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Brothers With No Game is a UK Web Series created by four friends of African descent. Based on the blogsite of the same name, the series explores the lives of four friends in a 'quarter-life crisis' as they come to terms with relationships, work, finances and women. Season 1 has gained coverage worldwide (The Guardian, The Grio (NBC News), Pride Magazine) and has attracted over 300,000 views. The creators are now planning Season 2 and have started a fundraising campaign to help them fund the production. Every donation big or small helps towards the completion of the Series. To find out more about the campaign visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brothers-with-no-game-the-web-series-season-2/x/676082 and to see the series visit the youtube page www.youtube.com/brotherswithnogame You contact the team via email: thebwng@gmail.com or Twitter @TheBWNG
A 12-month salary cap on unfair dismissal compensation awarded by employment tribunals has been unveiled by the UK government. New guidance has also been published on settlement agreements – formerly known as compromise agreements – as part of the government’s bid to reduce the number of workplace disputes that progress to tribunal. Even though payouts for successful claimants will now be capped at one year’s salary – which is an average of £26,500 in the UK – the overall limit for this type of award will remain unchanged at £72,300. This latest proposal follows an increase in the qualifying length of service to bring an unfair dismissal claim from one year to two, and the forthcoming introduction of fees for claimants to lodge a case. Legal experts predicted that the compensation cap coupled with the new fee system could reduce number of tribunal claims.
The number of graduate vacancies in the UK is set to grow by 9 per cent this year, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). Total vacancies per employer are predicted to increase from an average of 98 in 2012 to 109 this year, found AGR’s latest bi-annual survey of 200 companies, who collectively employed nearly 20,000 graduates last year. University leavers will also welcome the news that graduate starting salaries look likely to rise to £26,500 in 2013, up from £26,000 last year, and £25,000 in the three years from 2009 to 2011. Interestingly, the survey also found that apprenticeship and school leaver programmes were growing in popularity alongside graduate schemes, rather than having a detrimental affect on the number of graduate places on offer. Employers offered several reasons for introducing alternative talent programmes, including competition from other employers seeking to recruit talented school leavers and the potential impact of tuition fees on the graduate talent pool in future years. The issue of career guidance for young people was also the focus of a report from the education select committee this week. It found that the quality and quantity of careers advice for young people was deteriorating “just when it is most needed”. CIPD research submitted to the committee found that half of employers felt young people received inadequate careers advice, while two-thirds said that the young people they had recruited lacked insight into the working world.
UK employers paid out a record £4.9 billion in redundancy settlements last year, as costs soared by 9 per cent from the year before, according to analysis of government data. The research, by commercial law firm EMW, found that redundancy payments during the financial year ending March 2012 had topped the £4.5bn paid out in 2010/11. Further figures obtained from HMRC showed that organisations have paid £18.4bn in redundancy packages since September 2008. The NHS made nearly £170 million worth of redundancy payments in 2010/11, government figures showed. In 2011/12 the total number of redundancy payments reached 410,000, a rise of 11 per cent from 370,000 in 2010/11. Meanwhile, the average redundancy settlement had fallen slightly from £12,162 in 2010/11 to £11,951 in 2011/12, which is roughly equal to six months pay for workers earning the UK's median salary of £26,200.
Final salary pensions in the private sector have closed their doors to new staff at the fastest rate on record, according to data from the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF). Just 13 per cent of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes were open to new joiners in 2012 – a drop from 19 per cent in 2011 and the steepest fall since comparable data began in 2005, when it was 43 per cent. The latest NAPF Annual Survey also revealed that DB pension funds were increasingly being closed to existing staff, with 31 per cent shutting in 2012 compared to 23 per cent a year earlier. Of those private sector pensions still open to future contributions from existing employees, 29 per cent said they would make changes in the coming years –including closing the scheme or making it less generous. While two million workers in the UK were still saving into a final salary pension, those starting a new job in the private sector had “next to no chance” of getting into such a scheme, said Joanne Segars, NAPF chief executive. NAPF statistics also showed that total contributions from both employers and employees into the newer type of defined contribution pensions grew to an all-time high of 12.5 per cent of salary in 2012. The NAPF Annual Survey, now in its 38th year, covered a total of 1,018 pension schemes, serving nine million members.
A Conservative MP has suggested that the UK’s largest companies should consider publishing ethnicity audits of their recruitment process and overall workforce mix. Alok Sharma, the Tory vice-chairman and MP for Reading West told The Times: “You could also have some sort of voluntary code for listed companies to say, if you’ve taken on 10 people this year and you had 100 interviews and you had 1,000 people who applied, can we see the breakdown by gender and ethnic balance? Other countries already do it in terms of the gender balance but we would be doing something new if we did it in terms of the ethnic balance.” He added that it was “not about quotas, it’s about information” and could be an interesting way of identifying communities which would benefit from more targeted mentoring.The demographics of the UK population are changing – one in seven people is now from an ethnic minority background, a figure set to rise to by 2051. However, only one out of 15 black and ethnic minority workers is in a management position, and just 60 per cent of people from ethnic minority groups are in employment compared to the UK average of 71 per cent.
The Financial Times and Citi have announced a global call for submissions for the 2013 FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards: Urban Ideas in Action, a global programme that will recognise individuals, teams, organisations and community groups that have developed groundbreaking solutions to urban challenges that benefit cities, citizens and urban communities. With more than 3.3 billion people currently living in urban areas – a number expected to rise to over 5 billion by 2030, according to a United Nations report – cities have a pressing need to address accelerating urbanisation to continue to thrive. This global programme was developed by the FT and Citi, in collaboration with INSEAD, to recognise those fueling urban progress. In 2013, the FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards will be selected in a wide range of areas – from city administration, transport systems, energy and utilities, education and resource management, to housing, health, public safety, social services, mobile technologies, community engagement and collaboration platforms. Top candidates will be profiled in two FT global magazine supplements. Finalists will be selected by region. Regional finalists will be invited to participate in events to further dialogue on urban challenges and solutions with key industry leaders. One winner will be chosen for each region. A global winner will be announced at an awards dinner in New York in December 2013.Submissions will be reviewed based on a range of criteria, including originality, impact, efficiency and outcome. Criteria were developed by INSEAD, one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools. All entries will be reviewed by the FT and INSEAD for qualification. A panel of global subject matter experts will select winners. As sponsor, Citi will not review or judge submissions. Submissions will be accepted online through until March 31, 2013. The application form, eligibility criteria and additional programme details are available at: www.FTCitiawards.com
Pay for Non-executive directors remained static across Europe in 2012, while the gender pay gap widened, according to new research. According to the report from Hay Group, while pay practices are diverse for non-executive directors across the continent – particularly with respect to the difference in pay between chair and non-chair roles – NED fees typically remained frozen year-on-year in most countries. The study also reveals progress in the representation of women on Europe’s boards, but shows that the gender pay gap identified in last year’s report has widened further year-on-year. Median ‘policy pay’, the rates a company states it will pay NEDs for service on the main board and committees, saw no movement year-on-year in all countries included in the study, except Sweden where director pay increased by five per cent. While the representation of female directors on boards across Europe has improved slightly year-on-year, the significant gender pay gap identified in last year’s report persists. Although 83% of European directors are male, the report demonstrates a noticeable uptick in female representation on boards. Despite these improvements, the gender pay gap has widened on European boards, as women are still not being appointed to the top-paying, strategically important committee roles. Additionally, barely two per cent of non-executive chairs across Europe are held by women. This translated into an ‘actual pay’ gap of nine per cent between male and female board members in 2012 which widened from seven per cent in 2011.
The Resource Foundation (TRF) and the Caterpillar Foundation have announced a $3 million partnership to reach more than 11,000 children in Latin America and the Caribbean over three years. Through a regional strategy targeting specific communities in 10 countries, the program seeks to improve academic achievement, gender equity and life skills among primary school-age boys and girls from 54 schools. This landmark initiative will provide disadvantaged children with improved educational curricula and teacher training, educational reinforcement, and community support networks. By collaborating with knowledgeable local nonprofits from TRF’s broad network, TRF and Caterpillar will ensure the program’s success and sustainability and will form an integral part of TRF’s work to help donors create lasting social change in diverse development areas, including education. The program takes a holistic approach to address some of the biggest educational challenges the region currently faces—quality of education, school retention and advancement. TRF will measure the program’s success by means of rigorous monitoring and impact evaluation, and expects to share program results with the public, in line with its mission to promote sustainable development in the region. The Resource Foundation (TRF) is a U.S. non-profit organization that facilitates charitable giving from corporate, individual and foundation donors to the Americas and the Caribbean.
Awards now open for online entry. Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business, has launched its annual Africa Business Reporting Awards for 2013. This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the Awards, which were initiated by Diageo to recognise journalists and editors who provide high quality coverage of the business environment in Africa. Following commissioned research, Diageo launched the Awards in order to raise awareness of the need for reliable, objective and comprehensive reporting on African business. Such reporting plays an important part in increasing investment flows to the continent by improving investors’ perceptions and challenging negative stereotypes. Entries are welcome in ten categories and are open to reporters and editors working on all media platforms. All entries are assessed and judged by an independent panel. The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, 11 July 2013 in central London. The closing date for entry is Friday, 15 March, 2013. Entries can be submitted online at: www.diageoafricabusinessreportingawards.com. There is no entry fee.
A team of South African students from the University of the Witwatersrand have been selected as only one of three teams from Africa to move on to the next round of the global aerospace Fly Your Ideas competition. Fly Your Ideas is a biennial competition run by aircraft manufacturer Airbus and backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The competition is run to encourage the proposal of new and innovative ideas to help the aerospace and air transport industry become sustainable and eco-efficient. The Wits team, called the Stormhawks - made up of Pitso Mangoro, Muhammed Dangor, Sambharthan Cooppan, Tshireletso Mango and Azhar Cassim - entered their idea of an aircraft control system to replace fly-by-wire technology with a hybrid visible light communication system. The Stormhawks were selected as one of 100 student teams from across five continents to proceed to the second round of the competition. Of the remaining teams, only 3% are from Africa, 3% are from the Middle East, 8% from the Americas, 37% from Europe and 49% from Asia Pacific. Each of the teams have until 12 April to explore, test and develop their concepts with the help of an Airbus mentor and expert. There will be another elimination round before the final five teams present their concepts to a panel of industry experts at Airbus headquarters in Hamburg, Germany on 12 June. The winners will be announced at Unesco headquarters in Paris, France on 13 June. The winning team will walk away with €30,000 (over R300 000) and the chance to host an “innovation week” on their university campus run by Airbus experts.
A new initiative will strengthen the child labour monitoring system in Burkina Faso, which is one of Africa’s largest cotton producers, Counterpart International, a global development organisation, has announced. Supported by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of International Affairs, the four-year, $5 million program aims to reduce the number of children working in cotton production and gold mining in three key regions of the country. Cornerstones of the program include improving the child labour monitoring systems, as well as providing alternate livelihoods for poor families and increasing educational opportunities for children and youth. In Burkina Faso – a landlocked country about the size of Colorado and one of the largest producers of cotton in Africa – almost 40 percent of children aged 5 to 14 are estimated to be in the labour force, many in high-risk industries where forced labour is present. A 2012 U.S. Labor Department report names the cotton and gold mining sectors as sectors of concern. Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 181out of 187 on the United Nations Development Program’s 2011 Human Development Index. Within the first year of the program, Counterpart will use new and pre-existing data to establish a participatory monitoring system that tracks the use of child labour—a framework the government of Burkina Faso can use for its long-term fight against the practice. The project will also raise awareness of the child labour problem among families and employers and invest in social protection mechanisms such as psychological help for children removed from the labour force.
Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless says it has created more than 5,000 new jobs and invested over USD50 million on its EcoCash service, which has transformed the lives of people, mostly those in rural areas. According to the company EcoCash, Zimbabwe’s fastest growing mobile money service, has allowed millions of people without bank accounts to have access to basic financial services. Econet has signed up several banks and retailers to expand the distribution network of EcoCash, which has also provided a boon in a country where there is a critical shortage of coins following the introduction of the US dollar as the main currency of transaction. Econet has to date invested more than USD50 million to make this possible, in the process creating more than 5 000 new jobs in the economy. The company says the success of EcoCash is shown by the fact that in just over 12 months, two million people have been brought into financial services by EcoCash compared to less than one million serviced by Zimbabwe's banks combined.
Ethiopia has lagged behind its East African neighbours in the development of its telecommunications sector and the services, such as mobile money banking, that the system now routinely provides elsewhere. This is about to change with the rollout of the country’s first mobile money transfer system. Ethiopia’s new money transfer system, M-Birr, named after its currency the birr, is based on the highly successful model pioneered by Kenya, Safaricom’s M-Pesa. The service will provide domestic money transfers, withdrawals and savings, account balances, airtime top up, salary payment, loan repayments and, at a later stage, international remittances. The Addis Ababa-based M-Birr ICT, which provides the integrated IT system and solutions, is the Ethiopian subsidiary of M-Birr Limited, an Irish company which gave birth to the project in 2009. The services will be accessible through the five main micro-finance institutions in Ethiopia. Together, these five MFIs account for 95% of the microfinance business in Ethiopia. With the M-Birr system, they will be able to further expand their client base in rural areas without opening costly new branches. Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa with double-digit growth figures and a huge potential in terms of telecommunications and IT services. Between 2009 and 2012, the number of mobile phone users increased from 2.5m to 18m for a total population of around 90m. M-Birr will use the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) network, following an agreement in 2011 between the two companies for the delivery of the mobile money service.
South African new vehicle sales grew by 9.2 percent to 623 914 units when compared with a total of 571 415 new vehicles sold in South Africa in 2011, said the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa). Naamsa director Nico Vermeulen said export sales performed relatively well during 2012 and stood at 277 844 vehicles, which was the second highest annual export figure on record. He said motor industry-related sales turnover had grown by about 11 percent and reached about R182-billion in 2012. New vehicle export sales were estimated to have added a further R52-billion to the total industry revenue. Vermeulen said South Africa’s track record as a car manufacturer had been firmly established, with vehicle exports currently destined for 148 international markets. Total industry exports were projected to reach about 361 000 units during 2013, he said. On the assumption that the South African economy would grow in real terms by three percent in 2013, Naamsa projected an increase of 7.3 percent in vehicle domestic sales. New vehicle sales ended 2012 on a positive note with a year-on-year increase of 1.8 percent in December, Naamsa said. A total of 46 016 vehicles were sold in December 2012, an improvement of 825 on the previous year. The new passenger car market recorded a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent, which was supported by a strong demand from car rental companies, a sector which accounts for 14.3 percent of total sales. Export sales recorded a substantial year-on-year increase of 5 554 units or 39.2 percent.
Orange telecom has launched its mobile money wallet service. Orange money will be in partnership with Pride microfinance and Post bank to broaden the financial service to its customers. The company believes that Orange Money will build on its successes in other African countries. Orange customers can use the platform to carry out simple banking transactions with Pride microfinance and Post bank. Orange plans to follow other players to enable customers use Orange Money to pay utility bills such as water and electricity. As a security feature, with Orange money, customers will be able to confirm if transactions have reached their intended receipts.
Rwanda maintained its position as one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading economies last year, by recording a 7.7 per cent growth in GDP in 2012. This was in the face of a challenging global financial climate. The Rwandan Franc was down 4.5 per cent over the year against the dollar, but an intervention by the Rwandan Central Bank to float the currency on the forex market meant that inflation actually dropped from 8.3 per cent in 2011 to 4.6 per cent. Increased competition in the country’s telecoms arena from Airtel spelled bad news for MTN and Tigo the two companies which had previously dominated the local market. But, overall as a result of the business friendly environment in the country, Rwanda came third in Sub-Saharan Africa according to the World Bank Doing Business Report, after South Africa and Mauritius. The World Bank Report also placed the country 39th out of 185 in terms of contract enforcement. New airlines routes to the country were added in 2012, with SAA and Qatar Airways flights to Kigali and the construction of another international airport will further increase capacity. With new agri-processing plants, and a substantial granite factory in the country, Rwanda appears to be taking the right steps to grow its economy in a sustainable way.
Pan-African low-cost airline fastjet has launched a mobile payment solution with Tanzania's leading telecommunications company Vodacom. This enables fastjet customers to buy airline tickets using their mobile phones. M-PESA (M for mobile, Pesa is Swahili for money) provides the cash economies of East Africa with the ability to deposit or withdraw cash, send money, buy prepaid airtime, pay utility bills and now purchase fastjet tickets. Credit and debit card payments are expected to be introduced shortly, providing a further easy payment option for international passengers. Domestic flights in Tanzania from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and Kilimanjaro began on 29 November and have seen strong demand.
Five South African companies are named on the Boston Consulting Group's list of "100 global challengers" - companies from emerging markets that are "growing so quickly overseas that they are reshaping industries and surpassing many traditional multinational companies". South Africa increased its number of "challenger" companies from three in 2011 to five on the 2013 list released by the US management consultancy company. The five, all members of the the JSE's top 40, are pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare, services, trading and distribution group Bidvest, mobile telecommunications firm MTN, media group Naspers, and petrochemicals company Sasol. Aspen, MTN and Naspers are newcomers to the list. According to the report, the 100 challenger companies - which come from 17 emerging market countries - are outpacing household names in the US and Europe and are having a profound impact on the global economy. The companies cited are expanding their business portfolios, reaching the rapidly expanding consumer class in emerging markets, exploring new businesses based on the rising connectivity of the emerging world, and moving into underserved fast-growing markets. In the past five years, the report finds, these companies have created 1.4-million jobs, at a time when employment at the non-financial S&P 500 stayed flat. Their average revenue was US$26.5-billion in 2011, compared with $21-billion for the S&P 500's non-financial companies and $20-billion for the entire S&P 500. According to newspaper Business Day, Aspen Pharmacare, one of South Africa's best-performing stocks over the past three years, was chosen "because, among other reasons, it had acquired 25 brands in Australia from GlaxoSmith-Kline in well received deals". MTN, for its part, "had grown strong businesses in Africa and parts of the Middle East", Business Day reported, while Naspers was commended "for being the largest media company in the developing world". The report calls on business leaders in the West to follow the example of other multinationals that are working with this new generation of companies.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are likely to finalise the structure for a BRICS-led development bank at the fifth BRICS summit taking place in Durban in March. The bank is part of a strategy agreed to at last year's BRICS summit in New Delhi to look at long-term investment opportunities within the countries making up the grouping. It is envisaged that the bank would provide pooled funds for targeted infrastructure projects and key sectors, while supporting and driving increased commerce between the BRICS and other emerging economies. Although multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) already perform a similar function, BRICS countries say the new bank would not compete with these but rather supplement them, especially in developing countries. The seed capital for the bank is projected to be US$50-billion or more, making it about $10-billion per member country.
Kenyans intensified use of mobile phone cash transfer services last year, with the East African nation’s citizens making transactions worth over 16.2 billion U.S. dollars, Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) latest data indicated. This was an increase of more than 2.7 billion dollars from transactions made in 2011, which stood at 13.5 billion dollars. The CBK data, which covers until November 2012, indicated that Kenyans made more mobile money transactions towards the end of fourth quarter of last year. According to the statistics, transactions rose as the year neared the end, with Kenyans sending an average of 1.6 billion dollars per month in the last quarter of 2012. This was from about 50 million transactions each month, with the data showing that the transactions were on the rise from the beginning of the year. The data indicated that as at November last year, the number of mobile money subscriptions stood at 20.3 million. This was an increase from October, where subscribers stood at 20 million and in September 19.7 million. The number of transactions, like amount of cash transacted and number of subscribers, has been on a steady rise since 2010, where Kenyans made 311 million transactions, worth 8.5 million dollars. The number of subscriptions then stood at 16.4 million. This means that in three years time, Kenyans have doubled the amount of money transacted on mobile cash transfer systems. The sector has emerged as one of fastest growing sources of employment for Kenyans. In 2011, the number of mobile money agents stood at 50,471, according to the CBK data. In 2010, the agents were 39,449. Last year saw the telecommunications battle to increase their market share in the mobile money sector, with Airtel recruiting more agents across the East African nation and starting free cash transfer services. However, Safaricom remains the dominant mobile money service provider in Kenya, with Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) data indicating that the company had 19.5 million subscribers as at June last year.
Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is emerging as a haven for frontier market investors, giving strong competition to peer sub-Saharan Africa economies including oil rich Nigeria. The Nairobi Exchange was ranked as the best performing Sub-Sahara African bourse in 2012 by two London-based market index trackers, MSCI and FTSE. The ranking reflected a strong rebound of the Kenyan stock market in 2012 that attracted foreign investors seeking higher returns than was available in the developed economies, which are plagued by uncertainties over high levels of public debt. The MSCI Frontier Markets Africa Index was the top-performing regional Frontier Markets index, delivering a 2012 YTD return of 44.88 per cent. Yet another global indices tracker, FTSE, captured the strong performance of the Kenyan bourse, with its Nairobi Securities Exchange FTSE 15 Index, FTSE 25 Index rising by 39.24 per cent and 38.67 per cent respectively. With only 60 listed firms boasting a total market capitalisation of about $15 billion, the Nairobi Securities Exchange is small relative to global markets. It is dwarfed by its main rival in Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa), the Nigerian bourse, which has a 198 listed firms with a total market capitalisation of nearly $60 billion. But unlike Nigeria, and many other sub-Sahara African economies such as Zimbabwe, Botswana and Ghana that are mineral rich, Kenya’s GDP is dominated by agriculture and services industries. Many of the east African country’s listed firms posted double-digit profit growth in 2012 but at least 10 of them issued profit warning, an indication that they expected their performance to be at least 25 per cent worse than in 2011. The Nairobi stock market was helped to a large extent by a sharp drop in Kenya’s inflation rate and a stabilisation of the local currency, the shilling, which had in October 2011 dropped to an all-time-low of 107 units to the dollar. In 2012 international investors were net buyers of shares worth $232.5 million, having made purchases of about $558 million compared to sales of $339 million.
As part of its rural electrification programme, which aims to bring power to the country’s rural regions and enhance the nation’s overall power grid, the Ugandan government has unveiled plans to construct a 10 ‘mini’ hydropower plants across the country. The plants will be constructed over the course of the next 18 months, and will cost $1.2 million, each plant generating 1.5 megawatts of power. The project will stimulate economic growth and improve socio-economic conditions in some of Uganda’s poorest regions. By 2016, when the project will be completed, nearly half a million households and almost a thousand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will have access to reliable electricity. This project is a continuation of Uganda’s Renewable Energy Policy, which was established in 2007. The Ugandan government hopes to increase the amount of power generated by renewable sources from the current rate of 10 per cent to 61 per cent by 2017. t is estimated that just 3-5 per cent of the Uganda’s 35 million citizens have access to reliable electricity, and in many towns and villages, especially in the country’s north, electricity is available just a few hours in the day.
South Africa’s Standard Bank has been ranked 98th on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list, released during the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Standard Bank came in as one of nine banks, and the only African company, on the list of the 100 top-performing stocks worldwide according to a range of sector-specific “sustainability” measures. The list is published annually by Canadian media and investment research company Corporate Knights, which commissions independent data collection for the project through direct engagement with the 350 companies that make the project’s shortlist, chosen from approximately 4 000 global mid- and large-cap stocks worldwide. Canada and the United States led the way in country representation, each with 10 companies on this year’s list, followed by Australia, Britain and France, each with nine. Overall, the Global 100 drew companies from 22 countries on six continents. Belgium-based materials technology and recycling company Umicore topped the list, followed by Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos, Norwegian energy firm Statoil, Finnish energy firm Neste Oil, and Danish pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company Novo Nordisk. Standard Bank’s head of sustainability management, Karin Ireton, told news publication Business Day that the group had made “significant investments in renewable energy, providing both debt financing and advisory services to project developers in South African renewable energy programmes”. Global 100 companies “are leading a resource productivity revolution, transforming waste into treasure and doing more with less.
“BRICS and Africa - partnerships for integration and industrialisation” will be the theme of the fifth BRICS summit taking place in Durban in March, according to Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration Collins Chabane. South Africa was admitted to the grouping of powerful emerging economies, which includes Brazil, Russia, India and China, at the third annual summit of the bloc’s leaders in China in 2011. Chabane said the fifth summit - taking place at Durban’s International Convention Centre from 25 to 27 March - would have four key focus areas, namely the promotion of African infrastructure development, and the establishment of a BRICS-led development bank, a BRICS think-tank and a BRICS business council.The minister said South Africa’s membership of BRICS should be understood in the context of the country’s aim to tackle the developmental challenges faced by Africa as a whole, and its strategic focus on infrastructure as a key vehicle for creating jobs, boosting Africa’s overall competitiveness, and promoting regional integration on the continent. South Africa’s accession to the BRICS grouping was in large part premised on the country’s role as a financial and logistical gateway to sub-Saharan Africa, and on the continent’s huge economic potential. The African continent constitutes 60% of the world’s unused arable agricultural land. In 2010, six of the world’s fastest growing economies emanated from Africa, and Africa’s output is expected to expand by 50% over the next four years. Economic growth is expected to expand by an average of 5.5% annually in the next five years. It was this potential, combined with the economic power of Brazil, Russia, India and China, that would enable the BRICS grouping to pave the way for “a new global pattern focusing on South-South relations … overriding previous East-West and North-South constructs and divisions,” Chabane said. This was in line with the underlying principle for South Africa’s partnership with BRICS, that of advancing the role of emerging economies in international relations, ultimately to help fashion a more equitable global political and financial architecture.
President John Dramani Mahama has pledged Ghana’s commitment to deepen bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said the decision to re-opened Ghana’s mission in 2009 in Tehran was informed by the commitment exhibited by Iran in its dealings with Ghana, with the Iranian Government having made considerable contributions to the development of Ghana in agriculture, health and education. Ghana and Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understand (MOU) within the framework of which Iran made available to Ghana a grant for the upgrading of the Iran Clinic in Accra to a Polyclinic status through the supply and installation of relevant plant and equipment, the the construction of a cultural community centre at Kumbungu and an Iranian hybrid rice plantation in Tamale in the Northern Region. According to the Ghanaian President, the driving force for the Ghana-Iran bilateral relation was a Permanent Joint Commission Co-operation, with the signing of four MOU’s relating to the construction of technical and vocational schools, implementation of the automation of digitalization of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) radio and television achieves and the lifting of visas on diplomatic and service passports holders. He expressed the hope that the Iranian business community would take advantage of the prevailing congenial investment and political climate in Ghana to invest in government’s priority areas such as oil and gas expansion and modernization of air and seaports, funding of infrastructural projects, water resources and the expansion and mobilization of electrical transmission systems.
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