Sunday, November 24, 2019

Kenya: 29 dead counted so far in the last Kenyan landslide, President says


By Amir Vera,

Passengers from stranded vehicles stand next to the debris from floodwaters on the road from Kapenguria in western Kenya Saturday, November 23, 2019.


At least 29 people were killed in Kenya as heavy rains triggered a landslide, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement Saturday.

The landslide began around 2:30 a.m. Saturday in West Pokot County near the Ugandan border, according to the statement. The landslide caused "massive destruction" to infrastructure like bridges and roads.


"My thoughts and prayers, and those of our entire nation are with families, friends and relatives of those who lost their beloved in the unfortunate incident. Please accept my heartfelt condolences," Kenyatta wrote.

He said he directed the deployment of rescue personnel to help people affected by the landslide.

"To those whose loved ones are yet to be found," Kenyatta wrote, "I assure you that the ongoing multi-agency rescue operation will continue until after every missing person is accounted for."


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Friday, November 22, 2019

Kagame To Carnegie Mellon University: Thank You For Believing In Rwanda


ByJean de la Croix Tabaro


President Paul Kagame has expressed his gratitude to the leadership of Carnegie Mellon University(CMU) for choosing to embark on a huge undertaking with Rwanda.

Today, the president conveyed the message to Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian and the university leadership during the official inauguration of the newly built CMU Africa campus in Kigali Innovation City.

The campus is home to 128 students who pursue Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE) and Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT).
Built on 6000 square meters, the campus has modern facilities and laboratories that will enable distance learning and teleconferencing.

“We have always been pleased to be associated with Carnegie Mellon University. I thank you for believing in Rwanda and embarking on this worthy undertaking with us,” the president said.
The president believes that “while there were many African cities this University could establish their subsidiary, Rwanda was their final destination. And I am sure they explained reasons why they came here.”
“I therefore want to congratulate everyone involved, in supporting this partnership including the MasterCard Foundation and Smart Africa.”


Of these partners is included the African Development Bank which provided financing for this new home for CMU-Africa. It was completed at a tune of Rwf 9 billion.

“This is the first of five centres of excellence across Africa that the Bank has committed to build and it will enable the university to fulfil its valuable mission,” Kagame said.

“For the last eight years, you have worked to educate young African engineers who are driving innovation and technological transformation in their respective institutions and countries.”
“We thank you for this, and look forward to many more students graduating and joining the workforce.”

For President Kagame, the presence of CMU-Africa in Rwanda has obvious advantages of which, all the students will take full advantage of.

First, he said, this world class education is offered right here on the continent to young Africans who are able to learn and do in the very context of challenges that need to be addressed.

“This makes a difference in terms of solutions that are informed by reality. It will also contribute to the accelerated transformation we want especially by developing a strong cadre of job creators.”

The president said that the CMU Africa undertaking in Rwanda comes to fit in country’s vision for the future where, like in other part of the world, economic growth will depend “on making the right links between technology and industry, and knowledge and production.”

It is worth repeating, Kagame said, “Africa cannot afford to be left behind. Establishing these linkages therefore is an urgent task. The milestone we are celebrating today is a significant step in ensuring that we are part of, and benefit from, the global digital revolution.”

In interview that was conducted by a CMU student during the inauguration, President Kagame recalled the historical background of Rwanda’s education in the wake of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi where the country was starting from the scratch.

First there was an urgent to send Rwandan sons and daughters to study abroad so as to bring needed skills, then second, negotiations with world class universities followed, and that’s how CMU came.
“The parnership between CMU and Rwanda is a very pleasant story that has covered many years and a number of people, leaders of that university, and other collaborators who believe that this project was going to be successful,” Kagame said.

“Not everyone believed it was going to work, some thought it was even a waste of time. But there were more people thinking this was going to be helpful and therefore we did everything to make it a success, part of it you see today.”

The president told the students who were present, curious to get his inspiration on quite a number of things that they are studying to apply their skills to situations to address problems.
“The engineering is about what you want to apply it to, what problems you are solving. You are also dealing with society,” the president said.

CMU Africa was established in 2011 becoming first US research university offering a Master’s Degree with a full-time faculty, staff and operations in Africa.




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Thursday, November 21, 2019

Zimbabwe: the secrets behind Mugabe’s demise


Robert Mugabe and his wife in February 2016. © T. Mukwazhi/AP/SIPA
By François Soudan


From the rise of "Gucci Grace" to the fall of "Comrade Bob", to Emmerson Mnangagwa's incredible escape, the book ‘Secrets of history’ recounts the riveting story of the presidential couple’s last weeks in power.
Grace Mugabe is hardly ever seen leaving her private villa in Mount Pleasant, in the upscale suburb of Harare, where she has taken refuge with her daughter, Bona, after deserting the cursed Blue Roof mansion. The last time people saw her in public since the coup d’état of November 14, 2017 was just under two months ago, at the family funeral of her husband, Robert Mugabe.
After refusing an official state funeral and burial at the Capital’s Heroes’ Square for her husband, Grace led the funeral procession to Kutama Cemetery, where the father of independence was born 95 years earlier. “If she doesn’t come out anymore, it’s because she’s afraid of being stoned to death,” believes one of Zimbabwe’s many critics of Grace.
“Wrong,” retorts one of the few MPs who still dares to associate with her: “If she lives in a recluse, it is because she can no longer bear to feel the presence of those who betrayed her husband”.
Political life in Zimbabwe is similar to the plot of Game of Thrones, with spectacular outbursts of public anger by actors who accuse each other of the worst deeds.
In exchange for dropping legal proceedings against her – which was demanded by many Zimbabweans – Grace Mugabe agreed to remain silent and to withdraw from the world. The opaque elite who have governed this country for four decades stand united. When you can’t kill yourself, you make compromises.

Boeing shopping trip

 
Emmerson Mnangagwa and Robert Mugabe, November 1, 2017. Less than a week later, the vice president will be fired. © Xinhua/XINHUA-REA

The secret story of Grace’s rise  following Robert Mugabe’s fall is told by Zimbabwean journalist and writer Douglas Rogers in a detailed investigation published on the second anniversary of Operation Restore Legacy (Two Weeks in November, London, Short Books). It begins one day in the austral winter of 2014.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Zanu-PF Central Committee, President Mugabe announces his decision to appoint the first lady to head the female branch of the ruling party and her subsequent entry into the political bureau. Among Zanu-PF loyalists, many of whom were former liberation fighters, they’re aware of the influence that the former secretary has over the leader who is forty-one years her senior.

They’re also aware of her escapades. “Gucci Grace” has  a taste for luxury, an eruptive temperament and enjoys lavish shopping trips to London and Singapore aboard the presidential Boeing. Everyone fears and, silently, disapproves of her appointment.

The first lady acts like a second president. She summons ministers, attends hearings with a notebook in her hand, and appoints members of her own stable – the “Generation 40” (G40) – to head local federations. The group’s composed of ambitious politicians who were too young to have participated in the glorious “chimurenga” – the armed struggle.
It’s led by the Minister of Higher Education, Jonathan Moyo, an unscrupulous opportunist who, after being a fierce opponent of the regime, has turned into a zealous courtesan of the presidential couple. As head of the universities, he also ensured that Grace obtained a doctorate in sociology in record time: just three months.
Grace’s first target is a woman, who poses a major threat to her ambition of succeeding her husband.
Joice Mujuru is a decorated veteran, a minister since 1980, and Vice-President of the Republic for ten years. She’s the widow of General Solomon Mujuru, who died in 2011 during a suspicious fire on her farm. Her nickname during war was “Teurai Ropa” – the one who spills blood.  Joice enjoys undeniable legitimacy, to the point that many Zimbabweans see her as the natural heir to “Comrade Bob”.
After her appointment to political office, Grace launches a campaign against Joice Mujuru, calling her a “conspirator” who’s determined to avenge her husband’s death, and seize power. In December 2014, Mugabe gives in.
He dismisses Mujuru and  eight ministers deemed close to her. Her successor as vice-president is another veteran: Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. This will be Grace Mugabe’s second target.
Even more than Joice Mujuru, Mnangagwa is a respected personality among veterans and the leading figure of Zanu-PF’s so-called “Lacoste Group” – a reference to the crocodile-shaped logo of the famous French sportswear brand – which brings together the “liberators” of Zimbabwe. The guerrilla unit, he led, during the liberation struggle was called the “Crocodile Gang”. He was arrested by the police, tortured, and sentenced to ten years in prison for sabotage against Ian Smith’s government. Behind bars, he met Robert Mugabe. Since then, they have never left each other’s side.

North Korean advisors

For three decades, Mnangagwa executed the wishes of his leader without hesitation. As Minister of Security in 1983, he supervised the bloody “Gukurahundi” operation (“the rain that sweeps away garbage”) in Matabeleland, resulting in the deaths of 20,000 people in nine months.
In 1998, he was deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he coordinated the Zimbabwean contingent’s support for the Laurent-Désiré Kabila regime. It allows senior officers to enrich themselves through the trafficking of copper and diamonds. In both 2008 and 2013, as Minister of Defence, he played a key role in the post-election violence and repression that decimated the ranks of the opposition’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
In December 2016, as Zimbabwe plunged further into economic and social turmoil, Zanu-PF nominated Comrade Bob, 92, as its 2018 presidential candidate. The plan devised by Grace and her G40 was simple: her husband, once re-elected, will resign in her favour. But first, she must be reappointed as vice-president.
In early 2017, as Grace prepares to take the old leader on an exhausting tour of pre-election meetings, she holds a secret meeting at the Blue Roof Manor. In his room upstairs, Robert Mugabe is asleep. In the living room downstairs, the G40 leaders gather around Grace as she explains why the Lacoste Group must be “neutralized” one by one, starting with Mnangagwa.
The two factions hold the same views, ideology, and vision.. Only the struggle for power matters. During campaign meetings Robert Mugabe falls asleep frequently as Grace and Mnangagwa challenge each other.

Arsenic poisoning?

In mid-August, a lunch is organized in the town of Gwanda on the sidelines of one of these gatherings. After consuming ice cream from Grace Mugabe’s dairy farm (seized about ten years earlier from a white owner), the vice-president collapses. He was evacuated to a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mnangagwa and his entourage are convinced that Grace laced his food with arsenic. When asked about this accusation a few days later during a talk show on ZBC, Grace laughed, saying  “Why would I want to kill Mnangagwa? Who is Mnangagwa on this earth? Killing someone my husband made? It doesn’t make any sense!”.
In this hostile climate, the election campaign continues. At the beginning of October, the First Lady crosses the line: she attacks her rival directly, accusing him of fomenting a coup d’état. Standing with a microphone in her hand, dressed like a rock star, she screams: “Traitors and usurpers will be eliminated!”
Sitting to the right of the old chief, with his eyes half closed, Emmerson Mnangagwa did not react. He replies indirectly a month later, at a meeting in Bulawayo. As Grace gets up from her chair to deliver a new diatribe, the crowd, mostly made up of veterans, explodes in jeers while waving hundreds of toy crocodiles.
The message is very clear. Robert Mugabe, drawn from his sleep by the screams, immediately asks for the microphone. He lifts a boney finger and says,  “You insult and denigrate the first lady on behalf of Mnangagwa? All right. I’ll fire him”.On November 6, Mnangagwa was dismissed and excluded from the party. His personal guard is unarmed.
To escape imminent arrest, he takes flight.
Emmerson Mnangagwa at Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare, Wednesday, November 22. Ben Curtis/AP/SIPA

At dawn on November 7, he leaves Harare in a convoy of three vehicles, heading southeast towards the Mozambican border. He puts on his wife’s king-size sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed safari hat. His three sons and a handful of bodyguards accompany him. When he arrives at the Mutare border crossing, police officers recognize him and draw their weapons, forcing the convoy to make a hasty U-turn. After a few kilometres, the three 4×4s take a side road and stop in front of an abandoned earthen hut. Mnangagwa and his eldest son, Junior get off and take shelter under the thatched roof, while the vehicles return to Harare.

At nightfall, they both walk along a smuggler’s trail that will take them to Mozambique. But police equipped with powerful flashlights and sniffer dogs are looking for them. Mnangagwa and Junior – who firmly holds his father’s Louis Vuitton bag containing US$8,000 in small bills – are forced to cross a swamp and crawl through the mud to escape them.
They meet a mystic  with amulets, who shows them the way and chases away evil spirits in exchange for a few greenbacks. Next, they stumble upon a garbage collector armed with a rusty AK47. They pay him $500 to leave them alone.
After 24 hours in the bush, they finally arrive in the Mozambican city of Manica, with sore feet and covered in mud. From there, they move to Maputo and Johannesburg, where a disparate group of Zimbabwean opponents take care of them. It’s a strange cocktail of war veterans, Zanu-PF elders, expropriated white farmers, and human rights activists, who help them.

Gun in hand

In Harare, the news of Mnangagwa’s escape is greeted with jubilation by Grace and the G40. “Finally rid of the Crocodile!” says Mugabe. His wife’s official appointment as vice-president is scheduled for 16 November. Euphoric, Grace makes preparations for a grand ceremony but nothing will go as planned.
Mnangagwa’s escape raises Robert Mugabe’s paranoia, who fears a coup d’état. The first on his list of suspects is none other than the Chief of the Army Staff, General Constantino Chiwenga, a relative of Mnangagwa with whom he served during Operation Gukurahundi. Mugabe orders his arrest as soon as he steps on the tarmac at Harare airport after returning from a working visit to China.
In the evening of November 12, a squadron of police officers waits for Chiwenga as he gets off the plane. But, the General is aware of the plan, and takes precautions. Members of the special forces are disguised as airport maintenance staff. They surround the police officers with their weapons drawn. The attempted arrest turns into a fiasco.
The next day, Chiwenga and – from South Africa – Mnangagwa rally most of the senior officers by telephone around Operation Restore Legacy, the code name for what was nothing more than a coup d’état. On the afternoon of November 14, the operation was launched, just as Robert Mugabe began to chair the Council of Ministers. On the agenda: the inauguration of the First Lady, scheduled for the next day.
Zimbabweans celebrate Robert Mugabe’s resignation in Harare on Tuesday, November 21. Ben Curtis/AP/SIPA

It is 6pm when Robert and Grace Mugabe leave the palace. Army tanks have surrounded the barracks of the Presidential Guard, whose leader is secretly  aligned to the coup plotters. The couple still have no idea what is going on.

Their convoy heads to the Blue Roof mansion in the Borrowdale suburb. In addition to the 5-ton armoured Mercedes Pullman Guard, there are four other Mercedes filled with Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) secret service agents, six police Land Rovers and two trucks carrying 30 black hooded Presidential Guard personnel.

Standing in front of the Blue Roof entrance gate, three tanks and about a hundred soldiers are waiting for them in combat position. Police officers and CIO agents raise their arms and let themselves be disarmed, while the Presidential Guard watch the scene without moving. It was then that Robert and Grace Mugabe finally understood that a coup d’état had just overthrown them. They are silent. It was only later that night, when the sick old lion had gone to bed, that Grace burst into fury in her living room.

At the same time, the army is arresting the main leaders of the G40.

All were handcuffed without resistance, with the exception of the Minister of Finance, Ignatius Chombo, whose private guard resisted. Three security guards were shot dead by the military. They’ll be the only ones who die from Operation Restore Legacy. Jonathan Moyo has better luck. He manages to escape,taking refuge in the Blue Roof mansion, from where he negotiates his fate with the new authorities: exile in Nairobi in exchange for immunity.

On the morning of 21 November, Zimbabwean deputies, who were only yesterday zealous supporters of the “national hero”, vote to dismiss him. That same afternoon, Robert Mugabe resigns for a $10 million signing bonus, legal immunity, and a promise that the couple’s property would not be seized.

The next day, Emmerson Mnangagwa returns to Harare. His first gesture is to reward the three generals who ran the operation: Chiwenga was appointed Vice-President, Perence Shiri becomes Minister of Lands, and Sibusiso Moyo takes over as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In Zimbabwe, everything moves but nothing changes.



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Rwanda Launches Agaciro Basketball Tourney


ByDaniel Sabiiti


Rwandans will effective tomorrow watch a new basketball competition dubbed Agaciro basketball tournament, aimed at reminding a sense of Rwandan resilience in sports.

The tournament sponsored by Agaciro development fund (AGF) in partnership with Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba), was announced this Wednesday at a press conference held in Kigali.

This tourney will be the first of its kind and a new idea by AGF, bringing together four best teams (men and ladies) from the 2018-2019 championship plus six teams in the under 17 (U17) age bracket.
The teams will sweat and hustle each other out in all-round return games on November 22, 23, and 28 and a final face off on November 29, at the newly constructed basketball pitch of Kigali Arena in Remera sector, Kigali city.

The men’s team category will include rivals Patriots (this year’s champ), and REG basketball clubs (BBC) and two other contenders -Espoir and APR BBC.

In the ladies league, teams like; The Hoops BBC, IPRC, APR and Ubumwe BBC will also show off the best of their best.

The players will compete separately for lucrative awards. All winners in both categories will get Rwf2 million cash prizes while the U17 victors will get trophies and new basketball court shoes.
With the growing appetite for basketball games ignited by a state of the art Kigali Arena stadium, the tournament is expected to pull crowds and possibly fill up to the brim.

According to the organisers, “The teams will be able to hire or use any basketballer in the tournament,” said Desire Mugwiza, the Ferwaba president.

Jack Kayonga, the CEO of AGF said that the game is aimed at sensitizing Rwandans on the fund and promote community participation in contributions.

As of October 2019, the AGF fund has collected Rwf50billion since its establishment in 2011 and has assets worth Rwf195billion through investing in 28 companies, in treasury bonds and lending to local financial institutions.



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Rwanda recalls Kenyan-made baby syrup over quality


By LEONCE MUVUNYI

Rwanda has recalled a paracetamol syrup imported from Kenya following complaints of particles found in the medicine. 
A bottle of medicine. Rwanda has recalled paracetamol syrup imported from Kenya following complaints of particles found in the medicine. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has banned the Paracetamol Suspension 120 mg/5ml (Toto-moL®) that is made for children. 

“Referring to the spontaneous reports from the clients, retail pharmacies and further investigation conducted by the Rwanda FDA, where Paracetamol Suspension 120 mg/5ml (Toto-moL®) was found with particulate matters in the suspension,” Dr Charles Karangwa, the acting director-general of Rwanda FDA, said in a statement.

The regulator said the drug, batch number 73718, was manufactured by Kenyan Laboratory & Allied Ltd in February. 

“Rwanda Food and Drug Authority instructs all importers, central medical stores, wholesale pharmacies, district Pharmacies, retail pharmacies, Public and Private health facilities in possession of the incriminated batch to stop distribution, dispensing and return them to their suppliers,” Dr Karangwa said.

He instructed all importers and supermarkets to submit reports, within five working days, on imported, distributed, returned and available quantities of each brand.



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Monday, November 18, 2019

New emoji set aims to shatter image of Africa as zone of famine and war


O’Plérou Grebet designs images that reflect culture of his country, Ivory Coast

The emoji depict themes covering everything from food and drink to hairstyles and public transport. Photograph: O’Plérou Grebet

In January 2018, O’Plérou Grebet set himself a challenge. For every day of the year, the graphic design student, then aged 20, decided to design an emoji that reflected the culture of his home country, Ivory Coast, and the wider region of West Africa.

“I wanted to create a project to promote African cultures to change the image the Western media have of Africa: hunger, poverty and wars,” he said. “I wanted to show a different and positive side.”

Adopting a different theme each week, he shared his daily designs on Instagram. He started with food and drink – a topic that everyone identifies with. “People love to eat,” he said. He began sharing designs of foutou, (a bowl of mashed plantain and cassava) and gbofloto (fried dough balls) online. One of his favourite images, showing a plastic bag bursting with purple liquid, represents bissap (dried hibiscus flower juice). “I have memories related to it,” he said. “Women sell it in little plastic bags outside of schools, and I bought it from kindergarten to high school.”

He didn’t tell his teachers or classmates at Abidjan’s Institute of Sciences and Communication Techniques about the project – but people soon noticed as it grew in popularity online. People began sending requests for new designs – anything from hairstyles to forms of transport. “I received congratulations and encouraging comments from many people across Africa and the diaspora, telling me my work is important and I should not stop,” he said.

An advertising agency sent Grebet an Apple Mac so that he could create designs for iOS as well as Android phones. This year he launched a compilation of the images, which have since been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

Grebet’s designs aren’t official emojis, because they have not been approved by the Unicode Consortium, a California-based organisation that reviews requests for new designs and sets standards for characters across different programmes and platforms. Grebet is working on a submission to the body. For now, images from his app, Zouzoukwa – which means “picture” in Bété, the language of the Bété people from the south-western Ivory Coast – can be used as stickers or standalone images.

The number of official emojis has increased rapidly over recent years – a greater range of skin tones are now available, as well as icons that represent different types of disability, such as canes or wheelchairs, and symbols that are gender neutral. But vast areas of life remain unrepresented.

“I think [Zouzoukwa designs] became popular because they fill a gap in digital communication for Africans. My work helps us to communicate more clearly, using emojis that represent how we live and what we want to say,” Grebet said.

One of his favourite designs is “You saw that?”, a facial expression that he says is used in Ivory Coast and means something similar to “I told you so”. After posting it online, people elsewhere in West Africa began sharing the meaning of the expression in their home country. “My [Instagram] followers from Cameroon commented that they also use this gesture, but as a warning sign, like, ‘If you do that, you will see what I will do,’” he said.

Another of his favourites is the Zaouli emoji design, a mask and dance from the Gouro people of Ivory Coast. “I love [the Zaouli design] because it’s a mix of many arts: painting, sculpting, music, dancing – and because I like its appearance too,” he said.

Tech companies should do more to make sure their products are representative, said Grebet, but he added: “At the same time, I think it’s not really their role, but today with social media we have tools to make our voices heard and impact [what] these companies create. He cited the example of the campaign group Emojination, which pushes for greater representation among the official set of emojis and helped Rayouf Alhumedhi, then a Saudi student in Germany, get approval for the the hijab emoji.

Grebet has now created 376 different designs, and he hopes to keep going by creating images for countries across Africa. “My biggest dream right now is to travel to more African countries, discover their cultures, turn their popular and traditional cultural elements into emojis,” he said.



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Some West African nations that need to decolonize their currency


The CFA Franc has always seen as a vestige of colonialism, but now eight West African countries are aiming to decolonise and start their own currency.


Eight West African countries have proposed to withdraw their currency reserves from the French central bank.

The proposal would look to replace the euro-linked CFA franc with a new common West African currency: eco. The French-regulated CFA franc is currently used by 155 million people across the African continent in 14 West and Central African countries.

The CFA franc is currently used by eight West African nations, but its days could be numbered (Thierry Gouegnon / Reuters)

The CFA was specially created in 1945, after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, which saw the world usher in a new global monetary system with the US dollar replacing the gold standard. The French-regulated CFA franc was for the French colonies of Africa, it is linked to the euro and its convertibility is guaranteed by France. According to the arrangement, described by analysts as a colonial relic, these African countries had to deposit half of their foreign currency reserves in the French central bank.

Benin’s President Patrice Talon announced last Thursday that the West African Monetary Union wants to take back control of its currency. Eight African countries including Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea Bissau have reached an agreement to pull the reserves from France. 

"We all agree on this, unanimously, to end this model," Talon told French media last Thursday.

The move, if it happens, could also have serious implications for the French economy.

Decolonization?

The CFA franc has been the currency used by French colonies since 1945, and despite the subsequent independence of several African nations, it is still in use. The system is seen as one of the last vestiges of colonialism and the CFA franc has always been a target of criticism. 

Talon said that the decision may take time, but it has been adopted at the meeting of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

"The injustice has gone for too long. It is time to discuss issues with France to clarify many things, to allow us to have our monetary sovereignty. We do not have it today,” Chadian President Idris Debby said during a media briefing last Monday.

An agreement was made to introduce a single currency, eco, for the entire region by 2020. 

According to the plan, as a first phase, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which currently have their own currencies, will launch the eco. Then in the second phase, the eight countries which use the CFA franc will replace their currencies.

The eco first came to the fore in 2003, however, it has been delayed several times. 

Will it be any different this time? 

Nassir M A Doutoum, an Africa Researcher at the Association of Researchers on Africa (AFAM) told TRT World that as part of a decolonisation process, most leaders of African countries have attempted to realise moves like this in the past. Leaders like Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Sylvanus Olympio and Thomas Sankara criticised the colonial policy of the CFA, and some of them even stopped using it. 

Doutoum Said: “But somehow, the leaders who tried to give on up on CFA were eliminated or killed. In the past, African countries were not ready to realise it, however, today’s circumstances are different. As of today, the struggle against CFA is not just based on leaders and intellectuals, also most of the African public supports the idea.”

According to Doutoum, France has tried to prevent several NGOs in various African countries that have been protesting CFA and trying to raise awareness about the damage it does to Africans. 

There have already been protests in the past to say no to the CFA and the issue may be gaining even more momentum among the public. Doutoum sees that the developments as a whole may allow this attempt to succeed.

AFAM Researcher Kaan Devecioglu described Talon’s statement during an interview with TRT World as both courageous and divorced from reality as he believes that the statement was mainly political. 

He says that whoever criticises the CFA in the continent gains sympathy and support, but it is just rhetoric. He says every country has to form a consensus, which is no easy task.

How will France’s future in Africa be shaped?

Professor Ahmet Kavas, an African expert, Turkey’s former ambassador to Chad and founder of the Association of Researchers on Africa (AFAM), said: “Even France recognises the independence of the African countries which it colonised in the past, but France still keeps deep political, cultural, economic, and social ties with these countries.” 

In this context, Kavas stated that for Africa’s natural resources to reach markets, France stipulates the CFA (also known as west-middle African franc) be used as the mandatory currency in its previous colonies. He adds that to maintain competitiveness in the international arena and to sustain its current position, France doesn’t want to abandon opportunities provided by its colonies.



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Nigeria T-bill restrictions risk curbing liquidity, stoking inflation


By Oluwatosin Adeshokan
Nigeria's Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde


In a bid to boost lending, Nigeria’s central bank in October banned private individuals and local non-banking firms from buying short-term central bank securities through Open Market Operations (OMO).

Nigeria’s local-currency bond yields have dropped into single digits since the central bank announced the new rules. Reduced liquidity in the T-bills market and higher inflation are among the possible consequences.

OMOs are issued by the central bank (CBN) for monetary policy management to control liquidity. In recent years, the market had been opened to foreign investors to generate foreign exchange to maintain the value of the naira, but now, only foreign traders are allowed to hold OMOs.
Pension funds have also been excluded from purchases.

Real market lending

After struggling to resuscitate the Nigerian economy that is still suffering from the 2016 recession, the CBN at the end of September increased the loan-to-deposit ratio of banks from 60% to 65%. Experts believe that these loans are intended to stimulate manufacturing within the Nigerian economy. There are a lot of new digital players in consumer loans, but the hope is that banks will enter the space to drive interest rates down and stimulate the economy.

Banks previously used the treasury bill market to keep their cash reserves high, and this had the effect of making loans harder to justify.

One risk leads to another

But cutting the market size for OMOs to just banks and foreign corporates reduces the liquidity of the market.

“In the event that foreign investors need to leave and get their money, the rates that might be given to them will be reduced because the local banks might have a lot of the power in the interim,” according to Seun Oyajumo, an investment analyst in Lagos.

“Take away the liquidity of secondary markets and OMOs will not be as attractive to the foreign investors looking forward.”

“The CBN needs to look properly at the policy to make sure there is not so much money in the economy that inflation begins and the state begins to go downhill from there,” Oyajumo argues.

John Ashbourne, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics in London, agrees.
Ashbourne predicted in August that inflation would be persistently quite high and that this will undermine the spending power of ordinary Nigerians.

The costs of inflation, he says, outweigh the benefits of increased lending which are limited to specific actors in the economy – while high inflation affects everyone.

Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, says that a market-friendly option would be for the government to reduce its budget deficit and so force banks to lend to someone other than the government.

In the longer term, lower inflation would do the job of cutting interest rates and encourage lending and borrowing, he argues.



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South Africa’s income inequality is particularly uneven


MWANGI GITHAHU

Inequality in South Africa persists because poor people migrate to wealthier parts of the country in search of opportunities. File Picture: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)


Cape Town - Inequality in South Africa persists because poor people migrate to wealthier parts of the country in search of opportunities.

This is the view of economist Dawie Roodt on the reasons provinces such as the Western Cape and Gauteng are always cited in studies on inequality as the two most unequal provinces in the country.
“The Western Cape is a very interesting case. It is the second richest province after Gauteng and it also attracts the most immigrants from within the country, particularly the Eastern Cape. The more poor people come to the province in search of opportunities, the more inequality will increase and that is the irony,” said Roodt.

“The poor won’t go to Limpopo for instance, because it is poor, but going to a rich province improves their chances, while at the same time widening the inequality gap.”

Income inequality means that a few make much more money in a society than most others. South Africa’s income inequality is particularly uneven, with a few high earners getting huge incomes while the large poor majority’s income is dismally low.

According to the Statistics SA inequality trends report released last week: “Provinces with large rural populations had a larger share of chronically poor households and a high proportion of the transient poor and vulnerable households were located in the Western Cape.”
There is an overall increase in the number of assets owned by South African households between 2009 and 2015.

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Provinces with large rural populations had a larger share of chronically poor households. A high proportion of the transient poor & vulnerable households were located in Western Cape.

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On average, females earned less than males across all educational levels. Females with no education and primary education earned roughly 55% of what males in the same groups earned.

Black African- and coloured-headed households were the only two groups classified as chronically poor, with black African-headed households having the lowest levels of access to the internet and the lowest access to medical aid coverage.

“South Africa’s labour market remains of primary importance in understanding contemporary inequality in the country. With an overall unemployment rate that ranges between 25% and 30% using the official (narrow) definition, any empirical investigation into economic inequality in South Africa would be incomplete without an analysis of the labour market,” the report said.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said South Africa stood out as one of the most unequal countries in the world by most inequality measures.

“There is growing recognition that persistently high levels of inequality can have serious detrimental effects on a society and its economy. For all of these reasons, it becomes clear why reducing inequality is such a critical task from a policy perspective,” said Maluleke.

The impact of apartheid policies has left a legacy of unequal development across the South African landscape, manifesting in regional inequalities in terms of access to education, health care, and basic services (such as water, sanitation, refuse removal and electricity). Since democracy in 1994, the government has tried to eliminate these inequalities with varying degrees of success.

Overall, when examining progress at a national level there appears to be notable areas of success and improvement. Nevertheless, when examining this progress at lower disaggregations, the story becomes mixed as there still are clearly some groups and/or places that lag behind others in terms of access.


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