<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-820x547.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397368" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-768x513.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-484332922-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption> Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



March 16 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s consumer confidence in the first quarter returned to pre-lockdown levels, a survey showed on Tuesday, helped by a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases since the peak of the second wave in early January.



The consumer confidence index (CCI), sponsored by First National Bank (FNB) and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), rose to minus 9 points from minus 12 points in the fourth quarter.



South Africa enforced one of the world&#8217;s strictest lockdowns in March last year, forcing mines, manufacturers, retailers and services to shut down or operate under tight regulation.



Government support schemes, higher-than-inflation adjustments to personal income tax brackets, soaring equities on the stock market, employment recovery and COVID-19 vaccine rollouts also aided the rebound, according to the survey.



The rise in the first quarter was driven by consumers&#8217; expectations about the performance of the economy and their household finances in 12 months, according to the survey, while the time-to-buy durable goods index lagged behind.



The survey also noted the recovery continues to be fuelled by a rise in low and middle-income sentiment and that the economic boost would be more robust if high-income consumers recorded a similar rise in confidence levels.



However, the survey warned that a third coronavirus wave could dampen prospects and employment levels would need to rebound considerably to counter unfavourable dynamics.



&#8220;The pace of the recovery in real household consumption expenditure is therefore expected to slow somewhat compared to the fourth quarter, despite the slight increase in consumer confidence in the first quarter of 2021,&#8221; the survey said. (Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

ZIMBABWE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-INFLATION

South Africa’s consumer confidence returns – survey conducted

SEATTLE (Reuters) &#8211; Boeing Co (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/BA.N">BA.N</a>) is winding down production of the 747 jumbo jet, which democratized global air travel in the 1970s but fell behind modern twin-engine aircraft.







Here are some key facts and milestones regarding Boeing’s “Queen of the Skies,”



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The 747 had its maiden flight on Feb. 9, 1969, and entered service with Pan American World Airways in January 1970. It allowed more affordable air travel due to its size and range.



Dubbed “the Incredibles”, some 50,000 mechanics and engineers built what was then the world’s largest civilian airplane in roughly 16 months.



The current version is the 747-8, a 410-seater with a range of 8,000 nautical miles (14,815 km), launched in 2005.



The 1,500th 747 was delivered to Lufthansa (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/LHAG.DE">LHAG.DE</a>) in 2014, becoming the first wide-body jet to reach that milestone.FILE PHOTO: An Evergreen 747 Supertanker makes a flame retardant drop in the Acton area in California August 31, 2009. REUTERS/Gene Blevins/File Photo







The 747 is the world’s most easily recognized jetliner with its humped fuselage and four engines.



The fuselage of the original 747 was 225 feet (68.5 meters) long, its tail as tall as a six-story building, and its wing area larger than a basketball court.



With an 8-foot-wide hinged nose able to swallow outsize cargo, the freighter version can carry more than 128 tonnes.



A British Airways (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/ICAG.L">ICAG.L</a>) 747 boosted by strong tailwinds broke the subsonic speed record for a transatlantic crossing between New York and London in February, completing the trip in just under five hours, according to Flightradar24.



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Passengers included John Paul II who staged the first visit to Ireland by a pope in 1979, arriving on an Aer Lingus 747, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who returned from exile to Iran on an Air France jumbo during the same year’s Islamic Revolution.



The 747 has known its share of tragedy in a career spanning the end of the Cold War and the rise of attacks on aviation.



In 1983, a Soviet fighter shot down a Korean Air Lines 747 that was off course and in 1988, Pan Am flight 103 was blown up by a bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.



Modern twinjets are displacing older four-engined jets like the 747 and the soon-to-be-axed Airbus A380. Boeing had already told suppliers that the last 747-8 would roll off assembly lines in around two years.



Boeing said in 2016 it could end 747 production amid falling orders and pricing pressure, while major U.S. carriers like United Continental Holdings Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/UAL.O">UAL.O</a>) and Delta Air Lines Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/DAL.N">DAL.N</a>) have already said goodbye to their 747s.



The jet bounced back from near death to mark its 50-year flying anniversary in February 2019, propped up by a cargo market boom fueled by online shopping.Slideshow&nbsp;(10 Images)



But its extended lifespan was cut short by weak demand exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and U.S.-China trade tensions.



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The last order for a passenger version came in 2017, when the U.S. government asked Boeing to repurpose two 747-8 jetliners for use as the U.S. president’s Air Force One transport plane. After customisation and installation of classified systems, the two aircraft are due to be delivered by December 2024, painted red, white and blue.



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NASA once used a modified 747 to carry the 68-tonne Space Shuttle piggyback style from landing sites back to the launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center.



Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit uses a modified 747 nicknamed Cosmic Girl as the centerpiece of its high-altitude launch system for its satellite-carrying LauncherOne rocket.







Another modified variant is the Dreamlifter which transports sections of the 787 Dreamliner between factories in Everett, Washington and Charleston, South Carolina

Comair CEO on COVID-19 impact on business

No longer going like a Boeing

By&nbsp; Zinathi Gquma



What is it about finance ministers and farming? It seems that when they are not racking their brains over the national budget they can find happiness down on the farm, amid the cows, crops and clucking of chickens in the barnyard.



That appears to be the case for South Africa’s current and previous finance ministers. Tito Mboweni, the current finance minister is never happier than when he is on his farm in Limpopo in the north of South Africa. Mboweni puts videos of chickens and plants on his Twitter feed. &nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="296" height="343" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/hqdefault-101-e1593178816521.jpg" alt="SA Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivers his emergency budget" class="wp-image-374798" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/hqdefault-101-e1593178816521.jpg 296w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/hqdefault-101-e1593178816521-259x300.jpg 259w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px" /><figcaption>#SpecialBudget2020: Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivers emergency budget (full speech)</figcaption></figure>



His predecessor, Nhlanlha Nene, who stepped down from office at the end of 2018, owns a 22- hectare farm in KwaZulu Natal. lt runs in his blood, Nene tells CNBC Africa in an exclusive interview, dressed more for the field than finance . Behind Nene, is a painting that proves his passion; a picture of Ringo, one of his prized bulls &#8211; a gift from a neighbour.



“Even when I was in office I would always retreat back to the farm, to gain some sanity…I love animals and I love nature, it is really therapeutic…nature gives you a sense of clarity,” he says.



“I grew up in a rural area, where my parents were subsistence farmers.”



Marrying his passion for finance and his joy of farming, Nene says that agriculture should be used by South Africans as a tool to lift individuals and communities out of poverty.



“COVID 19? This is a wake- up call that precious metals are no longer important, but agricultural products mean less imports, food security, employment and self- sustenance .We could lift ourselves out of poverty we will always be able to lift ourselves out of poverty and a lot of jobs could be created if we were to re-introduce that way of life (farming) to our people,” says Nene.

SOCIAL_PRM_NHLANHLA_28JULY

Why African finance ministers go farming.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) &#8211; Twitter Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/TWTR.N">TWTR.N</a>) on Thursday reported its highest-ever yearly growth of daily users who can view ads, beating analysts’ estimates on usage and sending its shares up 4%.



Twitter’s average monetizable daily active users (mDAU) increased 34% year over year to 186 million, above analysts’ estimate of 176 million, in a rise it said was primarily driven by external factors such as shelter-in-place requirements and increased conversation around the COVID-19 pandemic.



But the company missed Wall Street’s lowered expectations for quarterly revenue, as the coronavirus-spurred economic slowdown battered the company’s largely events-oriented digital ads business.





Ad sales, which make up 82% of Twitter’s revenue, sank 23% to $562 million, a drop the company attributed to brand spending pauses tied to the pandemic and U.S. civil unrest. Analysts had expected $585 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.



Chief Executive Jack Dorsey opened a conference call with analysts by apologizing for the hack that compromised the accounts of high-profile users last week, saying “we feel terrible.” In a statement, Dorsey said Twitter had taken steps to improve its security and “resiliency against targeted social engineering attempts.”



Total revenue came in at $683 million, down 19% year-over-year, helped by steadier sales growth from the licensing of users’ posts to researchers and marketers.



Twitter has struggled to build out its ad offerings, leaving it reliant on a suite of promotional tools geared toward advertising around big events and product launches, which have all but vanished during the pandemic.



The company said it finished rebuilding its ad management technology in the second quarter, which would support faster development of new formats going forward, and was rolling out measurement tools for “direct response” ads used by app developers.



On the conference call, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal declined to give details about the impact of a July social media advertising boycott that was intially focused on Facebook (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/FB.O">FB.O</a>) but spread to other platforms. Dorsey said Twitter’s actions to protect conversations on the platform were being noted by advertisers.



Twitter also said it was exploring “subscriptions and other approaches to complement our advertising business,” such as commerce, though it was not expecting any revenue to result this year Dorsey said on the call that the company would have a “really high bar for when we would ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter.”



The company reported a second-quarter loss of $1.2 billion, largely driven by the reversal of a tax benefit established last year, when the company transferred intellectual property to Ireland. Because of the second quarter’s steep coronavirus-related losses, Twitter did not make enough money to take advantage of the tax benefit.



Adjusted to exclude the tax considerations, the company incurred a loss of $127 million, or 16 cents per share, roughly in line with analyst expectations of a $125 million loss. It had an adjusted profit last year of $37 million.



Echoing earlier guidance, Twitter said it expects data licensing revenue to “moderate” for the rest of the year.



Costs and expenses grew 5% to $807 million, below the increase in the low teens that Twitter had forecast. The company said it anticipated expense growth of 10% or more in the third quarter.



Social media rival Snap Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/SNAP.N">SNAP.N</a>) missed user growth estimates earlier this week, as its usage bump from coronavirus lockdowns petered out sooner than expected, but it beat targets for revenue gains.

wall street

Wall Street retweets: Twitter shares rise on record yearly growth in daily users

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; The head of Cecil Rhodes has been chopped away from a bust of the 19th century colonialist at a monument on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town, park rangers said on Tuesday.



The bust housed at the top of a flight of steps at the Rhodes Memorial shows Rhodes with his arms folded. His right hand now cups what would have been his cheek &#8211; only with most of his face and head missing.



Lauren Clayton, a spokeswoman for South African National Parks in the Western Cape, said rangers patrolling Table Mountain came across the disfigured bust during regular patrols on Monday.



The incident likely occurred on Sunday night or Monday morning, she added. She said no one had claimed responsibility.



Thousands of protesters have marched across the United States and Europe calling for the removal of monuments seen as glorifying the imperialist nature of countries such as Britain.



Rhodes, who made his fortune in South African diamond mining, has become a lightning rod for anti-colonial anger since students forced the University of Cape Town in 2015 to remove his statue from its campus.



Completed in 1912, Rhodes Memorial consists of massive granite steps, flanked by bronze lions, and a rider astride a bronze horse at the beginning of the steps which leads to the top where the bust is situated, with an inscription beneath.



“It has been vandalised before, multiple times &#8230; At this stage we are still unclear about the reasoning behind the vandalism,” Clayton said.



Last month students at Britain’s Oxford University called for a Rhodes statue to be removed, triggered in part by protesters in the port city of Bristol tearing down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and throwing it into the harbour.

Cecil John Rhodes

Cecil Rhodes loses his head in Cape Town

By Maram Ahmed, Senior Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London



In Africa, humanitarian needs are quickly outpacing funding available.



If current trends continue, humanitarian assistance costs are forecasted to rise to $50 billion by 2030. And by then, more than 80% of the world’s poor will live in areas that are conflict-affected and deemed fragile, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).&nbsp;



The funding shortfall comes at a time when there is a rise in natural disasters, climate-induced humanitarian problems and conflicts are becoming more complex and protracted.



Also, the rapid spread of COVID-19 not only threatens people and communities across the globe but could compound existing vulnerability in fragile places in an unprecedented manner.



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/energy-environment/2019/10/07/op-ed-how-green-sukuk-could-help-africa-fight-fund-climate-change/">Op-Ed: How green sukuk could help Africa fight &amp; fund climate change</a>



As humanitarian contexts rapidly change and the funding gap widens, organisations must push forward to diversify their funding sources.



Moving beyond traditional donors, innovative financial mechanisms have the potential to make a significant contribution to redressing funding shortfalls in the continent.



For example, in Kenya, faith-based financing, such as traditional tools of Islamic Finance, have been channeled for humanitarian purposes.



Instruments such as Zakat have been used to meet humanitarian needs.



Zakat is an annual donation made by Muslims consisting of 2.5% of one year’s cumulative wealth. Although a religious obligation, it is often perceived as a wealth purifier. Estimates of Zakat range from $232 billion to $560 billion per year, according to the Islamic Development Bank.



In 2018, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) mobilised Zakat funds raised in Malaysia to finance a drought assistance programme in the Kenyan county of Kitui.&nbsp;



$1.2 million worth of Zakat was used to help communities in Kitui to recover from climate-change induced drought by enhancing water and food security.



Innovative finance tools were also implemented to raise funding to build and operate physical rehabilitation centres in Mali, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.



The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launched the first Humanitarian Impact Bond in 2017 raising 26 million Swiss francs to provide crucial services for people with disabilities such as rehabilitation.



The five-year bond is a first in the humanitarian sector and helped secure long-term funding from private impact investors for humanitarian projects.



Impact bonds are a type of results based financing that aims to reward service providers (such as the ICRC) for positive results.&nbsp;



Independent auditors will assess the efficiency of the ICRC’s operation of the rehabilitation centres. If the project is deemed a success, then the outcome funders pay back investors partially, in full or with a return &#8211; this is determined by pre-agreed outcomes. The outcome funders in this case are Western governments and foundations.



As humanitarian organizations struggle with the shortfall, these innovative financing models and others are testing tools for humanitarian actors to help plug the gap and create greater impact.



It was estimated that approximately $28.8 billion was needed to help respond to humanitarian crises this year – this was before the COVID-19 pandemic spread quickly. These figures will be much worse after the impact of the virus is felt.



Looking ahead, the economic hit of the coronavirus will inevitably mean government aid budgets and donations will dwindle.



So now more than ever there is an opportunity for humanitarian organizations to evolve their funding going beyond immediate relief to building resilience.&nbsp;

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Op-Ed: How innovative financing can assist Africa’s humanitarian needs

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate



<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis</a>, a tragedy that is all at once fast and slow-moving, personal and global. The virus has killed more than 150,000 people. Livelihoods have been hit hard as communities are cut off and businesses are forced to close. Country leaders are understandably looking for ways to <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/03/coronavirus-economy-low-carbon-investments">stimulate their economies</a> immediately. 



During a crisis of this scale, it is understandable to the familiar.&nbsp;But, for their own sakes,&nbsp;governments&nbsp;must avoid&nbsp;defaulting&nbsp;to familiar investment habits – namely,&nbsp;ramping up production and use of high carbon emitting fuels.&nbsp;



The pandemic, together with the Saudi-Russia oil price tussle last month, have had a stark impact on oil markets. Oil futures recently went&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/upshot/negative-oil-price.html">negative for the first time in history</a>. This has highlighted how vulnerable countries with fossil fuel-dependent economies are to volatile fuel prices: in Sub-Saharan Africa, oil exporting nations could&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uneca.org/stories/eca-estimates-billions-worth-losses-africa-due-covid-19-impact">lose up to $65 billion</a>&nbsp;in revenues in 2020 as crude oil prices continue to tumble. Even before COVID-19, the global transition to a low-carbon economy was sparking a decline in oil prices. The pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, underscoring the need for diversifying these countries’ economies.



This is the time to invest in diversifying the economy, to build resilience to future shocks, not lock-in further dependence on fossil fuels. Conversely, investing in renewables and better grids in many countries will enable wider access to energy and greater self-reliance, enabling countries to take control of their economic prospects and insulate themselves from whimsical oil and gas markets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Efforts to boost economic growth out of this health crisis in a way that locks in more&nbsp;fossil fuel production&nbsp;and use&nbsp;will&nbsp;only&nbsp;exacerbate&nbsp;other health crises, including&nbsp;the ongoing climate crisis&nbsp;and air pollution crisis. This&nbsp;will have&nbsp;dire implications&nbsp;for&nbsp;communities through more frequent and severe natural disasters, and more rapid spread of&nbsp;infectious diseases due to climate change.&nbsp;



Climate-induced changes in the movement patterns of humans, animals and pathogens will make viral outbreaks&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/09/04/how-climate-change-is-exacerbating-the-spread-of-disease/">more common</a>.&nbsp;This is&nbsp;just one big reason&nbsp;why&nbsp;we must&nbsp;respond to COVID-19 by building&nbsp;back better in terms of&nbsp;economies that are resilient to future shocks&nbsp;and accelerating the transition to inclusive, low-carbon growth.&nbsp;



Moving away from&nbsp;fossil fuels is challenging, particularly&nbsp;in developing and emerging economies&nbsp;with pressing development&nbsp;needs.&nbsp;Before COVID-19&nbsp;was a household name,&nbsp;Africa&nbsp;was already&nbsp;working to bring over&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2019/03/28/poverty-in-africa-is-now-falling-but-not-fast-enough/">400 million people</a>&nbsp;out of poverty and over&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1180443/icode/">200 million</a>&nbsp;out of hunger.&nbsp;



Some&nbsp;countries,&nbsp;including my own Nigeria,&nbsp;are reliant on&nbsp;oil and gas&nbsp;production to&nbsp;help finance these social gains.&nbsp;A careful and just management of the&nbsp;low-carbon&nbsp;economic transition is&nbsp;essential, to avoid&nbsp;stranded&nbsp;industries,&nbsp;communities and workers, exacerbating&nbsp;inequality.&nbsp;



A&nbsp;better&nbsp;future,&nbsp;where all jobs are green and decent, poverty is eradicated, workers are supported, and communities are thriving and resilient&nbsp;across all sectors of the economy, starts with&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/documents/publication/wcms_432859.pdf">just transition</a>&nbsp;today.&nbsp;That means&nbsp;working closely with affected workers and communities to ensure they benefit from the new economy that will emerge, while also directly investing in more diverse, clean energy alternatives and&nbsp;avoiding propping up failing oil and gas operations.



As the COVID-19 crisis has laid bare, robust social protection&nbsp;policies and programmes&nbsp;are&nbsp;essential to meet basic needs during periods of unemployment, re-training or education.&nbsp;A just transition means&nbsp;diversifying local economies, generating new industries, new services and&nbsp;building&nbsp;new&nbsp;essential&nbsp;skills&nbsp;across the workforce&nbsp;and&nbsp;adaptive capacity&nbsp;across&nbsp;communities&nbsp;to ensure they are resilient and benefit from a new climate economy. This&nbsp;will require new types of policies&nbsp;and accompanying investment.&nbsp;



Many&nbsp;wealthy regions are&nbsp;already&nbsp;supporting a just transition. Last year, Germany approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/bund-laender-einigung-zum-kohleausstieg-1712774">$45 billion</a>&nbsp;aid package for the nation’s coal regions&nbsp;and companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;support the transition to&nbsp;make the country coal-free by 2038.&nbsp;And the&nbsp;European Commission’s&nbsp;Green Deal, now a cornerstone of the EU’s COVID-19 response,&nbsp;includes a&nbsp;€100&nbsp;billion&nbsp;‘<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/news/2020/01/14-01-2020-financing-the-green-transition-the-european-green-deal-investment-plan-and-just-transition-mechanism">Just Transition Mechanism</a>’&nbsp;to help retrain workers who lose jobs in shuttered coal mines or steel factories.&nbsp;Other&nbsp;countries&nbsp;are&nbsp;approving&nbsp;similar funding packages, but none of&nbsp;them&nbsp;include&nbsp;aid&nbsp;for&nbsp;the transition in&nbsp;developing nations.&nbsp;



Now more&nbsp;than ever,&nbsp;rich countries&nbsp;must&nbsp;support the&nbsp;developing world in the pursuit of a&nbsp;healthy and prosperous future for all.&nbsp;This is&nbsp;the time when we can and must design&nbsp;a new social contract, and&nbsp;demonstrate solidarity&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;communities that are the most vulnerable.&nbsp;We must apply every tool at our disposal to&nbsp;advance&nbsp;responses to the pandemic&nbsp;that&nbsp;secure incomes and jobs,&nbsp;address&nbsp;the&nbsp;immediate health needs,&nbsp;and promote&nbsp;a just transition forward&nbsp;toward an inclusive, low-carbon and resilient economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the climate crossroads the world was already facing.&nbsp;This terrible moment in history demands us to&nbsp;build back better.&nbsp;The world’s larger economies have a responsibility to lead the&nbsp;charge.&nbsp;Fortunately,&nbsp;low-carbon&nbsp;solutions are cheaper and more available than ever before.&nbsp;The&nbsp;New Climate Economy&nbsp;finds that bold climate action could deliver&nbsp;<a href="http://newclimateeconomy.report/2018">$26 trillion in economic benefits</a>&nbsp;between now and 2030, and these benefits would start immediately. It could also generate over 65 million jobs in 2030.&nbsp;



We are living in uncertain and frightening times.&nbsp;But&nbsp;we must&nbsp;be brave. We must&nbsp;aim to&nbsp;do more than survive, we must thrive.&nbsp;We&nbsp;must&nbsp;improve lives&nbsp;by&nbsp;shifting away from&nbsp;dirty,&nbsp;carbon-intensive&nbsp;industries.&nbsp;Low-income regions cannot do this alone.&nbsp;The world’s&nbsp;developed economies must invest&nbsp;in a better way, a more just way.&nbsp;This&nbsp;is&nbsp;the challenge of our lifetimes.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Okonjo-Iweala

Op-Ed – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: A global response to COVID-19 that doesn’t fully support developing countries is no response at all

By Paul Polman, Siddharth Chatterjee and Myriam Sidibe



The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is “a defining moment for modern society.&nbsp; History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family.”



Governments, the private sector, and development institutions need to come together in innovative ways not just to flatten the curve of infection and mitigate the economic disruption, but also to prepare for the new normal of the post-Covid world in Africa and the rest of the world. &nbsp;Greater partnership between the public and private sectors is going to be critical. The fight to flatten the coronavirus curve is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism and especially for multilateralism.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="640" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-1110x640.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-368286" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-1110x640.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-300x173.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-768x443.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-696x401.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya-1068x615.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kenya.jpg 1378w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption> Kenyan nurses wear protective gear during a demonstration of preparations for any potential coronavirus cases at the Mbagathi Hospital, isolation centre for the disease, in Nairobi. Photo Quartz Africa March 2020</figcaption></figure>



As Covid-19 continues to spread sickness and death, Africa has so far escaped the worst effects.&nbsp; The continent’s lagging health care infrastructure, however, makes it highly vulnerable if the virus reaches the high-velocity community transmission we have seen in Italy, Spain and New York.&nbsp; Not only are health systems delicate, but crucial medical supplies are far from sufficient, and social protections as a whole are weak.



With the health crisis also becoming an economic and soon a social crisis, the continent is under siege.&nbsp; Many companies are struggling through the economic slowdown, with tourism and smaller enterprises the most challenged.&nbsp; With bankruptcy and job losses looming, many families are already reducing spending and consumption.&nbsp; In the absence of significant fiscal stimulus &#8211; which few African countries can afford anyway &#8211; some projections are cutting the continent’s GDP growth in 2020 by as much as eight percentage points.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="471" height="476" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/sid-chat.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-368287" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/sid-chat.jpg 471w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/sid-chat-297x300.jpg 297w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 471px) 100vw, 471px" /><figcaption>L to R: The co-authors Myriam Sidibe, Siddharth Chatterjee, Paul Polman join the First Lady of Kenya, Ms Margaret Kenyatta, in Nairobi, Kenya at an event. Photo UNFPA Kenya, 24 Jun 2016</figcaption></figure>







No one knows for sure what is ahead, with scenarios changing daily as new information comes through.&nbsp; Many firms are focused on business continuity, employee safety and simply survival and lack the luxury of assisting external stakeholders.&nbsp; But it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck response, both to flatten the curve of infections and keep businesses resilient, and to be ready to restart as physical distancing ends.&nbsp; More than ever before, the private sector needs to deploy its full capabilities to innovate and bring positive, sustainable change – to help secure strong markets in the future.



There are several areas where private sector support is essential.&nbsp; Current priorities include unified communication platforms to enable populations to practice the needed preventative behaviours (washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing physical distancing), as well as managing stocks of essential materials, test kits, ventilators and oxygen and PPE. Support would also include protecting the most vulnerable people from the economic effects of the pandemic, especially where curfews are enforced.



This is also a unique opportunity to challenge sceptics, in both the not-for-profits and for-profit sectors, with a new blueprint of collaboration.&nbsp; The World Health Organisation has issued guidelines on engaging the private sector as part of a whole-of-society response to the pandemic and has signed an iconic partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce.&nbsp; The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have also launched a public-private partnership known as the Africa Covid-19 Response Fund, which raises resources to prevent transmission and support sustainable medical responses.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Kenya the national government has led the charge in fighting Covid-19 by rapidly scaling up a large array of public health interventions and putting into force social interaction rules. &nbsp;To complement the government’s preparedness and response efforts for the next six months, the United Nations, together with humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations launched a flash appeal seeking over US$267 million to respond to the critical needs of 10 million of the country’s most vulnerable people.&nbsp;



So far the pandemic has not been the finest hour for international cooperation.&nbsp; But the role of the UN and the private sector has never been more critical as an enabler of multisectoral partnerships for deliveries, and also to keep the focus on the most vulnerable that these partnerships need to reach. &nbsp;



In Kenya, and under the leadership of the Government, the UN has built a model to catalyse public private action: the SDG Partnership Platform. It is a tested instrument for engagement that has brought together a variety of private players in previous initiatives to co-create and rapidly deploy with government large-scale shared-value solutions to address the challenges our societies and planet are facing.&nbsp; It is through such a mechanism, for example, that the UN mobilized the private sector to carry out a maternal mortality reduction campaign in Kenya’s north-eastern counties, one that was recognised as a global best practice.



Kenya’s<a href="https://www.covid19businessresponse.ke/"> National Business Compact on Coronavirus</a>, a gathering of companies aimed at accelerating local action and supporting governmental efforts against the pandemic, got successfully off the ground with the help of the UN SDG Partnership Platform, and champions from private sector and civil society. &nbsp;



The Kenyan model of cooperation could take shape all over Africa.&nbsp; Such models allow governments to foster an ecosystem of purposeful partnerships; to amplify private-sector philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and policy advocacy for national mitigation; and to accelerate shared-value partnerships.&nbsp; It also allows the UN to play its role as a neutral broker, and steer a much-needed balance between lethargic action on one hand and misdirected reactions on the other.&nbsp;



This may well be the blueprint needed to fight the next global pandemic, whose speed and fury could surpass what we are witnessing now.



<a href="https://twitter.com/PaulPolman">Paul Polman</a> is co-founder of IMAGINE, Chair of the International Chambers of Commerce and former CEO of Unilever



<a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Siddharth Chatterjee</a> is the UN Resident Coordinator of Kenya



<a href="https://twitter.com/Myriam_Sidibe">Myriam Sidibe</a> is a Senior Fellow at Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School

918615dd-8dcb-457f-9f5a-af8123e50ff4

Multilateralism through Public-Private partnerships are Key to Flattening the COVID-19 Curve

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s High Court has dismissed a case from insurer Discovery against rival Liberty, who it had argued was infringing on their trademarks and competing unlawfully, Liberty said on Thursday.



Discovery launched its case last year over Liberty’s use of data from its Vitality programme, which offers users discounts on premiums and other rewards for good behaviour, such as buying healthy food and exercising.



Liberty has developed its own wellness programme that rewards customers for healthy behaviour, including by allowing them to contribute data from recognised external programmes, such as Vitality, to generate a score with Liberty. This then helps determine the price of the customer’s policy.



Liberty said the court concluded that customers’ data from Vitality belongs to them and they are free to use it how they wish.



“This judgement is a great victory for our customers as they can derive significant benefits from using their own wellness data,” Liberty executive David Jewell said in a statement.



Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



The Vitality programme has helped make Discovery one of South Africa’s most popular insurers, and many rivals, including banks trying to push into insurance, have created similar offerings to try to compete.



(Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Jason Neely)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN21Y0UQ-OZATP">https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN21Y0UQ-OZATP</a> and is republished with its permission.

South African court rules in favour of insurer Liberty in row with Discovery

South African court rules in favour of insurer Liberty in row with Discovery. shutterstock_140867215

By Akinwumi Adesina, President of the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.afdb.org/en" target="_blank">African Development Bank</a>



These are very difficult days, as the world faces one of its worst challenges ever: the novel coronavirus pandemic. And it seems almost no nation is spared. As infection rates rise, so does panic across financial markets, as economies drastically slow down, and supply chains are severely disrupted.&nbsp;



Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. As such, it can no longer be business as usual.&nbsp;



FOR MORE ON COVID-19 VISIT:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>



Each day, the situation evolves and requires constant reviews of precautionary measures and strategies. In the midst of all this, we must all worry about the ability of every nation to respond to this crisis. And we must ensure that developing nations are prepared to navigate these uncharted waters fully.&nbsp;



That&#8217;s why I support the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres&#8217; urgent call for special resources for the world&#8217;s developing countries.&nbsp;



In the face of this pandemic, we must put lives above resources and health above debt. Why? Because developing economies are the most vulnerable at this time. Our remedies must go beyond simply lending more. We must go the extra mile and provide countries with much-needed and urgent financial relief &#8211; and that includes developing countries under sanctions.&nbsp;



For decades, sanctions have decimated investments in public health care systems in quite a number of countries<a href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>.&nbsp;Today, they are unable to face up to a clear and present danger that now threatens our collective existence<a href="#_ftn2">[2]</a>.



Only those that are alive can pay back debts.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Sanctions work against economies but not against the virus. If countries that are under sanctions are unable to respond and provide critical care for their citizens or protect them, then the virus will soon &#8220;sanction&#8221; the world.



In my Yoruba language, there is a saying, &#8220;be careful when you throw stones in the open market. It may hit a member of your family.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;



That&#8217;s why I also strongly support the call by the UN Secretary-General that debts of low-income countries be suspended and in these fast-moving and uncertain times.&nbsp;



But I call for even bolder actions, and there are several reasons for doing so.&nbsp;



First, the economies of developing countries, despite years of great progress, remain extremely fragile and ill-equipped to deal with this pandemic. They are more likely to be buried with the heavy fiscal pressure they now face with the coronavirus.&nbsp;



Second, many of the countries in Africa depend on commodities for export earnings. The collapse of oil prices has thrown African economies into distress. They simply are not able to meet budgets as planned under pre-coronavirus oil price benchmarks<a href="#_ftn3">[3]</a>.



The impact has been immediate in the oil and gas sector, particularly affecting eight countries -Algeria, Angola, Chad, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, and the Republic of Congo- that between them generate nearly half of Africa&#8217;s GDP<a href="#_ftn4">[4]</a>.&nbsp;



Those exporting other commodities besides oil, such as agricultural produce or minerals and metals, are facing drastic cuts in demand<a href="#_ftn5">[5]</a>. In the current environment, there is an acute shortage of buyers who, for understandable reasons, have re-allocated resources to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. African countries that depend on tourism receipts as a key source of revenue are also in a straight-jacket.&nbsp;



Third, while rich countries have resources to spare, evidenced by trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus, developing countries are hampered with bare-bones resources.&nbsp;



The fact is, if we do not collectively defeat the coronavirus in Africa, we will not defeat it anywhere else in the world. This is an existential challenge that requires all hands to be on deck. Today, more than ever, we must be our brothers and sisters&#8217; keepers.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Around the world, countries at more advanced stages in the outbreak are announcing liquidity relief, debt restructuring, forbearance on loan repayments, relaxation of standard regulations and initiatives. In the United States, packages of more than $2 trillion have already been announced, in addition to a reduction in Federal Reserve lending rates and liquidity support to keep markets operating. In Europe, the larger economies have announced stimulus measures in excess of 1 trillion Euros. Additionally, even larger packages are expected.&nbsp;



As developed countries put in place programs to compensate workers for lost wages for staying at home for social distancing, another problem has emerged &#8212; fiscal distancing.



Think for a moment what this means for Africa.&nbsp;



The African Development Bank estimates that COVID-19 could cost Africa a GDP loss between&nbsp;$22.1 billion (see attached Bank report), in the base-case scenario, and $88.3 billion in the worst-case scenario. This is equivalent to a projected GDP growth contraction of between 0.7 and 2.8 percentage points in 2020. It is even likely that Africa might fall into recession this year if the current situation persists.



The Covid-19 shock will further squeeze fiscal space in the continent as deficits are estimated to widen by 3.5 to 4.9 percentage points, increasing Africa&#8217;s financing gap by an additional $110 to $154 billion in 2020.&nbsp;



Our estimates indicate that Africa&#8217;s total public debt could increase, under the base case scenario, from $1.86 trillion at the end of 2019 to over $2 trillion in 2020, compared to $1.9 trillion projected in a no-pandemic scenario. These figures could reach $2.1 trillion in 2020 under the worst-case scenario.



This, therefore, is a time for bold actions. We should temporarily defer the debt owed to Multilateral Development Banks and International Financial Institutions. This can be done by re-profiling loans to create fiscal space for countries to deal with this crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;



That means that loan principals, due to International Financial Institutions in 2020, could be deferred. I am calling for temporary forbearance, not forgiveness. What&#8217;s good for bilateral and commercial debt must be good for multilateral debt.



That way, we will avoid moral hazards, and rating agencies will be less inclined to penalize any institution on the potential risk to their Preferred Creditor Status.&nbsp; The focus of the world should now be on helping everyone, as a risk to one is a risk to all. There is no coronavirus for developed countries and a coronavirus for developing and debt stressed countries. We are all in this together.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Multilateral and bilateral financial institutions must work together with commercial creditors in Africa, especially to defer loan payments and give Africa the fiscal space it needs. We stand ready to support Africa in the short term and for the long haul. We are ready to deploy up to $50 billion over five years in projects to help with adjustment costs that Africa will face as it deals with the knock-on effects of COVID-19, long after the current storm subsides.&nbsp;



But more support will be needed. Let&#8217;s lift all sanctions, for now. Even in wartime, ceasefires are called for humanitarian reasons. In such situations, there is a time to pause for relief materials to reach affected populations. The novel coronavirus is a war against all of us. All lives matter. For this reason, we must avoid fiscal distancing at this time. A stitch in time will save nine.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Social distancing is imperative now. Fiscal distancing is not.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;







<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<a href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.odi.org/publications/384-impact-economic-sanctions-health-well-being" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.odi.org/publications/384-impact-economic-sanctions-health-well-being</a>, page 15)



<a href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> (<a href="https://www.ghsindex.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.ghsindex.org/</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> AEO 2020&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref4">[4]</a> (AEO 2020&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref5">[5]</a> <a href="https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/5870.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/5870.htm</a>&nbsp;&#8211; <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/08/investing/oil-prices-crash-opec-russia-saudi-arabia/index.html">https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/08/investing/oil-prices-crash-opec-russia-saudi-arabia/index.html</a>

adesina

Op-Ed: Why the COVID-19 pandemic is no time for fiscal distancing

Last Friday Moody’s, the last rating agency to rate South Africa investment grade, c<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/sa-downgrade/2020/03/27/moodys-downgrades-sa-to-junk/">ut South Africa’s sovereign credit rating to junk</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/03/27/moodys-to-cut-south-africas-sovereign-credit-rating-to-junk-economists/">in line with economists’ forecast</a>. Today Fitch further downgraded the country sending the rand plunging over 19 rand to the dollar. Below it gives its reasons&#8230;



Fitch Ratings &#8211; Hong Kong &#8211; 03 Apr 2020: Fitch Ratings has downgraded South Africa&#8217;s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to &#8216;BB&#8217; from &#8216;BB+&#8217;. The Outlook is Negative.



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><thead><tr><td>RATING ACTIONS</td></tr><tr><td>ENTITY/DEBT</td><td>RATING</td><td></td><td>PRIOR</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>LT IDR</td><td>BB&nbsp;</td><td>Downgrade</td><td></td><td>BB+&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>ST IDR</td><td>B&nbsp;</td><td>Affirmed</td><td></td><td>B&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>LC LT IDR</td><td>BB&nbsp;</td><td>Downgrade</td><td></td><td>BB+&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>LC ST IDR</td><td>B&nbsp;</td><td>Affirmed</td><td></td><td>B&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Country Ceiling</td><td>BB+&nbsp;</td><td>Downgrade</td><td></td><td>BBB-&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; senior unsecured</td><td>LT</td><td>BB&nbsp;</td><td>Downgrade</td><td></td><td>BB+&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>The RSA Sukuk No. 1 Trust</td><td></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td></td><td></td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; senior unsecured</td><td>LT</td><td>BB&nbsp;</td><td>Downgrade</td><td></td><td>BB+&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



KEY RATING DRIVERS



The downgrade of South Africa&#8217;s ratings is a result of the lack of a clear path towards government debt stabilisation as well as the expected impact of the COVID-19 shock on public finances and growth. The Negative Outlook reflects the prospect of further significant upside pressure on government debt and additional downside risks associated with the global shock.



The COVID-19 crisis, combined with a recession in 2H19, means South Africa&#8217;s GDP is forecast to contract by 3.8% in 2020 and Fitch expects only a moderate recovery by 1.7% in 2021. The contraction primarily reflects a 21-day lockdown, during which large parts of the economy, including most mines and manufacturing plants, have ceased operating. The government has stated that the lockdown will not be extended, but many sectors may see continued significant disruption and global demand will remain adversely affected for some time.



The crisis hits public finances in an already weak situation. We expect the consolidated fiscal deficit to surge to 11.5% of GDP in FY20/21, from 6.6% in FY19/20, with a recovery to a still high 8% in FY21/22. This means that general government debt (including about 1.7% of GDP of local government debt will rise from 64.5% of GDP in FY19/20 to 80.2% in FY21/22, well above the 2019 &#8216;BB&#8217; category median of 46.5%. In its 2020 budget published in February before the full onslaught of the crisis, the government projected gross loan debt (excluding local government debt) rising from 61.6% of GDP in the fiscal year ending March 2020 (FY19/20) to 71.6% of GDP in FY22/23, with the prospect of further rises after that. However, this relied on substantial savings on public sector compensation that are now unlikely to materialise as negotiations to open the three-year public sector wage deal from 2018, which expires in April 2021, have failed to reach a breakthrough. A new wage deal next year is also unlikely to result in the projected savings.



The coronavirus shock adds further pressure on public finances. Fitch expects revenues in 2020 to contract in nominal terms for the first time since 2009 due to the economic contraction. So far fiscal measures announced by the government to alleviate the impact on the economy remain modest, and will mostly be financed from accumulated surpluses of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. However, further significant support measures, as well as additional health spending, are likely to be necessary and we expect the government will only be able to make minor spending cuts in other areas.



Additional risks stem from liabilities of non-financial (15% of GDP) and financial (2.1%) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and guarantees for independent power producers (4%). The government has already allocated SOE support of a cumulative ZAR129 billion (2.6% of 2020 GDP) over the FY20/21 to FY22/23 planning period, but more may be needed particularly as the COVID-19 shock will weaken already poor finances of many SOEs.



The &#8216;BB&#8217; IDRs also reflect the following key rating drivers:



Despite the severe disruption in global financial markets, we do not expect acute problems in fiscal financing, partly reflecting the unusually long-average maturity of government securities (15 years) and the low share of foreign-currency debt in total debt (10%). Foreign-currency debt repayments due are at or below USD1 billion in each of the three years to FY22/23. The government is considering borrowing from international financial institutions to diversify its funding sources.



The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has reacted to the crisis by cutting its interest rates by 100bp in March, after a 25bp rate cut in January. It has also taken extensive measures to contain stress in money markets, including the purchase of treasury bonds on secondary markets to provide liquidity to banks. Some further monetary easing is likely as SARB expects the impact of lower domestic demand will reduce inflationary pressures. It has also allowed banks to let capital ratios decline below regular thresholds. While the crisis is likely to hit asset quality, Fitch considers the risk that the sovereign will need to provide support to the banking sector as low.



The current-account deficit fell to 3.0% in 2019 but is expected to deteriorate to 4.7% of GDP in 2020 on the back of reduced global demand as well as the impact of the coronavirus-related closures on production capacity, which will not be fully offset by a substantial import compression due to the weaker exchange rate and a reduction in incomes. Net external debt, at an estimated 18.9% of GDP in 2020, is still in line with the &#8216;BB&#8217; category median.



The SARB has maintained its commitment to flexible exchange rates, letting the currency absorb the shock as investors withdrew from South Africa as from other emerging markets in March. Relatively muted exchange rate pass-through means that the inflation risks from this strategy are contained. As a result, the risks associated with the relatively modest level of international reserves and the low level of international liquidity is contained.



ESG &#8211; Governance: South Africa has an ESG Relevance Score of 5 for both Political Stability and Rights and for the Rule of Law, Institutional and Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption, as is the case for all sovereigns. Theses scores reflect the high weight that the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI) have in our proprietary Sovereign Rating Model. South Africa has a medium WBGI ranking at the 57th percentile, reflecting relatively institution and well-entrenched democratic processes. However, exceptionally high inequality could lead to long-term challenges to social stability and complicates the government&#8217;s efforts to accelerate economic growth and consolidate public finances in an environment of rising calls for improving public services.



SOVEREIGN RATING MODEL (SRM) AND QUALITATIVE OVERLAY (QO)



Fitch&#8217;s proprietary SRM assigns South Africa a score equivalent to a rating of &#8216;BBB-&#8216; on the Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LT FC) IDR scale.



Fitch&#8217;s sovereign rating committee adjusted the output from the SRM to arrive at the final LT FC IDR by applying its QO, relative to rated peers, as follows:



&#8211; Macroeconomic Performance, Policies and Prospects: -1 notch, to reflect South Africa&#8217;s weak growth prospects relative to the &#8216;BB&#8217; and &#8216;BBB&#8217; category medians and to population growth, with important implications for public finances and risks to social stability.



&#8211; Public Finances: -1 notch, to reflect the continued upward trend in government/debt to GDP exacerbated by the COVID-19 shock and the absence of a clear medium-term plan for debt stabilisation, as well as high contingent-liabilities notably related to state-owned enterprises, such as Eskom.



Fitch&#8217;s SRM is the agency&#8217;s proprietary multiple regression rating model that employs 18 variables based on three-year centred averages, including one year of forecasts, to produce a score equivalent to a LT FC IDR. Fitch&#8217;s QO is a forward-looking qualitative framework designed to allow for adjustment to the SRM output to assign the final rating, reflecting factors within our criteria that are not fully quantifiable and/or not fully reflected in the SRM.



RATING SENSITIVITIES



Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative rating action/downgrade:



&#8211; A continued rise in government debt/GDP and failure to formulate a clear and credible path towards stabilising the government debt/GDP ratio.



&#8211; A further deterioration in South Africa&#8217;s trend GDP growth rate.



Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive rating action/upgrade:



&#8211; Formulation of a clear and credible path towards stabilising the government debt/GDP ratio over the medium term.



&#8211; A strengthening in trend GDP growth.

Fitch Ratings

Rand hits record low, goes over 19 to dollar as Fitch downgrades SA further into junk status

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had risen to 402, a jump of 128 since Sunday’s announcement that could worry public health experts concerned about the country’s readiness to deal with the epidemic. 



President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster and imposed measures like travel bans to curb the spread of coronavirus. He is expected to address the nation later on Monday on new measures to mitigate the impact of the virus. 



(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Alexander Winning)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN21A1U4-OZATP">https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN21A1U4-OZATP</a> and is republished with its permission.

Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown

South Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases jump by 128 to 402

Chris Bishop in conversation with former SA Intelligence boss Moe Shaik

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/wycliffe-w-njororai-simiyu-293508">Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-texas-at-tyler-2703">University of Texas at Tyler</a>
The 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament kicked off on June 14 in Russia. Africa has five representatives in this elite competition: Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, and Tunisia. The continent’s teams secured their spots after a long build-up involving a preliminary knock out phase followed by a four team round robin competition on home and away basis.
No African team has ever qualified for the World Cup semi-finals. Many pundits would argue that now is the time to change Africa’s World Cup story. The continent has always promised a great deal in the international showcase <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/world-cup-africa-football-teams-under-perform#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s">but delivered very little</a>.
Some of the reasons for failing to qualify for the semi-finals at the World Cup include <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/world-cup-africa-football-teams-under-perform#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s">poor preparation</a>, internal controversies as well as technical and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/piersedwards/2010/07/africa_fell_foul_of_familiar_m.html">tactical errors</a> at crucial moments in the knock out phases and <a href="https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/foreign-coach-xi-nigerias-11-expatriate-coaches-failures-successes/amp/#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s">recruiting foreign coaches at the last minute</a>.
Looking at the pedigree of the African teams, and their respective opponents, Nigeria and Senegal stand a good chance to qualify for the second round and possibly beyond.
<h2>The contenders</h2>
Here is a closer look at Africa’s five teams.
1. Nigeria
Compared to other African teams, Nigeria has been very consistent African representatives at the World Cup since their first appearance in 1994. The Super Eagles, as they are more popularly known at home, also played in the 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014 World Cup tournaments.
On the way to Russia, Nigeria eliminated Swaziland in the preliminary round and Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria in the group phase. The team has been under German coach Gernot Rohr since 2016 and prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation. Their most notable star is captain John Obi-Mikel, who previously successfully captained the under-20 and under-23 sides.
The other players to watch are Victor Moses of Chelsea, Kelechi Iheanacho and Ahmed Musa of Leicester as well as Alex Iwobi of Arsenal. Nigeria’s strength lies in its <a href="https://asia.eurosport.com/football/world-cup/2018/world-cup-2018-brazil-team-profile-how-they-qualified-star-man-world-cup-record-fixtures_sto6791463/story.shtml">solid midfield play and potent attack</a>.
They face Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in the group stages. Good results against Croatia and Iceland can propel them to the second round – to which they also advanced in 1994, 1998 and 2014 – and even deeper into the tournament.
2. Egypt
Egypt makes a long awaited return to the World Cup. It is intriguing that despite being a dominant force at the Africa Cup of Nations, winning a record seven times, Egypt has only featured at the World Cup three times over 84 years – in 1934, 1990 and now in 2018.
The Pharaohs booked their ticket after <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2018/05/10/road-to-russia-egypts-qualification-route-to-2018-world-cup//">overwhelming</a> Chad at home and away to qualify for the group stage. Egypt overcame Congo, Ghana, and Uganda in the group stages. Hector Cuper, who coached Valencia of La Liga and Inter of Serie A, is the man tasked with leading Egypt at Russia 2018.
The team relies on patient build up and opportunistic breakaways to score via their star player Mohamed Salah of Liverpool. Mo Salah, who <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/05/13/liverpool-vs-brighton-live-score-plus-premier-league-goal-updates/">scored a season record number of goals</a> in the Premier League, is the man to watch. But his <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/mohamed-salah-liverpool-injury-update-real-madrid-egypt-world-cup-2018-how-long-lesion-a8371031.html">injury</a> during the Champion’s League final against Real Madrid has dampened the euphoric hopes of Egyptian fans. Other star players include Mohamed Elneny of Arsenal and Ahmed Hegazi of West Bromwich Albion.
Although this team looks thin on star power, their <a href="https://news.sportsinteraction.com/soccer/story/2018-world-cup-odds-and-prediction-egypt-team-betting-preview-74093">collective understanding</a>, solid defence and team chemistry should put fear in their opponents in the group stage: Uruguay, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
3. Tunisia
Tunisia makes their fifth appearance at the World Cup, having previously featured in 1978, 1998, 2002 and 2006.
Coached by Nabil Maâloul, the Eagles of Carthage qualified after beating Mauritania to enter the Africa group stage where they overcame stiff resistance from Guinea, Libya and DR Congo.
Unlike other African sides with one or two outstanding individual players plying their trade in the big five European Leagues, the Tunisians play in lower ranked leagues. These include Saif-Eddine Khaoui and Wahbi Khazri. Formerly at Sunderland, Khazri seems to have <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1SE4L0">rediscovered his form</a> on loan at Rennes last season, scoring nine goals in 24 league games.
The team’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/0/tunisia-world-cup-2018-squad-team-guide/">resourcefulness, grit and spirit</a> will be fully stretched in their fixtures against England, Belgium and Panama. However, it will require a major upset for them to progress to the second round given their opposition’s pedigree.
4. Morocco
Morocco last played in the World Cup 20 years ago and have represented Africa four times at the tournament. Their 1986 squad was the first African team to not only qualify for the second round but to do so as leaders of a pool that had England, Portugal and Poland.
Coached by Hervé Renard, Morocco narrowly eliminated Equatorial Guinea in the preliminaries. But they proved their worth when they over-powered the highly-rated Gabon, Ivory Coast and Mali to earn qualification.
Only six of the 23 players were born in Morocco. The rest were born in France, Spain, or the Netherlands, but have Moroccan heritage and have maintained a connection with Morocco. Key players include national team captain and Juventus centre back Mehdi Benatia and attacking midfielder Mbark Boussoufa, a two-time Belgian Golden Shoe winner and former player on the Chelsea youth team back in 2006.
Morocco’s talented team face Iran in their opening match. It’s a must-win game given that they will next be up against highly-rated Spain and Portugal.
5. Senegal
Senegal shocked the footballing world when they brought down France during the debut at the World Cup in 2002. They followed that up by qualifying for the quarter-finals, the second African team to do so. As such, the Lions of Teranga must be looking forward to their second World Cup under coach Aliou Cisse, who captained the legendary 2002 team.
Senegal were held to a 2–2 draw away to Madagascar but recovered to eliminate them 3–0 at home. In the group stage, Senegal overpowered Cape Verde, Burkina Faso and South Africa.
Senegal has highly talented players who ply their trade in European leagues. These are led by <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2018/05/18/world-cup-2018-sadio-mane-leads-senegal-23-man-squad//">Sadio Mane</a> who has had a very successful season with Liverpool. Indeed, only the goalkeeper plays on the African continent.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97954/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />They face Poland in their opening match, followed by Japan and Colombia.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/wycliffe-w-njororai-simiyu-293508">Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu</a>, Professor, Health and Kinesiology, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-texas-at-tyler-2703">University of Texas at Tyler</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-five-teams-hoping-to-change-africas-world-cup-story-97954">original article</a>.

Meet the five teams that pundits want to change Africa’s World Cup story

By Bunmi Akinyemiju
While Israel raised $5.24 billion in investment in 2017, Nigeria only raised $115 million, despite having a population 20 times larger. From Tel Aviv to Seoul, from Beijing to Palo Alto, startups are engines of modern economic development, transforming industries from security to finance to agriculture. Nigeria may be a hotbed of recent start-up activity, but deep developmental challenges remain. In order to better offer opportunity to a fast growing and young population, Nigeria needs to take disruptive approaches to development challenges in infrastructure, financial inclusion and education to become the Africa’s first “startup nation.”
Across the globe, political developments have spelled the end of business as usual &#8211; now it’s time for economies to catch up. For Nigeria to succeed in this changing environment, it must go from a nation of startups to a startup nation. More specifically, Nigeria needs to use the minimal viable product approach to spur learning and iteration and aligned incentives, ensuring that the country moves forward with common goals. Taking such an approach ultimately creates a feedback loop to guide future developments, as each iteration of the product is improved. The combination of aligned incentives amongst all strata of government alongside the feedback loop of minimal viable product means that Nigeria will become a startup nation, rather than a nation of startups.
Powering Growth Through Infrastructure
The explosion of mobile phone owners and deepening internet penetration in Nigeria shows the economic impact of leapfrogging. Nigeria is one of the fastest-growing internet consumers in the world with approximately 76.2 million Nigerian internet users &#8211; an increase of 50% from 51.8 million users in 2013. The only thing preventing even more growth is a lack of adequate power and broadband infrastructure. The World Bank estimates that the unreliable power supply costs Nigeria over $25 billion annually, amounting to over 6% of Nigeria’s GDP. But this has been a reality for decades and the young generation entering the ranks of business executives no longer have the patience to wait for government and donors to fix it. Rensource, a power-as-a-service company that provides renewable energy, is already taking this initiative, providing SMEs with access to off-grid energy to power their businesses. Considering continued failures in orthodox power delivery, it is time to take a startup approach.
180 Million Opportunities to Invest in Talent
Nigerians may be the best educated immigrant group in the US, but back at home, poor education and training means that skilled labor, especially in the ICT sector, is lacking. While the Nigerian government has taken notable steps to invest in ICT education through the establishment of programs such as Internet of Things (IoT) innovation centers or the Yaba ICT Hub, the potential of Nigeria’s youth remains largely untapped. Innovative companies are stepping in where government has left off. Andela, a company that trains software developers and then places them with leading technology companies, has been a leader in this field, receiving funding from the likes of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Gidimo, a mobile learning platform, is another example of a startup taking the initiative to remedy inefficiencies created by the public sector.
Both the IoT innovation centers and the Yaba ICT Hub are in part sponsored by private partners, including industry leaders such as Cisco and Google, highlighting the success and sustainability that partnership with private companies can bring to ICT training programs. Nigeria’s youth is the country’s biggest asset &#8211; over 50% of Nigeria’s population is under 30 &#8211; government agencies can either partner with these new companies or get out of the way.
Financial Inclusion
One out of ten adults across the continent have a mobile money account &#8211; the highest global ratio &#8211; but a McKinsey study finds Nigeria to be a “sleeping giant” when it comes to the country’s mobile money penetration. However, companies like Flutterwave, Onefi, and Paga are bucking this trend and leading Nigeria’s mobile money revolution. These companies are providing vital loans and payment services to everyday people via mobile platforms, thus bridging gaps within the traditional banking sector.
Now is the time to add fuel to the start-ups fire in Nigeria. According to VC4A, an online community of Africa-focused investors and entrepreneurs, the average investment secured by Nigerian startups rose from $57,000 in 2015 to $73,000 this year with over 40 per cent able to secure external capital. Yet despite the increase, Africa as a continent received only $560 million in venture capital funding in 2017, compared to India or China, which received $17.6 billion and $95 billion, respectively. Nigeria is the largest recipient of VC funding in Africa, which is reflective of its relative population and GDP size.
Some startups are not even waiting for traditional venture but are turning to ICOs (initial coin offerings) to raise money. SureRemit, a Nigerian remittances startup, raised over $7 million from investors in over 60 countries, in what was Africa’s biggest ICO to date. As ICOs gain popularity and traction, they are a sure way for startups to secure the funding they need to succeed, not least because they provide founders and investors with a shared interest in the startup’s success.
The creation of this virtuous cycle, where success stories lead to increased growth capital and investment for future success stories, has occurred around the world, from Turkey to Argentina, and as Nigeria’s VC funding grows, it also looks to experience this virtuous cycle.
Bunmi Akinyemiju is CEO of Venture Garden Group, a leading provider of innovative, data-driven, end-to-end technology platforms.

Op-Ed: Nigeria needs to become a startup nation

At a time when new President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to restore faith and credibility to the South African government &#8211; another strong link with the far off days of pride, struggle and sacrifice, more than half a century ago, has passed into history.
In many ways Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who has died aged 81, reflected both sides of the struggle for liberation in South Africa: on the one side its stoic pride in resisting the dark forces of apartheid; on the other, the grim and often far from noble struggle on the streets of the townships against the last, vicious, kicks of the security forces.
There are two images -of Madikizela-Mandela making the clenched fist black power salute &#8211;  that sum up her defiant support of the struggle and her husband Nelson Mandela.
The first was taken on the steps of the Palace of Justice, in Pretoria, in 1963, at the so-called Rivonia Trial as he faced the death penalty on charges of sabotage. Madikizela-Mandela, fresh-faced and determined, held the salute in the face of police who had tried to intimidate her and even attempted to stop her wearing her traditional dress to court.
Fast forward to February 1990 when Madikizela-Mandela again made the same clenched fist salute as she walked hand-in-hand with her freed husband into cheering crowds outside Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town.
That joyous day also saw the beginning of the end for the couple&#8217;s marriage that began back in 1958 and ended in 1996. Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as a pragmatic negotiator determined to heal his broken nation; Madikizela-Mandela remained a flinty, feisty, hard-liner and these differences mixed with domestic issues, ushered the couple towards divorce.
Few could blame Madikizela-Mandela for her tough stance in politics. She was dragged through the mill by the apartheid authorities and spent more than 18-months in solitary confinement where she was forced to lie naked on a cold concrete floor. Police hammered on doors and searched her home, like clockwork, she was tortured by special branch thugs and her children were taken from her. When she was freed, the authorities banished her to Brandfort, a small town in the Free State, where she suffered years of isolation and intimidation, including the fire bombing of her home.
Madikizela-Mandela&#8217;s image was undoubtedly tarnished by violence linked to  her bodyguards from the infamous Mandela United Football Club. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission &#8211; the hearings that tried to heal post-apartheid South Africa &#8211; found Madikizela-Mandela to have been linked to violence in the grimy days of the township struggle.
Yet Madikizela-Mandela threw many of her latter years into causes that cemented her nickname : Mother of the Nation. She shrugged off criticism for failing to attend Parliament and being slow in paying rent to remain defiant until the end.
Madikizela-Mandela died in Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, the very hospital where her former husband fought for his life in a health scare in 2011, in the early hours of April 2. She leaves two daughters: Zindziswa and Zenani.

End of an era as #WinnieMandela – Mother of the Nation – dies aged 81

Former President Barack Obama tweeted a picture and a quote in response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend, and he has gotten a record-setting amount of engagement from Twitter users. The first of his series of threaded tweets has accumulated about 2.8 million &#8220;likes,&#8221; making it the most approved of tweet of all time.
Citing Nelson Mandela, Obama wrote, &#8220;No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion &#8230; People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love &#8230; For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.&#8221;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-281157 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Obama_Tweet.png" alt="" width="590" height="467" />
The former record-holder is a tweet from pop star Ariana Grande telling fans that she was &#8220;broken&#8221; after a bombing of her concert in Manchester killed at least 22 people, including some children. It has about 2.7 million &#8220;likes.&#8221;
The third most-popular tweet of all time is far more lighthearted: Ellen DeGeneres&#8217; Oscars selfie.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has fumbled while using the social media platform. He retweeted and then deleted two messages on Tuesday, one that featured a cartoon train running down a character intended to represent the news network CNN and one that called the President a fascist.
Also on Tuesday, after three CEOs stepped down from their positions on his manufacturing advisory council, Trump used Twitter to accuse them of being &#8220;grandstanders.&#8221; Shortly after that tweet went up, a fourth CEO also stepped down.
The President has come under criticism for his overall handling of the events in Charlottesville. On Saturday, instead of criticizing racists and neo-Nazis by name, Trump referred to violence &#8220;on many sides.&#8221; Only two days later, on Monday afternoon, did he explicitly condemn white supremacists. By then, much of the PR damage had already been done

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Featured

South Africa’s consumer confidence returns – survey conducted

No longer going like a Boeing

Why African finance ministers go farming.

Wall Street retweets: Twitter shares rise on record yearly growth in daily users

Cecil Rhodes loses his head in Cape Town

Op-Ed: How innovative financing can assist Africa’s humanitarian needs

Op-Ed – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: A global response to COVID-19 that doesn’t fully support developing countries is no response at all

Multilateralism through Public-Private partnerships are Key to Flattening the COVID-19 Curve

South African court rules in favour of insurer Liberty in row with Discovery

Op-Ed: Why the COVID-19 pandemic is no time for fiscal distancing

Rand hits record low, goes over 19 to dollar as Fitch downgrades SA further into junk status

South Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases jump by 128 to 402

Chris Bishop in conversation with former SA Intelligence boss Moe Shaik

Meet the five teams that pundits want to change Africa’s World Cup story

Op-Ed: Nigeria needs to become a startup nation

End of an era as #WinnieMandela – Mother of the Nation – dies aged 81

Obama’s response to Charlottesville is now the most ‘liked’ tweet of all time

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