Hi, Quartz Africa readers!
Neocolonial grass
There was an intriguing front page cover by the Angolan newspaper, Expansão, this week. It declared, “Every Angolan owes $745 to China”. It also listed debt to other countries but debt to China was more than seven times what’s owed to the next creditor, Israel. By some estimates Angola owes some $25 billion to China.
The issue for Angola isn’t just that it’s borrowing a lot from China, it’s also the nature of the debt. As Africa’s second largest oil producer, Angola’s agreement with China is such that it uses oil to pay off the debt rather than selling on the open market and generating cash. This is all well and good when oil is $100 but risky when oil prices fall. It has caused a liquidity crisis in the recent past as well as inflation spiking.
Meanwhile in Kenya, as of the end of the first quarter, about 55% of its external debt was to China. A remarkable share to be owed to a single country versus a multilateral agency like the World Bank. This comes as Kenya became the latest African nation to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The growing interest in the multilateral financial institution in Africa points to China’s emergence as a favorite lender rivaling the World Bank.
Some Kenyans are not happy about the trade imbalance with China. “Poor strategy dug Kenya into Chinese trade hole,” was the headline for an op-ed in Kenya’s Standard newspaper this week. The concern is Uhuru Kenyatta’s government and others before had been naive in their lopsided dealings with the Chinese despite the benefits of infrastructure construction and the like.
Much of the discussion around China’s role in Africa is often in the context of Africa as some sort of “neocolonial grass” in a battle between the elephants of United States and China. One of those two countries has to be “winning” or “losing” in Africa while Africans are bystanders in their own countries. As I argued this week on CGTN’s The Heat show, we need to put more of the focus on the role of African leaders and policymakers and look closer at the types of arrangements or agreements they make with Chinese partners.
Many African nations may be very keen, even desperate, for a willing partner to fund infrastructure and much more, but to do so without, for example, guarantees or clauses that encourage or even demand job creation, knowledge transfer and technology transfer is short-sighted. It shouldn’t matter where that partner comes from.
— Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
The case for tightening Africa’s consumer privacy laws. As Europe’s GDPR privacy laws come into play this month it’s worth noting few African nations have or enforce comprehensive data safety laws raising concerns about how users can be protected from breaches. Abdi Latif Dahir reports on why it’s time the continent discuss a framework to harmonize data privacy laws.
Ethiopian Airlines remains indomitable in its plans to control Africa’s skies. Ethiopian Airlines has positioned itself as Africa’s airline more than doubling its aircraft numbers in the last decade and tripled its passenger numbers in that period. This month, it announced another deal to buy even more aircraft and set up various hubs across Africa.
How Cape Town postponed its water shortage crisis until 2019. Up until recently, Cape Town was set to become the first major city to run out of water. But taking into account both man-made and natural conditions helped the city push back the arrival of the ominous date.
The “DIY” cheap drug epidemic devastating Africa’s youth. Unable to access illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin, young people in Africa are turning to cheap and crude concoctions to get high. The problem is getting exacerbated given governments’ inability to provide employment opportunities for increasingly growing populations.
How competition could help disrupt Africa’s expensive remittance fees. It’s expensive to send cash to Africa even though those funds make up a significant source of income for many African families. One way to drive the costs down would be to make regulations less onerous for money transfer agencies.
Nigeria’s professionals are moving in droves to Canada. Despite all the trappings of a middle-class life, well-salaried Nigerians with good jobs are frustrated with the lack of basic amenities and instability of life in their country. Through a combination of economic migration and asylum claims, Yomi Kazeem documents the increasing numbers exiting to Canada through a skilled workers program.
Chart of the Week
Charting South Africa’s post-apartheid struggle to reduce inequality. South Africa is a country engaged in a one-step-forward, two-steps-backward dance, failing to bridge the divide between its rich and, overwhelmingly black, poor since apartheid ended. Lynsey Chutel and Dan Kopf show in charts how the disparity in income, education, and skills persists.
Other Things We Liked
The new technologies curbing poaching in East Africa. Elephant and rhino poaching numbers in Kenya and Tanzania remain at alarming levels worrying conservationists about how to address the onslaught of heavily-armed poachers. In Wired, Clair MacDougall reports on the new technology prototypes that are helping make wildlife reserves poacher-proof.
The South African security squad that evict squatters. The Red Ants are a South African security company that works closely with the police to evict people and demolish illegally occupied houses and lands. In the Guardian, Jason Burke and photographer James Oatway document the controversial company’s operations in photos and videos.
How Wolof-centered television presents hope for Senegal’s movie industry. There are few cinemas in Senegal, and the movie industry, once home to towering figures like Ousmane Sembène, has deteriorated over the last few decades. In Africa is a Country, Avenel Rolfsen writes about how movies produced in Wolof language herald a new moment for the nation.
Keep an eye on
African Utility Week (May 15-17). Africa has an electricity and water problem, and this week, the largest power, energy and water trade conference will take place in Cape Town, South Africa.
Burundi’s constitutional referendum (May 17). More than five million people will vote in a plebiscite that could scrap a current constitutional limit on two presidential terms—essentially allowing president Pierre Nkurunziza to stay in office until 2034.
Ebola vaccines to be shipped to Congo. As the death toll from the outbreak increases, the World Health Organization is expected to send an experimental vaccine that has been shown to be highly effective following approval from Congolese officials.
*This brief was produced while listening to Mother & Child by Sonny Okosun (Nigeria), Happy Mother’s Day!
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, Canadian work permits and China-back loans, to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day. This newsletter was compiled by Abdi Latif Dahir and edited by Yinka Adegoke.
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