Author: Padili Mikomangwa

AngloGold Ashanti, third-largest gold-miner in the world with operations in South Africa on Friday has reported a 72 per cent jump in annual earnings. AngloGold reported that it nearly doubled free cash flow in 2019 to $129 million.

The miner attributed the earnings surge to the higher gold prices and robust operational performance from its Kibali, Geita, Tropicana and Iduapriem mines.

According to the miner’s statement, AngloGold Ashanti headline earning per share measure in South Africa, went up to 91 cents on December 31, 2019, from the previous year, while free cash flow before capital expenditure on growth projects, rose 106 per cent to $448 million.

However, the gold-miner statement noted that: AngloGold Ashanti invested sustaining capital of $494million in 2019 and has forecast an increase to between $640 million and $670 million in 2020.

Also, the additional investment will help the company convert existing resources into additional ore reserves …

Tanzania mining industry just got interesting as the leading miner in East Africa will start exporting tin, its base metals of tantalum and wolframite, mined in the northern part of Tanzania.

According to information from The Citizen, the green light came out after Tanzania sufficed all export requirements to become the fourth eligible nation in the Great Lakes Region after Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Prior to the export nod, Tanzania produced tin and its base metals, but it was not allowed to export them due to lack of certificates of origin, the necessary requirement for exports.

The Tanzanian Ministry of Minerals revealed via minerals deputy minister Stanslaus Nyongo yesterday that, the highly valued minerals were mostly exported illegally via neighbouring countries, which were issuing certificates.

Further, the deputy minister added that Great Lakes Region leaders placed restrictions on exports of tin and its base metals …

Egypt, one of Africa’s vibrant tourism destination, has recorded a 5.6 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the past six months, to December 2019, Reuters said a government statement revealed the information.

Tourism has been attributed to Egypt’s economic growth in the last three years, strong remittances from Egyptian workers abroad and recently discovered natural gas fields coming on stream.

Hence, the nation’s growth has mainly been driven by the state sector. The World Bank (WB) spotlighted the nation’s economy and noted that, on the sectoral side, gas extractives, wholesale and retail trade, real estate and construction have been the main drivers of growth.

Unemployment decreased to 7.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY19 (from 9.9 per cent a year earlier), although accompanied by shrinking labour force participation.

According to Reuters January poll, the economy is expected to grow 5.8 per cent in the fiscal year ending …

Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has seen its inflation quickened to nearly two years high in January as food shortages caused by border closures continued to drive up the price of staples, the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics revealed.

According to information from Bloomberg, the statistician report revealed that: consumer price rose to 12.1 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 12 per cent in December, which marks the fifth month of increases.

However, there were several crucial aspects in relation to the scenario, as revealed by Bloomberg.

It was highlighted that the nation’s monetary policy committee’s ability to raise interest rates to contain inflation is hampered by slow economic growth.

In January a Nigerian economist and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele raised the number of money banks to need to deposit at zero interest with the central bank to clear up …

Tanzania’s Social Action Fund (TASAF), a poverty-reduction base will get a $562 million loan to support its second phase.

According to information from The Citizen, over $800 will be spent during the five years of implementing the phase, officially launched earlier today by Tanzania’s President John Magufuli.

Also, the information revealed that the rest of the amount will be sourced from various other development partners including the Opec Fund for International Development set to issue $50 million.

However, TASAF director-general Ladislaus Mwamanga, highlighted that the programme goals are set to empower poor households with funds, known as ‘Productive Social Safety Net’ with which they can conduct their income-generating activities.

The safety net which was initiated in 2000, had over 1.1 households in Tanzania with over 5.2 people enrolled in the programme.

During the launch, it was revealed that TASAF spent over $692 million in poverty alleviation programmes national wide.

Also, …

East Africa is facing a serious threat posed by billions of locusts–the most dangerous migratory pests, threatening food security in the region which is also enduring, through climate change, stress impacting food security in Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya and some parts of Tanzania.

According to the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG), East Africa is already being threatened with 19 million people facing acute food insecurity.

In January swarms of locusts made their presence known when they took an Ethiopian plane off course, and invaded Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and took Uganda and Tanzania in February.

This could be the worst case of locust outbreak over the decades. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there is an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the region, as a new swarm is forming and expected in March and April.

UN agronomy experts warned that the wave of locusts …

South African rand has taken a steady stance on Monday, after China intervened to soothe the virus tension and combat the outbreak economic backlash, via its rate cut approach, according to information from Reuters.

Reuters reported that, China’s central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending on Monday as policymakers sought to cushion the drag on business from the outbreak that has immensely disrupted activity.

As of 0245 EAT, the rand was standing at 0.55 per cent firmer at 14.8966, adding to gains from Friday’s session spurred by largely positive reception of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation speech promising faster economic reformer.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported the rand slipped to 14.6570 per dollar on Monday 28 January, its weakest since Dec. 12, with the selloff largely driven by investors dumping emerging-market assets.

Further, the rand and other emerging market currencies had weakened amid investor fears …

MTN, South African multinational mobile telecommunications company is expecting to gather full-year headline profit up to 50 per cent, which is still a slow-down from the previous years attributed by interest on regulatory fines in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, MTN, which is due to report 2019 results on March 11, 2020, said headline earnings per share (HEPS) would likely be within a range of 438 cents to 506 cents on the IFRS 16 accounting basis adopted at the start of the year.

That compares to 337 cents in the previous year. On a like-for-like IAS 17 accounting basis, MTN expects to report growth in HEPS – a key profit measure in South Africa that strips out one-off items – of between 55 per cent and 75 per cent.

However, that is still slower than the 85 per cent jump the company reported in 2018. It attributed the …

South African Airways (SAA), one of Africa’s iconic airline, which currently operating under-loss, could resort in cutting-routes to save the state-owned flag carrier, SAA rescue team revealed.

Several news outlets, including Bloomberg, noted that SAA administrators have defended their decision to cut-routes, even after several objections from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the government and labor unions.

According to a report by Reuters, under South African company law, the business rescue team is entitled to take decisions that are deemed necessary to turn a distressed company around, independently of government. In theory, it could ignore the government’s objections.

Bloomberg reported that South African Airways will halt service to nine international cities, including Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, and cease all local services except those between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The move is “in the best interests of SAA,” joint administrators Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said in an emailed statement …

Canada, the world’s second largest country and the fastest economy among G7 has set aside $10 million for developing African women, and slated potential investment agreement with Ethiopia.

The $10-million contribution is to the African Union Commission for gender equality and women empowerment.

The Canadian Prime Minister (with his first visit to Ethiopia) spent the first full day of a three-day trip to Addis Ababa meeting with some of the African Union’s heaviest performers in a series of one-on-one on the sidelines of the union’s 33rd sessional meeting in Addis Ababa.

READ:Ethiopian Airline’s CEO reveals new airport underway

Canada and Ethiopia

According to the Canadian media, Global news, Trudeau said Canada and Ethiopia are about to start negotiating a Foreign Investment Protection Agreement.

Also, the Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng, who is in Africa with a trade delegation of Canadian companies, wouldn’t say how long those negotiations could take …