A round-up of news from around Africa, including:

Africa's Banks Escape Worst of Global Crisis

The effect of the global financial crisis on African banks is by no means over, although most of the financial institutions are performing better than their global peers in profit growth.

Petrochemicals group Sasol and India's Tata are considering investing in a multibillion-dollar coal-to-liquid (CTL) plant in India that could produce up to 80 000 barrels of liquid fuel a day. The companies are launching a prefeasibility study on the viability of the project, which could cost $5bn-$7bn, about the same as the estimated value of the proposed CTL plant in China, which would also produce 80 000 barrels a day. The project could have a huge impact on Sasol's bottom line, depending on the exchange rate and the oil price, and according to the company, the proposed CTL project in India would produce mainly diesel and naphtha as well as some liquid petroleum gas. Sasol, which owns and operates the only integrated CTL commercial facility in the world, based at Secunda, is a 50% equity partner in the Indian venture, providing equity, technology and operational expertise. It could be another three years before a decision is taken on the Indian CTL plant. A further four years would be required to complete construction.

Gateway Communications, the leading supplier of telecommunications services across Africa, has claimed the award for "Satellite Service Provider of the Year" at the SatCom Star Awards 2009. The SatCom Star Awards are designed to celebrate the continued growth and success of the satellite marketplace and focus on some of the exceptional performers within the industry. For the "Satellite Service Provider of the Year" Award, Gateway was assessed on how it has made a difference to the satellite industry in Africa, customer satisfaction levels, its introduction of new and innovative services and how it has accommodated changing connectivity needs in Africa. Gateway Communications is the largest independent provider of satellite network services in Africa and now uses 47 transponders of capacity, principally supplied over Africa by Intelsat. Gateway Communications owns and operates the most advanced pan-African communications network, with customers in 40 African countries.

The Senegalese Minister of Agriculture, Amath Sall, has announced that "by 2012, Senegal will not import a single grain of rice." Record harvests in the River Senegal valley indicate the country is on the right course. The Dakar government has intensified its programmes to raise food production in the Sahelian country, with a special focus on rice as a staple food. Especially along the large valley of River Senegal, marking its border with Mauritania, results are now beginning to become visible. According to the latest production rates published in Senegal, this year's rice harvest in the valley alone were of 350,000 tonnes paddy rice; equalling some 220,000 tonnes white rice. In 2008, production only reached around 100,000 tonnes. According to the Minister, further projects within the sector will further increase rice production to 1.25 million tonnes of paddy rice by 2012. He added that despite an expected increase in demand, 2012 should become the first year in Senegal's modern history when the country will become self-sufficient on rice.

Danish energy giant, Dong Energy, has signed an agreement with the Royal Danish Embassy in South Africa for assistance in entering the Kyoto carbon offset (Clean Development Mechanism or CDM) market in South Africa. The company, which is a CDM compliance buyer on the European emission trading scheme, would like to start doing business in South Africa by investigating three to four projects. Dong believes that there is strong CDM project potential in South Africa. No other country on the planet relies as heavily on coal for electricity generation as South Africa, meaning that the country should offer significant emissions reduction potential. However, South Africa and much of the rest of Africa has been slow to take advantage of the benefits that the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism offers. There are only 11 projects in South Africa, 29 on the entire African continent. By comparison South America has 412 and the Asia-Pacific region 1091 projects.

The Angola government is considering investing over US8.6 billion to boost the transformation of the industry between 2009 and 2012, according to the country’s Deputy Minister for Industry, Kiala Gabriel. Mr Abriel said the amount will be channeled to various sub-programmes like those of reconstitution of the human capital and creation of infrastructures to support the development. According to the deputy minister, $4.1 billion will be used in the substitution of imports and foment of exports, while other funding will go for institutional capacity building and in the restructuring of industries. Funds for the implementation of the overall project will come from local and foreign sources, with the state budget expected to provide $164.8 million, bank loans $1.6 billion, with the rest of the funding from donors as loans and grants. Angola has emerged from almost 30 years of civil war as one of the world's fastest growing economies and is Africa’s major oil producer.

The global economy, which is experiencing the most severe recession since World War II, is projected to shrink by 1.3 percent in 2009, with a slow recovery expected in 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports in its April World Economic Outlook (WEO). Although the rate of contraction should ease from the second quarter of this year, output per capita is still projected to decline in countries representing 75 percent of the world economy. It is expected that growth will re-emerge in 2010 at a pace of 1.9 percent, which is sluggish in comparison to past recoveries. According to IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard, the global economy is facing competing crosscurrents, with the collapse in confidence and demand continuing to pull the economy down while government stimulus measures and natural stabilisation mechanisms are pulling the economy up.

Moving to combat the spiraling economic downturn in developing countries, the World Bank has unveiled a major initiative to almost double financing for road, bridge and other infrastructure projects from Latin America to Eastern Europe, allowing poorer nations to create jobs in a manner similar to the stimulus programs underway in the United States and other wealthy countries. That $55 billion effort comes as both the bank and the International Monetary Fund seek to address the fast-sinking fortunes of developing nations. A dramatic pullback of private financing from the developing world has been forcing poor and middle-income nations from Africa to Latin America to abandon half-finished construction projects, fueling spikes in unemployment. The bank will step in to fill the gaps left by panicked private investors, nearly doubling to $55 billion its available infrastructure financing to poor and middle-income countries. Those funds would help jump-start projects that have stalled in recent months, including the installation of power grids in Cameroon and new port facilities in Vietnam and Indonesia, World Bank officials said. Zoellick estimated that each billion spent would generate 200,000 to 500,000 jobs. In addition, the bank is moving to unveil billions of dollars more in financing for social safety nets in the developing world.

The effect of the global financial crisis on African banks is by no means over, although most of the financial institutions are performing better than their global peers in profit growth. Ernst & Young (E&Y) has said that while African banks had little direct exposure to the crisis, the secondary effects had become clear in the form of lower gross domestic product (GDP) growth, currency depreciation and cancelled infrastructure projects. But African banks were not as badly off as their global peers. Most major global banks had reported hefty losses since the middle of last year, while African banks had reported lower, but positive, profits, said E&Y. Cadiz African Harvest bank analyst Rob Nagel said he did not expect to see as much bank recapitalization among African banks as had taken place among some of the much bigger global banking groups. While global banks were suffering from the problems of cheap credit, African banks would instead be dealing with a deeper than usual recessionary cycle.

South African headquartered Standard Bank has expressed confidence in Zimbabwe's economic recovery prospects even if the country is to get half the financial package it has asked for to fire up its collapsed industries. Standard Bank is one of the biggest commercial banks on the continent and operates Stanbic Bank in Zimbabwe. At the extraordinary meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Mbabane, Swaziland last month, Zimbabwe said it required at least US$2 billion to finance its urgent requirements. SADC has pledged to help Zimbabwe raise at least US$8.5 billion.

Southern African-focused mining firm African Rainbow Minerals says it is prepared to spend as much as US$300 million to develop mines in Zimbabwe. The company recently merged with the world's second largest miner, Vale, a Brazilian mining company that it is working with on this project.

Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Union (AU) to host the proposed African Central Bank (ACB) headquarters in Abuja. The bank, expected to become functional by 2021, will help advance the cause of regional integration actively pursued by the AU. And to benefit from the global recovery, Nigeria has to strengthen its monetary and exchange rate procedure and increase the flexibility of its exchange rate, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

Following its recent public offer, the capital of the Ecobank Group has been increased to US$1.2 billion. This is the result of the first stage of the group's capital increase program which comes at a time international financial markets are in turmoil. Last August, ETI launched a hybrid rights issue and public offer, simultaneously, in the three West African stock markets -the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and the Bourse des Valeurs Mobilières Régionales (BRVM) in West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) countries.

Bank PHB has acquired Orient Bank of Uganda. The decision is a strategic move by Orient Bank to deepen its market share and ability to meet the increasing needs of its growing number of customers. The merger, which was sealed at a Completion Board meeting of the two banks held at the corporate headquarters of Orient Bank in Kampala, saw Bank PHB acquiring a majority stake in Orient Bank. The bank has disclosed that Bank PHB, which has won several awards as Nigeria's most innovative Bank, was set to bring its experience and dynamism to bear in the Ugandan market. And the Ugandan people and customers of Orient Bank would ultimately be the better for it.

Although there is no sign of an immediate bail out by the institutions, the IMF has agreed to set up a multi donor trust fund to be run by itself, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. It's reported the money will be used 'for budgetary support until the inclusive government has a track record'. Massive corruption and the bad financial policies of the Reserve Bank mean that the Zimbabwean government has no economic credibility. It is understood that this trust fund will be used as a stop gap measure, until such a time as the government can be trusted by the international funding institutions. The funds will be sent direct to the Ministry of Finance and will completely bypass the Reserve Bank.

Zimbabwe has so far secured lines of credit amounting to US$400 million from countries in the region to revive operations of local companies in yet another sign that the international community is warming up to the country after the formation of the inclusive Government. The lines of credit had been secured to specifically meet the working needs of local companies that have been operating way below capacity due to undercapitalization.

Football's world controlling body, Fifa, will earn about R25-billion (around $2.8-billion) from the television rights to broadcast the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. This is a massive increase from the R22-billion Fifa received for the past two World Cups combined, according to Fifa. Fifa is also making the 2010 spectacle available to millions of fans via their cellphones worldwide. Fifa plans to spend an estimated R1.5-billion on TV production for the world showpiece, for which they are expecting viewership of just over 26 billion worldwide for the duration of the month-long tournament, the same number that watched the 2006 event in Germany. Fifa will give Africa a better deal for the 2010 finals and has agreed with the African Union of Broadcasters to place the TV rights in 41 sub-Saharan countries before the end of 2009. HBS will be the host broadcaster and the SABC the official broadcaster. According to Fifa, the quality of the broadcasts will be the highest ever. Instead of a maximum of 25 cameras used in Germany in 2006, the 2010 event will see a minimum of 29 and up to 32 cameras used for the final and bigger matches.

South Africa has named MAN AG and Daimler AG's Pretoria-based Mercedes-Benz unit as the preferred bidders to supply 570 buses and coaches for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Mercedes-Benz South Africa is the preferred supplier of 168 semi-luxury coaches and 292 inter-city buses, while Munich-based MAN is the preferred supplier of 110 general spectator buses, according to the South African government. The government has put in place a guarantee of R1.4-billion (about US$162.5-million) to acquire the 570 buses. An additional 260 buses - 250 for general spectator services and 10 semi-luxury coaches - will be leased from industry, bringing the total fleet of bus and coach to be provided by the government for 2010 to 830. A critical component of South Africa's transport preparations for the World Cup is the provision of transport infrastructure and public transport.

The World Bank has announced it is doubling its education financing this year in low- and middle-income countries to $4.09 billion to help poor countries battle threats to their education systems during the global economic crisis. The announcement came as the Bank released a new report that describes how developing countries are increasingly using private education organizations - such as faith-based organisations, local communities, NGOs, private for-profit institutions, and not-for profit schools - to help deliver education services. According to the new report - The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education - these public-private partnerships (PPPs) are being used progressively more to boost education access, equity, and student learning. In some OECD countries, more than 20 percent of public expenditures are now being transferred to private education institutions, while a number of developing countries also subsidize private schools via teacher salaries and textbooks or per-pupil grants. The World Bank Director for Education said said that in certain countries in Africa and South Asia, where education demand is high but public funds are limited, private, low-cost secondary schools are growing in number. The new report specifically examines those public-private partnerships in which developing country governments drive national education policy and provide the subsequent financing, while turning to private sector organisations to deliver education services under contract. There is growing evidence to suggest that contracting the private sector to deliver education has benefits, including greater efficiency, increased choice, and wider access.

A Special events visa for spectators travelling to South Africa during next year's World Cup has been launched in Egypt. The visas, which will fast-track immigration processes at six of the world's busiest airports in 2010, were launched by the Home Affairs Department in Cairo this week. The new visa system will be piloted at Cairo International Airport for the Confederations Cup in June, and then rolled out to five other airports next year. The visa will allow visiting fans access to dedicated express counters at all South Africa's airports, and give them pre-clearance before they arrived in the country. Several South African pre-clearance hubs are also expected to be set up at Cairo, Nairobi, Dubai, Heathrow, Hong Kong and Frankfurt international airports.

NEM Insurance and Intercontinental Wapic have both been issued license to operate in the Ghana market thus joining the league of Nigerian insurance companies in that country. However, Ghanaian owned insurance operators have called on the supervisory body to stop further issuance of license to foreign companies. They have expressed the fear that foreign-owned insurance companies would outnumber indigenous insurance companies.

Bank of Uganda (BoU) is in the initial stages of implementing an inflation targeting framework as its monetary policy strategy. This shift will entail moving away from a given level of money supply to containing a given level or range of inflation that is consistent with economic growth. When the central bank pursues this policy, it will, for example, give an inflation target of 5% and work towards achieving that target. This means that while BoU has been indirectly controlling inflation through targeting a given amount of monetary growth, the shift to inflation targeting will result into directly containing changes in prices of goods and services.

Ecobank Nigeria is set to boost its capital base by US $ 400 million (N45 billion) following an injection of capital from its Togo-based parent company, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI). The infusion of capital, at a time of considerable turmoil in the market, demonstrates the strength of the Ecobank Group. It also reflects ETI's commitment to support its subsidiaries, and its confidence in the Nigerian market.

The government of Botswana hopes to raise nearly P13 billion soft loans from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank to cover this year's P13.4 billion budget deficit. The current government was in negotiations with the World Bank to lend the country US$300, 000 (P2.2 billion) and AfDB US$1.5 billion (P10.8 billion) as budget support. Botswana will raise the money through the World Bank's Development Policy Lending (DPL) window, which is a fast disbursing facility, intended to assist countries in economic crisis.

Gateway Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications services to mobile operators, has been awarded a contract to provide Etisalat with cellular backhaul for its Nigerian mobile network. The deal, worth $6 million over a two year term, provides satellite cellular backhaul from Gateway Communications to Etisalat which will connect three major cities in Nigeria. In awarding the contract to Gateway, Etisalat considered qualities such as high quality of service rendered, secure and reliable network services with local, on-the-ground support services available throughout Nigeria, amongst other criteria. Gateway has Nigerian offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano and provides technical support throughout the rest of the country. With more than 47 transponders of capacity, Gateway carries more satellite cellular backhaul in Africa than any other operator. Nigeria is now the largest telecoms market in Africa. The Nigerian regulator reports over 64 million SIMs in operation at the end of January this year, with 23 million new subscribers signing up in 2008. This represents a growth of 55% in 2008. Currently standing at the 140th position among Financial Times’ top 500 corporations in the world, Etisalat is the largest provider of telecommunication service in Africa and the Middle East and serves a growing aggregate customer base of 74 million subscribers across Africa, Middle East and Asia. Etisalat currently has footprints in 18 countries in three continents across the world.

The Africa Commission has delivered its final set of recommendations. The Commission is proposing a new consensus for international development cooperation with Africa. Focus should be directed towards private sector-led growth, which creates jobs. The Commission also decided to take action. It will launch five ambitious initiatives aimed at creating job opportunities for Africa's youth: The creation of an African Guarantee Fund in partnership with the African Development Bank aimed mobilizing loans for three billion USD and reducing the cost of access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises, SME's. Africa's SME's provide 80 percent of output and jobs in Africa; Ensuring access to energy at the local level by launching a new initiative in partnership with the EU and the African Development Bank. More than three-quarters of Africans lack access to electricity - a major constraint to economic development, doing business and standards of living; Improving the business climate and Africa's competitive edge by making sure that the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report covers all African countries. More than that, the Commission will work with a range of Africa-based entities to ensure that the findings of this benchmarking process is followed-up by the development of detailed policy responses and concrete reforms; Unleashing the power of African entrepreneurship, both in start-up and existing enterprises, by providing advisory services and access to finance in order to allow young people to translate their good ideas into practical plans. The initiative will be implemented in partnership with the ILO and Youth Employment Network (a partnership between the UN, ILO and World Bank). It is expected that this initiative alone will create 40,000 new jobs and 20,000 new businesses; Supporting higher education and research. Specifically, the initiative will increase the quantity and quality of artisans through apprenticeships, especially in the rural areas. Also, it will link tertiary research and business practices especially to expanding agricultural output.

The East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY) will now be operational in June 2010, a year later than planned, according to a project official. The delay means that the cable, owned by African and international telecommunications operators, is again the subject of speculation and allegations about the lack of seriousness of the project developers. A rival project, the Sea Cable System (SEACOM), has already announced that it will be operational as scheduled in June this year.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Africa's largest producer of the metal, posted its first profit in seven quarters after investor demand boosted bullion prices and the company cut fixed-price forward sales. Net income was 1 million rand ($1.2 million) in the first quarter, compared with a net loss of 11.9 billion rand in the prior three months, the Johannesburg-based company said today in a statement. Production was 1.1 million ounces and will probably rise to 1.14 million ounces in this quarter, AngloGold said. The CEO also has reorganized management and sold less- profitable assets in an effort to improve the company. He may build new mines and buy existing properties to expand annual output by about a fifth to 6 million ounces before 2015.

Liberty Holdings Ltd., the life insurer controlled by Africa's largest bank, reported a first- quarter loss after slumping markets reduced the value of its investments. The loss amounted to 400 million rand ($47 million), the company said in a statement to the Johannesburg stock market today, without providing a year-earlier figure. Falling asset values led to 250 million rand of credit-related markdowns and 500 million rand of unrealized losses on equity holdings. Liberty is one of the three largest insurance companies in South Africa and is controlled by Standard Bank. The company has sought to cut risk by hedging “a significant portion” of its equity investments.

Multilateral lenders have pledged $15bn to support trade, strengthen the financial sector and increase lending for infrastructure, agribusiness and small enterprises in Africa. Announced at the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB) board of directors in Dakar, the increased support is part of a co-ordinated response to help regions affected by the global economic slowdown and help stem the reversal of investment in Africa. The ADB has pooled resources together with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the French Development Agency to lend support to private sector investment projects to spur growth. Announcing the joint international finance institutions' action plan, ADB president Donald Kaberuka said the severity of the challenge facing the continent was unprecedented: "It took us decades to get where we are but six months to go from (economic growth of) 7% to 3%, and we are not sure that for us this crisis is not at its beginning." Under the plan, the ADB will use an emergency liquidity facility of $1.5bn to give financial support to countries and projects facing liquidity constraints. The bank will also introduce a new $500m trade finance line of credit and is considering committing another $500m to global trade liquidity programmes to support commercial banks and other trade finance institutions. It will also contribute funds to support agribusiness and microfinance.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has indicated that two of Nigeria's banks, GTBank and Skye Bank have posted impressive quarterly results, giving a boost to the nation's financial market. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in its first quarter result released yesterday posted net profit increase of 63 percent to N9.47 billion ($65 million). Gross earnings rose 55 percent to N35.81 billion compared to the same period last year, the bank said in its latest financial report to the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Also, Skye Bank Plc saw net profit jump 43 percent to N9.61 billion ($66 million) in its second quarter to March 31. Gross earnings leapt 87 percent to N51.66 billion, the bank told the Nigerian bourse in its latest report. Skye's fixed assets grew to N24.43 billion from N15.59 billion a year ago.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has decided to leave the prime rate unchanged at 18.5%. The prime rate is the rate at which the Central Bank does its overnight lending to the universal banks in the country. Announcing this at a press conference in Accra, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, who is also Head of the MPC, explained that the indicators of the economic activity and demand growth, including imports, seemed to be slowing down from the rapid pace recorded in 2008. Similarly, headline inflation, though still high, seems to be stabilizing with reduced price volatility observed over the past few months, as has exchange the rate volatility in the midst of sharp swings in international currencies. The Governor observed that headline inflation for March 2009, released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), recorded 20.5% up from 20.3% in February, and 19.9% in January, this year.

Parliament has authorized the Government to borrow sh60b from the African Development Bank to finance the Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Project. The project, aimed at increasing access to markets and infrastructure for agro-processing, will be implemented in 17 districts in north and north-eastern Uganda. The funds will be used to improve feeder roads and to construct markets, cold rooms and stores.

Intercontinental Bank Plc has secured $100 million (N16 billion) Line of Credit (LoC) from African Development Bank(ADB), to support its financing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has secured a €60-million (about R690.9-million) credit line from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance viable projects by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial, resources and services sectors. EIB vice president Plutarchos Sakellaris said the loan was a strong signal of the bank's commitment to supporting the private sector and encouraging job creation in South Africa. The credit line comes at an opportune time, when the cost of raising funds is extremely high, given market volatility and the liquidity crisis, and will improve access to funding SMEs in the country. The IDC's relationship with the EIB dates back to the mid-1990s. The EIB has over the years provided the IDC with four credit lines totalling about €165-million for small business development in South Africa. In October 2007, the EIB signed an agreement with the South African government, pledging financial support of up to €900-million the country until 2013.

International investors have given South Africa a big vote of confidence by snapping up its largest dollar-denominated bond to date, despite the severe global lending crisis. The country raised the amount on a 10-year issue it planned to raise offshore this year to $1,5bn from an initial $1bn after it was oversubscribed more than five times, according to the Treasury's director-general, Lesetja Kganyago, saying that it was the largest dollar-denominated issue since SA re-entered global markets in 1995. The annual coupon for the bond was 6,875% which was SA's third- lowest on record, Kganyago said. The lower the coupon, the less expensive the bond is for SA's government. The new issue was priced at a spread of 375 basis points over US Treasuries, tighter than the guidance of 387,5 basis points initially offered by banks — also a success signal. The size of this new issue will help take pressure off domestic capital markets, which the government will tap to finance its budget deficit this year. Kganyago said it was too soon to say if the shortfall, which the Treasury forecasts at 3,8% of gross domestic product (GDP), would be exceeded. The Treasury picked Barclays, JPMorgan and Standard Bank to arrange the deal.

The World Bank and African Development Bank have provided a total of US$25 million in grants to Government and Chitungwiza Municipality to help in the economic turnaround programme and for rehabilitation of water and sewer systems respectively. The WB has extended a US$22 million grant secured from its various partners to assist Zimbabwe in its economic revival efforts while the AfDB has provided US$3 million to Chitungwiza for the repair of its water and sewer infrastructure. The two banks have pledged more assistance in grants in future depending on how the US$25 million is used.

The sale of NITEL and its mobile arm, M-Tel, will be concluded by September, Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Christopher Anyanwu, has said. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the premier telecommunications company was up for sale after three trials in the last five years, while the hiring of a management consultant, Pentascope, for the firm had led to its steady depreciation. NITEL was first sold to International Investment Company (IIL) of London for 1.3 billion dollars in 2001, afterwards Orascom of Egypt offered 650 million dollars and subsequently, it was sold to homegrown investment company, Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) for 750 million dollars. Transcorp paid 500 million dollars and it was given 51 per cent share in the company, while the Federal Government controlled 49 per cent.

South Africa's private equity industry breached the R100-billion mark for the first time in 2008, despite the global economic meltdown and a slowdown in local merger and acquisition activity. And according to the 10th annual survey of the local industry from KPMG and the SA Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca), R29.2-billion in commitments remained undrawn and could be used for further investment. The survey found that private equity had attracted R23-billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Africa over the last three years. South Africa's private equity funds under management (excluding undrawn commitments) grew to R103.1-billion or 3.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, well ahead of the global average of 2.7%. This represented a 14.4% compound annual growth rate over the last decade, with funds under management standing at R30.7-billion in 1999. South Africa's private equity sector "maintained a lingering exuberance from 2007 through the first half of 2008 and then became more subdued in the second half," the survey found, the net result being overall growth of 19.5%, from R86.3-billion held at December 2007 to R103.1-billion at December 2008. Black economic empowerment (BEE) private equity deals grew by 38.1% over the same period, from R11.8-billion in 2007 to R16.3-billion in 2008, while private equity funds valued at R68.6-billion were under the management of entities that are either black owned, empowered or influenced. This was up 16.3% from R59-billion in 2007. There was reason for "cautious optimism" for South Africa, Watkins said, particularly regarding the prospect of lower interest rates and the forthcoming 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Eskom Holdings, the South African state electricity company, has signed a €530-million loan agreement with seven European banks to help fund its capital expansion programme. The loan will be used to fund part of the foreign content of the Medupi boiler contract with Hitachi Power Europe, says the company. Eskom's Medupi coal-fired power station is being built near Lephalale in Limpopo province. The multi-lender loan is payable over 12 years after the commissioning of the units at Medupi power station. Securing power supply for present and future needs of the country remained Eskom's fundamental responsibility and in February, the government approved guarantees totalling R175.87-billion over five years in support of Eskom's capital expansion programme, in light of the critical role the state power company plays in the economy.

Mauritius has teamed up with Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and hosts South Africa as southern African accommodation providers for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The countries will all feature in the official tour operator programme as well as the hospitality programme managed by 2010 accommodation provider Match, ensuring that visiting football fans get to enjoy the numerous attractions the southern African region has to offer. According to the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) chief executive Danny Jordaan , one of the principal objectives of the overall strategy has been to use the 2010 Fifa World Cup as a launching pad to brand and develop the entire region as a preferred tourism and investment destination. The geographic proximity and quality of hotels in Mauritius is seen as ideal to develop packages to allow fans to fully explore the unique diversity of the southern African region.

Standard Bank Group, the biggest bank in Africa, said headline earnings fell 14% to R4.1bn in the four months to April after economic conditions deteriorated worse than expected. An earnings forecast it made in March was revised down. It now believes that it unlikely that it will match last year's headline earnings.

Individual tickets for the opening match, semi-finals and final of the 2010 World Cup have sold out, according to Fifa. A total of 105 322 tickets in the second phase of World Cup ticket sales have been confirmed and approved. Team specific ticket series for England, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands are also not available. Individual match tickets for games taking place in Cape Town, Nelspruit and Pretoria are also sold out, Fifa added. However, team specific series tickets for the semi-finals and the final are still available. This means that fans will be able to follow their team, but if their favourite is eliminated in the early stages of the tournament, they will still be able to attend the final match.

The recent 29 May polls in Malawi saw the number of women members of Parliament rise from 14% to 22%. About 125 women competed for the 193 seats, with 43 successfully gaining ground. For the first time since independence in 1964, Malawi also has a female vice-president, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Joyce Banda. However, this is still far from the 30% by 2005 target set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).