NEWSFLASH 7 Newsflash 8 Agenda 9 Psst. . .

FEATURES 10 Ifad’s future threatened by donors’ dispute 13 Ylang-ylang: It’s what makes success smell sweet

15 Guest column: Roberts Browne 16 Letter from Lagos: The rice index

COUNTRY BRIEFINGS

17 Kenya: Ghost workers 18 Lesotho: Development advice from consultants

19 Tanzania: Will there be an IMF deal? 20 Malawi: Rail problems affect sugar movement

21 Mozambique: Gold miners' pay deal?

22 Zambia: Confidential report 23 Senegal: Employment sticking point 24 Cameroon: Yaounde seeks to entice investors

25 Uganda: Forex free-for-all ends

27 Gabon: Five-year plan 28 Ethiopia: Rural development

INDEX A B ’s 1984 index pull-out

AGRICULTURE 29 Coffee-production risks; sisal aid

BANKING & FINANCE 31 Ten fat years for Nigeria's merchant banks; Zambian farmers' credit

BOOKS 32 Ethiopia: The return of the red velvet chair

CONSTRUCTION 34 Self-help for Zimbabwe homeless; briefs

ENERGY 35 Kenya oil prospecting

LABOUR

36 Unions & food production; Zambia reinstates collective bargaining

MANUFACTURING &TECHNOLOGY 37 Togo’s steel investment 38 Ghana concrete; Microcomputers for management; Kenya’s new distillery

MARKET NETWORK 39 Japanese countertrade; Nigeria & the tape pirates

MINING 40 Sudan gold; Ghana's gold smugglers

41 Guinea alumina plant; Devaluation cuts Zaire diamond smugglers’ profits

TRANSPORT &COMMUNICATIONS 42 Ghana's iron road to recovery; Congo & Norway sail together

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SURVEY 45 Overview: Telecoms helps narrow the knowledge gap

47 The Challenge: The advances are incalculable 49 Telecoms & Health: Swaziland's mobile unit 50 Work in Progress: East-West links must bridge the centre 51 Appropriate Technology: “Get together to bargain & buy"

CONTENTS

1 4 At least one third I of Ifad’s seed money is for African agriculture. But this multinational aid body is in danger of breaking apart as Western donors and the oil producers who set up the fund squabble over how much should be paid, and in what proportion. AB investigates the stormy past and the uncertain future.

BAXTER

O 4 Mozambique has little stomach for ^ I dependence on South Africa, but force of circumstance has led them to ask for morejobs in the mines. A O There’s not much H O spectacle and razzamatazz in an efficient telephone system, but its effect on the economy is much greater than more spectacular high-cost infrastructure like dams and skyscrapers. AB’s survey looks at the obstacles to bringing African telecommunications out of the age of colonialism.

BARRY