Connecting Africa’s Skilled Professionals
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A round-up of recent news from the UK, Africa and around the world.
There has been a dramatic rise in the number of older workers who are planning to work beyond the state pension age, CIPD research has revealed. The Employee Outlook survey of 2,000 working people found that the proportion of people aged 55 and above planning to work beyond the state pension age has jumped to 71 per cent, compared with 40 per cent in a similar survey two years ago. Stretched finances are the main reason for the trend with pension pots, savings and investments, and house values all being hit by the recession.
A prize package including an online promotional marketing campaign worth £1,500 is on offer for UK businesses that can demonstrate outstanding success in import and export markets. The International Trade Awards, sponsored by Santander, are made to recognise and reward the success of import and export enterprises and businesses trading overseas in the current economic downturn. All UK businesses that are actively trading overseas and have an annual turnover in excess of £1 million are eligible to enter, with a chance to win one of three awards to be presented at the House of Lords: Small to Medium Company of the Year for International Trade - for outstanding International Trade achievement by a company with total annual sales not exceeding £10 million. Eversheds Excellence in Innovation Award (sponsored by Eversheds LLP) - for outstanding innovation through the use of products, practices and services for business growth. Santander International Trade Company of the Year (sponsored by Santander Corporate Banking) - for the company which the judges feel has achieved the most outstanding achievement in International Trade. Regional winners will be determined in 12 heats, with each heat winner receiving an online promotional campaign worth £1,500, coverage on freshbusinessthinking.com and InternationalTrade.co.uk, and a promotional video interview from the House of Lords. Entrants should ;see the International Trade Awards website for further details, and check the deadline date for their region.
A recent study by the London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) found that the sector has been asked to make cuts totalling £50 million in the past 12 months. LVSC conducted a survey of voluntary service councils from all 32 London boroughs to form a picture of the impact and breadth of funding cuts the sector has had to absorb over the past year. The £50 million figure includes local authority cuts which have been passed onto community and voluntary groups.
US employers are positive over Q4 hiring, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. The survey of more than 18,000 employers found that 15% anticipate an increase in staff levels in their Q4 2010 hiring plans, while 11% expect a decrease in payrolls, resulting in a net employment outlook of +4%. The survey also shows that 71% of employers expect no change in their hiring plans and 3% are undecided about their hiring intentions.Employers across industries including mining (+13%), wholesale & retail trade (+13%), professional & business services (+10%), leisure & hospitality (+9%), durable goods manufacturing (+7%), information (+7), non-durable goods manufacturing (+6%), financial activities (+4%), education & health services (+4), and transport & utilities (+2%) have reported a mostly positive outlook this year. This was in contrast with 2009 when sentiment in most industry sectors was negative. However, the Q4 outlook is negative in government (-6%) and construction (-8%).
Businesses that started trading after 22 June 2010 can take advantage of the Regional Employer National Insurance Contributions Holiday scheme to save up to £50,000 on employers' NI payments. The scheme is managed by HM Revenues & Customs to support businesses starting up between 22 June 2010 and 05 September 2013. Qualifying businesses can benefit from a payment holiday on employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) of £5,000 for the first ten employees, saving a potential £50,000. The scheme is targeted at specific regions of the UK and businesses eligible under the scheme include sole trader, company or partnership involved in a trade, profession or vocation, a property business or investment business and a new trading charity (profit or non-profit). Businesses must be eligible for de minimis aid under EU State Aid restrictions. The National Insurance Contributions (NICs) holiday will run for 12 months from the date of the start of the business or the appointment of the first employee.
More than one in three of SMEs use social media on a daily basis to promote their businesses, according to research from Daryl Willcox Publishing. The research shows that 54% use social media - and 35% of these said they posted updates every day to platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. One in four quarter companies update every few days, while 17% used social media platforms weekly. Almost three quarters of firms (73%) exploiting social media used LinkedIn (73%) the most, compared to Facebook (64%) and Twitter (63%). Of those who did not reach customers using social media, 35% blamed a lack of time, 31% claimed their customers didn't use it while 24% didn't understand it.
The UK is "plummeting" down the international league of graduate numbers at a worrying rate, according to a new report. The country has slipped from having the third highest graduation rate amongst industrialised countries in 2000, to 15th place in 2008, latest research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revealed. Poland, Iceland, Portugal and the Slovak Republic are among the countries the UK now trails behind in terms of the proportion of young people gaining degrees. The UK's graduation rate in 2008 was 35 per cent, compared with 37 per cent in 2000. This now places the country 3 per cent below the OECD average of 38 per cent. In 2000, the UK was ranked 9 per cent above the 28 per cent average of the 26 industrialised nations. Despite the current unprecedented high costs of a university education in the UK, the competition for university places has intensified this year, with over 160,000 school leavers expected to miss out on a place on a degree course this autumn. The Russell Group, which represents the country's top universities, warned that continued erosion of university budgets would propel the UK into a "lower division of higher education" and damage the country's economic competitiveness. The OECD research also confirmed that the greater earning potential of graduates and their subsequent higher tax contributions outweighed the cost of their university education to the government, while their skills benefited the economy.
High numbers of graduates are moving into work that is unrelated to their degrees, creating a "disillusioned generation", the CIPD has warned. The CIPD survey Focus on graduate jobs found that nearly six in 10 (59 per cent) of employees who graduated in the last two years are not currently working in a field or profession related to the degree they studied. The survey, conducted by YouGov and based on responses from more than 700 graduates in employment, found that 58 per cent of people in this category said they were unable to find work in their desired field. Only 21 per cent said their change of direction was a voluntary move, while 28 per cent felt their degree was not good enough to equip them for the workplace. A quarter (24 per cent) chose to pursue further study as a way of postponing entering the jobs market. The research comes as the government pledged to significantly increase – to 75 per cent – the proportion of young people they want to secure a degree or equivalent level qualification.
Global youth unemployment has hit unprecedented levels and is likely to keep rising in 2010, a report has revealed. Research from the International Labour Organization (ILO) found that, of the 620 million economically active people aged 15 to 24 years old, 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009. This is the highest number ever recorded and is a rise of 7.8 million from 2007 figures. As a result the global youth unemployment rate rose from 11 per cent in 2007 to 13 per cent in 2009. ILO projections suggest this rate will continue to increase during 2010, to 13.1 per cent, followed by a moderate decline to 12.7 per cent in 2011. Analysts have concluded that youth unemployment rates have been more sensitive to the economic crisis than adult rates and that the recovery of the job market for young people is likely to lag behind that of older people. The report also warned of the "risk of a crisis legacy of a 'lost generation' of young people who have dropped out of the labour market, having lost all hope of being able to work for a decent living". The knock-on effect of this is that "societies lose their investment in education; governments fail to receive contributions to social security systems and are forced to increase spending on remedial services". Country specific data showed a slight rise in youth inactivity in the UK (up 2 percentage points) and Spain (up 2.8 percentage points) between 2007 and 2009.
Analysts said this suggests more young people in Spain and the UK were "becoming discouraged by the labour market and are in danger of detaching themselves from it entirely". With one in five young people in Germany, Spain and the UK spending more than a year looking for a job, and education no longer a guarantee of employment, governments and employers need to target this group and "draw them back into the labour market through training and placement assistance".
The Ipet Isut Afrikan Inst. is aiming to encourage pen pals among women of Afrikan culture and who are centred on learning more about their approach to educating women of Afrikan descent in the USA and elsewhere. To find out more, contact Adigun at s2d2asante@yahoo.com
The UK labour market grew at its weakest rate for a year last month, according to data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Their Report on Jobs, compiled from recruitment consultancy data and produced with KPMG, found that growth in permanent staff placements in September was down to a 12-month low and growth in temporary billings is at its lowest for 11 months. The demand for staff showed a similar pattern, with vacancies up but showing the slowest rate of improvement since October 2009. The trend sparked fears that the recovery in the jobs market is stagnating and might be about to go into reverse, creating a "double-dip" in employment.
KPMG plans to create 8,000 jobs across Europe in the next three years, including 3,000 in the UK, it has announced. The financial services firm says that demand is rising for its services as more companies undertake mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and other corporate activity in the recovering economic climate. As it looks towards the expansion, KPMG has appointed a new UK head of recruitment, Iain McLaughlin, who joins from GlaxoSmithKline where he held the position of global talent business leader. The firm's projections are that they will recruit 7,500 people over the next three years in the UK, resulting in a 3,000 increase in headcount. Across Europe the figures are 21,000 recruits and an 8,000 increase in headcount. KPMG Europe employs 30,000 people and so the plans would expand this to 38,000. The expansion is overwhelmingly driven by anticipated private sector demand, since demand from the public sector for consultancy services is set to shrink markedly with government cutbacks.
The UK is suffering from a leadership and management skills deficit which is hitting the country's competitiveness, according to the CIPD. Responding to the government's Skills for Sustainable Growth consultation, the institute said that much of the public spending on skills is failing to have the desired effect because of poor management is hitting employees' motivation and engagement. On the other hand, good management could have a "skills multiplier effect" that would boost capability across the board. Stephanie Bird, CIPD director of public policy and HR capability pointed out that the UK invests less in management development than its main international competitors and that its managers are rated less positively by employees. In order to address this problem the CIPD is calling for a pan-government people management skills strategy, to run in partnership with key employer and professional bodies. This would focus on a campaign to boost employee engagement by promoting best practice on leadership and people management, in order to 'nudge' employers to invest more effectively in people management skills.
eLearning Africa has opened its call for papers and is inviting education professionals from Africa and beyond to submit their best practices. The conference will take place from May 25th - 27th, 2011, in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It is organised by ICWE GmbH and hosted by the Republic of Tanzania.The eLearning Africa Conference in 2011 will focus on young adults in Africa. With the spotlight on Youth, Skills and Employability, Africa's leading conference on ICT for development, education and training will explore and discuss the vast reservoir of talent, skills and opportunity among Africa's youth, also looking into the challenges they face on the job market. Over 40 per cent of Africa's population is younger than 24 years old. One hundred and ninety-eight million Africans, 20 per cent of the continent's population, are aged between 15 and 24 - the largest percentage of young people anywhere in the world. Children under the age of 15 account for another 20 per cent. Suggestions for sessions, presentations, workshops and discussions can be submitted until December 10th. The organising committee invites all those who are engaged in development, education and training in or for African countries to take part in the call. More details on topics and how to submit a proposal can be found at http://www.elearning-africa.com/programme_cfp.php. Serving as a pan-African platform, eLearning Africa links a network of decision-makers from governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, industry and important partners in development cooperation. Each year a different country hosts the event.
PwC LLP has awarded 81 eXceed scholarships to diverse students from 56 colleges and universities across the United States for the 2010-2011 academic year. Since the program began in 1990, PwC has given nearly $3 million in eXceed scholarships to hundreds of talented minority students. PwC eXceed is an annual scholarship program for minority college students in their freshman, sophomore or junior year with strong academic standing and career interests in accounting, computer information systems, finance, economics, actuarial sciences and management information technology. Students become eligible to apply for a $3,000 scholarship when they accept an offer to complete PwC's Summer of Discovery Internship (SDI), a unique internship designed to broaden interest among minority students in the accounting profession and create a pipeline for diverse talent at the firm. SDI interns collaborate and work with partners and staff from different functional areas across PwC on real client projects. This allows the interns to experience the business and learn about life at the firm from the inside. The leadership development and experience they gain position them for high performance and serve as a launching point for long-term careers.
If women continue to fail to making it to board level, companies and customers could potentially lose out on innovative ideas and skills. Theresa May, YJ Home Secretary and minister for women and equality, said employers miss out on a huge range of insights and experiences if they fail to draw their senior staff from the widest pool possible, and promised to work with the private sector to improve the situation. At present just 12.2% of FTSE 100 directors are women, and a quarter of FTSE 100 companies do not have a single woman on their boards. "By becoming more representative at all levels, companies can become more innovative and more productive and have a better understanding of what all their customers want and need," she said.
The UK coalition government's plans to restrict the number of non-EU workers allowed into the UK has worried many British companies and could potentially cost the UK thousands of jobs. The government announced plans to limit the number of non-EU workers and have since issued quotas on work permits issued to each organization, which is based on the number of staff that it recruited in the previous year, 2009. This employer's feel this will have a negative effect on their business as they are not able to recruit the staff that they need in order to stay productive and profitable. Vince Cable, Business Secretary said that the caps on immigration, are forcing companies to relocate overseas and that "a lot of damage is being done to British industry." The business secretary said that he supported plans for a permanent immigration cap but that he wanted to see it applied flexibly. He claimed that companies are unhappy with the way border officials have calculated how many work permits each company should have, many companies had recruitment freezes last year, which have now been lifted.
ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance has been ranked the No. 1 microfinance non-profit globally by Philanthropedia, an organization devoted to improving and measuring non-profit effectiveness. To create its ranking, Philanthropedia surveyed 131 international microfinance experts, including foundation executives, researchers, non-profit senior staff and government officials. These experts identified 12 top microfinance nonprofits and rated them on the basis of impact in the field. Of the 131, 57 agreed that ACCION had the most impact. In their assessment, the experts cited the scalability and sustainability of the 34 microfinance organizations with whom ACCION partners; ACCION'' innovation in client protection, through its leadership role in the Smart Campaign for consumer protection; its commitment to serving excluded populations (evidenced by its new ventures in the Amazon, Inner Mongolia, Cameroon, and Bihar, India); and good governance.
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has been named one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" for the sixth time in nine years by Working Mother magazine, a national publication targeting career-committed mothers. AEP is the only central Ohio-based company and the only electric utility on the list, which appears in the magazine's October edition. The companies were chosen based on a 600-question survey addressing work schedule flexibility, work leave policies, child care, advancement of women, compensation and other work/life issues. AEP received the same recognition in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2004 and 2002. Working Mother also has selected AEP as one of the best companies for multicultural women the past five years. In 2007 and 2010, AEP was recognized as one of the top 50 companies for executive women by the National Association for Female Executives, which is affiliated with Working Mother. American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.
The representatives of the Paris Club creditor countries have agreed on a debt reduction following Liberia having reached its Completion Point under the enhanced initiative for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. In order to contribute to the debt sustainability of Liberia, they decided to cancel US$1,260million in nominal terms. The Creditors also committed on a bilateral basis to cancel the remaining $107million.
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) was adjudged the "Most Innovative African Stock Exchange for 2010" at the Africa investor (Ai) prestigious annual Index Series Awards. The Africa investor Index Series Awards are the only international pan-African awards that recognise and reward Africa's institutional investors, stock exchanges, best-performing listed companies, stockbrokers and capital market regulators. The awards assessed performance between April 2009 and April 2010.
Sundance Resources has announced its second agreement in a week with a Chinese company to investigate infrastructure development for its Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon and Congo. The aspiring miner says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to establish the scope, cost and delivery of a proposed bulk materials port at Lolabe in Cameroon. Under the agreement, the two parties would investigate the terms under which CHEC would deliver the project capable of handling 35 million tonnes of ore from the project each year. At the conclusion of the investigation, the two parties may agree, but are not bound, to enter a delivery agreement for the project. The announcement follows news last week that Sundance had signed a similar agreement with CRCC China-Africa Construction to investigate the company's rail needs for Mbalam.
African trade with China is growing while its imports and exports with other major global markets are either flat or on the decline, according to a new report from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The Africa-China trade represents more than 10 per cent of the continent's trade. In value terms, it represents between $114 billion and $52 billion in exports and $62 billion in imports. Africa has a trade deficit with China of about $10 billion, according to AfDB's report, Chinese Trade and Investment Activities in Africa. Europe remains Africa's largest export market, but its share has slumped from more than 50 per cent in the early 1990s to just over 30 per cent now. In contrast, China's share of African exports continues to grow, outpacing other Asian countries. Japan's share has dropped.
The police are winning the war against crime in South Africa, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said at the release of the national crime statistics for 2009/10, which show decreases in murders, attempted murders, car hijackings, street robberies, bank robberies and cash-in-transit heists. Addressing the media, Mthethwa said that murders had decreased by 8.6 percent between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 – the third-largest drop in South Africa's murder rate since 1995. While this had bolstered their resolve to fight crime, the police would endeavour to reduce the figure even more, Mthethwa said. Mthethwa attributed the decline and stabilising of these crimes to partnerships with communities and businesses, as well as police initiatives such as the introduction of "war rooms" and tactical response teams, and the profiling of most-wanted suspects.
Twenty-two of the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced new HIV infections by more than 25%, according to new data from UNAids which cites South Africa as a country making "good progress" in its Aids response. The data shows that countries with the largest epidemics in Africa - Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are leading the drop in new HIV infections, UNAids said on the eve of a United Nations summit on the Millennium Development Goals, taking place in New York from 20 to 22 September. Between 2001 and 2009, 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen a decline of more than 25% in new HIV infections, UNAids said in a statement on Friday. According to the organisation, there are now 5.2-million people on HIV treatment globally - a 12-fold increase in six years. With the widening availability of treatment, Aids deaths have dropped significantly - there were 200,000 fewer deaths worldwide in 2008 than in 2004. For the first time, change is happening at the heart of the epidemic."
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), the country's premiere export finance institution, is scheduled to official inaugurate a representative office in Addis Ababa. The office, being set up to promote trade and investment flows between India and the East African region, will look after the bank's interest in Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, according to Sachin More, Resident Representative of the bank.
China is taking steps to increase the volume of goods it receives from Ethiopia, the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency cited Chinese Ambassador Gu Xiaojie as saying. China is using policy measures such as zero tariffs on products from developing countries and organizing trade fairs for Ethiopian exporters to improve the balance of trade for the Horn of Africa nation, Gu said in an interview, according to the Addis Ababa-based agency.
The U2 front man, who together with his wife Ali Hewson founded the Edun fashion line to resurrect clothing manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa, has relocated production to China because of quality and consistency problems.
I.B.M. will supply the computing technology and services for an upgraded cellphone network across 16 nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Its customer is India's largest cellphone operator, Bharti Airtel, which paid $9 billion a few months ago for most of the African assets of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company, or Zain. The Bharti contract punctuates I.B.M.'s Africa strategy. The company's presence in Africa dates back 50 years, but in the last five years I.B.M. has invested $300 million in the region to build data centers, add country offices and foster technology training programs — and it plans to expand aggressively in the region.
The world's leading provider of business management software, SAP, has been rated as the Best Employer in South Africa for 2010/11 by the CRF Institute in its annual Best Employers ranking. The Best Employers ranking is a unique international HR policy and practice benchmarking project conducted by the CRF Institute. Following SAP in the overall top ten was: Accenture (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd; MTN South Africa, Coca-Cola South Africa; ENS; Vodacom Group Limited; Dimension Data; Tsogo Sun Group; British American Tobacco South Africa; and Becton Dickinson (Pty) Ltd (BD SA). The Best Employers ranking is the culmination of months of rigorous research and all findings are also independently audited by Grant Thornton. Organisations are rated in the following areas: Organisation Strategy; The HR Function; Communication; Diversity Management; Corporate Social Responsibility; Knowledge Management; Talent Management and Engagement; Performance Management; and Rewards and Recognition. A total of 55 organisations have achieved certification in 2010. The latest Best Employers research also revealed some interesting trends in the South African labour market – one of the key findings is that 71% of organisations in South Africa report a shortage of professionals in the talent pool and 38% say this critical skills shortage is constraining the execution of their business strategies. The 45 companies to also receive Best Employers certification were: AfriSam (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Cashbuild, Cell C (Pty) Ltd, City Lodge Hotels, Clicks Group Limited, CSIR, East London Development Zone (ELIDZ), Edcon, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs Inc, Ernst & Young, Exxaro Resources Limited, First National Bank, Group Five Construction (Pty) Ltd, Hilti South Africa, IBM South Africa, Industrial Development Corporation of SA Ltd (IDC), Imperial Automotive Retail, Innovative Mining Products (New concept Mining), Itron, Joburg Market (Pty) Ltd, JSE, Kimberly Clark of SA, Legal Aid South Africa, Liberty Holdings Limited, Lufthansa Global Telesales, Meltwater Group, Missing Link, Mix Telematics Africa (Pty) Ltd, Mr Price Group, National Development Agency, Nestle SA (Pty) Ltd, Old Mutual (SA), Peninsula Beverage Company, Pick 'n Pay, Platinum Group Services, Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Rectron (Pty) Ltd, Regent, Safripol (Pty) Ltd, Sanofi-Aventis South Africa (Pty) Ltd, SAS Institute (Pty) Ltd, Siemens Ltd, South African National Roads Agency Ltd, Telkom SA, The Effectiveness Company and Unilever South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
TrustAfrica's commitment to strengthening private enterprise and fostering pro-poor growth throughout Africa was featured at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting. Over the next three years, TrustAfrica will provide $2.7 million for pioneering research on ways to stimulate the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and ensure that prosperity is broadly shared. "Africa has achieved remarkable economic growth over the last two decades, outpacing most other regions in the world," said Dr. Akwasi Aidoo, TrustAfrica's executive director. "But the benefits of greater investment and higher returns have not been reaching large segments of the population." TrustAfrica will implement today's commitment through one of its flagship initiatives, the Investment Climate and Business Environment (ICBE) Research Fund, which supports African scholars who are generating knowledge about strategies for removing barriers to markets, expanding access to resources and improving livelihoods and living conditions among the poor. The ICBE Research Fund recently completed its first phase, in which it provided nearly $1.5 million to support work by 53 research teams in nearly 20 African countries. With renewed support from the International Development Research Centre, the fund is now entering its second phase. Over the next three years, it will provide grants totaling $2.7 million for research on such pressing themes as employment creation, rural market development, credit availability and access, and improvement of social services. The fund will also provide technical assistance to strengthen research capacity and foster dialogue among scholars, policy makers, business organizations and civil society leaders. After reviewing the research findings, TrustAfrica will prepare a set of case studies to highlight best practices for strengthening entrepreneurship and pro-poor growth in Africa. TrustAfrica is an independent grant-making foundation that strives to secure the conditions for democratic governance and equitable development throughout the continent. Led by Africans, it catalyzes ideas, fosters dialogue, generates knowledge, mobilizes resources and conducts public advocacy to advance these goals. Learn more at www.trustafrica.org.
South Africa's planned 5,000 megawatt solar energy park, which will be the world's largest if built, could create as many as 12,300 jobs, Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters said. The project, which may be built at Upington in the nation's Northern Cape province, is ideal for the establishment of a solar park because of intense solar radiation for much of the year. A pre-feasibility study has been completed and South Africa could start talks with investors as soon as early 2011, Ompi Aphane, deputy Director General at the Department of Energy, said at the same briefing. South Africa is battling a power shortage after the government halted expansion plans by state-owned electricity producer Eskom Holdings Ltd. for four years until 2004 while it tried and failed to convince companies to build power plants. Initial estimates indicate that the planned solar plant could cost about 150 billion rand ($21.1 billion), government spokesman Themba Maseko said. Eskom is planning a 100 megawatt solar thermal energy project, also in Upington. The plant, which received funding from the World Bank, is expected to be completed by 2014. The largest solar power plant currently in operation is a 64 megawatt solar thermal energy project at Nevada in the U
Almost 90% of visitors who came to South Africa during the 2010 Fifa World Cup found locals to be very friendly and hospitable, according to a recent survey which highlighted the economic potential of the local tourism industry. The survey was run by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition party to the ruling African National Congress. The results, released on 19 September, showed that 89% of tourists found South Africans to be "extremely welcoming". The 98 face-to-face interviews, conducted by the party during the month-long football spectacle, took place in and around host stadiums and near shuttle services. The survey covered the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Free State and Mpumalanga provinces. According to the results, not one of the interviewees found South Africans to be unfriendly, and only 11% found locals to be "friendly", as opposed to "very friendly". This research indicates that the impressions of the estimated 383 000 World Cup tourists are more positive than what has been reported in the media, the party said in a statement. The survey also focused on related areas of interest, such as safety, personal experiences, public transport facilities and hospitality-industry prices. About 70% of tourists felt safe in South Africa, while 26.4% believed they were very safe. Only 3.8% felt they were somewhat unsafe. The survey shows that the potential of South Africa's tourism sector to spur economic growth remains impressive, the DA said, adding that this was "due to the significant gap between actual experiences in our country and some negative perceptions that exist abroad". South Africa needs to embark on more aggressive marketing abroad, said Krumbock. More needs to be invested in the industry to "unlock this potential" and enable the country to compete effectively with destinations like Australia, he added.
Zain Kenya will in October rebrand to Bharti Airtel, the name of its Indian telecom owner. This will be the third time the second largest player by market share in the Kenya mobile phone industry will change its names and owners. The company began its operations in early 2000 as Kencell, then rebranded to Celtel finally changing to Zain in 2008. In 2008, it cost the firm $28million when it rebranded from Celtel to Zain.
CAADP has received a major boost as several countries have begun drawing on funds from a $22 billion pledge made by the G8. Under CAADP, African governments are committed to increase their national budget expenditure on agriculture to at least 10 percent. The programme, agreed by heads of state at the 2003 summit of the African Union, expects a six percent growth rate in agriculture every year. Dr. Nalishebo Meebelo, the Country CAADP Process Facilitator at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), told IPS that the leaders at the G8 Summit held in L'Aquila, Italy in 2009 pledged to raise over $22 billion under the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme. The World Bank is administering the funds. The United States, Spain, South Korea and Canada as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are the development partners that have contributed towards the finances. The countries that have accessed the funds so far are Togo, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi are all expected to also benefit from the fund after they successfully submit their investment plan by the end of September. COMESA, in partnership with the African Union Commission and NEPAD, is coordinating and facilitating the CAADP.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has been selected to build a Centre of Excellence in the training of Soil Scientists for the West African sub-region. Twenty students from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Nigeria will be offered scholarships to undertake a four-year Ph.D programme at the university. The Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA) is investing $2.1 million over a five-year period to organise the programme, which will train a new generation of soil scientists, capable of using balanced integrated soil fertility management to address current and future challenges. They are expected to contribute to the achievement of an envisaged six percent growth in Africa's food production by 2015 under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme.
Many sub-Saharan African countries are off-track to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals, but there have been pockets of success: Ghana is set to become the first country in Africa to halve poverty and hunger before 2015, while primary school enrolment in Ethiopia has increased by more than 500% since 1994, according to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Common to both examples has been the sustained commitment of each government to reform the respective sector, say researchers Jakob Engel and Henri Leturque. The story of the past 20 years in Ghana's agriculture sector has been one of incremental yet sustained change, rather than dramatic development, states the Ghana report. The country's government-led economic reforms, including devaluing the currency, liberalising markets, and restructuring the then-inefficient cocoa marketing board, have helped to boost food production by 80% per capita over the past 30 years, and enabled Ghana to become almost self-sufficient in staple crops such as yam and cassava. In Ethiopia, the government set out to improve the education sector when it came to power after the civil war, "recognising rural poverty was not only a key driver in conflict and inequality, but was also holding the country back and perpetuating the cycle of poverty... and that ensuring children had access to school was key to these broader development goals," said Engel. Agricultural growth in Ghana has also been inequitably distributed: concentrated in the south to the detriment of the north. "A lot still needs to be done to support the north, where there are fewer resources to work with," said Leturque.
Shanghai Construction Group is to build two Ultra Modern Regional Hospitals in Ashanti and Upper West Region. This came to light at a meeting by President Mills and the Chairman of Shanghai Construction Group, Jiang Zhiquan, in China. The construction of the two Regional hospitals is in line with the President's agenda of improving the health of Ghanaians. The Chairman of Shanghai Construction Group who announced this said the credibility and trust of President Mills is making Ghana to chalk up many successes globally. Shanghai Construction Group is the leading Construction group in China. Its track record in Ghana includes the Construction of the Essipong Stadium in Takoradi and the Tamale Sports Stadium for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana.
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