Uganda: Iran to fund oil processing in country

Kampala (Uganda) — Iran has agreed to fund the entire value chain of Uganda’s oil production. Iran will also jointly fund the construction of an oil refinery in Uganda.

The agreement was reached during President Yoweri Museveni’s three-day visit to Iran, where he held talk with his counterpart, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and addressed the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines.

A communiqué issued at the end of the visit said the two countries will also expand co-operation in agriculture, especially agro-processing, investment, energy, mining, industry, vocational training, air transport, banking, ICT, public security and foreign relations.

The two presidents re-affirmed their commitment to strengthen relations between their countries.

“Regarding the field of energy in particular, the two leaders agreed to consider co-operation in building an oil refinery in Uganda. On its part, Iran agreed to train Ugandans in its University of Petroleum Studies and other institutions in Iran in the relevant fields of petroleum,” a statement issued by State House said. “Iran also expressed its readiness to invest in the entire value chain of Uganda’s petroleum industry.”

Uganda’s discovered oil resource in the Lake Albertine Graben is so far estimated at 600 million barrels of oil.

Iran also expressed willingness to consider Uganda’s request for the supply of fuel for Uganda’s thermal power plant, while President Ahmadinejad accepted Museveni’s invitation to visit Uganda.

They agreed to co-operate in production, processing and marketing of agro-products as well as in agricultural mechanisation. The two nations would also curve out a free trade zone.

On international affairs, the Presidents reviewed the situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. They reiterated their commitment to disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

“They also re-affirmed the right of developing countries to develop nuclear energy for peaceful (development) purposes.”

At a news conference later, Museveni observed that relations between Uganda and Iran have been excellent over the past 30 years. Ahmadinejad said Iran would ensure there are no obstacles in its bi-lateral trade with Uganda.

The President, who returns today, was accompanied by ministers for trade and industry, ICT, energy and minerals and international affairs.

source.New Vision (Uganda)

Zambia: Now anti-corruption bursts K925 million fraud

Lusaka (Zambia) – The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has intercepted a ploy in which the Government would allegedly have been defrauded of K925 million, through the Road Development Agency (RDA) by a road contractor in Eastern Province.

And the ACC has said it has not yet arrested a former Ministry of Health official who is alleged to have masterminded a scandal in which more than K10 billion was stolen from the ministry.

The road contract scandal comes barely two days after the ACC unearthed a K10-billion manouvre in which public funds were said to have been corruptly obtained from the Ministry of Heath.

In the Eastern Province case, the ACC has instituted investigations against owner of Shachitari Construction and officials at the RDA office in Chipata.

ACC public relations manager, Timothy Moono said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday that Shachitari Construction was awarded a contract for gravelling, drainage works, road signs, and vegetation control on the Chama-Mwanya-Kazembe road at a contract sum of K4 billion.

“Preliminary investigations have revealed that a total amount of K487 million was paid to the contractor for mobilisation of equipment and vegetation control for the first interim certificate.

Investigations have established that these works were incomplete though payment was made,” he said.

Mr Moono said further investigations revealed that a second attempt to claim for K925 million was allegedly made by the contractor with a certificate of completion.

The certificate of completion was said to have been signed by RDA engineers in Chipata for works covering drainage, road signs and mobilisation.

Mr Moono said counterfeit pictures from another road were used to back up the claim. He said the Commission had since recorded warn and caution statements from the suspects who would soon be charged.

On the Ministry of Health case in which the Commission also seized and restricted property in excess of K3 billion, Mr Moono said that the crime architect had not yet been arrested because the commission was still pursuing his accomplices.

Mr Moono said the commission was aware that Government workers could have acted with others, given the magnitude of the scandal.

On Wednesday, Mr Moono announced the ACC’s smashing of the racket, allegedly engineered by the former Ministry of Health official, in which more than K10 billion was stolen from the Government.

Twelve posh vehicles, among them a Hammer H3 and two Mercedes Benz, believed to have been purchased using public funds had been seized. Other vehicles recovered were two Toyota Lexus, an X5 BMW, a Mitsubishi Challenger and a Ford Ranger as well as a Mazda Pickup and a 30 tonne Nissan UDI tipper truck while K3 billion worth of property suspected to have been bought from the proceeds were restricted.

 

source.The Times of Zambia (Zambia)

AFRICA: New agriculture funds must target poor farmers

Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN

DAKAR,  – African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka says medium-sized farms are the engine for agricultural growth in Africa and given their position and potential they merit considerable investment. Agriculture campaigners say while they support such an approach, investors must not overlook small-scale farmers.

In early 2009 the African Development Bank (AfDB), Agence Francaise de Developpement and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) launched the African Agriculture Fund, aiming to raise US$674 million to help medium-sized agricultural companies and cooperatives modernise, improve management and diversify agricultural production.

“Those companies that are big enough can already raise their own money for agri-business, and very small farmers can turn to micro-credit,” Kaberuka said at a press conference at last week’s AfDB annual meetings in Dakar, Senegal. “What we are missing is [farmers in] the middle, to really add value.”

Oxfam’s regional campaigns manager Kate Norgrove told IRIN: “We support the fund. We have been calling for increased funding for agriculture for a long time; but smallholders are key to developing the agricultural sector. Many of the poorest farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa need a funding boost to be able to organise themselves into a cooperative in order [even to go after] larger-scale funding.”

Targeting small farmers with assistance could would help them grow, she said. “Then Africa could produce enough food for national use and regional trade without having to resort to large-scale agribusiness.”

Micro-credit lacking

Regional investment banks do not put much faith in micro-credit to spur agricultural growth, according to Cheikh Oumar Bah, director of Senegalese think-tank Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale.

The bulk of sub-Saharan African farming is rain-dependent, making harvests – and thus loan repayments – unpredictable, he said. “Securing loans is still a problem for small-scale farmers; if there is a bad harvest or poor rain, the bank will not be reimbursed, so very few take the risk.” Few banks will give smallholders regular annual loans, making it difficult for growers to build up their farms, Bah said.

And few lending institutions accept farmers’ assets such as livestock as collateral, he said.

AfDB’s Vice-President Zeinab El Bakari agrees there are problems with micro-finance, but says national banking networks and organisations such as IFAD are better placed to step in than large regional banks. “The AfDB is wrong for this, it requires close supervision that we are not set up to do.”

About 500 million people in developing countries run small businesses – many of them farm-related – but just 2.5 percent of them are able to obtain loans from banks or traditional lending institutions, according to IFAD.

In May 2009 IFAD promised poor farmers $3.7 billion over the next five years, part of which will go towards micro-finance.

And while others stress risks, IFAD stresses security. Studies show that growth generated by agriculture is up to four times more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors, according to an IFAD communiqué.

Small-scale farmers across sub-Saharan Africa are just eager to see the money. “Farmers we have spoken to in Mali and Ghana say access to credit has always been hard and now [given the financial crisis] it is even harder,” Oxfam’s Norgrove said.

“What we really need to see now is money on the ground. Money promised last year has not yet reached small farmers we have spoken to across West Africa. [It must] get there soon so they can buy fertilizers and seeds to prepare for the upcoming planting season.”

aj/np source.www.irinnews.org

ZIMBABWE: International relations move from freezer to fridge – Western nations have cast a jaundiced eye on the unity government formed on 11 February 2009

Photo: IRIN

Finance minister Tendai Biti

WASHINGTON,  – A gradual defrosting of relations between Zimbabwe’s unity government, Western nations and global institutions, combined with a financial mechanism designed to avoid donor money flowing through the hands of ZANU-PF, the previous ruling party, is gently prising open the door for assistance to the beleaguered country.

Western nations have cast a jaundiced eye on the unity government formed on 11 February 2009, in which President Robert Mugabe and his coterie have maintained the wealth of power, leading to London and Washington to withhold billions of dollars in assistance unless there was tangible political and economic reform.

However, analysts are viewing two events as possible harbingers of change: a visit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 18 to 29 May could see the institution renew its relationship with Zimbabwe, and the imminent arrival of envoys from Britain, the former colonial power and one of Mugabe’s staunchest critics.

Alex Vines, director of the Africa programme at Chatham House, a UK-based think-tank, told IRIN: “This means that the relations between the two countries [Britain and Zimbabwe] have been moved from the freezer to the fridge. The relationship is still chilled, but it’s no longer frozen the way it has been for the past years.”

Vines said Western assistance was far from a done deal, and a package to bail out Zimbabwe would be determined by the IMF and the British envoys. “Zimbabwe will have to meet certain benchmarks, in the form of human rights and economic reform, to satisfy London to release any funds. Also, I think the British government will scrutinise findings by the IMF team before it makes any decision.”

The unity government has not had an easy journey. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has been accused of numerous violations of the power-sharing agreement, and on 18 May the main partner, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), called on the Southern African Development Community, the regional body that brokered the agreement, and the African Union, its guarantor, to intervene.

IMF resumes technical assistance

The IMF announced on 6 May that it would resume technical assistance to Zimbabwe, but would not release any financial aid until Harare settled its US$133 million arrears. In 2002 the institution adopted a declaration of non-cooperation with Zimbabwe because of its overdue financial obligations, and suspended all assistance.

An IMF official in Washington told IRIN a five-member delegation would assess Zimbabwe’s tax policies, payments and banking systems, and governance issues. “We have seen willingness to reform from the new unity establishment, and that is why we are responding with this technical assistance.”

The first signs of an apparent thaw in bilateral relations between Britain and Zimbabwe were seen at the inauguration of South African president Jacob Zuma in Pretoria on 22 April, where a meeting on the sidelines between Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Britain’s minister for Africa, Mark Malloch-Brown, is believed to have been the catalyst.

Mugabe has consistently blamed Britain for Zimbabwe’s economic woes – including hyperinflation, unemployment of up to 94 percent and having more than half the population on food aid – but Mugabe’s strong role in the unity government has been an obstacle to monetary assistance and investment.

 

Response to direct financial aid has not been good at all. It’s only South Africa and China that have weighed in with US$35 million, but that’s just a drop in the ocean

“Response to direct financial aid has not been good at all. It’s only South Africa and China that have weighed in with US$35 million, but that’s just a drop in the ocean. We need US$1 billion more to pay civil servants and meet other budgetary expenses, and that we can only do when we have direct funding,” Zimbabwe’s economic planning and investment promotion minister, Elton Mangoma, a member of the MDC, told IRIN.

“The treasury remains largely dry and government is struggling to get by, but we remain hopeful. We are particularly happy that our fellow African countries and institutions have managed to extend lines of credit amounting to US$1.2 billion to us … slightly exceeding our initial target of US$1 billion,” Mangoma said.

Creating donor trust

The credit line was secured from the African Development Bank (ABD), the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank, and Botswana and South Africa. The unity government has appealed for US$8.3 billion to resuscitate the country.

Donor reticence is also caused by a lack of confidence that the money will reach its intended recipients, but this has been allayed by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), a vehicle established by the World Bank, Zimbabwe’s finance ministry, the ADB and the UN Development Programme. ZANU-PF has criticised the fund as being driven by forces hostile to Zimbabwe.

Finance minister Tendai Biti, a member of the MDC, commented: “As lack of trust is an obstacle, we believe the MDTF is an appropriate means to mitigate donor risk. Instead of giving funds directly to government, donors put their funds in the trust, and the Ministry of Finance directs expenditure – but the MDTF still oversees it, oversees the work of the finance ministry too – so everyone is protected. This is a bridge measure until trust is restored,”

On 18 May the World Bank pledged a US$22 million grant to Zimbabwe, and it will also receive part of a US$1.4 billion Food Facility established by the European Commission and UN agencies. Seeds, fertilisers and training are to be provided to 150,000 vulnerable rural households, which could increase the cereal yield in the next agricultural season by 10 percent to 15 percent.

nn/go/he
source.www.irinnews.org