Posts Tagged ‘Africa France Summit’

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FRANCE TO PROMOTE AFRICAN DIASPORA DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

By GERSHOM NDHLOVU

LEADERS who gathered for the 2010 Africa France Summit which ended in the French city of Nice last week have decided to place the African Diaspora living in France at the centre of strengthening synergies between migration and development strategies.

According to the final declaration of the 25th Africa France summit to which over 40 African leaders were invited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the strategy would promote the involvement of the African Diaspora living in France in the economic and social development of their countries of origin.

This would be by means of co-development of programmes, encouraging migrant business projects and mobilizing their savings for social and productive investment.

The leaders welcomed the decision by financial operators and insurance firms to reduce the costs of remittances and offer new services suited to migrants’ needs and the needs of their countries of origin.

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy

They also commended the arrangements that France has made with financial operators to improve the co-development savings mechanism to make it more attractive and more suited to investment projects in the countries of origin.

They recognized the need to support the development efforts of African States in order to prevent illegal migration flows and stressed the need to regulate the activity of intermediaries of migrants’ remittances.

Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda has in the last two years of his administration set up a Diaspora Desk in his office to encourage and co-ordinate dialogue with Zambians living abroad, but it is not clear how this would fit in the proposals for Africans living in France.

The summit stressed with concern Africa’s growing needs, especially regarding development financing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and beyond.

“To this end, they provided their support for the idea of holding an African conference on innovative financing and for the adoption of an African declaration on transparency of financial governance and fighting illegal capital flows,” the declaration stated.

It was agreed that these two initiatives could generate significant added value ahead of the 4th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries scheduled for the second half of 2011 in Turkey and could help mobilize additional, stable and predictable resources to supplement official development assistance and development financing efforts.

The declaration stated that France announced the creation of the African Agriculture Fund, an investors’ fund to support the development of agricultural projects in Africa and food distribution projects. The fund would initially raise US$120 million which would eventually reach US$300 million.

This was after Heads of State and Government stressed the vital importance of food security on the African continent and called for the sustainable management of African fish, subsistence and agricultural resources.

They agreed to work together on a mechanism, under the French presidency of the G8/G20 and beyond, to combat volatile agricultural commodity prices and strengthen food security.

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ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT HINDERING LUAPULA ELECTRICITY PROJECT

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

*EX-KAWAMBWA DC SAYS FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE

By ZAMBIA NEWS FEATURES CORRESPONDENTS

A former government official in Kawambwa District, about 600 kilometers north east of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, has accused the Zambian government of stalling the construction of the multi-million united states dollars Kalungwishi Hydro Power Station.

Former Kawambwa District Commissioner, Wilbroad Mumba alleged that President Rupiah Banda’s administration was ‘deliberately’ delaying the construction of the power station by withholding over US$406 million meant for the project.

Mumba who was Kawambwa District Commissioner, the highest civil servant in a district, alleged that a named senior parliamentarian signed a financing agreement for the Construction of the Hydro Power Station with the Chinese Government over a year ago.

He accused the present government of holding on to the money instead of releasing it for construction to commence.

The Former DC made the accusation during a public meeting hosted by the Energy Regulation Board in Nchelenge District at Nchelenge High School on Tuesday.

He said the selected bidder for the project has since raised over US$420 million and is waiting for Government to honour its part of the bargain.

Mumba, who was replaced by Gershom Tanga as Kawambwa District Commissioner last year, took a swipe at government accusing it of stalling development in Luapula and the neighbouring Northern Province because of its alleged failure to develop the energy sector in the two Provinces.

Luapula Province has vast water resources and it is the Southern African country’s leading province with the largest concentration of rivers and lakes namely the famous Luapula River, lakes Bangweulu, Mweru, Mweru Watimpa and the Samfya swamps, among others.

The former D.C said the Luapula and Northern provinces have failed to attract big investments because of electricity deficits, which he described as very embarrassing.

“It is very embarrassing that despite having huge water bodies and several water Falls in Northern and Luapula Province the two areas are among the least developed when it comes to electricity supply, this has made the areas to lag behind in terms of development,” he said.

The emotionally charged Mumba who prolonged his contribution during the meeting rudely thwarted attempts by the moderator to cut him short and one time started heckling ERB officials.

The Former DC called for the unbundling of ZESCO, to make it more efficient and profitable.

He accused Government of massive interference in the operations of both ZESCO and the ERB which he said had the potential to perform better but for Government’s meddling in the two bodies affairs.

The Kalungwishi Hydro Power Station is planned to be constructed on the Kalungwishi River.

Meanwhile, Zambia’s Energy and Water Development Minister Kenneth Konga said during a workshop dubbed “What Energy Sources For Africa Tomorrow” at the just ended 25th Africa France Summit that current low electricity tariffs contributed low electrification access in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kenneth Konga

Kenneth Konga, Zambia's Energy Minister.

Konga said low tariffs hindered the expansion of the sector because there was not enough money to recapitalize the utilities which, in turn, hindered expansion.

Konga said the Zambian government is encouraging the private sector to invest more in energy because there is demand for it in various sectors such as mining, industries, agriculture and tourism.

He said failure by the private sector to complement government efforts will lead to power shortages and that this will disrupt industrial activities and increased load shedding.

 (Edited by Gershom Ndhlovu)

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“AFRICA FACES CHALLENGE TO FORMALIZE INFORMAL SECTOR”

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

 By ZAMBIA NEWS FEATURES CORRESPONDENTS

 ZAMBIA’S Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning on Tuesday said that African countries have a challenge to ensure that most of the businesses move from the informal to the formal sector.

The Deputy Minister, Ms Chileshe Kapwepwe who attended a workshop of Finance Ministers, said it was clear that African countries had the same challenges and therefore needed to partner with Europe in order to unlock the informal sector in Africa.

Chileshe Kapwepwe

Chileshe Kapwepwe, Zambia's Deputy Minister of Finance

Ms Kapwepwe accompanied Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda to the 25th Africa France summit attended by over 40 African leaders in the French city of Nice.

She said about 45 per cent of jobs in Africa were in the informal sector for which there was a big challenge to move them to the formal sector.

“I think that as African countries, we have a challenge to ensure that we move most of the businesses from the informal to the formal sector,” she said.

She also said African countries have similar challenges in accessing finance as a result of perception of high risk on the continent.

“Even if more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) wished to modernise their plant and equipment, they would find it hard to do so because of the difficulty of obtaining financing. Many banks choose not to provide credit to SMEs as they are perceived to be the most risky and least profitable business sector,” she said.

She said banks that would want to make such loans available lacked the local knowledge of how to make small loans and package them appropriately.

Ms Kapwepwe said there was need for African countries to provide more information to lending institutions so that they could make financing available.

She said that it was agreed during the workshop that there was need for African countries to focus more on training young and up-coming entrepreneurs.

“This is the only way they will be able to come up with good business plans so that banks can have confidence in them,” she said.

She said there was need for Africa to develop other financial instruments such as bonds, which were still under-developed and financing to make start-up businesses easier.

She said infrastructure, energy and access to markets were the other challenges that SMEs faced.

She said Zambia was working towards reducing the number of licences needed and bureaucracy involved in setting up new businesses.

Ms Kapwepwe said Zambia was already helping SMEs access financing through the Citizens Economic Empowerment programme and had started training programmes for up-coming entrepreneurs.

The finance ministers, during the workshop, urged cooperating partners and development banks to put more funds in guarantee schemes in order to ensure that SMEs accessed financing from lending institutions.

Meanwhile, France has pledged 300 million euros to support the action of the African Union (AU) and its sub-regional organizations in bolstering their collective security system, in particular the African Standby Force between 2010 and 2012.

France would also train 12,000 African troops for the peacekeeping forces of the AU and the United Nations (UN) over the same period. (Read earlier stories here and here)

The two-day workshop closed Tuesday.

 (Edited by Gershom Ndhlovu)

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