimed at high income earners.

Prices went through the roof, leading to Luanda consistently being ranked as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates.

The Kilamba Kiaxi housing development, a Chinese-built project in Kilamba, outside Luanda

No oil benefits for the poor

For those living in the city centre and other wealthy areas, it really did feel like a new world was emerging. But for three-quarters of Luandans who live in informal settlements, nothing changed significantly. In fact, their urban status was increasingly uncertain.

Central to the creation of the new Luanda was the mass demolition of slum areas, referred to locally as musseques or bairros, and the removal of residents to rehousing zones.

[pullquote]Between 2004 and 2014 Angola failed to diversify its economy significantly. Now, foreign reserves are drying up.[/pullquote]

Many of those affected were not rehoused. They simply lost their homes and land. There was little legal recourse, as the Angolan state is the ultimate owner of all land. A 2004 land law removed the legality of good-faith occupation, and it is extremely difficult to legally register land. Luanda’s fantasy was therefore being constructed on the increasing precarity of the majority.

Lack of economic and political transformation

After the oil price crash Luandans are left wondering what was actually achieved. Between 2004 and 2014 Angola failed to diversify its economy significantly. Foreign reserves are drying up and inflation hit a three-year high of 10.4% in July this year.

This has been partially driven by a fuel price increase imposed after the fuel subsidy was slashed as a means of decreasing spending. This has led to a rise in food and consumer goods prices, negatively affecting even the small gains that the urban poor made during the boom years.

Ever stronger evidence is emerging of financial mismanagement and large scale corruption in the administration of oil funds. A 2011 IMF report identified that public funds of $32 billion linked to the state oil company, Sonangol, were unaccounted for. Although it later found that $27.2 billion was due to unrecorded expenditure by Sonangol on behalf of the Angolan government, this left open the question of what had happened to the outstanding amount.

China has also launched investigations into allegations of corruption involving its economic deals in Angola. This has led to the arrest of Su Shulin, former head of Sinopec, the Chinese state oil company responsible for oil investment in Angola, and of Sam Pa, the kingpin of the Queensway Group, who brokered many of the agreements between Angola and Chinese business.

While Angola is now searching for new sources of financing, seen in its issuing of $US1.5 billion of Eurobonds, the general feeling is that its economic problems are set to continue.

Political repression is on the increase

Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos (C)

José Eduardo dos Santos has been in power in Angola since 1979.

A nascent urban youth movement emerged in 2011 calling for changes to the political system. Their demands included respect for civil liberties and the resignation of president José Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979. He leads the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which has been in charge since 1975.

Their protests have been small but potent. These hesitant signs of a political opening up have been crushed as the government has sought to contain political dissent. Seventeen youth activists have been charged with attempting to overthrow the government. Fifteen have been detained for more than 100 days.

But crushing political dissent will not solve the country or the city’s problems. To bring meaningful change, financial resources have to be orientated towards the needs of the majority.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Why India is rolling out the red carpet for all 54 African countries

The Third India Africa Summit takes place in New Delhi between Oct.26-30. Over 50 African countries are expected to take part with most of them represented by their heads of state or government. This will be India’s most important and extensive outreach and will set the stage for even more economic and political interaction between India and Africa.

African and Indian ties are as old as the story of mankind. Mankind is generally believed to have originated in Africa, from where it migrated to other parts of the world, but first to South Asia across the Arabian peninsula and Southern Iran, about 80,000 years ago, according to the genetic evidence analysed by Luigi Cavalli Sforza and Stephen Oppenheimer. Closer to the present, the common experience of Africa and India with European colonialism gave them language, law, tradition and commerce that strongly bind them, as both regions strive to break out of the cycle of poverty and backwardness.

Growing fast

Africa is the second-largest and second-most populous continent on earth with an estimated population in 2015 of 1.17 billion people. Africa is home to 54 sovereign states and countries. The total gross domestic product (GDP) of the African continent is now over $2.8 trillion and it is growing at over 5% annually. This pace of growth will ensure that most African countries will be “middle income” by 2025. The projected GDP of Africa in 2050 is $29 trillion, placing it in the same range as India’s projected 2050 GDP. This is projected to be anywhere between $33 trillion-$55 trillion by 2050, depending on the growth trajectory and economic policies adopted. Clearly those who ignore Africa can now do so only at their own cost.

The two fastest growing economies, China and India are already major partners in Africa’s growth—12.5% of Africa’s exports are to China, and 4% are to India, which accounts for 5% of China’s imports and 8% of India’s. This will only rise, specially India’s due to its faster growth trajectory and historical and geographical proximity to Africa. Those who ignore Africa can now do so only at their own cost. 

The World Bank estimated in 2011 that 32.7% of Indians and 47.5% of Africans were living on less than $1.25 per day. Together, nearly 900 million people in India and Africa live in extreme poverty—almost 70% of the worldwide total. Strong economic growth over the past decade has made significant inroads into poverty. In the past decade, India posted an average GDP growth rate of 7.4% and Africa of 5.7%. Nearly 10% of Africa’s population escaped absolute poverty while India recorded even faster poverty reduction, with nearly 17% of its population exiting extreme poverty.

The Indian growth story since 2000 has taken the country to the third rank in global GDP in purchasing power parity terms. By 2050, India’s GDP is expected to be the largest, as its favourable demographics will endow it with the world’s biggest middle class. In the next four decades, 180 million Indian families will join its middle class, making it the largest expansion ever of the middle class in the world. The global growth story is now jumping continents.

Global economic growth engine

Africa is now being tipped as the global economic growth engine of the coming decades. Its vast natural wealth and favourable demographic profile are expected to turn the continent as a whole into a growth engine that is expected to run faster than any of the world’s current economic powerhouses, including China, Brazil and India.

Within Africa, a handful of countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana and Zambia have caught the attention of economists and businessmen alike because of their improved infrastructure, natural resources, pool of skilled manpower and relative political and institutional stability. These countries stand out as the source of the greatest economic opportunity. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that six of the 10 highest growing economies between 2012 and 2017 will be African.  

In the past decade, India and Africa posted average GDP growth rates of 7.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow at 5.6% and India at 6.3% in the next five years. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that six of the 10 highest growing economies between 2012 and 2017 will be African. India and the African continent are also home to growing middle classes. Rapid urbanisation, rising disposable income and connectivity have triggered off unprecedented economic activity and growth in the two regions, and have made them the new engines of global growth, along with a somewhat fading China. While Chinese growth is expected to slow down even further, Indian and African growths are poised to keep increasing for the next few decades, given their favourable dependency ratios.

Old trade ties

Indian and African trade is as old as recorded history itself. There is much evidence that the Indus Valley civilisation had trade links with African countries that were fellow littorals of the Arabian Sea. Arab seafarers joined Indian and African markets and production centres and a brisk exchange of goods and people ensued. Nature favoured the establishment and expansion of this trade as the seasonal monsoon winds favoured relatively swift and safe to and fro passages. Indian merchants were quick to take advantage of this and scoured the eastern seaboard of Africa in search of gems, gold and ivory. East African mangrove poles too were a favourite item due to their length and mechanical properties that made them especially suitable as roof supports in buildings.

Over the centuries, the merchant kingdoms of Sindh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Konkan and Malabar traded with East African merchant states such as Barawa, Kismayu, Kilwa, Sofala and Mombasa. Consequently the Indian silver rupee or sikka became the currency in that sprawling area and kept this status even during the European colonial period. Swahili which developed as a lingua franca throughout Eastern Africa is a mixture of Arabic and native languages with many loan words from Hindustani.

Africa also attracted an Indian diaspora, some of it forced, but which is now very much a part of the nations it has made its own. This population is now in excess of 2.16 million and is well placed in African societies in business, government, teaching and other professions, and now effectively bridges the two regions.

India’s modern day bilateral trade with Africa picked up late but despite this has been burgeoning at an exponential pace. It was a relatively modest $1 billion in 1995, but had risen to $35 billion in 2008, and the three following years it had scaled to $45 billion. This year it is expected to be in the region of $70 billion.

African exports to India have been growing annually at 32.2% while Indian exports to Africa grew annually at 23.6%. Consequently Africa’s trade surplus with India is rising rapidly, albeit driven in large part by a narrow range of suppliers and commodities. The top six African exporters—Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco—account for 89% of total African exports by value to India thanks mainly to exports of oil and gas, ores and gold. Crude oil and gas account for over 66% of exports to India, gold and other precious metals accounting for another 16% of exports, and most of the rest to import of fertilisers from Morocco, Egypt and Algeria.

Outside these top six African exporters, though a different picture emerges. India runs a trade surplus with 40 out of the 54 African countries. Trade is significantly more diversified at a product level and almost all exports from India have some degree of technological input.

India’s merchandise imports totalled $447.5 billion in 2015. Of this, oil imports accounted for $116.4 billion and gold was $34.4 billion. India has also emerged as a major consumer of oil and gold. This has contributed to the huge expansion of Indian imports from Africa, particularly with West Africa.

The population of Africa has more than doubled in just the past three decades, giving it a very youthful demographic profile. More than half the population is less than 25 years old. The population of Africa is currently projected to quadruple in just 90 years, with a growth rate that will make Africa more important than ever to global economy and more.

A rapidly growing India not only needs more commodities from Africa but also needs its vast market to pay for them. Africa is thus a great economic opportunity for India, and rightly India has turned its focus towards enhancing its economic ties with Africa. Just as important is the realisation that as India seeks a more important role in world affairs, it cannot remain indifferent to Africa’s 54 members in the United Nations.

South Africa’s pioneering social network loses out to Whatsapp and shuts down

On Friday (Oct. 23), Mxit, the South African-born instant messaging service, once dubbed Africa’s largest social network, announced that it was giving up the battle to compete against other mobile messaging platforms.

The company is “shutting down its commercial operations” reports Fin24, opting to hand over its IP and technology to the Reach Trust—a South African organization that uses mobile technology to solve educational and health challenges.

Founded in South Africa in 2005, Mxit was a popular instant messaging service for millions of South Africans, before the advent of Facebook, Whatsapp and other social networks in the country. In 2012, CNN reported that Mxit had 10 million users in South Africa, outpacing Facebook and Twitter at the time, with 6 million and 1.1 million users respectively.

But by 2013, Mxit’s hold on South Africa’s instant messaging market began sliding as Whatsapp began growing its popularity. According to Fin24, the company had 7.5 million active users in 2013, this declined to 1.2 million active users in July 2015.

Mxit’s instant messaging service was initially built for “feature phones”—handsets that are enabled with basic web and multimedia functionality, but lack the advanced features of a smartphone—allowing millions of South Africans to access instant messaging through the mobile web. Michael Jordaan, a South African venture capitalist and chair of Mxit, told Fin24 that the company’s declining user numbers were linked to smartphones becoming readily available, and that Mxit users switched over to Whatsapp as they upgraded to smartphones.

Speaking to Quartz, Arthur Goldstuck, a South African tech analyst, said that there was a lot that South African start-ups could learn from Mxit’s demise.

“The first thing [Mxit] did wrong is that they became complacent when they were at their peak. They made the same mistake Netscape made in the 90s— it underestimated Microsoft, and two years Netscape was wiped out. It was not only the rise of smartphones that led to Mxit’s decline, it was also the rise of other social networks. They woke up too late,” said Goldstuck.

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is the latest strongman to win China’s Confucius Peace Prize

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator, has been named the winner of this year’s Confucius Prize, otherwise known as “China’s Nobel Peace Prize.”

Mugabe may not seem like the obvious choice for a peace prize, given his brutal, repressive 28-year rule of Zimbabwe that has been marked by torture and killing of political opponents and destruction of the local economy. But the Confucius Prize appears to be judged by different parameters than other peace prizes.

The Confucius Peace Prize Committee was established in 2010, the same year that the Nobel committee was preparing to award a peace prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Tan Changliu, its chairman at the time, expressed a wish to promote world peace from “an Eastern perspective.”

“China is a great nation that has been influenced by the Confucian concept of peace for a long time,” he told CNN. “Europe is full of small countries that had fought each other for centuries… We don’t want to see people who don’t understand peace to ruin the concept.”

The organizers are not connected to the Chinese government, and a year after it began, China’s culture ministry attempted to shut the operation down. But the committee moved to Hong Kong and renamed itself the China International Peace Studies Center. That year it awarded Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, its peace prize.

Here are the past winners:

2010

Lien Chan, former Taiwanese Kuomintang chairman, who met regularly with Chinese Communist Party leaders.

2011

Vladimir Putin, Russian president. A statement from the organizers said: “His iron hand and toughness revealed in [Russia’s 1999 war with Chechnya] impressed the Russians a lot, and he was regarded to be capable of bringing safety and stability to Russia.”

2012

Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general, for his “enormous contribution to the reform and revival of the United Nations.”

Yuan Longping, agriculture professor, for his work on hybrid rice.

In 2012 the award money was also raised from 100,000 yuan ($15,000) to $1.5 million which, chairman Qiao Damo noted, is “also more than the $1.2 million that the EU, the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, will receive.”

2013

Yi Cheng, former president of China’s Buddhist Association.

2014

Fidel Castro, former president of Cuba.

Africa’s commodities slump is a gold mine for investors

The recent downturn in Africa’s commodities markets might seem to signal dark times for the continent’s emerging economies. The slump in global oil prices prompted Angola’s government to end fuel subsidies; weak copper rates dramatically reduced the value of Zambia’s currency; and J.P. Morgan delisted the Nigerian naira from the Emerging Markets Bond Index.

But for long-term investors in Africa, these setbacks are blessings in disguise. They exposed the fault lines in sub-Saharan Africa’s growth narrative, but they also emphasized salient new opportunities at both the public and private investment levels.

Depressed commodity prices forced regional policymakers to wake up to the need for diversified economies. In Angola, for instance, the government now recognizes the urgent need to reduce its dependency on oil. Instead of shying away from these seemingly troubled markets, investors should see abundant openings in young but lucrative development sectors.

As Angola and other African countries realize they can no longer invest solely in uncertain commodities, they will further open to other forms of economic stimulation. The following industries represent key areas for investment in the next several years:

1. Agriculture: Angola is particularly keen to restructure its agriculture industry, as it currently imports 90% of its food supply. Companies can help the country reclaim farmland damaged by decades of war and establish an affordable local production system. In turn, these companies will benefit considerably from investing in the resource-rich nation.

An Israeli firm proved the viability of such an investment in Kenya, where it won a high-priced deal to develop a farm under the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme. The farm produced its first harvest earlier this year, and the project demonstrated the opportunities for foreign businesses to help revitalize Africa’s economies.

2. Industrial manufacturing: The Zambian government recently built a Multi-Facility Economic Zone aimed at boosting the country’s manufacturing industry through increased foreign partnerships. The move could mitigate losses due to Zambia’s weak copper market and, if successful, will demonstrate how other nations in the region can transition to more stable, long-term economic strategies.

Investors need to get in on the ground floor of these opportunities. Growing manufacturing sectors often indicate opportunities to break into new markets and secure favorable deals on pricing and exchanges.

3. Fintech: Mobile phone use is on the rise across Africa, creating interesting possibilities for banks, investment firms, and other mobile money solutions. In Kenya, the government recently launched the M-Akiba, a state-backed bond only available on mobile platforms. The program aims to encourage people to save and bolster the government treasury. Kenya boasts “the most developed mobile payment system in the world” in Safaricom’s M-Pesa, a system that indicates the massive potential for fintech products in other parts of Africa as well.

4. Foreign investment projects: International corporations should move now on foreign-friendly markets like Tanzania and Ethiopia. Tanzania recently lifted its 60 percent foreign ownership cap to entice companies to hold IPOs on the Dar es Salaam stock exchange, the best-performing exchange in Africa.

Ethiopia debuted its landmark light rail system in September 2015, thanks to significant funding from the Export-Import Bank of China. Chinese companies built the cars and the power supply. Eventually, they will also train local rail staff. Both milestones signify the growing appreciation of foreign investment’s role in accelerating capital markets.

5. Sustainability ventures: Foreign companies that provide solutions to socio-economic problems find they can establish strong, long-term footholds in many African markets. Infrastructure, public health, and water resource initiatives represent a small fraction of the areas in need of investment. M-KOPA proved both its sustainability and profit using a combined platform of solar and ICT energy to provide electricity to low-income residences in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.

Investors must realize that developments are lying beneath the veil of crisis that should inspire confidence in Africa’s promise for the next decade. As Africa’s many development projects and policy shifts suggest, the narrative is morphing from a tale of economic need to one of sustained and balanced growth.

Côte d’Ivoire’s president used an old autocrat’s playbook to turn his country around

Seeing the economic vitality in Côte d’Ivoire, you could almost forget that this country was ever embroiled in a vicious conflict with undercurrents of xenophobia and ethnic hate. Yet when Alassane Ouattara—the runaway favorite to win a second term in this coming weekend’s presidential election—took office in May 2011, it was after five months of post-election violence in which 3,000 people had died, and Côte d’Ivoire was still suffering the aftermath of its 2002-03 civil war. Ouattara took over a country awash in weapons and seething with recrimination.

Since then, four years of GDP growth above 8%, a foreign investment surge, a real-estate boom, and an aggressive program of roads, bridges, and power projects convey how much things have changed. So how did Côte d’Ivoire settle down so quickly?

The economy helped. So did the fact that much of the population was tired of conflict. But a key factor has been that Ouattara, a former IMF technocrat known for economic chops, has also shown exceptional political skill. He has neutered the opposition, held together his own fractious camp, and cemented public support like an expert.

And connoisseurs recognize his playbook: It comes from the master, Félix Houphouët-Boigny (on the left in the image above), who ruled the country from independence in 1960 to his death in 1993, with Ouattara as prime minister for the final three years.

Houphouët was an autocrat, but not quite a dictator. Though he didn’t allow multi-party elections until 1990, his Parti Démocratique de la Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) held internal primaries. He made sure that high offices—and thus patronage opportunities—were spread across regions and communities. He cultivated “dialogue” and “pardon,” bringing chastened opponents back into the fold after a few years. A pragmatist, he kept close ties with France, and welcomed immigrants from Burkina Faso to build the Ivorian economy. He kept farm incomes high—at least until commodities collapsed in the 1980s—and invested in infrastructure. At his death, Côte d’Ivoire had West Africa’s best roads and electricity.

It worked well enough then, and now Ouattara is reviving Houphouët’s principles. He has conducted grand “state visits” around the country, holding cabinet meetings in provincial towns, shaming state agencies and private contractors into speeding service delivery, and prompting rituals of allegiance from local dignitaries. The technique is pure Houphouët: For years the old president rotated the celebration of the national holiday around the country, each time bringing roads and rural electrification to the chosen region.

Like Houphouët too, Ouattara has been expert at co-opting rivals. The party of his ousted predecessor, Laurent Gbago, has split between hardliners who are boycotting the election and moderates who are running a candidate, Pascal Affi N’Guessan. The moderates have cut deals with the government, and seen assets unfrozen and court cases evaporate.

But Ouattara’s masterstroke has been his embrace of Henri Konan Bédié, who succeeded Houphouët as president (1993-99) and is now head of the PDCI. The two once hated each other; it was under Bédié that the xenophobic doctrine of ivoirité emerged, aimed at discrediting Ouattara on the grounds that his father may have come from Burkina Faso. Now, Ouattara has killed Bédié with kindness—deferring to him as his elder, even naming the fancy new lagoon bridge in Abidjan after “HKB.” In return, Bédié has thrown the PDCI’s support behind Ouattara, clearing the field.

What Houphouët did poorly was prepare his succession. Ouattara has that to deal with too: He will be 78 in 2020 and does not intend to seek a third term. His camp is full of ambitious people—patronage barons, technocrats, ex-rebels—and the opposition will regroup. Even before he secures his second term, Ouattara must already be thinking of how to make sure Côte d’Ivoire stays stable and prosperous after it ends.

Nigeria To Cut Gas Supply To Ghana Over Indebtedness

The Federal Government, Monday, threatened to cut gas supply to Ghana’s power plants over 100 million Ghanaian cedi indebtedness.

According to a former Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority Dr. Charles Wireku- Brobbey, Nigeria’s decision to cut gas supply to Ghana’s Aboadze thermal plant was occasioned by the failure of the government to settle its indebtedness to the Nigerian gas authorities and this might worsen power supply in Ghana.

Wireku-Brobbey told a Ghanaian news medium that contrary to expectation, the constant power supply in the country is not dependent on the incoming power barges from Turkey. He said, “The problem for us not the arrival or non-arrival of the power barges. As we speak the government owes Nigeria over GHC100 million, which we are yet to settle, and that is the problem that should concern us.”

Currently, Ghana receives in excess of 140 million standard cubic feet per day of gas from Nigeria. The supply, although not enough, has greatly enhanced power supply in the country over the last few weeks.

Ghana had in November 2014, accused Nigeria of breaching the agreement to supply gas to it, a situation that has worsened the country’s power supply.

Mr. Edward Bawa, Communications Consultant at Ghana’s Energy Ministry had told a Ghanaian news medium that since the inception of the West African Gas Pipeline Project, Nigeria, which is responsible for supplying Ghana, Togo and Benin with natural gas, has proven to be unreliable.

“Since gas started flowing through the West African Gas Pipeline, Nigeria has demonstrated that they cannot be relied upon to give us gas,”he maintained.

According to him, Nigeria was supposed to send 123 million cubic feet of gas to Ghana but was only able to supply around 49 cubic feet, saying the quantity is “woefully inadequate to enable us to power our generating plants.”

Bawa called for an increase in the sanctions to be meted out to Nigeria for breaching the contractual agreement, noting that only this will serve to deter Nigeria from continually breaching the terms of the contract.

He said, “The penalty, for the entire contractual period, if Nigeria fails to meet the supply requirement is $20 million dollars. That is peanut to them so they do not have incentive to supply Ghana the required quantities of gas, especially when they have other thermal plants that are asking for gas. Simply they are just not respecting the contract.”

To this end, Ghana’s load shedding exercise took a worsening turn as the Ghana Grid Company, (GRIDCO) says it will have to reduce power supply to consumers further if Nigeria’s gas supply to the country continues to dwindle. The country had in the first few months of 2014 received a compensation of $10 million, about
N1.6 billion, from Nigeria over the failure of the latter to meet supply of gas agreement between the two countries.

Nearly 4,700 migrants rescued off Libya coast

Nearly 4,700 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Saturday as they tried to reach Europe but one woman was found dead, Italy's coastguard said.

Tens of thousands of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have tried to cross the Mediterranean this year, often dangerously packed into small vessels unsuitable for the voyage.

The coastguard said in a statement it had coordinated 20 rescue operations involving numerous vessels which picked up 4,343 migrants from rubber boats and barges. In one of the inflatable boats a woman's body was found, the coastguard said, without specifying the possible cause of death.

Another 335 people were picked up as part of a rescue mission coordinated by Greece and were being directed to a port in Italy to disembark.

The rescues were carried out by vessels from the Italian coastguard and navy, humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders, the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a merchant boat, a Croatian vessel under the European Union's Triton rescue mission and naval ships from Germany and Britain under the EU's EUNAVFOR Med mission.

Europe is struggling to cope with a record influx of refugees as people flee war in countries such as Syria, and the Mediterranean has become the world's most deadly crossing point for migrants.

Nigerian Universities Not Listed In World’s First 700

No Nigerian university is in the first 700 higher institutions of learning in the world and the first 18 in Africa, according to the QS World University Rankings 2015/16.

However, South Africa has nine institutions while Egypt has five. Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have one institution each.

“This is the 12th edition of QS’s annual ranking of the world’s top universities, which uses six performance indicators to assess institutions’ global reputation, research impact, staffing levels and international complexion,” the report said.

In Africa, the University of Cape Town, South Africa, is ranked first on the continent and 171st in the world. The Stellenbosch University, South Africa, is rated second in Africa and 302nd in the world. The University of the Witwatersrand is the third on the continent and 331st globally.

On the global scale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, scored 100 per cent to retain its top spot in the QS rankings for the fourth year consecutively. Harvard University (US) climbed two places to rank second, followed by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), and Stanford University (US) in joint third. MIT came first in the 2012 global rating – a position which Harvard and Cambridge universities had once occupied – and has remained there ever since.

“The primary aim of the QS World University Rankings is to help students make informed comparisons of leading universities around the world,” stated the report.

Ghana’s Public Debt Hits $23.7 Bn As Cedi Falls

Ghana’s total public debt rose to 94.5 billion cedis ($23.7 billion) by end-June, equivalent to 71 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), up sharply from 67 percent the previous month due to currency depreciation, the central bank said on Friday. Ghana signed a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund in April in a bid to stem a slide in the cedi currency, curb inflation, and tackle its growing debt. The government has launched a debt restructuring strategy which focuses on the issuance of more long-term securities, mostly of five- and seven-year maturities. It plans to issue a fourth Eurobond of up to $1.5 billion this month to fund spending and refinance part of the debt. External borrowing amounted to 58.6 billion cedis, representing 44 percent of GDP at the end of June, the bank said in a data on its website. In addition to low commodities prices, expectations of a rate rise by the U.S. Federal Reserve have kept the dollar strong and added to pressure on emerging currencies like Ghana’s cedi. The currency has weakened 13.8 percent since January, according to the central bank. Gross foreign assets dipped to 2.8 months of import-cover at the end of July, from 2.9 months at the end of June. The Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee is set to announce a rate decision on Monday and analysts expect bank to keep the rate steady at 24 percent in a continued support for the cedi ahead of the U.S. rate decision next week, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. The rate rose to 24 percent from 22 percent after the bank merged the policy rate with its reverse repo rate last in July.

Source: Reuters

PHOTOS of six legged goat in Kenya

A goat in Muzuwerani Kwa Ndomo, Kilishi County, Kenya gave birth to a kid with two fore legs and four hind legs. This is the third delivery for the mother goat, according to the goat's owner Omar.

has given birth twice before to normal twins. However, when it came to the third delivery, I was shocked to see the kid having six legs and the reproductive organ located beneath the legs.It uses the same organ to pass both urine and excrement." he said.

     "Some people have told me to kill it, but i see no need. I intend to see it through life. I am grateful to God it suckles well and i hope it shall be well"