Search Results for: Malawi

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.…

IF there is one paint ingredient that marketers agree should be left off the label, it has to be lead. General and scientific opinion agrees this metal causes health problems and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), working with the UN Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) has embarked on plans to eliminate architectural and household lead paints in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.…

SOUTH Africa’s paint and coatings industry is expected to increase in value from 560.0 million in 2009 to USD712.47 million in 2016, according to market analysts Frost & Sullivan. But the sector has faced tough times since the global financial crisis hit in 2008, and is only now recovering from the recession that hit South Africa as a result, and that recovery has been slow.…

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 BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

SOUTH Africa has deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) to rival that of Australia, and the country is poised to take advantage of this increasingly strategic resource, according to Mintek, the government’s mineral technology organisation.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN; MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI; AND KEITH NUTHALL

A BOOK launched at last December’s Durban international climate change conference has focused on the growing potential for sugar to be a biofuel feedstock in Africa. ‘Bioenergy for Sustainable Development and International Competitiveness:

The Role of Sugar Cane in Africa’ was written by 44 authors representing 30 organisations in 16 countries and was published by Routledge.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank is planning to spend USD25.6 million improving the efficiency of pharmaceutical supplies to help Malawi defeat its continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic. A programme includes disposing of pharmaceutical wastes in sealed pits or incineration, while large quantities of unused pharmaceuticals are returned to suppliers if possible.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN and ALYSHAH HASHAM

THE SMALL West African country of Guinea Bissau has seen its share of bloody coups, and is known as a cocaine smuggling hub between Latin America and Europe. Continued lawlessness and corruption in the country helped forced the European Union (EU) to withdraw support from security sector reform in 2010.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

Mozambique’s fledgling tobacco leaf industry faces tough challenges

Mozambique’s young tobacco leaf industry is growing despite sometimes difficult climactic conditions. It mainly grows Burley – which is under pressure from World Health Organisation guidelines. And Zimbabwe competition is a potential complication.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SIGNIFICANT benefits to tobacco and tobacco product companies will present themselves if a deal on the long-running Doha Development Round is clinched next year at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). And some diplomats at the WTO’s base in Geneva are asking if agreement is not reached next year, whether the current negotiations will be scrapped.…