Business

According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain one of the fastest growing regions in the world. While Africa’s economy is soaring past most regions with an annual growth of about 5% due mainly to increased agriculture production, infrastructure investment including transportation, ports and energy as well as buoyant services led by tourism, telecommunications and financial services, the continent’s middle class is expected to swell to approximately 300 million people. Additionally, the World Bank projects private consumption in the region to remain strong in 2015-17; particularly with the continent’s burgeoning middle class looking to splurge on new passenger vehicles and for most, their first such purchase.

Last year, Africa was projected to see sales of new 2 million cars with major auto players such as Toyota, Tata Motors and General Motors looking at the continent for growth opportunities. According to , they are approximately 21.6 million passenger vehicles operating in Africa; making the continent’s 1.2 billion population an attractive prospective for automobile manufacturers. As a result, African entrepreneurs are also entering the automobile industry; designing and developing vehicles geared for the local market.

 

Below are three African-based automobile manufacturing companies that look the most promising;

 

Kiira Motors Corporation, Uganda

 

Originally developed by students from Uganda’s Makerere University for a project headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the sedan hybrid electric vehicle called the Kiira EV SMACK was designed for the region, local terrain and consumers’ ability to afford the car. The five-seater sedan is powered by a rechargeable battery and also has an internal combustion engine-based generator which charges the battery. The first commercial vehicle from this line is expected to rollout in 2018

 

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company, Nigeria

 

The domestic vehicle maker Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company has built on its success of manufacturing buses and trucks to launch a passenger car line comprised of a truck (IVM 1021A) and a Sports Utility Vehicle (IVM 6490A). According to the company website, the automobile company was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan and founded by Mr. Innocent Chukwuma.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.Feb.2015

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Commercial flights worldwide could soon be equipped with transmitters that send out an emergency signal every minute to help rescuers find downed planes more easily. The new measures may be phased in by the end of this year, said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency. Planes flying with the new tracking equipment would start sending out a signal every minute if an unusual event is detected, including a change in direction or deviation from a flight path. Under normal flying conditions, aircraft using the system would transmit their location at 15-minute intervals. Airlines are responsible to report information to authorities in cases of emergency.

Search and rescue teams can then track an aircraft within six nautical miles (11 kilometers) of its last known position following a distress signal. Currently, aircraft are tracked by radar, whose coverage diminishes when planes are out at sea or flying below a certain altitude. Airlines are also being asked to equip their aircraft with ejectable black boxes that would float and be more easily retrievable in case of a crash over water. Planes built after 2021 will reportedly include the ejectable black boxes as part of their inventory.

Ejectable black boxes would be supplementary pieces of equipment alongside the existing commercial flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in planes. The new measures will be presented to delegates from all 191 ICAO member states at a meeting in the Canadian city of Montreal from February 2-5. Industry experts say the initiative has unanimous support among ICAO member states. A final proposal will likely be submitted to the ICAO Council within six months for ratification.

The announcement comes after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 last year, which is presumed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean near the coast of Western Australia. The plane, carrying 239 people on board, was on the way from the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing, the capital of China. The search for survivors has been called off, but the underwater search for the plane continues. No confirmed debris has ever been found.

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Ngwa Bertrand

31.Jan.2015

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The European currency, the euro, has fallen against other major currencies as the row between Greece and its international lenders intensifies over the country’s bailout plan. The Friday plunge of the euro came as financially-troubled Greece declined to meet with its international creditors and refused to accept new loans while the eurozone demonstrated a weaker inflation. Greece’s new Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced that, despite the warnings that the country would imminently run out of cash, his anti-austerity government would rather carry on without the instant new funds, and instead renegotiate the entire bailout package. “This government was elected on the basis of analytically questioning the very logic of the program now being applied,” said Varoufakis, referring to the budget cuts and the financial reforms demanded by Athens’s top international creditors, namely the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This is while the three creditors have pledged to offer Greece an additional 7.2 billion euros in funds if Athens completed the reforms required by its lenders by February 28. “Our first act as government will not be to reject the logic of questioning this program by requesting to extend it,” added the Greek finance minister. Meanwhile, at a tense press briefing with Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Varoufakis further emphasized that Athens was ready to negotiate with its top lenders but not with their auditors, who he described as a “committee built on rotten foundations.”

Dijsselbloem, for his part, warned Athens against ignoring its international bailout deals reached under the former Greek government. The development comes as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party won the recent general elections, has pledged to resist the harsh austerity measures imposed by the international lenders. Meanwhile, Tsipras is due to visit Brussels next week to revise the conditions of Greece’s bailout deal. Under a bailout deal with its top three lenders, the debt-ridden Greece has received 240 billion euros ($270 billion) in rescue loans. Without the loans Greece would struggle to service its debts and avoid bankruptcy.

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Ngwa Bertrand

31.Jan.2015

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The number of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea in 2014 dropped by 18% compared to the year before but 2014 saw a major increase in the number of attacks that resulted in crew kidnapping, according to a new report.  Private maritime company Dryad Maritime said that fourteen vessels had crew taken captive last year, compared to eight vessels having crew kidnapped the previous year. Just two of last year’s attacks occurred inside Nigeria’s 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial waters, with the remainder further offshore where protection from security vessels is less available. A further 14 unsuccessful attacks took place within the Nigerian exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“Analysis suggests that the vast majority of these criminal gang attacks were aimed at the kidnap of crew, especially given the areas and weaponry involved. Effective defensive measures employed by crews and security teams meant that these 14 attacks were aborted and were not added to the already higher statistics for kidnap or cargo theft,” Dryad said.

The company predicts that kidnapping at sea will increase in 2015. “Victims will likely be released unharmed as long as shipping companies and owners negotiate with the criminal gangs and pay the ransoms demanded. Whilst it is understandable that such ransoms are paid to secure the safe return of crew, such payments will encourage criminals to persist with this lucrative form of maritime crime.” Regarding hijacking in the Gulf of Guinea in 2014, Dryad noted that three tankers were hijacked for their cargo of fuel oil, down from five incidents in 2013 and seven in 2012. Another five tankers were unsuccessfully attacked by heavily armed gangs during the year. “The smaller number of successful attacks was, however, overshadowed by a record demonstration of criminal gang reach when Niger Delta-based pirates hijacked the Liberian flagged tanker, MT Kerala, from its Angolan anchorage – some 900nm from Nigerian waters.” According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), 41 incidents were reported in West Africa last year, although many further attacks went unreported. “Five vessels were hijacked, including three tankers, one supply and a fishing vessel. Hijackings of product tankers appeared to subside in the last quarter of 2014, with the last reported case at the end of July 2014,” according to the IMB.

“Of the 18 attacks off Nigeria, 14 involved tankers and vessels associated with the oil industry. Most were product tankers, hijacked to steal and tranship their cargo into smaller tankers. Earlier in the year the waters South and West of the Brass Terminal saw a particularly concerning spate of attacks. “In and around Ghanaian waters, in June and July three vessels were hijacked, one of which was a fishing vessel intended to be used as a platform to hijack tankers off Nigeria. Seven vessels were also boarded while anchored at Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo, with ship and crew properties targeted by the robbers,” the IMB said. Dryad predicts that cargo theft will be steady in the Gulf of Guinea, especially Nigeria, this year. “The criminal reach demonstrated with the hijack of MT Kerala, the number of successful and attempted attacks in 2014 and the lack of any evidence that such gangs have been neutralised, suggests that further attempts at cargo theft will take place in 2015 across the region.” The situation is quite different off the Horn of Africa, with only two confirmed attacks on merchant vessels transiting the High Risk Area in the Indian Ocean in 2014: MV Nave Atropos was attacked on 17 January south of Salalah and MV Andreawas fired upon from two skiffs 10nm off the Somali coast in February. During the attack on MV Nave Atropos, the pirates used a previously hijacked dhow (MSV Shane Hind) as a mother ship. Despite almost daily reports of suspicious vessels (dhows, fishing boats and skiffs) these three attacks remain the only ones attributed to Somali pirates.

“Also of significance is the lack of disruption of potential pirate action groups (PAGs) in 2014. During 2013 over a dozen PAGs were detained and destroyed by coalition naval forces but, with the exception of MSC Shane Hind, no other PAG was detected in 2014. This is the lowest level of pirate activity in more than 15 years,” Dryad said.
The decline in Somali piracy is attributed to the large numbers of coalition forces, best management practices by ships and private armed security guards. However, Dryad notes that the threat of Somali pirates has not been eradicated but contained. “The conditions ashore in Somalia, which contributed to the escalation of piracy in the first place, have changed little,” Dryad said, noting that the pirates’ hijacking formula is out of date. “In 2015, it is likely that this broad containment of Somali pirates will continue, provided that the measures that have contributed to this favourable outcome continue to be in place. Remove any one of the ingredients that have resulted in the right medicine to combat the pirate threat – coalition forces, armed guards, BMP compliance – and we could see a return to higher levels of pirate action,” Dryad said. Piracy in Southeast Asia, on the other hand, saw a major increase in 2014, with 21% more reported maritime crime compared to 2013. Dryad’s figures show a total of 214 incidents compared to 177 in the previous year, most of which occurred within 150 nautical miles of Singapore.

Dryad predicts that piracy will continue unabated in Southeast Asia. “A very real concern is the fact that criminal gangs are becoming more violent and, without arrest and prosecution, they will continue to operate with impunity, resulting in further injuries and possibly more deaths to mariners,” Dryad said. Regarding the rest of the world, “figures for maritime crime in areas outside of those already addressed are small by comparison, with only 16 incidents on Dryad’s records for 2014...ranging from robbery alongside in South America to attacks on yachts in the Caribbean and even the hijack of a sailing vessel in the Mediterranean.” According to the IMB, attacks against small tankers off South East Asia’s coasts caused a rise in global ship hijackings, up to 21 in 2014 from 12 in 2013, despite piracy at sea falling to its lowest level in eight years. Pirates took 442 crewmembers hostage, compared with 304 in 2013. IMB’s annual piracy report shows 245 incidents were recorded worldwide in 2014 – a 44% drop since Somali piracy peaked in 2011. Somali pirates were responsible for 11 attacks, all of which were thwarted. Worldwide, 21 vessels were hijacked last year, 183 were boarded, and 13 fired upon. Pirates killed four crewmembers, injured 13 and kidnapped nine from their vessels. Apart from regular piracy, Dryad pointed out that there were various other types of crime affecting the maritime environment such as criminally sponsored mass migration across the Mediterranean, trade restrictions imposed in Crimea and terrorism activity in the vicinity of shipping lanes and the impact of civil war in Libya. “The targeting of MT Araevo by Libyan Air Force jets, which resulted in the deaths of two crew members off Derna on 4 January this year, clearly illustrates the need for local awareness and proper risk mitigation in all areas of operation.”

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Jan.2015

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The Ghanaian government has reached an agreement with the United States energy giants, General Electricals worth $1 billion for the supply of energy to the country. Ghana is currently in energy crisis despite becoming an oil and gas producing country since 2010 Cameroon Concord has learnt. The country is set to lose some $700 million oil revenue this year as a result of the falling price of crude on the world market.  Ghana makes an average of $1.2 billion annually from crude oil production but the fallen price of the commodity on the world market has brought the expected revenue down to $500 million.

The American multinational conglomerate corporation is expected to generate some 1000 megawatt of energy for Ghana with a gas powered thermal plant. The project is expected to be completed over the next three years. The first phase of the agreement will add 300 megawatts of electricity to the existing national grid by 2016 while the remaining 700 megawatts will be added in early 2018. At the signing ceremony in Accra on Wednesday, Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama said the project when completed will make Ghana the most efficient producer and distributor of energy in Africa.

“Even though we call it Ghana 1000, the power will be a bit above 1000, this will be the single largest injection of power into our transmission grid in history, it will be bigger than total power from the Akosombo hydro-electric power plant”, he said. The Akosombo hydro electric dam was built by Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah in 1964 but successive Ghanaian governments have failed woefully to build upon it, culminating in the current energy crisis in the country.

In the capital Accra, residents enjoy electricity for 12 hours each day but in the second largest city of Kumasi, residents barely have electricity up to 6 hours a day. Energy experts have criticized the government for failing to deal with the energy situation and many political commentators say the energy crisis would be a crucial determinant if Ghanaians will or not retain the government in next year’s elections. Ghana will vote in general elections in December 2016.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Jan.2015

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Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama has said that the country will lose some $700 million oil revenue this year as a result of the falling price of crude on the world market. The Ghanaian President revealed this when he addressed the Ghanaian community in Germany about the state of Ghana’s economy. Mr. Mahama has been in Germany since Monday for a state visit. He explained that the country needs to move away from being a primary producer to manufacturing to be able to add value to its export to avoid suffering from events on the world market.

"The economic challenges we are facing came out of the 2011 era when revenue from our primary produce  cocoa dropped, and we have been depending on oil revenue to help our budget, we need to build manufacturing economy to avoid these setbacks on the world market", he said. Crude oil on the world market has fallen to a record low of around $47 dollars and this is expected to affect the economies of the oil exporting countries especially those in the developing countries. Ghana makes an average of $1.2 billion annually from crude oil production but the fallen price of the commodity on the world market has brought the expected revenue down to $500 million.

Last year, Ghana’s economy was hardly hit. It currency depreciated against the major trading currencies which brought high rise in goods and services (inflation). This compelled the government to ask the International Monetary Fund for help. Ghana discovered its offshore oil and gas Jubilee Field in 2007 and started pumping oil in 2010. Since then, oil has been produced in commercial quantities, and over the next 20 years it is projected that Ghana could earn up to $20 billion in export revenue. It is expected that this will present an opportunity for the growth of the country’s economy. But the story has not been good since the discovering of the commodity. The country is currently facing electricity problems despite the abundant natural gas it could make use of from the oil sector.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Jan.2015

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