Kenya’s central bank held its main lending rate at 10.0 percent as expected on Monday, saying food supplies were likely to improve and lower pressure on inflation.
The Monetary Policy Committee said inflation rose by half a percentage point to 8.0 percent last month, mainly due to shortages of some foods, including tomatoes, because of transport disruptions after the Aug. 8 national election.
Demand for rice, wheat flour and other food had risen before the election, leading to shortages.
“A normalization of supply, the expected short rains, and supportive measures taken by the Government are expected to further lower food prices in the near term,” the MPC said.
Gross bad debts in the banking sector had jumped to 10.7 percent in the year to August from 9.9 percent in June, the committee said, adding private sector credit growth had ticked up to 1.6 percent in the year to August, from 1.4 percent in July.
The inching up of credit growth in the period was the first reversal of a downward trend since August 2015, the MPC said.
The market largely expected the bank to keep the rate it has held since November last year, the consensus estimate in a Reuters poll showed.
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Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Andrew Heavens
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Kenya central bank holds benchmark lending rate at 10.0%

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A French IT company that supplied the electronic system used in Kenya’s nullified election last month has told the country’s election board that its technology would not be ready to use again by the Oct. 17 date set for a re-run of the vote.
Earlier this month, Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified the results of the presidential election held on Aug.8 and ordered a new poll within 60 days. The election board then declared the re-run of the election would be held on Oct. 17.
In a letter from Paris-based OT-Morpho to Kenya’s election board, dated Sept. 18 and seen by Reuters, the company said the two electronic systems it supplied for the vote would have to be reinstalled for the re-run. “This represents a very significant amount of work, which cannot be secured by October 17,” the letter read.
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Reporting By Maggie Fick; Editing by Gareth Jones
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French IT firm says its technology won’t be ready for Oct 17 re-run of Kenya poll

South Africa’s Impala Platinum has started talks with the government and unions that could see up to 2,500 workers laid-off at its Rustenburg operations west of Johannesburg, the company said on Monday.
Implats, the world’s second biggest platinum producer, said last week job cuts were possible after it reported a 2017 year loss. The Rustenburg operations have been hit by social and labour strife in recent years.
Lay-offs are a sensitive issue in South Africa where the unemployment rate is about 27 percent. South African firms are must hold consultations with unions and the government before they can lay off large numbers of workers.
The company said further reductions could be in the pipeline at Rustenburg, which has a labour force of 31,000, as the company struggled to return to profitability.
“It is expected that some 2,500 people could be affected near term, but this does not preclude further optimisation processes that may be required in future to ensure the continued sustainability of the operation,” the company said.
“Labour productivity rates have declined over the last few years and production levels at Impala Rustenburg have been reduced from a historical base of some 1 million platinum ounces per annum, to the 680,000 to 720,000 ounces forecast for the 2018 financial year,” it said.
South Africa’s mining industry has shed close to 70,000 jobs, about 13 percent of the labour force, since 2012 in the face of volatile or depressed prices, soaring costs, labour and social unrest, and policy uncertainty.
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Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Edmund Blair
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South Africa’s Implats in talks that could lead to 2,500 job cuts

By: Mary-Jean Nleya *
The 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) kicked off today at the UN Headquarters in New York City. A lot of world and international issues are on the table for debate, discussion, and clarification.
The leader of the free world, President Donald Trump, is set to take the world stage on Tuesday, September 19th – and the international community awaits to hear the clarification over some of the rhetoric he conveyed, both pre-and post his presidency, concerning the UN.
Among the other international issues to be addressed, is around the human rights concerns over the Rohingya crises in Myanmar. Many local and youth-focused issues are also sure to be given due regard.
On the morning of Saturday, September 16th 2017, two Nigeria youths were interviewed in the community of Agodo in Lagos. The purpose of the interview was to put a human face on the youth unemployment statistics, as well as to get a grassroots understanding of the circumstances that the youth face and their views on what they expect from the meeting of world leaders, one of whom will be their own country’s president, at the UN. Below is an excerpt from the interview – condensed for clarity.
Q: What is your name and how old are you?
Aanuoluwapo: My name is Aanuoluwapo. I am 28 years old.
Efemena: I am Efemena and I am 26 years old.
Q: What is your educational level and are you currently employed?
Aanuoluwapo: I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and I am unemployed. It has been difficult to get a permanent job after graduating.
Efemena: I have a BSc in Mathematics from Covenant University in Ogun State. I am looking for a job. To keep myself busy, I teach secondary school students Math. It is part-time and temporary. They pay me some little money; it is too small to even sustain me.
Q: Have you made attempts to secure a job? If so, at what kind of companies? And if not, why?
Aanuoluwapo: I have tried everything. I see job postings online – I visit online job seeking sites. I apply. They call me for interviews, but when you get to the interviews – you see that the employers are looking for just one person and there are thousands of applicants who pitch up. I apply to both big and small companies – but it is the same: there are just too few jobs available for the number of graduates and applicants – unemployment levels are high in this country. I applied for a training programme at Shell; I did not get it.
Efemena: I want to be a teacher. I have applied for jobs, even at the school I am doing part-time teaching at, they don’t have a permanent opening where they can place me. That is why they can only allow me to teach part-time for small money.
Q: Aanu, what do you do to sustain yourself and keep yourself busy?
Aanuoluwapo: I am an IT person – so I look for small IT business opportunities – like to design logos for people. This is just to sustain myself.
Q: Is it like a business?
Aanuoluwapo: No. It’s not a business – it is just what I do sometimes to sustain myself. It will be difficult to do logo designing as a business because I will be competing with big established companies. To get a big hit is hard in IT.
Q: Aanu, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was in Nigeria in September last year [2016] to offer support to Nigeria’s youth in IT. What did him coming to Nigeria do for you and others like you? And in what ways can practical and relevant support be offered for people like you?
Aanuoluwapo: Mark Zuckerberg came here to Nigeria to try and close the bridge. He signed some contracts and if something comes out of those contracts that he signed – Nigerian youth will somehow gain from it. As for me and what I gained, all I can say is that he came and he went. It was inspiring to learn that there are some Nigerian programmers employed by Facebook and that some of his senior staff in Facebook are Nigerian.
Q: Efemena, are you entrepreneurial?
Efemena: Anyone can be entrepreneurial. You don’t need education to be entrepreneurial. But I don’t want to start my own business. I want to continue with teaching – it is only that the pay is small, but I like to teach – I want to teach Mathematics.
Q: But with no jobs currently available what are your immediate plans?
Efemena: I hope to get funding to enroll for a Master’s degree and continue to look for a permanent job.
Q: What are your views on continuing education – do you know of any free online courses, e.g. EdX and others? Are these kinds of online programmes and tools even relevant and helpful for you?
Aanuoluwapo: I have enrolled for one online course on Alison.com. The only thing these online courses can do is put someone at some kind of competitive-edge because they are knowledge-based.
Efemena: I registered for EdX to get tutorials. Online courses can only educate – maybe it is helpful in that way. But it is not helpful to get a person a job.
Q: Do you think the government is doing enough to offer young unemployed Nigerians support?
Aanuoluwapo: The Nigerian government is doing the bit that they could. There are unemployment schemes, they also offer graduates short-term loans.
Q: Have you applied for any of the government-offered programmes?
Aanuoluwapo: Yes. I have applied for the schemes. The process ended last month.
Efemena: All I can say is that the government can do much more.
Q: Next week the United Nations will have its 72nd General Assembly. What can you say about these kinds of gatherings by world leaders including the leader of your own nation, Nigeria? What is your message to them?
Aanuoluwapo: The UN is involved in youth empowerment initiatives and I appreciate those initiatives as a Nigerian youth.
Efemena: The UN should assist the Nigerian government in getting ways to create employment opportunities in this country.
Q: Any final words?
Aanuoluwapo: I am not discouraged. This phase is something for me to face and go through.
Efemena: I just have to keep pressing and I hope to one day inspire my students in the classroom.
The interview is a snapshot of the views of some Nigerian youth, who form part of the youth on the continent of Africa – the young continent. While the interviewed youth are hopeful and are taking positive strides to alleviate the discomfort of their current social and economic situation; some youth engage themselves in illicit activities and vices.
With the automation of different industries and the current employment deficit, one wonders whether today’s youth are being prepared for the jobs of the future and what can be done about it. These are some of the issues that require attention today and there is no better time to highlight this, than on the heels of the official commencement of the 72nd UNGA.
As leaders of different countries and organizations convene in New York City, let us ask the right questions and pay attention to the challenges of today to ensure that in 2030 no one is left behind.
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* Mary-Jean Nleya is the founder and editor of <a href="http://www.theglobalcommunique.com/">The Global Communiqué</a>. Mary-Jean is attending the SDG Media Zone at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City and will be covering the event.

Grassroots reporting on youth issues on the eve of the 72nd UNGA

State-owned airport operator Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) reported a 10.8 percent rise in full-year profit on Monday, lifted by growth in international traffic.
ACSA, which runs all the country’s major airports, said profit rose to 2 billion rand ($151.63 million) in the year to the end of March from 1.8 billion rand the previous year.
Domestic passenger numbers rose by 2.2 percent, but international departing passengers grew by 6.1 percent, helping to increase total revenue to 8.6 billion rand.
The firm draws most of its revenue from charging planes for landing and parking, passenger tariffs and renting retail space at its airports.
ACSA Chief Executive Officer Bongani Maseko said the company continued to be resilient, despite sluggish economic growth, and had been able to reduce its debt over the past five years.
Debt, primarily in the form of bond issues, stood at 9 billion rand at the end of the financial year, down from 17 billion rand in 2012, the company said.
ACSA has been paying off expensive debt it took on between 2009 and 2010 to revamp and expand its airports before the 2010 soccer World Cup.
ACSA has often performed better than some of its state-owned peers such as power utility Eskom and airline South African Airways, which are seen as a drain on the government’s purse and have been singled out by ratings agencies as a threat to the country’s investment grade rating.
($1 = 13.1898 rand)
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Adrian Croft
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International passengers lift Airports Company South Africa’s profits

Gary van Staden | NKC African Economics
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday, September 12, dealt a hammer blow to the presidential prospects of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma when it declared the leadership structures in her most powerful regional stronghold unlawful, but it is not yet a fatal blow and her allies in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) will fight this judgement tooth and nail.
There is no doubt that the current leadership of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal – staunch backers of the presidential campaign of Ms Dlamini-Zuma – will fight the High Court decision that their 2015 elections were unlawful through the appellate division and up to the constitutional court – ensuring at the very least a lengthy delay in the implementation of the court ruling.
Courts recess in mid-December, so that leaves just over 12 weeks to finalise the matter and that is not enough time to obtain finality before the ANC National Congress gets underway in mid-December.
So, while the decision potentially undermines Ms Dlamini-Zuma’s allies in the powerful province, it will not side-line them completely and powerful patronage networks remain in place.
The court application followed the hotly-contested 2015 regional conference that elected Sihle Zikalala as the provincial chairperson, over former chairperson Senzo Mchunu whose supporters believed the elections were rigged.
The victors in court on Tuesday wanted their opponents to vacate their offices immediately, but that seems doomed to fail.
“Our immediate expectation is that the NEC [National Executive Committee of the ANC] should then order the comrades to vacate the office and institute perhaps or place an interim structure that is going to oversee processes of rebuilding the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, should they fail to do so it would mean actually they even don’t want all of us to be party of this broader church,” the applicant’s spokesperson said.
The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), meanwhile, said it was considering challenging the ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal, and even at the Constitutional Court.
“We are convinced that a different court higher than this one has a huge possibility to come to a different conclusion however we will study this judgment and we are going to consult with the NEC in order to determine the next course of action but we believe that there would be sufficient basis for us to take the matter up until the matter is settled.”
The court decision will damage the campaign of Ms Dlamini-Zuma because it upsets and distracts some of her strongest allies and gives encouragement to rival campaigns – notably that of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
But this fight is not over.
The incumbent leadership in the province will certainly appeal the decision and they will take the full 15 days allowed to do so.
Then it goes to the next court and the next in what has become a serial tactic of the President Jacob Zuma faction – delay and delay and delay.
In addition, the tactic of removing hostile provincial executive committees will spread to other regions – including those supportive of Mr Ramaphosa – so we can anticipate more of the same, probably with some dirty tricks thrown in.

South Africa – Court setback to Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential hopes, but it’s not over yet

South Africa’s Revenue Service (SARS) will launch legal proceedings against KPMG due to reputational damage caused by the auditor releasing details of a confidential report it produced for the tax agency, commissioner Tom Moyane said on Monday.
Moyane told a televised news conference that SARS would report KPMG to Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba with a view to blacklisting the auditor for its “unethical” and “unlawful” behavior.
KPMG cleared out its South African leadership en masse on Friday after damning findings from an internal investigation into work done for businessmen friends of President Jacob Zuma.
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Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Joe Brock
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South Africa tax service to take legal action against KPMG

Jyoti Devi | Eastern Institute of Technology and Teerooven Soobaroyen | University of Essex
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Since the turn of the century, developing countries have been adopting corporate governance codes with the promise that they will enhance accountability and growth, while delivering equitable, ethical, and sustainable business practices.
A governance code is a set of guiding principles drawn up by industry to standardise good corporate behaviour. They sensitise company boards and executives to a wide range of interests such as, investors, labour and local communities.
A key governance code – the Cadbury Code – was established in the UK in the early 1990s to improve corporate accountability.
Since then, there have been a plethora of codes across the world. In Africa, governance codes have been designed to help address the legacies of colonialism, extractive post-colonial business behaviour and executive excesses. Several countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Mauritius have already stepped up to the plate.
Mauritius is interesting case study. The country has sustained its position as the best country in Sub-Saharan Africa to conduct business leads the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
But it does have some considerable limitations and mainly inefficiencies in public governance.
We set out to study trends in the way companies adopt the corporate governance code in Mauritius. The aim was to provide useful insights to other developing countries, particularly in Africa.
Our study found significant levels of compliance with the code in the three years after implementation. But we also found that Mauritian companies picked and chose elements of the code. They implemented the easier ones perceived to be beneficial, or simply the ones that made them look good.
Our findings are important because developing countries have become important channels of foreign investment, but institutional investors remain concerned about firm- and country-level risks which are difficult to evaluate. The corporate governance arrangements in these are not fully understood.
<h2>Part of a big reform</h2>
Over the last three decades, the Mauritian government worked with international bodies to revamp the country’s regulatory framework for companies. This was part of a drive to encourage local and international investment.
The reforms were wide ranging and included setting up of a stock exchange and adoption of international standards for corporate accounting and reporting. The country also established a number of agencies to regulate financial and professional service sectors. It also embarked on full and partial privatisation of state owned assets as well as the liberalisation of key sectors.
The Mauritian economy emerged from its dual colonial past (it was colonised by both the French and the British) with a number of challenges. One of the main challenges was that it was dominated by a few large conglomerates and state institutions operating in a weak regulatory environment.
The adoption of the codes of good corporate governance in 2004 formed part of this reform movement. It followed a 2002 World Bank/International Monetary Fund report which highlighted governance deficiencies. A code of corporate governance was proposed as a solution.
Inspired by the South African King Code, Mauritius embraced a hybrid corporate governance model. This model mixes the ‘market-centric’ approach (typically practiced in the US and UK) and the ‘relationship-based’ ones (typically Japan, France, and Germany).
<h2>A pick and choose game</h2>
Our study found that companies were picking and choosing sections of the codes to implement as they wished. The more difficult or uncomfortable requirements were ignored.
For example, until now, information on ownership structures and CEO remuneration remain opaque. We concluded that the reason for this was the relatively small business elite, from which most directors and majority shareholders are drawn. They see some sections of the codes as being incompatible with a tradition of keeping things ‘discreet’.
Our investigation also revealed a significant relationship between the implementation of the code and the presence of independent non-executive directors. This confirmed the generally accepted potential of independent non-executive directors as agents of change.
But we also found a limiting factor for the role of independent non-executive directors within Mauritius corporations. Not many of these directors occupy critical posts like board chair and therefore have limited influence.
The recent World Bank/International Monetary Fund report praised Mauritius as an ‘international leader’ on board practices (at par with leading Asian countries, such as India, Thailand, and Malaysia), but also highlighted problems. Directors deemed independent were not sufficiently so in relation to majority shareholders and there is opacity in the appointment of such directors.
The report also noted the pitfalls of a “persistent high concentration of the ownership” in large companies. Almost 60% of the counted companies had one controlling shareholder holding more than 20% of shares. This cannot be good for corporate accountability. It means a form of controller’s roadblock has been allowed to persist.
<h2>Limitations</h2>
Some scholars are critical of the usefulness of these “Western-inspired” codes for developing countries. Criticism ranges from a charge that codes aren’t radical enough, they clash with local social and political factors, to being implemented in a rather superficial way.
The “comply or explain” principle traditionally applied to these codes means that there is flexibility to pick and choose. There’s also little market pressure for a more comprehensive adoption; an issue affecting many countries.
The new version of the Mauritius code which was in 2016 provides for an “apply and explain” principle. In this version companies are expected to explain how they have applied the code and flag any areas where the code has not been applied. But even the new version continues to rely on “market discipline”. It is unclear whether this is feasible in markets characterised by high ownership concentration, low shareholder activism and a weak stakeholder base.
Our study of other developing markets also shows that the market discipline approach is not effective where the capacity of regulators is limited. This is particularly the case where local politics retain an ability to dilute enforcement or where the state itself is a significant shareholder and has little to gain from a change in the status-quo.
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This article was first published in The Conversation.

Lessons from Mauritius on making companies more accountable

Christoph Nieuwoudt | FNB Consumer Segment
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The experience of South Africans varies greatly when it comes to credit. Regrettably statistics show that more than 9 million credit active consumers have some level of impairment in their credit records.
Christoph Nieuwoudt, CEO of FNB Consumer Segment says the common issue that sometimes leads to an undesirable credit experience is that some consumers do not understand the type of credit they require for their needs.
“What we often see is that people simply want money or access to credit, however very few take time to think or inquire about the type of credit they need. Whether it’s to top up education tuition, buy a pre-owned car to get around town or to cover emergencies when your savings aren’t enough &#8211; it’s important to pick the right credit solution,” he says.
Nieuwoudt explains the different lending solutions to help you make an informed view in your credit journey:
Retail Credit
This is usually the starting point for most consumers and this type of credit often comes in the form of store cards. What’s important to know is that retailers don’t actually give you money, but rather provide ‘finance’ against your purchase of goods from their store. While retail credit helps to facilitate access to credit, it is not always ideal for you from a value or cost of credit perspective.
Term loans
For most people, unsecured term loans would be a natural starting point in terms of access to credit from a bank.  The advantage for the consumer is that there is no security or collateral required, and that it is readily available for qualifying individuals.
While term loans are relatively accessible, Nieuwoudt says you should always weigh the pros and cons when considering term loans with very long repayment terms (e.g. longer than 60 months) as the total cost of credit can become high.
“If you are taking a term loan with a long repayment period, it’s advisable to rather use it for creating longer-term value such as funding education or home-improvement and not for short-term consumption,” he says.
Overdraft
As a bank account holder, your next natural credit product may be an overdraft linked to your transactional account. From an FNB customer perspective, the bank is of the view that every qualifying customer should consider an overdraft for the following reasons: it is free with zero monthly fee if not used; it provides immediate access to cash for emergency; and there is no specific repayment, but rather the customer’s salary naturally ‘settles’ the balance every month.
Credit card 
The purpose of a credit card is to facilitate and responsibly fund your spend, including providing protection from fraud and/or non-delivery of services or goods, insurance on travel and access to even richer reward benefits.
“An ideal credit card facility should allow at least the 55 maximum days of interest free operation as this is not too onerous for the customer. This is the value we offer our customers to limit the interest burden,” adds Nieuwoudt.
Vehicle finance
Buying that first car is an experience most consumers cherish for the rest of their lives. Building up a reputable credit record through responsible repayment of unsecured credit is a major advantage when applying for vehicle finance as it demonstrates your credit management discipline.
“In the case of FNB customers, finance provided by our sister company WesBank (and its partners) naturally takes the FNB relationship into consideration to facilitate finance availability and pricing,” he says.
Home Loans or mortgage
The ‘ultimate’ credit product which is best associated with long-term value creation is the home loan. For a first or smaller house, typically a deposit is not required, but customers still need to consider the total costs associated with buying a house.
Some may look at the total amount of interest payable over a typical 20 year period and conclude that mortgage finance is expensive. However, this should be offset against the cost of renting as well as the appreciating value of the property. Consumers can also reduce the interest payable if they make payments in excess of the minimum amount.
Nieuwoudt says overall, the key to getting maximum value from credit products is to appreciate the purpose, benefits and cost of each, as well as how you use but not abuse credit. He says following this simple thought process could earn you significant ongoing value from even simple products like the overdraft, credit cards and occasionally term loans, while being able to finance the purchase of key assets like vehicles and homes.

Personal Finance: How to pick the right credit solution for your needs

By: The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors
The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) is aware that KPMG International made an announcement on Friday with regards to its investigation into various allegations with respect to its South African operation’s work on behalf of the Gupta family and the report it produced on SARS.  The IRBA is pleased that the firm has made known its findings, enforces accountability and is taking action in the public interest.  The IRBA will, however, continue with its own independent investigation in order to bring the matter to the necessary conclusion.
The IRBA cannot at this point give an indication of how long the investigation will take nor what the complete list of allegations will cover.  It is, however, committed to performing a robust investigation in as short a time as reasonably possible to deliver on its mandate to serve the public interest.
It is critical for the reputation of the profession and the stability of our capital markets that the IRBA continues to work with audit firms to strengthen independence, professional scepticism and compliance to standards.   The IRBA intends to meet with the new team at KPMG to discuss their remedial action programmes which will be regularly monitored by the IRBA.
Now, more than ever, regulators and oversight bodies must work together with the profession to respond to the challenges facing the economy and the country. It is critical that the profession remains responsive to regulators’ measures to protect, not only the public and investors, but also audit firms from exposing themselves from falling short in areas such as ethics, including independence, and the required standards.
Only then will we be able to maintain confidence in the profession, which remains a vital component in creating credible financial markets that will attract the required investment to the benefit of all citizens.
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IRBA responds to KPMG matter

Petra Diamonds Ltd on Monday reported a 4.3 percent fall in full-year adjusted profit and said it resumed operations at Williamson mine in Tanzania after a four-day stoppage.
Petra Diamonds halted operations at the Tanzanian mine last week after the government seized a consignment and questioned some of its personnel as part of a crackdown on the mining sector.
The miner said its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to $157.2 million for the twelve months to June 30, from $164.3 million in the year before due to delayed ramp-up of the expansion programmes and higher cash costs.
However, full-year revenue rose 10.7 percent to $477 million on higher production.
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Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier
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Petra Diamonds profit falls, restarts Tanzania mine

Global hunger levels have risen for the first time in more than a decade, now affecting 11 percent of the world’s population, as conflict, climate change and economic woes bite, U.N. agencies said on Friday.
Last year, 815 million people were hungry &#8211; 38 million more than in 2015 &#8211; the five agencies said in the first global assessment since governments set an international target to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030, as one of a set of so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The number of hungry began to rise in 2014, but this is the first time in more then a decade that the proportion of the global population going hungry has risen.
About 489 million of the hungry are living in countries affected by conflict.
“Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature,” the heads of five U.N. agencies said in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report.
“This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition,” they said.
Famine struck parts of South Sudan earlier this year, and there is a high risk that it could return there &#8211; and develop in other countries affected by conflict: northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, the agencies said.
The report was produced by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO).
<h3 data-reactid="50">HUNGER AND WAR</h3>
The agencies called for new ways of working to achieve the goal of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030.
“It’s not only about meeting need, but also ending the need and addressing the root causes of hunger,” Zlatan Milisic, WFP’s deputy director of programmes told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In war-torn countries, it means agencies need to spend more time understanding the complexities of the conflict and working towards building peace, he said.
“We have a lot of research &#8230; which says food insecurity doesn’t directly lead to conflict, but it is a very powerful trigger &#8230; (and) food security has been as seen as a contributor to maintaining peace,” Milisic said.
Aid can sometimes increase tensions in a community. For example, unless aid for refugees supports their hosts as well, it may raise tensions with those families &#8211; who are often poor themselves with little access to basic services.
Aid programmes that create jobs, restore roads and improve farming in countries recovering from war help address root causes of conflict, FAO says.
Intense and prolonged droughts can significantly increase the likelihood of conflict, according to the report. And these are expected to become more frequent with climate change.
<h3 data-reactid="58">FEWER CHILDREN STUNTED</h3>
The proportion of children stunted by hunger fell to 22.9 percent in 2016, from 29.5 percent in 2005. Now, about 155 million children under five years old are affected. Stunting can undermine children’s physical and mental development.
“We see there is a decline &#8211; we also know that decline is not as fast as we would like &#8230; to meet the SDG targets,” said Victor Aguayo, UNICEF’s director for nutrition said.
The number of stunted children &#8211; short for their age &#8211; fell by 40 percent between 1990 and 2015 and Aguayo said this decline should continue.
Progress hinges around improving diets for women and children, improving the status of women in society, and lowering poverty levels, he added.
A worrying trend is the rise of child obesity, with an estimated 41 million children around the world now overweight.
“Obesity is going to increasingly affect the poor, caused by poor diet and poor lifestyle,” Aguayo said.
<h3>NEW TREND?</h3>
Asia has the largest number of hungry people &#8211; 520 million &#8211; and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of hungry, affecting 20 percent of the population.
Wars, droughts linked to last year’s El Niño weather phenomenon and a global economic slowdown have affected people’s access to food, the agencies said.
Falling commodity prices &#8211; especially for oil &#8211; have made it harder for some countries to import food and to fund state subsidies which normally protect people from hunger, said Jose Rosero Moncayo of FAO’s statistics division.
Overall, however, it’s not clear whether the rise in the number of hungry people is a sign of longer-term trend, he said.
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Reporting by Alex Whiting @Alexwhi, Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/climate">news.trust.org/climate</a>
</div>

Global hunger rises for first time in decade: U.N. agencies

Global auditor KPMG cleared out its South African leadership on Friday after damning findings from an internal investigation into work done for the Guptas, businessmen friends of President Jacob Zuma accused of improperly influencing government contracts.
KPMG’s investigation did not identify any evidence of illegal behaviour or corruption but it did find that work done for Gupta family firms “fell considerably short of KPMG’s standards”, the auditor said in a statement.
It became the third global firm to be damaged by work carried out for the Indian-born brothers after public relations agency Bell Pottinger &#8211; whose British business collapsed this week &#8211; and consultancy McKinsey.
Both Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing and say they are victims of a politically motivated witch-hunt. The Guptas and their companies have not been charged with any crime.
“This has been a painful period and the firm has fallen short of the standards we set for ourselves, and that the public rightly expects from us,” new South African CEO Nhlamu Dlomu said.
“I want to apologise to the public, our people and clients for the failings that have been identified by the investigation.”
KPMG said it would donate the 40 million rand ($3 million) it earned in fees from Gupta-controlled firms to charity and refund 23 million rand it earned compiling a controversial report for the South African tax service.
South African chief executive Trevor Hoole, chairman Ahmed Jaffer, chief operating officer Steven Louw and five senior partners all resigned.
“I absolutely understand that ultimate responsibility lies with me,” Hoole said in a statement.
KPMG is also seeking to take disciplinary action to dismiss Jacques Wessels, the lead partner on audits of Gupta-linked firms, it said. Wessels did not answer a call to his mobile phone seeking comment.
Andrew Cranston, former CEO of KPMG in Russia, has been appointed as interim chief operating officer.
“GOOD RIDDANCE”
The three Gupta brothers, Atul, Ajay and Rajesh, came to South Africa in the early 1990s and built a commercial empire stretching from computers to mining and media. The family has employed Zuma’s son Duduzane as a director of one of its subsidiaries.
The brothers have rejected accusations by a public watchdog of corruptly influencing Zuma, in one of many scandals that have damaged his presidency.
The turmoil at KPMG follows the placing into
the placing into administration of the British arm of Bell Pottinger on Tuesday, after clients deserted it because of a backlash over a racially charged political campaign it ran for the Guptas.
Global consultancy McKinsey is also being investigated by South Africa’s parliament over whether it knowingly let funds from state power utility Eskom be diverted to a Gupta company as a way of securing a $78 million contract to advise Eskom.
McKinsey is carrying out its own investigation, but has denied wrongdoing.
The Gupta scandals have piled pressure on Zuma and opened a deep divide in the ruling African National Congress, the party that has ruled since Nelson Mandela swept to power at the end of apartheid in 1994. It is due to elect a new party leader in December.
David Lewis, chief executive of Corruption Watch, an NGO that has been at the forefront of efforts to expose alleged wrongdoing by the Guptas and those around them, doubted that KPMG had really turned over a new leaf.
“Good riddance &#8211; it’s great they’ve gone,” he said. “But it’s got to go to the culture of the firm, quite frankly. I doubt that people of that seniority were conducting themselves in a manner that doesn’t reflect the culture of the firm.”
&nbsp;
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Reporting by Joe Brock, Ed Cropley, TJ Strydom, Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Mfuneko Toyana and Nqobile Dludla; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Mark Trevelyan
</div>

KPMG South Africa shakes out top management over Gupta scandal

When millions of people in northeast Nigeria faced hunger and attacks by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in March 2016, the government acted: it decided to spend $1.4 million cutting down weeds around the village of Wachakal in order to stop flooding.
    Six months later, many of the weeds had grown back and 317 million naira (at the time $1.04 million) had been transferred from the company hired to destroy them to a firm founded by the government official in charge of dispensing aid, according to a Nigerian Senate report.
The report, written by a committee of lawmakers from Nigeria’s upper chamber of parliament, concluded that companies that received contracts for projects including the weeding from a government body overseen by the official, Babachir Lawal, transferred a total of 500 million naira (worth around $2.2 million) to the firm he set up.
The report publicly called for a criminal investigation into the payments. Central to the probe was whether Lawal was involved in a suspected kickback scheme to divert aid money intended for the volatile northeast.
The committee said the scheme involved inflating the value of contracts to enrich Lawal and his associates. The report did not provide evidence to show why it believed costs had been enlarged.
Lawal, 62, is an ally of President Muhammadu Buhari and one of his first appointments. In a written statement responding to Reuters’ questions, Lawal denied wrongdoing and said he had been the victim of a Senate witch-hunt.
    The United Nations has warned that northeast Nigeria is gripped by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Boko Haram has burned down homes, destroyed livelihoods and killed thousands of people. Refugees living in camps complain of starvation and disease, while soldiers and police have been accused of rape.
    A Reuters review of the Senate report’s findings shows how two pillars of Buhari’s presidency &#8211; restoring stability in the northeast and fighting corruption &#8211; may have been undermined by the alleged misappropriation of aid money and food.
The review draws upon documents detailing bank transfers and corporate records, visits to aid projects and interviews with senior politicians, diplomats and humanitarian workers.
<h3 data-reactid="55">PROMISES UNFULFILLED</h3>
  The final Senate report, published in May, recommended that Lawal be prosecuted for allegedly flouting procurement rules and breaking his oaths of office.
He was suspended in April pending a presidential investigation launched after the Senate’s findings first surfaced in an earlier draft of the report.
The investigation into Lawal, ordered by Buhari, was headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who delivered his findings to the president on Aug. 22.
“The president has to look at the report, study it and then make his own decisions,” Osinbajo said, without saying what was in the presidential investigation report.
   Buhari’s office referred Reuters to the vice president’s comments.
Despite Buhari’s vows to fight corruption, no major figures have been convicted so far. Boko Haram, who have killed around 20,000 people since 2009, have been pushed back in some areas yet continue to launch attacks, while millions of people in the northeast rely on some form of aid.
<h3 data-reactid="62">MILLIONS OF DOLLARS</h3>
Shehu Sani, who chaired the Senate committee that produced the report, said overall losses to suspected corruption in various forms in the northeastern humanitarian crisis in recent years had not been determined due to the probe’s specific remit and factors that restricted its scope.
He said the Senate investigation was limited by the timeframe examined, as it focused on government aid spending since the current administration took office in May, 2015.
Sani also said some government agencies had refused to cooperate, access to bank account details was limited and the use of international donor funds was not investigated.
“We can say, conservatively, that over 10 billion naira ($33 million) of monies that were supposed to go to the IDPs (internally displaced persons) were misappropriated or unaccounted for, or misused from different segments of the Nigerian government,” Sani told Reuters.
He said he was referring to all forms of corruption related to funds involving Nigerian humanitarian aid dating back around three years, and not just allegations involving Lawal. He declined to elaborate further.
The humanitarian crisis began in 2014. Nigeria’s then-president, Goodluck Jonathan, set up the Presidential Initiative on the Northeast (PINE) to provide emergency assistance to communities and foster economic growth in the region.
PINE had problems from the outset.
According to a 2014 internal PINE presentation prepared by the then-chairman for the group’s committee, a pilot scheme sent 51 food trucks to Borno state and 10 to Gombe state; none arrived.
After he became president in 2015, Buhari made Lawal Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) &#8211; Nigeria’s top civil servant. Through PINE, Lawal oversaw millions of dollars of aid.
The Senate report alleges that most aid contracts in 2016 did not help the needy. Instead, inflated contracts “were awarded to companies belonging to top government officials’ cronies and close associates”.
It said a company called Rholavision Engineering Limited, which describes itself as “Information and Communication Technology Engineers &amp; Consultants” and was founded by Lawal in 1990, was where money for companies that were awarded contracts by PINE came to first.
    In his statement, Lawal said he relinquished ties with Rholavision on Aug. 27, 2015, four days before being sworn in as SGF.
But company registry records show he did not resign as a director until Sept. 8, 2016. In addition, a signed letter from Lawal to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) dated Sept. 16, 2016 &#8211; contained in the appendices of the Senate report &#8211; said he wished to relinquish his shares in Rholavision.
“That can’t be true,” said Lawal in a text message when asked about the apparent discrepancy. “This is forged,” he said, when sent a picture of the letter to CAC. He declined to elaborate.
    Rholavision declined to comment.
<h3 data-reactid="78">SOME WORK DONE</h3>
In March and August 2016, PINE awarded two contracts to cut weeds and improve irrigation in riverside communities in the northeastern state of Yobe. For some 30 years, the weeds had caused farmland to flood and prevented people from fishing.
The contracts, worth a combined total of 531 million naira, were granted to Josmon Technologies Ltd. The first contract, awarded in March 2016, was for 273 million naira &#8211; at the time worth $1.4 million.
The second contract was awarded to Josmon in August 2016. Nigeria’s naira currency lost around a third of its value two months earlier, so the 258 million naira contract was then worth some $845,000.
Rholavision, the company founded by Lawal, received a contract for a consultancy role in the weed-cutting project. The 7.1 million naira contract was awarded in March 2016 when that sum was equivalent to $36,040.
Some work was done. Ali Dodo, a farmer in Wachakal, told Reuters that he and others cut weeds around the Komadugu-Yobe river over a month-long period from August 2016. He said contractors paid them 2,500 naira a day.
Reuters was unable to determine how much was spent on the work in total. Bank records, however, show that Josmon Technologies paid 317 million naira to Rholavision between March and September 2016.
Monday John Apeh, a Josmon director, told Reuters that “Josmon has no relationship with Mr Babachir Lawal”.
<div class="DPSlot_container_2dHIN DPSlot_inline_1oeo6 in-article-tag"></div>
In a text message, he said Josmon struggled to finance the PINE contract because the company had been experiencing financial difficulties and would only be paid when the work was complete. That “led us to borrow money from Rholavision’s MD”, he said.
Josmon said 195 million naira ($637,359) of the 317 million naira it sent to Rholavision was to repay that loan. Apeh declined to comment on what happened to the remaining 122 million naira.
Lawal said in his statement: “These purely business transactions between the companies cannot be classified as bribes.”
Dodo, the local farmer, said weeds started growing back within six months.
Despite numerous setbacks, Nigeria’s government is trying to reboot aid efforts. Buhari replaced PINE with the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative last October.
In June, the government promised to distribute 30,000 tonnes of grain to people displaced by Boko Haram, after saying more than half of food aid previously dispatched had gone missing.
Zainab Ahmed, who heads Nigeria’s Inter-Ministerial Task Force on the Humanitarian Response in the Northeast, told Reuters the deliveries would now be guarded by soldiers.
Coordination between agencies “is not perfect but it has improved a great deal and is getting better,” she said.
($1 = 305.9500 naira)
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Editing by Giles Elgood
</div>

In the weeds: How top official got tangled in Nigerian aid scandal

By: The PIC
The Board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has taken note of articles published by the media, one of them titled: &#8220;Strong push to block Gupta bid to hijack PIC&#8221;. These articles appear to infer that PIC directors have been captured by the Gupta family and are being used to remove the CEO, Dr Daniel Matjila. The Board takes serious exception to these frivolous allegations that lack truth and substance. In our view, these articles which offer no evidence of any of the directors or the board as a whole being linked to the Gupta family, can only be meant to taint the image of the PIC Board and cast aspersions on the board members’ independence. We challenge the media to provide us with evidence that links any of the members of the PIC Board with the Gupta family.
Despite petty rumour mongering and unfounded allegations or inferences being made against the board of directors, we remain resolute to fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities independently, without fear or favour and as guided by the law.
We remind the media that the PIC board has 10 independent non-executive members, three of them were appointed by the former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in 2014 and reappointed this year. Five of the directors were appointed by former Minister Nhlanhla Nene. It is also public knowledge that only two new directors were appointed by the current Minister of Finance to replace those whose term had expired at the end of March 2017.

PIC Board responds to allegations of a plot to oust CEO, Dr Daniel Matjila

Nic Cheeseman | University of Birmingham
There is much to celebrate as the world marks International Day of Democracy. The last year has seen important democratic breakthroughs in Africa. In Gambia an entrenched autocrat was forced from power. In Ghana, a sitting president lost an election for the first time.
In just the last few weeks, Kenya has also joined the club of precedent- setting nations, after the Supreme Court ruled that the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta was illegal and must be held again. Not only was this a first in Kenya, it was also the first time that the election of a sitting president had been overturned by the judiciary in Africa.
These changes reflect a broader trend in sub-Saharan Africa and much of the world. An increasing number of countries are holding multiparty elections. And an increasing proportion of these states have witnessed a transfer of power from one party or leader to another.
It’s true that more elections are now being held than at any time in human history. But recent highlights in Gambia, Ghana and Kenya mask a problematic reality, namely that the expansion of multi-party politics has often gone hand-in-hand with political and economic exclusion. Over the past five years, the level of political repression and economic inequality has increased in Africa. In turn, this has called into question the extent of the continent’s democratic gains.
<h2>Rising repression</h2>
In recent times high levels of repression have been witnessed across much of the continent. These include the arrest of opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, as he campaigned against his defeat in the 2016 presidential election in Uganda. Also, in Kenya there were a high number of human rights violations when security forces cracked down on opposition protests during the election.
According to Freedom House, an American think tank that rates the level of freedom in every country in the world, the quality of civil liberties in Africa has fallen every year for a decade. Seven out of the 15 countries that showed the biggest deterioration in the quality of their political environment over the last 12 months were African. They are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Niger, South Sudan, and Zambia. Next year, Tanzania may well join that list.
Other forms of political exclusion are also prevalent. Rwanda leads the world on female legislative representation while Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda also perform well on this metric. But very few women are ever elected in the continent’s largest states such as Angola, Nigeria and the DRC.
Minority groups often suffer a similar fate. In Botswana, a state often lauded as one of those leading on democratic rights in Africa, the indigenous San community have been largely excluded from the political process. Similarly, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer citizens typically find that their human rights are undermined. Fortunately, this is not true of countries with more progressive constitutions such as South Africa.
<h2>Rising inequality</h2>
In many states, political exclusion has gone hand in hand with rising economic inequality. As a result the relative poverty – the gap between the rich and the poor – is growing. This is despite the fact that the level of absolute poverty has fallen in a number of countries.
In other words, serious developmental gains are occurring at the same time that other forms of economic exclusion are intensifying.
One of the most stunning facts about the continent is that the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index</a> – a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators – shows that
<blockquote><a href="http://africasacountry.com/2017/01/african-inequality-rising/">every country in Africa is today less equal than it was in 2010</a>.</blockquote>
More worryingly, there is no evidence that democracies are performing better than authoritarian systems on this issue. If anything, the reverse is true. Indeed, one of the most intriguing paradoxes of African democracy is that it is those countries that are most democratic that are most unequal. Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, three of the continent’s most secure democracies, feature the highest levels of inequality in the world.
The combination of political and economic exclusion in Africa is important for intrinsic and instrumental reasons. Intrinsically, democracy is failing to deliver if it is not helping the worst as much as the best off. Instrumentally, the combination of economic and political exclusion increases the risk that political grievances will develop into instability.
<h2>Building a more inclusive world</h2>
One reason that democratisation has not always reduced the degree of exclusion is that political systems in Africa, much like the rest of the world, tend not to feature inclusive political arrangements.
The continent only features a handful of states that are federal or feature high levels of political devolution. These include Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan. Moreover, even within this small sample the ability of opposition parties to get elected at the sub-national level has often been limited, especially in Ethiopia and Sudan. As a result, individuals and groups that lose out in the race for national office rarely enjoy the kind of local self-government that might make them feel that they have a stake in the political system.
Institutional mechanisms to ensure a form of power sharing are also rare. By and large African states are presidential and highly majoritarian. They also do not feature constitutional provisions that guarantee minorities and losing parties a seat at the table.
Indeed, Burundi is currently the only country that comes close to the consociational “ideal type” of inclusive politics outlined by the famous political scientist Arendt Lijphart. But even there the authoritarian bent of President Pierre Nkurunziza has undermined both the letter and the spirit of the country’s carefully designed constitution.
Absent political representation, and with so few checks and balances on the exercise of power, it is unsurprising that minorities and opposition groups get such a raw deal. Of course, this is not to say that political inclusion is a cure-all: there are many established democracies with less exclusive political arrangements that have failed to reduce economic inequality. But until African political systems become less majoritarian and do a better job of protecting the rights and interests of minorities, the true benefits of democratic government are unlikely to be realised.
This article was first published in The Conversation.

Op-Ed: Democratic breakthroughs in Africa – time to celebrate but worries still linger

Observers found some technical problems but no evidence of vote-rigging in Kenya’s presidential election last month, the European Union said on Thursday, based on random checks of tallies from polling stations.
The finding was announced as Kenya gears up for a re-run of the contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and challenger Raila Odinga on Oct. 17, after the Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta’s victory citing irregularities in the tallying process.
Credible elections would boost Kenya’s role as East Africa’s richest economy and a stable Western ally in a region roiled by conflict. But problems with the vote could spark unrest: 1,200 people died in violence after a disputed 2007 election.
Bolstering the Supreme Court’s findings of technical irregularities, the EU said in a statement it had examined 1,558 randomly selected scanned polling station results forms from 82 constituencies. A small percentage were unreadable, others had mathematical mistakes, and others were missing data or signatures.
The country had nearly 41,000 polling stations and 290 constituencies.
<h3 data-reactid="47">BOYCOTT THREAT</h3>
Odinga alleged that the original vote was marred by fraud and is threatening to boycott the re-run unless some demands are met, including the resignation of key election board officials.
But the EU said it did not find anything indicating deliberate manipulation of the vote in the forms it examined. “There was little variation in the patterns of anomalies &#8230; and no obvious advantage to one camp or another.”
However, the observers noted that more than a quarter of polling stations were severely late in posting their manually completed tallying sheets online. In some cases they only did so after the legal deadline for the opposition to mount court challenges to the results had passed, they noted.
The EU urged the election commission to use standardised forms with security features like serial numbers to reduce the opportunities for confusion in the upcoming polls.
It said the electoral board must do a better job of publicly explaining the processes it would follow in tallying the vote.
In a separate development on Thursday, ruling party lawmaker Ngunjiri Wambugu filed a court petition seeking to have Chief Justice David Maraga removed for gross misconduct in connection with the annulment of the election.
“Chief Justice Maraga needs to be censured, I believe he has participated in gross misconduct, which is unprofessional. I believe that gross misconduct is trying to influence a presidential election,” Wambugu told reporters.
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Additional reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Mark Trevelyan
</div>

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Op-Ed: Democratic breakthroughs in Africa – time to celebrate but worries still linger

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Kenya central bank holds benchmark lending rate at 10.0%

French IT firm says its technology won’t be ready for Oct 17 re-run of Kenya poll

South Africa’s Implats in talks that could lead to 2,500 job cuts

Grassroots reporting on youth issues on the eve of the 72nd UNGA

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South Africa – Court setback to Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential hopes, but it’s not over yet

South Africa tax service to take legal action against KPMG

Lessons from Mauritius on making companies more accountable

Personal Finance: How to pick the right credit solution for your needs

IRBA responds to KPMG matter

Petra Diamonds profit falls, restarts Tanzania mine

Global hunger rises for first time in decade: U.N. agencies

KPMG South Africa shakes out top management over Gupta scandal

In the weeds: How top official got tangled in Nigerian aid scandal

PIC Board responds to allegations of a plot to oust CEO, Dr Daniel Matjila

Op-Ed: Democratic breakthroughs in Africa – time to celebrate but worries still linger

EU: spot checks show confusion, not conspiracy in Kenyan election

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