(Reuters) &#8211; Capitec Bank forecast a fall of at least 70% in first-half earnings on Friday due to a spike in bad loans from the coronavirus crisis, the first major South African lender to detail its full effect.



Concerns over a jump in bad loans after a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus have hit South African banks and Capitec’s shares, which were already down 42% so far this year, were 2.5% lower at 1359 GMT.



Capitec, which had forecast a drop of at least 20% in first-half profit in May, said it expects headline earnings per share, the main profit measure for South African firms, to fall by more than 1,782 cents from the 2,545 cents it reported for the six months to the end of August 2019.



The bank said its credit impairment charge was 145% higher than forecast, mainly due to 5.75 billion rand ($338 million) and 236 million rand in retail and business credit balances being rescheduled or granted payment breaks due to the lockdown.



Capitec said in a statement that it does not expect to return to pre-lockdown levels of credit sales before the start of its next financial year.



“We do, however, believe that the results for the second half of the 2021 financial year could return to normal levels,” it added.



Major banks across the United States and Britain have set aside billions of dollars in provisions to handle loans that sour as customers become unable to make payments as a result of unemployment triggered by the coronavirus crisis.



($1 = 17.0275 rand)

SA’s PSG Group considers unbundling stake in Capitec Bank

South Africa’s Capitec forecasts 70% profit fall in blow to shares

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s central bank has issued a 3.45 billion rand ($200 million) guarantee to bail out the Corporation for Public Deposits (CPD), a government investment arm hit by surging defaults at state agricultural lender Land Bank.



The issue adds a further strain on state finances as the government props up its main power utility and airline, which were already struggling before the coronavirus crisis, and now faces rising defaults at the agricultural lender.



CPD, which purchased various debt instruments from Land Bank, said overall it suffered a 2.8 billion rand loss in the 2019/20 financial year, necessitating the central bank bailout.



Deputy governor of the Reserve Bank (SARB) and chairwoman of the CPD, Fundi Tshazibana, told Reuters in an interview this week the guarantee was to cover the investment arm’s losses in the 2019/20 period and replenish reserves, which had dwindled to zero.



“We had to provision for what we will not be able to recover from the Land Bank. That was one of the reasons why we (central bank) had to provide the guarantee,” said Tshazibana.



“Because of the Land Bank default, we were running at a loss and we weren’t going to be a going concern&#8230;That would have been of real concern to depositors,” she added.



In April the Land Bank, the country’s largest agricultural-focussed lender, defaulted on 50 billion rand of loans repayments and in June it failed to make interest payments of nearly 120 million rand.



On Friday the Land Bank told Reuters it had not made interest payments of around 320 million rand on debt which was due end June.



The South African Treasury guarantees around 5.7 billion of the Land Bank’s debt and last week granted the firm 3 billion rand of emergency equity funding.

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Land Bank default forces S.Africa’s central bank into $200 mln bailout of state investment arm

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining Venture has reached agreements to take over and revive four idle state-owned gold mines and is in talks to buy more assets from a privately-owned bullion producer, its chief executive said on Friday.



Unlisted Landela is majority-owned by Kudakwashe Tagwirei, an adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and one of the most prominent business people in the country.



Commodities trader Trafigura partnered with Tagwirei in the lucrative fuel sector until buying him out earlier this year. Landela has been on a buying spree of local mining assets since 2019.



Chief executive David Brown, former Impala Platinum Holdings CEO, told Reuters that Landela’s takeover of gold mines run by state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) would be funded through debt and equity.



The mines were put up for sale in 2018 but the government cancelled the process last year without giving a reason.



“Agreements are in place, but a close-out of the process is still subject to being finalised with the appropriate authorities,” Brown said in e-mailed responses to questions.



“I would expect it to be completed in Q3 and will be funded through a mixture of debt and equity.”



The four mines have a capacity to produce at least 85,000 ounces a year, according to ZMDC.



Gold is the single biggest forex earner in Zimbabwe and controlling its production gives Landela greater access to dollars, which are in short supply in the country.



Brown said Landela last month restarted operations at the 21,000 ounces a year Shamva mine after buying it from Metallon Corporation, owned by South African businessman Mzi Khumalo.



Landela plans a bigger open pit mine at Shamva and is in talks to purchase Metallon’s three other gold mines, said Brown.



A Metallon spokeswoman declined to comment.



Until 2017, Metallon was Zimbabwe’s largest gold miner, producing 100,000 ounces a year. A 2016 estimate showed Metallon had a mineral resource of 8.3 million ounces of gold.



“If we can have time to develop the assets properly with the appropriate amount of capital, this will be a significant business,” Brown said.



Last year Landela became partner of Russia’s Vi Holding in the Darwendale platinum project and bought Freda Rebecca gold mine.

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Zimbabwe’s Landela agrees to buy state-owned gold mines, seeks more assets

As I write this a huge load of farm machinery is lurching across the Indian Ocean in the bowels of a transport ship bringing with it a supreme irony.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="972" height="647" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-375515" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1.png 972w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1-768x511.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1-696x463.png 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Belarus-equipment-reaches-Zimbabwe-1-600x399.png 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 972px) 100vw, 972px" /><figcaption>Farming equipment from Belarus arrives in Zimbabwe</figcaption></figure>



The shipment is part of a plan by a far off country, on the road to Russia, bent on teaching Zimbabwe – a country that could once teach the world – how to farm. In a $58 million deal six grain harvesters, 100 tractors, 16 seed drills, five fifth wheel trucks, five semi-trailers are on their way from the former Soviet state of Belarus to the ports of Beira in Mozambique and Durban in South Africa. The shipment is expected by the end of July. Fourteen grain harvesters and 36 units of seed drills are already in Harare. Ships will bring another 20 grain harvester, 340 tractors and 138 seed drills to Zimbabwe by December 2020.



The idea is being nurtured by the consul general for Zimbabwe in Belarus Alexander Zingman. He is the head of AFTRADE DMCC and spends much time travelling between Zimbabwe and the country of his birth. The project is being financed through the Development Bank of Belarus supported by The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank. The export credit facility has been provided on a long-term basis with competitive interest rates.



&#8220;The aim is to totally mechanize agriculture in Zimbabwe using a comprehensive set of machinery &#8211; tractors, planters, harvesters and trucks &#8211; to cultivate and harvest maize and wheat. This will prevent the harvest losses that Zimbabwe normally faces. It will boost Zimbabwe&#8217;s food security and save the country valuable foreign currency. We will train each farmer who uses this modern equipment. More than 1,000 farmers will get special training courses in Zimbabwe. 10 specialists from Zimbabwe will also be sent to Belarus for two months for training at our manufacturing plants, “he says.



Ten trainers from Belarus are also in Harare, with five more on the way, in a year of training of farmers in Zimbabwe that is hoped will kick start a struggling industry that was once the pride of Africa.



The irony is that 30 years ago such a programme would have been looked upon as an agricultural equivalent of teaching your grandmother to suck eggs. In the 1980s and for most of the 90s Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa with a small, efficient, band of mostly white farmers who fed Southern African and exported food to Europe. It couldn’t last amid the lack of a clear plan for organised land reform and growing political pressure. &nbsp;&nbsp;



When the farm invasions were unleashed by the people in power in 2000, it led to bloodshed and random confiscation that reaped a bitter harvest of lost production and exports that persists until this day. That year with all of its fumbling fury fuelled with the idea that to get rich you merely had to own a farm, is always seen as a turning point for the industry. It created a large slice of the country’s GDP and as it fell, so did the fortunes of Zimbabwe.



The World Bank Zimbabwe production figures for maize – that used to feed the region – tell the story. In 1996 Zimbabwe was growing more than 2.5 million mt of maize; by 2016 that figure had dropped to a mere 500,000 mt of maize. A further sign of lean times, according the World Bank, is that the fertilizer industry was at 75% capacity before 2000 and as low as 30% now. In the halcyon days of 1996, many Zimbabweans would have been incredulous at the idea of trainers and combine harvesters making their way half round the world to teach them farming. In difficult times for the Zimbabwe and its economy almost anything is worth a try.

Belarus tractors for Zimbabwe

How Zimbabwe farmers will be trained how to farm with a scheme from Belarus with love

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s National Treasury said on Friday there was “no further action” planned to bailout struggling national airline SAA except to settle guaranteed debt as attempts to revive the airline hang on a knife edge.



The South African government wants creditors to back a restructuring plan for South African Airways (SAA) but did not allocate new bailouts for the loss-making state airline in an emergency budget last week.



In its strongest statement yet that it doesn’t plan on giving SAA more bailouts, the National Treasury told lawmakers they would not provide any new money to the airline as they are “insolvent” and turnaround plans have not been finalised yet.

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South Africa’s National Treasury says “no further action” to bailout SAA airline

LUANDA (Reuters) &#8211; When the Angolan government imposed its coronavirus lockdown in late March, local entrepreneur and innovator Claudio Kiala saw a gap in the market when it came to virtual entertainment.DJ Ritchelly livestreams a show for his fans amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Luanda, Angola, June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Lee Bogata



Kiala and his team had been developing a performance platform known as Soba Channel App, before the crisis struck, where artists would be able to stream live shows and fans would pay to gain access.



The lockdown meant they had to accelerate its launch to help artists earn some income during the lockdown, and give viewers a chance to be entertained in the comfort of their homes.



Soba is the first virtual entertainment platform in Angola, that allows artists to charge for their shows. Social gatherings remain prohibited in the country.



“This pandemic situation led us to accelerate a few of the ideas that we already had and we decided to create the platform where artists could still host concerts and other types of gathering with their fans and be paid for that,” Kiala said.&nbsp;



Popular local DJ Ritchelly was one of the first to jump on the platform after his income was slashed to zero because of the lockdown.



“This virus has brought us a new environment and ways to live. And this is a survival way for artists that want to keep doing their job,” Ritchelly said, as he prepared for his virtual live performance via the app.



Fans, stuck indoors, are happy to pay between $2-$6 per hour depending on the performer, to see their favourite artists.



“It gives me a better experience because I’m alone. I don’t have to listen to the other people screaming (like at outdoor live shows). I just have to sit there and watch,” said 17-year old Ekumbi Dias.



Performers keep 90% of the ticket costs, a business approach Kiala says is noble but necessary.

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The African entrepreneur who made it by streaming sweet music to the locked down.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; When South Africa began easing its coronavirus lockdown in May, it allowed religious worshippers to gather in groups of up to 50, but maintained a ban on people assembling to drink alcohol.A clergyman of the Gabula church, arrives carrying a crate of empty beer bottles ahead of a &#8220;church service&#8221; as South Africa eases some aspects of a stringent nationwide coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, in Evaton June 28, 2020. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko



That’s a problem for the “Gabola” church — the name means ‘drinking’ in the local Tswana language — for whom a tipple is an integral part of their religious worship.



Founded just two years ago, the church tried to hold its usual meetings in local bars, called shebeens, to praise God while downing whisky, but they soon got arrested, its leader and self-styled ‘pope’ Tsietsi Makiti, 55, told Reuters.



“They can arrest us until Jesus comes back,” said Makiti, wearing a bishop’s mitre with a miniature bottle of spirits hanging off it.



But he added they had been moving services from place to place to avoid a run-in with the authorities.



On Sunday worshippers met in a rubbish-strewn field in Evaton, south of Johannesburg. As the service started, the ‘clergy’ blessed some beer bottles in prayer.



“At Gabola church you (bring)&#8230; the liquor of your choice&#8230; and the pastor will bless the liquor so that it will not be poisonous to your body,” Makiti said.



Wearing flowing black robes and coloured scarves, Makiti and five ‘clergymen’ &#8211; none of them are ordained &#8211; sat before a table strewn with empty bottles of alcohol.



Makiti’s sermon included such proclamations as: “We are a church that will remake the world.”



“People call me a drunkard,” said one worshipper, Nthabiseng Kotope, 38, who said she joined the church in March.



“I agree with them. I do God’s work while drinking.”



Apart from the ban on alcohol, the congregants observe all other coronavirus rules, including the limit of 50 people, the spacing out of chairs and use of hand sanitisers.



While some Protestant sects teach that alcohol is sinful and to be avoided, most mainstream Christian churches are not opposed to moderate drinking, citing such Biblical stories as Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast.

Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown

South Africa’s boozy church struggles with COVID lockdown rules

On the largely virtual Africa Day celebrations, in May, the current African Union Chair&nbsp; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke of “a new Africa”.&nbsp;



As the continent battles a mounting Pandemic crisis is this is simply more empty political rhetoric which tends to get dusted off every Africa Day or will a better Africa emerge from the flames of Covid-19? If so what will this “new Africa” actually look like?&nbsp;



President Ramaphosa believes the Covid-19 pandemic has started to create a unity that Africa aspires to but which has all so often proved elusive:&nbsp;



“Day by day, across our continent, we are seeing the unity that is our strength being put to the service of saving lives and supporting the vulnerable.&#8221;



In webinar after webinar there’s no doubt that many African business and political leaders share President Ramaphosa’s optimism. They sense this pandemic really is a turning point to bring about the change everyone on the continent is so hungry to see.&nbsp;



The Nigerian entrepreneur Tony Elumelu says “the pandemic presents an opportunity to reset Africa, create employment and eliminate poverty”:



“Africa must embrace the new normal. The disruptions we’ve seen across healthcare, logistics, supply chain, and the digital economy are here to stay. This presents a unique opportunity for a united Africa as a strong regional bloc acting in a coordinated fashion”.



He has called for a Marshall plan to galvanise the entire continent and mobilise people and resources to address Africa’s needs. That is also the conclusion of The African Union’s Special Envoy on Covid-19 Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala:



“We can see this pandemic as an opportunity for the continent. We have to specialise our countries to manufacture the things we need so we can trade with others. We need to produce good jobs for our young people and empower our women and youths and put them at the centre”



Several of these themes have also been expressed in many African-related webinars. There is much talk about how this Covid-19 crisis has smashed international supply chains and how the future is now regional. There are many calls for investment to encourage African SMEs to create local supply chains in their communities to boost employment.&nbsp;



While Africa hasn’t yet suffered the ravages of the Pandemic on the scale that has hit countries like the UK and USA, the impact has still been devastating. Economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa is on course by contract by 2.8% this year, the deepest on record. The collapse in oil prices has hit Africa’s second and third&nbsp; largest economies- Nigeria and Angola- hard, while the collapse of tourism and a drop in demand for agricultural exports to Europe have&nbsp; devastated economies from Kenya and Ethiopia to Cote D’Ivoire, Mauritius and the Seychelles.&nbsp;



South Africa, the continent’s largest and most developed economy, is expected to experience its deepest recession for a century with a 7.1% contraction in output.



Covid-19 cases are now present in every African country. African leaders have come together quickly to help each other fight the pandemic. In contrast to countries like the US and the UK they saw the risk early.&nbsp;



Within days of the first case being reported in Egypt African Union Chair Ramaphosa called a meeting of African Union leaders, and he put his own South Africa into lockdown before a single death had been recorded. Now African Health and Finance Ministers meet every week in virtual conference to co-ordinate their response and share intelligence with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.



Cameroon has sent planes to the DRC to help that country get medical support its more remote areas, the African Development Bank has denoted $4 million to South Sudan to bolster its fragile health system, while the African Union has launched a medical supplies platform for all 54 African countries. This is designed to make medical supplies, test kits and protective equipment available across the continent.



It feels a much better response than we’ve seen in many countries in the global north and President Ramphosa says he believes this collaboration can form the beginnings of a more united Africa in a post-Covid-19 world.&nbsp;



He’s assembled an all-star team of senior Africa leaders who are already working on plans to implement the lessons of the crisis and rebuild Africa’s damaged economies. Leaders like the former Head of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka and the former Nigerian Finance Chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala see economic integration as a long overdue remedy to many of the continent’s economic woes and essential to developing a strong manufacturing base.



One key component of this plan will be the African Continental Free Trade Area which will be launched early next year to create the largest free trade area in the world, worth three trillion dollars with a market of more than a billion people.&nbsp;



The expectation is that this free trade area will encourage African manufacturers to trade with their neighbours, develop industrialisation, and reduce the traditional dependency on goods imported from outside the continent.&nbsp;



SMEs currently account for 90% of all businesses in Africa. Any transformation is going to require support for this sector through investment and training. These SMEs will be given training and financing to deliver solutions for Africa across manufacturing, healthcare, energy, digital innovation, infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors.&nbsp;



There are more than 600 Tech Innovation hubs across Africa. Africa’s digital revolution will emerge from them, especially in the sectors of e-commerce, distance learning for schools and universities to train better educated populations, and big opportunities in renewables and energy infrastructure to start plugging the continent’s electricity deficit.



Agribusiness is also thought to be ripe for investment. With the opportunity to move more and more of African’s millions of farmers from subsistence to commercial enterprises, there’s no reason why Africa can’t become the world’s bread basket.



The Covid-19 crisis has also brought about a realisation that Africa has great opportunities in health care. Africa currently imports most of its ventilators, masks and personal protective equipment for its doctors and nurses. It also imports almost 100% of its drugs and medicines to the tune of $15 billion a year. There are massive opportunities here for African companies to produce many of these materials, create generic drugs and local supply chains.&nbsp;



I’ve seen many more blueprints for the future of Africa in webinar discussions during this long lockdown. What unites them all is a general agreement that when we finally emerge from this pandemic&nbsp; it mustn’t be back to “business as usual.”&nbsp;



Peter Burdin is the former Africa editor for the BBC.

Peter Burdin

COMMENT: What will be the new Africa post COVID-19?

As any South African business person will tell you, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a stressful time to be running a company. However, as we have worked to mitigate the effects of Covid-19, we have also gained a glimpse of what the future of business might look like. It is an exciting prospect.



This is not to downplay the incredibly difficult time we find ourselves in. Lives are being lost, people are falling ill, quarantine regulations are forcing families into heart-breaking situations. Lockdown has come with its own hardships and has also led to the downfall of several businesses.



These are terrible outcomes, and one feels for our fellow South Africans.&nbsp; However, the crisis has also taught us something.



In our business, when the state of disaster was first declared, our initial focus was to understand how regulations applied to us, and then to ensure the safety of our staff and our customers.



People are remarkably resilient, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that staff and customers settled into a new routine within a couple of days.



However, there would be no getting away from the economic impact of the global shutdown. The statistics from the first two weeks of the lockdown were unprecedented. Some businesses saw their income streams evaporate overnight.



As a business in the telematics, fleet management and vehicle recovery space, we saw our call-outs decline to almost nothing. For the first time in our history, our metrics reflected no criminal incidents on certain days.



We were not busy, which was worrying, but the quiet period gave us a chance to critically evaluate our business and consider how we would structure our operation going forward. This was Design Thinking made manifest. We had a chance to structurally reinvent ourselves.



We also started to notice some interesting things. For instance, despite social distancing and remote work, we were having more conversations with our customers than ever before. We were mostly checking on how they were managing the lockdown and finding solutions around payment relief to help each other through the lockdown.



But we came to realise that customer service is not a function of physical interaction. It can be done just as effectively – more effectively, even – by digital means. The power of technology allows one to speak to the entire workforce at any given moment.



Similarly, with internal staff communication. Through our weekly newsletters, virtual town hall meetings and other engagements during the lockdown, are staff relations have in fact improved.



As a direct result of this enhanced staff engagement, and suggestions from staff, we will be launching four innovative new products to market following the lockdown period.



We have found that we’re probably more productive as a business, and we’re communicating better with our partners, customers and co-workers than ever before. We are determined that after the lockdown, we will embed these more effective digital ways of working into our operations.



We also found ourselves taking a closer look at our assets. Metrics showed our staff were as effective working from home, which has forced a fundamental rethink about our premises, and the need for a centralised campus.



We are now looking at becoming a remote-working organisation by design. We are also enhancing our ecommerce capability.



On a more human level, our company has been blessed to have been spared any serious Covid-19 incidents. But the threat is real. This has led us to interact on a more humane, empathetic and sincere level – as clients, suppliers, partners and colleagues.



Staff are supporting each other, practically by sharing lifts to work, or by forgoing leave or financial bonuses. We are coming to understand how much we all mean to each other.



This also has implications for customer relations. When we start relating from a position of empathy, and we feel fulfilled at really being able to help each other, then customer centricity becomes easier to implement.



When the initial lockdown was declared, and business slowed to a trickle, we also looked at how we might make the most productive use of our staff. We decided to invest in training, through our learning platform with Udemy.



Staff uptake on the various courses has been phenomenal. We have found such a hunger for further education and self-improvement, that we have come to a new understanding of ourselves as a “learning organisation”. It seems the more knowledge we provide, the more appetite there is to learn. Two-thirds of our workforce are enrolled in training courses.



On the AI front, while we have always used artificial intelligence to gain insights, the pandemic has forced us to make better use of it. Today, we use chatbots to manage customer queries and to enhance CRM management.



Our response times are now quicker, and metrics show that customers are happier. We have seen that putting the customer at the centre of your business is not just about face-to-face meetings. You can use technology to serve your customers better. This is what we plan to do.



It has not been easy, but our business will survive. We will emerge from the pandemic as a transformed, more digital, customer-centric organisation, with a deeper culture of learning, and stronger human bonds with our people.



Those human bonds are what business is all about. The pandemic didn’t quite teach us that, but it did remind us. Our shared humanity is what holds us together.

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COMMENT: How I grappled with business during COVID-19

Five years into the African Development Bank’s ambitious New Deal on Energy for Africa (NDEA), the Bank’s investments are set to provide electricity access to around 13 million people and deliver about 55,000 km of distribution lines, and 6,700 km of transmission lines, of which 3,200 km are for regional interconnections.



The NDEA called for a substantial increase in investments to realize the Bank’s High 5 priority to “Light Up and Power Africa,” which aims to mobilize finance and expertise to expand access to reliable, sustainable energy for more than 200 million Africans through investments in power generation, inter-connections, transmission and distribution. This effort is critical to unlocking Africa’s vast economic potential, enabling the growth of value-adding industries and services, and, most importantly, unleashing the ingenuity of the continent’s 1.3 billion people.



The strategy was grounded in the recognition that partnerships are central to its success. In collaboration with African countries, the Bank’s interventions have ranged from setting up the right enabling policy environment, supporting utilities, to increasing the number of bankable energy projects. Additionally, the Bank is accelerating major regional projects and driving integration through the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa, whilst also supporting bottom-of-the-pyramid energy access programs.



Priority was given to investments in low-carbon technologies, set to contribute to over 2 GW of additional generation capacity by harnessing the large, hydro, solar, geothermal and wind resources of the continent. Yet this is only the beginning, as much of the work to date has been centered on setting up the right frameworks to mobilize different partners and alternative forms of capital to tackle the various challenges in the sector at country, sub-regional and regional levels.



Indeed, mobilizing partnerships and rolling out countrywide energy transformation are continuous works in progress. In 2019, as testament to the Bank’s efforts in enhancing dialogue and consensus, the G5 Heads of State endorsed the Bank’s Desert to Power initiative, intended to build the world’s largest solar zone across the Sahel by adding up to 10 GW of solar generation capacity through public and private interventions. The Yeleen Solar Program in Burkina Faso – the first of dozens of similar projects expected to flourish across the Sahel region – will provide energy to 150,000 households in rural areas through solar mini-grids and solar home systems, and an additional 52 MW of grid-connected solar generation, enough to power 30,000 new households.



Achieving the objectives of the New Deal on Energy for Africa will require a significant increase in private sector investments. The Bank catalyzes more private investments into independent power producers and off-grid projects through partnerships with project developers, commercial banks, private equity funds, institutional investors and other development finance institutions. Over the past five years, the Bank’s interventions reached $1.5 billion in private sector operations, corresponding to 1.7 GW additional generation capacity through independent power producers.



In addition to mobilizing concessional resources through bilateral and multilateral sources – notably from the European Union, Green Climate Fund and Climate Investment Funds – the Bank hosts the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), one of the largest multi-donor technical assistance and concessional capital funds in the continent, designed to catalyze private sector participation in renewable energy.



In 2019, the Bank converted SEFA into a special trust fund to widen its interventions into green mini-grids to accelerate energy access to underserved populations; green baseload to support clean generation capacity; and energy efficiency to optimize energy systems and reduce energy intensity. SEFA is expected to contribute to the electrification of more than 7 million households by 2030.



The Bank is also actively supporting the mobilization of commercial capital through blended finance solutions. The Facility for Energy Inclusion, which was operationalized in 2019, is a $500 million investment platform organized around two funds – off-grid and on-grid – to provide flexible debt products, including in local currency, to emerging business models in the small-scale renewable energy space. The Facility for Energy Inclusion will contribute to more than 3 million new connections by 2030.



To enhance institutional performance and improve the enabling conditions to attract much needed investments, the Bank has also implemented initiatives such as the Electricity Regulatory Index to monitor and benchmark regulatory performance against best practices, the Sustainable Utilities Transformation Agenda, to build sustainable utilities and energy institutions, and the Africa Energy Portal to provide accurate, up-to-date data on Africa’s energy sector. In 2019, the African Development Bank reported that an additional 96 million African households had gained access to electricity between 2015 and 2019, with countries like Rwanda on track to achieve universal access by 2025. Despite this encouraging progress, close to 600 million Africans still lack electricity access and achieving universal access goals under SDG7 still requires greater and swifter efforts to meet the demands of Africa’s growing population.



Addressing electricity access remains a costly enterprise, with the International Energy Agency placing the price tag at around $120 billion annually through 2040, four times higher than current levels.



While our direct financial contribution is modest by comparison, we are confident that its judicious application to catalytic power projects, innovative financial structures, sector reform processes and acceleration of decentralized solutions will get us far in our mission.



Dr. Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate Change &amp; Green Growth, African Development Bank

VP Kevin Kanina Kariuki

COMMENT: A New Deal on Energy for Africa

ACCRA (Reuters) &#8211; Ghana’s deputy trade and industry minister Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has resigned for violating coronavirus self-isolation measures after testing positive for the virus, President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement on Friday.



“This follows the admission by the deputy minister of his breach of the COVID-19 protocols, when, as a person certified to be positive of the virus, he visited a registration centre in his constituency before the period of self-isolation was complete,” the statement said.



The West African nation has recorded one of the highest number of corona virus cases in the continent since the outbreak at 18,134, with 117 deaths. Last month, Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu tested positive for the virus.

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Ghana minister resigns after breaching COVID-19 measures

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand opened stronger on Friday and was on course for gains of roughly 2% against the dollar this week, after the first current account surplus in 17 years and an upbeat U.S. jobs report.



At 0650 GMT, the rand traded at 16.9350 versus the dollar, around 0.3% firmer than its previous close.



Government bonds were flat, with the yield on the 2030 bond at 9.27%.



On Thursday, central bank data showed a 1.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) surplus on the current account, which has long been a sore spot for Africa’s most industrialised economy. That added to optimism from the U.S. economy creating jobs at a record clip in June.



Although the rand has enjoyed a good week, it is still down some 17% against the U.S. currency so far this year, partly a reflection of deep-seated concerns about the health of domestic public finances.



The finance ministry predicts a deficit on its main budget of more than 14% of GDP this fiscal year and an economic contraction of over 7% in 2020. An economic recession that began last year deepened in the first quarter, before the coronavirus crisis really took hold, data showed this week.

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South African rand opens stronger after positive data

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/who-audio-emergencies-coronavirus-press-conference-15th-may--2020.pdf?sfvrsn=cae39150_2">noted</a>&nbsp;that “researchers are working at break-neck speed” to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19). They are also working to develop potential vaccines, medicines and other technologies that are affordable and equitable. By June 2020 – six months since it was first identified – thousands of therapeutic trials and dozens of vaccine development studies were&nbsp;<a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/">under way</a>, including one vaccine study each in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/uotw-fcv062320.php">South Africa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/nigerian-researchers-announce-covid-19-vaccine/1883955">Nigeria</a>.



As a public health specialist and infectious diseases epidemiologist, I am very happy and impressed to see such massive research activity to relieve human suffering from this baffling disease. But then, as an African, I ask myself, when will these treatments or vaccines be available for Africans on African soil? Will the “break-neck speed”, “affordability” and “equity” work for the benefit of Africa?



It is true that African countries are making their own efforts to fight the pandemic. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is building on its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/building-ebola-response-tackle-covid-19-drc">Ebola response</a>&nbsp;to tackle COVID-19;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/walvis-bay-covid-19-strategy-test-isolate-and-treat">Namibia</a>&nbsp;is working hard on a “test-isolate-treat” strategy; and Nigeria is turning hospitals into COVID-19 treatment centres and calling on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/volunteering-nigerias-covid-19-battle">volunteer nurses</a>&nbsp;to close the gap in health professionals. The WHO is also supporting the COVID-19 response in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/who-response-in-countries">African region</a>, particularly in logistics and the capacity of health and multidisciplinary experts.



But the history of pandemic or epidemic diseases is not encouraging. It shows that treatments and vaccines have been accessible to African countries only after the loss of millions of lives and typically years – sometimes decades – after developed nations have benefited from them. This is mainly because the treatments and vaccines for most diseases are produced in Western countries and are too expensive for African countries. This largely remains in place as the chief barrier to accessibility of treatments and vaccines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What history tells us</h2>



The timelines, affordability and equity of providing services to manage tuberculosis (TB) and HIV illustrate the above point.



The scientist Robert Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5432783/">1882</a>. TB become an epidemic disease in Africa a decade later. And it is still a public health threat on the continent. By&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/tuberculosis-tb">2016</a>, there were 2.5 million infections and 420,000 deaths.



TB treatment in the US and Europe was introduced in&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12168751/">1944</a>. But Africa only started receiving the treatment in the early 1970s, nearly three decades later. The drugs were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1936956/#B20,">very expensive</a>&nbsp;and African countries couldn’t afford to import them.



It was the same with the TB vaccine,&nbsp;<a href="https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/20/36_suppl/87S">BCG</a>. European and American babies started receiving it in the&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24023600/">1920s</a>. South Africans had to wait more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869300/">50 years</a>. The vaccine was too expensive and international donors needed several years to rally support for political and economic reasons.



Similarly, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV came to Africa in the early&nbsp;<a href="https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-7-33">21st century</a>, roughly a decade after it was available in the&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22706009/">developed West</a>. By then the problem was far worse in Africa, despite some fragmented prevention efforts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids">death rate</a>&nbsp;in the 1990s was 100-200 per 100,000 in Africa but only 5-10 per 100,000 in Europe. As of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/hivaids">2018</a>, HIV infected 25.7 million and killed 0.47 million Africans.



The price of ART drugs eventually&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/7/08-058925/en/">declined</a>&nbsp;because of higher purchase volumes, more producers and the availability of generics.



A strategy of testing for and treating HIV was launched in the US in&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22895503/">2010</a>, and only six years&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/hiv/pub/arv/arv-2016/en/">later</a>&nbsp;in parts of Africa. Test-and-treat programmes are still not&nbsp;<a href="https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-7-33">available</a>&nbsp;in all African countries because of poor infrastructure, shortages of trained professionals and other reasons. ART is still&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/7/08-058925/en/">expensive</a>&nbsp;for African countries but has been supported by international donors. Some NGOs that were central to the treatment strategy are handing it over to local governments.



Generally, treatments and vaccines for almost all diseases are developed outside Africa and take years to arrive in low-income countries, which cannot initially afford them. When they do arrive there may be other problems, such as lack of infrastructure to distribute the treatments and deliver vaccines, and lack of skilled health workers to provide the care. The people in need may not take up the available services widely. Modern and traditional healthcare provision aren’t always integrated in ways that enhance health-seeking behaviour.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Remaining obstacles</h2>



In addition to the long and complex process of trial research, there are several factors that complicate access to future COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.



First, the traditional donors to African countries themselves are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/en/">hard-hit</a>&nbsp;by the virus and many are at the brink of deep economic recession, if not depression. Therefore they may not be able to contribute readily to directly supporting Africa’s health systems, subsidising drugs or strengthening existing partnerships between countries and institutions.



Second, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/29/trump-us-terminate-who-relationship/">withdrawal</a>&nbsp;of US financial support for the WHO, one of the major supporters of Africa, will most certainly be felt. US allies could also revise their contribution and thereby destabilise the institution. And there could be a disconnect between US scholars and the WHO, to the detriment of Africa.



Third, many African governments may not be able to afford the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.msf.org/access-high-vaccine-prices-hamper-immunisation-efforts-africa-are-missing-agenda-key-vaccination">cost</a>&nbsp;of a COVID-19 vaccine.



Fourth, there are ongoing&nbsp;<a href="https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/rise-displacement-africa">conflicts</a>&nbsp;and displacement of people in the region, which will challenge access.



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Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-need-to-do-more-for-refugees-affected-by-coronavirus-heres-how-135861">Governments need to do more for refugees affected by coronavirus: here&#8217;s how</a>



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Fifth, the region has poor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/africa-lack-infrastructure-leaves-millions-poverty-despite-potential">infrastructure</a>&nbsp;and a shortage of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1239980/">health workers</a>&nbsp;to distribute treatments or vaccines.



So, to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Africa must learn from the history of HIV, TB and other&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/investing-in-health-systems-is-the-only-way-to-stop-the-next-ebola-outbreak-124957">outbreaks</a>. A delayed introduction of treatments and vaccines should not be repeated. And countries should first do all they can to&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-can-get-covid-19-under-control-if-it-blocks-the-routes-that-enable-transmission-140792">prevent</a>&nbsp;the crisis.

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Africa waited for solutions to past health crises: will it be different for COVID-19?

OSLO (Reuters) &#8211; Pirates attacked an oil production vessel off Nigeria in the early hours of Thursday and kidnapped nine Nigerian nationals, the ship’s owner BW Offshore said.



The Sendje Berge ship was undergoing maintenance when the attack happened, BW Offshore’s Chief Financial Officer Staale Andreassen told Reuters.



The Oslo-listed company said none of the people remaining on the vessel were injured.



“We are working now with the Nigerian authorities to get those nine people safely back,” Andreassen added.



The vessel, a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) that can produce about 50,000 barrels per day, was working at the Okwori oilfield operated by Addax Petroleum, a part of China’s Sinopec Group.



A maritime security firm Dryad Global, citing unidentified reports, said the attack involved three boats and explosives, making it unusual.



Andreassen said he could not confirmed that a number of boats had been involved, but denied that explosives were used during the attack.

My beautiful picture

Pirates kidnap nine in attack on vessel off Nigeria, says ship owner

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Administrators at South African Airways (SAA) aim to publish a revised restructuring plan on July 7 incorporating some ideas from committees representing the airline’s creditors and employees, the administrators’ spokeswoman said on Thursday.



The administrators published a restructuring plan for the struggling state-owned airline last month after repeated delays and months of wrangling with the government and trade unions.



But a vote on the plan was delayed until July 14 at a meeting last week after the NUMSA, SACCA and SAAPA unions and some creditors argued the plan was deficient and objected to the vote happening.



Louise Brugman, spokeswoman for SAA administrators Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, said the airline’s creditors’ and employees’ committees had submitted proposals for changes to the plan which were being discussed. It is not clear how significant revisions to the plan could be.



The plan published last month envisaged scaling back SAA’s fleet while keeping most routes intact. It needs the government to find at least 10 billion rand ($590 million) of new funds to pay some creditors, fund thousands of layoffs and restart the airline as COVID-19 travel restrictions ease.



The government has not said where that money will come from, although it has alluded to interest from private sector funders and potential partners. The finance minister allocated no new money for SAA in an emergency budget.



The Department of Public Enterprises, the ministry responsible for SAA, warned on Thursday of the “devastating impact” if creditors rejected the restructuring plan and the airline was liquidated.



It said four unions &#8211; NTM, SATAWU, AUSA and Solidarity &#8211; and some non-unionised SAA staff were ready to sign voluntary severance packages if creditors approve the plan on July 14.



All four unions confirmed to Reuters that they were prepared to do that.



($1 = 16.9248 rand)

SAA administrators aim to publish revised plan on July 7

UK PM Johnson says statue of colonialist Rhodes should not be pulled down &#8211; Reuters



LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that a statue of 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes should not be pulled down from an Oxford University college because history should not be edited.



Oriel College, Oxford, said last month it wanted to remove a statue of Rhodes after a campaign by those who argue the statue glorifies racism and is an insult to black students.



Johnson told the Evening Standard newspaper he did not want to see the statue pulled down.



It would, he said, be like “trying to bowdlerise or edit our history &#8230; like some politician sneakily trying to change his Wikipedia entry,” the Standard reported.



“I’m pro-heritage, I’m pro-history, and I’m in favour of people understanding our past with all its imperfections,” he said

Students protest under the statue of Cecil Rhodes outside Oriel College in Oxford University

UK PM Johnson says statue of colonialist Rhodes should not fall

Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion &#8211; Reuters



DAKAR (Reuters) &#8211; African countries have lost almost $55 billion in travel and tourism revenues in three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the African Union (AU) commissioner for infrastructure and energy said on Thursday.



Amani Abou-Zeid told a news conference the economic impact of lockdowns and border closures to curb the spread of the virus would be severe, with the continent’s air industry hit particularly hard.



She said tourism and travel represented almost 10% of the gross domestic product of Africa.



“We have 24 million African families whose livelihood is linked to travel and tourism,” Abou-Zeid said, adding the downturn had come in a year when Africa was expected to see an increase in travel and air transport.



“The blow is very hard, between the economic losses and the job losses,” Abou-Zeid said. African airlines have seen a 95% drop in revenues, or about $8 billion, along with other losses such as the deterioration of assets, she said.



“Some airlines in the continent will not make it post-COVID-19,” she said, adding the blow came at a time when some airlines were in the early stages of development, while others, such as South African Airways, were in difficulties even before the pandemic.



Abou-Zeid said more resistant carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines were using the opportunity to acquire smaller struggling companies, but the outbreak had put a halt to the AU’s plan for a single African air transport market.



Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, regional director for the International Civil Aviation Organization, told the news conference that African airlines would need an estimated $20 billion to resume operations.



Ivory Coast’s national airline Air Cote d’Ivoire, which restarted domestic flights on Friday, said it had received 14 billion CFA francs ($24 million) from the government to keep it afloat.

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Newsletter

South Africa’s Capitec forecasts 70% profit fall in blow to shares

Land Bank default forces S.Africa’s central bank into $200 mln bailout of state investment arm

Zimbabwe’s Landela agrees to buy state-owned gold mines, seeks more assets

How Zimbabwe farmers will be trained how to farm with a scheme from Belarus with love

South Africa’s National Treasury says “no further action” to bailout SAA airline

The African entrepreneur who made it by streaming sweet music to the locked down.

South Africa’s boozy church struggles with COVID lockdown rules

COMMENT: What will be the new Africa post COVID-19?

COMMENT: How I grappled with business during COVID-19

COMMENT: A New Deal on Energy for Africa

Ghana minister resigns after breaching COVID-19 measures

South African rand opens stronger after positive data

Africa waited for solutions to past health crises: will it be different for COVID-19?

Pirates kidnap nine in attack on vessel off Nigeria, says ship owner

SAA administrators aim to publish revised plan on July 7

UK PM Johnson says statue of colonialist Rhodes should not fall

Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters