Local assembly plants in Ethiopia’s fledgling auto industry plan to begin exporting cars in a couple of years in a market dominated by Chinese brands — part of an effort to industrialize the agrarian economy, Reuters reports.
It’s a grand ambition for the tiny auto industry, transforming a handful of assemblers that bolt together imported kits into a network of factories that can make the country Africa’s biggest car manufacturer over the next two decades.
If it succeeds, it won’t be the first time Ethiopia delivers on an ambitious goal. With one of Africa’s fastest growing economies for more than a decade, Ethiopia has pulled off the Grand Ethiopian dam and others that helped make it an electricity exporter.
Ethiopia’s expanding transport network includes the successful Ethiopian Airlines, the largest and fastest growing African airline, according to GhanaWeb. Ethiopian Airlines won the African Airline of the Year Award 2016 at the 25th Anniversary African Aviation Air Finance Africa Conference & Exhibit in Johannesburg.
This year, a railway will link the landlocked country, population 97 million, to Djibouti port where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean, providing a cheap and fast way to import raw materials and export finished goods.
“The aim is to become a leading manufacturing hub in Africa,” said State Minister for Industry Tadesse Haile in a Reuters interview. “We want to become the top producer of cars on the continent in 15 or 20 years.”
In industrial zones around Addis Ababa and the northern city of Mekelle, Ethiopian firms and Chinese partners assemble vehicle kits. Theey imported 38,000 assembled cars in 2015, a 50 percent-plus increase over 2014.
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ANC denies walkout on Zuma
JOHANNESBURG – The ANC in Gauteng is rejecting any suggestion that some of its members deliberately walked out of FNB Stadium as President Jacob Zuma addressed them on Saturday.
The provincial structure also says that filling the stadium was never a priority but that it was the only venue big enough to accommodate supporters attending the party’s provincial manifesto launch.
As for those who left during the speeches, “we know that generally, even at funerals, towards the end people — because maybe of a comfort breaker, hunger, anxiety about buses — may actually leave before time,” said ANC Gauteng deputy secretary Gwen Ramokgopa.
At its peak, at about 3pm, the ANC Gauteng manifesto launch rally was, in fact, well attended. Not quite, ‘hash-tag #FillUpFNBFull, as the party had hyped it up to be but full enough for the provincial leadership to make bold claims.
“As Gauteng President Zuma, we welcome you! Comrades I want to announce the latest numbers, 85,350. We’ve now included the suites,” said ANC Gauteng deputy chairperson David Makhura.
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Aviation: Major airlines pulling out of Nigeria
Major international airlines are deserting Nigeria citing the free-falling local currency and an economic crisis that has seen government introducing tighter foreign currency exchange controls.
United Airlines, the third largest United States based carrier by revenue, has become the latest airline to pull out of the West African economic giant with its flights ceasing by June 30.
The airliner cited reduced revenue, which has been blamed on the deteriorating value of the naira and tight currency controls by the government as some of the reasons for the decision to stop flying to Nigeria.
United Airlines followed on the footsteps of British Airways, Spanish national airline Iberia, Air France-KLM, Qatar Air, and Etihad, who were also unsettled by the Nigerian government’s given restrictions on the repatriation of revenues on tickets sold in naira.
Nigeria has struggled with dwindling foreign reserves due to the downturn in the energy sector as oil prices dropped globally.
The government, in a bid to manage foreign exchange outflows, placed restrictions after it limited money transfers out of Nigeria. The policy has hit international carriers hard as their funds have been trapped funds at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), international are owed about $575 million by the central bank.
Sources have also revealed that the international airlines have been going through a hard time as they were not able to record a “high load factor”.
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Ethiopia Wants To Be Africa’s No. 1 Auto Manufacturer
Local assembly plants in Ethiopia’s fledgling auto industry plan to begin exporting cars in a couple of years in a market dominated by Chinese brands — part of an effort to industrialize the agrarian economy, Reuters reports.
It’s a grand ambition for the tiny auto industry, transforming a handful of assemblers that bolt together imported kits into a network of factories that can make the country Africa’s biggest car manufacturer over the next two decades.
If it succeeds, it won’t be the first time Ethiopia delivers on an ambitious goal. With one of Africa’s fastest growing economies for more than a decade, Ethiopia has pulled off the Grand Ethiopian dam and others that helped make it an electricity exporter.
Ethiopia’s expanding transport network includes the successful Ethiopian Airlines, the largest and fastest growing African airline, according to GhanaWeb. Ethiopian Airlines won the African Airline of the Year Award 2016 at the 25th Anniversary African Aviation Air Finance Africa Conference & Exhibit in Johannesburg.
This year, a railway will link the landlocked country, population 97 million, to Djibouti port where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean, providing a cheap and fast way to import raw materials and export finished goods.
In industrial zones around Addis Ababa and the northern city of Mekelle, Ethiopian firms and Chinese partners assemble vehicle kits. Theey imported 38,000 assembled cars in 2015, a 50 percent-plus increase over 2014.
Source
Africa Energy: China, Russia and South Korea In Race To Build Kenya’s Nuclear Plant
In less than 24 hours this week Kenya signed two pacts on nuclear energy cooperation with South Korea and Russia, setting the stage for a dead-heat race against China to clinch the east Africa nation’s forthcoming nuclear energy development contract.
The first deal was in Moscow on May 30, 2016 where Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom Deputy Director Nikolai Spasskiy and Deputy Head of the Kenyan Embassy to Russia Hillary N. Kyengo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that involves the creation of a working group to identify peaceful nuclear projects and also continue consultations on the possibility of building the first nuclear power plant in Kenya.
A day later and thousands of miles away in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi host President Uhuru Kenyatta and Korean President Park Geun-Hye witnessed the signing of a nuclear corporation pact after they held bilateral talks.
The MOU on electric power and nuclear energy development was signed by Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter and Korean Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Joo Hyunghwan.
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