The Chinese on Sunday appeared to spoil Japan's big publicity from the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) in Nairobi, when Beijing's head of delegation questioned Tokyo's ability to fulfil the promises made during the summit.

Mr Zhang Ming, China's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, was in Nairobi in what he said was to "gain first-hand knowledge" of Africa's other partners.

But as the conference ended, the former Chinese envoy to Nairobi told journalists that Japan could be joining a list of countries that have promised much but delivered little to Africa.
 

"There is a never shortage of conferences and promises for Africa, and yet action and implementation have not always followed.

"We hope Africa's partners will honour their commitments with real actions and deliver tangible fruits to the African people," he said on Sunday in a statement.

Ticad VI, happening for the first time in Africa, saw Japan pledge up to Sh3 trillion more over the next three years to be invested in African infrastructure, healthcare systems and other projects meant to boost the economy.

On Sunday night, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed further bilateral agreements where Japan pledged Sh10 billion to fund various healthcare projects.

But this conference always appeared to be in the shadow of China's ventures in Africa.

"Both China and Japan are working with Africa as part of the international endeavour to help the continent.

"We support the diversification of Africa's partners and hope they will leverage their respective strengths and combine forces to support enduring peace and rapid development in Africa," Zhang said.

At China's similar conference, called the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) last year, Beijing pledged Sh6 trillion to go into infrastructure, most of it to be channelled through government-to-government deals.

Beijing claims Sh5 trillion worth of agreements have been signed already, although there is little information on how the money is to be repaid or the terms of the agreements.

Japan, on the other hand, would be mostly disbursing these monies through development agencies, and will be following up to ensure the money is used for the purpose given.
 

Yet the Chinese official who served as Beijing's ambassador to Kenya between 2006 and 2009 said China's way of doing things remains that of non-interference.

MUTUAL RESPECT

"The secret recipe for ever-lasting vibrancy of this relationship is sincerity, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

"We hope other partners will also listen carefully to Africa's voice and fully respect Africa's will," he said.

China and Japan have had previous tiffs especially in the East China Sea over ownership of islands there.

But they have in the recent past pushed their rivalry to Africa.

The Japanese prime minister promised to help Africa get a permanent seat at the UN Security Council by 2023, in what appeared to be a longshot to checkmate China which is already a permanent member.

However, the rivalry between the two countries has been in trade.

Japan has pledged Sh1 trillion ($10 billion) for infrastructure development in Africa.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said another $500 million will be channelled through international agencies to support health initiatives in the continent and combat epidemics.

The PM also pledged to initiate reforms in the United Nations Security Council and have an African country get a permanent seat in the body by 2023.

"UN Security Council is the most powerful body of the UN but there is no African permanent member in it…Japan is also eyeing a similar seat," he said.
 

Mr Abe was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) in Nairobi on Saturday.

Speaking at the same function, President Uhuru Kenyatta urged leaders to push for fair global trade.

He said there is a worrying trend for the developed world to turn inwards, even after benefiting from open trade before.

"Indeed, if we look back, the wealthiest countries today with very few exceptions, got rich by trading with others. The critical ingredient of prosperity in the last century has been free and fair trade, infrastructure integration of regions, educated citizens who enjoy economic liberty and responsible governments.

"Yet there is now a turn among many countries, to turn towards more isolationist or grossly unfair positions on trade. I believe Ticad is a positive response to this trend," he said.

The Ticad meeting, the sixth since 1993 but the first to be held in Africa, is meant to discuss development issues and the support of Japan for Africa.

Fred Bamwesigye, the director human resource and administration at Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was last week elected the new president of the Association of African Aviation Training Organization (AATO) replacing Togo’s Tchagbele Sadamba writes PAUL TENTENA

Sadamba took office in April 2013 in an election held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Bamwesigye who has vast experience in the Aviation industry will be deputized by Nigeria’ s Samuel Akinyele.

He was elected during the 2nd General Assembly of the Association of African Aviation Training Organization ( AATO) held at imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.

Uganda’s Minister of Works and Transport Monica Azuba Ntege said Africa’s aviation infrastructure needs to be handled by qualified personnel who can ensure the highest standards of safety.

” Meetings such as this are therefore very instrumental in shaping the future of training in the industry,” said Azuba.

She said Uganda was waiting for the meeting conclusions and recommendations, especially in areas they must implement in order to improve standards of aviation training Organizations.

“By so doing, Uganda will not be doing AATO a favour, rather, as a member, Uganda will be emphasizing the importance of the Association and the role it plays in ensuring harmonisation and standardisation of aviation training in Africa,” she said.

A private mining syndicate has made a potentially “world class and highly unusual” Nickel discovery in Nigeria, The Australian, an Australian national newspaper is reporting.

The private mining syndicate is reportedly headed by Hugh Morgan, a mining industry veteran.

“The discovery is unusual because the nickel is found in small balls up to 3mm in diameter of a high purity in shallow soils in what could be the surface expression of a much bigger hard-rock nickel field,” the newspaper said.

“The nickel balls, rumoured to grade better than 90 per cent nickel and thought to be a world first given their widespread distribution, offer the potential for early cashflow from a simple and low-cost screening operation to fund a full assessment of the find that has exploration circles buzzing.”

Details of the discovery are sketchy, according to the newspaper, but it was rumoured to be close to Dangoma, a small farming town about 160km northeast of the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

Checks by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Dangoma is located in the North-West state of Kaduna.

When asked to comment last week, Mr Morgan reportedly said it was for the Nigerian government to make an announcement.

Kayode Fayemi, the Minister for Solid Minerals, will be among the speakers at a three-day Africa Down Under mining conference at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel, Australia, in September.

Mr. Fayemi is to speak first on Wednesday, September 7, and Mr Morgan will follow along with consulting geologist Louisa Lawrance. Mr Morgan is listed as speaking as a director of the private company Comet Minerals.

Olayinka Oyebode, Mr. Fayemi’s Chief Press Secretary, said he had no details of the discovery, but confirmed his principal is scheduled to be in Australia next week.

“I know there is a mining conference coming up in Australia where the Honourable Minister is supposed to make a presentation,” Mr. Oyebode told PREMIUM TIMES via phone on Monday.

“But I don’t have an advance knowledge of what he’s going to talk about but, generally speaking, he’s going to market Nigeria.”

Mr. Oyebode asked this newspaper to give him till Monday evening for Mr. Fayemi’s reaction on the nickel discovery in Kaduna.

But an official of the ministry, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said Mr. Fayemi’s delegation would most likely sign an exploration deal with the Australian syndicate at the conference.

Nickel is primarily sold for first use as refined metal. About 65 percent of it consumed in the West is used to produce stainless steel.

The world’s largest producers of Nickel include The Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, Canada, and Australia, according to the US Geological Survey.

In August, Mr. Fayemi told Bloomberg that one of the Nigeria government’s priorities is to meet its annual steel demand of 6.8 metric tons, from a current output of less than 2.5 metric tons, produced mainly from scrap iron.

“In two to five years, we want to have started production of iron ore, lead, zinc, bitumen, nickel, coal and gold at a serious scale,” Mr. Fayemi had said.

African leaders meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, on Friday agreed to use President Museveni's paper on "bottlenecks facing Africa's development" as a blue print to drive the conversation on the continent's problems.
 

The decision was reached at by the leaders meeting for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Intercontinental Hotel, on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

President Museveni told the meeting that he had arrived at the 10 bottlenecks after watching the development scene in Africa for 50 years. "I have picked some ideas which are responsible for our lagging behind. The problem seems not to be addressing all issues in a comprehensive way."

The motion to adopt the paper and task the APRM secretariat to expand it into a blue-print for the continent was moved by South African President Jacob Zuma and was unanimously supported. The proposal had earlier been backed by Senegalese President Macky Sall of Senegal and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in their earlier presentations.

According to President Museveni, Africa's first bottleneck is ideological disorientation, which had fanned tribal and sectarian conflicts.

"A lot of chaos in Africa is because of misidentification. We need to ask, is identity more important than interests? Ask, who buys what you produce, is it your tribes mate or religious mate?"

The second bottleneck, observed by Mr Museveni, is a weak state exemplified in a weak army, adding that it is a result of the first obstacle.

"When you want to build an army and you look for people from your tribe, you should ask, can a sectarian army command respect of a whole country? In such circumstances, when you get a small rebellion the army collapses. You then bring in the UN who are armed tourists."
 

The President commended the international community for speaking about the third bottleneck; human resource underdevelopment. He, however, said the issue had been raised in isolation of the other bottlenecks.

Underdevelopment of infrastructure is the fourth bottleneck, said Mr Museveni. He said many development partners were disinterested in building Africa's infrastructure especially electricity.

"They do not care about dams, roads and the railway. As a consequence, only South Africa and Libya under Gaddafi had high electricity consumption. Importantly, poor infrastructure causes very high costs of doing business. You can't attract investments, how then do you eradicate poverty if people are not employed?" he asked.

Because of poor infrastructure, the next bottleneck is failure to industrialize, the President said. This, he added, had forced Africa into exporting raw materials and ultimately donating a lot of revenue to the West. Citing the Ugandan example where a kilogram of unprocessed exported coffee goes for $1 while the processed coffee in the West fetches $14, President Museveni asserted that Africans were the real donors–and unfortunately were donating their jobs too.

Britam Holdings has shrugged off the bearish run at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to raise profits 184 per cent in the six months to the end of June, helped by increased investment income.

Britam, which has insurance, asset management and property development businesses, posted a profit of Sh1.77 billion in the half year, up from Sh624 million in a similar period a year earlier.

This marks a turnaround for the firm, which posted a full year loss of Sh1 billion in the period to December due to lower valuations of the companies the firm has invested in at the NSE.

"The overall business is looking healthy, and the shift in investments that made us lower our share of equities cushioned us from the NSE bear run," said Gladys Karuri, Britam's finance and strategy director, adding that Britam sold some shares and pumped in more cash in government securities and fixed deposit accounts.

Its share of equities stood at 16 per cent of its Sh81.7 billion assets, down from 25 per cent last year. It raised investments on fixed bank deposits and government securities to 38 per cent from less than 20 per cent last year.

Investment income was up 41 per cent to Sh2.4 billion.

The benchmark NSE 20-Share Index lost 21.9 per cent last year following a steep drop in stock prices that saw investor wealth at the bourse as measured by market capitalisation shrink by Sh251 billion.

The index is down 15 per cent since the start of the year.

Management of Gaso Petroleum, one of the fastest growing oil marketing companies in the country has opened a new service station in the Cape Coast metropolis.

This forms part of the company's strategy to develop its operations in the oil marketing industry and the outlet, located at Ekon Brafoyaw is the first in the metropolis and second in the Central Region.

The company which received its license in January 2015 from the National Petroleum Authority has more than 25 fuel and liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) stations, across the country.

Mr Baffour Osei Yamoah, Managing Director of Gaso Petroleum, speaking on behalf of the Board chairman, said it is the vision of the company to establish at least two service stations in each region of the country.

He said this would help create more jobs for the teaming unemployed youth to contribute to the socio-economic development of their communities.

Mr Yamoah said company believes in offering excellent services and quality product to consumers of petroleum products in the country and assured customers in the metropolis of quality services and value for money.

He said the outlet in Cape Coast would not only sell petroleum products but operate a mart shop, a lube bay for vehicle servicing and oil changing as well as other services.

"Gaso Petroleum is committed to doing business in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner whilst supporting the communities in which we operate. We have come to partner this community in its developmental agenda", he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday night in Nairobi, Kenya, reassured existing and prospective foreign investors that their investments in Nigeria were secured and would be fully protected.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu.

The statement said that Buhari gave the assurance at a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Nairobi.

The president outlined several steps taken by his administration to secure the country and ease doing business in Nigeria.

He also told the Japanese leader that “with the defeat of the Boko Haram terrorists by the military, attention of my administration is now focused on stopping the destruction of the country’s economic assets by militants in the Niger Delta”.

He said that the militants must dialogue with the Federal government or be dealt with in the same way like Boko Haram.

“We are talking to some of their leaders; we will deal with them as we dealt with Boko Haram if they refuse to talk to us.

“As a government, we know our responsibility, which is to secure the environment.

“It is clear to us that lenders won’t fund projects in insecure environments.

“We realize that we have to secure the country before we can efficiently manage it,” Buhari said.

According to him, the security in the Gulf of Guinea, which is greatly affected by piracy and armed robbery at sea, is a priority for the Nigerian government.

“We have provided funds to our Navy to buy new platforms, train and effectively organize the personnel to protect the area.

“We are looking forward to support from developed nations for satellite surveillance covering the Gulf.”

Buhari recalled his audience with G7 leaders in Germany, and thanked Japan for responding positively to Nigeria’s requests for the rehabilitation of victims of Boko Haram and rebuilding of infrastructure in the North-East of the country.

He, however, stated that there was still more to do on education, health and other infrastructure to ensure quick and voluntary return of displaced persons to their communities.

On the United Nations Security Council reform, the president agreed to work with Japan for the reforms, stressing that the case for a permanent seat for Africa on the council was a moral one.

He also expressed Nigeria’s support for Japan in its bid for a UN resolution on the problems in East China and South China as well as the “uncontrolled nuclear tests by North Korea.”

According to him, the UN system is sufficient for the resolutions of all disputes and no nation should be above the United Nations.

“This has to be made absolutely clear and I assure the prime minister that I will meet as many leaders as possible at the forthcoming UN General Assembly concerning the issues,” he added.

In his remarks, Abe congratulated Buhari “for courageously tackling Boko Haram terrorism”.

He said Nigeria and Japan must work together to improve the investment climate in view of the many Japanese companies wishing to invest in Nigeria.

Abe reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to rapid development in Nigeria through quality delivery of ongoing projects in the country, including Jebba hydro power scheme and the Lagos railway project.