Africa

🇧🇼 Botswana is in the process of due diligence on HB Antwerp, the Belgian diamond trader in which it had previously agreed to buy a 24% stake, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said on Monday. Back in March, while it was negotiating with its major diamond producing partner De Beers, Botswana had announced the planned deal and indicated that it would supply HB Antwerp with around 10% of its rough diamond output from the state-owned diamond company for five years. But in September Canadian miner Lucara Diamond announced it was cutting ties with HB over a “material breach of financial commitments,” forcing the Botswana government to reassess the relationship.

🇬🇭 Former African staff members at social media company X (formerly Twitter) told the BBC they plan to take legal action against their former employer for allegedly failing to pay redundancy funds promised after they were laid off last November. The nearly 20 employees worked at the company for less than a year. They had just moved into X’s new office in Ghana’s capital, Accra, when their contracts were terminated. The closure of X’s sole office on the continent was also blamed for the increased spread of misinformation due to the lack of content curators to flag inappropriate content.

🇿🇲 Zambia’s central bank has raised the statutory reserve ratio of deposits held by local banks for the second time this year in an attempt to shore up the Zambian kwacha, which has fallen by more than 28% since June, according to analysts at Rand Merchant Bank. The Bank of Zambia said it will raise the reserve requirement to 14.5% from Nov. 13 — an increase of three percentage points. The decision is expected to help ease foreign exchange market pressures and rein in inflation.

🇨🇩 DR Congo is set to offer free healthcare to pregnant women before the end of the year in a bid to reduce the country’s high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. DRC has a maternal mortality ratio of 547 deaths for every 100,000 live births, higher than low income countries’ average of 409, according to World Bank 2020 data. The move comes in the run-up to a competitive election for President Felix Tshisekedi on Dec. 20. One of his most high-profile presidential candidate rivals includes Denis Mukwege, the gynecologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his clinic’s work with women who had been victims of sexual violence.

The reported subscription rate for Airtel Uganda’s initial public offering (IPO) targeting the sale of 8 billion shares. The telco, which offered a 20% for sale on Aug. 29, only received offers to buy 4.4 billion shares, subsequently raising 211 billion shillings ($56 million) versus a target of 800 billion shillings. Airtel Uganda’s shares are due to be listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) today (Nov. 7), making it the second listed telecoms company on the country’s stock exchange after MTN Uganda which listed in December 2021.

Power ship company that cut electricity in African cities eyes expansion

THE SCOOP

A Turkish company whose floating power ships switched off the electricity supply to two of Africa’s poorest cities in recent months says it is in talks with six more countries to expand across the continent. But critics argue it only provides a short term solution to chronic underinvestment.

Karpowership, which operates floating power plants, supplies electricity to eight African countries including Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique, and Côte d’Ivoire. The company has in recent months cut off electricity in Freetown and Bissau, the capitals of Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, after authorities failed to pay bills reportedly totalling $40 million and $15 million respectively.

The company’s chief commercial officer, Zeynep Harezi, told Semafor Africa the company is in talks with a number of African countries as part of its expansion plans. “We are in constant communication with Tanzania, Kenya, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, [and] Liberia,” Harezi said. She added that the company expects to begin operating in South Africa in the second half of next year after winning a tender to generate 1,200 megawatts — about 2% of the country’s energy supply. Only “‘ticking the box’ activities” remain before completing the process to operate in South Africa, said Harezi.

Harezi said the company’s ships, which use natural gas to generate electricity which is then sent to the grid, offered a “permanent solution” to power problems in many African countries because they were “cleaner” than other fossil fuel energy sources. “The floating power plant ship has a psychological barrier around this being a permanent solution” because it is not on land, she said.

KNOW MORE

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest access to electricity in the world. Around half a billion people lack access to electricity. The failure to develop and maintain the infrastructure needed to provide reliable power has stymied the economic development of countries across the continent, including its biggest economies — Nigeria and South Africa.

Harezi said Karpowership was not put off by the failure of Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau to pay their bills promptly and had restored power in both countries. She said the company had renegotiated its contracts with the two countries as part of an agreement under which it would supply them with less electricity, therefore incurring a lower cost.

ALEXIS’ VIEW

The impact of a private company being able to shut down the power in an African city should not be underestimated. In Guinea Bissau’s capital, the BBC reported that some public hospitals used generators to carry out surgery but lacked running water because there wasn’t enough electricity. The country’s reliance on power ships is emblematic of a broader failure in many African countries to develop or maintain power facilities.

It’s clear that some African governments have for years indulged in short term thinking, rather than the long-term capital investment that is vital for developing a country. Several energy industry insiders said power ships were only appropriate for temporary use in disasters. Reliable power is a key ingredient for economic growth. “Karpowerships and other “emergency suppliers” are a necessary evil because of chronic underinvestment in energy infrastructure,” Bright Simmons, research lead at Imani Centre for Policy in Ghana, told Semafor Africa.

The business model behind floating power ships depends on the short term planning of poor countries. Karpowership doesn’t provide long term infrastructure development or a cleaner energy solution than solar, wind and hydroelectric power. It’s also easy for ships to turn off the electricity and sail away if a country struggles to pay.

Governments pay a premium for the convenience of a quick solution that’s unencumbered by the time lag of several years involved in building a power plant on land. “When you pay emergency prices the cost is always higher and it’s never the best long term version of what you need,” Todd Moss, who heads global power think-tank Energy for Growth Hub, told me.

Read on for Room for Disagreement and the View from South Africa

Ghana’s governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has chosen Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia as its candidate in next year’s presidential election. Bawumia, 60, will face former president John Mahama, 64, of the National Democratic Congress. John Asafu-Adjaye is a senior fellow at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) think-tank in Accra.

South Africa recalls its diplomats from Israel

South Africa is recalling all its diplomats from Israel because of mounting concerns over “the continued killing of children and innocent civilians in the Palestinian territories.”

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor on Monday told reporters that Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack “has become one of collective punishment.”

“We felt it important that we do signal the concern of South Africa while continuing to call for a comprehensive cessation (of hostilities),” she said. There have been protests by various communities in South Africa in support of Palestine since soon after the attack last month.

On Saturday, Chad also recalled its senior diplomat from Israel in “indignation” over the conflict in Gaza.

Other countries, including Jordan, Turkey, Chile, and Colombia have recalled their ambassadors and diplomats from Israel to protest Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Most of the African continent is split on support for either Israel or Palestine.

Algeria, like South Africa, stands in “full solidarity with Palestine” due to the country’s shared history of occupation. Other countries like Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, and DR Congo have aligned themselves with Israel.

The divisions are likely due to each government’s interests, analysts say. As one of the world’s leaders in agricultural technology, Israel has helped countries like Uganda battle drought, floods, and extreme weather. Israel has also been a leading exporter of machinery, electronics, and chemicals to the continent, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries.

— Karina Tsui

Setting money aside for migration is one of the top three reasons why Nigerians save, coming after rent and education. That’s according to a survey by Piggyvest, an app for automated savings in Nigeria. Migration out of Nigeria has risen in recent years as harsh economic conditions propel young people to seek livelihoods in North America, Europe or other parts of Africa. The intent to leave Nigeria is stronger among single people, 55% of whom have it within their five-year plans, Piggyvest said. The survey was based on a sample of about 1,000 users of the app and was conducted between April and May this year.

MainOne announced a new data center in Côte d’Ivoire this week, located in the Village of ICT & Biotechnology of Côte d’Ivoire (VITIB), a free trade zone built to invite technology investment in the Grand Bassam resort town near Abidjan. MainOne’s other West African data centers are in Nigeria and Ghana. After its $320 million acquisition by U.S. data center operator Equinix last year, MainOne’s assets became part of a network that now includes 240 data centers in 32 countries.

Payments company MFS Africa has changed its name to Onafriq to remove a challenge to its operations in the U.S., chief executive Dare Okoudjou said. “The trademark MFS actually belongs to another company in the US, and our ability to use it outside of Africa was becoming difficult,” Okoudjou said in a statement on Nov. 1. As MFS Africa, his company developed a reputation over the last decade as an aggregator interconnecting different payment methods across the continent — from mobile money wallets to bank transfers. MFS Africa made a string of acquisitions that bolstered its scale, including buying Beyonic in Uganda and Baxi in Nigeria, and investing in Cameroonian startup Maviance. The change to Onafriq follows last year’s purchase of Global Technology Partners, an Oklahoma-based fintech company, for $34 million.

Chasing a better AGOA

African leaders are pushing for the extension of a preferential U.S. trade pact with sub-Saharan Africa sooner rather than later.

There have been multiple calls from the continent and in Washington DC for a long-term extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which enables African countries to export thousands of products to the U.S. under favorable terms.

The U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking at the 2023 AGOA Forum gathering in Johannesburg last week, stressed that the U.S. government and Congress were already in advanced stages of figuring out a renewal nearly two years early, since the current iteration expires in September 2025. “We’ve gotten congressional attention on it. This is light-years ahead of where we usually are,” she said. Tai and her team have said they are keen for a new version of the act to be updated to reflect the economic changes on the continent rather than a straight renewal. One concern is that there’s an imbalance with only a few countries really benefiting significantly from the program.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for the “extension or renewal of AGOA for a sufficiently lengthy period for it to act as an incentive for investors to build new factories on the African continent.” He said there was potential to enhance AGOA with reforms that would add more products and make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to use.

In Washington DC, U.S. Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday sponsored a bill that calls for the renewal of AGOA to 2041 and would integrate the program with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

— Sam Mkokeli in Johannesburg

For a few hours last Saturday (Nov. 4), the sound of gunshots in Guinea’s capital Conakry stirred chatter about a possible challenge to the military government that has ruled the West African nation since a coup in Sept. 2021. The kerfuffle was not another putsch but a successful attempt by armed men to free Moussa ‘Dadis’ Camara the former military leader, from prison. It was a reminder of Guinea’s recent rollercoaster ride through hostile takeovers and citizens’ bloody pursuit of democracy.

Camara rose to prominence in Guinea when he seized power in December 2008, days after then president Lansana Conté died following nearly 25 years in power. An army captain at the time, Camara had served in the logistics unit and was a junior officer. But the junta he led captured power with the blessing of the military elite. He immediately began a campaign for international recognition and financial assistance from the World Bank. He said he did not want to be president in those early days, earning the moniker “Obama junior” among some Guineans who associated him with the former U.S. president who had just won his first term.

But, much like his freedom after last weekend’s prison break, support for Camara was brief. He had decided to run for president by 2009 ahead of elections slated for January 2010. Guineans took to the streets in demonstrations against Camara, culminating in a bloody flashpoint in which soldiers opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered at the national stadium in Conakry in September 2009. An estimated 157 people were killed, according to rights groups, drawing condemnation from the European Union, African Union, and United Nations.

Camara fled to exile in Burkina Faso after being ousted months later, never becoming president. He returned to Guinea in December 2021 and began facing trial in a case against him and 10 others for the 2009 massacre. He pleaded not guilty to all charges last December. He could spend more time behind bars following this month’s failed jailbreak. Camara’s lawyer, Pepe Antoine Lamah, has said the former soldier was not a willing participant in the prison break but the victim of an attempted kidnap.

— Alexander Onukwue

Opera is having a youthful moment in Cape Town. That’s thanks to a pioneering initiative to open up the traditional artform to young people from the surrounding townships of the city. The Cape Town Opera’s Foundation Studio, at the city’s Artscape Theatre Centre, is a training program for the next generation of South African soloists from typically under-resourced high schools. As one young singer tells The Guardian: “I wanted to fulfill my dream of being a singer, and I thought this would be a perfect place for me to do that.” The article notes how much the culture has evolved to favor talent. Or as Wayne Muller, of Stellenbosch University, is quoted as saying: “The fall of apartheid enabled black singers to enter this white space.”

• Key providers of satellite photographs to news organizations have begun to restrict imagery of Gaza after a New York Times report on Israeli tank positions.
• A Florida summit devolved into a battle between Trump and DeSantis over who owns the Sunshine State.
• Democrats, still struggling to understand the Gen Z voters in their coalition, worry TikTok is driving a wedge between them.

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— Yinka, Alexis, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge