Compiled by Alexa Dalby BRIEFS
“Itwasn’tme,itwasthelake”
40%
Online shopping in South Africa is showing phenomenal growth of between 30% and 40% annually
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Lake Kivu set to power Rwanda
»Situated on Rwanda’s western border, Lake Kivu seems innocent. It is both a prominent food source and – increasingly – a tourist hot spot.
But the lake stores 60bn cubic metres of methane gas, susceptible to underwater eruptions. From time to time, it degasses. Not only does the “degassing” keep the lake safe, it provides electricity for the region. Rwanda launched a pilot project to extract methane gas from the lake and use it as a power source.
Although the project is still in the early stages, the lake has the power to produce up to 800 megawatts.
The methane is 250 metres underneath the lake, and to extract it, engineers lower a pipe to just about the layer of dissolved gas. Once captured, the gas is purified and dried. Overall, it’s a cheap method of creating electricity.
Recent African M&A deals Aquirer Target Value Steinhoff Pepkor $5.7bn American Tower BhartiAirtel $1.2bn
SABMiller Coca
Cola $260m
Axa Mansard $250m Carlyle TiAuto $180m* Carlyle Diamond
Bank $150m
Sipa Resources Geocrust $0.5m
*Estimated
AWARDS Cameroon’s young inventor honoured Arthur Zang was a winner of the prestigious Rolex Awards for Enterprise and received $56,000 for inventing what may be Africa’s first medical tablet. The Cardiopad is a digital medical touchscreen tablet that performs electrocardiogram (ECG) tests. It can be used even in rural locations because it has a long battery life and can send test results to specialists using cellphones.
AUTO E Africans race to build hybrid vehicle Uganda has beaten Kenya in producing East Africa’s first hybrid vehicle. The Kiira EV SMART, developed at Kiira Motors Corporation, will be the region’s first sedan hybrid electronic vehicle. The prototype will go into mass production by 2018, estimated cost $30,000.
A hybrid electronic vehicle combines internal combustion engine propulsion with electronic propulsion for better and economical use of fuel and performance. Braking turns the heat that is produced into energy that charges the battery.
MINERALS Tanzania to ban gems exports Tanzania will temporarily ban exports of gemstones to strengthen the domestic market and transform Arusha into a gemstone centre. Tanzania is No. 2 in the world for natural resources and is renowned for tanzanite, tsavorite, spinel, sapphire, ruby and garnet.
TAXATION Ghana fixes self-assessment date The Ghana Revenue Authority has fixed 2017 to expand its Self-Assessment Scheme to cover every taxpayer in the country, aimed at encouraging voluntary compliance and partnership with taxpayers, and reducing costs of collection.
AROUND AFRICA THIS MONTH
Namibia Namibians voted in Africa’s first electronic ballot. Nine candidates ran for the presidency, and 16 parties contested the National Assembly elections. President Pohamba was succeeded by Prime Minister Hage Geingob (inset) of the ruling SWAPO party, who won 87% of the vote.
Angola The 2nd Africa Urban Infrastructure Investment Forum will be hosted early this year in Luanda by AfricanBusinessmagazine and IC Events in collaboration with United Cities and
Local Governments of Africa (UCLG-A), and supported by the UN-Habitat. For more information: www.
ic-events.net
Nigeria Nigerian company Innoson unveiled the first madein-Nigeria cars – IVM Umu, IVM Umu and IVM Uzo – manufactured at the company’s Nnewi plant in Anambra State, southeast Nigeria. 70% of the parts used in manufacturing the cars were locally sourced, heralding the emergence of a local car manufacturing industry in Nigeria.
Uganda Uganda, East Africa’s third-largest economy after Kenya and Tanzania, revised its estimate of gross domestic product up by 13% for the last fiscal year after the statistics agency changed the base year for the calculation from 2002 to 2009–10, GDP was $24.6bn at current market prices to June 2014, compared with an earlier estimate of $21.5bn.
Rwanda The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) plans to issue 25m new Rwf2,000 ($2.90) and 10m new Rwf5,000 ($7.10) notes to replace the existing banknotes. The French language will be removed from the back of the notes and the English language will remain. Kinyarwanda will still be printed on the front of the notes.
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African Business | January 2015