My Beauty Best Teacher

The Washington Post reports on Frontier markets:

"A lot of hidden gems are no longer hidden," said Hugh Hunter, head of global emerging markets at WestLB Mellon Asset Management. "Clearly, frontier markets are the next tier. . . . We have no option but to go forward in this area."...Aside from the need to keep looking for new investment opportunities, Hunter and others say, economic growth and development of the capital markets have turned some frontier markets into appealing, long-term investments for those with a healthy appetite for risk. Money managers view the frontier economies much as they did the emerging markets of a decade ago. They are hopping on airplanes to visit countries where as few as a half-dozen companies are listed on the local stock exchanges.

Pilirani Semu-Banda writes about the critical role of informal jobs:

Economic analyst Mavuto Bamusi speaks highly of the effective role informal cross-border traders are playing in the Malawian economy. He says this type of trade offers economic opportunities to women and youth in the country who would otherwise not be employed. ‘‘The concern is that they usually face all kinds of social and economic injustices, such as harassment by public authorities, especially the tax department. They undergo unnecessary checks which are unregulated and they are forced to pay exorbitant taxes,’’

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Tutu Agyare states in The Banker:

“We advise a number of different corporations from different sectors from telecoms to mining companies. Africa is being rediscovered, if you like. Capital is flowing back into Africa; infrastructure is being built in Africa.” He puts this welcome trend down to a number of factors, singling out two for special mention. “Corporate governance in Africa, regardless of what you read in the newspapers, is growing significantly. Security of property rights is also improving rapidly, I believe, becoming more transparent and being better enforced on the continent. And there’s a lesson from history here, Agyare believes. “If you look back to Britain’s Industrial Revolution, what you observe is the abundance of cheap minerals from Africa, an excellent security of property rights and a legal system that worked. Those factors enabled private investors and institutions to grow and to prosper. And I see that happening now in Africa. Like many Africa observers, Agyare is fascinated by the new China-Africa alliance that has developed over the last year or two. “The Chinese are building new infrastructure at cost, something that has not been done in Africa for years, and although there are risks attached to the relationship in termsof neo-colonialism, the absence of skills transfers and cheap Chinese goods flooding the continent, that new infrastructure will undoubtedly allow African companies to flourish.”

via Africaincorp

Emmanuel Opati writes that:

The major factor that is being ignored all these efforts is the role of Africa’s image. Africa is a “product” that has been produced and pre-packaged by the mainstream western media to meet the presumed demand of juicy African stories for the Europeans and North Americans. The Africa that most Europeans and North Americans know is Africa made in the media....Mainstream western media would rather have their senior correspondent stationed in Iraq compiling stories from a hotel room, than have one stationed in Nairobi. When it is Africa, they only pop-in-and-out of the continent.
As a result, the term Africa has become pejorative that North American and European investors have shied from investing on the continent despite the enormous resources and cheap labour.In addition to the media, some international non-profit organisations have exacerbated the damage done to Africa’s image.

The WSJ reports:

Western multinationals may have pioneered cross-border mergers, but the latest chapter in globalization is being written by a new breed of deal makers from places like Russia, China, Brazil and the Mideast with an appetite for acquisitions in the developed world...The recent deals mark a fundamental change from only a few years ago, when nearly all the investment flow went from the developed world to the developing one. This year could be on pace to be the first ever in which companies and investment funds based in developing countries spend more on mergers and acquisitions in the developed world than vice versa.

Buba Gyang Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS ) states in the Daily Trust:

“They (duties) provide a large part of their annual revenue,” Gyang told the News Agency of Nigeria...According to him, some African countries depend on the duties for more than 60 per cent of their annual revenue.“If you look at the issue of collapsing trade barriers from one point, you will realise that the customs’ duty is a barrier but how many African countries will be willing to part with the duties ?”, he asked.
He said Nigeria, which has one of the largest economies on the continent, generates about N400 billion from customs’ duties and other taxes, making it the second largest earner after petroleum.

via Craigeisele

The Ft reports:

Gulf-based private and public equity fund managers have this year shifted some of their vast wealth from Asia and the Middle East/North Africa region to the world’s poorest region: sub-Saharan Africa. These portfolio flows to a half-dozen countries have been accompanied by direct investment in property and other sectors...The Gulf push into the sub-Sahara reinforces pioneer efforts, notably by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal whose Kingdom Holdings created a $125m joint venture in 2004 with New York-based Zephyr Investment for African private equity. Its best-known success was a $20m stake in the pan-regional mobile provider Celtel, which was later acquired at a hefty premium by Kuwait owners. The prince has joined HSBC in a separate dedicated vehicle.
As petrodollars head towards these locations, western wealth advisers who have shunned them may re-examine their assumptions and consider participation a viable emerging market option.

The Mo Ibrahim foundation has announced the Ibrahim Index of African Governance

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance has been created in recognition of the need for a more objective and quantifiable method of measuring governance in the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The Ibrahim Index provides both a new definition of governance, as well as a comprehensive set of governance measures. Based on five categories of essential political goods, each country is assessed against 58 individual measures, capturing clear, objective outcomes.

• Safety and Security
• Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption
• Participation and Human Rights
• Sustainable Economic Development
• Human Development

Yemisi Ogbe writes in Farafina:

At the risk of losing my faith in the Nigerian church, I began to ask what the real relevance of Christianity is in Nigeria, especially the unglamorous Christianity of carrying crosses, following paths of repentance, seeking a God of love, and endlessly turning the other cheek. Would Nigerian men of God and congregations cease deceiving themselves, and would over 30 million Nigerians who profess Christianity make a difference to a precarious economy? Would the biblically proscribed need for integrity in our relationship with God and other human beings gain its rightful place in the church? Is there a danger in giving more and more power to men who believe it is their God given right to determine the course of other people's lives? What would happen if it becomes difficult to continue to control people with the threat of a God who avenges insubordination to his representatives? Would men of God then find ‘more effective’ means of keeping people under control, keeping themselves relevant?

As Kenya descends further into institutionalized corruption, Richard Dowden profiles the work of the exiled anti-graft campaigner - John Githongo

In an attempt to recover the billions of pounds missing from the Kenya treasury, Githongo employed Kroll, the London-based "risk advisory" company, to trace the money through western banks. The Kenyan government made a formal request to the British government and a former MI6 officer who worked in east Africa was commissioned to follow the trail of bank deposits from Kenya to Britain, Switzerland, Frankfurt and the Gulf states. But extraordinarily Kroll gave the management of the project to a young member of a prominent white Kenyan family, thereby putting the family - and the whole project - at grave risk...It seems that back in Nairobi a deal had been done between members of the new Kenya government and Moi's sons. The Kibaki government was rapidly losing interest in past robbery anyway. It was too busy organising its own. In opposition Kibaki's alliance had helped draw up a new constitution that included checks and balances to the presidency. It was supposed to be put to a national referendum but what Kibaki and his cronies - known as the "Mount Kenya Mafia" - had supported in opposition, did not suit them in government. They drew up a new version that did not include the main changes. The only way they could get that through the electorate was by bribing the voters. They set up a fictitious company called Anglo Leasing, said to be developing a new passport system for Kenya, and stuffed millions into it.

The NYTimes reports on the Stolen Assets Recovery Program(pdf):

The World Bank and the United Nations announced Monday that they were setting up a system to help developing nations recover assets stolen and sent abroad by corrupt leaders that amount to an estimated $40 billion a year.
“There should be no safe haven for those who steal from the poor,” Robert B. Zoellick, the bank’s president, said in presenting the plan with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon...The problem of stolen assets is most acute in Africa, where an estimated 25 percent of the gross national product of states is lost to corruption, he said.
The new system will work to build the capacity of developing countries to track stolen money going overseas and to emphasize ways that financial centers can better detect and deter money laundering...Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister of Nigeria, who oversaw the return of $505 million to her country from Switzerland, said the new plan would help countries like hers by denying corrupt officials a foreign place to hide the money.“It means that people who are corrupt will know that any money sent out will be sent back to the countries from which they came,” she said.

This is a subject that Dr Iweala addressed in her TED Talk earlier this year at Monterey.

Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged describes his search for humanities roots at TED Global:

Tilahun Belay founder of the Tilahun Belay School stated:

I am a believer in education – something I have dreamt for myself for my whole life," Belay said. "My dream come true is for my own children to graduate, and my children in Ethiopia as well...When I went (back to) my birthplace, the city was destroyed by war. Everything was dust," Belay said as he wiped away tears. "I remember it was a beautiful town. The children I found were barefoot and had nothing. But they were eager to learn even as they sat on the dirt under the shade of a tree.

via Ethioblog

-African Loft reports on the success of Zimbabwean farmers in Nigeria
-NYTimes profiles Jatropha
-A site that celebrates Nigerian Women is launched
-Nubian Cheetah discusses ideas on how to invigorate the informal sector
-The FT reports on remittances

G. Pascal Zachary writes :

The problem of course is that Congo, as a political entity, is an illusion. The country is too large, diverse and riven by durable differences to be managed from a single center. It is time to explore a truly federalized Congo that might over the next 10 to 20 years peacefully “devolve” into a several nation-states. Eastern Congo would be especially well-served by “devolution,” since the region – today the least stable in the current Congo – has natural economic, social and geographic links to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. If Scotland can engage in a process of “devolution” from Britain, why cannot eastern Congo engage in the same process? Colonial maps cannot forever burden the serious and expensive efforts to develop regional integration, whether in East Africa or the sub-Saharan generally. The double-standard – whereby European countries can split themselves apart based on democratic processes but African countries are eternally bound by the borders of their former European masters — ought to end. That European governments often quickly oppose any talk of redrawing African are examples of both hypocrisy and stupidity. European governments spend billions of dollars holding together unwieldy African countries and in the end sustain only the fiction of real sovereignty. The Congo is perhaps the best example of this. Congolese elections, which cost European donors a hefty sum, accomplished the little more than to highlight the folly of holding this vast territory together under a single political rubric. Maintaining the fiction of the Congo, in short, is dangerous and ultimately futile.

Businessweek reports:

As India's economy grows faster than ever, its newly confident companies are showing their global ambition. And India's moment is evident in the latest BusinessWeek ranking of Asia's top 50 companies. Indian outfits dominate this year's list: There are a dozen in all, ranging from automakers to a mortgage lender to pharmaceutical producers. This diversity is a surprising reversal from just a few years ago, when all the world knew about corporate India was its software shops...Look around Asia and you'll find plenty of chaebol and keiretsu that failed to make the transition from coddled, national champions to agile, profit-driven players on the global stage. In contrast, most of the Indian companies on our list endured decades of socialist rule, which starved them of capital and technology but guaranteed them a captive market. In the early 1990s, they were subjected to the shock of economic liberalization, which opened the door to foreign competition and left much of corporate India in deep trouble. Those companies that hunkered down and restructured became lean and competitive.

India's path to growth despite rickety infrastructure,turbulent politics and a burgeoning youthful population offers lessons for most of the continent. What should not be overlooked is the effect of an unfettered entrepreneurial,educated elite that by default subsumed itself in unabated wealth creation.

We present the concluding part of Rina Okonkwo's article on corruption see part 1 here:

The military coup of January 15, 1966 was a direct response to the corruption of the First Republic. The popular support for the coup showed that people rejected corruption. Despite the brutality of killings of First Republic politicians, there was widespread rejoicing in the country for the acts. The assassinations of the Minister of Finance Chief FS Okotie-Eboh, who was notorious for flaunting his ill-gotten wealth, Premier of the Western Region, Samuel Akintola, nicknamed “rigging” and Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, the Premier of the Northern Region, “whose wardrobe was the most elaborate in the world,” were applauded.13 The coup eliminated “the old brigade of politicians who were destitute of public spirit.” 14

The Ironsi government instituted a series of commissions of inquiry into affairs of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, Nigeria Airways, and the Nigeria Ports Authority. The report on the Ports Authority revealed that a number of ministers, including Okotie-Eboh, Ribadu, and R.Njoku had formed companies and used their influence to secure contracts.15 In Nigeria Airways, the minister, K. O. Mbadiwe had interfered with award of contracts to a company not registered in the register of companies. K.O. had gone against the board to send “Operation Fantastic,” the maiden flight of Nigeria Airways to New York. Friends and relations of the minister travelled free to New York. Many stayed on in the United States. Chief Dafe, the chairman of the board, was found guilty of hiring many unnecessary party workers in the airline. “Chief Dafe did not know the difference between Nigeria Airways and the party headquarters of the NCNC.” 16

Dr. Ikejiani, Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, was found guilty of misallocation of funds and disregarding the Board and recognized procedures of the NRC. When Ikejiani became the Chairman, he was in debt. Ikejiani left the NRC with a fleet of cars and buildings. The building of the Railway medical centre, which was estimated cost L75, 000, was inflated to L440, 000. The inquiry thought Ikejiani had diverted railway funds to build his private hospital. The architect for the medical center designed a building for Ikejiani in Lagos free of charge. The panel recommended that Ikejiani never again hold public office. 17

The zeal to punish the wrong doers of the First Republic died with the Gowon coup of July 1966. The politicians in detention were freed. Corruption increased. “Youths knew no other life than corruption.” “One could steal if he shared with those in the right places.”18

The coup of 1975 was an attempt to end corruption. Murtala Mohammed began by declaring his assets and asking all government officials to follow his example. Murtala instituted a series of probes of past leaders. The Federal Assets Investigation Panel of 1975 found ten of the twelve state governors in the Gowon regime guilty of corruption.
One of the exonerated military governors, Rotimi, was later appointed to head a commission of inquiry in 2000. The guilty persons were dismissed with ignominy and forced to give up property in excess of earnings.

The Belgore Inquiry investigated the “Cement Armada.” The Gowon government had imported sixteen million metric tons of cement at a cost of N557 million. Millions of Naira was lost in demurrage charges, as the cement rotted in the seas outside of Lagos. The ports were too congested to enable ships off-load their cargoes. The inquiry noted that the Ministry of Defence needed only 2.9 million tons of cement at a cost of N52million. The orders were inflated for private profit at great cost to the government.19

State governments held similar commissions of inquiry. Corrupt officials were dismissed with immediate effect and asked to refund the money they had stolen. Murtala was assassinated after only two hundred days in office. The Obasanjo regime did not show the same zeal in its prosecution of wrongdoers.

The Second Republic, under President Shehu Shagari, saw a resurgence of corruption. Shagari was ineffective in stopping the looting of public funds by the democratically elected officials. On December 31st, 1983, General Buhari led a popular coup with the aim of halting corruption. Buhari arrested the state governors and commissioners and brought them before tribunals of inquiry. All accounts of politicians were frozen.

In less than two years, Babangida replaced the reformist Buhari regime. The next fourteen years saw no serious attempt to stop corruption. Leaders found guilty in tribunals under Mohammed and Buhari found their way back to public life and recovered seized property. Wole Soyinka observed that for Abacha to launch a war against corruption was a “huge joke.”

The Third Republic has instituted numerous commissions of inquiry. The Oputa panel and the Akanbi Commission have investigated corruption. Yet all the commissions of inquiry and reports have not stopped corruption. The Transparency Index rated Nigeria the number two corrupt country in the world in 2001.

An historical look at corruption in Nigeria demonstrates that rhetoric against corruption does not end corruption. All the inspiring words of our leaders and journalists have not changed anyone. We have heard the most eloquent appeals and strongest language castigating wrongdoers to no avail. Azikiwe and Shagari were two excellent writers who did not act to stop corruption of their party members and colleagues.

From our survey of corruption in Nigeria, it would appear that change in Nigeria must come from the grass roots and not from the leaders. The British realized, as far back as 1947, that an educated, enlightened citizenry was the key to stopping corruption. Government could not legislate an end to corruption. Punishment of wrongdoers, while necessary, was not sufficient to stop corruption.

In his comparison of corruption in Nigeria and Britain, Ronald Wraith pointed to the need for education in good character and the importance of diffusion of wealth, power, and education in the society. There was need to build a tradition of disinterested public service. In Britain, responsible government began with the emergence of people who entered government service after they had amassed substantial wealth. They joined government, not to increase their fortunes, but to contribute to the country. When the people of Nigeria reject corruption, they will demand and receive good behavior from their leaders.

Andy Khumbanyiwa at African Path writes:

African economies in general export raw materials to the international markets. These include coffee, tea, cocoa, cotton, unprocessed minerals and crude oil among many others. The importing countries, mainly in Europe, America, India and China invest in a wide variety of processing facilities. Such processing facilities create millions of jobs. In turn finished products from such industries are exported back to Africa at exorbitant prices. The heavy consumption of imported goods and services coupled with our reluctance to innovate, add-value and export processed products robs us of jobs and wealth. It is evident that if we continue on this developmental route we will remain poor. If we do not change we will spiral deeper into the abyss of extreme poverty.

Rina Okonkwo writes about the genesis of corruption in Nigeria:

When did corruption in Nigeria begin? In the words of a colonial government report of 1947, “The African’s background and outlook on public morality is very different from the present day Briton. The African in the public service seeks to further his own financial interest.” The colonial report concluded that only public opinion could deal with corruption. The problem was that there was no responsible public opinion to check corruption in Nigeria.1

From as early as 1947, commissions of inquiry were held to investigate cases of corruption. The purpose of the inquiries was to expose wrong -doing and to punish the culprits.

Today, we hear much of the rampant corruption at the local government level. As early as 1955, just seventeen months after the inception of Igbo-Etiti District Council in May 1954, the colonial government held an inquiry into the affairs of the Council. The inquiry judged that the “conduct of the Council’s affairs had become a public scandal.” The colonial officer who conducted the inquiry, FP Cobb, noted, “public indignation was widespread and strong.” 2 The public was outraged at the corrupt behaviour of their representatives.

The report on Igbo-Etiti District Council revealed that there was ‘systematic corruption” in the appointment and promotion of staff and in the awarding of contracts. Bribes of L80 to L100 were demanded for unnecessary appointments. The brother of the Secretary to the District Council was hired above a more qualified applicant. In one case, a man paid a L400 bribe to secure a post and was never refunded his money when he did not get the job.

Contractors routinely paid ten percent of the value of the contract as bribe. The contracts were not awarded to the lowest bidder or to the most experienced or competent persons. At the end of its first seventeen months of existence, the Igbo-Etiti District Council was L6000 in debt. There was great wasting of public money due to “gross dishonesty in handling council affairs.”3

The local government councils have continued to be notorious for corruption. Why do such grassroots organizations attract such widespread graft? The people are often not prepared to undertake public office. They have no training in the procedures and ethics of public service. They have minimal education. There is poor supervision of the affairs 9of the Local Government Councils. The history of corruption in local government councils can show no change for the better.

In 1956, the Foster-Sutton Tribunal investigated the Premier of the Eastern Region, Nnamdi Azikiwe for his involvement in the affairs of African Continental Bank (ACB). Under the code of conduct for ministers, a government officer was required to relinquish his holdings in private business when he assumed public office. The Foster-Sutton Tribunal felt that Zik did not severe his connections to the bank when he became a Minister. The Tribunal believed that Zik continued to use his influence to further the interests of ACB.

Zik, his family, and the Zik Group of Companies were the principal shareholders of the African Continental Bank. ACB loaned over L163, 000 to the Zik Group of Companies at low interest. The Zik group did not have to repay the loans until 1971. ACB was a distressed bank. The new registrar of banks in 1952 refused to grant ACB a license. Attempts to find partners for the bank in Britain failed because of the insolvency of the bank.
In the words of a colonial government official, “Were a UK minister to be involved in a series of transactions the result of which public funds were used to support an otherwise shaky institution in which he was directly interested, he would be forced to leave public life.”4 Why did not the colonial government prosecute Zik for his failure to observe the code of conduct for government officers? The colonial correspondence revealed that the government supported the NCNC as the only party to embrace national unity. Without Zik, the NCNC would collapse. The national interest of the country demanded that Zik continue as leader of the party.5

The Governor of the Eastern Region Sir Clement Pleass further observed, “The exercise of public power for private profit is established in the East.” “The aim of the colonial government was not to establish a standard of honesty in public life. Only time and education can do that.” “A number of sensible people realized that Zik had done harm in the East in the last two years, but the mass of the people, ignorant and uneducated, voted him back to power.”6

When Zik called for a general election in 1957, as an alternative to resigning in the face of the findings of the Foster-Sutton Tribunal, the people gave him their support. The Economist observed that Nigerians had a “sunny and tolerant mentality” towards corruption.7 The colonial officer hoped that “Eventually sufficiently honest and enlightened people will be thrown up to rebuild the prosperity and good government of the region.”8

Obafemi Awolowo, the first premier of the Western Region, was found guilty of corruption by the Coker Commission in 1962. In 1954, the Western Region Marketing Board had L6.2 million. By May 1962, it had to exist on overdrafts amounting to over L2.5 million. A loan of L6.7 million was made to the National Investment and Properties Co., Ltd. for building projects out of which only L500, 000 was ever re-paid. The Western Region Finance Corporation and the West Nigeria Development Corporation also received loans of millions of pounds, which were never re-paid. The Coker Commission found Awolowo responsible for the all the ills of the Western Region Marketing Board, and Awolowo “without a doubt has failed to adhere to the standards of conduct which are required for persons holding such a post.”9

The First Republic, with Zik as the President, was marked by widespread corruption. Government officials looted public funds with impunity. Federal Representative and Minister of Aviation, KO Mbadiwe, flaunted his wealth by building a palace in his hometown. When asked where he had gotten the money to build such a mansion, KO replied, ”From sources known and unknown.” Minister of Finance Chief FS Okotie- Eboh responded to charges of accumulation of wealth by government officers by quoting from the Bible, “To those that have, more shall be given. From those that do not have, shall be taken even the little they have.”10

Azikiwe did not surround himself with men of good character. Chinua Achebe maintained that the political thought of both Awolowo and Azikiwe was based on politics for material gain. Achebe quoted from the autobiographies of the two men to show that making money and living well were primary goals in life for both our nationalist leaders. “If we were a more discerning people, we should not have trusted them with our lives even in the fifties and sixties.”11


The popular acceptance and even admiration for corruption was highlighted in Chinua Achebe’s novel about the politicians of the First Republic, A Man of the People. “The people had become even more cynical than their leaders and were apathetic into the bargain. “Let them eat,’ was the people’s opinion . . . It may be your turn to eat tomorrow.” 12

To be continued.

At TED Global Andrew Mwenda "...argued that aid makes objects of the poor -- they become passive recipients of charity rather than active participants in their own economic betterment...Too much of the aid from rich nations, he says, goes to the worst African countries to fuel war and government abuse. Such money not only never gets to its intended recipients, Africa's truly needy it actually plays a part in making their lives worse..."

Nnena Nwoke Kalu's Food Security Magazine examines issues which include food production,sustainability and commercialization.Its aim is to "...assist in achieving increased food availability and increased purchasing power and in addition the attainment of the overall goal of sustainable household and national food security..."

Written by Villia Jefremovas:

Brickyards to Graveyards examines how the overidealized picture of Rwanda as the darling of the world community in the 1980s was shattered amidst the genocide that occurred a decade later. The brick and tile industries of Rwanda provide a microcosm to examine the transformation of gender, class, and power relations through the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods, and provide insights into the explosive impact of these changes on Rwandan culture and society. The book illustrates how these gender, class, and power relations played out in times of economic, political, and demographic crisis, and argues that these factors have not changed significantly since the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power in 1994.