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<p>Steinhoff shares fell a further 3 per cent in early morning trade but has since recovered on the news that creditors would have to wait a little longer to find out who has been nominated to receive consent fees. Zwelakhe Mnguni, Chief Investment Officer at Benguela Global Fund Managers, says that Steinhoff is not the only company on the JSE we should be worried about.</p>


Why investors should watch out about these JSE listed companies

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<p>CNBC Africa’s Fifi Peters spoke to one of the youngest Idols SA winners in its 14-year history &#8211; 2018 Idols SA winner Yanga Sobetwa about her future plans in the music industry.</p>


Idols SA’s Yanga Sobetwa to pursue career in gospel music

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<p>Are cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, Blockchain all puff or do they hold value? Joining CNBC Africa to discuss this is Rob Jesudason, Block.one President, who has just kicked off the Grand Finale of its EOS Global Hackathon series in Cape Town this week where three African teams are competing.</p>


Blockchain: Hype or a technology that will redefine the internet & society?

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<p>Ted Blom, Partner at Mining and Energy Advisory joins CNBC Africa to dig deeper into the problems at Eskom.</p>


Ted Blom urges radical restructuring to save Eskom

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<p>CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kopano Gumbi spoke to Zwelakhe Mnguni, Chief Investment officer at Benguela Group about the ripple effect that the Steinhoff Saga has brought on.</p>


Benguela’s Zwelakhe Mnguni on lessons from Steinhoff saga

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-elizabeth-gannon-601360">By Kate Elizabeth Gannon</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-economics-and-political-science-1219">London School of Economics and Political Science</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/declan-conway-434384">Declan Conway</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-economics-and-political-science-1219">London School of Economics and Political Science</a></em></p>
<p>Climate change is going to have huge consequences all over the world, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">especially in Africa</a>. Harvests will be affected, threatening agricultural outputs. This could hurt farmers and lead to greater food insecurity.</p>
<p>But there hasn’t been much discussion about what effects climate change will have in other areas – like in the continent’s small and medium business sector. This is a worrying oversight.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/business-experience-of-floods-and-droughtrelated-water-and-electricity-supply-disruption-in-three-cities-in-subsaharan-africa-during-the-20152016-el-nino/4E87FAB6F1703FB2558CB2D0EE9845E2">research</a>, conducted in Zambia and Botswana, revealed that businesses activities faced major disruptions during the 2015/2016 El Niño event. This was a result of drought-related water supply disruption in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, and disruption to hydroelectricity supplies in Zambia’s capital Lusaka.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.livescience.com/3650-el-nino.html">El Niño</a> is one of the key drivers of variations in global climate conditions between different years. It recurs every two to seven years and it’s typically associated with reduced rainfall and drought conditions in southern Africa.</p>
<p>Reflecting this trend, the 2015/2016 El Niño was one of the <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0009.1">strongest on record</a>. It brought widespread drought conditions and heat waves to the region.</p>
<p>By impacting urban water and hydroelectricity supplies, this had major consequences for business activities in Gaborone and Lusaka, as our research shows. These cities’ experiences should serve as a warning for others across the continent, and systems should be put in place to protect particularly small businesses from the worst realities of a changing climate.</p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>In Botswana, as lake levels in the Gaborone Dam dropped to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017EF000680/full#">historical lows</a>, businesses in Gaborone experienced decreased water pressure. In some cases businesses were completely cut off from piped water supply.</p>
<p>Lack of water for food preparation, butchery, irrigation, laundry, cleaning and sanitation had dire consequences for businesses such as hotels and guesthouses, restaurants, food businesses and other service industries. Hairdressers and car washing enterprises, for instance, came to a standstill as they struggled to provide services to customers or to maintain hygiene standards.</p>
<p>In Zambia’s capital Lusaka, where hydropower accounts for <a href="https://www.hydropower.org/country-profiles/zambia">94%</a> of the country’s electricity generation capacity, low lake levels in Lake Kariba contributed to unprecedented electricity blackouts, often lasting for eight hours at a time.</p>
<p>In Lusaka, activities reliant on electricity such as manufacturing, processing and communications were interrupted as equipment was immobilised. Assets were lost because they couldn’t be reliably heated or refrigerated. In both cities, supply chains were disrupted.</p>
<figure><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nu5pjijFFa4?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">A video explaining the authors’ findings.</span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>Infrastructure issues</h2>
<p>Towards the end of 2016, as El Niño drew to a close, more than half of the 135 micro, small and medium enterprises we surveyed in Gaborone and Lusaka told us their profits would be lower than previous years. Almost a third believed that their business was at risk of closing down. Business owners said disruptions to water supply and power outages, in Gaborone and Lusaka respectively, were the greatest obstacles to them doing business.</p>
<p>The two cities’ experiences, alongside the widely reported “<a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/will-day-zero-loom-again-for-cape-town-20181005">Day Zero</a>” water situation in Cape Town, South Africa, should sound a warning for businesses elsewhere on the continent. Water shortages in Cape Town began during the El Niño, but extended into 2018 as drought conditions persisted.</p>
<hr />
<p><em><br />
<strong><br />
Read more:<br />
<a href="http://theconversation.com/day-zero-is-meant-to-cut-cape-towns-water-use-what-is-it-and-is-it-working-92055">Day Zero is meant to cut Cape Town&#8217;s water use: what is it, and is it working?</a><br />
</strong><br />
</em></p>
<hr />
<p>Climate change events like droughts are only going to get worse – and urban centres where many small, medium and micro enterprises thrive will be in the eye of the storm. The 2015/2016 El Niño highlighted that even fairly moderate changes in rainfall can have major consequences for businesses in African cities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/urbanization-sub-saharan-africa">More people are moving to cities</a>, setting up businesses and connecting, often for the first time, to water and electricity grids. This increases demand and places pressure on existing water and energy infrastructure.</p>
<p>At the same time, a complex set of factors has limited the development of new infrastructure and the effective management of existing resources. This means cities are struggling to keep up with the increased demand.</p>
<p>These factors, which include under-investment in infrastructure, policy uncertainty, governance challenges and poor municipal service provision, exacerbated the effect of drought in Botswana, Zambia and South Africa.</p>
<h2>Preparing for a new reality</h2>
<p>So what can be done to address these realities?</p>
<p>First, action is needed across sub-Saharan Africa to increase understanding of the vulnerabilities in existing water, energy and urban infrastructure – alongside the effects of increasing urbanisation and a changing climate.</p>
<p>And, second, small and medium sized businesses, which are <a href="https://www.norfund.no/getfile.php/133983-1484571386/Bilder/Publications/SME%20and%20growth%20MENON%20.pdf">key drivers of economic growth across sub-Saharan Africa</a> and provide many people with a livelihood, need more support from governments and policy makers to help them cope with disruption.</p>
<p>This should include better access to information about the timing and severity of anticipated disruption to water and electricity supplies, as well as support to invest in coping strategies such as alternative sources of energy.</p>
<p><em>Patrick Curran, a policy analyst at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, also contributed to this article.</em><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107373/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-elizabeth-gannon-601360">Kate Elizabeth Gannon</a>, Postdoctoral researcher, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-economics-and-political-science-1219">London School of Economics and Political Science</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/declan-conway-434384">Declan Conway</a>, Professorial Research Fellow, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-economics-and-political-science-1219">London School of Economics and Political Science</a></em></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/small-businesses-in-africa-will-be-on-the-frontline-of-climate-change-107373">original article</a>.</p>

What are the consequences climate change will have on small businesses in Africa?

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<p>Norway&#8217;s Prime Minister Erna Solberg believes that a free trade agreement across the continent could spark much needed intra-African growth. She spoke to CNBC Africa&#8217;s Arnold Segawa.</p>


Prime Minister Erna Solberg on strengthening intra-Africa trade

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<p>More than half of the country&#8217;s middle income people in South Africa spend their monthly salaries in less than five days after getting paid. This is according to data compiled by FNB&#8217;s retail segment. This report found that due to this a lot of people sacrifices some important areas like saving for emergencies and heavily rely on credit to see them through the month. This research also found that more than 40 per cent of those people have to service debt with more than half of their take-home. CNBC Africa is joined by Wealth Coach and TNC Wealth Partners, Samke Mhlongo.</p>


FNB: SA’s middle income consumers spend their monthly income in less than 5 days

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<p>A report recently done on the brain drain South Africa faces reflects that majority of executives who are mainly black are likely to consider leaving the country and working overseas. This figures come at a time when South Africa battles balancing racial and gender representation in high level management positions. Jack Hammer Executive Report investigated the leadership in South Africa and greater African landscape. Advaitha Naidoo, COO at Jack Hammer joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Majority of black SA executives moving abroad for work – report

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<p>The chief regulator of consumer-business interaction in South Africa, National Consumer Commission has released a report into investigations of owning timeshare or vocational ownership. The inquiry conducted during 2017 looked into the industry which contributes about 3.5 billion rands in South Africa&#8217;s GDP. Nationwide public hearings had testimonies from owners of timeshares, club developers and resort owners among many. Commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Timeshare inquiry report released

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<p>Last night the long anticipated brawl between minority shareholders in search of value and GPI management took place. Mohsin Tajbhai, Chief Operating officer of GPI joins CNBC Africa to discuss how events unfolded.</p>


GPI admits Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins was a mistake, looking to exit

<p>Ruth Umoh</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/05/how-nigerian-aliko-dangote-became-the-worlds-richest-black-person.html">How this Nigerian became the richest black person in the world</a><br />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cdn.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/07130219/105608495-1543947913488aliko.1910x1000.jpg" alt="" height="1000" width="1910" data-licensor-name=""/></p>
<p>
Nigerians take the lead on lists of black billionaires, and one, Aliko Dangote, takes the top spots.  </p>
<p>With an estimated net worth of $10.3 billion, according to Bloomberg, the Dangote Group founder is the richest man in Africa. According to Forbes, he&#8217;s also the richest black person in the world. Most of the entrepreneur&#8217;s wealth derives from his 85.2 percent majority stake in Dangote Cement, which is the largest cement producer in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>First launched in 1981, the Dangote Group now owns and operates more than 18 subsidiaries across a range of industries, including Dangote Cement, Dangote Flour and Dangote Sugar.</p>
<p>The 61-year-old billionaire credits much of his success to his maternal grandfather, who instilled a business mindset into Dangote at a young age. At just eight years old, Dangote would buy sweets with his allowance, which he&#8217;d give people to sell for a profit.</p>
<p>&#8220;When you are raised by an entrepreneurial parent or grandparent you pick that aspiration,&#8221; he told Forbes in 2015. &#8220;It makes you be much more aggressive — to think anything is possible.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dangote&#8217;s entrepreneurial interests followed him into adulthood. In 1977, he graduated with a business degree from Egypt&#8217;s Al-Azhar University. When he returned to Nigeria, Dangote moved to Lagos, one of Africa&#8217;s wealthiest cities and the country&#8217;s largest financial center.</p>
<p>Using a $500,000 loan from his uncle, Dangote began trading in commodities such as bagged cement and agricultural goods like rice and sugar. These business ventures became so successful that he was able to repay his uncle within three months of starting the operation.</p>
<p>In 1999, Dangote shifted to manufacturing, building sugar refineries and a flour mill. When Dangote Sugar first debuted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2010, sales had quadrupled to $450 million, according to Forbes, making it the largest sugar refinery in Africa and by some estimates, the second largest in the world. Similarly, Dangote Flour tripled revenue to $270 million.</p>
<p>Dangote describes his professional journey as &#8220;exciting,&#8221; but notes that he&#8217;s also encountered obstacles along the way. Overcoming these challenges, he told Forbes Africa, required big thinking and an innovative approach. &#8220;You have to dream big to be able to be big and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re doing,&#8221; said Dangote, who&#8217;s now building an oil refinery that&#8217;s projected to cost around $14 billion.</p>
<p>For his part, Dangote says he&#8217;s driven by the impact he can have on humanity. In fact, he&#8217;s also one of Africa&#8217;s top philanthropists. &#8220;You&#8217;d like to be remembered for things that you&#8217;ve actually done,&#8221; he told Forbes. &#8220;We Africans are the only ones that can make Africa great.&#8221;</p>
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<p>Accounting professionals are well equipped to step into the entrepreneurial arena. This is according to Mushambi Mutuma, professional speaker and business leader and he joins CNBC Africa to break down the tools you need to succeed.</p>


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<p>Evelyn Motsatsing, Deputy CEO of a leading defence and security company, Saab Grintek Defence joins CNBC Africa for a look into what drives her career in the South African defence market.</p>


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<p>Sheila Sisulu shares fond memories of the late struggle icon Nelson Mandela with CNBC Africa&#8217;s Lubabalo Mashiqana.</p>


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<p>Natasha Turak</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/05/egypts-pound-set-to-weaken-as-banks-deplete-their-foreign-currency-reserves.html">Egypt&#8217;s pound set to weaken as banks deplete their foreign currency reserves</a></p>
<ul>
<li>Egypt’s state banks have reportedly been propping up the Egyptian pound by selling their foreign exchange assets &#8212; a strategy that can only last a few more months, economists warn. </li>
<li>While the pound has performed well versus its emerging market counterparts, capital flight out of Egypt has seen foreign holdings of Egyptian treasury bonds drop by $8 billion and the stock market fall by 30 percent. </li>
<li>Rather than intervening itself &#8212; a move that would draw criticism from the International Monetary Fund &#8212; the central bank has leaned on state-owned banks to sell its foreign currency assets to offset that pressure, bankers in the country say.</li>
</ul>
<p/>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cdn.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/07130244/105097713-Egypt_al-Sisi.1910x1000.jpg" alt="" height="1000" width="1910" data-licensor-name="MOHAMED EL-SHAHED | AFP | Getty Images"/></p>
<p>
Egypt  state banks have reportedly been propping up the Egyptian pound by selling their foreign exchange assets &#8212; a strategy that can only last a few more months, economists warn.</p>
<p>The pound has performed notably well compared to its other emerging market counterparts, falling only one percent against the dollar this year amid a wider EM sell-off. It has held between 17.78 and 17.98 to the dollar over the last six months, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>But capital flight out of Egypt has seen foreign holdings of Egyptian treasury bonds drop by $8 billion and the stock market fall by 30 percent, pressuring the currency.</p>
<p>Rather than intervening itself &#8212; a move that would draw swift rebuke from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which in 2016 provided the country a $12 billion loan package &#8212; the central bank has leaned on state-owned banks to sell its foreign currency assets to offset that pressure, bankers and economists say. But propping up the pound by meeting that demand for hard currency has also meant a sharp and unsustainable drop in banks&#8217; foreign assets, according to economic consultancy Capital Economics.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult to know for how long this process could be sustained. At the current rate of depletion, banks would exhaust their FX assets in eight months,&#8221; the consultancy wrote in a note published Tuesday, describing Egypt&#8217;s commercial banks as having &#8220;depleted their own FX assets.&#8221;</p>
<p>Between April and September of this year, banks&#8217; foreign assets nearly halved, falling from $20.61 billion in April to $12.15 billion in September, their lowest level since early 2017. Reports of state-owned banks serving as the main suppliers of foreign currency may indicate backdoor intervention by the government, analysts have said.</p>
<p>Two primary options</p>
<p>This presents two possible scenarios, Capital Economics wrote. One would be to allow the pound to weaken in order to balance foreign exchange supply within the country. This wouldn&#8217;t be a massive shock to the currency thanks to previous austerity measures and that fact that it is not currently overvalued.</p>
<p>The other would be for the authorities to maintain a tight hold over the pound, using the central bank&#8217;s foreign reserves to support the currency &#8211; something Egypt&#8217;s central bank &#8220;is in a strong position to do for a limited period of time,&#8221; according to the consultancy.</p>
<p>But this would send a negative message about the government&#8217;s commitment to a freely floated pound. It would also make Egypt&#8217;s exports less competitive, tilting the balance in favor of imports and thereby widening the current account deficit, the degree to which a country&#8217;s imports exceed its exports.</p>
<p>Given the negative response that controlling the currency would likely garner from the IMF, Egypt is likely to let its currency weaken, the consultancy said. &#8220;Overall, we expect the pound to fall from 17.9/$ at present to 19/$ by the end of next year and to 20/$ by end-2020.&#8221;</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cdn.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/05090235/105076652-GettyImages-924339106.1910x1000.jpg" alt="" height="1000" width="1910" data-licensor-name="Khaled Desouki | AFP | Getty Images"/></p>
<p>Meanwhile, the country of 97 million is targeting a 6.5 percent growth for the 2019/2020 fiscal year, up from 5.3 percent this year, and in 2018 enjoyed its highest economic growth in a decade.</p>
<p>The<br />
lofty macro figures<br />
 stem from a number of IMF-imposed structural reforms implemented by the Egyptian government since late 2016, alongside the international lender&#8217;s $12 billion loan. Egypt floated its currency, began reducing subsidies and raising taxes, and enacted a series of investment reforms.</p>
<p>But the cost of these austerity measures has been steep. Not long after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi&#8217;s election in 2014 and the subsequent IMF loan — unlocked after Egypt unpegged its currency, the pound, triggering its 50 percent crash against the dollar — basic costs for Egyptians skyrocketed.</p>
<p>Poverty is on the rise, currently at nearly 28 percent, up from 25 percent in 2010 according to the World Bank, and wages have not kept up with the rise in living costs. Crime, corruption and pollution, as well as inadequate social services provision, continue to plague the country&#8217;s surging population. The World Bank cites high inflation and the erosion of real incomes as having &#8220;taken a toll on social and economic conditions.&#8221;</p>


Egypt’s pound set to weaken as banks deplete their foreign currency reserves

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<p>These were among the starling findings mentioned by renowned economist Dr Roelof Botha discussing the Afrimat Construction Index for the third quarter of 2018 with CNBC Africa’s Godfrey Mutizwa.</p>


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Africa

Why investors should watch out about these JSE listed companies

Idols SA’s Yanga Sobetwa to pursue career in gospel music

Blockchain: Hype or a technology that will redefine the internet & society?

Ted Blom urges radical restructuring to save Eskom

Benguela’s Zwelakhe Mnguni on lessons from Steinhoff saga

What are the consequences climate change will have on small businesses in Africa?

Prime Minister Erna Solberg on strengthening intra-Africa trade

FNB: SA’s middle income consumers spend their monthly income in less than 5 days

Majority of black SA executives moving abroad for work – report

Timeshare inquiry report released

GPI admits Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins was a mistake, looking to exit

How this Nigerian became the richest black person in the world

Mushambi Mutuma on why accountants should delve into entrepreneurship

SA women compete in male dominated security & defence market

Sheila Sisulu shares fond memories of the late struggle icon Nelson Mandela

Egypt’s pound set to weaken as banks deplete their foreign currency reserves

Economist Botha: Cost of capital in SA up by 80% since Gill Marcus left the Reserve Bank, here’s why

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