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THE AFRICA REPORT
The
N° 107 • APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
In this issue:
PROFILE Ramaphosa’s agenda
QUARTERLY EDITION • N° 107 • APRIL - MAI - JUNE 2019
DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? INVESTIGATION Nigeria’s OPL 245 net widens DOSSIERS Bayelsa, East Africa, Logistics
most influential Africans
A constellation of the celebrated: barrier-busting business folk and power players on the continent. From the stars of the moment to those imagining Africa’s tomorrow JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP
INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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EDITORIAL
SIGNS OF AN AFRICAN SPRING By PATRICK SMITH editorial@theafricareport.com The mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of young people on streets across the continent demanding economic and political rights challenges traditional oppositionists as much as incumbent regimes. In each case, the demonstrators in Algiers, Bamenda, Harare, Kampala, Khartoum and Kinshasa are taking on systems of vested interests and dysfunctional politics that are holding them back. They are calling for sweeping change, not just different party colours in the presidency. Even in South Africa and Nigeria or countries where politics seems quiescent or dominated by competition between ideologically identical parties, these new movements send important messages. First is that the economic downturn has exposed the jobless growth of Africa’s boom years. The demographic reality of the world’s youngest continent means this issue will dominate African politics for the next three decades. Although most policymakers talk of structural reform, very few have a strategy and can implement it. Second, when regimes try to reform after years of stasis, they are at their weakest point. They have neither the legitimacy nor the resources to change the policy course. The protesters’ grievances run the gamut
of economic and social demands. The main targets are the spiral in youth unemployment, stagnant economies held prisoner by international commodity markets, together with deteriorating provision of education and training – a key ingredient to revive dynamism. Activists are finding new ways to organise and avoid the attentions of the police. They have brought together students, professionals, and trade unionists of all ages – even feuding family members – into a sprawling movement. Innovation is key to the organisational power of the new groups. Activists in Algeria are using WhatsApp groups of football fans to mobilise support. It worked. On the evening of 3 March, hundreds of thousands marched through the streets to call on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to refrain from standing for a fifth mandate in April’s elections. In Sudan and Zimbabwe, the governments have tried to shut down services like WhatsApp, so activists use virtual private networks to share information and send messages to the outside world. All this has prompted easy comparisons with the rebellions that swept across North Africa in 2011. The protest movements in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia started that way, so the argument goes, but ended in a new autocracy, bloody chaos or frustration and disappointment. There are parallels between today and 2011 but more importantly there are lessons. Above all, demonstrate in peace, is the message circulating relentlessly among activists in Algeria and Sudan. Many hope the form of the demonstrations themselves, heterogenous with a strong, sometimes majority, participation by women, can shape the political transitions. This may prove the hardest task: for a popular movement to take on the responsibilities and limitations of political power without betraying its supporters.
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
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Ramaphosa is working on his image as ‘an enigma’
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publisher@theafricareport.com EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER YVES BIYAH EDITOR IN CHIEF PATRICK SMITH MANAGING EDITOR NICHOLAS NORBROOK editorial@theafricareport.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR MARSHALL VAN VALEN PRODUCTION EDITOR OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI To find the full editorial team, all our correspondents, and much more on our new digital platform, please visit: www.theafricareport.com SALES A JUSTE TITRE
03 EDITORIAL 06 MAILBAG 08 COFFEE WITH THE AFRICA REPORT / Bob Collymore 10 THE QUESTION 12 Q2 / April 14 Q2 / May 18 Q2 / June
63 EAST AFRICA FOCUS Policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects
FEATURES 22 PROFILE / Ramaphosa’s destiny Ahead of 8 May’s general elections The Africa Report talks to close contacts of the president over the years to build a picture of the man who says he can get South Africa out of its current mess
86 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars
122 INSIDE BAYELSA New projects are taking root in the Nigerian state after years of despoliation
36 INVESTIGATION / Nigeria’s billion-dollar oil scandal An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case, with nine executives from Eni and Shell now on trial in Milan
146 LOGISTICS DOSSIER
48 WIDE ANGLE / The youth wave
Ethiopia has high hopes for exports, and has made improving logistics a priority
Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall and #NotTooYoungToRun – a demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?
56 DEBATE / Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will revolutionise the economy or scare away investors
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
156 ART & LIFE African designers are in the limelight when Black Hollywood stars choose their labels for red carpet ceremonies
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MAILBAG
Introducing a more technical curriculum doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the failing education system, as technology alone won’t fix our public schools [‘Yemi Osinbajo: Selling our crown jewels isn’t the solution’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. What ails our educational system ranges from poverty in early childhood to underfunded districts and poorly designed incentives for an overburdened faculty, all of which feeds the unequal access to quality education for the teeming population of schoolage children. Recruiting more qualified teachers into service requires more funding than the sector currently gets. The proposed reform of the school curriculum will level the playing field of access, but level fields do not necessarily translate to improved player skills, which is the entire point of education. Maryam Bello, Ibadan, Nigeria
62 COUNTRY FOCUS | NIGERIA
NIGERIA’S OBY RAISES CRUCIAL QUESTIONS
Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili P r e s id e n t ia l c a n d id a t e , A llie d C o n g r e s s P a r t y o f N ig e r ia
The old order has delivered misery S T E P H E N L O V E K IN /S H U T T E R /S IP A
THE POINT OF EDUCATION
For all your comments, suggestions and queries, please write to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis rue d’Auteuil Paris 75016 - France or editorial@theafricareport.com
The Nigerian presidential candidate talks to The Africa Report about the education crisis and the need for the politics of ideas rather than personality
B
lunt-speaking and a passionate advocate for women’s r ights, Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili has launched a groundbreaking run for the presidency, which looks like a logical stepin her professional and political career. Standing for the small Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), she is shaking up the election by running a grassroots campaign with a dedicated band of young volunteer helpers. Oby, as she is widely known in Nigeria, should not be underestimated as a campaigner. What she lacks in establishment backers and corporate donors, she could make up for in her own enthusiasm and that of her young supporters. She shot to global fame as one of the founders of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in 2014 demanding
that the government of Goodluck Jonathan find and rescuethe more than 270 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok in Borno State by the Islamist Boko Haram militia. Oby and Hadiza Bala Usman, co-founder of the campaign, used social media to get the message around the world, and even US First Lady Michelle Obama was
“I would do a much better job than [Atiku] because government is not monolithic” pictured on social media brandishing a #BringBackOurGirls placard. That campaign was a major reason why Jonathan lost the 2015 election. An accountant by training, with amaster’sinpublicadministration from Harvard University, Oby has worked on development projects THE AFRICA REPORT
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for much of her career. She joined then-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in 1999 as head of its Budget Monitoring Unit, where she earned the sobriquet ‘Madame Due Process.’ She later served as minister of mines and then of education before leaving government to join the World Bank as vice-president for Africa. Oby is a fiercely independent campaigner. At the launching of the now governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, she warned its members that they should stand for more than chasing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) out of power. But she is also critical of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, with whom she clashed in government. She tells The Africa Report that Atiku did “everything to undermine due process” when he was in government. N ° 10 6
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D E C E M B E R 2 018 - J A N U A R Y 2 019
DOUBTFUL DOUBLING FOR MAURITIUS Mauritius is keen to double the size of its financial sector in 12 years, but how will it find the growth strategies to achieve its dream in today’s global economic turmoil? [‘Mauritius: Offshore on the radar’, TAR105 Nov. 2018]. Various forecasts against a backdrop of new US government measures to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium have resulted in Turkey’s currency significantly
Oby not only has the educational qualification, she also has enough professional experience to be president [‘Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili: The old order has delivered misery’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. It is sad that Oby was not seen as a major contender. Instead, Nigerians were focused on two men who have been in power before and have shown that they have nothing to offer. Is it because Nigerians cannot yet wrap their heads around a female president? Lucia Edafioka, Feminist and brand communications manager, Nigeria
losing its value. Four countries – Egypt, Jordan, Argentina and Barbados – have suffered from high debt and deficits. Will Mauritius be successful in its expansion of its financial sector with new international investments when the general global economic outlook seems negative? Kokil Shah, Kenya
HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN ZIMBABWE It surely never rains in Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
attempts to turn the economy around are yet to bear fruit [‘Zimbabwe 2019 Country Report’, TAR106 Dec./Jan. 2019]. Fuel shortages have loomed, doctors are going on strike, teachers are going to work twice a week and there has been a sharp increase in the prices of basic goods and services. New uncorrupt blood is needed, human rights laws need to be respected and in a nutshell, a new government is needed. Jeff K. Chakanyuka, Zimbabwe
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COFFEE WITH THE AFRICA REPORT
BOB COLLYMORE
PLATFORM BUILDER The Africa Report sits down with the retiring boss of Safaricom, Kenya’s dominant telecoms player and creator of the widely popular M-Pesa mobile-money platform By NICHOLAS NORBROOK in Nairobi “I highly recommend this lifestyle,” says Bob Collymore, sitting on the veranda of his imposing house in the affluent Nairobi suburbs. “This morning I woke up and had the 8:15am call. Then I caught up with some emails, then I have you and another media engagement after […] I don’t actually need to go to the office.” With the gentle chirrup of birdsong and the jazz radio playing in the large sitting room behind, it is hard to disagree, though the less well-organised might see their productivity suffer. “And it occurred to me,” continues Collymore, “that we all get into this funnel, to commute and get into the office by 8-9am. Whereas, I could easily do the interviews here, go into the office by midday and miss the traffic.” Nairobi is blessed with an abundance of cars, which can render the smallest commute unbearable. So it is no surprise to hear an executive plan around it. But Collymore is not being boastful about his terrific life; he has a different problem to steer
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around. Treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia has stripped his immune system of its former strength. “I’m starting over from scratch,” he says. Until it returns, he is forced to limit his interaction with people. Collymore is a ‘silver linings’ guy rather than a ‘dweller’. One of those silver linings is the ability to put more time into his music. “I do have a saxophone addiction, yes. It’s gotten worse in recent times. The saxophone shop was right across the way from the hospital in London, so I bought myself a new Conn-Selmer saxophone. And I’m very diligent. I manage to get in seven or eight hours a week.”
Collymore is not boasting about his terrific life; he has a different problem
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
That does not mean he is any less in touch with the office. The launch of Safaricom’s mobile overdraft facility, for example, has been at the forefront of his days. And he has had to fend off a recent polemic in Kenyan public life surrounding Safaricom’s dominant position. It is one of the reasons he is so sanguine about a merger between two rivals, Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya. “Telcom operators need to get a certain critical mass to work,” he says. “So this will create a player with 33% market share. That makes sense. For the market it makes sense, too, to have a stronger player as competition to Safaricom.” But that is not where he believes the real competition will come from. For all the kudos Safaricom won worldwide for its mobile payments platform M-Pesa, “you can pay for things with your Fitbit now,” says Collymore. And in the future, the real challengers to telephone companies like Safaricom will come from ‘big tech’: Amazon, Google, Facebook, as well as Chinese challengers like Tencent. WhatsApp has launched a payments trial in India involving tens of millions of participants. If WhatsApp gets into payments and comes to Kenya, what will Safaricom do? “We don’t get complacent about these things,” says Collymore. “For sure, we believe we need to evolve, and quickly. The thing that we have today was designed 11 years ago.” That evolution is being helped along by a strategic partnership with Vodacom, the South Africa-based telecoms company, in particular with its data capabilities. And Safaricom is looking for new revenue drivers. “The shareholders are certainly looking for this,” says Collymore. “And we think that you can bolt a few things together – e-commerce, payments and data analytics. Most people are using data to gauge whether you are a credit risk or not. But look at the Chinese, they are not looking at whether you
have money or not – they are looking at whether you are a good guy or not. They look at intent. If I know that your intent is good, then I can rent you my apartment.” That gives companies that sit on piles of information an advantage. “We have access to a pool of data, and not just our own but publicly available data, which can help us to start to profile people much better and to monetise
that by how we develop our own products for you and individualise it,” says Collymore. “But then also, how do we move into other markets which are not our legacy markets, voice and SMS. And not many operators can say that because they are just voice and SMS.” E-commerce is certainly an obvious choice – with a trusted brand, a payments platform and new logistics partner Sendy, Safaricom is stealing a march on other retailers seeking online customers. But the strategy, like big tech’s, is to be the platform, says Collymore, “whether it was for the banking industry, the healthcare industry, the agricultural industry. And we have our sights on the education sector. Look, at Amazon, it doesn’t just sell books. Google is putting balloons up in the air, it is not just a search engine.” Take, for example, DigiFarm, Safaricom’s new agricultural initiative. The company will be able to give loans to a smallholder, source cheap inputs from iProcure – an agricultural start-up Safaricom invested in – deliver the latest agronomic expertise by phone, and then
Investing $100 at the start of Collymore’s reign would deliver tenfold returns today
connect the smallholder to specific off-takers. All of this is in the Safaricom ecosystem. Like all good musicians and chief executives, Collymore understands the importance of timing, for a company and for a career. He looks at the way his predecessor Michael Joseph hewed Safaricom out of the stubborn potential of the market. His own tenure – which comes to an end in August 2019 – has been about consolidation and profitable pivots to M-Pesa and data: investing $100 in the company when he began would have seen that money grow nearly tenfold.
U FO C PA
-MAR
JEAN R R TA
And he is clear that the company needs a successor with yet another set of skills, as the chapter of the ‘ubiquitous platform’ begins. “I have never been a good mergers and acquisitions person, but we will need someone who can spot a deal and grab it,” concludes Collymore. “[We need] someone who understands the financial sector a lot more, if we are to occupy the fintech space, and someone who is not going to be scared of going into other markets.” Collymore says he is leaving with few regrets: a small number of missed opportunities and a regretted comment or two about the quality of Kenyan food, or about whether Kenyans trusted Safaricom more than the church. His greatest triumph? The team he has assembled. “Finish your tea,” he says. “Let me just go get an injection pumped into me, and I will be back.”
N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
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THE QUESTION
SELORM BRANTTIE
MICHAEL K. SERCHIE
Global Strategy Director, mPedigree Network
Project Manager, Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation
YES
NO
The National Cathedral serves an aesthetic and Ghana’s National Cathedral offers more than a house of prayer. It is a critical avenue for social superfluous purpose. It does not directly reflect the nation’s founding goals. It is a piece of architecture transformation in enhancing the prophetic, advocacy and educational role of the church as a corporate body. For that is just going to change the skyline. In a country which a country with an estimated 70% Christian population, has a majority Christian religious orientation, there are the National Cathedral would serve as a sacred space for already mega-auditoria that seat, in some cases, three governance of the nation, host times the proposed capacity of the cathedral. These auditoria state and religious functions, serve as a convening centre for have hosted and still have capacinterfaith dialogue to improve ity to host events of a national nature. To date, there has been the cohesive relationship beno explanation for the cost of retween government and religious placement of structures that will leaders and create a visible and be demolished for this edifice, organic unity of the different which will cost tens of millions Christian denominations in the of dollars at least. While the country. Our commitment to somega-pastors are running around cial justice in encouraging social with statesmen to raise funds, no integration requires initiatives to building the needed various inGhanaian even knows the cost of the whole project, and the govfrastructures at all levels – local, ernment itself is not disclosing regional and national – so that Ghana’s government-backed its interests. For a monument our nation can develop faster multimillion-dollar project has to a religion that has truth and than it is currently. Building the received backlash for being transparency as its core virtues, cathedral and tackling the other a misplaced priority in the face this cathedral’s very foundations socio-economic challenges in show a contradictory attitude. the country are not mutually of harsh economic conditions exclusive. Monuments like the Ghana has done very little to protect its heritage, and yet revels National Cathedral, in addition in the imposition of a foreign religion, whose main propoto its tourism potential and socio-economic revitalisation nents shackled our forefathers and condemned our ways of the city, will create jobs, revitalise the landscape of as barbaric. So while the national museum steadily breaks Accra, serve as a catalyst for technology and skills transfer down in ruins just five kilometres away, a monument that into our country, and will play an important cultural role celebrates our mental slavery rises in its wake. in cultivating pride for our heritage and past.
Are national cathedrals a waste of resources?
No!! These resources in question are meant for the wellbeing of the citizens and the development of the nation. Religious beliefs are entrenched in Ghanaian society and form part of the national identity. Yes, a national cathedral may not be in the interests of the entire population, but it captures most of the citizen’s religious affiliation, which is Christianity.
It appears the project does not have universal appeal in Ghana, even among the Christian community. It is more a matter of political mobilisation for short-end electoral purposes rather than Christian ends. State support is not universally agreed, since many court cases are ongoing regarding the presidential donation of prime government land. Besides, all so-called national cathedrals are denomination-based or -owned.
Randolf B. Hackman, Email
Colin Essamuah, WhatsApp
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
It is a vanity project. It’s management will be chaotic and at the taxpayers’ expense. It is the height of misplaced priorities. Kobi Annan, Twitter
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
To respond to this month’s Question, visit www.theafricareport.com. You can also find The Africa Report on Facebook and on Twitter @theafricareport. Comments, suggestions and queries can also be sent to: The Editor, The Africa Report, 57bis Rue d’Auteuil, Paris 75016, France or editorial@theafricareport.com
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Quarter
The Africa Report’s exclusive guide to the quarter ahead features key events from the worlds of politics, business and culture. Find out more about how to plan your April, May & June, whether it is to find out who is planning for life after Bouteflika (see page 13), what happens next in the fallout from Steinhoff International’s accounting irregularities (see page 14) or understanding the battleground fights in South Africa’s election (see page 16). THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
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Q2
/ APRIL
‘We want to know how much debt Kenya is paying in pending bills and we want this done this year’
INVESTMENT Oil
interest
Despite low prices, several African countries are seeking investment in oil exploration in the months ahead 1 GABON The 12th licensing round is set to close in April 2019. 2 GHANA Its first formal licensing round should be complete in May. It has reportedly got the attention of 16 oil companies, including majors.
2
1 3 4
3 REPUBLIC OF CONGO Licence round phase II is due to close in June 2019. 4 ANGOLA The Marginal Fields Bid Round will be launched at the Africa Oil & Power conference in Luanda in June 2019.
Y O R K T IM E S - R E D U X - R E A
World Bank leadership contest
A L L R IG H T S R E S E R V E D /Z U M A /R E A ; C A M IL L E M IL L E R A N D ; A T U L L O K E /T H E N E W
PAUL ABUOR Kenyan MP calls the government to account over opaque debts as the government seeks to roll over big loans in April
POWER PLAYERS After president Jim Yong Kim’s surprise resignation, the race is on to name a replacement. Nominations ended in midMarch and a vote is due before the Spring World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington. Early talk was about breaking the US stranglehold on the presidency.
DAVID MALPASS The US Treasury official – a critic of multilateralism and former Bear Stearns boffin – is US President Donald Trump’s pick.
NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA
RAGHURAM RAJAN
The former finance minister of Nigeria has said that she would run for the World Bank presidency if nominated.
The former Reserve Bank of India governor could be a strong candidate for the Asian grouping of countries.
ARTWORK
Up for sale
SOTHEBY’S
Pieces from renowned artists such as El Anatsui and Chéri Samba are going under the hammer at Sotheby’s London on 2 April. Contemporary African art continues to do well on international markets. Congolese artist Samba’s piece (pictured) sold for £31,250 ($42,000) in an October 2018 auction at Sotheby’s, which netted £2,274,625 in total.
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
$100m
Tech-focused Andela raised a large sum in January, and Africa-focused investors will be discussing that deal and others at the African Venture Capital Association in Nairobi 1-5 April
SAMIR SID
Thousands of protestors have marched in Algiers and other cities across the country
‘A combination of economic discipline and vibrancy will ensure that we will not have to be rescued’ KEN OFORI-ATTA
ALGERIA ELECTIONS
Ghana’s finance minister decribes what is needed when the country’s programme with the IMF ends in April
The street speaks
MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION The Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend at the Sofitel hotel in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on 5-7 April will play host to a new edition of The Africa Report Debates, with the question: “The new tech era: job killer or job creator?”
APPOINTMENT
SYDNEY MBHELE
S A N L A M
The powerful clique behind President Abdelaziz Bouteflika may have waited too long to resolve their disputes about who should take over from the ailing 82-year-old president. They backed Bouteflika to run again in the planned 18 April elections, leading to hundreds of thousands of protesters – young and old – taking to the streets in late February and early March to send a message scrawled on handwritten posters and chanted by throngs of protesters that ‘enough is enough’. The economy, which is largely dependent on oil and gas projects, is hurting. Nearly everything had seemed on course for a non-event election where Bouteflika would win a fifth five-year term: the opposition is weak and divided, the regime holds a tight grip on the military and security services and Algeria’s young people were seen as disaffected and perennially frustrated by the country’s gerontocracy. Those around Bouteflika are now scrambling for a strategy. As The Africa Report went to press, the street had gotten wheelchair-bound Bouteflika to agree to a national conference on reforms and promise to step down before the end of the next term. In the days and weeks ahead, the protesters are seeking to press their advantage now that they have gotten the regime to make concessions. But questions remain as to how this generational change in the wind will eventually take shape. The Arab Spring examples of neighbouring countries show the pitfalls and possibilities. Will the opposition be able to rally around a candidate in time for the vote, if it will be free and fair? If Bouteflika steps down before the vote or his party fractures beyond repair, will oppositionists be able to exert enough pressure to push through generational change in the armed forces, many of whose leaders earned their pedigrees in the country’s war of liberation from France and the crushing of the Front Islamique du Salut group in the 1990s?
The new chief executive of brand at Sanlam takes up his post on 1 April. Sanlam’s focus has been on its 2018 acquisition of Moroccan firm SAHAM. Mbehele brings experience from rival insurance firm Liberty to the table.
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/ MAY
DWAYNE SENIOR/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Q2
STEINHOFF INTERNATIONAL
Awaiting the auditors
ALIKO DANGOTE His $9bn Nigeria oil refinery is due to begin test production in May 2019. The investment is set to more than double Dangote’s annual revenue and allow large investments outside of Nigeria.
JACOB ZUMA South Africa’s former president will be back in court in May on corruption charges relating to a multibillion-dollar arms deal in the 1990s. He faces charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
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ERIC LARRAYADIEU/AFRICA CEO FORUM/JA; CIA PAK/UN
The reckoning for Steinhoff International, an Africa- and Europe-focused retailer backed by South African billionaire Christo Wiese, depends in part on the audited results for its group and subsidiaries in 2017 and 2018, due to be released in April and May 2019. Under the leadership of chief executive Markus Jooste, Steinhoff’s share price crumbled when accounting irregularities were discovered in December 2017. Auditing firm PwC is carrying out the investigation into Steinhoff’s recent operations, which will reveal the extent of the company’s problems. Since the 2017 crisis and writing down an estimated $12bn in assets, the company has been limping along as it conducts the restructuring of some subsidiary operations and preparing for court cases seeking billions of dollars in damages due to investor losses. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal – Steinhoff International is headquartered in the Netherlands – will hold a crucial hearing on 23 May to determine if it will go ahead with an investigation into the company. Steinhoff’s difficulties are also playing out in South African politics, where the opposition Democratic Alliance has been calling for the speedy launch of criminal investigations once the audited results become public. Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa could take years to complete their probes. Restructuring specialist Louis du Preez has been leading Steinhoff since November 2018 with the goal of saving the company from collapse. Plans for new stores – Steinhoff owns Mattress Firm in the US, Conforama in France and the Pep and Ackermans brands in Africa – have largely been put on hold until the company is on sounder footing. Steinhoff’s unaudited results for the last quarter of 2018 showed 3% total revenue growth from existing stores, with a 5% jump in Africa and a 4% drop in the US.
‘Whether we have accomplished fully what we had set up to accomplish? The answer is no. Corruption is worse […] It’s politics of patronage and appeasement.’ SAULOS CHILIMA Malawi’s former vice-president is running against his one-time ally, President Peter Mutharika, in May. Corruption and the economy are high on the political agenda.
Q2
/ MAY
$1bn
Ivory Coast plans to sell at least $1bn in eurobonds by May 2019 in order to finance the construction of new infrastructure projects.
‘It means having the law affirming our existence and validating that we – like all Kenyans – are protected under the law.’
SOUTH AFRICA
Poll pressure In May’s general election, President Cyril Ramaphosa desperately wants a strong turnout in favour of the governing African National Congress (ANC) so that he can sweep out corrupt officials linked to former president Jacob Zuma and clean up ailing state-run enterprises like Eskom and South African Airways (see page 154). Support for the ANC has been waning in recent years. It took 61.95% of the vote in 2016’s municipal elections, and an Ipsos opinion poll estimated its support in November 2018 at 61%. Another Ipsos poll released in February 2019 found that 59% of adult South Africans do not believe the government is handling the economy well, and only 29% believe the country is moving ‘in the right direction’. But the two main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters, do not seem to be making headway on the pocketbook issues that voters have been worried about the most. Here are three key provinces to watch:
MERCY NJUEH The Kenyan LGBTQ+ activist hopes the High Court will strike down a colonial-era law on 24 May that she says conflicts with the protections of the 2010 constitution.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; LOBNA TAREK/AP/SIPA
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
MOHAMED AL-GHEITI & MAHMOUD ABU ZEID World Press Freedom day will be celebrated in Addis Ababa in May. Last year, Egypt ranked among the top three countries for imprisoned journalists. AlGheiti got 12 months in January 2019 for interviewing a homosexual and Abu Zeid got a five-year term in 2018 for taking photos at the Rabaa massacre in 2013.
Phase II
The second phase of Kenya’s standard gauge railway, being built by China Communications Construction Company to link Nairobi to Naivasha, is due to be finished in May or June.
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WESTERN CAPE
GAUTENG
KWAZULU-NATAL
Poll watchers are not yet sure how much support former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille – who founded the Good political party last year – will pull away from the DA after her falling out with the party leadership. Western Cape is the DA’s strongest support base.
Voters in and around Johannesburg are critical of the ANC’s record on the economy and service delivery. The ANC lost control of the Joburg mayor’s office in 2016, so the vote in Gauteng will show if the opposition can make stronger inroads.
Zuma has been lobbying hard behind the scenes for his home province to split the vote, voting for his ANC allies in the provincial vote and against the ANC on the national level. The province is the biggest vote pool for the ANC.
THE A330neo.
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Q2
/ JUNE AFDB
Let’s meet in Malabo The African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina has about another year left before he could be up for re-election as head of the continental financial institution. He came into office in 2015 promising to transform the AfDB, but at the last general meeting, the bank’s governors said they wanted to see more evidence of reforms and the efficient use of resources before they would agree to Adesina’s request for a general capital increase to allow the financing of more projects. The AfDB is preparing for its annual general meeting in the Equatorial Guinean city of Malabo on 11-14 June as the continent’s growth engine continues to recover from a low in 2016. The AfDB predicts that growth will reach 4% in 2019, up from 3.5% in 2018. Those numbers hide regional variations, with the oil producers and mineral exporters of West and Central Africa performing relatively poorly when compared to the economies of Senegal and Ethiopia. Economic giants Nigeria and South Africa have been struggling to cope with lower commodity prices and other economic strains, and the new administrations in both countries will be looking for ways out of their current troubles. So Malabo makes a fitting backdrop for discussions about how natural resource-dependent economies can diversify and attract more investment – something the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been talking about for quite some time. With an annual infrastructure financing gap estimated at between $68bn-$108bn, attendees at the Malabo conference will be debating how African governments can raise more internal revenue, how to implement the planned continental free trade area and how to improve the mobility of the continent’s population in pursuit of better economic outcomes.
Japan will host its first G20 summit, which assembles the biggest economies in the world. South African diplomats will be present to represent the continent, and topics to be discussed include agriculture, health, green energy, trade and the digital economy.
‘What we want is a mindset change from everybody.’ ISMAIL MOMONIAT The National Treasury deputy director-general said in December that the planned introduction of a carbon tax in South Africa would force companies to think differently about their environmental impacts.
12.88 MTPA
‘We will (…) eliminate need for importing electricity from Uganda’ JOSEPH NJOROGE Kenya’s energy principal secretary announces a transmission line for June 2019.
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EMRE DORTER/TABANLIOGLU ARCHITECTS
US firm Anadarko is due to make an investment decision by June 2019 on two natural gas plants in Mozambique’s Offshore Area 1 with a capacity to produce 12.88 MTPA. The plants make up the key piece of infrastructure to the country’s planned gas boom.
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/ JUNE SOUTH AFRICA
National Arts Fest ALET PRETORIUS/FOTO24/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
Art in nearly all of its forms will be centre stage in what is billed as Africa’s largest arts festival 27 June to 7 July. Amongst the singers, actors and painters, politically engaged South African photographer and multimedia artist Berni Searle will be in the spotlight.
AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS Cairo
$2.5bn
cup
After high drama about which countries will host the next two tournaments, African football fans are preparing to visit the land of the pharaohs for matches between 21 June and 19 July. As The Africa Report went to press, the qualifying matches had not yet been completed. But there were already some early favourites. Egypt, which came in second in the 2017 tournament, is expected to put in a strong showing. Fans of the home team, which automatically qualifies for the final tournament, will be cheering on Mohamed Salah, who scored a goal in each qualifying match.
Stanbic Bank Uganda, lead arranger for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline’s $2.5bn funding, expects the deal to close in June 2019.
‘Energy subsidy (cuts are also) a positive measure’
CAMEROON
NIGERIA
SENEGAL
Last year’s winners are expected to put in a good showing in Egypt. The team will need a good performance out of winger Christian Bassogog, who was the 2017 tournament’s best player.
Shanghai Shenhua’s Odion Ighalo was in fine form in the qualifiers, scoring six goals in four matches. But the side was in a pool of relative lightweights, so the Super Eagles will have to prove their mettle in the next rounds.
Star Sadio Mané, rated one of the continent’s top footballers, is a key player for the team, which was on course to qualify for the final tournament with the highest number of points.
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UG CO. K/SHUTTERSTOCK/SIPA; PRESSFOCUS/SIPA; ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP/SIPA
HASSAN AMIN Acwa Power’s director for Egypt says his firm will sign off on three solar projects by June.
Indian telecoms company Airtel Africa plans to raise additional funds of about $1.5bn by June in order to invest more and to help pay its debts. It raised $200m in early 2019 from the Qatar Investment Authority and $1.25bn in late 2018 from Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singapore Telecommunications and SoftBank. Plans are underway for an initial public offering.
DANIEL HAYDUK/AFP
Features
22 PROFILE Ramaphosa’s destiny Does the formula that is Cyril Ramaphosa add up for South Africa? Contacts of the president help to build a picture of the man who says he can get the country out of its current mess
36 INVESTIGATION How Dan Etete’s billiondollar deal ended up in court An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case, with nine executives from Eni and Royal Dutch Shell now on trial in Milan
48 WIDE ANGLE The youth wave Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall: A demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?
56 DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will scare away investors
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FEATURES /
Ramaphosa is working on his image as ‘an enigma’
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PROFILE
Ramaphosa’s destiny Does the formula that is Cyril Ramaphosa add up for South Africa? Ahead of 8 May’s general elections The Africa Report talks to close contacts of the president over the years to build a picture of the man who says he can get the country out of its current mess
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
MOELETSI MABE/SUNDAY TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
By CRYSTAL ORDERSON in Cape Town and Johannesburg
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F
For 90 minutes on 7 February, Cyril Ramaphosa held parliament in his hand as he set out the ambitions for his presidency. In a sombre grey suit and tie, fitting his soubriquet as ‘South Africa’s CEO’, Ramaphosa reeled out his agenda for the coming elections: inclusive growth, jobs, better schools and training, stepping up the fight against corruption and strengthening the state to meet the people’s needs. “It was 100% Cyril,” said a veteran African National Congress (ANC) cadre in Cape Town’s parliament square afterwards. “Thoughtful, well-crafted, something for everyone.” Then he paused: “But can he deliver on any of this? His house is divided. The looters are not in jail. Growth is worse than stagnant and we’re losing more jobs.” So why the euphoria after Ramaphosa finished speaking? “Because we all want to believe in him. He’s won the ANC over 55% of the vote already. Job done.” Ramaphosa has set the ANC on course for a victory that would suit him. It has to be over 55% of the vote to reverse the party’s decline during Jacob Zuma’s era, but not a landslide – which could encourage complacency. To lead the ANC now – 25 years after its victory
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in South Africa’s first free elections – requires an extraordinary set of skills. That Ramaphosa – the student activist, the militant unionist, the political organiser, constitutional negotiator and then corporate titan – has those skills is evident. Less obvious are his people skills. Many who have worked closely with Ramaphosa say they do not know the man. Proudly announcing “I’m an enigma,” Ramaphosa revels in this psychological inaccessibility, rare among such ubiquitous public figures. Outgoing and gregarious, Ramaphosa works a room with a natural gift for recalling faces and personal stories. Rising at 5am, he has taken to power walking, with security in tow, chatting animatedly to the early-morning workers he meets en route. In the popular mind, that somehow offsets his country-gentleman-style enthusiasm for fly fishing, golf and expensive herds of Nguni and Ankole cattle. Allies say it points to Ramaphosa’s chameleon-like qualities, which have steered his career: from pushing Harry Oppenheimer to raise miners’ wages to becoming a mine owner himself.
SELWYN TAIT/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
In 1982 the young militant criss-crossed the country to set up the National Union of Mineworkers (see page 26)
IDEALIST Born into South Africa’s struggle Destiny is a recurrent theme in Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa’s life. From his confident teenage prediction to journalist Denis Beckett that he would one day be president of a free South Africa to his current position in just that job, Ramaphosa’s path has been accompanied by a strong belief that he is on the right side of history. Even when recalling his setbacks in politics and business, Ramaphosa reflects that they often worked out for the best. Born in Johannesburg on 17 November 1952, Ramaphosa arrived at the end of an auspicious year. There was a general strike against the latest depredations of the apartheid regime. The ANC had launched its ‘Defiance Campaign’, protesting against the repressive and discriminatory laws that banned interracial marriages and compelled black South Africans to carry passes in towns and cities. ANC militants responded by burning the hated passes at public rallies.
In Soweto, where Ramaphosa grew up on Mhlaba Drive, the militancy grew. Aside from his studies and his Christian beliefs the young Ramaphosa liked to sing and dance but politics soon became an all-consuming passion. His parents, Samuel, a police officer, and Erdmuth, tried to protect their son from the regime’s brutalities. He later recalled how a white soldier kicked him into a ditch at the age of seven. The following year, police shot dead 69 protesters, wounding hundreds more, at Sharpeville, not far from the
‘I think this time [his 1974 detention] had a profound impact on Ramaphosa’ LETEPE MAISELA
Ramaphosa family home. Then the regime banned the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Suddenly, the anti-apartheid struggle became an international cause célèbre. After finishing high school in Sibasa, in present day Limpopo Province, Ramaphosa left home to enrol at the University of the North, known as Turfloop, just as African students stepped up their campaign against discrimination. Ramaphosa, who was studying law, threw himself into student politics.
Natural leader “He was the quiet type, not one to boast but someone students liked and looked up to,” businessman and author Letepe Maisela, who was at Turfloop with Ramaphosa, tells The Africa Report. After the regime cracked down on student politics, Ramaphosa used the Christian student movement to organise protests against apartheid, says Maisela. “He was a natural leader and students listened to him.” In 1974, Ramaphosa was detained for 11 months under the Terrorism Act. “I think this time had a profound impact on Ramaphosa, [although] he doesn’t talk much of the solitary confinement,” says Maisela. Ramaphosa spoke in parliament this year about his detention, responding to accusations from Mosiuoa ‘Terror’ Lekota, an activist at the time, that he had sold out his comrades to the apartheid security police. “My arrest was quite dramatic and I was taken to Pretoria Central police station […]. They started to interrogate me, which was quite vicious. I will not go into that.” He said the police tried to force him to give evidence against his comrades, including Lekota. “And I refused. And they thought they would use my dad to put pressure on me to agree to become a state witness. I refused. I said I will not do it.”
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ORGANISER Building the base
GILLE DE VLIEG/SOUTH PHOTOS/AFRICA MEDIA ONLINE
Ramaphosa facing Oppenheimer at a Weekly Mail debate
When she first met Ramaphosa in the 1970s it was clear to Patricia de Lille – the firebrand secretary general of the South African Chemical Workers’ Union – that he had the toughness to resist repression and to build a political movement in the unions. After release from detention, Ramaphosa joined the Black People’s Convention (BPC), an organisation in the Black Consciousness Movement under Steve Biko, and resumed legal studies. He was arrested in 1976 and detained for six months in the notorious John Vorster Square police headquarters after the 16 June uprising in Soweto against apartheid education policies. De Lille first met Ramaphosa at the Council of Unions of South Africa, where he was working as a legal
NEGOTIATOR From national resistance to political power In the most dramatic decade in Africa since the independence era – the 1990s – Ramaphosa was at the centre of revolutionary change in South Africa. He started the era as a socialist trade unionist and ended it as a leader among the country’s new black business elite, with plenty of peaks and troughs in between. South Africa’s business and political leaders were now talking to the ANC in Lusaka, and to Nelson Mandela in jail in Western Cape. Ramaphosa had become one of the ANC’s most important cadres. At Mandela’s release on 11 February 1990,
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Ramaphosa was in the reception committee for the revered leader. Ramaphosa went from being the man who held the microphone for Madiba to heir apparent. It looked a surreal elevation for the 38-year-old union organiser. Popular with the left and the unions, as well as having the backing of exiled Communist leader Joe Slovo, Ramaphosa was catapulted into the ANC hierarchy at the party’s conference in South Africa in July 1991. In his autobiography, Mandela gave this accolade: “Ramaphosa was elected secretary general,
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evidence that the torch was being passed from an older generation to a younger one. Cyril was a worthy successor to a long line of notable ANC leaders. He was probably the most accomplished negotiator in
‘He was probably the most accomplished negotiator in the ANC’ NELSON MANDELA
the ANC.” The same conference elected Mandela as president and Thabo Mbeki as his deputy. Snuki Zikalala, president of the ANC Veterans’ League, tells The Africa Report that Ramaphosa’s promotion was welldeserved: “Cyril was running the engine room of the ANC, delegates felt he was highly competent, a hard worker and the right man to lead the ANC’s office.”
Fishing trips Earlier, Ramaphosa had emerged as leader of the the ANC delegation at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa
Move to the ANC Mineworkers were reluctant to hand over their hard-earned money as subs to the mining unions. The unions were also divided politically. By the time the National Union of Mineworkers was founded, in 1982, Ramaphosa had switched allegiance from the BPC
from 1990 to 1993 to negotiate the country’s transition. Again, the path hit several obstacles. The worst was the massacre of 46 people at Boipatong in June 1992. The two key negotiators were Ramaphosa and the National Party’s Roelf Meyer. “What annoyed me was that Cyril and Roelf would go away on fishing trips and come back and then have a position on a particular matter,” argues De Lille. “This meant that other smaller parties were simply dismissed.” While Ramaphosa was negotiating the transition and the choice of Mandela’s deputy was being debated, Ramaphosa was losing his power base in the ANC. Zikalala says: “Cyril was
‘He was very shrewd. He will smile with you, but would be planning something else’ PATRICIA DE LILLE
to the ANC, with its stronger organisation and international backing. Harry Oppenheimer, chairman of Anglo American, allowed unions to organise, and Ramaphosa saw this as an opportunity to build a socialist mass movement. Although some activists were disappointed with Ramaphosa’s move to the ANC, De Lille saw clear reasons for it: “He was very shrewd. He will smile with you, but he would be
too young to take over from Mandela. He had to learn how the ANC works. Thabo was a senior leader, more experienced and had a vision for the country.” After winning the ANC elections, Mandela asked Ramaphosa to chair the drafting committee for the new constitution. After two years of hard-fought negotiations with apartheid-era politicians and Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, Ramaphosa’s team produced a world-class liberal constitution that was adopted at a grand ceremony on 8 May 1996. Stung by the pause in his rise to power, just four days later Ramaphosa resigned from parliament and as ANC secretary general.
planning something else. He was strategic and tactical.” Internal differences within the PAC and BPC also pushed Ramaphosa towards the ANC. The next step was to organise a national union federation with the widest possible membership. Along with Jay Naidoo, Ramaphosa launched the Confederation of South African Trade Unions in November 1985, grouping together 33 unions. “It is important to draw people into restructuring society so that the wealth is democratically controlled and shared by its people,” Ramaphosa told the workers. Naidoo was the first secretary general of the federation, with Ramaphosa leading on its political strategy. It was aligned at home with the United Democratic Front, formed two years earlier, and to the ANC at its base in Zambia. By now, top ANC cadres in Lusaka were talking about comrade Ramaphosa, a rising star.
Getting the job done: South Africa’s constitution
STRINGER/REUTERS
adviser. Recognising his political skills, in 1982 the union chiefs sent him to organise mineworkers, who were producing more than a fifth of the country’s wealth. That brought Ramaphosa up against the harshest realities of the apartheid regime as he criss-crossed the country, seeing the dangerous working conditions in the mines and the squalor of the single-sex hostels. “Ramaphosa and other organisers were frequently chased away by the police, as most companies had not granted them organising rights,” recalls De Lille.
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From a standing start in the mid1990s to a personal fortune of an estimated R6bn ($500m) this year, Ramaphosa’s rise, along with that of his coterie of business associates, typifies the strengths and weaknesses of the government’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) schemes. They compelled white capital to hand over some of its more lucrative holdings to a self-selecting clique of commercial cronies. Investors in Ramaphosa’s main business vehicle, Shanduka, have done well since its foundation in 2001, although some analysts claim the returns would have been higher had he been less distracted by politics. Ramaphosa threw himself into the corporate arena in 1996, wishing to harness business to improve economic and social conditions. He sold his majority stake in Shanduka in 2015 – part of a lengthy process of divestment to resolve conflicts of interest for the then deputy president. At the beginning, he was headhunted by Nthato Motlana, Mandela’s doctor, to be deputy chairman of New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL), which was pioneering the government’s BEE plan. NAIL invested millions in the National Empowerment Consortium, an investment vehicle that used workers’ pension funds to finance mergers and acquisitions.
Paltry pensions and fat cats NAIL bought assets as diverse as casinos and media empires, but activists criticised it for using worker pensions to benefit a new breed of capitalists. Three years later, NAIL broke up amid some acrimony. Ramaphosa was frustrated that his ambition to invest in a big mining company had failed. He returned to the industry as a partner of Glencore, the Swiss-based commodity trader, whose South African chief executive Ivan Glasenberg was
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Ramaphosa bought South Africa’s McDonald’s franchise in 2011
‘He must go back to making McDonald’s burgers and leave politics to politicians’ JULIUS MALEMA
diversifying the company. Glencore picked Ramaphosa’s Shanduka as its BEE partner on a coal export project in 2005. They teamed up again as investors in the Optimum project to supply coal to the state power authority. That ended badly when the government blocked permits for the mine, forcing Glencore to sell it to the Gupta family, business allies of President Jacob Zuma. By 2012, Ramaphosa had moved far away from the principles that motivated his early political engagement. In August 2012, police shot dead 34 striking workers at Lonmin’s platinum mine
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at Marikana and wounded 70 more. It later emerged that as a non-executive director of Lonmin, Ramaphosa had sent an ambiguous email referring to the worker dispute in which 10 had already died as “dastardly criminal” and saying it would have to be addressed by “concomitant action”. Leaders of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), vying with the National Union of Mineworkers for support at Marikana, lambasted Ramaphosa for doing too little to get the Lonmin board to make concessions or to restrain the police. AMCU accused him of acting for the greater good of his company’s share price rather than the greater good of the people. When Ramaphosa's communications became public, his response – “It was terrible […] I take full responsibility of my role in it” – suggests contrition but also a heightened ear for the political nuances of the crisis. It was also the clearest sign that Ramaphosa was looking to head back to the centre stage of politics.
FOTO24/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
BUSINESSMAN Comrade Cyril, the multimillionaire
FEATURES / PROFILE / Ramaphosa’s destiny
WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
The future beckons: Ramaphosa wins the presidency of the ANC
PRESIDENT Destiny delivered, compromises made A mix of daring and desperation propelled Ramaphosa back to top-table politics in 2012. Just over five years later, he was president. Plotting for Ramaphosa’s second coming – against a venal but well-protected party regime – had looked the riskiest of ventures. All of his fêted talents as activist, organiser, negotiator, lawyer, businessman and diplomat went into Ramaphosa’s herculean re-entry project. First, he had to take the number two slot in a government about which he had the deepest reservations and whose president was facing accusations of grand corruption. An acolyte of then president Jacob Zuma tells The Africa Report that his camp was looking for a candidate to appease investors: “Cyril did not have any grassroots
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support, so he was given the position. He never had to work for it.” That’s not quite true. Ramaphosa, who became ANC deputy president in December 2012, scored 40 votes more than Zuma.
A narrow victory Despite his appeals to liberation-party solidarity, Zuma’s reign caused the worst schisms in the ANC since its founding in 1912. That cut both ways for Ramaphosa’s election campaign. He had taken a long sabbatical from the party and politics. Then he had breezed back in, determined to fix the broken party and to win the presidency of the ANC against a strong insider candidate, the ex-wife of the sitting president. Photographs show a tearful Ramaphosa, head in hands, moments after his
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narrow victory in the party elections in December 2017. The full story of how Ramaphosa secured his winning margin over Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is problematic. A long-time ANC activist tells The Africa Report that Ramaphosa was set to lose the vote. Some activists organised a meeting between billionaire businessman Robert Gumede and Ramaphosa. This followed
‘We are going to root out corruption, and that is a promise I can make’ CYRIL RAMAPHOSA
reports that Gumede’s ally, David Mabuza, premier of Mpumalanga province, was wavering. Zuma’s supporters were threatening Mabuza on charges of grand corruption and political murder – all of which he denies – unless he backed Dlamini-Zuma. Gumede had a long-standing gripe against Dlamini-Zuma for cancelling one of his company’s biggest contracts at the Ministry of Home Affairs. “Cyril’s instinct was to stay away from dealing with these two guys,” the activist says. “But one of his supporters told him to get real if he really wanted the presidency. He could not have won it without Mabuza […] that was the bitter truth.” Equally, Ramaphosa was said to be uncomfortable when he and the ANC’s other top five officials called Zuma to press him to resign as state president. Still more arduous is the way ahead: to win a substantial mandate for the ANC in the May 2019 elections, then push through reform of the country’s creaking public sector and embattled state institutions as well as a wide-ranging land-reform programme, in a way that will create jobs and bring in the promised $100bn of investment (see page 32). There is also the need for tough investigations, prosecutions, holding to account, argues former Cape Town mayor De Lille: “The buck stopped with Zuma and his cabinet, including Ramaphosa. They advise him and they must take responsibility for the failures.”
FEATURES / PROFILE / Ramaphosa’s destiny
OPINION
THE TRIALS OF A POLITICAL CHAMELEON WILLIA AM GUMEDE Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesbburg, and author of South Africa in BRICS (Tafelberg)
Community activist, lawyer, trade unionist, negotiator of the constitution, chairman of the board and now president: Cyril Ramaphosa threw his many personas into his State of the Nation address in February. His primary mission is to convince voters that his government cares about them and can fix the economy after what he had described as “nine wasted years” under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. Whether South Africans believe his promises will determine the outcome of the national election on 8 May. He wants a strong popular mandate to roll out wide-reaching reforms that shake up the government and economy. Comprehensive and business-like rather than barnstorming, Ramaphosa’s February speech rallied the ANC ranks in parliament and left the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Democratic Alliance (DA) looking flat-footed. A few days before his set piece in parliament, Ramaphosa
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addressed the Mining Indaba down the road in Cape Town, trying to win big-ticket investment. Ramaphosa’s balancing act is to get support from radical grassroots activists while courting investment from corporates. Ramaphosa has to cover most of the points between the radical left and big capital. Although it held onto power with diminishing voter support, the ANC fractured in the Zuma years. Some disenchanted militants formed new factions or parties, others quit politics. The tripartite alliance, which bound the ANC to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu, co-founded by Ramaphosa in the 1980s) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), is much weakened by defections and feuds. Neither is the ANC’s election machine in great shape. Tens of thousands of volunteers from the party’s youth league quit in the Zuma era. To win
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convincingly in May, Ramaphosa must ensure that the ANC gets at least 55% of the vote. First, he has to stitch back together the triple alliance. Both the communists and Cosatu gave Ramaphosa conditional support in 2017, helping him win the ANC leadership against Zuma’s preferred candidate and ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Now they want policy concessions such as a commitment not to privatise failing state-owned entities such as Eskom, South African Airways and Denel. Ramaphosa is keeping a discreet distance from such debates. Somehow, Ramaphosa, a businessman with assets worth an estimated $500m, has to keep the unions and the communists on side ahead of the elections. Trickier still for Ramaphosa is winning over ANC members who did not vote for him – almost half the party – and remain loyal to Zuma. A consummate chess player, Zuma
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is hoping for a resounding victory in May
MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS
in Zuma’s camp say that they will move to oust Ramaphosa at a special national party conference should the ANC vote fall below 50%. By embracing calls for the expropriation of private land holdings without compensation, nationalisation of the Reserve Bank and staunch opposition to restructuring state-owned companies, Zuma’s faction is wooing Julius Malema and the EFF. That is a serious challenge on Ramaphosa’s left flank.
is fighting against prosecution and political oblivion. Zuma has formed what amounts to a party within the ANC, pulling in his die-hard loyalists. Ace Magashule, a former premier of the Free State, was caught on camera plotting with Zuma to oust Ramaphosa. Magashule is ANC secretary general, and this gives him power over the party’s election campaign and influence in its choice of parliamentary candidates. For now, Zuma’s allies hold tightly to their ministerial posts, directorships of parastatals, as well as access to state contracts. Instead of confronting them politically, Ramaphosa is waiting for the judicial commissions and multiple anti-corruption investigations to weaken the group. With a backlog of as many as a hundred cases of high-level corruption, the authorities could push ahead with a number of prosecutions before the elections. But few are expecting
‘For so many, the most pressing issues are jobs and local services’
action against Zuma and allies in the short term. South Africans have two votes in the coming elections: one for the national government and one for provincial government. Facing threats of investigation and prosecution, Zuma’s allies are shoring up their bases to try to win control of provincial governments, as well as the local party branches and youth and women’s leagues. But they want to undermine the ANC vote at national level by covertly supporting other parties. Some
That means Ramaphosa has to calibrate policy carefully. Any move towards radical restructuring of state companies would prompt protests from the Zuma faction and the EFF, as well as trade unions. But without changes to creaking government structures and improvements to the poor standards of service, voters may have little faith that a Ramaphosa-led ANC can turn things around. For so many of the ANC’s supporters in the townships and the countryside, the most pressing issues are jobs and local services. Despite setting out a vision in February of a resurgent country, Ramaphosa is struggling to shift the dial on the economy, against the backdrop of a ballooning budget deficit and mounting private and state debt. Although Ramaphosa’s campaign to win $100bn of new investment over the next three years has yielded pledges of about a fifth of the target, the economy is marking time. Investors are holding back until they see more policy changes on mining, taxation, state enterprises and labour laws. Unemployment hovers around 30%. One bright spot for Ramaphosa is the weakness of the biggest opposition party, the centre-right DA. It thrived in the Zuma era, but as it changed from a white liberal party to a predominantly black and pro-business party, the DA under Mmusi Maimane’s leadership has struggled to assert its new identity. And with Ramaphosa — a super-successful businessman — at the helm of the ANC, many black voters are returning to the governing party.
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DIFCOM/JAMG- © PHOTOS: AS MENTIONED.
FEATURES /
INVESTIGATION
How Dan Etete’s billiondollar deal ended up in court An investigation in Nigeria has turned into the country’s biggest corporate bribery case. Nine executives from Eni and Royal Dutch Shell, and Nigerian officials, face charges in Milan over how they won control of a rich oil block 36
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By HONORÉ BANDA in Abuja and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa On a biting cold day in Milan in January, Ibrahim Ahmed, a Nigerian investigator, and Colonel Alessandro Ferri of Italy’s financial police, hustle into the city’s imposing, marbleclad palace of justice. Ahmed is in Milan to explain to prosecutors Fabio de Pasquale and
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP
Sergio Spadaro what Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered when it started to investigate the award of one of the richest oil blocks in Africa to an obscure company called Malabu Oil & Gas in April 1998, which had been incorporated just five days earlier. After chatting to local police, Ahmed is shown into the court. A tall, slender figure in
a dark suit, he expertly guides De Pasquale through the sheaves of documents about the disputes over ownership of Malabu and the oil block OPL 245. The story takes in more than 20 years of deal making and politics in Nigeria. It started in the era of military rule; now Italy’s Eni and Royal Dutch Shell face charges of corruption in the race to secure rights to the contested oil block.
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FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court
As Abacha’s oil minister, Etete had cultivated a fearsome image
In Milan, De Pasquale asks Ahmed what triggered the investigation. “The initial directors of Malabu – Mohammed Sani Abacha and Pecos Energy – were complaining that their name was removed from the register of company directors.” After Abacha’s complaint to the Corporate Affairs Commission, A.G. Abubakar, the special assistant to the director of compliance, wrote a memo: “I confirm from database that Mohammed Sani [Abacha] had 10 million shares at the creation of the company. Other shareholders said modifications were not authorised.” A year later, Abubakar was shot twice and his car was set on fire in an attack that resembled an execution killing. An estimated 9bn barrels of oil were at stake. The EFCC discovered, Ahmed continues, “a new filing by Ademola, a legal practitioner, changing the directors of Malabu.” Other suspicious points about Malabu emerged as Ahmed investigated: “Since the registration of Malabu [up] to 2010, they don’t have a bank account. The only asset Malabu has are OPL 245 and 214, and they are not doing any business.”
Breach of Nigerian law Ahmed explains that this had all rung alarm bells – Mohammed Abacha was the son of the military leader General Sani Abacha, who was poisoned in June 1998. His receipt of equity in an oil block awarded by the oil minister Dan Etete would have been a clear breach of Nigerian law. And oil minister Etete’s stake in the company that was initially awarded the block also would have been illegal and a conflict of interest. Now the list of charges against the subsequent owners of OPL 245 – Shell and Eni – is expanding and crossing jurisdictions. Alongside
the Italian case, the Dutch authorities are also preparing charges against companies and executives. Britain, which has a poor record of prosecuting corporate corruption cases, may yet start proceedings given the substantial British shareholding in Shell. Already, the Nigerian government is suing the US bank J.P.Morgan in the civil courts in London for negligence in transferring $801m of Nigerian state funds to Malabu. And the US authorities, which claim the right to prosecute any corruption case whose proceeds are denominated in US dollars, may yet join in. The most consequential case against the companies would be in Nigeria, where there is a demand by the EFCC to cancel the deal. Financial experts claim the Nigerian treasury could lose more than $5bn because of the poorly negotiated fiscal terms of the OPL 245 deal. That is on top of the $1.1bn that the Nigerian state has already lost due to corrupt payments, according to the Italian prosecutors. On the line are the reputations of two of the world’s biggest oil companies. Should the companies lose, their top officials could be gaoled, their share prices could crash and it may mean the death throes of a business model used in the oil and mining industries. That model is the dependence on secretive fixers and traders, lobbyists and spin doctors who help cut deals with political gangsters and military strongmen but keep the companies out of the courts. In most big corporate corruption cases in the US and Britain, companies go for plea bargains to avoid prosecution. In Milan, there is no immediate prospect of plea deals. The companies are up against De Pasquale (see box), one of Italy’s toughest prosecutors, and locked into a case that could take years to settle.
The ups and downs in Nigeria’s billion-dollar OPL 245 saga
1998
April Oil minister Dan Etete awards the OPL 245 oil block to Malabu (which he jointly owns with the son of the military leader Sani Abacha)
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June General Sani Abacha dies in what was said to be a poisoning
1999
May Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated as civilian president
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2001
Royal Dutch Shell agrees to buy 40% of the OPL 245 block from Malabu; the government revokes the licence and Malabu mounts a legal challenge
2002
Government awards OPL 245 to Shell under a production-sharing agreement for which Shell offers to pay a $210m bonus
2006
Government reaches deal with Malabu restoring its ownership of OPL 245 for a $210m signature bonus. Shell mounts a legal challenge
2007
Dan Etete is convicted of money laundering in a French court. The conviction is later overturned
$210m
Fixer fee for Emeka Obi (frozen by the courts)
Signature bonus
$800m
$1.1bn
for licence
NIGERIA government
MALABU controlled by Dan Etete
ABUBAKAR ALIYU
$520m*
and top Nigerian officials
Fixer fee in cash
$75m Fixer fee for Ednan Agaev (frozen by the courts)
*$520m in cash weighs five tonnes
ENI
Within a year, Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired general detained under Abacha, was elected president. Urged on by Western governments nervous about terrorist financing and money laundering, Obasanjo launched a set of antigraft agencies, including the EFCC. He also started sporadic investigations into Abacha’s government and cancelled a few oil deals, but Etete held on to Malabu and his prize asset.
For journalists covering the trial, all the gory details of the companies’ operations revealed through hacked emails, wire-tapped phone conversations and secret memos are played out in court. The drama unveils the intersection of public life and private business in Nigeria. It is a rare glimpse behind the curtains at the combustible mixture of money, power, friendships and vendettas that frame the country’s history. The golden rule of doing deals in Nigeria is to do them quickly and quietly. The deal on trial in Milan – the fight over OPL 245 – was neither. That oil minister Etete was able to award a licence to produce billions of barrels of oil without scrutiny says much about the Abacha regime which he served. It was what happened next that started the problems for the would-be owners of this bonanza oil block. Three months later, Abacha was dead, found frothing at the mouth at his quarters in the early hours after a particularly energetic party.
2011
President Goodluck Jonathan is elected, the first president from the oil-producing Niger Delta
Under a new deal, Shell and Eni pay the government $1.1bn and the promised $210m bonus for the block. The government pays Malabu $1.1bn
2014
Nigeria’s house of representatives cancels the OPL 245 deal; Swiss and British authorities freeze payments linked to it
Tapes of conversations As Abacha’s oil minister, Etete had cultivated a fearsome image – keeping a lion in the extensive grounds of his Abuja mansion. More squeamish visitors would try to avoid feeding time when Etete’s servants would bring in two live goats for the lion to chase and devour. But holding on to OPL 245 was not a done deal. In a submission to the national assembly in Abuja, Etete said he had been asked to dinner by vice-president Atiku Abubakar, whom he said had asked him for a stake
2017
Italy and Nigeria charge Shell and Eni executives with corruption; Nigeria also charges its former Attorney General with money laundering
2018
May The criminal trial of Shell and Eni executives begins in Milan
2019
Feb. London High Court rules that Nigeria’s case against JPMorgan for facilitating corrupt payments can proceed
March The Dutch government prepares criminal charges against Shell over its acquisition of a stake in OPL 245
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SOURCE: ITALY’S MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
THE BIG WINNERS IN THE FIGHT FOR OIL BLOCK OPL 245
$215m
FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court
OPL 245’s webs of influence Sani Abacha Military leader, Nigeria (1993-1998) After seizing power in 1993, General Abacha presided over the theft of $4bn of state assets and revenue, of which less than a quarter have been returned. Running a highly centralised and oppressive regime which executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists in the Niger Delta, Abacha’s mismanagement and corruption chronically weakened Nigeria’s economy.
Olusegun Obasanjo President, Nigeria (1999-2007) Inheriting a corrupt and dysfunctional system from his military predecessors, Obasanjo struggled to push through economic reforms. Although he set up the EFCC, the anti-graft agency which launched the investigation into corruption around the OPL 245 oil block, Obasanjo’s government failed to protect the state’s interest in the fight over the block’s ownership.
Goodluck Jonathan STR NEW/REUTERS- MARK CHILVERS FOR TAR - UN PHOTO - HEINZ-PETER BADER/REUTERS
President, Nigeria (2010-2015) Within a year of coming to power, Jonathan presided over a deal under which Eni and Shell committed to pay – via the Nigerian government – $1.1bn to Dan Etete for the OPL 245 oil block, whose ownership was disputed. Italian court documents accuse Jonathan, a friend of Etete’s, of benefiting from the deal. Jonathan denies all wrongdoing.
Dan Etete Oil minister, Nigeria (1995-1998) At the centre of the fight over billions of dollars and an estimated 9bn barrels of oil, Etete set up Malabu Oil & Gas with the son of military leader General Sani Abacha, then awarding the OPL 245 oil block to the company. With the Nigerian government's help, he later sold it on to Eni and Shell, which are embroiled in the Milan and other court cases.
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Mohammed Abacha had been arrested on charges of conspiring to murder opposition activists
in the block in return for not cancelling the licence. On top of that, Etete produced tapes of conversations involving Atiku’s intermediaries as well as some Shell executives offering large bribes. Shell and Atiku dismissed the tapes as proving nothing. Negotiations continued, according to Etete, with a fixer claiming to represent Atiku – who ran for the presidency in February of this year and lost – demanding Malabu sell its stake in the block. Meanwhile, Shell had offered to buy a 40% stake from Malabu. The government cancelled Malabu’s licence in 2001 and held an auction for the block. Shell bid $210m, some $150m more than ExxonMobil, and won the licence. At the same time, Nuhu Ribadu, the lively chairman of the EFCC, started investigating some of the more heinous deals linked to Abacha and his family. Shortly after his father’s death, Mohammed Abacha was arrested on charges of conspiring to murder opposition activists. With some chutzpah, Etete pushed Abacha junior out of Malabu, then started suing the Obasanjo government for illegally seizing the oil block, which he insisted was his company’s property. By 2006, the pendulum had swung back. A plan to get Obasanjo a third term in office had put him at odds with Atiku. Obasanjo pushed Shell out from OPL 245 and gave it back to Malabu, asking for a $210m signature bonus.
‘Unwarranted interference’ Shell’s regional vice-president Ann Pickard was quoted in a conversation with US ambassador John Campbell in leaked diplomatic cables saying that Etete was close to Obasanjo, having supported him against Atiku. She added that Etete had also played a role in “neutralising” former military leader General Ibrahim Babangida. She said Shell would fight the transfer of the block back to Malabu in the Nigerian courts. Meanwhile, Etete hired two experienced fixers: ex-Soviet diplomat Ednan Agaev and investment banker Emeka Obi. A few months later, in February 2007, Obi brokered a meeting between Etete and Lionello Colombi of Eni at the Four Seasons Hotel at London’s Hyde Park Corner, a favoured meeting place for Nigeria’s nomenklatura. After a convivial chat, Etete offered Colombi access to the data on OPL 245 for a “returnable” fee of $2.5m. News of the meeting leaked, prompting Shell’s Pickard to call Claudio
ALESSANDRO BIANCHI / REUTERS
FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court
Descalzi, Eni’s chief in Africa at the time, warning that any further negotiations with Etete would be regarded as “deliberate and unwarranted interference with Shell’s contractual rights”. In fact, Etete carried on talking to Eni but opened another channel to Shell at the same time. In a minor setback, the French courts convicted Etete of laundering payments from Addax, an oil-trading company with extensive interests in Nigeria. Etete, who had an extensive property portfolio in France, appealed the conviction. It was eventually thrown out on a technicality. Then Shell’s political adviser, John Copleston, who was formerly posted in Nigeria for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, met Etete for lunch to come up with a new deal in October 2009. According to leaked emails sent from Copleston to his colleagues Peter Robinson and Guy Colegate, a former officer in the British army, Etete asked Shell to make an offer for 40% of OPL 245. “Malabu planned to bring in two new investors to form an operator consortium,” reported Copleston, although he was sceptical about where Etete would find the money. “We said that Shell figures suggested $16bn capex [the investment needed to bring OPL 245 into production] and if Malabu no longer wanted to be carried they would have to find their 60% share. […] No real reply to this.” With some confidence, Etete told Copleston that if they reached a successful agreement, the Nigerian government “would not be allowed”
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Eni expected a high return on the deal because of the size of the block and the promised tax holidays
to derail it. Copleston added that Etete seemed in good spirits as the lunch had involved “lots of iced champagne”. Colegate was convinced that Etete would agree: “Etete can smell the money,” he wrote in an email that was forwarded to Shell’s then chief executive Peter Voser. “If at nearly 70 years old he turns his nose at $1.2bn, he’s completely certifiable.” Yet Etete kept up the dialogue with Shell’s rival, Eni. In February 2010, he agreed to meet Claudio Descalzi at the five-star Principe di Savoia Hotel in Milan, a ten-minute drive from the Palazzo di Guistizia, where both men now face trial for grand corruption. Along with Obi, they discussed what Eni would have to pay for the block. Etete exuded confidence about the future, based on a sense that politics in Nigeria was moving his way. Three months later, Etete’s friend Goodluck Jonathan took over the presidency in Nigeria after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua. Jonathan had been a tutor to Etete’s children and the two had stayed in contact.
Fractious talks, fraught dealings
Etete carried on talking to Eni but opened a channel to Shell as well
Just weeks later, the government confirmed Malabu as the rightful owner of OPL 245, prompting a crisis meeting between Eni and Shell officials. Taking a deep breath, the officials agreed to offer $1.3bn for OPL 245. A team of emissaries was sent to see Etete, who was holding court at Le Bristol, a stylish hotel near the Champs Elysées in Paris. Etete was outraged by the offer, dismissing it as “totally unacceptable”. On Le Bristol’s headed paper, he wrote that Shell’s involvement in the offer was a “gross insult” and that he would refuse any dealings with the company. He insisted he would accept nothing less than $2.2bn. It took another six months of fractious talks and then national elections giving Goodluck Jonathan another four years as president before a deal between the oil companies, the Nigerian government and Malabu could be sealed. It was more or less the deal that was offered in Le Bristol and previously thrown out by Etete. Drawn into some awkward discussions with President Jonathan and his close colleague, oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke – nicknamed “Fortunato and the lady” – the oil executives spelt out the details. Shell would pay the
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Within days, the companies’ version of events raised doubts
$210m signature bonus to the government, then Shell and Eni would pay a further $1.1bn to the government, which would be then paid to Etete and an array of middlemen. Company officials described it as a “safe-sex transaction”. The government was to be the prophylactic between the oil companies and Etete. Was it worth a decade of fraught dealings and a risk of prosecution for grand corruption? At that stage, the companies seemed to think so. Shell had spent hundreds of thousands, probably millions, trying to win the block. And it looked to be one of the most valuable in Africa. Eni, which operated an oil block nearby to OPL 245, expected a high return on the deal because of the size of the block, the promised tax holidays and the lack of a requirement that it would have to share the revenue with Nigeria’s national oil company. Shell said that it had made payments only to the Nigerian government and insisted that “it had not acted in any way that is outside normal global industry practice”. Eni said its payments to the government were made “in a
The OPL 245 case is not the first time that Fabio de Pasquale, the energetic Milan-based prosecutor, is taking on the Italian state-owned oil company Eni and its top officials. In the early 1990s, De Pasquale was one of a squad of prosecutors leading the ‘mani pulite’ (clean hands) campaign targeting political corruption in Italy. De Pasquale also took on Eni directly for bribing political parties. That investigation led to the conviction of Bettino Craxi, seen as a maestro of Italian politics, on 7 November 1994. In July 1993, Gabriele Cagliari, then Eni chief executive, was facing corruption charges. He committed suicide in jail, triggering a backlash from the political establishment. Justice minister Filippo Mancuso launched an investigation in 1995 against De Pasquale for abuse of power in a bid to rein in the judiciary after several high-profile arrests. De Pasquale was cleared of all charges after a few months. De Pasquale led the case that convicted veteran prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud in 2012. That conviction was De Pasquale’s most celebrated case in recent years. Now his focus, after promotion to procuratore aggiunto, is on financial crimes. Leading a team of nine financial prosecutors, De Pasquale is responsible for international financial crimes. He is also part of the Norwegian-funded Corruption Hunters Network.
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ANTONIO CALANNI/AP/SIPA
Prosecutor for the people
transparent way through an escrow arrangement with a major international bank”. Within days, the companies’ version of events raised doubts. Just after the signing, Nigeria’s attorney general Mohammed Bello Adoke, who had been closely involved in the negotiations, told the national assembly that the companies “had agreed to pay Malabu” while the government had acted as “facilitator”. Behind the scenes, the deal was already running into trouble. The Nigerian government could not find a way to transfer the $1.1bn from its London account to Etete after the transaction was flagged by regulators as suspicious and a Lebanese bank refused to make the transfer.
Jets and mansions In the end, JPMorgan, which operated an account for the Nigerian government in London, sent over tranches of $400m and $401m to Malabu’s accounts with two banks in Lagos. It later emerged that about $520m of that money was to be distributed to politicians and officials who had helped cut the deal. “Malabu’s shareholders”, as Etete described them, would choose where to invest the remainder. Soon after the transfer landed in Lagos, a company associated with Etete called Rocky Top put a $54m down payment on a Bombardier jet, according to records obtained by Finance Uncovered, a London-based research group. The company also sent $34m to Dubai to a local company called Gunes General Trading, which bought an apartment in the Marina Residences complex. It also bought a mansion in the Emirates Hills district, where Pakistan’s Bhutto family and India’s Gupta brothers, having fled South Africa, own property. None of this might have raised alarms had it not been for Etete’s failure to pay the middlemen in the deal – Obi and Agaev – their agreed share of the winnings. Both men said they had arranged meetings for Etete with senior officials at Shell and Eni, and without these, there would not have been a deal. So they took their claims against Etete to court in London. Justice Elizabeth Gloster awarded Obi “at least $100m” for his fixer role. Agaev went to arbitration seeking a $75m fee and reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount. This changed everything. Graphic details about the pay-offs and financial shenanigans around the deal piqued the interest of
FEATURES / INVESTIGATION / How Dan Etete’s billion-dollar deal ended up in court
European prosecutors and anti-corruption activists, led by London-based Global Witness. It launched a campaign against Malabu, targeting the oil companies. In March 2016, Dutch financial police, in coordination with their Italian counterparts, raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague. A year later, Italy’s public prosecutor in Milan charged Shell and Eni with corruption. Back in Nigeria, after Jonathan lost the 2015 elections, campaigners wanted the new government under Muhammadu Buhari to take a more robust line over the Malabu deal, but it is divided on the issue. The EFCC wants to cancel the deal, which it considers corrupt and bad value. But attorney general Abubakar Malami, a close associate of Buhari’s and formerly a lawyer for the Abacha family, disagrees. He and minister of state for oil Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu want the OPL 245 deal to go ahead and work to start as soon as possible. For now, that looks unlikely with an expanding list of corruption charges. Two of the fixers, Emeka Obi and Gianluca Di Nardo, were convicted and sentenced in Milan by judge Giuseppina Barbara last September to four years each for international corruption. Neither was in court. The whereabouts of both men are unclear. But friends of Obi say he was watching Arsenal from his box at the Emirates Stadium in London two days before the trial. Since then, the pace of the Milan trial has picked up. Italy’s Colonel Alessandro Ferri has explained the evidence gathered from wiretaps on the oil company officials and the raid on Shell’s headquarters. Following him, Debra LaPrevotte, a former officer with the
US Federal Bureau of Investigations, produced numerous charts describing the bribe system set up around the oil block. She said about $280m had gone to Rocky Top, a company linked to Etete, and about $520m to Abubakar Aliyu, a well-connected businessman close to Goodluck Jonathan who is accused by the Italian prosecutors of distributing the bribes. LaPrevotte’s evidence, from analysing financial transfers and intercepts, bore out Judge Barbara’s statement at the trial of Obi and Di Nardo that the payments to Aliyu were intended for members of the government and other public officials. The bribe scheme allowed Shell and Eni to secure a prized asset at a bargain price. It would also enrich business people and politicians who had been, according to Judge Barbara, “circling their prey like hungry sharks”. As politics and business change in Nigeria, the small and close-knit elite that has dominated the country for two generations has been pulled apart, mainly by greed. The defendants in the main trial protest their innocence and both sides suggest they are likely to appeal the verdict if they lose, eventually to Italy’s supreme court, a process that could take years. As the legal arguments grind on, plans to develop the rich oil block are on hold. It is a test case for Buhari. If his government puts its anti-corruption rhetoric into practice, the Nigerian courts should try the case at the same time as their Italian counterparts. And with pressure mounting for a renegotiation of the fiscal terms – even ownership – of the fabled block, the point at which it produces oil is receding into the distance.
Both sides suggest they are likely to appeal the verdict if they lose
THE YEAR OF REFUGEES, RETURNEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS: TOWARDS DURABLE SOLUTIONS TO FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN AFRICA. Every year, the Heads of State and Government of The African Union decide upon a theme which focuses on a key issue facing the continent and which constitutes a focal area upon which the key activities and messages of the African Union will be anchored. In 2019 the annual theme of the African Union will be “The Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards durable solutions to forced displacement in Africa. The 2019 AU Theme is driven by the need for greater commitment by Africa to address the plight of its citizens in forced migration situations, by implementing strategic and relevant programmes and working towards the ratification of the various AU treaties and legal instruments addressing the plight of refugees and displaced persons to ensure we achieve the goal of Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063 to provide a peaceful and secure environment for all Africans on the continent. Various AU treaties governing issues related to refugees, human rights, governance and promoting peace on the continent include the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, OAU Convention for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa, OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Find out more about these treaties as well and their status of ratification by African states by visiting www.au.int About the 2019 Theme Logo: The logo for the Theme of the Year has been built around the crisis facing refugees in Africa. Whereas migration is a common phenomenon as people have always relocated for various reasons, in the case of Africa the continent is often painted as a miserable place because migration is as a result of civil strife, poverty and a myriad of other factors thereby promoting the narrative that Africa cannot care for its people. Africans and their governments have always opened their borders and welcomed into their communities their brothers and sister fleeing their homes for various reasons providing a safe haven as long as it is required. The 2019 AU theme logo shows a mother embracing Africa with its child which encompasses love and affection. Africa knows how to take care of its own in each regard no matter what.
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African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243, Roosvelt Street W21K19, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 (0) 11 551 77 00 Fax: +251 (0) 11 551 78 44
FEATURES /
The youth
WIDE ANGLE
Sudan street protests, Bobi Wine, #FeesMustFall and #NotTooYoungToRun: A demographic tide is pushing back against outdated politicians, so how long before the bulwark crumbles?
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By NAMATA SERUMAGA-MUSISI in Accra, JOSEPH BURITE in Kampala, CARIEN DU PLESSIS in Johannesburg, EROMO EGBEJULE in Lagos and BILLIE MCTERNAN Since the end of December 2018, the streets of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, have been in a state of unrest. Protests – initially against a tripling of the price of bread but now more widely against President Omar al-Bashir’s
wave
term said they would indefinitely postpone a meeting to draft the changes. And on 1 March the president delegated his position as head of the ruling party to its deputy chairman, Ahmed Harun. A dangerous combination of a lack of job opportunities, poor economic growth, a growing youth demographic and an authoritarian government have pushed a generation of people with decades of life ahead of them to the limit. According to the African Development Bank, more than 200 million of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are aged between 15-24, and that number is set to rise to 321 million by 2030. Sudan’s youth-led protest movement is one of several around the continent. Some coalesce around a figurehead; others around a cause. But – as was seen with the Arab Spring movements of 2011 – when and if they reach a tipping point depends on the various and complex circumstances of each country: the structure and health of its politics, the quality of youth leaders and the individual choices of millions and millions of young Africans
government – have sent tremors across the country. Bashir, who seized power in a military coup in 1989 and has ruled Sudan ever since, has declared a year-long state of emergency, replacing all state governors with military officials. However, there are signs that his grip may be weakening: on 16 February lawmakers tasked with amending Sudan’s constitution so that he could run for another
Bobi Wine went into politics to amplify the issues he was singing about and get youth actively involved
ROBIN LETELLIER/SIPA
Protest, disengage or leave Africa is no exception to the rule that young people are less likely to be engaged with traditional politics than their older peers. While opinion polls (see page 54) show that young Africans discuss politics to the same extent, a lower percentage of them vote and a higher percentage participate in protests. But frustrations about poor public services and a lack of jobs can equally contribute to apathy or a desire to leave the country in search of brighter prospects somewhere else. As recent events in Sudan and Uganda show, countries that have autocratic governments and few jobs for young people have the hardest time engaging with youth. Thirty-seven-year-old Robert ‘Bobi Wine’ Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a musician and member of parliament for Kyadondo East in Kampala, wants to represent this youth demographic fed up with the 33-year rule of President Yoweri Museveni. In November 2018, he was in Accra to attend the 2018 All Africa Music Awards but offstage he addressed a gathering of supporters and listeners at Mmofra Park. Kyagulanyi engages the crowd, some of whom took part in the worldwide protests that erupted when he and more than 30 others were abducted and brutalised by the Ugandan armed forces
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during Arua’s by-election in August 2018. He spoke of how, rather than working to improve government, many parliamentarians were focused on enriching themselves, some going as far as to tell him to “go slow” and enjoy his pay cheque. Citing legislation passed in 2013 prohibiting political meetings of more than four people without police permission, he hammered home the great divide between leaders and the people, and how parliament passes unjust laws to keep the people subjugated.
Politics, the ‘official platform’ Born in the Kamwokya slum in Kampala, where his family lived while his father was in prison for his role in President Yoweri Museveni’s bush war, Kyagulanyi was already a household name by the time he announced his candidacy for the Kyadondo seat in 2016. His music gave birth to his activism and nurtured his political growth, he told those gathered in Accra: “As a musician drawing inspiration from
Jamaican artists like Buju Banton, Bob Marley and Sizzla, there was a general narrative of dissing politicians and describing politics as ‘poli-tricks’. […] I was using my music as my platform of activism to demand what should be in place. But as I grew up I realised that it is one thing raising a voice and and another thing actually changing the way things are.” Kyagulanyi says he wanted to use the ‘official platform’ to amplify the issues he had long sung about and that the people he lives among want communicated; he was among oppositionists attempting to prevent the removal of presidential term limits and the introduction of a social media tax to muzzle activism. “Bobi Wine is riding an inevitable wave,” says Kampala-based analyst Angelo Izama. “Demographic changes in Africa will produce yet unforeseen consequences. His movement puts a youth banner on economic injustice. It resonates because, well it is true.” Primary school enrolment is estimated around 90%,
OPINION
AN EMPTY HAND IS NOT LICKED BAZ RATNER/REUTERS
BONIFACE MWANGI Kenyan photojournalist, activist, politician and founder of the Nairobi-based PAWA254 creative hub and the Team Courage initiative for social change
Since independence, Kenyan elections have been characterised by irregularities, violence and accusations of vote tampering. We make world headlines because of electoral disputes and post-election violence. In the past 30 years, we have had six elections and
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only the 2002 one did not end with a court case and widespread violence. In 2017, I ran for the parliamentary seat representing Starehe. I ran because I was tired of taking part in street protests and getting our petitions ignored by parliamentarians.
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The streets had produced a number of successes, and I believed getting an elective post would enable us to continue with our fight. I hoped to be the voice of the people from the inside. I lost, and the experience left me with many reflections. The electorate loves their tribal kingpins and their parties that are formed a few months before the elections. They are the same characters – or their biological and political sons – who have dominated our politics since independence; and defying them is like scoring an own goal. Your manifesto, passion and great ideas don’t matter; your tribe, how deep your pockets are and the tribal king-party you affiliate with is all that matters. But we defied them. We formed the Ukweli Party (meaning truth party, in Kiswahili). As a small new party, we had a choice to align with big tribal kingpins and get some of their voters to vote for us. We refused many offers. I ran against rivals who didn’t bother to have a manifesto because they were in the two big political parties and they
KHALIL SENOSI/AP/SIPA
Hashtags are the new symbol of solidarity for youth movements wordwide
had lots of money. Their sources of wealth were questionable, but to the voters their money and flashy cars were the main attraction. Working with other revolutionaries proved such a joy. Just knowing you are not walking alone really kept me going. This is despite the fact that we were a bunch of broke candidates. As a new party, we had to do something normally done in mature democracies but never in Africa: asking strangers to financially support our candidacy. We crowdfunded our campaign and the most amazing thing is that people gave money, time and vehicles. Kenyans owned me as their candidate, and through small contributions we raised over $150,000. People volunteered to come knock doors with me. It proved that not all hope was lost and that there are those who still care to make a difference. This, though, came with a key lesson. We have a Kiswahili saying, ‘Mkono mtupu haulambwi’ (an empty hand is not licked). The voters would tell me to hurry up with my speeches, saying ‘we have heard that before’ and demand I come to
but only 38% complete it. University graduates can find themselves competing with 50 other candidates for every available opportunity, while ‘informal sector’ employment is opposed through the state’s destruction of settlements and places of work. But will Kyagulanyi’s popularity and ‘People Power’ slogan change the way Uganda runs? Some analysts believe that though he has much support across the country, he has no established grassroots structure on which to build a political movement. “What’s his politics, beyond the critique? How would he balance the kind of issues that the nation faces?” asks Ugandan journalist and blogger Rosebell Kagumire. “He’s a lone voice that has a platform, but if he were to be a presidential figure he would have to show whether he has a committee of people, how he would govern, […] the idea that he’s leading a movement that is visible beyond himself.” Over the years opposition movements
the conclusion so that I can dish out the goodies like flour, sugar, cooking oil. It was purely extortion politics, and that’s why Kenya politics attracts thugs and those with ill-gotten wealth. In the beginning, I would flatly refuse and at points I was annoyed, but then I realised this was an opportunity to engage in voter education. My campaign changed from expressing why I was a better candidate to explaining what one should consider in selecting their preferred candidate. I focused more on teaching why voting for party, tribe or because they were given handouts was the reason Kenya politicians
‘The most amazing thing is that people gave money, time and vehicles’
are highly paid and government is still one of the most corrupt institutions. We have to lobby for changes in campaign financing to try and equalise the playing field. It would be great to have an electoral system that invests in ideological politics rather than personalities. I went into politics with my integrity intact and came out unscathed. In the end I didn’t lose; I learnt lessons and will continue to use my platform as my megaphone to get young people inspired into politics. As a young Kenyan, I have to do a lot of work to stop the voter apathy because people born after 2000 have only experienced ‘stolen elections’. I have to carry them the gospel of Kwame Nkrumah, who said “Seek ye the political kingdom first” because the jobs and the opportunities they seek will be delivered by good leaders occupying the political kingdom. It will take my generation’s strategy, skilful political organising and confrontation, hope and a courageous mentality that we can change the corrupt system. We have to give young people hope that clean politics is possible.
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ZHAI JIANLAN/XINHUA-REA
FEATURES / WIDE ANGLE / The youth wave
Zuma has gone but the #FeesMustFall movement in South Africa will continue until its calls for a democratic, affordable education for all are met
Malema and Bobi Wine see each other as part of the same battle
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in Uganda have grown and fizzled out. “[The] highly polarised foundation upon which politics rests is two and half decades of divide and rule […] and a dangerously volatile commercial market for politics. [This] will meet with the naked violence of the heirs of the movement under Museveni,” says Izama. “What happened in Arua is only the first draft of the history to follow.” How political change will come when Museveni is no longer in power depends on its timing and several other factors. “It matters that they [the youth] are at least excited by the show,” says Kagumire. “They see [Bobi Wine] as a sign of change in the truth teller at the time when everybody has been beaten by the system.” He will have to up his game to be able to win via the streets or the ballot box when the cult of personality loses its leader, since the factors are not ripe for a revolution.
Red-beret brothers Meanwhile in South Africa, which has a stronger democratic system and state institutions, youth politics of late has grabbed national attention through the #FeesMustFall movement and organising activity of Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Malema and Kyagulanyi see each other as part of the same battle. “Museveni firstly must go and rest, and rest on his oversized suits as well,” Malema tells The Africa Report. “Bobi Wine is an inspiration, [he] is a brother to us. Even if he can’t defeat him through using the state institutions and democratic processes, nature will resolve
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the man [Museveni]. So Bobi Wine, soldier on young man, victory is certain.” With an ear to the ground, Malema and the EFF have tapped into the concerns of those who feel marginalised. The EFF has also managed to push popular policy positions – notably on land reform – and the debate on the nationalisation of mines to such an extent that it has caused radical shifts in the governing African National Congress’s position. Part of the EFF’s political appeal lies in how it has positioned itself at a time when a lot of people are looking for political alternatives, says Tasneem Essop, a researcher at Wits University: “Given the socioeconomic context, deep inequality and sky-high unemployment, the language of the EFF speaks to this and the many popular struggles that have been unfolding in the country.” Ahead of the May 2019 election, opinion polls give the EFF an expected 11% support. This almost doubles the 6% it got in its first elections in 2014, and would give it more clout in the opposition benches of parliament. The EFF became coalition kingmakers in several major cities after the 2016 municipal elections, but the horse-trading of divided governments has done little to boost the party’s national profile. It is doing well on university campuses and using social media to mobilise voters, but it will need to speak to more than young people to make a bigger electoral power push. In Nigeria, getting your name on the ballot when you are not a billionaire or the ‘godchild’ of a political bigwig presents its
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In this issue
PROFILE Ramaphosa’s agenda
DEBATE Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? INVESTIGATION Nigeria’s OPL 245 net widens DOSSIERS Bayelsa, East Africa, Logistics JEUNE AFRIQUE MEDIA GROUP
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Algeria 610 DA • Belgium €7.90 • Canada CA$ 12 • Denmark 80 DK • Ethiopia 200 Birr • France €7.90 • Germany €7.90 • Ghana GH¢ 35 • Kenya KES 900 • Morocco 45 DH • Netherlands €7.90 • Nigeria 2000 NGN • Norway NK 95 • Rwanda RWF 7,500 • Sierra Leone LE 67,000 • South Africa R75 (tax incl.) • Sweden SEK 100 • Switzerland 10.90 FS • Tanzania TZS 20,000 • Tunisia 15 DT • Uganda UGX 30,000 • UK £7.2 • United States US$ 15.99 • Zambia 80 ZMW • Zimbabwe US$ 6.20 • CFA Countries 3,900 F.CFA • Euro Zone €7.90
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FEATURES / WIDE ANGLE / The youth wave
#VOTE18 Inspired by their neighbours, youth groups in Cameroon are also using the political structures to seek younger political participation in their country. The organisation Network for Solidarity, Empowerment and Transformation for All (NewSETA) started a campaign known as #VOTE18, aimed at lowering the voting age in Cameroon from 20 to 18. NewSETA’s director, Ateki Caxton, saw Nigeria’s #NotTooYoungToRun campaign as a success story. He is also planning to launch a campaign to lower the age to run for Senate and build young people’s capacity to run for office. “We believe that age is not a factor to determine whether someone makes a difference in society or not,” Caxton says. #VOTE18 faces an uphill battle in a country where octogenarian President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982 and has a strong grip on the three arms of government.
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POLITICAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT OF AFRICAN YOUTH IN 36 COUNTRIES (2014/2015)
Interested in public affairs
Discuss politics
Voted in most recent election
Attended a compaign rally
58% 48% 53%
67% 61% 67%
79% 64% 65%
37% 29% 33% KEY Youth
(18-35 years)
Young women Attented a community meeting and/or joined others to raise an issue
Contacted a political or community leader
Attended a demonstration or protest march
62% 49% 54%
56% 43% 48%
8%
Promises of tech hubs seem unlikely to quench youth demands
(18-35 years)
Older citizens (36+ years)
8% 11%
At this point, political change is not likely to come through the ballot box in Cameroon. The same country is producing young combatants in the Anglophone region who are fighting for secession; it is witnessing Boko Haram attacks in its poorly developed northern regions and sending many young people northward across the continent in the hopes of finding something better along the way or in Europe. In countries where states are unable to exercise their authority over all of their territory and governments are dysfunctional – like Mali and Somalia – the youth bulge presents its most serious challenges to African leaders. Less than a third of the Malian population voted in the second round of the 2018 presidential election, pointing to a general disillusionment with what traditional parties have to offer. While there are 18 million Malians in Mali, there are four million in the diaspora. The government has been unable to tackle jihadist movements, Tuareg separatists and trafficking networks across the Sahel region. As young people question the status quo and push the limits of old systems, promises of tech hubs and digital job creation seem less and less likely to quench the demands of the coming demographic surge. With today’s politicians shaping many possible tomorrows, the Arab Spring, the Sahel, South Africa, Ethiopia and Uganda show how the politics of youth can shift the dial or send a country into crisis.
SOURCE: AFROBAROMETER
own form of revolution. In May 2015, agitation for the Not Too Young to Run bill began in earnest as a number of civil society groups sought to get parliament to amend laws regarding youth participation in politics at all levels. This has served as a springboard for young candidates, increasing their number facing the elderly establishment. The group’s mission was to reduce the age qualification for president from 40 to 30; governor and senator from 35 to 30; house of representatives membership and state assembly membership from 30 to 25. The Youth Initiative For Advocacy, Growth & Advancement led a nationwide drive to get the bill considered at the national level. In April 2018, it was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, leaving room for many young Nigerians to run for elective offices in the 22 February elections. In Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a 35 year-old MIT graduate, ran for the Senate, while Rinsola Abiola, daughter of the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential elections, Moshood Abiola, joined the race for the national assembly in the state of Ogun. In the Middle Belt, Natasha Akpoti tried for a senatorial seat in her native Kogi, while 35-year-old Chike Ukaegbu was the youngest presidential aspirant in this year’s polls. Even though the odds were stacked against him, this was emblematic of a paradigm shift.
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Is Magufuli’s economic nationalism working? The threat of a $190bn tax bill became a $300m payment. The Africa Report looks into whether the Tanzanian government’s barnstorming style will revolutionise the economy or scare away investors
President John Magufuli has a trademark ‘us against the world’ message
DANIEL HAYDUK/AFP
By NICHOLAS NORBROOK There was a certain optimism when John Magufuli became president in 2015. Here was a man, as the early skirmishes on social media revealed, who was not afraid to get his hands dirty to get things done: surprise visits on hospitals and government offices to reveal who was slacking off work; a push for discipline and austerity in public office; and an anti-corruption drive known as ‘lance the boils’. Even some of his most trenchant critics – like opposition politician Zitto Kabwe – say that Magufuli is making progress. Kabwe tells The Africa Report: Magufuli is doing the “right thing, but in the wrong way.” What is this ‘right thing’? At its core it concerns the role of government, the mediator between the interests of capital on the
one hand, and citizens on the other. “Let us stand as one. Tanzania belongs to us all and we should put interests of the country first,” Magufuli told parliament in 2015. It is also a political fault line of our time. And Magufuli has certainly changed the rules of the game in Tanzania. Passed in 2017, the Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts law allows officials to trawl back through two decades’ worth of contracts to see if any of the terms are unfavourable to the government. Equinor, which has invested more than $2bn in developing Block 2 off the coast, says that the production-sharing agreement it has with the government is still valid, but has been unable to get any further in negotiations over building a $30bn gas plant in Lindi. Other legislation pushed the royalty rate on gold from 4% to 6%, gave the government 16% of the stock of mining companies and
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FEATURES / DEBATE / Is Magafuli’s economic nationalism working?
made it illegal to export concentrates and unprocessed minerals. It was accompanied by a major confrontation with the biggest mining company, Acacia Mining, which had revenue of $751m in 2017, is owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. In March 2017, the government halted the company’s cargos at the port. It claimed that Acacia had been understating the value of exports to avoid tax since 2000 – something Acacia denied. The Magufuli administration then slapped a tax bill of $190bn on the company.
Loud rhetoric “The country has been shortchanged and continues to be cheated out of the much-needed revenue that would greatly boost our health sector, infrastructure and others,” Magufuli declared, and in what appears like a victory for his tough stance, Barrick Gold announced that a deal had been struck – whereby it handed 16% of the company to the government, promised to share profits 50:50 and agreed to pay a fine of some $300m. The coal sector has seen intervention, too. A ban on importing coal to stoke domestic mining raised howls across the private sector in 2016, especially with Dangote Cement. Owned by the continent’s richest man, the firm argued local coal was too expensive and poor quality. But it is not just in mining. Late last year, Magufuli stepped in to support a higher price
for farmers. When private buyers baulked at the price, he forced a government-controlled bank to step in: “We will buy the entire crop, then we will look for buyers, and we will eat anything that is not sold,” he said, ordering troops into the fields to protect the crop from black market operators. Telecoms has not escaped his attention. In 2017, Magufuli claimed that Indian company Bharti Airtel had swindled the government out of its rightful share. The presidency announced in January this year that it had upped its stake in Bharti Airtel from 40% to 49%, and that the telecoms operator would be paying the government more dividends. So how has Magufuli executed his systemic rejig? It is a highly centralised approach – heavy on loud rhetoric, light on parliamentary or societal checks and balances. "There is rampant looting in the mining sector," says Magufuli one day. “We are in an economic war (…) billions in revenue have been lost,” he will say the next. “Even the devil is laughing at us over our own self-inflicted level of poverty amid natural wealth given to us by God,” another. Dismissals of what he sees as corrupt or inept officials, and a rewiring of responsibility back to the presidency are also a feature. “The wide discretionary powers of the Minister for Energy and Minerals have been removed,” explained Stein Sundstol Eriksen in a 2018 report for the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals has certainly been a locus of corruption. But Magufuli has also changed the dynamic in the tax collection wing of government. Tax is the fuddy-duddy at the development party. It can be seen lurking round the edges of the room, while newer, more shiny development strategies take centre stage: Mobile money! Business environment! SMEs! Microlending! Crypto currencies!
‘Reforms by Tanzania since the late 1980s […] created an enclave economy’ JAPHACE PONCIAN
Aliko Dangote, seen here with Magufuli, saw a ban on importing coal in 2016. His firm Dangote Cement argued local coal was too expensive and poor quality
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Drive against tax evasion
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But building a solid tax base remains a core job, the tough slog of good governance. And in Tanzania, similar to African peers, the tax-to-GDP ratio base is consistently in the low teens. Magufuli has delivered here. “The tax-toGDP ratio has increased by about 1.5% of GDP since FY2014/15, supported by President
ZITTO KABWE
President of Tanzania
Tanzanian opposition lawmakker
‘I want to immediately start investigating staff [...]. The country has been shortchanged and continues to be cheated out of muchneeded revenue that would greatly boost our health sector, infrastructure and others’
‘People always want to compare us; either to South Korea, or to Rwanda, or to Ethiopia. But you can’t, because the context is just so different – we are not a country developing after a genocide, nor are we in a violent civil war’
Magufuli’s drive against corruption and tax evasion,” reads the June 2017 International Monetary Fund report on Tanzania. And at a contract-signing ceremony for the building of a new hydropower dam in the middle of Selous game reserve in December 2018, Magufuli hammered home his trademark ‘us against the world’ message. "When we asked for financing for this project, the lenders refused to give us money, but thanks to improved tax collection we are able to finance this project using our own resources," Magufuli said. East Africans with long memories will remember another politician who said similar things: Meles Zenawi, a former Ethiopian premier. Ethiopia is an interesting case for Tanzania because Addis Ababa consciously tried to copy the Japanese and South Korean state-juiced development model. The great commentator on South Korea, the late Alice Amsden, wrote about how it flouted economic orthodoxy during the period of its economic rise. Rather than allowing the market to set prices freely – a core tenet of free-market capitalism – officials would deliberately “get the prices wrong” by, for example, lending to industry at below market rates or using the powers of the state to distort costs for inputs.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
JOHN MAGUFULI
“The neoliberal economic reforms undertaken by Tanzania since the late 1980s in the mining and other economic sectors have largely created an enclave economy in which a few wealthy individuals and multinational corporations benefit at the detriment of majority poor people in rural and urban areas,” says Japhace Poncian, a lecturer at Mkwawa University in Tanzania, who says Magufuli is riding on the public backlash against this – as well as Tanzania’s own socialist past under Julius Nyerere – to promote his vision.
Drift into authoritarianism So it seems clear that Magufuli has chosen his side of the debate – he will use ‘economic nationalism’ to ‘get the prices wrong’, be that for cashews, gas or gold. But will Magufuli make Tanzania rich? Or will it slide into mismanaged, debt-burdened trouble? Three great obstacles lie in his path. The first is a reckoning with capital. The second is the ineffective bureaucratic tools with which he wants to execute his great leap forward. And the third is a drift into authoritarianism that disconnects the executive from the best available righting mechanism for development: the public. The first is best summed by the negotiations over Acacia Mining. For Kabwe, this is a classic
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FEATURES / DEBATE / Is Magafuli’s economic nationalism working?
example where posture is more important than the result. Some $300m is not enough to launch an industrial revolution and efforts to hook industries such as gas and mining to local operators – known as ‘local content’ in the business – seem patchy at best. Then take, for example, the cashew confiscation: while Amsden vaunted South Korea’s ability to ‘get the price wrong’, there was always a final goal in mind, more often than not the upskilling of a particular industrial subsector. “There are a few examples involving the president himself and some of his government officials taking initiatives to bring private operators closer by convening meetings to learn of their challenges and issues,” says Poncian. “The impact of these initiatives in terms of moving up the value chains is yet to be seen.” Here, the cashew price bump is good politics. But is it good economics? Reports have emerged about a shadowy company called Indo Power Solutions, which has entered into a $180m deal with the government to buy 100,000tn of cashews, despite lacking any experience in the commodity.
‘Question mark’ Certainly, the threat of $190bn tax bills and the prospect of the army guarding cashews have made foreign investors circumspect about whether or not to put money into the country. “We believe that there is a question mark about future policies around ownership of businesses,” says Konstantin Makarov of StratLink, a boutique investment adviser for East Africa. But Tanzanian officials are adamant they are not attempting to make a hostile environment for foreign capital. “It’s not the aim of the government to frustrate investors but we want to have a win-win situation. We want to prove to stakeholders that nobody is missing out,” Charles Sangweni, the acting director general of the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority tells The Africa Report. His institution is in charge of looking at contracts signed under previous administrations. “We are doing the review for two purposes. First is to clear the environment by proving that whatever was agreed was good. But second, we are laying the baseline for establishing a new production-sharing agreement for future investments,” he says.
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
‘It’s not the aim of the government to frustrate investors but we want to have a winwin situation’ CHARLES SANGWENI
The second key stumbling block is the tool Magufuli is wielding to effect change: the bureaucracy. Japan had its legendary cadre of technocrats in the ministry of trade and industry. But in Tanzania, “there is total confusion,” says Kabwe. This is partly because of the 180-degree turn in focus, from the more free marketdriven years of presidents Mwinyi, Mkapa and Kikwete to the more state-driven economic turn of Magufuli. But it is also due to a lack of investment and discipline that has eroded the professionalism of the civil service. “We need a new generation of bureaucrats now,” argues Kabwe. It matters, partly because of the complexity of economic planning, but also because of the dangers of ‘state capture’, as the South Africans euphemistically call the purchasing of top government officials by corporate interests. “Yes, we may have a highly trained bureaucracy, but this is rarely insulated from political and economic interference,” says Poncian. The final obstacle that may trip up the attempt to make Tanzania rich using economic nationalism is the creeping violence that characterises the regime. “At lunchtime on 7 September 2017, I was followed home from
later told me that I lost my entire stock of blood three times over.” “Magufuli has led a sharp authoritarian turn. This gives him freedom to manage and perhaps curtail rent-seeking, but it will undermine the institutional checks on it too,” according to Dan Paget of University College London. “Worse still, it will leave an inheritance of centralised power to his successor.” And the data is in arguing that democracies grow faster, according to the data in a new report, Africa: A Divided Continent by the Bertelsmann Foundation. It says democracies outperform their authoritarian counterparts nine times out of 10.
Reports have emerged about a shadowy company entering a $180m deal to buy 100,000tn of cashews
EMMANUEL HERMAN/REUTERS
Changing relationships
parliament,” wrote Tanzania’s chief whip Tundu Lissu in the pages of The Africa Report. “Outside my home, two gunmen emerged from a car and opened fire at close range with sub-machine guns. My car was sprayed with 38 rounds of bullets, 16 of which hit my body. I was flown to the Nairobi Hospital in Kenya for emergency treatment. My lead surgeon AVERAGE EFFECTIVE TAX RATE FROM A GOLD PROJECT WITH DEVELOPMENT COSTS OF $420M, PER UNIT OPERATING COSTS OF $600 PER OUNCE AND A GOLD PRICE OF $1,300 PER OUNCE*
74%
Tanzania 2017
61%
Guinea
58%
Ghana
51%
Tanzania pre-2017
48%
Chile Peru
45%
Western Australia
45%
Zambia Kyrgyzstan
44% 39%
*Based on a 10% discount rate, assuming that the government continues to treat gold doré as a raw mineral and therefore not eligible for VAT refunds
SOURCE: NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE
59%
South Africa
In fact, argues Kabwe, Tanzania needs a form of mild economic nationalism coupled with vigorous democratic practice – Mauritius, Morocco and Botswana all show what can be done when the state gets involved in the economy and the people get involved in politics: “People always want to compare us; either to South Korea or Rwanda, but the context is just so different – we are not developing after a genocide, nor are we in a violent civil war”. Kabwe points to the 1967 Arusha Declaration as a foundational national moment. This allowed Tanzania to get beyond much of the tribalism that plagues much developmental progress on the continent, with its distributional fights between various groups who want to monopolise resources. Those challenges – capital, bureaucracy, autocracy – are sizable hurdles. Can Magufuli clear them? Perhaps – certainly his relationship with investors is changing. He desperately needs revenue to fund big infrastructure projects he has promised, and Roskilde University fellow Thabit Jacob says that Magufuli has realised that he cannot do that if he alienates foreign partners: “Even the language has changed now. He once called foreign miners thieves, but he recently referred to them as genuine partners.” And a mild economic nationalism balanced with investor interests is not just a romantic notion, either. Jacob points to Chile as a “good example where a mix of resource nationalism, a credible state-owned company and respect for investors has proved successful”.
Additional reporting by JOSEPH BURITE
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
61
FOCUS /
EAST AFRICA EAC
The East African Community was formed two decades ago, but rivalry and diverging national interests threaten to curb progress
The trade ties that bind
The region has a long agenda for cooperation in the years ahead, but policymakers are not yet looking at the many concerns of business and ordinary citizens in order to avoid the pitfalls that have hobbled other integration projects THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS / The trade ties that bind
By JOSEPH BURITE in Dar es Salaam Uganda’s Allen Namagembe typifies the emerging East Africa. On a hot February afternoon, she is travelling on a Rwandan airline to catch a doctor’s appointment at a Kenyan hospital. It is very much a realisation of the vision the East African Community’s (EAC) founders had: closer integration and the elimination of barriers for the benefit of citizens. But Namagembe is perturbed that, having misplaced her yellow fever vaccination certificate, airport officials had insisted on her acquiring another before they could let her through. This even as the stamps that dot the pages of her passport show the history of this same routine itinerary, proof that her vaccination is in order. She is an epidemiologist who researches clinical skills, and Namagembe is lucky to be allowed to proceed where many are blocked. At Uganda’s Entebbe airport, travellers regularly miss flights as airport officials shove them back to the end of queues for lack of vaccination certificates.
A well-meaning screening policy has morphed into something of a non-tariff barrier to trade in services, in a region rated as the most advanced economic bloc on the continent. Among eight regional economic organisations recognised by the African Union, EAC stands tall in terms of integration above the Arab Maghreb Union; the Community of Sahel-Saharan States; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa; the Economic Community of Central African States; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD); and the Southern African Development Community.
Cracks showing The six-member EAC – having established a free trade area, a customs union, a common market, partially attained free movement of people and looking to establish a monetary union by 2024 – is an especially high-performer on two elements, trade and productive integration, according to the
Geneva-based International Trade Centre. On the other hand, IGAD and ECOWAS outperform on infrastructure and free movement of people, respectively. The EAC also boasts of the fastest-growing
East African flashpoints A hill at the border of Burundi’s Ngonzi region and Rwanda’s Gisagara district. A rocky patch the size of a football field on the Lake Victoria border between Kenya and Uganda. A water source in the Omo-Turkana basin between Kenya and Ethiopia. Cross-border incursions between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda over shared lakes, Albert and Edward. A strip of land between Uganda’s Lamwo district and South Sudan’s
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Magwi county. A Lake Nyasa/ Malawi dispute between Tanzania and Malawi. Or, it could be an Indian Ocean maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia. East Africa just cannot seem to solve its border conflicts, with some running over decades. Most of these disputes have not been a cause for concern as they are unlikely to lead to outright conflict. But shrinking resources and the effects of climate change are increasing the likelihood of
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
strife. Kenya’s protest to Somalia’s auction in a disputed maritime area is a sign of what the future presents – a contest for resources. “How do we deal with these dysfunctional post-colonial states?,” asks Kenyan economist David Ndii. Regional bodies like the East African Community (EAC) were created in order to support conflict resolution and peaceful cooperation between member states. Overlapping ethnic groups
and colonial-forged boundaries have caused problems across the continent. For some Europeans – especially those living uncomfortably in the straitjacket of nation states that were created roughshod over previous identities – the idea of a supranational federation that could bind together the Welsh, the Catalans and the Danes into a whole may make perfect sense. “That is what the EAC could be at its best,” suggests Ndii.
A $3.5bn crude oil pipeline will pump Ugandan oil to Tanzania’s Tanga port
But regional rivalries loom behind the barriers to trade. Domination by Kenya is a real fear of the smaller economies, and Kittony acknowledges the need for some concessions: “You see the economies are very different in scale. […] There should be some concessions given to the landlocked countries by the larger economies, like Kenya and Tanzania, that will benefit say Rwanda and Burundi. That will create a feeling that it is a level playing field for everybody.”
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Similar problems
intra-regional payment systems on the continent, data from payments firm SWIFT shows. But trade among member states is estimated at 20%, much lower compared to intra-regional trade in the European Union (EU) – at 67%. As it approaches 20 years since its formation this November, cracks are starting to show within the EAC. A mixture of rivalry and diverging national interests are driving the creation of non-tariff barriers, which curb progress. This is disappointing for Kiprono Kittony, the chairman of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the most powerful business lobby in the region’s largest economy. “We still have quite a few non-tariff barriers that are in place,” Kittony tells The Africa Report. “I see a weakness in terms of the bureaucratic capacity to follow up on the resolutions of the summit,” he adds, referring to the annual meetings where heads
of state assess progress and issue directives. The last one took place in February of this year amidst tensions related to Burundi, which is in the middle of a grinding conflict related to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s strong grip on power (see page 80). “At the high level of the summit, you see a lot of goodwill towards the customs union. But when it comes to implementation, you still find – even up to the summit – a lot of obstacles, that the same themes keep recurring,” Kittony argues. “I would actually recommend that we need to have more implementation committees, both at the high level of the summit, and even at the lower level of the bureaucracies.”
Trade among member states is estimated at 20%, much lower than trade within the EU
Kenyan companies are continuing their expansion into the region. Many investors are putting money into Kenyan companies that have succeeded in fixing problems in Kenya “because you tend to have very similar problems across the region,” says Konstantin Makarov of StratLink, a Nairobi-based advisory company. “We are also big believers in the food value chain that starts with primary farming and ends with restaurants, and everything in between.” Should current issues, like the failure to implement the customs union, persist, there are fears the remaining parts of East Africa’s integration agenda will get derailed. “The customs union came into force in 2005 to facilitate the establishment of the common external tariff so that we can have the removal of the intra-regional issues. But up to now we must appreciate that the customs union is not fully operational,” says Peter Mathuki, acting chief executive of a regional business lobby, the East African Business Council. “Without a fully fledged customs union, the common markets protocol – which is the second level of integration – will not work,” Mathuki adds. “A common market must work fully to allow monetary union.”
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS / The trade ties that bind
Indeed, this trend feeds into an emerging pattern of problems. In 2005, the EAC commenced negotiations with the EU on the Economic Partnership Agreement. Having failed to reach consensus through 14 years of talks, the EAC leaders at their February summit decided it was time each country engaged the EU on its own.
‘Waiting and observing’ Mathuki says things would have turned out different if the region’s private sector was not isolated by politicians. “All along, we have been observers. We don’t want to be observers any more. We want to be partners in sorting out issues because non-tariff barriers mostly affect the private sector,” he explains. “Once you leave it to the government alone, it will be the same story as for the last many years. But once we now become part of it, we will be offering solutions that are practical but not just waiting and observing.” For all its weaknesses, the EAC has many supporters. One of them is Ian Clarke, a Ugandan of Irish origin who first arrived in Uganda as a missionary doctor in 1987. He went into business in 1994, setting up a private clinic, the International
COMPARE TO OTHER REGIONAL BLOCS
ECOWAS POPULATION (million)
339.8
GDP per capita ($)
2,130
EAC 168.5
918 716.7
GDP ($bn)
board of the regional private healthcare lobby, East Africa Healthcare Federation. “But it’s not as if all the barriers have gone down. There are still a lot of issues. “What has happened in the last five to eight years, you get local players like myself who have started a company, a hospital or whatever, and then you get the private equity guys to come in and they acquire your hospital in this country and then a hospital in another country,” Clarke says. “They are looking to see if they can build up brands, if they can build up chains. That’s what’s going on. It’s early stages yet, but it’s in process. How successful it will be depends on the economy.”
SADC 327
1,834
600 918
TOTAL IMPORTS ($bn)
113.2
TOTAL EXPORTS ($bn)
138.7
40.2
13.6
193.9
176.3
SOURCE: UNECA 2014, SADC 2016
Medical Centre (Group). By 2015, when Clarke sold about 91% of his holding to Ciel Healthcare of Mauritius, it had grown into a healthcare group spanning 22 clinics, Uganda’s largest private hospital, a medical insurer and a health sciences university. Now Clarke’s holdings include the health sciences university, elementary education services, agriculture, a sterilisation start-up and a hotel on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. “I do feel very much that I am an East African, and there are good signs,” says Clarke, who sits on the
New members
DEEPAK TOLANGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
The EAC has partially attained free movement
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
Kittony, a media tycoon back in Kenya, says he hopes the EAC will lead the continent. “For me, I think we should really do everything possible to make it a success. It’s the most successful bloc we have, and it should be the paradigm for the African economic blocs as they step forward towards the Continental Free Trade Area,” he argues. Fortunately for the EAC, it is not short of courtiers that want to join it. Somalia has submitted an application to join and awaits a verification exercise. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s new leader, Félix Tshisekedi, has also expressed interest in his country’s membership to foster trade ties. But the EU stands as a stark example of what can happen when a regional grouping expands too fast and pays too little attention to its impact on politicians, businesses and citizens. It will take a lot more than an annual summit to address that, so proponents of continental integration will be watching keenly to see if Kampala, Nairobi and Dodoma can make cooperation work better from the grassroots back up to the top.
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
Patrick Njoroge ‘For every Japan, there is a mistake’ The governor of Kenya’s central bank is wary of stateled drives for economic growth, preferring to nudge the private sector towards better business models By NICHOLAS NORBROOK in Nairobi Independence is what you want from a central banker. And Kenya certainly is not afraid of being a contrarian. In September 2016, the government pushed through popular legislation to control the rate of interest banks can charge for loans. Patrick Njoroge, the central bank governor, recalls the torturous negotiations as the central bank tried to convince the administration that this would be counterproductive. “But as when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when you are a legislator, to solve anything, use a law,” he says.
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Njoroge says he was worried that the interest-rate cap would lead to significant rationing of credit, “exactly to the segment they were most concerned about: small and medium-sized enterprises, but also small and medium-sized people”, like those trying to add on to their houses or prepare for the arrival of a new member of the family. The result of the law has been a lot of informal and predatory lending, says Njoroge. “The economy is paying a steep price for it, without a doubt.” While the bottom of the market might be frozen, at the top the government has borrowed massively for various sources, with total debt
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
now standing at KSh11.9trn ($12bn). Some critics of the government, like economist David Ndii, warn of the crowding-out of private-sector borrowers: banks, unwilling to lend to risky companies, are happy to lend to government – a safe bet. Njoroge says that while local banks have indeed lent a great deal – roughly $6bn – there are statutory limits on each bank’s exposure to government debt.
Spending less The central bank governor is relatively relaxed about Kenya’s debt levels, saying they do not pose a systemic risk to the economy. The government, says Njoroge, “have stuck to their deficit targets” and very little is due for repayment over the next two years. While the average maturity of Kenya’s debt has come down from 20 years to just under 17 years, that is
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS / Patrick Njoroge
still high for its African peer group. The country also has some $8.2bn in reserves, more than five months of import cover. But Njoroge is less sanguine about contracting new debt. He would prefer the government looked more at non-debt spending like public-private partnerships and reducing the fiscal deficit to ensure that Kenya will have space to meet future debt repayments. “The borrowing pattern is also driven by the fiscal stance, meaning, ‘how big is the deficit’. So a key element going forward is to moderate that, to consolidate the fiscal deficit,” says Njoroge. In other words, ‘please spend less and raise revenue’. On the issue of the sustainability of projects such as the standard gauge railway, which represents a significant chunk of the recent borrowing, Njoroge recommends checking with the relevant ministry. It is certainly a touchy subject. Countries traditionally stumble into difficulties when there is a mismatch between their debt and their currencies. Having borrowed so much in US dollars, it could be a calamity if Kenya’s shilling depreciated strongly.
Economic openness So when the International Monetary Fund accused Kenya of overvaluing the shilling by 17.5% in October 2018, the pushback was immediate. For Njoroge, the problem was in a new methodology. “It was a watered-down version of the external balance assessment that they do for advanced economies. So this was the first time that they were bringing it to economies such as ours.” And Njoroge says the calculations were not accurate. Still, some look at the shilling-to-dollar rate and see a long straight graph at 100 to 1 for many months. To those sceptics,
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ECONOMIC EXPERIENCE 1961 Born in Kenya 1983 Earned a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Nairobi 1993 Graduated with a doctorate in economics from Yale University in the US 1995 The IMF hired him as an economist December 2012 Became an adviser to the IMF’s deputy managing director 19 June 2015 Became the governor of Kenya's central bank
Njoroge suggests a more empirical approach: “Look at the market. If you had an overvaluation by that margin, you would have parallel markets coming out of the woodwork. And the shilling is accepted not just here but around the region.” He says the central bank only intervenes to smooth out volatility and to prevent sudden appreciations or currency crashes: “We lean against the wind, but where it goes is the market’s decision.” On top of that, he argues, Kenya regularly tops rankings of economic openness in East Africa. That openness is something that he is more philosophically inclined towards. Ethiopia is attempting an Asian-style developmental burst using protected markets – “for every Japan, there is a mistake,” he says. While a strong state directing credit can work, Njoroge says he would prefer a system in which Kenya nudges its private sector towards better governance. Companies need “better business models to make themselves more resilient to shocks,” he says. “Banks may have made money for 50 years lending to trade, but there may be a day when trade goes
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
down. So they need other sources of income.” Njoroge argues that the current round of consolidation in the banking sector is a sign of just that – the creation of banks that have several strings to their bows and resilient capital bases.
‘Cautionary tales’ Shocks are no doubt a possibility in a world where the US is ramping up a trade war with China and the UK is exiting the European Union (EU) with little grace. A growth shock – such as the one Kenya endured in 2017 when drought crashed the agricultural sector – is high up the list of the central bank’s concern. The travails of the EU in particular ring alarm bells in Nairobi. “There are cautionary tales” for the East African Community, such as free movement of labour, says Njoroge, who wants nonetheless to highlight the success and benefits of EU trade and capital movements. Another is the difficulty of how to deal with an idiosyncratic shock in one country in a currency zone, given that monetary policy – the ability to devalue, for example – is off the table as a lever. “But does that mean we should be paralysed? Probably not,” says Njoroge, who sees regional integration as the best way of dealing with a volatile world. “We have a stake in Brexit,” explains Njoroge. It is not just about tariff barriers, but ‘ease of doing business’ concerns such as the documentation of goods. Take the case of a Kenyan exporter. “For now, we export goods bulk. They go to Rotterdam, are broken up and then shipped to the UK.” In the future, will these need to be two separate shipments? Does that extra logistical hoop make Kenyan goods more expensive in the UK? “We didn’t get a say in it, but we have a stake in how it goes.”
EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
NOOR KHAMIS/REUTERS
Peop e to watch East Africa has dynamic economies. Here are a few of the business leaders with big ideas for their home markets and the wider region
Tabitha Karanja
Bullish beer brewer keen to expand
The chief executive of Kenya’s only locally owned brewery, Keroche Breweries, has her eyes on the region. In November 2018, Karanja announced that the firm is interested in expanding its operations to Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Global giant AB InBev announced plans for a $100m plant in Tanzania in March 2018, so the competition is set to be tough.
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Smooth growth trajectory
Mohammed Dewji Baron on the back foot
A string of troubles have hurt the Tanzanian magnate, who is keeping a lower profile after his kidnapping from Dar es Salaam under mysterious circumstances in October last year. In February, the MeTL chief executive was in the crosshairs of President John Magufuli’s government for not developing his company’s farmland. The government took some land back last year and threatened similar actions in February. Magufuli’s administration has been taking a tough stance on businesses through its anticorruption campaign and other policies (see page 56).
Mohammed Hamid
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
JACK DABA GHIA
With interests in agribusiness and transport, the Sudan-born and Uganda-based businessman has made a big move into tourism. The 20-storey luxury Pearl of Africa Hotel, opened in 2017 at a cost of $320m and managed by the US firm Wyndham Hotels since October 2018, takes pride of place in Hamid’s Aya group of companies. Next on his list of projects is an industrial park.
N
Pearl picker
Young businessman Awadh’s Lake Oil Group, based in Tanzania, is making moves to become a bigger player in the petrol and lubricants market in East Africa. It agreed a deal in 2017 to take over the retail operations of Kenya’s Hashi Energy and set up a $20m lubricants factory in Dar es Salaam in October 2018.
Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa Up in smoke
With Pan African Tobacco Group, Ayabatwa is one of the few big Rwandan private-sector business leaders to have a strong presence outside of his home country. Pan African, which celebrated 40 years of operations late last year, launched a $20m processing project in Uganda through its Meridian Tobacco subsidiary in 2017. It is also active in Angola, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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The h Bankk off Kigalil is among the h oldest ld companies in Rwanda. Any achievements you feel especially proud of? Yes there are, one of them being our longevity. BK was among the very first banks opened in Rwanda. It was incorporated in 1966 and started operations a year later, so we’ve been serving Rwandans for almost 52 years. We’re very proud of the position we have consolidated as the leading and biggest bank in Rwanda by market share, assets and double-digit profitability, even with fierce competition from 11 other banks. Our achievements also include being the first Rwandan bank to, in June 2011, list on the Rwanda stock exchange; and becoming the first Rwandan company to cross-list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange last year. Ishouldalsomentionthatwe’vebeennamed“Best Bank in Rwanda” by EMEA Finance for 9 consecutive years, and Euromoney Awards for Excellence awarded us the same recognition last year.
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We’re now implementing a Digital Transformation Roadmap that will see the delivery of new products and experiences, especially to underserved segments of the economy and key population demographics like the youth and the unbanked. I’m really excited to see the results of these changes.
In 2018, a structure change saw BK become a group of companies. What drove that change? Like I said before, Rwanda’s economic landscape holds so much untapped potential, so we’ve aligned our strategy to capitalize on it. Our priority is expanding our financial services portfolio
to make our brand into a One-Stop Center under which those services are available to customers, instead of expanding regionally. Our new structure allows us to do that. BK Group now has 4 main subsidiaries: The Bank of Kigali provides corporate and retail banking services. BK TecHouse’s task is to drive digital innovation through providing connectivity solutions and software & analytics products. BK General Insurance offers insurance packages including motor, fire, transport & money insurance and more. The recently launched BK Capital offers Securities Brokerage and Market Research, Corporate Finance and Advisory services, and Investment & Wealth Management.
What has been your personal experience, working with a leading company in this market? It has been very exciting! For over 30 years now, I’ve worked all over the globe in various capacities, and gained extensive experience as an investor in emerging markets, an investment banker, owner of my own firm, vice chairman of Barclays Bank and more. But I have never seen a more exciting, dynamic and transformational market than the one existing in Rwanda today. I’m very privileged to work in Rwanda and with BK Group, And I’m proud to be a Rwandan citizen i 2016! since KN 4 Ave Kigali/ Rwanda, No12 Plot No 790 4455 (Local Call Center) (250) 788 143 000 info@bk.rw P.O. Box 175, Kigali/RW SWIFT Code: BKIGRWRW
www.bk.rw
JAMG - Pictures: D.R.
Marc Holtzman, Chairman of the Board, BK Group Plc.
EAST AFRICA FOCUS / People to watch
Patrick Bitature
James Mworia
Bitature, owner of Uganda’s Simba Group, may not be winning friends in the Kampala government due to his outspoken positions. He told a conference there in February: “Corruption and weak institutions are killing our economies.” He leads the Private Sector Foundation Uganda and has been encouraging the government to get all major multinationals to list on the stock exchange to promote local ownership and make sure profits are not disbursed to other jurisdictions.
Under the leadership of chief executive Mworia – who has been in the position for nearly a decade – Kenya’s Centum Investment wants to invest in big infrastructure projects, especially in the power sector. Centum is going ahead with testing of geothermal sites in Naivasha after years of delays, and is shopping around for the finance for a $2bn coal-fired plant due to be built by General Electric in Lamu. Centum turned a healthy profit of $24m in the first half of 2018.
Power player
LUIS TATO/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Roaring opinions
Vimal Shah
Dual-paced developments Shah is the chairman of top Kenyan fast-moving consumer goods company Bidco Africa, which is trying to convince governments in the East African Community to focus on key business problems like non-tariff barriers (see page 59), the lack of cheap electricity and poor infrastructure. One of Bidco’s main focuses since 2018 has been in improving its logistics supply chains. Elsewhere, Shah is fighting with other investors in the Tatu City development, and legal proceedings have stopped the big urban development project outside of Nairobi from advancing.
R. GANGALE/BLOOMBERG/GETTY
Juliana Rotich
Having co-founded crowdsourcing platform Ushahidi and router company BRCK, Rotich remains focused on innovation. Her day job since May 2018 is as the boss of giant German chemical company BASF’s East Africa office, which is located in Nairobi. The firm focuses its activities there on sectors like agriculture, construction and plastics. But Rotich keeps busy. She was a member of Kenya’s Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Task Force last year and serves on the government’s 2030 Vision Delivery Board to help to plan a developmental strategy for the country. Her interests and skills are not limited to tech and science, as she serves on the board of the Standard Group media house since March 2018.
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THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107
BASF
At the Kenyan tech forefront
James Mwangi
Change-maker with an eye on digitisation Kenya’s Equity Bank, the country’s largest bank by market value, continues to innovate under Mwangi’s leadership. The bank is embracing agency banking and mobile banking, reporting 108m transactions outside of its branch activity in the first quarter of 2018. Mwangi wants the bank to dive deeper into digitisation. While Mwangi has been vocal in his opposition to Kenya’s cap on interest rates on loans because it depresses lending, the bank recorded an 8.1% rise in profits over the first three quarters of 2018, hitting KSh15.8bn ($158m).
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
INTERVIEW
Clare Akamanzi By NICHOLAS NORBROOK Modelled on the coordination institutions seen in East Asian Tigers, the Rwanda Development Board’s mission is to ensure that the myriad of economic actors and institutions are all on the same page, from overseeing publicprivate partnerships to supporting companies, foreign or domestic. TAR: How are you positioning the 1979 Born in Uganda country to meet the economy 2004 Sent by the of tomorrow? Rwandan government Rwanda has been as a negotiator to the building itself since World Trade Organisation 1994, and we have now built the platform to 2006 Appointed deputy be able to address an director general of the ambitious economic Rwanda Investment and agenda. We are a stable Export Promotion Agency country, we grow at an 2016 Earned a master’s average of 7-8% and in public administration we have tackled key from Harvard University economic issues such as zero tolerance for 4 February 2017 Became corruption. We have the chief executive officer made it easy to do of the Rwanda business and are ranked Development Board 29th in the world. And that is why we are thinking very ambitiously about the next phase of economic development. It is to diversify, modernise and transform our economy substantially – and that means looking at sectors that can drive productivity much more than in the past and The government-run Rwanda Development Board is position the country as a global a key tool in Kigali’s drive to boost manufacturing and hub for anyone thinking of doing business in Africa. exports in order to reduce the country's import bill
PAUL KAGAME /FLICKR
CLARE'S CAREER
‘We have made it easy to do business’ 76
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
MESSAGE
ď ‚
Philippe Kubwimana Umuhizi 45, IDL’s Managing Director and Shareholder
Think comforti Think calmi Think Izuba Cityi Izuba City Phase 1 (64 apartments), at cost of US$ 8 million including an investment of US$ 3 million in infrastructures and landscaping, will be launched in quarter 2019.
Izuba Developers Ltd (IDL) is a Rwandan based private company specialized in real estate development. IDL is currently developing Izuba City, a neighborhood of 304 middle-class apartments on a 3 ha plot, to be constructed in 3 phases with amenities such as a commercial building, a common waste water treatment plant, a green area, a kindergarten, large drive ways, ample parking, street lighting, CCTV system, etc The housing complex is located in Kagugu cell, Kinyinya Sector of Gasabo District, along the road Nyacyonga-KaguguKinyinya-Free Zone.
We understand your housing needs. Why wait? Experience a better way of living at our apartments in Kigali. Call us now on +250 78 830 54 93 / +250 78 512 33 48 / +250 78 830 70 20 Email: info@izubacity.com or visit our website: www.izubacity.com
JAMG - Pictures : D.R.
This project is a co-investment of Kigali Batsinda Estate Ltd and the Pan African Housing Fund, managed by Phatisa (www.phatisa.com), harnessing international & local investment with the aim to build a better future for all.
EAST AFRICA FOCUS / Clare Akamanzi
How does that translate on the ground? Take for example Kigali Innovation City – which we have already started building – where you have in one place research, education institutions, innovation labs and global companies setting up. For people who are thinking about setting up business in Africa, and they are doing innovation, they can come here and build their prototype in Rwanda. We call it proof of concept. You can prove your concept in Rwanda and then expand to the rest of the continent. When Singapore wanted to do something similar in Asia, it brought its courts up to international standards. Is Rwanda working on its judicial system? We have the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC). It is still young, but the goal is to build it into an institution that is trusted by the business community. It is still a work in progress. But as we build the credibility of the KIAC, we are also very open to working with international arbitration with the
TBC TBC
‘YOU CAN PROVE YOUR CONCEPT IN RWANDA AND THEN EXPAND TO THE REST OF THE CONTINENT. ’ businesses that come to Rwanda. We have agreed to do settlements in Europe or Mauritius. So we are ambitious about building up our arbitration centre but realistic about the time it takes. Rwanda’s landlocked status makes it harder to try to attract manufacturing outsourcing from Chinese companies. Does that remain an opportunity? It’s a challenge, but we still believe manufacturing is a very good source of employment. It is a question of what exactly we can manufacture in Rwanda, rather than whether. So we have signed with a company which is going to build laptops, a high-value product that can absorb transport
costs. We also have a company which is going to start assembling mobile phones – products that can remain competitive. How are you helping Rwandan companies break into regional supply chains? We have something called the Export Growth Facility. And the idea is to do just that. We support businesses that want to export. For example, we give them grants for marketing. If they have an opportunity to export and find new buyers, these grants allow them to go and test new markets. And for those companies that are in priority sectors, we give them interest-free loans if they have an export orientation. We also have something called the Business Development Fund, which guarantees up to 75% of loans with other financial institutions. And this is regardless of whether they are Rwandan companies or foreign companies. We help them to become successful and help them to export and expand, and also to bring foreign earnings into the country.
Global GAP and SMETA/ETI certified, winner of Rwanda Development Board Business Excellence Award 2018 as the emerging exporter of the year. Garden Fresh is committed to providing its customers with safe, reliable and quality products.
ANKO Properties Ltd a real estate investment/development company with commercial and residential properties in Rwanda.
AFRISOL which deals in the manufacture of animal feeds for poultry, livestock and fish.
MK Consult Ltd which provides business advisory, financial services and project management.
Caferwa Ltd which exports Rwandan Coffee and operates several coffee washing stations producing fine high quality fully washed speciality coffee.
MFK Investment Ltd that holds equity in a number of other companies involved in diverse economic sectors, ranging from Information Technology, Tourism, Education, Gaming and Energy.
Garden Fresh Ltd which specializes in fresh produce including vegetables, fruits and herbs. It is also
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Outsourcing Services We also offer superior outsourcing services available in three categories, including Accounting, Taxation and Payroll services. Our high level of international experience and local expertise enables us to provide superior services with high added value and to present appropriate solutions to specific business issues in Africa, particularly the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
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MFK Group Ltd is a Holding Company with a diversified portfolio of investments which include; Gorilland Safaris Ltd and its subsidiary Limoz Rwanda which provide car rental and transport/logistics services. The former providing services to the public sector and the latter deals with private sector, UN Organizations, NGO’s and international tour operations.
M.r Faustin KANANURA MBUNDU CEO & Founder MFK Group Ltd
KG 268 St Plot #7 Nyarutarama, Kigali – Rwanda - P.O. Box 3492 (+250) 788382299 - info@mfkgroup.com
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EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
DUARDO SOTERAS/AFP
African Union chairperson and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame (R)
DIPLOMACY
Kagame’s games of chess Rwanda’s president tried to shake up the African Union. He is now head of the East African Community at a time of heightened tensions in the region By ROMAIN GRAS in Kigali for Jeune Afrique and HONORÉ BANDA Kigali’s diplomats are abuzz in following regional and continental intrigues, with President Paul Kagame having stepped down as chair of the African Union (AU) in February to take up the rotating leadership of the East African Community (EAC) in the same month. Kagame had launched his AU leadership bid on the basis of his reformist credentials and wrapped up with some victories but without transforming one of the institution’s key problems: money. Kagame has been in charge of the AU’s reform efforts since 2016 and has been championing the changes needed to achieve the body’s ambitious Agenda 2063, which targets strengthened integration and economic growth. “We have made significant progress in the reform process,” foreign affairs
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minister Richard Sezibera tells sister magazine Jeune Afrique. “The AU’s priorities have been streamlined, the number of summits reduced. African countries have managed to speak with one voice.” Liesl Louw-Vaudran, a consultant with South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, adds: “He held a radically different presidency from his predecessors. He was very ambitious, but also very impatient and tried to project the image of a progressive leader.” In March 2018, the AU convened
24
of the AU’s 55 member states are introducing a 0.2% tax on imports to finance the continental body under a proposal championed by Kagame
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
an extraordinary summit in Kigali to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, which has been under discussion since 2012. Then, before the Nouakchott summit in early July, he had, together with AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, issued an uncompromising report about the progress of the reforms. A final extraordinary summit in November 2018 in Addis Ababa focused on reform was not enough to achieve one of Kagame’s long-term goals: for African countries to become the main funders of the continental body. The issue does not have wide support and the subject did not even make it on to the summit agenda.
Lingering suspicion It is closer to home that cooperation seems even less likely. The AU was unable to mediate in the fall-out of the disputed December 2018 polls in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Faced with the new regime’s intransigence and lines of division amongst heads of state, the AU backed down from its plan to send a mission to Kinshasa in late January. Nearby, Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza says Rwanda is the country’s enemy. The EAC has failed to get Nkurunziza, who ran for a controversial third term in 2015, to engage in dialogue with oppositionists and rebel groups. Kigali and Kampala are also experiencing heightened tensions, with foreign minister Sezibera telling Jeune Afrique: “There have been several worrying developments that we are trying to raise with the Ugandan authorities, including cases of arbitrary arrests and torture of Rwandans in Uganda.” With so much suspicion in the region, getting the six countries of the EAC to work together is likely to be a tougher task than getting the AU — known for its inertia — moving forward.
EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
INTERVIEW
Diane Karusisi PHOTOGENIX STUDIO
‘We still have the country to serve’ Financing strategic projects at home like cement plants and hotels is the goal of the chief executive of the Bank of Kigali By CLEMENT UWIRINGIYIMANA in Kigali Rwanda’s biggest bank by assets and market share has been raising funds to expand at home, eschewing the East African Community-focused plans of some of its regional competitors. Bank of Kigali raised $70m in November 2018 through a rights issue and then listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange both to help it grow its insurance business and launch investment banking activities this year. TAR: What do you think about Bank of Kigali’s recent performance? Of late, the bank has grown into a group that offers financial services. Now we have a tech business, we have an insurance business and we have investment banking also. We haven’t yet released our financials for 2018 but it will be in line with the growth we have seen in the past, and we expect maybe 2019 to be a better year than 2018 because of the pipeline we have. We have a number of loans in the pipeline and the economy is actually performing very well. [...] We always promise and deliver double-digit growth not only on the balance sheet but also on the bottom-line profit after tax, which
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is something we have delivered consistently. [...] We raised capital last year, so we have more capital to deploy and that’s why we are very optimistic. Your bank is getting involved in big projects. Which are most important to the bank and the country? When you look at the past, there are iconic projects in the country like the Kigali Convention Centre – the Marriott hotel is also one of our clients – and these have changed the landscape of our country in terms of making Kigali a major destination of conference tourism on the continent. Projects we are now financing: [...] a cement plant, and cement is one of the highest import bills. We’ve seen in the past crises where people did not find cement to complete their projects, and this is one very important project for the economy that we
‘WE HAVE MORE CAPITAL TO DEPLOY AND THAT’S WHY WE’RE OPTIMISTIC’
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
are financing. Obviously Bugesera airport is one new project that we are financing. We are financing a number of big power generation plants. One that we are financing is a peat-to-power plant in Gisagara. We believe these are projects that are transformational but also profitable to the bank. For example, for 2019 we are expecting new loans of about RWF180bn ($202.6m). Your strategy targets Rwanda and not the region. Why? We believe we still have the country to serve. You know, we only have less than 30% of adult people in Rwanda with bank accounts. […] We believe it is not the case where people need to go to a branch to open an account and to get services. We want to offer all the services on the phone. That’s why we are investing much money in our IT infrastructure and we want to be not only a universal bank but also a universal financial services company. We want to offer all financial services seamlessly under one brand, be it an insurance policy, be it a loan. We are looking at an investment of $10m into the changes that are required in our core banking systems, in our data infrastructure. This will be considerable.
EAST AFRICA FOCUS /
COMPANIES
Rivals in the region Kenyan firms dominate the East African Community, with 12 out of the Top 20 companies generating a combined turnover of about $13bn in 2017. Tanzanian and Ugandan companies followed behind, with $2.9bn and $1.1bn, respectively. According to statistics from the African Development Bank, Kenya's economy is projected to grow by 6% in 2019, driven by a significant expansion of the agriculture sector.
TOP 20 companies in the East African Community (by turnover) RANK '17
TURNOVER (2017)*
NET PROFITS*
Telecoms
2,243,683
530,774
Kenya
Oil and gas
1,523,618
23,661
3 Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania
Tanzania
Retail
1,292,748
N/A
4 Total Kenya
Kenya
Oil and gas
1,069,666
26,287
5 Kenya Power and Lighting Co.
Kenya
Utilities
882,736
69,755
6 Kenya Airways
Kenya
Transport
775,670
-58,378
7 East African Breweries Group
Kenya
Agribusiness
674,372
81,740
8 East African Breweries Kenya
Kenya
Agribusiness
592,260
N/A
9 Vodacom Tanzania
Tanzania
Telecoms
458,475
86,090
10 MTN Uganda
Uganda
Telecoms
419,387
N/A
11 North Mara Gold Mine
Tanzania
Mining
408,213
N/A
12 Umeme
Uganda
Utilities
398,636
9,583
13 Tanzania Breweries
Tanzania
Agribusiness
386,112
21,374
14 Tigo Tanzania
Tanzania
Telecoms
348,000
N/A
15 Bamburi Cement
Kenya
Construction
345,350
18,941
16 Airtel Uganda
Uganda
Telecoms
311,858
66,154
17 Kenya Electricity Generating Co.
Kenya
Utilities
281,941
86,948
18 Jubilee Holdings
Kenya
Financial services
271,957
40,611
19 Kenya Pipeline Co.
Kenya
Oil and gas
241,295
76,431
20 Britam Holdings
Kenya
Financial services
223,664
18,318
COMPANY
COUNTRY
SECTOR
1 Safaricom
Kenya
2 Kenolkobil
*2017 RESULTS IN THOUSANDS OF US DOLLARS
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ADVICE
Partner
Associate
In September 2014, Kenya amended its banking laws by placing a cap on interest rates chargeable by banks when lending. The amended law sets the maximum lending rate at no more than 4% above the Central Bank base rate and sets the minimum interest rate to be placed on a deposit held in an interest-earning account to at least 70% of the same base rate.
The law was amended following public outcry that the cost of credit in Kenya is excessively high and that banks were engaging in predatory lending behaviour. Implementation of the law was aimed at lowering the cost of credit and thereby increasing access to bank credit by the populace.
I t wa s ex p e c te d , based on international experience and local reviews preceding the amendment of the law, that the interest rate caps would result in increased demand for loans as a result of the low interest rates, promote competition and innovation in the banking sector and curb predatory lending behaviour.
As a result of the interest rate capping, banks have now shifted from the traditional interest-income revenue structure and have now preferred non-interest income such as fees from mobile money transactions. This has seen a number of banks increase fees on loans in a bid to offset loss in interest income. While the interest rate capping has contributed to the growth of microfinance institutions and Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations popularly known as SACCOs that were not directly affected by the policy change, small banks have experienced significant decline in profitability forcing them to re-engineer their business models. Recently, the minimum rate was removed in hope that this will allow for greater profitability and appeal to SMEs. This move has however not worked as depositors have sought for higher interest-earning forms of investments such as Treasury Bills.
Following the reports on the effects of the amended law, it may be prudent for the Government to move from interest rate capping as a means to reduce cost of credit and explore alternative measures such as adoption of credit scoring and sharing systems and more efficient loan foreclosure procedures.
Although the period since the law became operational may not be sufficiently long for the full effects on the economy to manifest, reports on the effects of the interest rate capping have been largely negative. The Central Bank of Kenya has reported a significant shift in lending towards larger corporate clients and government thereby shunning new and smaller borrowers such as the Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) which constitute a substantial percentage of all businesses in Kenya. The report revealed that the interest rate capping had not translated to easy access to credit by borrowers since borrowers deemed to be ‘high risk’ had been locked out.
The
100
most influential The Africa Report’s inaugural ranking of the top Africans who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars
By ALISON CULLIFORD, OLIVIA KONOTEY-AHULU, NICHOLAS NORBROOK, OHENEBA AMA NTI OSEI and MARSHALL VAN VALEN 86
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 107 / APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2019
The Africa Report is transitioning to a quarterly magazine with a special focus on the decision makers, the money takers and the thought shakers who are not only in the spotlight for their skills and strategies today but will continue to be so for years to come. Our 2019 ranking is based on three criteria: global reach (40%), trajectory (30%) and influence (30%).
00 Africans Global reach takes into account how many countries their activities touch and how well known they are. Trajectory is defined to capture people whose careers are on the up and those involved in crucial industries of tomorrow, like manufacturing, fintech and the creative sectors. And finally, influence is measured as to how much their voices matter in local
and global debates, and how much they are able to change the political, economic and cultural playing fields. The names that follow – including a Nobel Peace Prize winner, officials helping to run global institutions, a highly sought-after architect and billionaires with hotly awaited stock IPOs – are examples of the heights
of African leadership in the world, both at home and in the diaspora. They are coming up with innovations to spur financial inclusion and leapfrog technological stages, tackling climate change and human rights abuses in Africa and across the world, and telling heartbreaking and beautifully imagined stories that make the world a richer place.
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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Aliko Dangote
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Money talks
The sun keeps rising PLANET PIX/ZUMA-REA
Nigeria
1
He’s the richest black man in the world and Africa’s richest man, with an estimated wealth of $10.3bn. Within Nigeria, Senator Ben-Murray Bruce called him “more influential and powerful than (President Muhammadu) Buhari”. The billionaire’s latest project is a $10.5bn oil refinery that will be Africa’s largest, so Dangote will not be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to oilsector reform debates there. He is investing in the continent’s manufacturing and agribusiness capacity, and plans to launch the long-awaited London IPO of Dangote Cement in late 2019. Meanwhile, his philanthropy is taking flight.
Elon Musk Rocket man
South Africa
2
The yo-yoing of his company shares, his hirings and firings and off-the-wall tweets keep Musk in the headlines. He may be a maverick but his ideas are shaping the future, from reducing global warming with his electric cars to urban transportation on a cushion of air and plans to establish a colony on Mars. His Boring Company could help a boom in urban public transportation, and he is a big pessimist about the impact of AI. He donates to both the Democratic and Republican parties in the US, saying it is necessary to pay up in order to have a voice.
Koos Bekker Go-getter in Asia South Africa
3
When China-based Tencent sneezed in August 2018, Naspers share price caught a cold. It didn’t last long, but it showed how tied the fortunes of the South African media and entertainment behemoth are to its largest holding (Naspers owns 31% of the Chinese internet giant). Buying a stake in Tencent in 2001 makes Bekker the Buffett of Africa: the initial $32m investment has grown to $116bn since then, and Bekker famously waived a salary to get paid in stock options when he was CEO. With the bulk of South African pension funds invested heavily in Naspers and allegations of Gupta-style influencing in a 2017 broadcasting deal, Bekker said the company would work on its transparency at the 2018 annual general meeting.
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Nigeria The Nigerian author-cum-public intellectual continues her stratospheric ascent and is as often seen behind a mic as in print these days – engaging audiences about racism, sexism and the human condition. She started the year 2018 slaying a French journalist for her lack of knowledge about Nigeria and ended it on stage with former US first lady Michelle Obama. Who’s next?
Business
4
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Trevor Noah Mic wrecker
South Africa
7
Davido
Naija pop idol Nigeria
S. DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY
He has riches (he’s worth $16m), good looks, fast cars and political clout. Using his music to inspire Nigerians to vote in the 2019 elections, he also lent his star appeal to presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s campaign, seriously upstaging the 72-year-old politician. His next act will be to crack the tough US market, with his eyes set on a gig at Madison Square Garden, having filled the 15,000-seat O2 Arena in London in January.
Tidjane Thiam
Master strategist Côte d’Ivoire
6
STEPHEN VOSS/REDUX-REA
TAYLOR HILL/WIREIMAGE/GETTY
5
One of the US’s most prominent voices critiquing the presidency of Donald Trump, Noah has brought millennial-inspired thinking and an astute outsider’s view to The Daily Show and taught some Americans that Africa is not a country. With the renewal of his contract in 2017 his job is secure until 2022, which will carry him through the febrile US election season. He is also quite funny.
Thiam’s turnaround of Credit Suisse since 2016 has left bankers and analysts awestruck. Ignoring naysayers, the Ivorian CEO relegated the derivatives traders and recast the bank as a wealth-management operation focusing on emerging markets. He explained his view to Euromoney: “This is a fabulous bank. Or let me be more precise: it has always had a fabulous bank within it.” But it faces big blowback for its role in the Mozambique tuna bond scandal.
Enoch Adeboye Sacred networker Nigeria
8
In 2017 Pastor Adeboye’s resignation from leading his five-million-member church in Nigeria was greeted with dismay by congregations around the country. Nigeria’s highest-profile pastor, who numbers the Nigerian vice-president Yemi Osinbajo among his followers, had to step down from running the domestic operations of the church he had built up almost from scratch after a new law put a 20-year cap and 70-yearold age limit on the leadership of non-profit organisations. Adeboye could have argued that The Redeemed Christian Church of God was not, strictly speaking, “non-profit”, with Forbes quoting the net worth of the man born into poverty at €39m, but he chose not to.
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Business
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
S.DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Mark Bristow Golden boy RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT VIA GETTY IMAGES
South Africa
9
Kumi Naidoo Crime fighter
South Africa Appointed as secretary general of Amnesty International in August 2018, Naidoo was a youth activist in apartheid South Africa and the first African head of Greenpeace. By making clear the link between environmental crimes and human rights abuses, Naidoo heralds a new era for Amnesty, widening its focus from political prisoners to indigenous peoples and everyone in between. “We need to redefine what it means to be a strong leader. Because strong leaders don’t bully activists. Yet that is exactly what is happening with a global crackdown on NGOs. We need to see less vitriol and more compassion from our leaders,” he explained on Twitter.
Abiy Ahmed Change agent Ethiopia
PICTURE ALLIANCE/SVENSIMON/MAXPPP
10
Catapulted into office in April 2018 by the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Abiy has made a huge splash at home and internationally. In 11 months, he has made peace with Eritrea, released 60,000 political prisoners, calmed ethnic tensions, signed multimillion-dollar infrastructure deals with China, started liberalising the economy, persuaded diaspora Ethiopians to contribute $2.4m to a trust fund, filled his cabinet with women, diffused a potential military coup by doing press-ups with soldiers… and the list goes on.
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In September 2018, Bristow’s Randgold Resources signed a $6.5bn merger with Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. When the opening bell rang on the New York Stock Exchange on 2 January, GOLD – the new stock for the merged company – was worth $23.75bn and Bristow was CEO of the world’s biggest gold miner by market cap. Now, a fresh challenge: the proposed hostile takeover of Newmont Mining, to create the world’s largest gold miner. He faces challenges by Acacia Mining, a Barrick subsidiary in Tanzania, where the government has been using various tools to try to get a better deal from foreign mining giants (see page 56).
Strive Masiyiwa The connector Zimbabwe
12
If Masiyiwa stands out as a Zimbabwean success story – he is the country’s first billionaire and now worth $2.3bn – today it is his philanthropy that matters. He has provided scholarships for more than 100,000 young Africans; funded education, health and agriculture initiatives; and mentors on Facebook. Now he has entered the third phase: as thought leader he is on boards including the Africa Progress Panel, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Business
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Adebayo Ogunlesi Nigeria
13
A lawyer and banker, Ogunlesi formed the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2006 and earned the nickname “the man who bought Gatwick Airport”. Ogunlesi, a quiet billionaire, has still not been able to keep out of the headlines – first by being part of Donald Trump’s ill-fated Strategic and Policy Forum, which disbanded after Twitter sackings in 2017, and second by luring World Bank president Jim Yong Kim to summarily leave his job and join GIP as vice-chairman in February. Insiders say Ogunlesi made Jim an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Sitting pretty Egypt
14
Naguib Sawiris Opinionated investor Egypt
After the Arab Spring the Egyptian telecoms billionaire founded the Free Egyptians Party, promoting a liberal, secular agenda. He got sidelined in politics and now mainly uses TV interviews as a soapbox – recently declaring that Trump was right over China, and that he was ready to invest in Venezuela as soon as President Nicolás Maduro was gone. People listen when Sawiris talks, as his capacity to invest can help a country’s fortunes: he says no to Saudi Arabia, but may put $300m into the Italian economy. On 25 February his investment bank, Beltone Financial, was allowed to resume trading on the Egyptian bourse after being suspended over irregularities in an IPO.
Cyril Ramaphosa CHARLES PLATIAU/POOL/REA
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
In 2014 Egypt was suspended from the African Union (AU) due to its “unconstitutional” ousting of President Mohamed Morsi. Five years later the country’s strongman president is chairing the organisation. His predecessor, Rwandan president Paul Kagame, showed the potential for AU chairmanship in furthering his own and his country’s interests and Sisi is sure to follow his example, though his focus will be on security rather than internal reform. Sisi supports the Continental Free Trade Area but faces a battle with South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa (#16) to get it ratified. Meanwhile, at home Sisi is pushing forward with a constitutional change that would allow him to remain president until 2034.
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Mountain climber South Africa
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A lot more influential than he was a year ago – when he had just taken on an ailing South Africa and the controversial cabinet of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, which was mired in corruption – Ramaphosa has doggedly worked at untangling the country’s political and economic problems. He explained the situation when launching the African National Congress’ (ANC) 2019 election manifesto: “After a period of doubt and uncertainty, we have arrived at a moment of hope and renewal”. At 60%, his approval rating is higher than that of the ANC itself. South Africa has significantly more clout than its continental peers on the global diplomatic scene: it is the only African country in the G20 and became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2019-2020. Ramaphosa will further widen his sphere internationally when he becomes the chair of the African Union in 2020.
SHAWN BALDWIN/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Plane enthusiast
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Iyinoluwa ‘E’ Aboyeji ‘E’ for excellence
Wizkid Starboy
Nigeria
18
He and Davido (#7) are Nigeria’s two biggest musical megastars, but unlike his former rival – now friend – who comes from one of Nigeria’s wealthiest business families, Wizkid (alias Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun) was a street-style hustler from Ojuelegba before becoming the original ‘Starboy’. These days he charges around $12m to appear in concert; signs up rising stars to his label, Starboy Entertainment; and, of course, went platinum with his collaboration with Drake.
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Denis Mukwege
21
Nobel cause DRC
19
The reknowned surgeon, who has devoted his life to helping the victims of sexual assault in the DRC, spoke out to the United Nations in 2012 and was later a victim of an assassination attempt. Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, he has used this recognition to hold governments and international organisations to account for not doing enough to stop rape being used as a strategy of war. “All [the Nobel Prize]’s importance will be in its capacity to change the situation of victims in conflict zones.”
Winnie Byanyima Rising to a challenge Uganda Amidst a storm of scandals affecting the aid sector, Byanyima – who is married to Ugandan oppositionist Kizza Besigye – kept a firm hand on the tiller from the new headquarters in Nairobi, but 2019 will be another tough year for Oxfam. Byanyima also serves on numerous global advisory bodies, including the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development. In 2016, when asked if she would ever stand for president in Uganda, she told the Forum for Women in Democracy: “If one day there is an opportunity and a team that shares my vision and wants me to lead it, I will rise.” With the popular movement around Bobi Wine whipping the population up to fever pitch, Byanyima could offer a real policy platform for the opposition.
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PAKOB POLACSEK/WEF
17
Aboyeji gave his first TED-talk when he was still a teenager and changes jobs so often his LinkedIn profile simply reads ‘Entrepreneur in the Public Interest’. Everything he does is designed to maximise the talent and potential of African youth. In two years, Andela grew from nothing to a network of more than 1,000 software engineers; payment platform Flutterwave processes more than $2bn a year. Aboyeji’s new thing, as of November 2018, is Street Capital, connecting global investors and philanthropists with “missionary entrepreneurs” in Africa to empower them and the next generation after that.
BRUNO LEVY FOR JA
Nigeria
Business
Entertainer
Power player
Mo Ibrahim
Idris Elba
Truth teller
Storyteller
Sudan
Ghana/Sierra Leone
Muhoho Kenyatta
Mike Adenuga
Alliance builder Nigeria
22
As the second-richest entrepreneur on the continent, Adenuga has been breaking out of traditional relationships. He recently funded the building of the Alliance Française in Lagos and was rewarded with a Légion d’Honneur by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Kenya
23
The Londoner, whose parents are Sierra Leonean and Ghanaian, has had a global reach via his starring role in cult HBO series The Wire. Since then his illustrious career has repeatedly taken him to the continent for films including Sometimes in April, about the Rwandan genocide; The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, filmed in Botswana; Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination; and Beasts of No Nation, shot in Ghana and based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala. In 2019 audiences in the UK will be able to see his stage play Tree about life in South Africa after Nelson Mandela, co-written with Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director at the Young Vic Theatre. But many are waiting to see if he will end up being the next James Bond.
ARMANDO GALLO/ZUMA STUDIO/REA
JACQUES WITT/SIPA
Family business
24
VINCENT FOURNIER/JA
Through the four pillars of his foundation – a prize, an event, a report and fellowships – the Sudanese businessman-turned-philanthropist keeps people thinking about governance on the continent. The Mo Ibrahim Index, now in its 13th year, parlays more than a decade’s worth of data on governance in Africa into specific and practical recommendations for African leaders. He is working hard to raise a commotion about the climate, democratic and technological changes about to hit the continent.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s bespectacled younger brother is so self-effacing he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry. But he is the engine that drives the vast Kenyatta business empire. Industrious and dilligent, behind the scenes, he has been orchestrating the Kenyattas’ expansion across agribusiness, logistics and finance sectors, including the recent merger of NIC Group and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). CBA, owned by the Kenyatta family, is growing fast, spurred by the vast take-off in mobile-money loans in Kenya. The Kenyatta-owned dairy company Brookside is keen on expanding outside of Kenya and is looking for an opening in the Ethiopian market. Kenyan political insiders also say it was Muhoho who brokered the famous 9 March 2018 handshake between his brother and political rival Raila Odinga. This put paid to a long stretch of political acrimony that spilled over into violently contested elections.
Disruptor
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Anas Aremeyaw Anas Truth teller Ghana
CRISTINA ALDEHUELA/AFP
Known simply as “Anas”, his relentless exposure of corruption in Ghana and beyond has spawned many imitators and won him collaborations with major broadcasters including the BBC and Al Jazeera. The murder, in January, of Ahmed Husein, who worked with Anas on an exposé that led to the dismantling of the Ghana Football Association and sacking of a FIFA referee was a grim confirmation of the importance of his undercover work. His groundbreaking investigation into corruption in Ghana’s legal system led to the suspension and idictment of several judges.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala World Banker Nigeria
Sharp-eyed Kenya
26
By spotting potential at the bottom of Kenya’s economic pyramid, Mwangi has taken Equity Bank from bit-player to market maker in the thriving financial sector. Not stopping there, Mwangi used this momentum to turn Equity Bank into a leading player in the mobile-money space, as well as expanding into regional markets, like South Sudan and the DRC, becoming Kenya’s most international bank in the process.
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Following the surprise resignation of Jim Yong Kim, all eyes are on who will be the next World Bank president. Okonjo-Iweala, a former deputy president who worked at the Bank for 25 years, is eminently qualified and, crucially, is now a US citizen. She is interested in the position: “If the right person were to nominate, and if the circumstances are right and people feel I can do the job, yes!” she told CNN at Davos. Who President Donald Trump’s administration decides to nominate will say a lot about how he wishes to conduct relations with the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the former Nigerian finance minister was appointed to Twitter’s board of directors in January. Her vast experience would be a big asset at the World Bank. She had a ‘super-minister’ role under the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan when it rolled out crucial reforms of the power sector and introduced legislation to support local companies in breaking into the value chains of the oil and natural gas sector. But Jonathan’s government was also infamous for the graft and opaque deals that took place at the time. Her time in government gave her enough material to write a book about corruption, and that is what she did, calling it Reforming the Unreformable. Okonjo-Iweala remains a booster of good governance, arguing that countries need to improve the way that they handle and spend money before committing more money to, say, a big new drive to improve healthcare.
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HAMILTON/REA
James Mwangi
Mining money South Africa
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The billionaire magnate founded diversified miner African Rainbow Minerals, which is in the market for new copper mining opportunities. Motsepe is also pushing into finance with TymeBank – the country’s first fully digital bank – and into politics, pledging $250m towards furthering South Africa’s land reform programme. The champion of black economic empowerment made the announcement at December’s Global Citizen Festival, which he hosted, where companies, governments and foundations pledged $7.5bn to end extreme poverty to the sounds of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Wizkid (#18) et al. “We are coming together in unity as leaders and are committed to working together to ensure that the current land reform process will result in land with the requisite support and skills being made available to black people living in rural areas,” Motsepe explained.
Disruptor
A-grade fixer
Egypt
29
Power player
Olusegun Obasanjo
Knight in white
From his penalty that qualified Egypt for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years to his hat-trick that took Liverpool to the top of the Premier League, Salah brings delight every time he steps onto a football field. His goals have brought him a slew of awards and he has been immortalised in statues and street art, but Salah is loved not just for his prodigious footwork. He is socially engaged on and off the pitch: refusing to celebrate a goal against Chelsea out of respect to the victims of the Sinai mosque attack, he forced fans to think beyond rivalries, and he has given away millions to his home village, Basyoun, and more widely to fight poverty and drug addiction.
Entertainer
Nigeria
30
“OBJ” is Africa’s most famous backseat driver. The doyen of Nigerian politics has had an impact on every presidential election of the past 40 years and his blessing makes or breaks political careers. His choices defy party alliances: having backed the All Progressives Congress’ Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, in 2019 he switched to the People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar – who was once his own vice-president. He is also one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen.
Tewolde GebreMariam High flyer
Ethiopia
31
The winner of the Africa CEO Forum’s CEO of the Year award in 2012 is still Africa’s most successful aviation executive. He turned the national airline into a profitable tool of Ethiopian economic expansion, successfully battling Middle Eastern carriers for African routes. In February GebreMariam upped the stakes on transatlantic routes, announcing that Ethiopian Airlines would be flying three times a week to New York’s JFK.
Maria Ramos Finance supreme South Africa Having stepped down from managing one of Africa’s largest banks, the decorated Maria Ramos is no doubt looking for a fresh challenge. Many in South Africa speculate she will play a key role back in government, when President Cyril Ramaphosa puts together his post-May election cabinet.
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ALON SKUY/SUNDAY TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
Patrice Motsepe
Mohamed Salah
MARK CHILVERS FOR TAR
PRENSA INTERNACIONAL/ZUMA/REA
Business
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Business
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Tope Lawani Private eye
Nigeria In 15 years Helios has grown to be Africa’s largest private-equity firm, with $3.6bn under management. After buying a 49% stake in Nigerian oil and gas company Oando in 2017, its push into South Africa, where it plans to build 1,000 telecom towers in the next three years, marks its transformation into a genuine pan-African platform. It also offers direct lending to African businesses. Lawani’s influence extends to the board of EMPEA industry association and MIT’s board of trustees.
33 David Adjaye Raising the roof
Nicky Oppenheimer
Ghana
Still at the table
36
South Africa
34
The scion of the De Beers diamond family retired from mining in 2012 saying he wanted to invest in African entrepreneurs. Insiders say he’s really interested in the health of South African politics. Often held up by radical activists on the left as embodying white monopoly capital (he still owns 1% of Anglo American), he set up the Brenthurst Foundation think tank, which numbers many African presidents on its advisory board. He donates $6m a year to education causes and stopped big game hunting on his reserve.
Mitchell Elegbe Fintech frontiersman
35
Interswitch could become Africa’s fourth unicorn (a tech company valued over $1bn) if its delayed IPO in London and Lagos goes through by the end of this year. Having started the integrated payment and transaction company in Nigeria in 2002, disruptor Elegbe is now partnering with one of its international rivals, Visa, to drive digital payments across Africa.
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KALPESH LATHIGA FOR JA
Nigeria
Adjaye was selected to join a team of architects to design the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC in 2009… and he has been in demand ever since. After a decade of globetrotting, partaking in art collaborations and designing private homes for celebrities, other American museums, the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo and a Russian business school, Adjaye has returned to his fatherland, Ghana, to build its high-profile new national cathedral. He has also been tapped to design the new UK Holocaust Memorial in London close to the Houses of Parliament.
RICHARD CANNON/GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT BY GETTY IMAGES FOR THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
INVESTING
IN
An exceptional location
Real opportunities for investors An optimal business climate
ADVERTORIAL
INVESTING
IN
The bank of the future
S
ince 1985, Togo’s capital city, Lomé, has been home to the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the financial arm of the Economic Community, and the West African Development Bank (BOAD), common to the eight WAEMU member countries.
Lomé is also where African banking group Ecobank, the biggest on the continent by number of establishments, chose to set up its new headquarters, facing the Atlantic. This decision a rmed the credit granted to Togo by this increasingly powerful private group, especially since its establishment in neighbouring Nigeria. Orabank, the leading panAfrican bank in terms of its balance sheet total, also chose Lomé as the location for its headquarters.
Since 2016, togo has been pulling out all the stops to attract the private investment its economy needs, including implementing reforms that will encourage investors to seize opportunities in the transport, energy, housing and agri-food sectors. From the simpli cation of procedures and the settlement of commercial disputes to modernising its infrastructure, Lomé is steadily creating the environment expected by today’s international investors. These reforms and adjustments are beginning to bear fruit and, in the last three years, Togo has climbed nine places in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking.
The country is modernising its Internet network so that people can enjoy all the advantages of broadband, especially in terms of banking and financial inclusion. Ecobank, Orabank and the Banque Togolaise pour le Commerce et l’Industrie have already established partnerships with mobile operators in order to offer their customers the possibility of managing online accounts and carrying out financial transactions. Ecobank is even organising the Fintech Challenge in Lomé – a pan-African competition aimed at transforming finance
through innovation and technology.
The new terminal covers an area of 21,000 m². In addition to the new terminal, an airplane apron, a viaduct, a taxiway and a freight area were also built. The project was financed to the tune of $150 million by a loan from China Exim Bank and was carried out by two Chinese companies: Weihai International Economic & Technical
Cooperative Co. (WIETC) and China Airport Construction Group Corporation (CACC). The airport plans to achieve its ambition to handle 2 million passengers per year, compared to the current 600,000 or so. Annual freight processing will be boosted to 50,000 tonnes, compared to the current 15,000 tonnes. “It is an infrastructure
of international standards such as that in Europe or North America, with services that did not previously exist,” said Henok Teferra, CEO of Asky, the airline that has made Lomé its hub and mainly transports transit passengers (75% of customers). “The new airport is a decisive asset,” he added.
Tourism
A new nugget of opportunity
B
etter known for its phosphates or the deepwater port of Lomé, Togo has a real hidden treasure: its tourism potential. It's endless white, sandy beaches, shimmering plateaus, dizzying waterfalls, protected natural parks and a rich cultural heritage make it a dream destination. Ongoing hotel investments and the new Lomé International Airport should give impetus to this activity, the development of which is one of the Government's priorities.
Modernising the hotel offer
Tourism is an emerging activity in Togo. The Government has made it a priority and the 20182022 National Development Plan (PND) envisages positioning Togo as an international business tourism centre as it already represents 80% of the flows. The capital is home to leading nancial institutions (BOAD, EBID, Orabank, Ecobank, etc.) and is a leading business and nancial hub in West Africa.
Major challenges for the country
Making tourism a priority is being con rmed by concrete actions. The Lomé International Airport upgrades, completed in 2016, mean that tourists’ rst view of Lomé is a modern, well-functioning airport. The government is now encouraging the modernisation of the hotel sector, which is undergoing a major transformation, and the “2-Février” hotel in Lomé, the African hotel industry’s historic flagship establishment, has had major investment injected into its modernisation. The thirty-storey building, one of the tallest in Africa, is now an essential reference in West Africa.
There has been a ramping up of the promotion of Togo as a destination to international tourism’s most important players. Admittedly, this is a longterm task and the experience of other developing countries shows that success depends on the mobilisation of all stakeholders (hotels, restaurants, transport, travel agencies, etc.) and their ability to o er quality services.
Togo has great natural resources: lakes, rivers, mountains, forests, waterfalls, national parks and a multitude of diverse landscapes. The country is also steeped in history and endowed with a rich culture. Ecotourism, to give just one example, is a product that could be successfully sold in Europe to customers seeking authenticity and nature conservation. All things considered, Togo is ideally positioned to present a highly desirable tourist o er.
Togo has much to gain from the development of tourism: job creation, growth of activity in rural areas, foreign exchange earnings, etc. Nothing should be taken for granted, but one thing is for sure. The country can and will meet tourist expectations and work towards the development of diversified tourism that respects the environment, quality of life and different cultures.
ADERTORIAL
Tourism a multi-faceted city
Like a number of other African cities, the capital of Togo is both a centre of trade and communication and an irresistible invitation to just kick back and go with the flow, enjoying the gentle rhythm of life as one strolls through its peaceful districts, down sandy alleys and along its endless beach.
past and present
A peaceful seaside and lagoon resort, appreciated for its leisure activities, or a memorial to the country and the Slave Coast? There are indeed two sides to Agbodrafo, n a m e d Po r to S e g u ro b y t h e Portuguese, 30 kilometres east of Lomé.
“the city of seven hills”Atakpamé began its existence nestled in a basin, before spreading up onto the surrounding hills, to such an extent that it was nicknamed “the city of seven hills”. Now, it is the capital of the Ogou prefecture and the Plateaux region, while occupying a strategic location on the RN1, at the crossroads between the north and south of the country.
the land of“those who shape the earth” With its astonishing handbuilt fortified earthen huts, its rocky landscapes dotted with sparse vegetation, its lonely vigil on the border with Benin and its preserved traditions, the Koutammakou is a unique “cultural landscape” and features on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is the country of the Batammaribas (or Tambermas), whose name means “those who shape the earth”.
The investment code, adopted in 2012, which allows exemptions from customs duties, taxes and indirect taxes on imports. The exemptions also concern corporation tax, business tax and property tax. The new law on the free trade zone which offers companies exemptions from all customs duties and taxes on equipment necessary for the operation of their facilities. These exemptions also apply to exports of manufactured goods. JAMG © J.TORREGANO
The new Customs Code, passed by Parliament in June 2018, is the revision of a text dating back to 1968. It is now more in line with World Customs Organization guidelines and improves the business climate.
ADVERTORIAL
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Business
Acha Leke Consulted
37
McKinsey can depend on the fresh-faced Cameroonian high-flyer to rescue its image after being tainted by association with the Gupta scandal in South Africa. He found a way for pharma companies in Uganda to slash the price of antiretrovirals; co-authored ‘Lions on the Move’ to bring more investment to African economies; helped open
the continent for visa-free travel; and in his spare time partnered with entrepreneur Fred Swaniker to set up the African Leadership Academy, a pan-African uber high school with 85% of its students on full scholarships. The project has expanded to encompass a university and a Davos-style forum, and Leke has been intimating that he may devote himself full-time to enlarging it.
VINCENT FOURNIER/JA
Cameroon
Entertainer
Power player
Aziz Akhannouch Fishing for business Morocco
39
One of Morocco’s richest men, Akhannouch inherited the family conglomerate with interests primarily in oil and gas. He straddles the worlds of business and politics through his position as agriculture minister and president of the Rassemblement National des Indépendants party. Akhannouch’s visits to Europe and, recently, Australia to seek cooperation for his agriculture and fisheries strategies make him a leader in soft diplomacy. He has, however, courted controversy in the pricing strategies of his petrol stations.
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Herbert Wigwe
Minnow-cum-whale Nigeria
40
Mohamed El Kettani
Expedition leader
VINCENT FOURNIER/JA
Morocco Over his 12 years in charge of Attijariwafa Bank he’s consolidated the Moroccan lender to make it a market leader – the top bank in the region and seventh-largest in Africa with a presence in 15 countries on the continent and 26 worldwide. A member of King Mohammed VI’s close circle of advisers, El Kettani is an intelligent strategist. Next on his list is a push beyond francophone Africa, for which he acknowledges a “cultural and mental revolution” is needed.
Disruptor
Wigwe and his business partner bought Nigeria’s 65th-largest bank in 2002 and turned it into one of the top five. He’s not stopping there: Access is currently merging with Diamond Bank to form “the largest bank in Africa’s largest economy”. On 1 March Wigwe also launched Africa’s first corporate green bond, worth $41.4m. Recounting the story of his success takes him on public speaking engagements around the world, and he invites global leaders back every two years to the Access Conference, a forum on solving humanity’s major challenges. He sums up his strategy: “History will only favour the brave. If you don’t try something, you won’t get it.”
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THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
STANDARD BANK
42
Sim Tshabalala Class topper
Lupita Nyong’o
South Africa
Screen idol
41
Kenya/US
EMMA MCINTYRE/GETTY IMAGES FOR TURNER/AFP
Tshabalala became Standard Bank’s first black CEO when his job-share ended in September 2017 and his “quiet but very influential leadership” earned him $3.5m that year. The South African lender faces challenges though, from disruptors Discovery Bank and Patrice Motsepe’s TymeBank. He’s one of a group of CEOs supportive of President Cyril Ramaphosa who banded together as the CEO Initiative and took a pledge to restore investor confidence.
It’s going to be a great year for Lupita. The Kenyan-Mexican actress takes her place on the Walk of Fame in 2019, and – after her voyage to Wakanda last year – will once again time-travel in a new Star Wars film, as well as starring in a social drama, Us, with Black Panther co-star Winston Duke. She already has an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, so what is there left to do? Well, collaborate with Chimamanda (#4) for one thing – she will act in and co-produce (with Brad Pitt) the adaptation of Americanah, whose author she first contacted when she was a complete unknown!
Onyeka Akumah
Ory Okolloh
Nigeria
Tech activist Okolloh founded Mzalendo (for tracking representatives in the Kenyan parliament) and Ushahidi (for crowdsourcing crisis information) before working for Google and then joining impact investor Omidyar Network. Luminate, the new philanthropic entity formed out of Omidyar’s Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative, is the ideal place to pool her exceptional skills.
Seed capital
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Akumah started Farmcrowdy in 2016 and has empowered small farmers all over Nigeria via the feel-good crowdfunding platform. He’s now a mentor and investor, sitting on the boards of start-ups from New York to Lagos, and is one of the youngest members of the Honorary Council of Abuja’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Impact investor Kenya
44
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Tayo Oviosu Bill payer
Nigeria
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In the headlong sprint to become the African fintech giant that goes global, Paga is some way behind Kenya’s M-Pesa – partly because of the latter’s head start and its telecoms company owner. The terrain is different, too, with traditional banks in Nigeria putting up a bigger fight by investing in their own mobile-payment platforms, which already makes Paga’s growth there impressive. Licensed in 2011, it quickly went from a mobile-money operator to a full-blown payments system including e-commerce solutions. The gap between them may close if Paga co-founder Oviosu gets his way; another $10m in the bank in 2018 is being used to fund expansion to Ethiopia, Mexico and the Philippines. Nearly $4bn in payments have already been crunched in Nigeria. He will have to be quick in Ethiopia, however, as he will come face to face with… M-Pesa.
Business
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Mohamed Aly El-Erian Word to the wise Egypt
46
VINCENT FOURNIER/JA
Son of an Egyptian diplomat, US-based El-Erian has carved out a niche as one of the most influential economists of the post-global-financial-crisis era. While at PIMCO, the world’s largest bond-trading specialist, he came up with the concept of the ‘New Normal’ which went viral. His investment guide to the ‘age of global economic change’, When Markets Collide, was a New York Times bestseller, as was The Only Game in Town. He now serves as chief economic adviser to the board at Allianz, PIMCO’s parent company, among a plethora of other engagements.
Kamel Daoud Acid pen Algeria
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By writing Meursault as a counterpoint to French literary icon Albert Camus’s L’Étranger, Daoud struck deep at the rotten ties that join France and Algeria. A writer, editor and journalist, he has helped bridge the generations, from the old guard to the angry youth, and has made many enemies by his unsparing positions on Islamists and politicians. An imam who passed a fatwa on him in December 2014 was perhaps surprised to see the pushback; Daoud got him jailed for six months.
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Kola Masha King of yield
DOREO PARTNERS
Nigeria Having worked as chief of staff to the minister of agriculture, Kola Masha is acutely aware of the broad challenges faced by Nigeria’s smallholder farmers, the backbone of the country that is often languishing in feudal levels of productivity. His company, Babban Gona, aggregates farmers into groups, gives them cheap seeds and fertiliser, and plugs them into markets. It is a bottom-up approach to national wealth with results that
are bearing fruit. Babban Gona had worked with some 20,000 farmers by the middle of 2018, with its long-term goal of improving the performance of 1 million people. And Masha is no stranger to the sector. His other company Doreo Partners is an impact investment firm in agriculture. And his work has now been recognised by the Skoll Foundation award for social entrepreneurship. He is encouraging the government to look to examples like Brazil to see how to get more capital and better technology to smallholder farmers.
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Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Ngugi wa Thiong’o Voice master Kenya
Akinwumi Adesina
A life without compromise has cost Ngugi; imprisoned, forced to flee Kenya after writing and putting on a play that disturbed the powers that be – at that time, President Daniel Arap Moi. Championing his native tongue Gikuyu rather than write in colonial English, he has campaigned to strengthen writing in various African languages over the course of his career: “'To starve or kill a language is to starve and kill a people’s memory bank,” he said. And if this seems abstract, consider that Africa’s nations are colonial fictions; Africa’s economies will not be fixed before her politics are consolidated and native languages can be building blocks of that consolidation.
Green gold Nigeria
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As president of the AfDB, Adesina has thrown his passion and weight into agriculture. His vision is that, as the continent’s number one employer, the sector can solve the jobs and migration crisis. Fixing the bottom of the pyramid requires the financing to match: Adesina is in a race to get the soft-loan wing of the Bank replenished this year.
Cutting edge
Zimbabwe/US
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Danai Gurira
Sauti Sol Groove riders Kenya
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When Gurira isn’t destroying the enemies of the Kingdom of Wakanda as Okoye in the film Black Panther, Marvel-adapted hit or chopping people up with her katana blades as Michonne in The Walking Dead, she is crushing the red carpet at the Oscars ceremony. Her playwriting is acclaimed too: Eclipsed won prizes in 2016, while Letitia Wright starred in The Convert. In December 2018, Gurira became a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Her project Almasi Collaborative Arts builds ties between artists in the US and Africa.
Business
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The exceptional afro-pop sensations from Nairobi are politically conscious, laid-back and on point. Like any band scraping a living in the era of skinflint streaming platforms, Sauti Sol are on the road a lot, headlining at the Lake of Stars festival in Malawi in September 2018, and at various US festivals. And they are award scoopers, too, picking up best African group at the All Africa Music Awards, the MTV Africa Music Awards and the Soundcity MVP Awards. But their lasting influence will be their Sol Generation Records, a label the band are using to launch new talents into the East African music stratosphere.
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Shamila Batohi Jail filler
What a time to get the top job: the National Prosecuting Authority had been manned by Shaun Abrahams, whose critics believe was close to corrupt networks around Jacob Zuma. Now, as the first woman to get the post, Batohi has an opportunity to go after the dozens of individuals who dragged South Africa’s proud institutions into the mire. She is no stranger to the task, having already served as director of public prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal from 2002-2009 – and in the 1990s was asked by President Nelson Mandela to investigate hit squads within the police.
Disruptor
Bomb proof
Sword and shield
South Africa
Jim Ovia
Money magnet Nigeria
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Creating Zenith Bank in a period of economic and political instability, Ovia has guided the institution through choppy waters. But he has retained his belief in the Nigerian economy. Speaking at the launch of a new book, he explained how he started the bank in 1990 with $4m: “We now have a total asset base of $16bn. If you look at the arithmetic, there has been over 1,000% growth. You can’t get that anywhere, even in the best economies in the world.”
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The former pharmacist turned activist turned tax authority chief turned finance minister multiple times is a testament to the cadre of personalities moulded in the fires of apartheid South Africa. The group Gordhan created at the South African Revenue Service was the only one that pushed back hard against corruption at the height of the Zuma era, as the South African judicial, police and security forces were slowly gutted or hamstrung. At 69, he has put a desire for a quieter and more relaxed life on the back burner to clean up South Africa’s troubled parastatals – like electricity utility Eskom and South African Airways – as the minister for public enterprises.
LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP
Egypt
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Power player
Pravin Gordhan
Mona Eltahawy A courageous activist, journalist and writer, Eltahawy speaks for those who lack a voice across the Middle East and beyond. Her 2015 book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution tried to break through the wall of silence that surrounds the sexual violence women in the region deal with on a daily basis. Putting her finger on the hyper-conservative Saudi interpretations of Islam, the headscarf is for her the symbol of oppression, and the hymen the strange guarantor of virginity for layers of male family and religious bureaucracy. Last year, she launched the #MosqueMeToo social media campaign to ensure that the Middle East and North Africa is not spared from the benefits of the #MeToo movement.
Entertainer
53
DR
JAIRUS MMUTLE /EPA/MAXPPP
South Africa
Business
THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS /
Moussa Faki Mahamat Top diplomat ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Chad
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Herding cats may suddenly seem a more attractive career path for the African Union Commission head. The current job for Chad’s former prime minister entails corralling Africa’s fractious presidents into a unified position on difficult topics such as the recent elections in the
T.B. Joshua
Prophesy and power
DRC, the continental free trade zone and big internal AU reforms. While the year did not start well - with the AU speaking loudly on the DRC election before retreating into silence - plenty of challenges await: Sudan, Libya and Central African Republic will all clamour for the AU to act.
Nigeria
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Joshua has a huge following across the continent, but especially in his home country. Though he only founded The Synagogue, Church of All Nations in Lagos in 2006, it has expanded rapidly, and the faithful flock there from many African countries for healing and counsel. Joshua is not always popular - the government of Cameroon warned its citizens about attending his church in 2010. But it is his influence with members of the continent’s celebrity and political elite that bumps him up the list.
Julius Malema
Agent of change South Africa
Albert Yuma Diamond geezer DRC
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP
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As a key part of former president Joseph Kabila’s inner team, Yuma controls the regime’s access to the DRC’s mineral wealth as chairman of Gécamines. The state-owned mining company – one of the continent’s largest – controls strategic reserves of the minerals of our electric future: copper and cobalt. Yuma is central to ongoing efforts by the Congolese to get a bigger slice of royalties from mining companies. Yuma’s name was also on a shortlist of candidates to become prime minister in the new government of President Felix Tshisekedi.
The controversial leftist politician is the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a political party he launched in 2013 after his heavily publicised breakaway from the ruling African National Congress (ANC). A year after, the EFF won 25 seats in the 2014 general elections, securing more than 1.1m votes, and has since played an important role of kingmaker in the Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane councils. As Malema’s popularity keeps rising, the EFF is tipped to make inroads into the electorate when South Africa goes to the polls in May.
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Business
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Ghana
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The formerly white bastion of British Vogue has been shaken up by Enninful, who took over the coveted editor’s chair in April 2017. A model at 16 and fashion director of the magazine i-D at 18, the Ghana-born influencer thrust diversity into the spotlight back in 2008 when he organised the “Black Issue” of Vogue Italia to combat the "white-out that dominates the catwalks and magazines" (the magazine sold out and had to print an extra 40,000 copies). He is pushing for much more empathy in an industry that is not well known for that skill. The Queen of England awarded him an OBE in 2016; the Queen of New York, Anna Wintour, may favour him as her successor, if what the rumour mill is saying turns out to be true.
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Public intellectual
Disruptor
Voguing!
Ghana/US
Achille Mbembe
Power player
Edward Enninful
Contemporary questioner Engaging with ideas of race and identity, the New York Universitybased thinker is tackling questions of a global nature in times when nativist forces are questioning the global infrastructure of the post-Second World War period. He argues that local attachment and cosmopolitanism can be reconciled, saying in a recent Foreign Affairs article: “Forgetting that we are all citizens of the world – a small, warming, intensely vulnerable world – would be a reckless relaxation of vigilance.”
Entertainer
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Cameroon
SYLVAIN CHERKAOUI FOR JA
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The South Africa-based Cameroonian academic is a revered voice across the continent, and not only influential in academia, but also in other public bodies. His ideas on postcolonialism, gathered in a collection of critical essays continue to shape the thinking on democracy. He explained: “Postcolonial thinking stresses humanity-in-the-making, the humanity that will emerge once the colonial figures of the inhuman and of racial difference have been swept away.”
Vera Songwe Adding it up Cameroon Armed with a wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa, Songwe has been working to shake up institutions and buttress economic growth, first as the regional director of the International Finance Corporation covering West and Central Africa and now in her current position as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. A respected voice on development and economic issues in Africa, the Cameroonian economist and former World Bank director has certainly earned her stripes.
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Louise Mushikiwabo Diplomat extraordinaire Rwanda
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Securing the support of both France and the African Union in her bid to lead the 84-member Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie in October last year was a remarkable achievement for Mushikiwabo, who had to face off against Québécois Canadian Michaëlle Jean, the incumbent secretary general at the time, who was seeking re-election. Formerly Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, the diplomat-cum-gender advocate is at the top echelons of the Rwandan government and is a well-known member of President Kagame’s inner circle.
Akwaeke Emezi Poetry in emotion Nigeria/Malaysia
James Mworia
Meteoric rise Kenya
BRUNO LEVY FOR JA
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Not many people rise from intern to CEO in seven years but such is the atypical career path of Mworia. At age 30, the multipleaward-winning lawyer and businessman was appointed CEO of Centum Investments, the largest publicly-traded private capital firm in East Africa, and has since restructured the company into a powerful investor in the East African economy. In his first six years as CEO, Centum’s asset base increased exponentially, from KSh6bn ($69m) to close to KSh30bn.
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Emezi’s highly acclaimed début autobiographical novel, Freshwater, has been hailed as “one of the decade’s most intriguing works of fiction”. The novel which forces readers to confront their views on issues such as mental illness and mysticism, tells the coming-of-age story of Ada, and her struggle with several inner voices in a multiple self. The Igbo and Tamil writer, who identifies as a “nonbinary trans and plural person”, is set to have an exciting year in 2019, with the publication of two new novels; a second adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji and a children’s book, Pet.
Mohammed Dewji Youthful gains Tanzania
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It came as no surprise when Dewji’s kidnapping by armed gunmen in Tanzania’s economic capital made international headlines in October 2018. The 43-year old Tanzanian businessman and former politician is considered Africa’s youngest billionaire, with a net worth estimated at $1.9bn as of January 2019. Dewji, who was released unharmed a week later, is the owner of his father’s company MeTL Group, a conglomerate active in product manufacturing and logistics in 11 countries across Eastern, Southern and Central Africa.
Business
Tony Attah
Engaging entrepreneur
Riding on
Nigeria
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With a branch network that spreads across 20 African countries and three global financial centres, United Bank for Africa brings Elumelu insights into the growth potential of African markets. And his networking is truly international – he brought the French President Emmanuel Macron to an event in Lagos in July 2018, and was at the heart of former president Obama's PowerAfrica initiative. But alongside this top-down strategy of conquest, there is also a bottom-up approach. His foundation brings in promising young entrepreneurs for training and cash. If the next Uber happens under his watch, Elumelu will be plugged into the next generation of wealth creation.
Nigeria
70
The CEO of Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is at the forefront of one of the most promising liquefied natural gas projects in Africa. The $7bn Train 7 project will ensure sustainable feed gas supply to NLNG’s six existing trains and the new Train 7 when completed, and is expected to boost foreign direct investment in the country. When he’s not focused on Train 7, Attah dedicates his efforts to eliminating gas flaring in Nigeria, with NLNG having helped reduce flaring from about 65% to 20%.
Power player
Disruptor
Fatou Bensouda Prosecutor under pressure Gambia
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This next era of the International Criminal Court is being shaped by its chief prosecutor, as with the previous. With the international winds blowing against many multilateral institutions and the collapse of the court’s cases against former president Laurent Gbagbo and the release of former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, there is now a crucial window for international justice to demonstrate its relevance and competence.
WIEBE KIESTRA FOR JA
Tony Elumelu
Entertainer
Moustapha Cissé
Natural and artificial intelligence Senegal
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“We need a pan-African strategy: a set of ambitious goals for AI education, research and development and industrialisation.” Artificial intelligence and robotics in Africa have a champion in the boss of Google’s AI centre in Ghana’s capital Accra. The outfit’s focus is on machine learning and the use of technology in medicine. He is committed to ensuring that technology addresses the lives of people who need its impact the most.
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73 Ibrahim Mahama Going places Ghana
THOMAS LOHNES/GETTY IMAGES/AFP
The Ghanaian artist has given new value to jute sacks, and it is paying off. His use of the tattered material – a popular object used to transport cocoa beans in Ghana – in large-scale installations has been recognised beyond national borders, making him the youngest Ghana-based artist to show at the Venice Biennale in Italy. This is just the beginning for Mahama, who is preparing to open an artist-run space called SCCA-Tamale in his birthplace of Tamale in northern Ghana that will serve as a project and exhibition space, artist residency and research hub.
Connecting the continent South Africa
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Facebook’s outsized popularity as a communication tool in Africa gives the social media network’s continental boss a crucial role. With a background in marketing, she aims to get millions more of Africa’s youth on the platform. A champion of equality, she complained: “Today, as we sit in South Africa, only 2.4% of women are CEOs. That is absolutely nothing.”
Khalifa Haftar
Ken Njoroge
On the fintech frontier Kenya
Stubborn strongman
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Libya
Scoring a $47.5m investment from US firm TPG in May 2018 puts the fintech firm Cellulant at the forefront of Africa’s fitech space, with its drive to digitise payments and other services. The backing will help Cellulant to expand its operations on the continent. Njoroge has been at the helm of the Nairobi-based company since he co-founded it with Bolaji Akinboro in 2003.
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It is improbable that a peace plan for Libya will be agreed without the buy-in of Libyan National Army leader Haftar. The anti-Islamist leader has the backing of allies including Russia and Egypt, but he does not currently have enough strength to exert his influence much further than his base in the east. Peace talks in 2019 will show whether he can parlay his position into something bigger.
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Nunu Ntshingila
Business
Entertainer
Power player
Disruptor
Wanuri Kahiu
Concerned creator Kenya
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Amina J Mohammed Goal-oriented Nigeria
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ZACHARIAS ABUBKER FOR JA
Mohammed has shepherded the UN’s development goals for almost two decades. In Nigeria, she coordinated programmes worth $1bn annually as a special adviser on the Millennium Development Goals, then she crossed over to Washington DC to advise Ban Ki-Moon on the Sustainable Development Goals. After a spell as Nigeria’s environment minister in 2016-17 she was back as UN deputy secretary-general. Mohammed teaches at Columbia University, and is a prolific board member.
DAMIEN GRENON/PHOTO12/AFP
The banning of Kahiu’s film Rafiki in Kenya could not have come at a better time: happening just as the film premièred at Cannes Film Festival in 2018, it exposed the perils faced by many LBGTQ people on the continent. Prior to this, her short film Pumzi used the Afrofuturism genre as a way to express ecological and political concerns. A master storyteller, she has turned her hand to children’s books and recently signed to direct a film, Covers, for Working Title and Universal.
Mostafa Terrab
Renaissance man of phosphates Morocco
79
Before he took over at Morocco’s largest company, the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the engineer spent many years in the US, including teaching at the MIT and leading the World Bank’s Information for Development programme. His adoption of American-style management is partly what has helped transform the phosphate miner since 2008, selling largely into the US. Terrab is now leading a push into the continent, signing deals in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana to build fertiliser plants.
Mahmood Mamdani
Provocative scholar Uganda
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A leading academic with a foot on both sides of the Atlantic (he directs the Makerere Institute of Social Research and is a professor at Columbia University, New York), Mamdani’s reputation was made by Citizen and Subject, a book which reignited debate around the legacy of colonialism. He is providing some of the critical thinking that has been lacking in reactions to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s sweeping reforms in Ethiopia, warning in the New York Times that Abiy’s policies could lead to “Africa’s next interethnic conflict”.
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Abdulsamad Rabiu Cementing progress Nigeria
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The merger of Kalambaina Cement and the Cement Company of Nigeria this year makes Rabiu’s BUA Cement the second-largest cement manufacturer in Nigeria. BUA is planning a new production line for its base of operations in Sokoto. Rabiu is also investing big in sectors where he thinks Nigerian firms should outperform imports, like sugar and steel. If his big bets pay off, he will soon be climbing the ranks of Nigeria’s rich list.
81 Genevieve Nnaji Ace actress
Ilhan Omar
Representative of a new generation
The veteran acting star made her directorial debut last year with Lionheart, in which she starred and which was streaming service Netflix’s first original Nigerian film. Nollywood watchers say that she is in talks with Hollywood studios in order to break into the US market.
Somalia/US
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João Lourenço In with the new... Angola
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Angola’s new broom is still sweeping away the remnants of the corrupt previous regime, but will he be able to give the country a clean slate? The jury is out on that, and the ruling MPLA seems too intent on maintaining its iron grip to allow much transparency or free political competition. There is still a lot of hard work to be done to put the oil-dependent economy on sounder footing, so there are plenty more challenges that will show if JLo is up to the task of ringing in an new era.
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TIKSA NEGERI/REUTERS
GARETH CATTERMOLE/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES
Nigeria
When she became the first SomaliAmerican elected to the House of Representatives last year, Omar joined an incoming class with outspoken young women pushing progressive ideas in Congress and on social media. After some initial stumbles talking about the relationship between Washington and Israel, she was one of the first representatives to sign a pledge to impeach President Donald Trump. While she wants to score points against the Republicans in Washington, her Minnesota constituents will be looking for her to score points at home before the next election.
Business
Entertainer
Carlos Lopes
Pushing policy makers Guinea-Bissau
85
DAVIDE BELLUCCA
Africa needs more intellectual leaders. Economist Carlos Lopes fits the bill. The former head of the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa is now teaching about governance at the University of Cape Town. After his work pushing the continental free trade area, he has turned to how a ‘New Green Deal’, might be applied in Africa, trying to push policy makers on how to adapt to climate change and drive industrialisation at the same time.
86 Simon Njami Critical curator
CYRILLE CHOUPAS FOR JA
Cameroon Njami, a writer and curator, is a forceful voice at the forefront of African art. He argues foremost for its power, telling an interviewer: “The Dakar biennale does ten times more than the pseudo African Union for African integration.” Njami was the chief curator of the Dak’Art Biennale in 2016 and 2018 while editing the Revue Noire, which he founded. He is a sceptic about Western promises to return looted and other ill-gotten African art.
Power player
Disruptor
Ashitey TrebiOllennu Star gazer Ghana
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“Humans always look to the heavens to gain knowledge and use that knowledge to make life a little better”, Trebi-Ollennu told CNN. The Ghanaian robotics expert managed the team that designed an arm for the InSight rover that landed on Mars in late 2018 so that it can bring back samples that will allow scientists to study how planets are formed. Through the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation, he is sharing his love of science and exploration with a new generation of those with stars in their eyes.
Mamadou Biteye Digital donor Senegal
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Backing the creation of digital jobs on the continent and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa head is overseeing the channelling of crucial resources to priority areas. The Coding for Employment Programme, managed by the AfDB and funded by philanthropists and tech companies, is setting up 130 coding training outfits so that more African young people will have the skills needed for the jobs of the future.
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Oluseun Onigbinde Transparent ambition Nigeria
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You might think it would be hard to have transparency gain traction in Nigeria, but the founder of NGO BudgIT does not back down from tough challenges. His drive to hold the government accountable and to get information
into the public’s hands has helped put pressure on recalcitrant politicians in Abuja and throughout Nigeria. Now an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University, he is aiming to return to Nigeria this year with new projects in mind and tools at hand.
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Issad Rebrab Business baron Algeria
ONS ABID POUR JA
Despite being outside the orbit of Algeria’s heavy backing for state-owned industry, Rebrab has become a billionaire and one of the continent’s richest men. And to boot, his company Cevital mostly steers clear of the rich oil and gas sector, instead focusing on agribusiness and consumer goods. Rebrab is not only looking at his home market, but announced last year that one of Cevital’s companies will invest in a factory to produce water filtration devices in France.
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Moulay Hafid Elalamy
Industrious planner Morocco
91
Morocco’s trade and industry minister is one of a small group of politicians who combine political power and business acumen. Elalamy founded the insurance company Saham, which South African insurer Sanlam bought a majority stake in for about $1bn last year. In his day job, Elalamy is overseeing plans for Morocco to strengthen its position in higher-value manufacturing projects, which have taken off in the automobile and aeronautics sectors.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu
Power to the people! Uganda
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Rallying the youth of Kampala with his ‘People Power’ message (see page 48), the singer and parliamentarian known as Bobi Wine has quickly become the most serious threat – other than the ravages of time – on the regime of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. He has yet to show that he can rattle the government’s foundations or if he will be able to transform his popularity into a long-term political force.
Business
Entertainer
Power player
93 Black gold Ghana
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Adomakoh, a former banker at JPMorgan Chase, is helping Norwegian start-up Aker Energy to make it big. It is planning a potential IPO this year on the back of its drilling success at the Pecan field. He is also a director at Kagiso Tiso Holdings, a South Africabased investment firm that has big ambitions, and owns South Africa’s Business Day newspaper.
Clare Akamanzi Building brand Rwanda Rwanda
95
African governments wanting to copy Rwanda’s success in attracting investment go straight to the government-run Rwanda Development Board. Akamanzi got the world talking last year when Rwanda signed a threeyear sponsorship deal with Premier League side Arsenal. She is now working with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to help Rwandan companies to access the Chinese market.
Caster Semenya
Pushing forward on and off the track South Africa The middle-distance speedster is again in the spotlight as she takes on international sports authorities for their outdated takes on gender. Starring in popular Nike ads, she is an icon in the LGBT community. After winning three Diamond League titles in the 800m in 201 8, she is in fine form for the races ahead in 2019 and her case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the IAAF, which wants to force her to take drugs to reduce her testosterone levels.
Sahle-Work Zewde Soft spoken soft power Ethiopia
96
While reformist premier Ahmed Abiy has Ethiopia’s hard power tools, President SahleWork is known for her soft-power politics. At her October 2018 inuguration, she explained her goal simply: “If the changes currently being made in Ethiopia are led by both men and women, their momentum will lead to an Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic or gender discrimination.”
BRITTA PEDERSEN/ZUMA PRESS/REA
David Adomakoh
Disruptor
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Njideka Akunyili Crosby Million-dollar marvel Nigeria/US
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A rising star on the art scene, Enugu-born artist Akunyili Crosby has grabbed the limelight for selling a painting last year for more than $3m. A late 2018 exhibition called ‘Counterparts’ highlighted her hybrid upbringing in Nigeria and later life in the United States. Her beautiful portraits bridge the gap between nostalgia for the present and living in the now.
Bola Tinubu Lagos legend Nigeria
Carlos Saturnino Crude prospects Angola
99
The oil industry veteran has been back in control of Angola’s economic engine room. With Saturnino in charge, state oil company Sonangol reported a turnover of $17.7bn in 2018. The powerful firm has stakes in other businesses, like telecoms operator UNITEL, giving Saturnino an oversized influence on the country’s growth trajectory. His new focus on marginal fields is boosting lagging production at a time when it is needed most.
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100 Bridgette Radebe Mining might
South Africa Radebe is one of South Africa’s bright lights in the mining sector and a deal-maker who opts to stay out of the spotlight. She also forms a power couple with her husband Jeff Radebe, who is energy minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government. She took over as chair of the Black Business Council in August of last year and serves as the president of the South African Mining Development Association.
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With President Muhammadu Buhari having stormed to re-election in February, governing All Progressives Congress godfather Tinubu is planning out his next chapter. Lagos, the commercial capital, is his bastion in the south-west. The Abuja rumour mill is already talking about the potential for Tinubu, 66, to run in 2023 when Buhari ends his second term. Young guns are pushing for younger people to get more involved in politics, but the old guard is putting up a fight.
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INSIDE BAYELSA /
BAYELSA
Change comes to the
STATE An auditorium at the University of Africa campus in Toru-Orua is taking shape
Delta
New projects are taking root in Bayelsa State, but the years of despoliation and false promises from governments and oil companies have left a legacy that will take generations to shake By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Photo reportage by KC NWAKALOR for TAR In the heart of the Niger Delta at Oloibiri there is an oil well – now rusting, with a steel cap screwed tightly over its head – that changed history. Oloibiri, in present day Bayelsa State, is the place where the Shell-British Petroleum consortium struck oil in 1956 after half a century of trying. Two years later, Nigeria’s first oil field came on-stream, gushing out 5,000 barrels per day. Within a couple of decades, the country was producing 2m barrels a day. In many ways, Oloibiri symbolises what went wrong with Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Today, the place has shrunk back into obscurity. A promise by oil companies and the central government to build a museum there has never been honoured. More importantly, the living conditions of many people around Oloibiri have scarcely improved although an industry that has generated more than $1trn started life in their community. Worse still, pollution caused by oil leaking into the creeks and swamplands has hobbled farming and fishing.
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INSIDE BAYELSA / Change comes to the Delta
Dealing with political unrest has gone hand-in-hand with investments in education, health, public service and logistics
That combination of stolen riches and environmental despoliation has haunted the people of the Niger Delta. With gas reserves of 18trn cubic feet, about a third of Nigeria’s total, and producing about a fifth of its oil, Bayelsa should be one of Africa’s growth poles, but politics has held it back. It comes down to a matter of resource control, insists Bayelsa’s governor, Henry Seriake Dickson: “We who have the resources are not in control. Some guy sitting in Abuja decides what happens to our resources and what we can do with them.” Frustrated by these contradictions over decades, angry youth confronted oil companies and government officials. Like many of its neighbours in the Niger Delta, Bayelsa was drawn into a low-level conflict pitting militants against police, soldiers and private security outfits.
Repairing the damage To a great extent, the state government in Yenagoa has put those times behind it since Dickson took power in 2012. Instead, technocrats, civil servants and officials have been piecing together a strategy to bring sustainable economic growth to the region as well as repair much of the environmental damage. That strategy has to work within the current constitutional rules which, much to Dickson’s frustration, limit the capacity of a state to launch its own resourcebased projects. While the authorities in Abuja have repeatedly shelved Bayelsa’s plan for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant near the Brass River, the national oil company has more than doubled production at the Onne LNG plant over the past two decades in neighbouring Rivers State. More than 50% of the gas feeding the Onne plant comes from Bayelsa. “If we had control over
our mineral rights, our resources, I would be in a position to lead the charge,” Dickson tells The Africa Report. “I would be advertising for investors in Brass [the LNG project] and we would have delivered three or four times over.” Lacking that control over the multibillion-dollar resource projects, Dickson’s government has focused on diversifying the economy and investing in services and logistics. Key to that is a trio of new projects: an eco-industrial city; a deep seaport at Agge on the Atlantic Ocean; and a gas-fired power hub. With an estimated cost of $100m, Bayelsa Eco-Industrial City is growing up on a 400ha plot in the state capital. Working with private service providers offering continuous power and water, the state government is looking for companies to invest in manufacturing and
New projects include an eco-industrial city, a deep seaport on the Atlantic Ocean and a gas-fired power hub
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processing, preferably using local raw materials. At the heart of the city would be a group of public-private ventures like a gas-gathering company and a power company. The city’s success will depend on how quickly the state government can navigate the federal bureaucracy to obtain the necessary licences and permits. It will also have to secure federal backing to use local gas production as feedstock for the city’s power company. Funkazi Koroye-Crooks, Bayelsa’s commissioner for trade and industry, says there has been a very positive investor response to the project.
Gas flare solution There is some way to go, as the main construction on the site will not start until all the regulatory approvals are in and a “robust financial model” has been finalised, says Koroye-Crooks. The logic of the power hub project to be built at Gbarantoru, whose first phase should generate some 1,200MW, is its location just 1km away from Shell’s gasgathering facility at Gbaran Ubie. That facility supplies gas to the LNG export plant at Onne and is also reducing the vast amount
government is doing its best, but there are still the usual challenges with light [supply] and roads. [...] I have seen light in my studio maybe five times this year.” Planning and determination are going to be critical in the next few years, says Iyabi. “We have to deliver on those three big projects, but we also have to get the climate right.” By that, Iyabi means politics and security.
‘Less anger’
of gas flared in the region. Flaring both wastes energy and damages the environment. Building the power hub so close to the gas facility obviates the need for a long and expensive pipeline. Work has already started on the Agge port, which is in the vast estuary of the River Niger, the second-longest river in Africa which curls into the West African hinterland. Engineers from the Nigerian army and navy have surveyed the area, and have begun building a facility to provide security for the port. The Agge port will have a wharf, shipyard, back-up stock yard and oil storage tanks, as well as several multipurpose berths for fitting out ships, engineering work and general repairs. It will be the deepest port in the country. With ports at Apapa, Calabar and Port Harcourt overstretched, the government wants to develop Agge into the country’s most modern service centre for the oil and gas industry. French contractor Bolloré has joined discussions about the project, which could take two years to build. Duate Iyabi, an economic adviser to Dickson, says the state is now on an accelerated growth path.
40 km
Sagbama Yenagoa Kolokuma/ Opokuma
Ekeremor
Ogbia Southern Ijaw Nembe Brass
QUICK FACTS ABOUT BAYELSA POPULATION
2.5 MILLION NIGERIA’S ONSHORE CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION
40%
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
30.36%
FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX RANKING FOR NIGERIA
3RD POSITION
(Q3 2017)
LAND AREA
9,415.8 KM2
GAS RESERVES
18 TRILLION CUBIC FEET
(largest in Nigeria)
SOURCE: BAYELSA STATE GOVT/NAT BUREAU OF STATISTICS
“Ten years ago, the state wasn’t connected to the national grid, the roads were few and far between, big areas were accessible only by the creeks.” There are still complaints. Soibomari Dagana, a young fashion entrepreneur, explains: “The
Bayelsa is growing out of its reputation for instability and bad governance. According to Boma Spero-Jack, security adviser to Dickson, dealing with the crime and political unrest has gone handin-hand with the new investments in education and health. “There are more opportunities and better public services, so less anger,” says Spero-Jack. “But we have a lot of catching up to do. Many companies left the state during the years of criminality and conflict.” Although state governments cannot run their own police forces, they can set up small security units such as Spero-Jack’s Doo Akpo force. This unit, which bought 12 patrol boats and hundreds of fourwheel-drive vehicles, claims to have arrested more than 8,500 crime suspects and answered 39,000 distress calls since it was founded in 2012, when Dickson came in. However necessary such a unit may be, the question of security reform is ever more urgent. Many officials in states such as Bayelsa resent the diktats on security from the centre, particularly the imposition of police chiefs. Claiming there has been a marked fall-off in oil theft, SperoJack concludes that a security strategy without political vision will not work. “We had to persuade our people that we were serious about development and investment […] and it’s beginning to work.”
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INSIDE BAYELSA /
INTERVIEW
Henry Seriake Dickson ‘Bayelsa needs more control of its resources’ The governor of Bayelsa State talks to The Africa Report about the tug-of-war between federal and state government over development of the oil-rich Niger Delta Interview by PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s political soubriquet – ‘Ofuruma Pepe’, which translates as ‘Great White Shark’ – seems at odds with his public image as a conciliator and dealmaker. Dickson insists the simile refers to his political toughness rather than physical ferocity: he has swum against the tide and taken on the status quo. In fact, he takes a pride in having been written off by so many different players across the political spectrum. Many expected him to lose power in 2016 when he stood for re-election as governor of Bayelsa State on the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket. Dickson confounded those predictions and is now looking at his options as his term comes to an end – whether to return to his legal practice in the Niger Delta or to stay in politics and contest power at the national level, for the Senate or perhaps the presidency.
Henry Seriake Dickson: There is a lot of room for improvement in the quality of political leadership in the country. When this phase of our democracy started, people were more concerned about what they wanted the country to look like. They were far more idealistic, nationalistic and [thinking] in terms of getting our country back into
TAR: Politicians have a really poor reputation in Nigeria. How do you assess the quality of the country’s political leadership?
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BAYELSA BOUND 28 January 1966 Born in Toru-Orua 1993 Bachelor in Law from the Nigerian Law School; called to the Bar 1996 Founded his chambers in Port Harcourt 2006-7 Attorney-general of Bayelsa State 2007 Elected to Nigeria's house of representatives for the PDP 2011 Re-elected to the national assembly 14 February 2012 Elected governor of Bayelsa State
civilian rule and democratic governance. These days people talk more about winning elections. So people have not lived long enough under a democracy, learning what I call the essential tools of political service. If we are able to improve on the quality of the electoral process, then over time we’re going to see more people coming into political service for the right reasons. But right now it’s a free-for-all, and it’s quite disturbing. How well does the federal system work in your state? You’re a member of the PDP, which is in opposition to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. This is the first time my state has been in this situation where we’re in a party that’s different from the party that controls the centre. In the 2016 state elections in Bayelsa, the president and his party deployed all the federal arsenal at their disposal, fairly and unfairly against me. They were not being gracious enough even to acknowledge my victory or congratulate me. There’s not enough acknowledgement by the centre of the need for collaboration on things such as security. I believe that the first duty of those of us in government is to collaborate on law and order, and security. Since 2015, there has been direct federal interference with the security architecture of my state. You support calls to restructure Nigeria. What does that mean in practical terms? It is the need for Bayelsa to have more control of our mineral
resources and wealth. We don’t have to apologise to anybody that we’re endowed with so much wealth. We want to utilise this for the development of our people. When we had independence in 1960, the arrangement that was fashioned at the time was for regions that had resources to keep them and to pay tax. But, you know, the military came and changed all
‘THERE’S NOT ENOUGH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY THE CENTRE OF THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION’
JACQUES TORREGANO/CEO FORUM/JA
that. So when we say restructuring in the economic sense, we mean a return to where we were, and that would give us the freedom in a state like Bayelsa to develop these resources. For example, on power: Why should I be running to the federal government for licences to use our gas resources to generate power? The growth of our country is stifled by over-centralisation. So it’s about how the oil and gas revenues are shared out by the government in Abuja? It’s about our right to manage and control the pace of our development. We produce all of this, and I have to wait every month for 13% [of total government revenues] to be paid over, which is grossly inadequate. It’s what the cabal in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] decides. The NNPC is the real government of Nigeria, even Buhari has not been able to break the grip of the NNPC. That would mean radical change in the state oil company, NNPC.
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INSIDE BAYELSA / Henry Seriake Dickson
Seriake Dickson introduced free boarding schools to counter the drift into militancy
Do you want to see it sold off to the private sector? What I support is an end to the fraud, an end to the cabal and the criminal manipulation of the wealth of this country, and centralised control. In the Niger Delta, our understanding is more than privatisation; we are talking about control. Control of the resources, not federal control. It could be the states, it could be communities. We can discuss the right model. But federal control has impoverished our people […]. I keep telling everybody that what all of you call oil blocks in Abuja and in all major capitals of the world are the ancestral properties of the people of the Niger Delta. What about the role of Nigerian oil companies? Benedict Peters’ Aiteo bought OML 29 from Shell, and the Bayelsa State government failed in its bid to buy some equity. How has that worked out? I feel very bad about that. The Bayelsa State government never was given an opportunity to manage that oil block, which is the single biggest oil asset in our country. Benedict Peters doesn’t have anything to do with us; he doesn’t want anything to do with this state. That’s the attitude of all the oil companies, local or foreign. They rely on the federal government that
‘AITEO, AGIP […] THESE GUYS ARE GOING TO HAVE A MAFIA-LIKE HOLD ON THIS STATE’ has given them the licences. They rely on federal security to oppress the locals. Since he got that oil block, Benedict Peters has not even come to the state. […] We read in the newspapers about the billions he’s spending supporting different federal causes […] but he’s not concerned about what happens to our state. Our not being in control has created an additional problem, which is actually a bigger problem, of security in the state. Aiteo, Agip, all of them, the security and surveillance contracts they give, the criminals they work with and so on… If care is not taken in the next couple of years, these guys are going to have a mafia-like hold on this state because of the resources they have and the mafia-like way they relate to criminal elements. What is the security position in Bayelsa State now? How did it change after the upsurge of militancy in 2016?
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Everyone in this state knows how seriously this government takes security, and we have built systems on the community level – with the youth leaders, community leaders – and then we support the work that the security men and women do in our state. That has made Bayelsa one of the most stable states. We are maintaining robust contacts with all the people and the young militants. You are devoting a lot of resources to education. How is that working out? Education is not just about preparing young people to be productive tomorrow, but there is also a social purpose. Where we lose the young people in this country is at that stage that they ought to be in secondary school. We want to reduce the number that will be wielding AK-47 rifles. We’ve got about 10,000 children in free boarding schools. This is the only state that runs free secondary boarding schools. What about political life after the governorship? Will you go into national politics, running for the senate or the presidency? I haven’t given any serious thought to the next steps. For now I’m concentrating on my work in this remaining lap.
RESOURCES & INSTITUTIONS
Agge Deep Sea Port
Sugar cane
Plantain / Banana
Raffia palm
Clay / Sand
Salt production
Cassava
Timber / Wood
Rice
Oil Palm
Fishery
Rubber
Oil / Gas
Cococnut
DELTA STATE
University of Africa Niger Delta University Amassoma
Eco Industrial Park
Ekeremor
Port
Airport
Eco Industrial City
Heliport
Cassava Processing Plant Ebedebiri Poultry
Asamabiri
SAGBAMA MA A
Sagbama Ebedebiri Toru Orua
KOLOKUMA OPOKUMA Kaiama
Gbarain
Ijaw National Academy
Ecumenical Center
YENAGOA NAGOA Yenagoa
EKEREMOR OR
OGBIA OGB BIA
Government House State Secretariat Castle Hotel Bayelsa Medical University Investment Towers Sports Complex
Oporoma
Federal University Otueke
RIVERS STATE
i Ogbia
SOUTHERN IJAW
Federal Polytechnic Ekowe
Ol i Oloibiri
NEMBE
Nigeria
Nembe
BRASS
Brass
INSIDE BAYELSA /
INTERVIEW
Warmate Jones Idikio ‘People tell me that soon crude oil will be useless’ The director general of the Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce talks to The Africa Report about economic diversification and the business climate in Bayelsa State Interview by EROMO EGBEJULE in Yenagoa TAR: What is the main role of the chamber of commerce here? We have done a lot of advocacy […] seeking synergy between the private sector, the chamber and government with regard to policy. People here are not as businesssavvy as in Lagos. We have predominantly small enterprises. The idea is to ensure they grow into medium, then large enterprises. We also ensure that big-ticket businesses worldwide see Bayelsa State as a destination for investment. What are the prospects in agriculture and fisheries as Bayelsa tries to diversify away from oil and gas? Bayelsa has one of the longest coastlines in Nigeria and about 13 rivers that criss-cross the state. That gives us a huge potential for aquaculture. [One of] our members has several hectares of plantain plantation – there are off-takers of the primary produce who turn that into plantain powder for amala
[a starchy food]. We are [also] trying to see how fish oil can be extracted and used in pharmaceuticals. What future do you see for the state’s oil production and its byproducts? People tell me that soon crude oil will be useless. So what do we do? One of the largest plastic production companies in this country is in the east, Innoson Industries. And where does it get its raw materials? The petrochemical plant in Rivers State. Why can’t we create wealth in the interim with available things? Oil may never be in such high demand as it used to, but the value chain will still be useful in future. Two projects have stagnated over the last few years: Brass LNG and Brass Fertilizer [BFPCL]. How are you trying to untangle whatever wires have crossed? Brass LNG is a federal government project involving oil majors, to process gas for export. Such projects have a huge financial outlay. Between 1999 and 2007,
a lot was done to ensure that it took off, but it stalled because one of the key investment partners pulled out to invest in a competing project. We are lobbying to ensure that key players understand its importance because Bayelsa produces almost 60% of Nigeria’s total exported gas. The state government has taken up some 10% equity in Brass Fertilizer […] the major problem is financing. Stakeholders need to be primed to help synergise and fund it. We have gone beyond a threshold where Brass Fertilizer can take off. For instance, it’s been able to acquire land and that’s a huge leap forward. So, it’s just a matter of time before it takes off. How has political will helped create an enabling environment for businesses? Political will has been stronger from 2012. For example, [there’s been work on] a network of roads planned in the 1970s that runs all the way to one of the fringe local government areas near Delta State. In that area, you have the Agge Deep Sea Port. The port in Lagos was instrumental in making the city what it is today. […] Agge Deep Sea Port, which is the deepest in Nigeria, will also provide that kind of growth for Bayelsa.
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EDUCATION
From Timbuktu to Toru-Orua Two institutions offer young people an education without distractions, ties to future employers and a chance to avoid the criminality rife in the Niger Delta’s creeks By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenegoa, Kaiama and Toru-Orua Kaiama is the spiritual headquarters of the Ijaw people. It is the birthplace of Major Isaac Adaka Boro, who declared the Niger Delta People’s Republic in 1966, a bold statement of independence for the region a year before the country was dragged into a devastating civil war in which he lost his life. That is why the Ijaw Youth Council chose Kaiama to make their landmark declaration in December 1998 demanding local control of the land and mineral resources, after decades of plunder and environmental damage by successive federal governments and transnational companies. Kaiama is also the home of the Ijaw National Academy, one of the best public secondary schools in the state with 1,100 students. It launched operations in 2017.
Little support The academy is at the vanguard of another struggle, to equip the next generation of Bayelsans to modernise and develop the state. It is also the flagship for Bayelsa’s policy of free and compulsory secondary education, one of the only states in the federation to commit resources to that cause. Bayelsa gets little support from the federal government in this endeavour. It has to finance the entire cost of secondary education
in the state and 80% of the cost of primary education. This stretches the N23bn ($64m) that the state is budgeting for education this year. That is just over 10% of its statutory allocation from central government. In the middle of Kaiama, the Ijaw National Academy is expanding fast, with new teaching blocks and dormitories under construction. The aim is to have 3,000 students and maintain its policy of a strict 50:50 gender balance. There are four laboratories for chemistry, physics, biology and nutrition as well as a couple of libraries. According to Bayelsa State education commissioner Jonathan Obuebite, 96% of graduating students passed the last West African Examinations Council with five subject credits, including maths and English. Convening a lively school assembly meeting of hundreds of students during a visit by a reporter from The Africa Report, Obuebite asked the students what they wanted to do after graduation. Back came a cacophony
The aim is to have 3,000 students and maintain a 50:50 gender balance
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of enthusiastic answers: doctor, lawyer, engineer, tech pioneer, chemist, journalist. Obuebite enthusiastically defends the boarding school system in the state: “We’re bringing all the children together in these schools regardless of background […] They’re getting an education without distractions.” Poorer families, says Obuebite, would often take their children out of school to work on farms or fishing boats. The mission is to offer more than academic education, he says: “We’re trying to build social cohesion and break the culture of criminality that you can find in the creeks.” For years, local politicians and crime bosses have preyed on youths living on the margins
Working with the community and business is the ethos of the university, explains Samuel Agele, dean of the faculty of agriculture and a professor of crop physiology. The faculty is setting up a cassava processing plant to produce 50tn of industrial starch per year. This involves working closely with local farmers on inputs and cropping, as well as adapting manufacturing technology to local conditions.
Ijaw National Academy, one of Bayelsa’s best public schools
Funding research
in the Niger Delta’s labyrinthine networks of creeks, offering them pocket money to join gangs of thugs. Each election season brought a wave of violence sponsored by rival parties. That should now be consigned to the past, says Obuebite.
Higher education Many older students at the academy are looking at the next stage of the journey: the University of Africa, which opened its doors to students two years ago in Bayelsa. Under vice-chancellor Valentine Aletor and his team of academics, it has four faculties: agriculture, arts and education, basic and applied sciences, and social and management sciences.
There is also a school of foundation studies to prepare school students specialising in arts or sciences with intensive computer training, before they begin full-time degree courses. The main campus opened last year at Toru-Orua, governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s hometown, and its goals of “innovation and sustainability” reflect his thinking on the curriculum and funding. Although Nigeria has 160 universities, their intake is just over a third of the 1.5 million students who apply every year. Apart from the lack of places, the biggest concerns are the standards of tuition and the relevance of courses, according to professors Olatunji Oyelana and Hassan Oikhenan.
Such agro-industrial projects, run under the auspices of the university, bring in investment from business and vital funding for the academic programmes. It also means that students have a much better sense of the world of work and develop ties to future employers, says Yerindideke Konyefa, the bursar. Business sponsorship is key to the funding model of the University of Africa, but other strategies should be considered, Turner Isoun, an eminent environmental scientist and former Nigerian minister of science and technology, told the university’s first matriculation ceremony last year. For example, the federal government should allocate $1bn from oil revenue to finance scientific research and innovation directly through Nigeria’s universities. Beyond money, Isoun urged the university to aim high. It already has the target of getting into the top 10 of the country’s 160 ranked universities within five years. Bayelsa’s newest university could take inspiration from another pioneering institution in West Africa: the University of Timbuktu, which a millennium ago had a student population of 25,000 in a city of 100,000. Students came from all corners of Africa in search of learning in the ancient city and produced advanced works on mathematics, medicine and law.
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INSIDE BAYELSA /
AGRICULTURE
Feeding frenzy in the Niger Delta The government and private investors are backing projects to set up fish farms and to produce more staple crops, like cassava By EROMO EGBEJULE in Yenagoa Bayelsa State is a textbook example of the resource curse and the ills of an oil-backed economy. Agriculture has been a primary casualty, and despite the fertile soils, its rainforest and savannah climate, the production of staple root crops such as cassava has been badly hit. The state’s mangrove swamps and networks of creeks define its landscape, but it is onshore oil wells and gas pipelines that have dominated the economy at terrible human cost. Although the state produces over a fifth of Nigeria’s gas – the country has the ninth biggest reserves in the world – the population suffers from poverty and violent militancy. Over the past 50 years, millions of barrels of oil have leached into the creeks and farmland, destroying livelihoods and poisoning the water table. Also, much of the oil revenue stayed in the centre. Of the little that dripped into the state treasury, vast sums were hijacked by kleptocrat politicians while only the small change was invested in schools, clinics and roads. Now the Bayelsa government wants to launch a “cassava revolution”, says Doodei Week,
The first Bayelsa Aquaculture Village in Yenegwe, Yenagoa
the state’s commissioner of agriculture. “We want to industrialise cassava […] because we have to create jobs through the production of by-products like cassava flour, tapioca, starch,” Week tells The Africa Report in Yenagoa. “Every day, starch buyers go to the Central Bank of Nigeria to change dollars. Look at how we are dispensing hard currency we don’t even have!”
Crop improvement For decades, farmers in Bayelsa lacked almost any technological support such as improved crop and livestock varieties and extension services. The state government has made setting up a starch mill with an output of 60tn per day a top priority to kickstart the sector. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with a Danish firm to build a quasi-industrial farm linked to a network of smallholders and off-takers to boost Bayelsa’s self-sufficiency in food production.
1,500
Number of jobs the state intends to create through its aquaculture strategy: one complex in each local-government area.
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Bayelsa officials say the government is on the brink of signing a deal with private companies and the central bank to establish a 50,000ha oil-palm plantation, of which 1,500ha has already been concessioned. “We have earmarked land for it, done preliminary surveys […]. As soon as funds are provided, we’ll go into it,” says Weeks. “Once we get that right, then Bayelsa becomes the next Malaysia.” Such investments should be major revenue earners for the state when the oil and gas revenue dry up, argues Weeks. Elsewhere, the government is also fishing for support to take advantage of its swampland, including reaching out to Israeli firms to establish high-technology fish farms. “You cannot leave agriculture for government alone. It cannot be sustainable,” Weeks says. The first Bayelsa Aquaculture Village, a 500-pond complex in Yenegwe, is operating on a self-financing basis complete with processing facilities, feed mills and a restaurant. Two others are under construction. The grand plan is to build at least one aquaculture complex in each of the state’s eight local-government areas and create at least 1,500 direct jobs.
HEALTH
The hospital that rose from the dead The Bayelsa Teaching Hospital and Medical University will be a feather in the state’s cap for its public and private healthcare, forensics, education and research By EROMO EGBEJULE and PATRICK SMITH in Yenagoa Drive through downtown Yenagoa and you cannot miss the new 500-bed teaching hospital and Bayelsa Medical University that is emerging alongside the gleaming new banks, hotels and state government offices. Strictly speaking, says Professor Ebitimitula Etebu, Bayelsa’s health commissioner, the “newness” of the hospital should be qualified. The expansive hospital was built more than 16 years ago during the governorship of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and state-of-theart medical equipment was flown in and installed. But Alamieyeseigha was arrested and impeached for money laundering in 2005. His successors had no appetite for completing the project. That is until governor Henry Seriake Dickson took over in 2012 and started working with Etebu to revive the project. In 2017, governor Dickson proposed the hospital should become a centre of excellence for medical treatment, teaching and research.
vice-chancellor. An ambitious project, complete with nine faculties, it aims to attract students from across Nigeria and West Africa. Bayelsa Medical University, which signed a training agreement with the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the US, is to take over the management of the 500-bed hospital. Like many of Dickson’s new projects, it will seek to raise funds from commercial operations, such as fees charged to private patients, as well as offering healthcare, financed out of the state budget, to Bayelsa citizens.
The forensic unit is the only one in Nigeria equipped to do both DNA and forensic tests
Within the Diagnostic Centre in the heart of the university is a state-of-the-art forensic unit. Its high-tech equipment can be used to check exhibits and evidence in electoral disputes and rape cases. The drug enforcement agency could also rely on its verification and analysis of contraband substances, says Oye Onifade, a veteran lawyer who heads the unit. “Election tribunals haven’t had much input from local labs, and we could replace the foreign labs they patronise,” adds Onifade. “We are talking to the attorney general of the state about plans to partition the office to have two prosecutors stationed there to handle child molestation cases,” Onifade says. Like Lagos, Bayelsa plans to set up special courts working in tandem with the forensic unit to expedite what could be a long list of cases, improve access to justice and serve as a deterrent to other possible offenders.
The Diagnostics Centre contains a full-scale forensic unit
International reach Dressed in an elegant chieftain’s light brown robe, Etebu looks determined to see the project through as he shows visitors around the hospital’s refurbished wards and operating theatres. Most of the rehabilitation work has been done and the builders are putting the final touches on the living quarters for the nursing and other medical staff. Adjacent to the main hospital is Bayelsa Medical University, at which Etebu is acting
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LOGISTICS DOSSIER
Landlocked
blues
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Ethiopia has high hopes for manufacturing and exports, but the country will not be competitive until it solves its logistical problems. To that end, the state is starting to liberalise the sector
Hawassa Industrial Park is a flagship facility for the textile industry
NICHOLE SOBECKI/VII/REDUX-REA
By TOM GARDNER in Addis Ababa In January, it emerged that Ethiopian exports had once again disappointed, undershooting the government’s six-month target of $1.96bn by nearly 40%. It was a sobering reminder that, for all Ethiopia’s rapid, state-led growth over the past decade, exports have consistently shown few signs of improvement. “Logistics is the number-one bugbear for anyone in exports and manufacturing,” says Graham Parrott, head of strategy at Ethiopia Investments Limited, which invests in local businesses. His words are echoed by many exporters, who say this challenge is rivalled only by the shortage of foreign exchange. The figures are telling. To transport a 20ft container of garments from Ethiopia to Germany costs 247% more than from Vietnam and 72% more than from Bangladesh. In 2016, Ethiopia scored 2.37 in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index – significantly lower than neighbouring Uganda, which is also landlocked. The country ranked 159th out of 190 in the World Bank’s Doing Business index in 2018; Uganda came 127th. In key export sectors, such as textiles, speed is essential to competitiveness. Slow and expensive imports, meanwhile, are bad for all businesses. According to Daniel Zemichael, chief executive
of Freighters International, a local logistics company, goods take an average of 20-30 days to reach an Ethiopian customer from the port in neighbouring Djibouti. A 20ft container costs an average of $2,660 to import from its source to Ethiopia. “This is probably one of the most expensive corridors in the world,” says Serge Tiran of Massida Group, another logistics firm.
Mojo rising The government has made improving logistics a priority. A $2.5bn, 750km railway connecting Addis Ababa with the port in Djibouti launched last year and should cut a three-day journey down to 12 hours. In an ambitious road-building programme flagship projects include a 200km expressway connecting Hawassa, home to the country’s largest industrial park, with the capital. Two years ago, the government signed a $150m World Bank project to transform Mojo, a poorly equipped and heavily congested dry port near Addis Ababa that processes more than 70% of imported containers, into a state-ofthe-art logistics facility. Meanwhile, Addis is helping a Dutch consortium, Flying Swans, to set up a cold chain along the railway to the coast. With the appointment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last April, logistics reform shifted up a gear. The new administration’s roadmap,
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ESLSE’s monopoly Reform will need to address several bottlenecks. One is ESLSE itself, which was formed in 2012 as a merger between three state-owned entities with poor track records. The goal was to rationalise and streamline the sector, but despite posting substantial profits – $111m in 2016-2017 – ESLSE has been plagued with inefficiencies. According to a study of horticulture firms by Arkebe Oqubay, special adviser to Abiy, two-thirds of companies said ESLSE services were poor. Firms complain in particular about its monopoly of imports by sea. Manufacturers and
LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE INDEX (LPI) FOR ETHIOPIA (1 is low, 4 is high) 4 2007
2010
2012
2014
2016
3
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
‘Ethiopia: a New Horizon of Hope’, states that it aims to cut import and export transit times in half by 2020 and reduce the average length of time imported goods spend in dry ports to only two days. It also plans to increase to 90% the coverage of general cargo carried by ‘multimodal’ transport – the theoretically more efficient system currently monopolised by the state-owned Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE). Abiy has also accelerated the sector’s liberalisation. In September last year, his administration announced logistics would be opened up to foreign investors for the first time, in the form of joint ventures with local firms. A bill authorising this is expected soon. Abiy’s government wants to attract at least $120m of foreign direct investment into the sector by 2021. Meanwhile, ESLSE is to be part-privatised, and the state railway company, the Ethiopian Railway Corporation, restructured then fully privatised. “They’re really hearing us – this is a first,” says Teodros Abraham, chief executive of CLS Logistics Services and vice-president of the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders & Shipping Agents Association.
2
1
LPI
Customs
Infrastructure
International shipments
exporters regularly experience delayed deliveries, as ESLSE has only a limited number of vessels capable of calling at all ports of origin. Some studies have indicated that ESLSE’s monopoly may increase shipping costs by 30-50%. Many Ethiopian companies simply establish sister companies in Djibouti in order to avoid using it. Yared Sertse, general manager of Shayashone, a local consultancy and manufacturer, says that in Jakarta, from where he imports water filters, ESLSE only has an agent. The agent sends the cargo onwards to Singapore, where it is collected by ESLSE and transported to Djibouti. He is prevented from using an international shipping line like Maersk, which can ship direct from Jakarta. “It’s like one week versus four weeks,” he says. A related problem is the multimodal transport system introduced in 2012. The system – which enables both sea and land legs of a journey to be carried out under a
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56%
of customers were disassisfied with ESLSE’s overall delivery performance in a 2015 study on the multimodal system in Ethiopia
Logistics competence
Tracking & tracing
Timeliness
single contract – has been effective in many countries. However in Ethiopia, where only ESLSE is licensed to do it, there have been significant teething problems. Containers have sometimes proved impossible to trace and shipments often took longer than under the previous system.
Red tape Bureaucracy also needs to be streamlined. A World Bank report in 2016 said that customs clearance required up to 103 procedures and about 21 documents. Shayashone’s Yared says he had a container of water filters stuck in Mojo dry port for three months last year, costing him $2,500 in fees. “I bought all the documents, and they still couldn’t decide,” he recalls. The government’s goal over the next couple of years is to launch a customs single window service and to computerise the whole system. “The reforms seem promising, but not yet tangible,” says Yared. “There is a sound vision at the top, but the civil servant mentality is still a controlling mentality.” There are also doubts around the liberalisation agenda. The joint-venture model – which caps foreign ownership at 49% – may not be attractive to large multinationals.
There are many private logistics firms in Ethiopia, but most are small, with only one or two clients. Privatisation of the railway, which has been beset with problems, might also prove problematic. Only a small number of big companies are currently using it for exports, in part because the line does not yet reach the dock in Djibouti and there are no trunk lines to industrial zones, dry ports and depots. Moreover, rail rates are not yet competitive with trucks. Towards the end of 2018, China extended the debt repayment period for the railway from 10 to 30 years – possibly because Ethiopia had failed to start paying back the loans. Completion of another line connecting to the northern city of Mekele has stalled because China’s Exim Bank is wary of financing it. Perhaps the biggest bottleneck of all is the port of Djibouti [see box]. It is small and congested, especially when the Ethiopian government procures bulk imports like wheat, sugar and fertiliser. Freighters International’s Daniel says it is around 70% more expensive than other ports in the region. Gizeshwork Tessema of Gize PLC, another local firm, puts it bluntly: “It’s the most difficult part of the supply chain.”
Ports of possibility High-tempo port diplomacy characterised the early days of Abiy Ahmed’s premiership last year. All Ethiopia’s seaboard neighbours received entreaties, starting with Djibouti in May. An agreement struck between Abiy and his Djiboutian counterpart, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, promised joint development of the latter’s maritime facilities: Ethiopia will take a stake in the port of Djibouti while Djibouti will have the option of taking stakes in state-owned Ethiopian firms. The following month Ethiopia announced plans with Somalia to invest jointly in four sea ports. Trips to Sudan and Kenya were followed by similar announcements, while a deal with the Emirati state-owned port operator DP World and the government of Somaliland made Ethiopia a minority shareholder in Berbera port.
A bigger game-changer was the rapprochement with Eritrea in July. The deal struck between Abiy and President Isaias Afwerki included restoring Ethiopian access to the ports of Massawa and Assab. In September, an Ethiopian vessel docked at Massawa for the first time in 20 years, though it is Assab – only 887km from Addis Ababa and close to large potash deposits in northern Ethiopia – that will be most important to the Ethiopian economy. “Our natural gateway has always been Assab,” says Teodros Abraham of Ethiopia’s CLS Logistics Services. Yet neither is currently fit for purpose. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which both played a role in the diplomatic thaw, are said to have promised funding to refurbish them, and the World Bank will likely chip in. But it will take
at least two years to get Assab ready for Ethiopian shipments, including installing a yard capable of receiving containerised cargo. As it stands, Assab is suitable only for the Emirati military vessels that have been using it as a base since 2015. “Yes, Assab is an option – but not now,” says Serge Tiran of logistics firm Massida Group. “Nothing is ready.” In the long-term, diversification will be good for Ethiopia. Competition should bring down prices in Djibouti. The prospect of rivals already seems to have jolted the country into action: after years of Ethiopian badgering, port working hours now include a full day on Thursday. More importantly, new ports mean Ethiopia will have other options if Djibouti runs into trouble. “An economy like Ethiopia cannot be dependent on one corridor,” says Teodros.
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ZHOU XIAOXIONG/XINHUA/SIPA
A new Ethiopia-Djibouti railway should cut a three-day journey down to 12 hours
LOGISTICS DOSSIER /
PORTS OF CALL April 1965 Born
CMPORT
1986 Earned a bachelor’s degree from Tianjin University in port and channel engineering April 2015 Promoted to general manager of CMPort
INTERVIEW
Jingtao Bai
June 2015 Appointed managing director of CMPort 2016 Named deputy chairman of Dalian Port Company
‘Investment is not limited to ports’ The director general of China Merchants Port Holdings talks about exporting the Port-Park-City model created in the Chinese city of Shekou to Africa By JULIEN WAGNER and OLIVIER CASLIN for Jeune Afrique Big state-run conglomerates like China Merchants Group (CMG) – which is active in the ports, banking and insurance sectors – are at the forefront of China’s Africa policy. Through its control of China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPort) and other entities, CMG is China’s biggest port operator. It manages 36 terminals in 18 countries. Three of the ports are in Africa, where CMPort has been active since 2007. It took control of Nigeria’s Tin-Can
Island Container Terminal (TICT) in that year and then took minority stakes in ports at Lomé in 2012 and Djibouti in 2013. Also in CMG’s orbit is the operator Terminal Link, after purchasing a 49% stake from France’s CMA CGM in 2013. That gives the conglomerate indirect stakes in projects in Tangier, Casablanca and Abidjan. Amidst tough competition from players like Bolloré, APM Terminals and DP World, CMPort won two of the
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most sought-after port concessions on the continent: those at Nigeria’s Lekki and the planned Bagamoyo port in Tanzania. CMPort is said to be in the race to buy a stake in Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise (see page 138), which would expand the port company’s business by giving it the ownership of a dozen ships used for Ethiopia’s imports and exports. That would strengthen CMG’s role in Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to build trade and infrastructure ties
LOGISTICS DOSSIER / Jingtao Bai
between China, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. TAR: What is your role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative? Jingtao Bai: We consider ourselves the natural executor of the Belt and Road Initiative. In recent years, we have actively expanded business along the Belt and Road countries, and have become an important participant and promoter of the Belt and Road Initiative. Djibouti seems to play a large role in your plans. Why is that? Djibouti is located at the mouth of the Red Sea, which is very close to the major Asia-Europe shipping route and is an important gateway port for the hinterland countries within the region. The importance of its geographical location gives it the potential to become a regional shipping centre. Our investment in Djibouti is not limited to ports but also an international free trade zone and urban development, called the Shekou Port-Park-City (PPC) comprehensive development model. What would be the impact, for your activities in Djibouti, of the next arrival of modern deepwater ports in Berbera or Massawa?
‘WE HAVE ALREADY RECOVERED ALL OUR INVESTMENTS’
Nigeria through direct links to the main motorways in the city and its industrial centres, as well as exploring waterways transport, so as to promote the development of local foreign trade […] With our continuous efforts, we have already recovered all our investments by the year 2017, which fully proved our foresight and validity in investing in TICT […] Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, with the potential of replicating the PPC model. We will explore this possibility at a suitable time in the future.
We are aware of the construction of other ports within the region. However, we believe that Djibouti port has its absolute advantages in terms of location, facilities and service quality. Moreover, it is costly for customers to reshuffle the shipping routes to the other ports. We have great confidence in Djibouti’s port business.
Do you worry that the Togolese market is too small for your operations there? Lomé Container Terminal (LCT) is the only deepwater port in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa […] Its maximum design capacity can reach up to 2.2 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) per year […] LCT resumed the ramp-up momentum and recorded a substantial growth of 36.1% year-on-year to 0.49m TEUs in the first half of 2018. The economy of West Africa is expected to continue to rebound in 2018 alongside the increase of oil prices and other basic materials, which will create a favourable environment for LCT to continue the ramp-up.
What are your expectations and ambitions in Nigeria? TICT is the most efficient container terminal in Lagos, offering services to 14 shipping companies calling in Lagos. After CMPort invested in TICT, we made an overall evaluation and made a major investment in facilities and equipment, which has significantly improved the terminal productivity. TICT employs about 610 staff, with the goal of turning TICT into the most efficient terminal in
VINCENT FOURNIER/JA
CMG plans to turn Djibouti’s port into a major shipping hub
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The media have talked a lot about the Hambantota port deal, a 99-year lease signed in July 2017 with the Sri Lankan authorities to address its debt to China after the port did not attract the business to repay the loan. Would this kind of deal be possible in Africa? Our investment in Hambantota is entirely based on commercial considerations. It is a publicprivate partnership project jointly developed with the port authority of Sri Lanka and has nothing to do with debt relief. At the same time, our investment in Africa is also completely business driven.
LOGISTICS DOSSIER /
AIRLINES
The flag carrier is suffering, and even its own optimistic predictions do not call for a return to profitability for at least the next two years
SAA estimates it has the funds to keep running until June 2019
By HONORÉ BANDA With billions of dollars in debt and a record of opaque decisions and political interference, government-owned national carrier South African Airways (SAA) is under threat. Reforming SAA and other parastatals puts President Cyril Ramaphosa in a tight squeeze: the economy is suffering and investors want to see improvements in that area, but the governing African National Congress’s leftist base is opposed to job cuts and privatisations, and national elections are planned for May. SAA chief executive Vuyani Jarana, who was a veteran senior executive at telecoms company Vodacom, has the task of managing SAA’s multi-year turnaround. That means improving the company’s supply contracts, possibly selling off subsidiaries like Air Chefs and cutting loss-making routes. He told local media: “We are going to review the business model and ask: ‘What are the things we can do that we can be great at, and what are the things we are not great at that we can let go?” Jarana’s goal is to make the company profitable by 2021, as the firm has been making losses and relying on government bailouts since 2011. The government upped
SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS
Saving South African Airways
its guarantees for SAA in the 2019 State of the Nation address given by Ramaphosa in February. SAA estimates that it has the funds to keep running until June of this year, but it is likely to need more government money and to roll over its commercial bank loans due this year in order to move forward with its plans.
Early days Reorganisation is the name of the main game. Jarana announced in February that SAA will split its internal operations into three parts to make the company more nimble in its main areas of focus: the domestic, regional and international markets. But analysts like Wits University’s Jannie Rossouw warn that changes to the way SAA manages the unpredictability of fuel prices and its wage bill will need to be addressed for the government’s current plans to be fruitful. If SAA enters a better
The firm has been making losses and relying on government bailouts since 2011
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glide path, the government might consider selling some of its stake in the company on the stock market to raise more funds. But the early days are showing that it will be difficult to keep the government on message. In October, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan announced that SAA does not have the means to launch any new routes. In November 2018, finance minister Tito Mboweni said SAA should be shut down. Then on a trip to India in January 2019, President Ramaphosa said that SAA should relaunch its flights from Johannesburg to Mumbai. Former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan told the Zondo Commission, which is investigating ‘state capture’ by private interests, that SAA was pressured to drop the India route for the benefit of people connected to former president Jacob Zuma – a claim that they deny. Making SAA run like a company – as state-run Ethiopian Airlines has shown can be possible and profitable – rather than a strategic state asset or a source of patronage will take the buy-in of the wider government, SAA’s senior leadership and the workers who make sure that the planes fly on time.
FOCUSING ON AFRICA Lands of plenty Lands of contrasts Lands of opportunities
From the stoneage to the future
AVAILABLE AT LES ÉDITIONS DU JAGUAR Email : jaguar@jeuneafrique.com - www.leseditionsdujaguar.com
ART & LIFE FASHION
Red-carpet
raves African designers are thrust into the limelight when Hollywood stars shine in their lines. As orders flood in from around the world, they must be ready to up production quotas and ride the rollercoaster of Instagram success
By KATIA DANSOKO TOURÉ for Jeune Afrique Guests at the American Music Awards last October were already hyped to see what host Tracee Ellis Ross would be wearing – in 2017, the actress and daughter of Diana Ross made a spectacular 11 wardrobe changes in the course of the evening. This time she only changed 10 times, but she made even more of a statement: every one of her outfits was by a black designer. The most sensational was a majestic mermaid dress with double bell sleeves and ruffles to the floor, its “scales” shimmering in a blue and red wax print. The dress was by Claude Lavie Kameni, a Cameroonian-born designer and founder of the brand LavieByCK. Kameni, who had already made waves by dressing Janet Jackson in a wax print crinoline for the music video of her single Made
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for Now, posted a photo of the mermaid dress on Instagram and got 32,000 likes. A few snaps later, the 24-year-old designer finally published the information everyone was waiting for: “The dress that @traceeellisross fell in love with was from our 2017 fall collection” and “This gown will be available to pre-order on Sunday!!” Ten days later, it was already sold out while the designer sourced new shipments of the now iconic fabric. Over the past decade, particularly with the explosion of social media, a designer’s reputation can be made overnight. Celebrity stylists now have access to a world of fashion way beyond the big names in couture and can seek talent from anywhere in the world – including the African continent. Black Hollywood stars have seized the opportunity to do more with their looks than
GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR VOGUE AND THE DUBAI MALL
Designer Alexis Temomanin’s Dent de Man is among African labels chosen by Black Hollywood stars at awards and premieres
ART & LIFE / Red-carpet raves
just appear stunning on a red carpet. By turning to these creators they are making a statement about black talent; far beyond mere marketing, they are paying tribute to an ‘African heritage’, an expression of shared roots, that delights their fans. “When Hollywood stars decide to wear a creation from the continent, they make a strong political and social gesture,” says Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean, known for her fusion of classical Italian tailoring with African fabrics and Haitian themes. Rihanna was the first celebrity to wear one of her designs when she appeared at the White House in an Ankara-printed shirt dress in 2014, during President Barack Obama’s second term.
To the mainstream Other personalities followed, like the film director Ava DuVernay and actresses Tiffany Haddish, Issa Rae and Zendaya. “I don’t think it’s just a question of advertising a brand or a designer, but rather of promoting a creative and dynamic Africa,” Stella Jean continues. This was clearly what motivated the singer Solange Knowles when she chose to shoot the video for Losing You in South Africa in 2012. As well as introducing the wider world to pantsula dancing and culture from the townships
Far beyond mere marketing, they are paying tribute to an expression of shared roots, delighting fans
(see TAR105, October 2018), Knowles – Beyoncé’s younger sister – enlisted the help of Asanda Sizani, then fashion editor of Elle South Africa, and featured on the cover of the magazine wearing South African designers. African motifs exploded into mainstream fashion last year, thanks in part to the influence of the film Black Panther. The phenomenon first appeared at the film’s premieres, where Angela Bassett, who played the role of the Queen of Wakanda, showed up in a tailored suit by the Ivorian menswear designer Alexis Temomanin (Dent de Man). Then, in February 2018, she appeared at the American Black Film Festival to promote the blockbuster in a dress by Mangishi Doll – the ready-to-wear line by Zambian designer Kapasa Musonda. The outfit, at an affordable $169, sold out in a few days.
Rosario Dawson’s Ghanaian venture A Hollywood actress launching her own fashion brand on the continent? Rosario Dawson has done it. The 39-year-old US actress who shot to fame in the 1990s with Larry Clark’s Kids and Spike Lee’s He Got Game co-founded Studio 189 in 2013 with her best friend, the American-Ghanaian Abrima Erwiah, a former marketing director at Bottega Veneta. A social enterprise promoting African design, sustainability and craftsmanship, it sells high-end but easy-to-wear clothes priced from $45 for a T-shirt to $1,275 for an evening gown. Each piece is handmade from typically African fabrics found in Ghana, Mali or Burkina Faso. Its factory is located in Accra, with stores in Accra and New York. In September 2018, Studio 189 presented its debut spring-summer collection at New York Fashion Week. studiooneeightynine.com
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“The 50 or so dresses left in two days – our fastest sale to date. The customers were from the US, Europe, Australia, but also from the African continent,” Musonda recounts with delight. Based in Zambia, Musonda obviously had all the tools at hand to sell internationally. But this unpredictability is one of the main challenges for African designers suddenly thrown into the limelight outside their own country. It is one that Sam Mensah Jr., a Ghanaian entrepreneur, has tried to solve with his e-commerce platform KISUA. Styled as “ a sustainable platform for African craftsmen and designers to access the international market”, KISUA handles the development, production and distribution. Designers then receive a portion of every sale. The only downside for designers is that the clothes are branded KISUA, so when Beyoncé is spotted wearing them – as happened in 2014, twice in one week – the brand gets all the kudos, even if the designer gets the added profits that come from a sudden rush to buy. “Beyoncé tops the list as the personality that most allows African creators to shine internationally,” says Senegalese designer Sarah Diouf. And she should know – she is one of the young African creators, along with Selly Raby Kane from Senegal and Loza Maléombho from Côte d’Ivoire – who have found themselves in the spotlight thanks to the US singer. Last July, Diouf saw Beyoncé on Instagram wearing two of her designs for her brand Tongoro: a top-and-trouser set at €150 ($170) and a dress at €120. “In the days that followed, orders came flooding in. We usually produce just 50 to 60 examples of each design,” she says. Today, the phrase ‘as worn by Beyoncé’ almost serves as
a calling card for African design. During her visit to Johannesburg for the Global Citizen Festival in December 2018, the pop star showcased the work of a good 10 designers from the African diaspora.
Stamp of approval She did not fail to thank them all on Instagram. Among them: Adama Paris, Quiteria & Georges, Rich Mnisi, Afrikanista, Peulh Vagabond and Tongoro. But the singer is not the only celebrity acting as a five-star press agent. Cameroonian designer Kibonen Nfi can count on Mexican-Kenyan
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; MATT SAYLES/AP/SIPA; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Rihanna, in a look by designer Stella Jean; Tracee Ellis Ross, wearing a LavieByCK dress; and Lupita Nyong’o, in Kibonen NY
actress Lupita Nyong’o, a fan of her creations, who has been seen around Manhattan in her Kibonen NY line. In France, Malian designer Mariah Bocoum has been noticed by the press thanks to dressing her sister, the singer Inna Modja. Finally, the world of showbiz is not the only one where African fashion is being shown to the world. Prize-winning writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also support the designers of their home countries – among the exclusively Nigerian brands she has chosen to wear are GREY, The Ladymaker and Moofa. And Alain
Mabanckou has extended the fame of Le Bachelor, a tailor and boutique well known to Parisian sapeurs, with the rest of the world. As for political figures, US former first lady Michelle Obama is a Nigerian ready-to-wear fan (Duro Olowu, Maki Oh), while Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May showed up in Nigeria in August 2018 in an Emmy Kasbit jacket by Emmanuel Okoro. Even if May did not rock the jacket like Chimamanda did the trousers from the same collection, Okoro told BBC Pidgin: “My Instagram follows don jump wit like 2,000 new followers.”
ART & LIFE /
SAAD ALAMI
From left, a previous exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Al Maaden; La Mamounia; the Jardin Majorelle and Berber Musem; the exterior of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent; and a room within the museum displaying works by the designer
Into the (he)art of Marrakech With its artistic initiatives and fortuitous location as a bridge between the rest of the continent and Europe, this bona fide cultural capital is shifting and surprising AYODEJI ROTINWA in Marrakech If there were such a thing as travelling away from home and yet arriving there, that riddle can be solved at Jnane Tamsna, a sprawling nine-acre boutique hotel situated amongst palm trees and camels on red desert sand in the Palmeraie area of downtown Marrakech. Since there is no place like home, arguably, there is no place like Jnane, ‘the big garden’ in Arabic. Start your holiday here. You might be welcomed by the owner of the hotel, Meryanne Loum-Martin, an entrepreneur, interior designer and matriarch of these grounds who takes care of every guest, the way a legacy
hotel brand cannot. An impeccably curated room awaits. Decadent and Moorish in design, every amenity invites a smile and an appreciative nod for its intricate beauty: the chandelier, the illuminated mirrors, the graceful archways. Just outside, in your personal backyard, birds are chirping. You may even have a deck and stairway to climb to overlook the sprawling garden built and tended to by Gary Martin, an ethnobotanist and Meryanne’s husband. These gardens provide for breakfast, lunch and dinner: carrots, oranges, cabbages for salads and sauces. Do not be alarmed if your skin becomes clearer after only a few days.
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ALAN KEOHANE
TRAVEL
If you are able to tear yourself away from the Jnane after your first night (or two), your next stop is a double dose of treasures: the Musée Yves Saint Laurent and the Jardin Majorelle. The museum, a glamorously designed space, is a homage to the legacy of the French fashion designer. The pièce de résistance of the museum is a pitch-black room brought to life by the colourful clothing and accessories he created. The light design in the room allows each piece to twinkle, glisten or blind. A gold bust cased in glass is a particular thing of wonder. It is a shame you are not allowed pictures, but you could well be tempted to sneak one or two to marvel at later. Next to the museum is the botanical and landscape garden built by French painter Jacques Majorelle in 1923 and restored by Yves Saint Laurent and his business partner Pierre Bergé in the 1980s.
FONDATION JARDIN MAJORELLE / NICOLAS MATHÉUS MUSÉE YVES SAINT LAURENT
JONATHAN PRIME
The garden here is rich, both in plant species – bamboo, cactus – transplanted from all over the world, and in history: the garden houses the Berber museum, a visual celebration of the original peoples of North Africa.
Couscous, contemporary art It might now be time for a lunch and tea break. Look no further than the smoky hallways of La Mamounia. Here, you can sip rich, memorable-to-the-tongue tea, to which an addition of sugar might be an insult. It is perfect without any additions. And for lunch? Naturally, couscous or a chicken tagine. At the time of writing La Mamounia was host to 1–54, a leading fair on contemporary art by African artists. Works included Omar Victor Diop’s arresting portraits of high-achieving and
overlooked Africans and Joana Choumali’s affecting photographs [pictured] and collages interrogating gender and identity. Can’t get enough of the art? Pace yourself. The next day head to Guliz, Marrakech’s gallery district that houses work by some of Morocco’s most accomplished artists. At Galerie Siniya 28 are Abdelmalek Berhiss’s paintings of his childhood growing up in the port city of Essaouira. Fun fact: some major Daenerys Targaryen scenes in the hit show Game of Thrones were shot there. At the time of writing a threefloor exhibition curated by BritishMoroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj was on show at the Comptoir des Mines gallery. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Al Maaden, a 20-minute drive or so out of central Marrakech, the city’s crossroads with the rest of the continent
comes into full bloom with an exhibition of over 30 artists from all over Africa. Now that you are fully soaked in the he(art) of Marrakech, it is time to explore its belly. Look to Nomad, a restaurant in the UNESCO Heritage Site-listed Jemaa el-Fna square and expansive market. Before food, get lost and work up an appetite – inhale or buy spices from the stalls, consider Berber-style rugs and carpets, try a spicy brochette and dance with snake charmers. Resist the temptation to whip out your phone and use Google Maps to find the restaurant. Just wander. You may want to start with the delicious juice of avocado, dates, orange and cinnamon. Then perhaps, the calamari from Agadir? Finish lavishly with a saffron-scented date cake. Then yet again, return home.
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SELORM (JAY) ATTIKPO/FULLISH ART FOR TAR
DAY IN THE LIFE
MOSHOOD BALOGUN in Accra I was born in Lagos in 1981. I got all of my formal education in the same city. Unfortunately, I did not get to complete my university education because I got into a series of troubles with the authorities and I eventually had to leave. My mother provided me with some money, and I travelled to Denmark in 2002. Over there, I got into a relationship with a Danish woman and lived with her for close to a year. We’d made plans to get married, but she betrayed me one day; she called the police on me and had me deported. Back in Nigeria, I reunited with my family: my parents, my children and their mother. Me and her are divorced now. We have five children in total. Two have passed. The eldest was born in the year 2000, on the ninth of July. In 2007, when my then wife was pregnant with our last child, I was involved in a very serious accident. I was seated behind a friend on a motorbike and […]
Searching for the right path Adebayo Hammed Ajibade’s passions and hopes have kept him going through lifechanging moments I don’t even know how the accident happened, but my friend lost his life in it. I came out of it with a broken leg. Although my life was spared, a lifelong dream of mine was killed. I could no longer play football. It had always been my dream to be a footballer. My father spent a lot of his money in pursuit of this dream of mine. After a few years, when things were not going so well in my life, my mother suggested once again
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that I travel elsewhere. So I came to Ghana in 2013. In my very early days here, I was robbed. My bag, which contained the little money I had, my passport and a few other essentials, was stolen. I had to hustle to get back on my feet. I sold pure water in traffic – dusters, too. And then I got into working as a labourer, but the work was so hard. I reasoned that I’d die young if I continued with it. So I stopped. For a while, I had nothing to do. Until a fellow Nigerian living here in Ghana introduced me to selling books in traffic. I choose to sell solely African books because I’m proud to be African. These books I sell help me manage myself quite well financially. I get them from a wholesaler with whom I split the profits after I’ve sold the books. I’ve suffered a lot, and things are still not easy. But I thank God for my life because when there is life, there is hope. My dream now is to be a musician because I believe I’ve got a message to deliver. I just pray to God to point the right path for me soon.