<p>Venture Capital (VC) funding is one area that is severely hampering innovators from truly expanding like they could. Why is it that African VC funds just aren’t engaging? And what can be done to rectify that?</p>
<p>In my work with innovators on the African content, a trend I’ve picked up again and again is a struggle for funding. Many innovators may have done well in their country, and are in the position to successfully replicate their success and expand to other nations, but they are corralled by a lack of access to the right kind of funding.</p>
<p>When you think of the life-cycle of an innovative company, it usually starts from seed funding, where family and friends and the innovator themselves are putting in the funds to see it take off. From there the company is looking for venture capital (VC) funding, where it has a prototype product or service that’s done relatively well, or the business has a few stable clients, and the company wants to expand nationally or in another country. If the business grows (or survives!) through that phase, it moves to private equity – it’s now a sustainable business and can grow into a genuinely profitable business nationally or multi-nationally. The last phase, typically, is then to be listed or partner with a bank for financing.</p>
<p>It’s in the VC phase, however, that there seems to be a consistent problem on our continent. I think this is a real challenge that we need to address. The VC phase, in fact, is almost non-existent here, and this is a huge gap for innovators. A lot of innovators have to look beyond our borders and approach the likes of Silicon Valley, but this comes with all sorts of problems and misunderstandings about the African context, resulting in mismatched expectations from investors and a model that just does not work here.</p>
<p>I’ve recently started speaking to several VC and private equity funds on the market, as well as innovators, in an attempt to get to the bottom of this problem and see what we can do to rectify it. In the process of doing so I’ve picked up on two consistent trends:</p>
<p>1. Innovators have unrealistic evaluations, usually tempered by the fact that they have spoken to a Silicon Valley-like company or a European based company.The problem is the way these overseas companies and investors work is just not very workable here. Their approach to innovation funding is different. For example, they will typically employ an Uber-type approach: build an asset, throw lots of money at it, and hopefully in 6 – 10 years’ time the asset is so big that someone will buy it out. During that process, a lot of cash has really been blown, but the reality is that the sheer scale of innovators overseas makes this worthwhile.</p>
<p>See, in Silicon Valley this works because for every ten innovations on the table, one will take off and do very well, becoming the next Airbnb or Uber, and the sale of that asset will justify not only the investment into it but the investment into the other nine that have done relatively well, or are growing, or haven’t even done well. Here in Africa, however, we just don’t have enough innovators to justify this sort of model of funding – or the right amount of throughput to do so.</p>
<p>What works here is what I call a ‘convertible’ model. This is where a company is funded according to agreed milestones and targets, and maybe later down the line the investor has an equity stake in the business. But many innovators have approached the likes of Silicon Valley and have come back with what is essentially a crazy evaluation, expecting the same sort of approach here.</p>
<p>2. VC firms in Africa expect profitability very quickly.I think this makes a lot of sense, and if I were in their shoes I would be thinking exactly the same. If your business isn’t leaning towards profitability very quickly, it’s difficult to justify a constant investment. This is big money and if that money is put elsewhere, even into a bank, there are guaranteed returns.</p>
<p>While I’ve spotted these two trends I’ve also spotted two other things I find fascinating – and hugely encouraging.</p>
<p>1. VC funds actually want to play with innovators.And, of course, the innovators need the funding.</p>
<p>So what’s the problem? It’s quite simple.They’re just not connected to each other. They are just not talking.There’s a serious case to be made that VC funds need to engage earlier with innovators. Aside from the funding, they can also provide necessary expertise – give the innovator access to markets and networks; insight into how to grow; info on tech funds in the continent; and buttress all that with the actual funding.</p>
<p>2. Public entities, like SARS, really do want to participate.There’s an open secret on the Income Tax Act called Section 12J. This is actually an amazing opportunity for investors that I think many have no clue about, yet it was introduced by the National Treasury in 2009.</p>
<p>Section 12J allows an investor to put money into VC company funds and receive a tax exempt certificate. Invest a million or R100,000 and it’s tax free. It’s an ideal situation for small investment groups, corporate executives in a high threshold tax bracket, and, of course, companies investing into innovation. Find out more info about it at SARS [link:<a href="http://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Businesses/Pages/Venture-Capital-Companies.aspx">http://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Businesses/Pages/Venture-Capital-Companies.aspx</a>] or listen or read this interview at Moneyweb [link: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-radio/save-tax-venture-capital-investing/].</p>
<p>This is a very clever way in which SARS is stimulating investment into start-ups, and innovation is obviously in mind here as well. A question I’m asking is how do you take this sort of model that SARS is pushing and replicate it, where investors hedge their bets due to an incentive such as tax relief, creating a pool of funds and investors that plug the gap between innovators and VC funding?</p>
<p>I don’t have the answer to that question. Yet. But I think we have the right starting point here. I also think that we have one major tool that we can employ right now and will make a huge difference straight away and it’s this:</p>
<p>To simply just talk to each other. ﻿</p>
<p> </p>


VC Funding – Missing link for innovators

<p>Africa offers a vast and fast-growing consumer market.  A billion people live on the continent, with the population expected to double by 2050.  Not only do African consumers represent a world of opportunity, they also want a quality experience, the same as other customers across the globe.</p>
<p>Africa’s consumers are flourishing due to a variety of major factors in addition to population growth. The African economy is expected to grow 50% in the next few years, double the rate of developed markets, according to the <a href="http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ng/Documents/consumer-business/the-deloitte-consumer-review-africa-a-21st-century-view.pdf">Deloitte Consumer Review</a>.  More Africans live in urban centers which tend to drive economic activity. </p>
<p>Africa is also a young market.  Currently some 200 million Africans, about 20% of the population, are between the ages of 15 and 24, a figure expected to rise to 321 million by 2030, Deloitte says.  Young consumers want the latest and tend to seek the best in products, services and technology.</p>
<p>The following facts further illustrate the enormous potential of consumers in Africa.</p>
<p>Consumers are attached to their smartphones.  More than 33% of Africans check their phones every five minutes and within five minutes of waking up, according to the <a href="http://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/game-of-phones.html?id=za:2el:3pr:awa_GOP:gop_pr">Game of Phones Survey</a> conducted by Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications unit.  Smartphones draw a billion glances in Africa every day, the survey says. </p>
<p>More consumers are digitally-savvy.  The growth of mobile technology has allowed African consumers to “leapfrog” poor landline infrastructure, notes the Deloitte consumer report.  Young consumers in particular are “mobile ready,” with one in five buying a product or service via their phones.</p>
<p>They demand quality and are brand-conscious.  <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-locations/africa/south-africa/en/rise-of-the-african-consumer">The Rise of the African Consumer</a>, a McKinsey paper, says that both quality and brand matter to African consumers when they are making buying decisions.  Some 58% of consumers are brand loyal and many are willing to pay a higher price for well-known brands.</p>
<p>They have more money to spend.  Between 2000 and 2012, Africa’s total household expenditure grew more than 10% annually, reaching $1.3 trillion, Deloitte says.  McKinsey cites an “emerging, optimistic consumer class,” with more than half of African households projected to have discretionary income by 2020 and 84% anticipating that their households will be better off in the future. </p>
<p>They want a modern shopping experience.  Urban African consumers are no different from consumers worldwide in that they have modern, sophisticated tastes.</p>
<p>The rise of the consumer culture in Africa mirrors the continent’s growth into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century.  The facts show that African consumers essentially are no different from those everywhere else.  For smart businesses and brands, meeting Africa’s burgeoning consumer demand could also lead to dramatic growth in the years ahead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Zandre Campos is chairman and CEO of ABO Capital, an international investment firm that invests in companies in the healthcare, energy, transportation, hospitality, technology and real estate sectors throughout Africa. ABO’s mission is to create global value for developing countries in Africa, while contributing to their economic development.﻿</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>


Op-Ed: Five key facts about African consumers

<p>South Africa&#8217;s current account deficit widened to 4.1 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2016 from a revised deficit of 2.9 percent in the second quarter, the central bank said on Friday.</p>
<p>Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a 3.65 percent deficit for the quarter.</p>
<p>Exports fell during the quarter, resulting in a trade deficit of 4 billion rand ($291.5 million) compared with a revised surplus of 48 billion rand in the second quarter, the Reserve Bank said in its December quarterly bulletin.</p>
<p>The bank said the deficit in the current and trade accounts were due to weaker global demand for the country&#8217;s goods.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Export earnings were also affected by the strengthening in the exchange value of the rand which more than offset the benefit arising from higher international commodity prices,&#8221; the bank said.</p>
<p>($1 = 13.7233 rand)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's Q3 current account deficit widens

<p>Congo Republic expects oil output to rise to some 300,000 barrels per day in 2018, up from around 250,000 bpd now, partly due to a new deep offshore field due to come online next year, the oil minister said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Moho Nord, the second project issued on the Moho Bilondo offshore licence, is due to begin producing oil in March or April next year, Jean-Marc Thystere-Tchicaya told a conference in the capital Brazzaville.</p>
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<p>&#8220;From mid-2017 we can already count on an increase in production and then reach a peak in 2018 with 300,000 barrels per day,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We hope that the cost of a barrel of crude will stabilise on the market and allow us a good budget.&#8221;</p>
<p>Oil accounts for around 65 percent of the Central African nation&#8217;s GDP.</p>
<p>Moho Nord is expected to have production capacity of 140,000 bpd, according to operator Total, which holds a 53.5 percent stake in the project. Chevron owns 31.5 percent with the remaining 15 percent held by Congo&#8217;s state oil company SNPC.</p>
<p>Having reversed a decline in production, Congo is on track to leapfrog Equatorial Guinea to become sub-Saharan Africa&#8217;s third-largest crude producer next year.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Oil minister says Congo Republic oil output to reach 300,000 bpd in 2018 – oil minister

<p>South Africa&#8217;s Sibanye Gold will pay $2.2 billion for U.S.-based Stillwater Mining, Sibanye said on Friday, extending its push into platinum group metals.</p>
<p>Sibanye has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Stillwater Mining for $18.00 per share in cash, a 23 percent premium on the firm&#8217;s closing price on Thursday, the South African firm said in a statement.</p>
<p>Sibanye, a bullion miner that was spun off from Gold Fields in 2013, last year bought Aquarius Platinum and Anglo American Platinum&#8217;s mines in Rustenburg, but the Stillwater deal will be its first venture beyond South Africa.</p>
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<p>Stillwater, which operates in the state of Montana, is the only U.S. miner of platinum group metals (PGM) and the largest primary producer of PGMs outside South Africa and Russia.</p>
<p>&#8220;The transaction represents a transformational opportunity for Sibanye to acquire high-quality, low-cost, PGM assets at a favourable point in the cycle,” said Sibanye Chief Executive Neal Froneman.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's Sibanye Gold to buy Stillwater Mining

<p>Seconds after the chairman of Gambia&#8217;s electoral commission read out the poll results that ended President Yahya Jammeh&#8217;s 22-year rule to reporters, a policeman left the building, cheering and clapping his hands in the air.</p>
<p>This celebration of victory in last week&#8217;s election for Adama Barrow, a property developer with no previous political experience, drew a rebuke from a fellow officer who reminded the policeman he was in uniform.</p>
<p>&#8220;Adama Barrow is my new uniform,&#8221; he retorted.</p>
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<p>The apparently minor incident pointed to shifting allegiances within the security forces that left Jammeh with little choice but to step aside.</p>
<p>Later that day, the leader who once said he could rule the tiny West African country for &#8220;a billion years&#8221; and who had crushed numerous coup attempts, stunned viewers by calling Barrow to concede defeat on state TV. </p>
<p>The decision by the quirky but widely feared Jammeh to accept defeat in the Dec. 1 election has been hailed as a victory for democracy on a continent where veteran rulers have clung to power by methods ranging from legal shenanigans and simple cheating to brute force.</p>
<p>But it was the security forces who made clear to Jammeh that he would have to hand power next month to Barrow, a former security guard in a north London discount store.</p>
<p>According to political and security sources, the morning after voting &#8211; but before the Independent Electoral Commission announced the results &#8211; the heads of the army, police and National Intelligence Agency met Jammeh at his office.</p>
<p>&#8220;He was advised by them that he should be ready to officially concede defeat,&#8221; said Alhagie Darboe, spokesman for the leading party in Barrow&#8217;s coalition, citing one of Jammeh&#8217;s ministers.</p>
<p>Jammeh appeared ready to take their advice. &#8220;After the meeting, he told his ministers: &#8216;You will be jobless in January&#8217;,&#8221; a security source told Reuters.</p>
<p>An aide then informed the electoral commission that he would accept his loss. &#8220;Even before the (results) announcement he wanted to concede defeat,&#8221; commission chairman Alieu Momar Njai told Reuters.</p>
<p>So, wearing white robes and looking almost cheerful, Jammeh took to television to announce his retirement from politics. &#8220;I will be a farmer,&#8221; he said, his long official title &#8211; H.E. Sheikh Prof. Dr. Alh. Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa &#8211; stretching across the width of the screen.</p>
<p>Analysts had weighed the risk that he would instead dig in and order his troops to crush dissent, as they did at a student protest in 2000. Some opposition members had hired bodyguards and spent election night in safehouses awaiting the results.</p>
<p>Jammeh, who along with many of his closest allies in the army is from the Jola ethnic minority, had previously vowed to crush opposition among the larger Madinka group.</p>
<p>But in the end, the security forces acted to prevent the kind of post-election bloodshed that hit Burundi in 2015-16.</p>
<p>Army head General Ousman Badjie declined to comment on the meeting, but he told Reuters: &#8220;I am just here to keep the country safe and stable. I am here for the Gambian people, I am not a politician.&#8221;</p>
<p>Badjie has pledged allegiance to Barrow, the president-elect&#8217;s spokeswoman said. [nL5N1E244C]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>&#8220;NOT THE BAD GUYS&#8221;</p>
<p>Gambians &#8211; who have lived for so many years in a virtual police state and never known a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965 &#8211; exploded with joy and celebrated the election result for days.</p>
<p>Wearing yellow &#8220;Fear No More&#8221; T-shirts, they cheered and banged drums atop vans in the capital Banjul, delighting many European tourists there for winter sun.</p>
<p>Officers joined them or honked at revellers following the elections when Gambians had cast ballots by dropping marbles into coloured drums representing each of the candidates. Results from polling stations next to barracks, where many soldiers had voted in uniform, showed a Barrow victory.</p>
<p>Diplomats say they would have looked to neighbour Senegal, which entirely surrounds the riverside nation and shares linguistic and ethnic ties, to intervene had violence broken out &#8211; as it did in 1981 during a coup.</p>
<p>Analysts say that the repression of Jammeh&#8217;s political opponents had backfired, helping a medley of opposition parties to rally behind a single leader for the first time, with Barrow eking out a victory by fewer than 20,000 votes.</p>
<p>Some prisoners, however, were freed from the Mile 2 prison near Banjul in a surprise gesture last year, including many former top military brass accused of treason.</p>
<p>&#8220;The soldiers are not the bad guys. They have been made bad by his orders,&#8221; said Jaina Ba Jetta, whose father was jailed for years in Mile 2 for &#8220;security reasons&#8221; and now lives in exile.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is constant fear, no security of tenure and everyone in the army is fed up,&#8221; said Francis Mendy from the Gambia office of West African peacebuilding body WANEP.</p>
<p>Even had they wanted to, it would have been hard for officers to seize power themselves on Dec. 1 because of a deliberate &#8220;divide and rule&#8221; strategy with armouries broken up into small depots, he added.</p>
<p>Officials from Barrow&#8217;s coalition say that modernising Gambia&#8217;s bloated army, whose checkpoints are dotted across the capital, will be among the priorities.</p>
<p>&#8220;The military needs to become a highly trained force that shows loyalty to the people and the constitution,&#8221; said Mai Ahmad Fatty, the head of Barrow&#8217;s transition team.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


How Gambia's top brass turned on long-ruling Jammeh

<p>Thomson Reuters Foundation</p>
<p>As many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 due to conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own country, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, according to a report released on Friday.</p>
<p>Figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) showed an average of about 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to 12.4 million, with the number set to rise in 2016.</p>
<p>The worst affected country was Nigeria, with as many as 736,000 fleeing their homes in 2015 as a result of violence associated with the Boko Haram militant Islamist insurgency.</p>
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<p>The report calculates the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is double the number of the continent&#8217;s refugees, estimated by the United Nations to have reached 5.4 million in 2015, highlighting the scale of Africa&#8217;s comparatively overlooked &#8220;internal displacement crisis&#8221;.</p>
<p>While refugees are the responsibility of the international community, people displaced within their own country are the responsibility of national governments.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many of these governments are not even aware of the scale of the problem within their own borders,&#8221; said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.</p>
<p>&#8220;They need to take up their responsibilities and actually keep track of these people.&#8221;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>ONGOING CRISES</p>
<p>The figures for the first half of 2016 are likely to be at least as high with ongoing conflicts in countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria, Bilak said.</p>
<p>The report&#8217;s publication marks the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Africa&#8217;s landmark commitment to preventing displacement and protecting the rights of IDPs, signed in 2009 and now ratified by 25 countries.</p>
<p>It argues better data is needed, especially on people driven from their homes by slow-onset crises such as a drought, and this is crucial if governments are to meet their commitments.</p>
<p>&#8220;Reliable data on population movements is vital to ensure a timely and well targeted operational and policy response,&#8221; the report said.</p>
<p>The IDMC hoped the report would be a reminder that while the continent&#8217;s refugee crisis has attracted international attention in recent years, the problem of huge numbers of Africans uprooted from their homes but temporarily settled in their own countries is not new.</p>
<p>&#8220;The same people remain on our books, year in, year out. The numbers are not going down,&#8221; said Bilak.</p>
<p>The report draws attention to &#8220;off-the-radar&#8221; displacement in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, which, while relatively stable, suffer slow-moving environmental challenges such as drought that are &#8220;blind spots&#8221; for policymakers.</p>
<p>A third of African countries are prone to drought, and most are increasingly vulnerable as result of climate change.</p>
<p>It also highlights the role of southern Africa&#8217;s worst agricultural drought in 35 years – and resulting severe food shortages – in driving people from their homes in 2015.</p>
<p>The report also emphasised the need for African governments to recognise the role of development projects in causing the sort of &#8220;off-the-radar&#8221; displacement with people evicted from slums to make way for infrastucture.</p>
<p>All too often &#8220;the impact of development projects and business activities on the people they force from their homes and livelihoods is not visible to policymakers,&#8221; the report said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


African governments urged to help millions uprooted from their homes

<p>Scientists examining the jawbone of a saber-toothed, mammal-like beast that prowled Tanzania 255 million years ago have come across a remarkable fossil rarity: one of the oldest-known tumors.</p>
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<p>University of Washington researchers on Thursday described a benign tumor composed of miniature tooth-like structures they found embedded next to the root of the creature&#8217;s enlarged canine tooth while studying an unrelated aspect of the jaw.</p>
<p>The animal was a member of an extinct group of four-legged carnivores called gorgonopsians that mixed mammal-like and reptile-like traits. They reached up to 10 feet (3 metres) long and appeared early in the evolutionary lineage that led to mammals. The jawbone came from one of the smaller gorgonopsian species.</p>
<p>Gorgonopsians were among the top predators of their time, thriving from about 270 million to 252 million years ago when they were wiped out during Earth&#8217;s worst mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period. Their demise came roughly 20 million years before the first dinosaurs.</p>
<p>When the researchers sliced into the mandible fossil from Tanzania&#8217;s Ruhuhu Valley, they found a benign dental tumor called a compound odontoma that grows within the gums or other jaw soft tissues. When people get one, surgery is sometimes used to remove it.</p>
<p>&#8220;There was no indication that there was a tumor in this jaw. It looked normal before we cut it open. It was pure luck that we found the tumor,&#8221; University of Washington paleobiologist Megan Whitney said.</p>
<p>Until now, this type of tumor was known only in mammals, including some Ice Age fossils tens of thousands of years old. The new discovery shows such a tumor existed in mammal ancestors that lived tens of millions of years before the first mammals appeared.</p>
<p>Tumors, malignant and benign, typically involve soft tissue, and rarely fossilize.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ancient tumors generally need to affect hard parts such as bones and teeth in order to be preserved in the fossil record,&#8221; University of Washington paleobiologist Christian Sidor added.</p>
<p>This tumor included hard enamel and dentin.</p>
<p>Few tumor fossils are older. A 300-million-year-old fish was found with a tumor and a 350-million-year-old armored fish has an apparent tumor that some dispute.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fossils allow us to understand the evolution of diseases in deep time and have the potential to provide clues as to the causes of diseases that afflict humans,&#8221; Whitney said.</p>
<p>The research appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Scientists come across tumour in fossil rarity

<p>Ghana&#8217;s main opposition leader, Nana Akufo-Addo, has won the country&#8217;s presidential election with an absolute majority over President John Mahama, the private radio stations Joy FM and Citi FM said on Friday.</p>
<p>The two respected news stations based their projections on results from Wednesday&#8217;s election announced at the constituency level. The electoral commission is set to begin releasing results on Friday.</p>
<p>Joy FM&#8217;s website showed Akufo-Addo winning with 53 percent of the vote with Mahama on 45.15 percent, based on a count of 217 constituencies out of 275 in total. Citi FM gave Akufo-Addo 54.8 percent based on 190 constituencies.</p>
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<p>Akufo-Addo, 72, served as attorney general and then as foreign minister in the New Patriotic Party government, which held power for eight years starting in 2001. It is his third time running for president on the party ticket.</p>
<p>Mahama fought the election against the backdrop of an economy that has slowed since he took power in 2013, in part because of lower global prices for the West African country&#8217;s exports of gold, oil and cocoa.</p>
<p>Ghana&#8217;s two strong parties regularly hold peaceful and highly competitive elections. Twice since 2000, the government of the day has been overturned.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Ghana opposition leader wins presidential election – media reports

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<div class="headline">While black swans are inherently unpredictable, Nomura has pointed to 10 potential grey swans to worry about for 2017.</div>
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<p>The black swan concept was popularized by finance professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb&#8217;s book &#8220;The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.&#8221; The book, noting that it was widely assumed all swans were white until the discovery of black swans, highlighted that outlier, or previously unthought-of, scenarios can some to pass with extreme economic impacts.</p>
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<p>But Nomura pointed to what it called the black swan&#8217;s cousin, the grey swan.</p>
<div></div>
<p>&#8220;These are the unlikely but impactful events that, in our opinion, lie outside the usual base case and risk scenarios of the analyst community,&#8221; it said in a note Wednesday, noting it was avoiding the more usual, well-discussed outliers such as a euro-area breakup, a <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a> impeachment or a China implosion.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 1: U.S. productivity might boom</strong></p>
<p>Nomura noted that global productivity has been anaemic since the 2008 global financial crisis and its base case is for U.S. productivity to remain on the low side for years ahead.</p>
<p>But it noted that in the early 1990s, productivity was expected to remain low, but it quickly doubled during that decade&#8217;s tech boom.</p>
<p>&#8220;We know that low investment has been a key contributor to poor productivity. It certainly has been true that investment in buildings and equipment is at recessionary levels,&#8221; Nomura said. &#8220;But investment in intellectual property and R&amp;D is running at close to post-crisis highs. The fact that this form of investment is less tangible makes it easy to miss. It could also provide the foundation for a surge in productivity.&#8221;</p>
<p>The market implications would be &#8220;far-reaching,&#8221; with likely stronger stock markets and more aggressive tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve, Nomura said.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 2: China might float its currency</strong></p>
<p>Nomura said the chances of China letting its currency become completely market-determined anytime soon were &#8220;very low.&#8221; But it added, if China were to suddenly remove its 2 percent onshore trading band and stop intervening in the currency market, <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/CNY%3D" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="612178" data-inline-quote-symbol="CNY=">the yuan</a> would depreciate sharply rapidly.</p>
<p>&#8220;The risk is that rapid renminbi (yuan) depreciation would lead to a sell-off in <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.MICN0000NGUS" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="49326437" data-inline-quote-symbol=".MICN0000NGUS">local markets</a> and feed through to greater negative regional and global market contagion,&#8221; Nomura said.</p>
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<p><strong>Potential shock 3: The European Union (EU) could reform, leading the U.K. to re-join</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;To suggest Brexit could reverse and become Bremain requires a series of improbable events that most would vehemently disagree with, including us,&#8221; Nomura said, but it added: &#8220;With politics, one cannot rule anything out.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nomura pointed to two potential, if unlikely, scenarios.</p>
<p>In one, the U.K. could unwind the Brexit decision through a general election, amid court cases over whether the U.K. needs Scottish and Welsh parliaments&#8217; consent to exit the European Union. If Brexit runs into roadblocks, the conservatives may call an election in hopes of solidifying a mandate, Nomura said, noting that this could lead to opposition parties winning or a smaller conservative majority.</p>
<p>The second Brexit-reversal scenario would be EU-led, with the bloc offering the reforms that the U.K. has been seeking, such as redefining free movement of labor, Nomura said.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 4: Japan inflation might surge</strong></p>
<p>Nomura said the most plausible channel for a Japan inflation jump would be interplay between the <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/JPY%3D" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="616660" data-inline-quote-symbol="JPY=">dollar/yen pair</a> and oil prices. Up until recently, the yen would weaken as oil prices were falling, Nomura noted. But if that correlation were to weaken or flip so that higher oil prices and a weaker yen coincided, Japan&#8217;s inflation could pick up sharply, it said.</p>
<p>If Japan&#8217;s inflation were to rise far enough or were to keep rising in an unstable fashion, the central bank would need to consider exit strategies from its easing programs, Nomura said.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 5: The U.S. Federal Reserve could be muzzled</strong></p>
<p>Nomura noted that some have viewed President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s loud disapproval of the Fed as a potential attack on the central bank&#8217;s independence and potentially opening it up to political meddling.</p>
<p>There was an outside possibility of radical changes, potentially including altering the Fed&#8217;s mandate, such as changing the inflation-targeting basis, Nomura said.</p>
<p>More radically, Nomura noted that Trump has &#8220;expressed sympathy&#8221; for returning to a gold standard.</p>
<p>That would lead to higher policy rates than expected, Nomura said.</p>
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<p><strong>Potential shock 6: Russia may flex its muscles</strong></p>
<p>Nomura noted that investors have increasingly asked about whether Russia might become militarily aggressive in Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>While Nomura said it wasn&#8217;t its baseline expectation, the risk could emerge amid the potential for changes in U.S. foreign policy, potential sanctions renewal and upcoming major European elections.</p>
<p>Nomura said the two most plausible scenarios for potential Russian aggression would be greater involvement in Ukraine, toward the border with Poland, and involvement in the Baltics, particularly Lithuania.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 7: A clearing house may fail</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been an assumption since 2008 that clearing financial contracts through a central counterparty (CCP) rather than bilaterally between banks (OTC) will reduce systemic risk,&#8221; Nomura noted. &#8220;The idea is that, if all banks face one institution, the CCP, then the failure of one bank could be contained as other banks would face the CCP not the failing bank.&#8221;</p>
<p>But it noted that the downside to that arrangement was that the CCP itself can become a systemic risk.</p>
<p>&#8220;Were it to fail, the fall-out could be worse than the failure of one or two large banks alone,&#8221; Nomura noted.</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 8: Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe loses power</strong></p>
<p>Abe&#8217;s ruling coalition holds a super-majority in the lower house and opposition parties remain unpopular, Nomura noted, saying it boded well for political stability heading into general elections in 2017.</p>
<p>But Nomura noted a potential twist as the four main opposition parties considered nominating joint candidates for each electoral district, which reportedly could cost the ruling party as many as 60 seats, based on 2014 vote totals.</p>
<p>The most extreme outcome would be for Abe be weakened substantially and potentially resign immediately, Nomura said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Were this &#8216;grey swan&#8217; to emerge, Abenomics trades would be unwound. Japanese equities would likely bear the brunt,&#8221; it said. &#8220;In addition, if Japan had an administration involving anti-establishment parties (such as the communist party), investors would likely become concerned about the anti-establishment movement reaching Japan. This would further increase political uncertainty and volatility globally.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 9: Emerging market capital controls may return</strong></p>
<p>If &#8220;Trumpflation&#8221; causes higher U.S. yields and a stronger <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.DXY" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="586968" data-inline-quote-symbol=".DXY">dollar</a>, emerging markets could face even more pronounced outflows, Nomura noted.</p>
<p>&#8220;Countries with very high levels of foreign portfolio investment ownership, particularly volatile currencies, low rates and low foreign-exchange reserves would be at most risk from capital controls,&#8221; Nomura said. &#8220;They would also be the ones that markets would look to for more disorderly devaluations either before capital controls were tried or after if they failed.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Potential shock 10: Paper money may disappear</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;We are on the threshold when secure decentralised electronic money and payments systems could replace notes and coins in circulation,&#8221; Nomura said, noting that Sweden has already been discussing the prospect.</p>
<p>Nomura said policy makers in developed markets with negative monetary policy rates, such as Europe and Japan, may push in that direction.</p>
<p>In those regions, &#8220;people can simply withdraw their money and put it under their mattress to avoid incurring negative rates,&#8221; it said. But with &#8220;e-holdings,&#8221; negative-rate policies can be transmitted to &#8220;e-wallets,&#8221; encouraging increased consumption, Nomura said.</p>
<p>That could elicit a sharp negative reaction from the public, Nomura noted.</p>
<p><em>—By CNBC.Com&#8217;s Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter</em> <a href="https://twitter.com/LeslieShaffer1" target="_self" class="inline_asset">@LeslieShaffer1﻿</a></p>
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<p> </p>


Nomura's ten grey swan risks to beware of in 2017

<p>Dr. Donald Kaberuka, the seventh president and a former chairman of the board of directors of the African Development Bank Group and a former finance minister of the Republic of Rwanda, has joined The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a senior advisor to its Public Sector, Social Impact, and Financial Institutions practices, the firm announced today.</p>
<p>Throughout his 20-year career in public service, Kaberuka has established a reputation for exemplary leadership in development finance and economic development, with a deep and abiding commitment to Africa. In 2005, he became president of the African Development Bank Group and was reelected in 2010. Under his leadership, the bank tripled its capital to $100 billion and doubled its portfolio, particularly in infrastructure and private-sector financing. In addition, the bank’s franchise value and stature grew significantly. Even amid the global financial crisis, the bank sustained its AAA rating. Kaberuka stepped down in 2015 after a ten-year tenure.</p>
<p><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/financial/2016/12/07/afdb-etf/">AfDB launches multi-jurisdictional fixed income ETF for Africa﻿</a></p>
<p>From 1997 through 2005, Kaberuka served as Rwanda’s minister of finance and economic planning. During that same period, he served as governor of Rwanda for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.</p>
<p>Hans-Paul Bürkner, chairman of BCG, said Kaberuka will help the firm advance its Africa strategy, advising on economic development, development finance, and financial institutions. “Donald’s leadership and vision are matched only by his effectiveness in reforming and revitalizing government and public institutions. His deep experience and wide-ranging expertise in economic policy and business issues, combined with his ability to forge strong public- and private-sector partnerships, will be tremendous assets to BCG and our clients.”</p>
<p>Pascal Cotte, BCG’s regional chair for Western Europe, South America, and Africa, “We are honored to have him as part of the team, a further example of our deep commitment to growth in Africa.”</p>
<p>Kaberuka serves on the boards of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and Center for Global Development. He was Hauser Leader-in-Residence (2015–2016) at the Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. Recipient of the 2014 Forbes Africa Lifetime Achievement Award, Kaberuka holds a PhD in economics from University of Glasgow.</p>
<p>“I am excited to be joining BCG at a time when the firm seeks to expand its role in Africa,” said Kaberuka. “BCG is highly regarded for its global reach and deep understanding of the unique challenges facing the public sector and business, and the particular needs of emerging and frontier economies. I’m looking forward to helping the firm extend its expertise in African economic development and financing, and to working with the firm to address the most pressing African and global development issues.”</p>
<p>Kaberuka is also currently senior advisor at the global private equity firm TPG/Satya and chairman of the board of Centum Investment. In early 2016, he was appointed the African Union’s special envoy for financing to assist in mobilizing the AU’s resources, including its Peace Fund activities. He sits on several international panels, including the Business and Sustainable Development Commission and the Center for Global Development’s panel on the future of multilateral development banking.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Former AfDB President Donald Kaberuka gets new post

<p>Zimbabwe expects its 2016 fiscal budget deficit to widen to $1.18 billion, nearly eight times more than it forecast a year ago, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a budget speech on Thursday.</p>
<p>Chinamasa had pencilled in a deficit of $150 million in November 2016, equivalent to 1.1 percent of GDP, and said it would be financed via domestic borrowing.﻿</p>
<p><strong>Zimbabwe halves 2016 growth forecast, budget deficit widens﻿﻿</strong></p>
<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy will grow by 0.6 percent in 2016, half the previous forecast, but will recover next year, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a budget speech on Thursday.</p>
<p>Chinamasa said the budget deficit for the 2017 fiscal year was estimated at $400 million, equivalent to 3 percent of GDP, up from 1.1 percent in this year.</p>
<p>The southern African nation is grappling with a devastating drought that has left more than 4 million people facing hunger, while the worst financial crisis in seven years has fuelled some of the biggest anti-government protests in a decade.﻿</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>


Zimbabwe sees 2016 budget deficit nearly 800 pct higher than forecast

<p>If you are lucky enough to travel overseas you know there is a lot to do and plan before you can relax at your destination. We understand how important it is that you know which boxes to tick to ensure you are ready for your journey.</p>
<p>So, you have booked your flight tickets, accommodation is sorted and all your travel documentation such as your passport, visas, inoculations, unabridged certificates for the kids are in order.</p>
<p><strong>But, did you notify your bank that you are travelling overseas?</strong></p>
<p>Anthony Grant, CEO of FNB Foreign Exchange says “When planning a trip overseas, make sure that your bank is aware of your travel plans so they can advise you on the best foreign exchange solutions. They can also advise you on convenient ways to access funds in your accounts while traveling abroad and how to ensure that your cards are open for transacting in the country you will be visiting.”</p>
<p>“You should always keep your options open and ensure that you have more than one payment option available.  Ensure you have some foreign cash in your pocket for a coffee at the airport and small things like tips, taxis and train fares,” he says.</p>
<p>Grant recommends the following tips for a smooth overseas trip:</p>
<p><strong>Consider a multi-currency solution</strong></p>
<p>Apply for a Multi-currency Cash Passport<sup>TM</sup> online to use when purchasing goods and to make cash withdrawals while travelling overseas.</p>
<p>A Multi-currency Cash™ Passport can be loaded with four major currencies: US Dollar, British Pound, Australian Dollar and Euro, all in one card. The card can be reloaded online with Forex before or while travelling. And the great thing is you spend what you loaded on the card and you stay within your budget,” adds Grant</p>
<p><strong>Travel Insurance</strong></p>
<p>Ensure that you are covered for unfortunate eventualities such as lost luggage, media emergencies, and loss of valuables and when the trip is cancelled and there are trip cancellation costs to be covered. Travelling insurance cushions against incurring costs in a foreign country in the event of an emergency.</p>
<p><strong>Emergency numbers</strong></p>
<p>Keep all key emergency numbers stored in a safe place. Emergency contacts could include family and friends, your bank’s contact numbers should you need to make contact with them urgently or an embassy in case you lose your passport.</p>
<p><strong>Bank Cards</strong></p>
<p>Inform the bank where you will be travelling to and provide dates as well, in this way the bank will not suspect the fraud when they receive alerts that the cards is being used in a foreign country.</p>
<p><strong>Travel documents</strong></p>
<p>Keep all you travel documents in a secure place, if you lose your passport while traveling in a foreign country it may prove difficult to prove your country of origin. Keep copies of your documents separate from the originals.</p>
<p>“There are quite a few steps to consider when planning an overseas trip, to ensure that you have everything covered it’s always better to starting the planning well in advance,” adds Grant﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Top tips for travelling overseas this festive season

<p>Gauteng Premier David Makhura and mayors commit to work together to grow the economy, improve service delivery and address social challenges as part of developing Gauteng into a globally competitive city region.</p>
<p>This commitment was made in a meeting on Thursday attended by the Premier, MECs, Mayors, and Members of Mayoral Committee held at the Emperors Palace, Kempton Park. </p>
<p>The Premier and the Mayors acknowledged that the province has evolved into an industrial hub, financial nerve centre and technological heartbeat of South Africa. </p>
<p>Gauteng contributes more than 34% to the country’s Growth Domestic Product (GDP) and contributes 42% of SA’s industrial output and 63% industrial national exports.  The province also contributes 8% to 10% to Africa’s GDP.  It is the fifth largest economy in the continent.  The Gauteng Province by land is 1.4%, yet it remains the economic engine of the country. </p>
<p>Makhura told the meeting that in order to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality the provincial government jointly with municipalities and the private sector partners are making three macro interventions – spatial reconfiguration, township economy revitalisation and massive infrastructure investments. </p>
<p>“We have to govern ourselves as a seamlessly integrated city region.  We cannot be caught up in old ways,” said Premier Makhura, adding that Gauteng’s biggest challenge was rapid urbanisation. </p>
<p>Makhura shared with the Mayors the Provincial Government’s infrastructure-led programme being implemented in five development corridors.  </p>
<p>Tshwane is known for the automotive, innovation and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).  In the West Rand the concentration is on tourism, agriculture and solar energy while Sedibeng’s strong point is tourism, agriculture and agro-processing.  Johannesburg is the home for finance, ICT, services and pharmaceuticals while Ekurhuleni’s main attraction is manufacturing, Aerotropolis, jewellery, transport and logistics. </p>
<p>Over the next three years, the Gauteng Provincial Government’s total investment in infrastructure development will be more than R44 billion while Gauteng municipalities will spend R94 billion over the next five years.</p>
<p>This investment will have a massive multiplier effect on the economy of the Gauteng City Region.</p>
<p>Gauteng is establishing a Human Resource Development Council to integrate and coordinate all skills development initiatives working with the private sector as well as institutions of higher learning.  </p>
<p>Both the provincial government and municipalities committed to continue to support and revive the township economy. </p>
<p>The commitment by the provincial government and municipalities to work together will ensure that the huge social and economic challenges which include the significant exclusion of millions of black people in the economy, women and youth are addressed.</p>
<p>The Premier and the Mayors agreed to meet regularly and open lines of communication between MECs, MMCs and officials to ensure that the province and municipalities work in a spirit of sound cooperative government.</p>
<p>“We must work together in the interest of the people that we serve regardless of which political parties we come from.  In serving the people we must never allow party politics to paralyse governance,” said Makhura.  ﻿</p>
<p>Makhura said the provincial government was committed to pay municipal rates and services on time. He also promised that the historic municipal debt would be cleared.  ﻿</p>


Gauteng Premier and Mayors commit to building an integrated city region

<p>The rather understated announcement from Luanda last Friday, December 2, that the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) presidential candidate at elections scheduled for next year would be the current minister of defence, João Lourenço, signals a dramatic fall from grace for current national Vice President Manuel Vicente.</p>
<p>He is deemed disgraced and blamed by President Eduardo dos Santos for the financial collapse of state-owned oil company Sonangol.</p>
<p>There were also rumours that Mr Vicente – until a few months ago the apparent chosen successor to Mr Dos Santos – may have some allegations of corruption to answer for and that Mr Dos Santos was helped to believe that Mr Vicente would not be able to properly protect him and his family after retirement.</p>
<p>In addition, it is thought that the president felt a military person with close ties to him would be preferable.</p>
<p>Enter Mr Lourenço.</p>
<p>Last week’s announcement, quoting documents from the ruling MPLA, stated without fanfare that Mr Dos Santos would not stand for re-election should the MPLA win elections next year (a virtual certainty) and that MPLA Vice President Mr Lourenço would be the party’s candidate should the MPLA emerge victorious. The Angolan president is no longer directly elected but is elected by the majority party in Parliament.</p>
<p>Mr Lourenço, the former political commissar of the armed wing of the MPLA – the People&#8217;s Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) – replaced Roberto de Almeida as MPLA vice president last August.</p>
<p>While not regarded as particularly intellectual, he is a seasoned political street fighter who previously served as secretary for information and secretary general of the ruling party and has a sound knowledge of MPLA structures and apparatus – something Mr Vicente never managed given his relatively recent (2012) move to politics from Sonangol.</p>
<p>Angolan sources said that Mr Dos Santos had a “notion” that he had hurt many in Angola and that he feared reprisal after retirement, so he needed someone with unquestioned loyalty to ensure there would be no “future problems” for himself or his family. There was only one place to turn to for that – the military and a former liberation struggle combatant.</p>
<p>Mr Vicente, since 2012 regarded as heir apparent (putativo delfim in Portuguese) was caught in the crossfire of the collapse of the state-owned oil company he once ran – apparently into the ground – and was thus discredited.</p>
<p>He was stuck with most of the blame for the disastrous series of loan agreements that were concluded on his watch and exposed when the oil price crashed.</p>
<p>Angolan sources said his fate was all but sealed earlier this year when Mr Dos Santos sacked the entire board of the oil company and his daughter Isabel dos Santos took over the reins at Sonangol. Despite his fall from grace, Angolan sources said they did not expect him to resign from his position as national vice president nor was he expected to be fired. </p>
<p>A few critical issues arise here. First, it was obvious from the moment he was brought in from Sonangol in 2012 as the chosen successor that many in the old guard of the MPLA were not amused and actively campaigned against him. There was considerable resentment that an “outsider” had been brought into the MPLA hierarchy and groomed as successor while other older MPLA loyalists were side-lined.</p>
<p>The collapse of Sonangol and the resultant fallout provided the MPLA stalwarts with the ammunition they needed to undermine him, and the unfolding events at Sonangol blamed on decisions he took were the last straw.</p>
<p>However, in turning to an old military liberation struggle comrade to succeed him, Mr Dos Santos will ensure that the political environment in the country does not fundamentally change as it might have done under the younger, struggle-free Mr Vicente.</p>
<p>Mr Lourenço is old school, old guard, a security man and political commissar who simply does not have the tools needed to reform the closed and repressive political system. By turning to the militaristic, generally paranoid, old guard Mr Dos Santos may have protected his own future, but he has imperilled that of Angola.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Op-Ed: Dos Santos does Angola a disservice

<p>South Africa&#8217;s economy will pick up next year as commodity prices rise and a historic drought eases, according to the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll, but it is still short of the necessary investor confidence to grow faster.</p>
<p>The poll, taken in the past three days and released on Thursday, predicted the economy for Africa&#8217;s most developed nation would expand 1.1 percent next year from 0.4 percent this year, the same consensus forecast made last month.</p>
<p>The latest gross domestic product data for the third quarter showed the economy expanded by only 0.2 percent compared with a revised 3.5 percent in the second quarter.</p>
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<p>Jeffrey Schultz, economist at BNP Paribas, wrote in a note that he expected growth to gain speed next year, but the trends in gross domestic fixed investment remain concerning.</p>
<p>This type of investment is normally capital spending, such as buying new machinery for future production. The private sector makes up nearly two-thirds of the gross domestic fixed investment contribution to GDP.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lack of policy coherence and an increasingly uncertain political environment continue to weigh on both the willingness and ability of domestic corporates to invest meaningfully in the economy,&#8221; Schultz said.</p>
<p>The Johannesburg all-share stock market index has climbed over 90 percent since the 2008/09 recession, but companies have been reluctant to invest in the economy even when their balance sheets are healthy.</p>
<p>That is not a problem just in South Africa. It also affects developed economies like Japan, the United States and United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Lacklustre growth and unsettling political noise has worried the three major ratings agencies this year.</p>
<p>The country got a reprieve last week from Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s and Fitch, which rates South Africa debt just one step above junk. Moody&#8217;s rating is two notches above.</p>
<p>Still, Schultz expects growth to accelerate, boosted mainly by improvements in agriculture and higher commodity prices. Southern Africa is recovering from its worst drought in history, which wilted crops and stoked food inflation.</p>
<p>The country is expected to benefit from slower inflation next year, because the central bank will have room to keep interest rates stable at 7 percent for next year.</p>
<p>Inflation is expected to slow to 5.5 percent for next year &#8211; 0.3 percentage points lower than last month&#8217;s consensus &#8211; from a median 6.3 percent of estimates for this year.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's economy to pick up a bit in 2017

<p>Ghana voted on Wednesday in a presidential election that looks set to be a tight race, with the incumbent John Mahama seeking a second term in charge of an economy that has slowed since he took power.</p>
<p>Lower global prices for Ghana&#8217;s gold, oil and cocoa exports and a fiscal crisis caused the slowdown, which made Mahama&#8217;s government vulnerable to a challenge from the main opposition leader, Nana Akufo-Addo.</p>
<p>For years, Ghana was one of Africa&#8217;s most dynamic economies. But it slumped in 2014 as commodities prices fell, and a fiscal crisis widened the budget deficit and elevated inflation.</p>
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<p>The government denies this and urges voters to stick with it. It is following a $918 million International Monetary Fund programme to restore fiscal balance, and it says growth will return to above 8 percent in 2017 as new oil and gas from Tullow and ENI fields come onstream.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every Ghanaian should exercise their civic responsibility and come out and vote. The destiny of our country depends on it,&#8221; Mahama said as he cast his ballot in the town of Bole, Northern region.</p>
<p>Counting started immediately after polls shut at 5 p.m. (1700 GMT), but with around 29,000 polling stations, official results from the country&#8217;s 275 constituencies across 10 regions are not expected until Thursday.</p>
<p>A run-off between the top two candidates will follow if no candidate wins a majority.</p>
<p>Ghana is considered a beacon of democracy in West Africa, with a history of peaceful elections. The government of the day has lost power twice since 2000.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo, a former foreign minister, voted in his home town of Kibi in the Eastern region, surrounded by supporters.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is my hope and my prayer for victory for myself and my party,&#8221; he said, adding he was satisfied with voting so far.</p>
<p>A crowd at Western Video polling station in the largely Muslim Mamobi neighborhood of Accra watched the count and people cheered when results showed a Mahama win. The polling station forms part of a constituency Mahama&#8217;s NDC won in 2012.</p>
<p>Reports showed few voting problems, said the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers. But voting was re-scheduled for Thursday in Jaman North constituency in Brong Ahafo region because of security concerns and logistical problems.</p>
<p>There are seven presidential contenders, including five minor candidates. In a parallel parliamentary vote, 275 seats are being contested.</p>
<p> (Editing by Tim Cocks)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


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Op-Ed: Five key facts about African consumers

South Africa's Q3 current account deficit widens

Oil minister says Congo Republic oil output to reach 300,000 bpd in 2018 – oil minister

South Africa's Sibanye Gold to buy Stillwater Mining

How Gambia's top brass turned on long-ruling Jammeh

African governments urged to help millions uprooted from their homes

Scientists come across tumour in fossil rarity

Ghana opposition leader wins presidential election – media reports

Nomura's ten grey swan risks to beware of in 2017

Former AfDB President Donald Kaberuka gets new post

Zimbabwe sees 2016 budget deficit nearly 800 pct higher than forecast

Top tips for travelling overseas this festive season

Gauteng Premier and Mayors commit to building an integrated city region

Op-Ed: Dos Santos does Angola a disservice

South Africa's economy to pick up a bit in 2017

As Ghana votes, President Mahama seeks a final term

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