How cash-strapped farmers get their goods to market quickly and at a fair, transparent price In a small, tidy office on the top floor of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange building in Addis Ababa, communications manager Tewodros Assefa draws two diagrams on a large glass window pane. The window overlooks the capital city’s new light rail line, a raised concrete snake that bisects the city. This scene is unexpectedly sophisticated: a modern, first world pastiche in a country better known, not always fairly, for poverty and chaos. Like the new metro, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange—better known as ECX—is a physical expression…
Simon Allison
By Simon Allison Ironically, Africa’s chronic economic underdevelopment may now be its greatest opportunity. After so many decades of sluggish economic growth and lagging far behind other continents, Africa can be regarded as a place of unmatched potential. In the post-crash world, where economies everywhere are stalling and investment opportunities are few, the received wisdom is that Africa is the last great untapped market. This does not mean, however, that investing in Africa is easy. Quite the opposite. When it comes to attracting foreign investment, the continent’s real challenge is to connect cash with opportunities. How can African countries make…
Southern Africa’s telecoms New undersea cables: Not enough to kick-start a tech revolution by Simon Allison It is easy to forget in this digital age, but the world wide web is exactly what it sounds like—a planet-spanning tangle of wires and cables through which all our online activity travels. These cables climb up mountains and burrow through tunnels; they are buried deep under the sea and beneath our homes. They require constant maintenance and upgrading to keep the electronic signals flowing as fast as possible. Without interference or traffic, electronic data can travel at the speed of light. This is…
Horn of Africa: Somalia, Somaliland, Puntland and Jubaland Three regions in Somalia seek independence or autonomy For a country that does not exist, Somaliland does a remarkably good job of pretending. It has a green, red and white-striped flag, a foot-tapping national anthem, and a bustling capital city, Hargeisa. Its administrative district contains ministries, a central bank and even a presidential palace. Its government is fully self-governing. Its 3.4m residents elect the president and legislative assembly in polls (The last general election was held in June 2010.) that are relatively free and fair. They show their Somaliland passports when crossing…
South Africa: expropriation without compensation A noisy new opposition party is not the only one with extreme land reform plans Say what you like about Julius Malema, but the man knows his politics. The controversial leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has an unerring sense of self-preservation, coupled with an unmatched and fearless talent for identifying and exploiting the country’s fault lines: talents that took him from apparent political suicide—when he was expelled from the ruling African National Congress (ANC)—to become leader of the country’s third-largest party, securing an astonishing 6.35% in South Africa’s last general election in…
Guinea: a good news story The west African country’s new mining code increases government royalties while promoting clarity and transparency In most of the developing world, and particularly in Africa, corruption is so en- trenched that sometimes it feels insurmountable. Often the forces of accountability and transparency appear powerless against that potent combination of need, greed and gravy. Every now and then, however, a story surfaces that illustrates why corruption is not an irreversible force—and offers lessons in how to stop it. This particular example comes from Guinea, the west African republic that sits atop what is considered one of…
Foreign reporters and African news There is not a lot of money in African journalism. As an African journalist, I know this all too well. An illustrative example: I was in South Sudan in November 2012, on a trip I was financing myself. Weeks in flea-ridden hostels culminated in a four-day stay at a refugee camp near the border with Sudan. I was the only reporter there and pleased with myself for getting a story that no one else had. Not so fast. On my last day there, a small plane descended unannounced on the tiny airstrip and disgorged four…
The fall of the ANC Youth League The once proud youth wing of South Africa’s ruling party is a shadow of its former self One of the great ironies of Julius Malema’s rapid ascent to political prominence— and there are a few—is that while the young politician, aged 33, has gone from strength to strength, the iconic institution that formed him, the youth league of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), has diminished in influence and prestige. In South Africa’s general elections last May, Mr Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) won 6.35% of the vote, despite its short eight-month-old…
How gravity became Lesotho’s most precious resource by Simon Allison Lesotho is a tiny mountainous country completely enclosed by South Africa. One of the world’s poorest, its economy is almost entirely dependent on South Africa’s for employment and for the purchase of its main natural resource, water. Its inhabitants, the Basotho, share a number of historical, linguistic and cultural similarities with surrounding tribes, who are all now South African. But, resoundingly, Lesotho is not South Africa. This has irritated its bigger neighbour many times over the years. The low point in relations came in 1998, when South Africa’s caretaker president,…
South Africa has long felt secure in its position as Africa’s dominant economy. While its GDP grew at a modest 2.5% per year between 1990 and 2010, many other economies in the region expanded much faster. Nigeria, the West African behemoth, grew at 4.7% per year during the same period and may soon overtake South Africa. Simon Allison looks at the relationship between the two countries. Sometime in the second half of 2012—maybe by August—Nigeria will recalculate its gross domestic product (GDP), a move that could turn out to be the West African government’s most important decision this year, with…
