Briefs

Tourism Christmas visitors to Africa increase

More and more Europeans are choosing to travel for their annual Christmas holidays, and that trend is helping to establish a second tourism high season in many African countries. Africa’s main high season corresponds with the northern hemisphere’s summer holidays, taken especially through July and August. But the trend in recent years is for more Europeans to escape to Africa, especially the countries of Maghreb, during the Christmas winter break. Last December and New Year, tourist arrival figures in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt are thought to have increased by as much as 7%. Countries such as Cape Verde, The Gambia, Senegal, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Indian Ocean islands (mainly Mauritius, Rééunion and Seychelles) are also reporting growing numbers of Europeans, Americans and South Africans visiting their resorts over the Christmas period.

Aviation Regional safety bodies formed African countries grappling with dangerous airplanes and lax aviation rules are forming regional bodies to tackle air safety issues. Passengers flying in Africa are roughly 75 times more likely to die in a crash than passengers flying in North America. As a result, several African countries are cooperating to boost safety within their aviation industries. East Africa has established a common aviation-oversight body and in a separate initiative, seven West African countries are pooling air-regulation resources through the Banjul Accord Group. Three other groups of nations in central and southern Africa are following these leads and starting to co-ordinate aviation safety measures. “We think the regional approach is very, very important and the way to go forward,” said Harold Demuren, director general of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority in Lagos. Many African countries have problems regulating their skies and planes to make flying safer. Training more aviation professionals, such as technicians, inspectors and air-traffic controllers is seen as the priority. Aviation specialists from the UN, World Bank, the US and the EU have all welcomed the regional cooperative approach and are providing funding,

training and model texts of aviation regulations that meet global standards. The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation is leading the effort to set objectives for air regulators and organise training courses.

Utilities Tanzania’s power supply upgraded On the heels of a 2006 energy crisis that saw much of Tanzania’s population suffer through rolling electricity blackouts, the East African country is working to build new energy investments that will power growth, create jobs, and reduce poverty. The Energy Development and Access Expansion Project, a $111.5m hybrid IDA credit and Global Environment Facility grant, has been approved by the World Bank. It will help Tanzania improve electricity services and provide more energy to households, businesses and public services. “In some rural parts of Tanzania, the rate of access to electricity is as low as 2%,” reports World Bank senior financial analyst and the project’s leader, Pankaj Gupta. The project is the first in a series aiming at energy development and sustainable access scale-up through both grid and off-grid interventions. This first project will primarily focus

on the urgent upgrade of the country’s electricity monopoly utility, Tanesco’s transmission and distribution grid. It will also provide a sustainable basis for electricity access expansion by supporting the Rural Electrification Agency and by targeting new approaches for future electrification projects.

Commerce Shoprite targets DR Congo Shoprite, the supermarket group headquartered in South Africa, is to invest $80m to build two new supermarket complexes in DR Congo. Shoprite is the largest supermarket group on the African continent and currently operates nearly 1,200 outlets in 17 countries across Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands and southern Asia. The company, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, reported a turnover of R38.95bn ($5.45bn) for the year to June 2007. The two new supermarkets will be built in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa. The company has plans to roll-out new stores across the DR Congo and has pledged to stimulate local manufacturing and agricultural sectors to supply the new stores and eventually to produce goods and commodities for export to surrounding countries. Each Shoprite supermarket will provide employment for approximately 150 permanent staff and create at least 50 jobs indirectly.

Health Malaria warning The World Health Organisation (WHO) has alerted travellers to high malaria transmission in the Southern Africa region this season, warning visitors to malaria-prone countries who have little natural resistance to the disease, to take extra care and preventive measures. “Malaria transmission levels for the six months to May 2008 are expected to be above normal in most parts of Southern Africa,” WHO have reported. “In East Africa, the period from October to May constitutes an important part of the rainy season whereby malaria transmission and epidemics can occur,” it cautioned, adding that in Southern Africa, the heavy rains and likelihood of flooding in certain areas have a possibility of increasing the risk of malaria transmission in many countries of the region. Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Madagascar are among the highest risk malaria countries, but travellers to countries with seasonal malaria – Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Kenya and Eritrea – are also advised to take malaria prophylactics and, wherever possible,

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African Business | February 2008
to sleep under bed nets. Africa accounts for four out of five of the world’s malaria cases.

Trade China-Africa ties improve China’s Ministry of Commerce has reported that from January to November 2007, ChinaAfrica trade volumes reached $65.9bn, an increase of 31% compared with the same period last year. Overall imports and exports are balanced and are expected to exceed $70bn for the entire year. The bilateral trade volume between China-South Africa and China-Angola each surpassed $10bn. The two African countries are ranked 29 and 31, respectively, amongst China’s major trading partners. The ministry also said that thanks to the efforts made by the China-Africa Co-operation Forum Beijing Summit, steady economic and trade co-operation between China and Africa had been achieved last year. According to IMF statistics, China has become Africa’s second largest trading partner. Co-operation has gradually been extended to the financial, aerospace, and telecommunications sectors, the Chinese ministry noted.

Communications Sign language for Africa The African Rehabilitation Institute (ARI), the Harare, Zimbabwe-based African Union body with a direct responsibility for the rights of the disabled in Africa, is planning to develop a uniform sign language for sub-Saharan Africa. That will facilitate communications among people with hearing and speech impairments. ARI says it wants to ensure that people with hearing and speech impairments will be able to communicate when traveling to other countries of the continent. ARI has identified a trend of greater cross-border mobility in Africa with the relaxation of visa requirements for the citizens of neighbouring countries. This has increased the number of people with hearing and speech impairments starting cross-border trading enterprises. Consequently, it is deemed vital that a uniform sign language be developed to make it easy for these people to conduct their business in foreign countries. ARI’s research has shown that different countries have their own sign language and people from other countries often experience difficulties communicating without an interpreter. ARI says that it will work with the National Associations of People with Disabilities to develop a universal sign language. ARI has also declared that this year it will lobby at government level for the development of national disability policies in all African countries.

AB Guide to African Currencies

Country

Algeria

Angola

Benin

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Cape Verde

CAR

Chad

Comoros

Congo

Congo DRC

Côôte d’Ivoire

Djibouti

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Ethiopia

Gabon

Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya

Lesotho

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Mali

Mauritania

Mauritius

Morocco

Mozambique

Namibia

Niger

Nigeria

Rwanda

Sãão Tomé é

Senegal

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Somalia

South Africa

Sudan

Swaziland

Tanzania

Togo

Tunisia

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Currency

£STG

(dinar)

130.57

(New Kwanza)

(CFA)

(Pula)

(CFA)

(Burundi Fr)

(CFA)

(CV escudo)

(CFA)

(CFA)

146.93

868.44

11.63

868.44

2233.33

868.44

146.38

868.44

868.44

(Fr)

651.33

(CFA)

868.44

(Congo Franc)

1075.11

(CFA)

868.44

(djib Fr)

343.61

(egy£)

10.69

(CFA)

868.44

(Birr)

18.10

(CFA)

868.48

(dalasi)

43.57

(New Cedi)

1.89

(Fr) 8380.65

(CFA)

868.48

(Kshilling)

12.449

(Maluti)

13.23

(lib dinar)

(Ariary)

(Kwacha)

(CFA)

(ouguiya)

(Maurrupee)

2.39

3490.67

274.82

868.44

492.74

55.71

(dirham)

15.06

(New Metical)

(N$)

(CFA)

(Naira)

(rFr)

(dobra)

(CFA)

(rupee)

46.80

13.23

868.44

231.14

1065.37

27582.66

868.44

15.72

(leone)

5831.03

(shilling)

(rand)

(Pound)

(lilangeni)

2722.04

13.23

4.00

13.23

(Tshilling)

2255.08

(CFA) 868.44

(dinar)

(ushilling)

(Kwacha)

(rebased Z$)

2.36

3343.80

7304.46

587.49

Source: The Financial Times 14th January 2008

$US

66.67

75.03

443.46

6.04

443.46

1140.44

443.46

74.75

443.46

443.46

332.60

443.46

549.00

443.46

175.57

5.46

443.46

9.24

443.46

22.25

0.96

4279.54

443.46

66.10

6.75

1.22

1782.50

140.33

443.46

251.62

28.45

7.69

23.90

6.75

443.46

118.03

544.03

14085.00

443.46

8.02

2977.60

1390.00

6.75

2.04

6.75

1151.55

443.46

1.20

1707.50

3730.00

300.00

Euro

98.62

110.99

655.95

8.94

655.95

1686.88

655.95

110.57

655.95

655.95

491.98

655.95

812.05

655.95

259.70

8.07

655.95

13.67

655.95

32.91

1.43

6330.10

655.95

97.77

9.99

1.80

2636.59

207.58

655.95

372.18

42.08

11.37

35.35

9.99

655.95

175.59

804.70

20834.00

655.95

11.87

4404.31

2056.09

9.99

3.02

9.99

1703.32

655.95

1.78

2525.65

5517.23

443.74

African Business | February 2008 11