Position Papers

Analysis in brief: The discussion about the exploitation of Africa’s mineral resources, particularly rare earth minerals, is being conducted from a Western point of view. In this context, African countries have legitimate reasons for seeking the best deal for themselves for commodities whose deposits are vast but, nonetheless, finite.

The term ‘resource management’ carries the benign suggestion of simply managing natural resources for maximum benefit for the country on whose lands they originate. However, the term is often used interchangeably with the more sinister ‘resource nationalism’, with its implications of nationalising foreign investments and thus making investment riskier. To African nations, resource management is the preventative function against what was robbed of their immense but finite mineral wealth during the colonial era. To foreign investors, the term is synonymous with stifling state protectionism. Two often-competing factors are essential to the economic prosperity of African nations. The first is the need to keep African nations as senior partners in the exploitation of their minerals. The second is need to maintain foreign investment. The optimal way to achieve both goals is through negotiations with multinational firms who have business sense to honour national sovereignties.

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Analysis in brief: African countries are consistently targeted by terrorist organisations, but nearly two-dozen governments are failing to follow international guidelines to stop the financing of these groups. Harm to national economies results, while an unintended failing of governments, is a beneficial outcome for terrorists seeking to destabilise Africa.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the international community’s answer to terrorist financing. FATF sets guidelines for governments to stem the flow of money to terror groups and steers countries towards meeting those goals. However, achieving regulatory reform can be one cost too many for poor African countries. Consequently, half (12 of 21) of the countries ‘greylisted’ by FATF are African. Blacklisted countries like Iran and North Korea are actual sponsors of terrorism: These are sovereign states where funding originates, which is then distributed across Africa through a system of corrupt politicians, crooked accountants, underhanded lawyers and lackadaisical banks with money transfer oversight. Countries that allow this to happen become facilitators of terrorism and are greylisted for this authorisation. To return to legitimacy, they need to clean up their acts by enacting financial reform measures. In addition, to demonstrate their serious intentions, governments need to prosecute money launderers.

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Analysis in brief: The varying degrees of economic growth between Africa’s five regions illustrates how fundamentals like electricity supply determine economic performance. Continentally, Africa is achieving good – if delayed – post-Covid epidemic growth.

Overall, Sub-Saharan Africa will record positive economic growth in 2024, according to the African Development Bank and the World Bank, although the forecast degrees vary. However, for some countries, even positive growth is insufficient if it falls below population growth, leading to new jobs being created for an unmatched number of job seekers. True economic growth must raise the standard of living for all the citizens of a country. This cannot be achieved when economic inequity results from a country’s elite controlling a large percentage of a country’s wealth, leaving the large majority of the population mired in poverty. While economic inequity must be addressed as an ongoing concern, this paper’s focus is on the rising countries’ economic performances.

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Analysis in brief: 2024 sees an unusually substantial number of elections throughout Africa. Whenever African people may vote in free and fair elections, they choose their own interests. However, depending on the African country’s leadership, many Africans are not given a genuine opportunity to achieve change.

Determining real from stage-managed elections

National elections have the potential to change governments and usher in new policies that allow national, economic and social growth. The significant elections of 2024 are all national in scope:

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By Chipo Maziva

Analysis in brief: Africa holds the greatest potential for solar energy, yet this enormous potential remains largely untapped. Solar energy represents a unique transformational opportunity that can provide reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity supply and improve economic prospects and the quality of life for all Africans. To this end, Africa needs to reconsider its approach through credible action and accountability in the use of its abundant indigenous energy resources.

Africa’s crippling electricity problem

As Africa’s economy continues to expand, access to sustainable and affordable energy is becoming increasingly essential for supporting robust economic growth and improving the livelihoods of all Africans. In 2021, an estimated 600 million Africans did not have access to electricity. Compared to the rest of the world, Africa generates only 4% of the global energy. Despite the tremendous potential that Africa’s energy sector holds, private sector investment in energy infrastructure and service delivery remains minimal.

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Analysis in brief: The realities of rapidly evolving ship technology and competition from other means of transportation have compelled Africa’s maritime industry to become more efficient, faster and environmentally friendly. This is largely achieved by the industry adopting digital solutions.

Online and computerised solutions to tasks associated with the maritime industry have made for more efficient movement of goods by sea, and much more is in store. In many ways, shipping remains as it has always been. Cargos are loaded and unloaded onto ships for voyages from Africa’s great Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Mediterranean Sea ports or from freshwater ports on Africa’s mighty rivers or great lakes. These trips are significantly enhanced by modern technologies like GPS, which make it impossible for any vessel to be ‘lost at sea.’ Cargo still goes through customs, but this process is also expedited by digital technologies. In shipping, speed and efficiency are the goals that need to be met to drive down costs. Lower shipping costs mean more profit for businesses and reduced prices paid by consumers.

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Analysis in brief: Ships at sea are as vulnerable to pirate attacks today as they ever were in history. In the Red Sea, the pirates are anti-West militants whose attacks on ships have caused global economic havoc and worrisome environmental harm. Only an international coalition will end the danger.

The cause of the crisis

Never has a small country been able to hold hostage so much of the world and cause such damage to global wealth and the environment as the Houthi militant group that controls much of Yemen, located on the Red Sea, only 762 km from mainland Africa. Because of its dominant control of the country, thus becoming the principal governing force, the country name Yemen is often used in the media to describe the perpetrators of the Red Sea attacks, so that Yemen and Houthi become synonyms. In fact, the Houthi are sponsored by Iran, which seeks to control Yemen, while the runt government of Yemen is supported by Saudi Arabia, which also wishes to rule the country. Thus, the civil war can be seen as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Like Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Houthi militant group has seen the Israel-Palestine conflict as its excuse to raise its profile in the world. Yemen originally claimed it was only seeking to impede Israeli shipping in an effort to harm that country’s economy when its militants attacked Israeli’s first ship in October 2023. The ruse was quickly exposed when indiscriminate attacks on all vessels using the Red Sea shipping lanes became so virulent that world shippers abandoned the route. This has resulted in global economic harm and environmental damage.

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Analysis in brief: New discoveries of valuable minerals remain regular occurrences throughout Africa. Getting these natural resources to market requires adaptations to new environmental, labour and social realities to ensure economic benefits are truly equitable.

While the trend in Africa’s minerals is shifting toward a demand for rare earth metals, there remains strong interest in and perennial customers for Africa’s traditional mineral extracts, from precious metals (like gemstones and gold) and industrial inputs (like copper) to energy extracts (like natural gas and oil). To meet the demand from all sources, exploration is an ongoing activity continentally. Scores of mineral deposits are located annually. A look at mineral discoveries from 1990 to 2020 shows all regions of Africa are bursting with new exploitable mineral wealth.

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Analysis in brief: The cost of financing projects to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change are beyond the means of African countries, and the private sector is not doing enough. Creative financial tools may be the answer.

The irony that the continent that contributes the lowest amount to global-warming carbon emissions but suffers the worst initial effects of climate change is not lost to Africa’s governments. They face a massive financial challenge of mounting mitigation efforts to save their environments and populations. Droughts have become disasters occurring with predictable regularity in East Africa, with the Horn of Africa particularly hard hit, while arid conditions in North Africa and the Sahel region have worsened. Storms are intensifying in Southern Africa, and the intensity of tropical cyclones striking Madagascar has grown.

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Analysis in brief: A national passport that is honoured by another country allows its bearer to enter without the need for a visa. Such an agreement is a convenient document to have, saving time and expense for its owner. It is also a measure of a country’s economic promise and stability, which are factors of interest to investors.

Africa’s ‘weakest’ passport in terms of other countries willing to allow its owner to enter other nations without the need of a visa is Somalia. Only 13 nations allow Somalis to enter visa-free compared to 152 of the world’s countries that require that Somalis obtain visas before traveling. The lack of a functioning government, civil war and continued instability motivate other countries’ wariness of visa-free entry for Somalis. On the other end of the spectrum are Africa’s ‘strongest’ passports such as Seychelles and South Africa, made so because a majority of the world’s countries welcome their holders with open arms – or at least without the need for visas – as tourists, scholars and business partners.

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Analysis in brief: The top-five ambitious infrastructure projects underway in 2024 are all grand in cost, scale and impact. They all share a goal of moving Africans and African cargo faster and more efficiently while providing new forms of energy to power transportation upgrades.

On all infrastructure fronts – dams, energy, rail, road and seaport – mega-projects will be expanding in their reach and scope throughout Africa in 2024. A sampling of some of the most impressive of these projects, which will significantly change the lives of Africans, finds they all share one commonality: their impacts will extend far beyond the nations where they are being built.

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