INTRODUCTION 

ACCOUNTING used to be restricted to financially measurable matters of profit and loss; expenditure and revenue; taxes and subsidies; investment and liabilities. But the mathematical and statistical skills underpinning a solid set of books and filed accounts are today increasingly being used to measure the environmental and social sustainability of a product, input, production process and supply chain.…

Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

THE NEED for a proactive effort to improve the teaching and researching of physics in sub-Saharan Africa, as a foundation for critically important scientific work, has been highlighted in a new report from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the UK-based Institute of Physics (IOP).…

THE RULING council of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) is preparing to agree major reforms to the International Cocoa Agreement, which should see the agreement increase its commitment to boost sustainability in the chocolate sector.

Council members are considering final changes committing the ICCO to ensuring that cocoa production, processing and manufacture is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) member state of Malta – along with Haiti, the Philippines, and South Sudan – have been added to FATF’s increased monitoring watch list, with all four countries promising to work with the global AML body to improve their dirty money controls.…

INNOVATIVE confectionery and sweet bakery companies will be able from next month (July) to explore applying for research funding from the European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme, which has a budget of around EUR95.5 billion. This spending will last until 2027, with companies needing to form international consortia focused on food, ingredients and packaging projects to have the best chance of securing funding.…

MALTA’S only multiple casino operator has been fined over serious AML/CFT failings, with the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) ordering Tumas Gaming Ltd to undertake AML control reforms.

The company must pay EUR233,156 for breaching the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.…

UK universities are turning a blind eye to Nigerian political elites laundering dirty money through their fees, according to a paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from West Africa expert and non-resident scholar, Matthew Page. Commissioned by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, ‘West African Elites’ Spending on UK Schools and Universities: A Closer Look’ (1), flags up the “unexplained wealth” used by Nigerian politicians and public officials to pay British university and boarding school fees.…

BRITISH and European Union (EU) confectioners must take care to ensure their products meet new origin rules if they want them covered by the duty free goods provisions of the new EU/UK trade agreement struck on Christmas Eve.

The 1,256-page deal includes complex and comprehensive origin rules, such as for chocolate, which can be deemed made in the EU and Britain if all dairy, eggs and honey used are sourced locally, as well as at least 40% of grains, malt, starches and wheat, (which must also not exceed 30% of costs).…

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is consulting on proposed new accounting requirements for mergers and acquisitions involving companies within the same group. At present IFRS 3 on business combinations covers mergers and acquisitions involving third party-owned businesses, not intra-group deals.…

A Shanghai-based startup confectioner LANDBASE (NOTE TO EDITOR – UPPER CASE SPELLING FOR COMPANY NAME IS CORRECT) has tapped China’s competitive chocolate market though selling sugar-free chocolate, sweetened with alternative flavouring inulin, targeted at health-focused consumers.

The two-year-old company’s brand CHOCDAY and product lines ‘Dark Milk’ and ‘Dark Premium’, have been developed in China, but manufactured in Switzerland for the Chinese market, a first in China.…

EUROPE’S confectionery and sweet bakery association CAOBISCO has been pressuring the European Union (EU) to resolve a long-running trade dispute with the USA over aircraft manufacturing subsidies causing Washington to impose tariffs on European food exports. These include 25% duties on exports from the EU (including the UK) of raspberry, strawberry, apricot, peach and other jams; cherries and peaches; sweet biscuits from Germany; waffles and wafers from Britain and Germany; and an additional 25% on these jams when exported from Germany and France.…

The cutting edge IT field of quantum computing is developing across Africa, with South Africa considered the hub, in part through an IBM centre in Johannesburg that enables academics throughout the continent to freely access its quantum computer network, based in the USA, through the cloud.…

THE UNITED Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has proposed creating a permanent ‘observatory’ monitoring cocoa markets, assessing value and costs, to help chocolate sales revenues be more equitably distributed throughout supply chains.

In a report called a ‘Comparative study on the distribution of value in European chocolate chains’, the FAO said such “objectified and cross-checked data” would aid “a multi-stakeholder discussion” at national and global levels on revenue sharing.…

Only a handful of countries in the Middle East and Africa have dedicated whistleblowing laws – South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Algeria, Morocco, and the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories, according to Blueprint for Free Speech, a charity promoting freedom of expression (https://www.blueprintforfreespeech.net/).…

THE INTERNATIONAL chocolate industry has been making all the right noises about practising due diligence over supply chains, so that brands ensure their cocoa is grown and processed responsibly – environmentally and socially. But doubts persist among NGOs that enough checks are made by companies and supplier country partners (including governments) and when wrongdoing is discovered it is contested effectively, in the confectionery and other sectors.…

GIVEN the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by banks on fighting money laundering, fears that trade-based money laundering (TBML) remains widespread, as stressed by FATF, the APG (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/methodsandtrends/documents/trade-basedmoneylaunderingtypologies.html), and most recently, the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/supranational_risk_assessment_of_the_money_laundering_and_terrorist_financing_risks_affecting_the_union_-_annex.pdf), are of serous concern. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that in 2018, global merchandise exports were worth USD19.48 trillion, so there is plenty of place for laundered money to hide.…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

AFRICA is commonly hailed as the world’s next big focus of economic growth, but for the civil aviation industry, this prospect will require significant investment in new intra-African routes and related airport and ATC infrastructure. It will also require governments to remove immigration barriers preventing African air travellers flying to other countries on their home continent.…

Airbus is to pay out EUR3.6 billion (USD4 billion) under a trio of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) with British, French and United States authorities that were simultaneously agreed by national courts January 31 as part of a global resolution over bribes to clinch civil and military aircraft sales.…

Brands delivering natural skin care, hair and colour cosmetics items are responding to the growing sophistication of consumers in West Africa who are increasingly looking to purchase natural products. Businesses in the region’s beauty sector say quality levels are improving, with manufacturing executives telling Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics (SPC) at the Beauty West Africa Conference, in Lagos, on November 18-20 (2019), that local products are improving, with aromas and textures becoming more sophisticated, and products being delivered in increasingly eye-catching packaging.…

The challenge to increase the participation of African women in science, technology and innovation (STI) tertiary education jobs and courses could be addressed by increasing the amount of such topics taught to girls in primary and secondary schools, Prof. Alice Pell, the former vice provost at New York state, USA’s Cornell University, told a conference of senior female African academics.…

Universities and other institutions of higher learning should incorporate well-structured capacity building programmes that target women at all levels of the academic life within strategic policies to promote gender inclusivity in science, technology and innovation (STI), an African HE conference has been told.…

INDIA maybe a populous and diverse country with its 1.36 million potential consumers who speak 22 languages, but one company maintains a strong, even dominant, position in India’s fast-growing chocolate market which saw sales of USD1.8 billion in 2018, according to GlobalData – Mondelēz International Inc’s Cadbury brand.…

Beauty markets in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming more sophisticated, and with this comes an increasing desire by consumers to use cosmetics that better match their own skin and hair characteristics, rather than utilising products that of more universal appeal.

Nigeria’s personal care product industry continues to grow, and given its population is the largest in Africa – now estimated by the United Nations at 200 million – this market inevitably has the most potential in the continent.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission – the European Union (EU) executive – has claimed its Erasmus+ higher education exchange initiative is significantly boosting tertiary studies for African students and academics, with 8,500 Africans benefiting this year (2019).

In a report on the programme, which has been hailed as a flagship of the EU’s positive international impact, the Commission said that this figure was poised to keep growing, so that it will have helped more than 35,000 African students and academics by 2020.…

Mentorship and sharing experiences will be a key part of the discussions on boost numbers of women in leadership and senior positions within Africa’s higher education sector, when African women vice chancellors meet for their annual symposium in December 2-6.

This meeting of the Forum for African Women Vice Chancellors (FAWoVC) is being staged alongside the annual general meeting of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), to be held at the University of Cape Coast, in Ghana.…

JAPAN and South Korea have many similarities in AML/CFT terms, being the only countries in north-east Asia with democratic, open societies, who also run their economies according to standard free market principles. They are also both developed industrial economies in which the rule of law is applied consistently and transparently.…

IT is now two years since the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) headquarters moved from London to Abidjan, in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) in July 2017, a move ICCO called a “turning point that will bear fruit in the years to come.”…

BETTER cooperation between accountants, financial institutions and financial technology firms could underpin the sustainability of impressive recent growth in mobile banking across west Africa.

With an overwhelming majority of the region’s population – which exceeds 350 million people – lacking access to formal banking services, mobile telephony, which is far more widespread, offers a portal to financial inclusion.…

MALAYSIA has extended its grace period for taxpayers who have under-paid in the past, allowing for low penalties should undeclared income be filed on returns this year. This even covers taxpayers who have yet to register with the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia, and those who have registered but have not submitted ITRF/PRF/RPGTRF returns.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has included four American external territories – Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa – on a proposed blacklist of weak AML/CFT jurisdictions released today (Feb 13).

Brussels’ updated list includes 12 countries that are viewed with concern by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen. …

IN a world increasingly hungry for natural gas, recent foreign investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects has raised the likelihood that the substantial gas reserves of some sub-Saharan African nations will make it into global markets in the decade ahead.…

NORTH Africa offers personal care product majors populous markets, close to European manufacturing centres, with large and growing middle classes (outside troubled Libya) – but trading in these countries is not without complication. Regulatory shifts, counterfeiting and some security concerns make these useful markets a challenge for brands to tap.…

DIGITAL production technologies could help African manufacturers pick up business lost by Chinese rivals because of the trade war in the USA, with brands looking to take advantage of the free trade agreements that many African countries have with the USA and Europe.…

THE MIDDLE East regional director of the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) has called for a rethink of how the roll-out of the 2017 ICAO Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP), as member states struggle to meet initial 2020 deadlines for security improvements.…

THE PERCEPTION of beauty and hence the design and supply of personal care products is slowly changing in sub-Saharan Africa as its increasingly wealthy middle class consumers take a more personalised approach to how they look. The region has a widely diversified consumer-base, whose varied tastes are pushing brands to rethink personalising cosmetics and personal care products like never before. …

As he took in the fourth Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW) in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last week, Kenneth K Han, managing director of Shints ETP Garment Plc, said he is optimistic over the country’s potential in the textile and apparel sector, despite many challenges.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released a new standard on reporting financial instruments – IPSAS 41 – to improve the relevance of financial assets and liabilities data. It replaces financial instruments reporting rules in IPSAS 29, introducing a single classification and measurement model for financial assets, considering an asset’s objective and cash flows.…

MAJOR universities from six African countries will next year (2019) be able to develop their services through each receiving USD20 million grants from the World Bank, via a regional rural development research initiative, with the money designed to turn these institutions into regional hubs for agricultural learning.…

EAST African countries maybe updating their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation and strengthening related institutions, but experts warn that a lack of enforcement will aid the proliferation of ML and TF in the region.

In Kenya, a Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill was approved by the country’s parliament last March (2017).…

SOUTH Korean conglomerate Lotte Group has announced a major expansion of production at its plant in Kaluga, western Russia, which will involve building a new manufacturing line and double the capacity of an existing line.

A statement sent to just-food said that the construction and installation work should be completed by this November.…

THE AMERICAN confectionery sector is facing tough tariffs in its key export market of Canada after the US government decided to impose punitive duties on Canadian exports of steel and aluminium.

Ottawa announced its own retaliatory duties, which it intends to impose from July 1, having consulted on a shortlist of products, including potential 10% duties on US-made maple sugar and syrup, liquorice, toffee, chocolate, sugar confectionery, strawberry jam, nut purées and pastes.…

CORRUPTION saps economic competition that drives productivity improvements and grows emerging market economies – this is a key reason behind the establishment of the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC). Another is the established link between the perception of risk from corrupt practices in a country and foreign economic investment.…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

THE IDENTITY of 49 jurisdictions that will automatically exchange tax information in 2017 under a global standard has been revealed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …

DATA has been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) that shows how African governments collect less tax as a proportion of their countries’ wealth than in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa’s average 2015 tax-to-GDP ratio was 19.1%; compared to 22.8% in Latin America/Caribbean and 34.3% for the 35 richer countries within the OECD.…

RESTRICTIVE quotas limiting European Union (EU) sugar production to 13.5 million tonnes have finally been scrapped, freeing producers to hit market demand. The abolition of the quotas from October 1 sees European Commission officials predicting that EU sugar production will increase 20% and reach 20.1 million tonnes for the next harvest.…

SOUTH Africans are boosting their spending on cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures, with their national market expected to generate South African Rand ZAR94.15 million (USD7.1 million) in annual receipts by 2024. This reflects a 5.8% annual growth rate from the ZAR61 million (USD4.6 million) spent in 2016, according to US-based market research and consulting company Grand View Research, in figures released in July (2017).…

ANXIETY has greeted the passage and signing of three sets of laws to regulate the mining sector in Tanzania, even though it could reverse a ban on copper and gold exports imposed in March.

The Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and re-negotiation of unconscionable terms) Act 2017, The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, No 7 of 2017 and The Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act 2017 were approved by parliamentarians on July 3

Tanzanian President John Magufuli signed the new bills into law on July 5, despite opposition from key industry players.…

A PROPOSAL to cut funding for the Fogarty International Center from the upcoming USA federal government budget by President Donald Trump’s administration has prompted an outcry from academics and educators across Africa.

For decades Fogarty, part of the USA National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been instrumental in developing medical teaching and research capacity on the continent.…

Demand is growing for a major international programme designed to support developing countries build up their tax audit capacity and – critically – the funding is there to meet that need. Launched as a joint initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in July 2015 after an initial pilot phase, Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) sees tax experts work side-by-side with local officials in developing and emerging markets.…

CONTRACTORS working at Kotoka International Airport, Accra, Ghana, are working towards 2017 year-end deadline to complete a USD250 million upgrade so it can accommodate 5 million tourists visiting the west African country annually by 2020. Coordinated by operator Ghana Airports Company Ltd, the project involves building a new terminal of 45,000 square metres with five levels, six contact stands and two remote stands.…

HONG Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will ease listing requirements for certain infrastructure companies, notably those involved in projects aiding the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative. This aims to promote transport infrastructure helping move Chinese goods to central Asia, southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.…

KENYA’S EDUCATION MINISTER CALLS FOR LESS GOVERNMENT MEDDLING IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Kenya’s education minister has called for African governments to pull away from direct management of their country’s universities, saying such meddling is unnecessary and can hinder the development of effective management.…

The oil and gas industry is reshaping its strategies, practices and values as it responds to global agreements on climate change and sustainable development. The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which came into effect in January 2016 – are prominent among global governance challenges driving change in the oil and gas industry, but pressure just keeps building.…

THE MODERATION of growth across sub-Saharan Africa last year to 1.5%, (according to the World Bank), from an average 5-7% per annum in the previous 10 years, may signal that the region needs to firm up its financial professions and institutions to help preserve its recent economic gains.…

IVORY Coast has imported more than double the value of cosmetic products in 2015 when compared with 2009, from the European Union (EU) alone, signaling the creation of a booming domestic beauty market as the country emerges from a civil war that ended in 2011.…

A public forum on how universities help promote transformative leadership by women has highlighted the difficulty of framing policies that simultaneously encourage personal development and directly assist women in securing equal opportunities. This discussion comes at a time when women outnumber men in university enrolment globally, but continue to trail men in leadership positions in government, research, and the formal economy.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a series of standards designed to promote sustainability in the chocolate and cocoa sector, and wants industry input.

It has released drafts on the ISO 34101 series, on ‘sustainable and traceable cocoa beans’, and wants expert opinions on them, for submission by December 4.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) chocolate sector stands to access supplies from the world’s third largest cocoa producer – Indonesia – should new talks to forge an EU-Indonesia trade deal prove successful. The country produced around 400,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2015.…

HAVING a strong reputation for sustainable practice is increasingly a strong marketing card, for the confectionery sector as much as any other consumer industry. But with its extended international supply chains, demonstrating a high regard for environmental good practice is not always easy for the confectionery sector.…

It is high time universities started to measure more what achieve in student learning, and less in enrolment, the Presidents’ Forum of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) has been told. The president of the Netherlands’ Maastricht University’s, Professor Jo Ritzen, referenced an American study in 2011 which found that many USA university and college students did not learn much at all.…

THE NEED for sub-Saharan Africa to improve its corporate governance, promoting sustainable development in a region that still trails the rest of the world in many poverty metrics, has been a key theme of accounting conferences. And new initiatives reflecting this understanding have been making progress in east and west Africa, for instance.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission may block or impose conditions on a planned acquisition by US-based Cargill of the industrial chocolate business of its American rival Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). The European Union (EU) executive’s directorate general for competition has opened an in-depth investigation into the deal, to assess whether it could damage the availability of reasonably priced supplies of this key confectionery input.…

THE VOLATILITY of the global energy market is presenting several challenges to the European Union’s (EU) biofuel sector. Low oil prices, recession, slumps in demand and political uncertainty in key oil producing areas are all raising questions of an industry that was meant to mitigate or provide solutions to many of these issues.…

Turkey’s rapidly growing nonwovens industry is a rising star that everyone should be paying attention to. This was the general consensus at the second Turkish Nonwovens Symposium in Istanbul on November 10-11, held by EDANA, the leading global association of nonwovens and related industries.…

Increasing efforts are being made across the cocoa supply chain in globally important producer Ghana to ensure its industry operates ethically and sustainably. Total Ghanaian cocoa production for the 2013/14 season was forecast to be around 830,000 tonnes, according to a report by the Oxford Business Group, which noted that 835,000 tonnes of cocoa were harvested in Ghana during the 2012/13 season, representing around 21% of the global total.…

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is reaching out to higher education institutions in other neighbouring countries to establish collaborations that will encourage more foreign students to enroll for distance learning.
University vice chancellor Professor Tolly Mbwette said the institution’s board hoped to spread its influence regionally: “We are now the largest distance learning university in the region and our plan is to take distance learning to most countries in East Africa and those under the Southern African Development Community [SADC] by 2016.”…

Beef and poultry production in the European Union (EU) have been growing steadily this year, putting the sectors on track for further growth in 2015, says a new report released today by (Wed Oct 8) the European Commission.
Its directorate-general for agriculture and rural development says the EU beef sector has seen impressive growth after a two-year slump, with beef and veal production likely to increase by more than 134,000 tonnes by December 31 to 7.6 million tonnes for all of 2014, compared to 2013.…

GHANA continues to be recognised as one of Africa’s success stories. The country remains relatively peaceful and stable, and its economy has grown at an annual average of around 6% over the past six years. As a result, it is maybe not a surprise that Ghana was ranked healthily at 5.88 (10 being the worst score) in the 2014 Basel Anti-Money Laundering index, among the lowest in west Africa, only bettered by established democracy Senegal, with 5.43.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will pay an additional EUR3 million to the Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP), financing its work to 2016. AIRCOP is run by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and Interpol, and aims to strengthen anti-narcotic detection, interdiction and intelligence capacities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. …

While Africa can be a tough place to work, it offers key opportunities for skilled financial professionals who can develop an understanding of how African business operates. Susanne Swaniker-Tettey, chief financial officer at Okavango Diamond Company Pty Ltd, is one such specialist.…

West African airports have imposed comprehensive health checks on passengers to fight the spread of the Ebola virus. In the region’s most populous country Nigeria, widespread passenger medical screening is under way, using screening, protection, detection and healthcare equipment, some donated by the USA government and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Chinese construction firms have cornered plenty of business in Africa and Latin America, but they need upskilling to consolidate their position. Anyone who observes the queues of nervous young men lining up in the early morning in Beijing’s tree-lined Sanlitun diplomatic district will be in no doubt of the intensity of Chinese activity in Africa and Latin America.…

The Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) is now operating at its permanent home in country’s Central District, having moved from temporary premises near the capital Gabarone.
The project, promoted by the country’s former president Festus Mogae, has been launched to boost science, engineering and technology degree programmes within Botswana, boosting the quality of its labour force.…

The poor health and welfare reputation of Nigeria’s abattoirs and meat processors has undermined the reputation of its meat sector, helping reduce exports to a derisory level.

It is a problem, because livestock accounts for one-third of Nigeria’s agricultural GDP, providing income, employment, food, farm energy, manure, fuel and transport.…

WHEN the Percassi family, owners of the successful make-up brand KIKO Make Up Milan, purchased in October 2013 a UNESCO-listed historic industrial site called Crespi d’Adda in northern Italy, it was not only a sign of their success, but proof of the old adage that tough economic times can be good for the beauty industry. …

AFTER six years of financing some of the largest infrastructure projects across Africa, a groundbreaking multilateral development institution – the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) – has attained its investment grade international credit rating. Moody’s Investors Service assigned the corporation an A3 (long term) /P2 (short term) foreign currency debt rating, making the AFC, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria the second highest investment grade rated financial institution based on the African continent, following the long-established Africa Development Bank (ADB).…

TURKEY’S paints and coatings industry has set itself the target of becoming the third largest paints and coatings sector in Europe by 2023 as it seeks to become a key regional hub within the international industry as a whole.

According to data from Turkey’s Association of Paint Industry (Boya Sanayicileri Dernegi – BOSAD), the size of the Turkish paints and coatings market reached 840,000 tonnes in 2012, with a value of USD2 billion.…

WITH the deadline for the UNESCO Education for All goals now just two years away, a consensus is emerging that post-2015 global efforts to expand education should focus on the tertiary sector. That was the outcome of an Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda seminar staged on Wednesday (January 5) in Brussels that brought together educational experts and policy makers, hosted by the Norwegian government.…

Botswana’s first private university, the Malaysian-owned Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (Limkokwing Botswana), has continued to flex its muscles in this diamond-rich Southern Africa nation, taking advantage of a fast growing tertiary education sector. Botswana’s college and university student (aged 18-24) enrollment has grown from 11.4% in 2007/08 to 16.4% in 2012, or 46,613 students.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded project aims to change Europeans’ reserve about using flies as a source of protein feed for pigs and poultry, but also for human consumption, which is not currently allowed in Europe.

With almost EUR3 million from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research, PROteINSECT wants to provide research that proves the efficacy and safety of insect protein to be used in animal feed.…

SUB-SAHARAN African makers of cosmetics and personal care products are profiting from a growing and increasingly stable regional market, where economic growth is increasing demand for personal luxuries.

A report, ‘Business in Africa – Corporate Insights’ by Dianna Games, Standard Bank South Africa estimates that more than half of Africa’s population would be living in urban areas by 2030 and 60% by 2050, when the population would be about 2.4 billion, compared to 1 billion now.…

Given its location, political actors and recent history, Lebanon has long been under the international regulatory spotlight. The US Treasury’s fingering of the Lebanese Canadian Bank in 2011 for money laundering concerns rocked its financial sector. Beirut has since been scrambling to address any short-comings, while at the same time dealing with sanctions on neighbouring Syria.…

BARACK Obama seems ready to accept an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for another 15 years before it expires in 2015, but sub-Saharan African textile manufacturers might have mixed feelings.

African ambassadors in Washington DC have been under strict instructions from their governments to lobby the United States Congress to renew the law, forming an ambassadors’ AGOA working group led by Ethiopian ambassador Girma Birru.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of states and governments have urged their ministers to agree important pieces of draft EU legislation that could potentially curb tax evasion in the bloc.

Meeting during a European Council meeting in Brussels last week (May 22), leaders were under pressure to act from media reports revealing how much untaxed incomes politicians, companies and rich business owners have stashed in tax havens.…

AT a time when the world seems increasingly led by lifelong politicians, it is perhaps refreshing to hear from a political leader who has a solid background in business, and such is former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Speaking to Accountancy Futures, he showed how more than half-a-century of business and public life can be brought to bear in financial and commercial mentorship.…

EXPERTS representing accounting bodies from around the world urged accountants in Africa to help reduce corruption and mismanagement in their governments through effective bookkeeping and auditing, as the continent moves towards sustainable growth. The 2^nd Africa Congress of Accountants (ACOA) gathered in Accra, the capital of Ghana, from May 14-16.…

WITH global cocoa prices continuing to rise and concerns growing that climate change will hinder efforts to boost production, the confectionery sector’s key Asia Choco Congress 2013 this year explored solutions to assure sustainable cocoa supplies.

Experts from industry giants such as Cargill, Mars and CAMOI joined with international cocoa specialists to assess ways of solving ongoing and potentially worsening market disfunction.…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

GHANA’S Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been making the news for all the wrong reasons, from accounts of a brawl breaking out between different security services at the airport; to the interception of a shipment of Ghanaian plantain stuffed with cocaine reported by UK officials.…

AFTER years of promises, the Ghanaian government, with some help from Brazil, is ready to make good on its pledge to equip Ghana with a second international airport. Construction under the government’s USD174 million plan to upgrade Tamale Airport, in northern Ghana, to enable it to better handle the international traffic for which it was designated in 2008, should begin this summer, according to Bernard Nyavor, the passengers director of Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA), in the capital Accra.…

IT has been called the world’s most powerful bank. In their book ‘China’s Superbank Debt, Oil and Influence – How China Development Bank [CDB] is Rewriting the Rules of Finance’, Bloomberg journalists Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe describe how the “CDB’s system of local government finance has helped lift millions out of poverty and shielded the country from recession”.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

GHANA is particularly vulnerable to climate change according to recent studies, putting its vital cocoa and oil palm industries under threat. The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Bogotá, Colombia, released a study in September 2011, which claims that much of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire will be too hot for cocoa production by 2050.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

FOR multinational businesses, comprehensive and precise financial reporting is critical for a company’s success, and such good practice is also essential for companies striving for profits within emerging markets.

Earlier this year, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) released a report ‘Being the Change: Inspiring the Next Generation of Inclusive Business Entrepreneurs Impacting the Base of the Pyramid’, which highlights the IFC’s ‘inclusive business models’ strategy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Customs Organisation (WCO) has launched a crack-down on illicit medicines in 16 African countries, which sparked the seizure of more than 82 million doses of illegal pharmaceuticals. The haul included antimalarial and anti-parasitic drugs, antibiotics, cough syrups, contraceptive pills and infertility treatments, worth more than USD40 million.…

BY WACHIRA KIGOTHI, IN NAIROBI, AND WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

China’s powerful clothing and textile industry is looking for continued growth in sub-Saharan Africa, whose local manufacturers and brands are worrying about how to deal with the competition.

According to William Gumede, a senior research fellow at the University of Witwatersrand’s school of public and development management in South Africa, Chinese domination of Africa’s textile markets and its industry has promoted significant job losses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Customs Organisation (WCO) has launched a crack-down on fraudulent medicines in 16 African countries, seizing more than 82 million doses of illegal pharmaceuticals worth more than USD40 million. A WCO note said: "These results are alarming…" Its officers worked with the Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicines (IRACM) and 16 national customs administrations in raids called VICE GRIPS 2, targeting seaport containers in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PRESSURE is growing on European Union (EU) ministers to give the EU’s sugar production quota system a stay of execution. MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have called for the retention of EU sugar quotas for beet farmers until 2020, rather than follow existing plans to phase them out in 2015.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CEO of Nestlé has praised the role of international standards in managing his multi-national company, giving it a health-based legal framework within which its specialists can creatively develop new confectionery and other food products.

Speaking within an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) briefing, Paul Bulcke said: “Tastes may differ, but health requirements and minimum standards are the same the world over.…

BY KACI RACELMA

WHILE the majority of north African paint and coatings markets have been disrupted by the wave of political and economic unrest brought on by the ongoing Arab Spring revolution, relatively stable Morocco has generated modest growth.

The country’s paint companies predict an increase in domestic paints and coatings production and sales in 2012, following sluggish sales since the international financial crisis hit in 2008.…

BY GEORGE STONE, IN CAPE TOWN

It is part of the accountancy profession’s faith that good honest financial reporting and dealings can promote economic growth because of the commercial trust that it engenders. And maybe nowhere can the case be made more strongly than in Africa.…

BY GEORGE STONE, IN CAPE TOWN

SUSTAINABLE growth in Africa outside South Africa faces the challenges of strong population growth, commodity price volatility, climate change and food insecurity. The continent’s current population of 1 billion people is forecast to almost double by 2050.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is coming under pressure to act against child labour in the global cocoa sector, with proposals being debated at the European Parliament to track cocoa produced with the help of children. That could mean an EU law creating a monitoring system making it clear to consumers where cocoa products risked being tainted by child labour, maybe through the "possible introduction of ‘child-labour free’ product labelling," said a draft report from the EP’s international trade committee.…

BY WANG FANGQING IN SHANGHAI

A RECENT Chinese-African cotton agreement could usher in a new era for the African cotton industry but not in the short-term, say industry experts.

Under the agreement, signed in December with four key cotton-producing African countries – Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso (known as the C4) – China stated it would provide machinery, expertise and materials in a bid to increase and improve the quality of local production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SUB-SAHARAN Africa might not be the obvious choice as the hub of a new thriving regional pharmaceutical industry, but the World Bank and a key African multi-national economic community think so. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a detailed strategy to foster medicine manufacture and World Bank managing director Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala thinks there is every chance the industry can grow south of the Sahara.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN OIL spill contingency plan will be drafted for west, central and southern African states on the Atlantic coast, following a UN Environment Programme-sponsored meeting in Ghana. There was also agreement by 19 of the 22 countries in the region to establish a regional centre to coordinate efforts to manage oil spills and deal with other environmental emergencies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INDIAN sustainable energy company Abellon CleanEnergy Ltd has promised to convert 10,000 hectares of degraded land in Ghana to produce biofuel feedstock such as bamboo, palmarosa and sweet sorghum. It will process this at a planned biofuel plant.…

BY MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE

IT may be no coincidence that football (or soccer as it is known by north American readers) is generally regarded as corrupt by law enforcement agencies and has chosen to stage two of its next major spectacles – the 2012 European championships, and the 2018 World Cup, in Ukraine and Russia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GHANA and Mongolia’s improved openness in their oil, gas and other extractive industries has led the World Bank to certified them as meeting the standards of its Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The accolade comes as Ghana has received US dollars USD38 million to boost the capacity of its government agencies to regulate its growing oil and gas sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank has drafted plans to lend Ghana US dollar USD58 million to boost the country’s ability to serve and administer its growing oil and gas industry. The money would fund training for Ghana oil and gas industry workers and strengthening relevant government ministries and agencies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTELLIGENCE advice teams are to be posted at international airports in seven west African countries, to boost the number and effectiveness of illicit drugs seizures at their terminals. This ‘Aircop’ initiative has been organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and Interpol.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

37.40

INTELLIGENCE advice teams are to be posted at international airports in seven west African countries, to boost the number and effectiveness of illicit drugs seizures at their terminals. This ‘Aircop’ initiative has been organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and Interpol.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GERMAN government is giving Euro EUR1.2 million to a UN project expanding and upgrading small and medium-sized generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Asia and Africa. It is run by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and aims to spread medicine manufacture across a continent where production is mainly concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GERMAN government is giving Euro EUR1.2 million to a UN project expanding and upgrading small and medium-sized generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Asia and Africa. It is run by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and aims to spread medicine manufacture across a continent where production is mainly concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank’s Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is planning to guarantee financing a USD40 million investment to help complete the Takoradi T1/T2 combined cycle natural gas power-plant complex in Ghana, adding 132 megawatts electricity generation. Société Générale Canada Branch would invest in its Ghana subsidiary SG-SSB Limited, if guaranteed by MIGA against the "non-honouring of sovereign financial obligations".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLIMATE control concerns will be integrated into all investment and advisory services offered by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank. It has created a new ‘Climate Business Group’ to undertake this work and grow IFC climate-related investments to more than US dollars USD3 billion within three years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SUGAR has been at the centre of continuing concern about fraud draining European Union (EU) budgets of duty revenue. The latest operational report from EU anti-fraud unit OLAF (which reviewed 2009) recalled how fraudsters made millions of Euros from exporting 3,400 tonnes of sugar from the EU to neighbouring non-member state Croatia via the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

Africa produces 70% of the world’ s cocoa; Asia and Oceania (Pacific islands) provide 19%; and the remaining 11% is from the Americas, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO). There are 5-6 million farmers worldwide – most with farms that cover 2 to 5 hectares.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AS with many oils and fats industries, the cocoa sector has distinct elements: producers, processors, distributers, wholesalers and retailers. Their collective environmental impact can be reduced if they work together in the most efficient way possible. And it is partly for that reason that there is a growing trend towards pressing and grinding the cocoa near the source, particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast (which together account for 60% of the world’s cocoa supply), as well as Indonesia.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AS with many oils and fats industries, the cocoa sector has distinct elements: producers, processors, distributers, wholesalers and retailers. Their collective environmental impact can be reduced if they work together in the most efficient way possible. And it is partly for that reason that there is a growing trend towards pressing and grinding the cocoa near the source, particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast (which together account for 60% of the world’s cocoa supply), as well as Indonesia.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

According to the US department of agriculture (USDA), about 70% of the 2.5 billion litres of fruit and vegetable juices sold in Mexico in 2009 were produced domestically. Mexico exported USdollar USD266.99 million worth of juices in 2009, compared to USD308.23 million in 2008 and USD247.29 million in 2007, according the UN Comtrade database.…

BY ALISON MOODIE

SUB-SAHARAN Africa is still struggling to make its way in the global textile and clothing industry – but companies are convinced that without the USA’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) the outlook would be bleaker. One decade ago this May, this tariff preference programme was launched by the US: it gives qualifying African countries zero tariff exports for the huge US market – and statistics show that the sub-Saharan textile and clothing industry has benefited.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank is considering guaranteeing US$260 million investment into a Ghana offshore oil and gas project. It would back Jubilee Ghana MV21 BV, a special-purpose Dutch company owning a floating production storage and offloading facility at the Jubilee Field, 60 kilometres offshore, operated by a subsidiary of Japan’s MODEC Inc.…

BY MARK ROWE

SEQUENCING the human genome has brought widespread interest and the potential for treatment of diseases, but confectionery industry researchers are increasingly applying this technique to key components in the food chain. One of the most high-profile sequencing programmes gathers pace this year, as Mars continues the sequencing of the cocoa genome, a project it is working on with the US department of agriculture’s subtropical horticultural research substation and IBM.…

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is lending US-based Kosmos Energy US$100 million to develop Ghana’s offshore Jubilee oil and gas field. The loan forms part of a US$750 million debt package the IFC helped raise – mainly from commercial banks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT has long been outmoded and inaccurate to split the world into two camps: industrialised developed economies, and largely agricultural developing countries. The growth of the 1990s and the current decade means there is a wide range of social and economic sophistication and wealth amongst the poorer of these two old-fashioned categories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OIL tankers sailing past the often unstable shores of west Africa will be safer in future, following the commissioning of a fully-equipped regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Monrovia, Liberia, coordinated by the International Maritime Organisation. The centre will help ships in distress off the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for contaminated food and feed (RASFF) has warned nuts imported into the EU are still commonly contaminated with aflatoxins. It reported in August British customs seizures of groundnuts (and fine corn meal) from India, plus peanut butter from Ghana, containing the toxin.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INCREASES in greenhouse gas pollution caused by deforestation, especially in developing countries, will be part of a revised Kyoto Protocol, covering the years beyond 2012. This was the agreement of a working group at a meeting last week (Aug 21-27) of the UN-sponsored global Climate Change Talks in Accra, Ghana.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE mining companies take the environment seriously today, maybe rather more than in times past. They are devoting significant resources to reducing or mitigating the environmental problems caused by mining. But what about the small and artisanal mines that pepper much of the developing world?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS Developments readers sink their teeth into chocolate Easter eggs this spring, it may be heartening to know that some profits generated by Cadbury’s seasonal confectionary are being diverted to Ghana’s small cocoa farmers. The British chocolate giant and the UN Development Programme have created an innovative fund, initially commanding US$2 million, rising to US$10 million by 2010, for investment in small farming communities in this cocoa exporting country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CADBURY and the UN Development Programme have created an innovative fund, initially commanding US$2 million, rising to US$10 million by 2010, for investment in small Ghana cocoa producing communities. The money will improve farming to boost yields and bean quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SENIOR official from European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF has become the chairman of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) new Inter-Governmental Negotiating Body (INB) charged with drafting a protocol fighting the illicit tobacco trade. This will be an international treaty aimed at creating worldwide measures combating this illegal commerce, linked to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SECURITY of nuclear power installations may be a priority in terrorism-fearing rich countries, but not in poorer states, with many other problems. But it is equally important of course: nuclear accidents, sabotage and terror attacks are devastating wherever they occur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris International (PMI) has released a detailed intelligence dossier on cigarette and other tobacco product counterfeiting, in a bid to encourage the international cooperation it deems necessary to effectively fight this crime. The report highlights 17 countries around the world where it thinks cigarette counterfeiting is a particular problem and where the cigarette company has specific advice: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Belize, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Ghana.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has released a series of detailed reports outlining the threats posed by counterfeiters worldwide and the inability of many governments to fight the problem.

Its sheaf of intelligence includes comprehensive warnings from cigarette giant Philip Morris, a company that has adopted a high profile in fighting counterfeiters and smugglers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S had a somewhat laborious beginning but at long last it seems that the West African regional body for fighting money laundering – formally known as the Groupe Inter-gouvernemental d’Action contre le Blanchiment en Afrique (GIABA) – is ready to begin operations in earnest.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IN an era when military intervention has been given a bad name through the Iraq morass, serving with the army, navy or air force might not be the immediate choice of many nurses as a career path which helps the needy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has exempted from its standard free trade rules for a further six years countries involved in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme combating ‘blood diamond’ sales.

Its current waiver was to expire December 31 and protects trade restrictions undertaken by participating countries preventing rough diamonds being exported to non-signatory states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has unveiled European Commission plans to next year launch comprehensive legislation boosting effective carbon capture and storage.

The laws would remove legal barriers impeding research and development into this environmental technology and would also lay down rules on liability, for instance, if stored CO2 leached into the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is pumping US$125 million into Ghana’s Ahafo gold mine project, which is controlled by a subsidiary of the USA-based Newmont Mining Corporation. Part of the money will help tackle criticism from aid groups that the open pit project will displace or affect the livelihoods of 9,000 people.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

ONGOING recruitment of South African nurses to the UK is pushing South Africa’s already hard pressed public health system close to the brink of collapse and putting patient care at risk, the country’s lead nursing union and health experts have warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, is the international organisation companies turn to when they want to invest in a jurisdiction where their assets might not be that safe. Oil and gas companies have long used MIGA to cover risks that are too tasty for the private insurance industry, and at December 2005, MIGA had supported 13 oil and gas projects, with guarantees totalling US$707 million, with a standard leverage of five-to-one, so investments covered are actually five times larger.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SATELLITE images of the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia have long horrified environmentalists, but now similar creeping disasters are threatening the many fresh water and brackish lakes of Africa. These are illustrated by disturbing satellite images within an atlas produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Lake Songor Lagoon, Ghana: 1990 and 2000

Dear Will,

Copy to follow. If these pix are not high enough resolution, go to http://na.unep.net/AfricaLakes/, where there are links to get higher res. Tif files of these images.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SATELLITE images of the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia have long horrified environmentalists, but now similar creeping disasters are threatening the many fresh water and brackish lakes of Africa. These are illustrated by disturbing satellite images within an atlas produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organisation, has launched a filter removing arsenic from water and which could, it claims, save tens of millions of lives from a pollutant created by many mines. Unveiled at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the filter was “simple and ecologically sound”, using as an absorbent recycled iron oxide coated sand produced as a by-product in groundwater treatment plants “available at no cost almost everywhere”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organisation, has launched a filter removing arsenic from water and which could save tens of millions of lives. Unveiled at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the filter was “simple and ecologically sound”, using as an absorbent recycled iron oxide coated sand produced as a by-product in groundwater treatment plants “available at no cost almost everywhere”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has announced a US$140 million grant and loan package to improve west African food production, notably confectionary ingredient export quality. The West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme will for instance establish a centre of excellence in Ghana for researching tree crops (cocoa, coffee, cashew, palm tree, rubber tree, Arabic gum, shea nut and mangoes).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency director general Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei has visited Nigeria and Ghana to see how his UN agency has been installing radiotherapy units in local hospitals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WEST African coastal communities are being forced to eat bushmeat because European Union (EU) subsidised commercial fishing is making local fish too expensive for local families. The European Commission has struck a series of fishing deals with countries such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where EU trawlers take fish for financial compensation to local governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WANT to sell cigarettes? Go east, young man. That might be the advice that tobacco companies could glean from the latest set of World Health Organisation (WHO) smoking figures. Using 2003 or latest available data, the WHO has collated percentage rate proportions of smoking adults (18 and over), compared with total populations of all but 56 countries: the overwhelming majority of nations.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WHEN a local pizza parlour goes bust, or the site of a planned hotel complex is suddenly left abandoned or interest rates suddenly shoot up for no apparent reason, we don’t normally blame money launderers. Perhaps we should though.…

BY RICHARD HURST
The Ivory Coast used to be a model of stability in west Africa, but the outbreak of civil war has done little to improve the country’s status in terms of money laundering, said an assessment by the US State Department.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GLOBAL Fund for the Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is giving US$26 million to west Africa’s Burkina Faso to boost its fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria; the money will be distributed by the United Nations Development Programme.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African mining company AngloGold has stated that if it wins the bidding war for Ashanti Goldfields in Ghana it would immediately invest US$190 million to fund the capital requirements of the mine in the Obuasi region. Jonathan Best, AngloGold chief financial officer, highlighted the difference between AngloGold’s recapitalisation plans with that of London Stock Exchange listed Randgold of US$170 million over the next 30 years, (included in a total package of US$1 billion over 51 years).…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African mining company AngloGold recently announced that it was seeking to divest from some of its Australian gold fields to continue other diversification efforts outside South Africa. AngloGold Australia ‘s general manager, Barrie Parker, said that the company’s current properties in the central Australian Tanami Desert, particularly the Coyote deposit, had been earmarked for sale in to raise money for AngloGold’s recent explorations in Ghana, Mongolia, Canada and South America.…

BY RICHARD HURST
CANADA’S PMI Ventures has announced that drilling has begun on its Ashanti II deep gold project, in Ghana, West Africa. The initial target being tested is in the Grid B area of the Fromenda concession. The programme consists of 1,050 metres of diamond drilling in eight to ten holes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The UN Environment Programme says that within five years most African countries will be close to phasing out leaded petrol. Egypt, Libya, Mauritius and Sudan – are already lead-free, to be joined this year by Morocco, Reunion and Tunisia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is rare that an international organisation report on a scandal involving crime, corruption, war and environmental degradation names and shames high profile companies, but that is what is contained within the latest United Nations (UN) Security Council report on the Congo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*A supermarket boom in sub-Saharan Africa is raising food production and distribution standards, which many small farmers cannot meet, said the UN’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It called for the funding of cooperatives, micro-loans and training, especially in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINANCIAL restrictions should be imposed on companies, businessmen, ministers and soldiers charged with involvement in the shameless plundering of the mineral resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a United Nations (UN) committee established to investigate the problem has concluded.…

BY RICHARD HURST
USA President George W. Bush has approved 35 African countries as eligible for tariff preferences regarding clothing and textile exports to America under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), with Zimbabwe and Gambia being notable sub-Saharan African pariahs from the move.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TECHNOLOGICAL advancement seems to go hand in hand with miniaturisation; witness the development of the mobile phone from its 1980’s high-tech brick to today’s tiny handset; smaller than the devices used by Captain Kirk in the early Star Trek episodes that peered centuries into the future.…