Zimbabwe's outlying areas get $45m in tobacco revenue

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Tuesday 15 July 2014Feedback: [email protected]: [email protected]

By Tawanda Musarurwa

The outlying areas of Karoi, Rusape and Mvurwi have directly benefit-ted from around $45 million contract tobacco revenue due to Mashonaland Tobacco Company's de-centralisation of the crop's marketing

MTC managing director Kenneth Langley told the Parliamentary Port-folio Committee on Lands, Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation this morn-ing that the decision to de-centralise marketing had extended financial ben-efits to areas outside the capital.

"The de-centralisation of marketing has had a huge impact on the communities where this has happened.

What is happening is that the sales pro-ceeds from the sales is now being spent in those areas instead of being spent in Harare and this has had a direct impact on business operations in the three centres where we have markets, which are Karoi, Rusape and Mvurwi.

"And the gross value of tobacco sold across those three areas this year is in the region of $45 million, that's $45 million which is now being spent in those communities," said Langley.

Besides the financial gain, Langley said the de-centralisation resulted in effi-ciency benefits for the tobacco farm-ers in these areas and also reduced instances of side-marketing.

"Mashonaland Tobacco Company is the only contractor who has de-centralised the buying of tobacco.

We have taken out buying centres to our main growing areas and there are particular advantages for the farmer in that it provides an efficient marketing place for his product. This saves time and expense in travelling to Harare."

He however pointed out that the com-pany had no plans to open new mar-keting centres in other parts of the country.

There have been concerns that the new dominance of contract tobacco farming could threaten the viability of auction floors and figures provided by MTC seem to confirm the new direc-tion tobacco farming in Zimbabwe is headed. •

Outlying areas get $45m in tobacco revenue

2 NEWS

MTC is the largest single contractor for small-scale tobacco farmers, with 2 435 small-scale growers having being contracted for the current season. Dur-ing the same period, the company also

had 214 medium-scale growers and 35 large-scale growers. Langley said the contract system helps them to guaran-tee the volumes required by their local and international clientele.

He said contract tobacco farming also offers them traceability of the output in order to meet the stringent require-ments set by global buyers as relates banned chemicals and issues of child

labour. Mashonaland Tobacco Com-pany - a subsidiary of Alliance One International - is a tobacco processor and is one of the 19 tobacco contactors operating in Zimbabwe. •

Wildlife administrators in Zimbabwe asked the U.S. government to lift a temporary ban on ivory imports from the southern African nation immedi-ately, the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said.

The U.S. banned imports of ivory from Zimbabwe and Tanzania in February, citing concern over whether the ele-phant populations were sustainable.

Zimbabwe sent the U.S. Fish and Wild-life Service information it requested to help make decide on the ban more than six weeks ago, Caroline Wash-aya-Moyo, spokeswoman for the authority, said by phone yesterday from Harare, the capital.

As one of the so-called big-five African animals, elephants form an important part of Zimbabwe’s hunting industry, which earned $360.1 million from 2005 to 2009, the authority said in a paper presented to a U.S. congres-

sional hearing June 24.

The authority says the 97,500 ele-phants in the nation, which is slightly bigger than the U.S. state of Mon-tana, destroy trees and food supplies needed for other species.

“As yet, no effort has been made to lift the ban that they based on what they said was inadequate information,” Itai Hilary Tendaupenyu, the authority’s principal ecologist, wrote in the paper. “Now that they have had time to view the information we provided, Zimba-bwe would like to see the ban lifted immediately.”

The authority receives no direct fund-ing from the government, Tendau-penyu said.

Hunting Contribution Elephant hunt-ing contributes more than $14 million a year and “not less than 55 percent” of the income from sport hunting goes

directly to the poor, rural communities where wildlife is often their only source of income, according to the report. This type of hunting generally takes place in areas that are too hot, dry and inaccessible for agriculture, it said.

A client will pay about $30,000 in per-mit fees and for the hire of a profes-

sional hunter to get an elephant.

A lion kill will probably cost a hunter about $55,000, according to the authority’s guidelines. The big five game animals are lions, elephants, Cape buffalos, leopards and rhinos.

Zimbabwe’s elephant population is concentrated in the northwest of the country, the Zambezi valley and the southern Lowveld region, all areas unsuitable for agriculture, the author-ity said.

“If hunting is no longer an economi-cally viable form of land use, com-munities will choose pastoralism and unviable agriculture, which reduces habitat available for elephants,” Tend-aupenyu said.

“Local communities will only find an incentive to protect elephants if they can derive economic value from such a resource.” - Bloomberg •

Zimbabwe wants U.S. to lift ivory-import ban immediately

4 NEWS

Zimbabwe needs a clear procurement frameworkBy Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

Government needs a clear procure-ment framework to ensure that the local productive sector can easily compete with entities from other countries, Parliamentarians heard today.

Giving oral evidence to the Parlia-mentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, Buy Zim-babwe general manager Munyaradzi Hwengwere said the county has no clear legislative provisions on pro-curement which meant that most goods and services are being pro-cured from other countries.

“We have a weak procurement framework in the country. Within the Indigenisation framework, there is a requirement that at least 50 percent of procurement by the public sector must be from indigenous entities but that provision has no relationship to any other statutory provision and there is no implementation frame-work for that,” he said.

He said even loans being given to the public sector come attached with con-tractors from those countries giving the loan so at the end of the day, the money returns to its original country and Zimbabweans are left with noth-ing. He said Government should also

improve clarity on activities that hap-pen around the State Procurement Board so that it can be easy to meas-ure the extent to which companies, and even Parliament, are procuring locally.

Hwengwere added that products from other countries can come into Zim-babwe without meeting any quality standard, unlike South Africa, where every order needs clearance from a standards regulatory body.

He said Government should ensure that products that come into the country have the same quality and standards as those produced locally

to even the ground for local players.

“The United States dollar is 17 to 24 percent overvalued against the South African rand, where we get about 42 percent of our major imports. So that would mean that companies using the US dollar operate at about 24 per-cent above companies that operate in South Africa and that their prices are generally more expensive,” he said.

He added that Government should also tighten border posts and clamp down on dumping of goods into the country so that all goods and services that come into Zimbabwe meet a cer-tain quality threshold.

Four Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed companies face suspension from the bourse after failing to pay annual listing fees amounting to $23 000 for last year, the exchange said on Tues-day.

These are Art Holdings, Celsys Limited, Border Timbers and RioZim. ZSE chief executive Alban Chirume said the firms

had been given up to July 29 to settle their obligations.

“In the event that the fees remained unsettled by 29 July, 2014, the ZSE shall make an application for the sus-pension in the trading of the companies’ shares on the ZSE,” Chirume said in a statement. Border Timbers owes the bourse $13 294, RioZim $5 000, Celsys

$3 000 and ART Holdings $2 000. “The fees were due on June 30, 2013 and the issuers are therefore in breach of listing requirements,” Chirume said.

“Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to recover the fees.” He urged investors to tread with caution when trading in the shares of the four companies. An increasingly difficult eco-

nomic situation is impacting on most listed companies which has resulted in firms failing to adhere with ZSE listing rules.

In 2013, 10 firms were delisted while five firms were suspended. A total of 66 companies with a total capitalisation of over $4 billion are listed on the ZSE. — New Ziana •

Four ZSE listed firms face suspension

6 AGRICULTURE

By Funny Hedzerema

An oversupply in tobacco on the global market could be the main rea-son for an 18 percent decline in Zim-babwe's tobacco exports to date for the current season.

In the current season there has been an overproduction in burley tobacco in Brazil and flue-cured tobacco in China, which has contributed to lower global demand.

According to the Tobacco Marketing Industry Board (TIMB)'s seasonal exports permit issued by destination as at July 11, Zimbabwe's seasonal tobacco exports currently stand at 37,5 million kilogrammes, down from the 45,6 million recorded prior com-parable period last year. This means

$164,6 million has obtained bought at an average price of $4,38 per kg, from last year's $190,2 million at an average price of $4,16 per kg.

Meanwhile, Belgium has remained the top buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco this year. The TIMB figures show that Belgium has purchased a total

mass of 10,8 million kgs of exported tobacco worth $50,5 million at an average price of $4,68 per kg. United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in second place with 5,6 million kgs worth $16,1 million, but at a lower average price of $2,86 per kg.

In third - in terms of volumes - is neighbouring South Africa, which has purchased 4,3 million kgs to the value of $19,5 million at an average price of $4,47 per kg.

China occupies fourth position with a recorded total of 3,6 million kgs of tobacco to date worth $23,2 million at a higher average price of $6,39 per kg. Russia has purchased a total mass of 2,2 million kgs worth $7,4 million at an average price of $3,34 per kg. •

Zim tobacco exports lower on global oversupply

By Lynn Murahwa

Government has urged international trusts and organisations to aid in women’s capacity building as it is limited in its efforts to support the advancement of women in business.

Speaking at an entrepreneurship development training workshop for women in Harare this morning, dep-uty director in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Wis-dom Karonga said the ministry does not have enough ability to aid women in business ventures.

“As a ministry, we do not have enough capacity to fully support the

efforts of the women. We are ready to work with all women’s organisations as we are driving the development agenda,” he said.

According to Karonga, the Govern-ment has put in place a framework to encourage women from all eco-nomic sectors to be active partici-pants although they have inadequate funding.

“As a ministry, we have put in place a Broad Based Women Economic Empowerment Framework, where we want to see active participation of women in all sectors of the economy. We have a Women Development Fund which is supporting women to

have access to credit, though the fund is not enough,” he said. He added that as it stands women are being looked upon to take centre stage in the business and be leaders in global economies.

“The current business development agenda is going towards 'womenom-ics', where women are taking the leading role in developing businesses which drive the world economy,” he said.

Karonga said the needs that women have to succeed are universal and Government is utilising the Zim Asset blue print to do all they can to meet these needs. “Most of the women’s

needs are universal in our region and continent, some of these include sup-port to business start up, support to accessing credit and suitable prem-ises for production purposes as well as equipment and tools and market-ing support.

“In terms of supporting women Gov-ernment has put in place an eco-nomic blue print ZimAsset which will guide us for five years up to 2018,” said Karonga.

Also speaking at the workshop prom-inent businesswoman Sue Peters urged women to be brave and pas-sionate about their endeavors to reach success. •

Altas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd says nego-tiations to acquire 50,1 percent con-trolling stake in pan African banking BancABC are still going on.

In April this year, Atlas Mara—founded by ex-Barclays Plc chief executive Bob Diamond and billionaire Ashish J Thakkar—said it would buy 50.1 percent in pan African banking group, BancABC as part of plans to establish

a premier financial services group in sub Saharan Africa.

“Further to the renewal of the cau-tionary announcement on June 19 2014 in relation to the Atlas Mara transaction first published on April 1 2014, the company would like to advise shareholders that the process of obtaining regulatory and other approvals is still on-going,” said Ban-

cABC parent company ABC Holdings in a statement.

BancABC has banking operations in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Recently BancABC went on a restruc-turing exercise in its units in Zimba-bwe and Mozambique in preparation for controlling stake take over by

Atlas Mara in the pan-African banking group.

In December, Atlas Mara raised $325 million to invest on the continent. The group announced recently at it had secured $300 million from a recent private placement and a commitment agreement for a debt facility of up to $200 million to finance its pan African drive.― VenturesAfrica •

8 NEWS

Atlas Mara still in negotiations for 50.1%

Private sector involvement key in empowering women

AdM-DI156506-

BH24

The equities market has maintained a negative run, declining by 0.24 per-centage points.

Following today's trades, the indus-trial index dropped a further 0.44 points to close at 186.12 points in thin trading.

Cafca and OK Zimbabwe were a cent lower at 23 cents and 17 cents respectively. Turnall eased 0.50 cents to close at 3 cents, Cottco went down 0.10 cents to 0.90 cents and ZPI (ZPI.zw) lost 0.05 cents to trade at 0.95 cents.

On the upside, three counters traded

in the positive territory. Seed manu-facturer Seedco added 1.10 cents to close at 75.10 cents, RTG gained 0.30 cents to trade at 1.30 cents and ZHL was up 0.05 cents to close at 0.85 cents.

Volumes on the ZSE were down on yesterday’s trades, and the value of trades stood at $752K, boosted by trades in OK, Seedco and Delta.

The mining index retreated 0.09 points (or 0.16 percent) to close at 56.97 points following a drop in Bind-ura which slipped 0.01 cents to 4.50 cents.

Falgold, Hwange and Riozim main-tained previous trading levels. - BH24 Reporter •

10 ZSE REVIEW

Bourse extend losses

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BH24

Latest inflation figures from the Zim-babwe National Statistical Agency yes-terday point to a slight thawing of the present deflationary state.

Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate for the month of June 2014 stood at -0,08 percent gaining 0,11 percentage points on the May 2014 rate of 0,19 percent.

This is the second such gain in the infla-tion rate in as many months.

To the extent that economic observers have attributed these slight gains to revenues that are being realised from the sale of the county's tobacco output, this clearly shows the main challenge that the economy is facing.

Zimbabwe is simply suffering from a liquidity crisis, otherwise as notable players such as Reserve Bank of Zim-babwe governor John Mangudya has all too pointed out, most of our eco-nomic indicators are just fine.

The slight rise in the inflation rate over the past two months also points to the solution: capital injection.

What Zimbabwe needs right now is massive capital injection.

There is need for extensive levels of capital to get the local manufacturing sector going.

With a vibrant industry more jobs are created and a wider base of the pop-ulation will have significant disposable incomes. The issue is that people are not spending, and that's simply

because they do not have the money to spend. Hence the low aggregate demand.

If the country fails to access the required funding in quick time, the implications of the present deflationary state can be severe.

The basic consequence is a cyclical decline in domestic aggregate which will further squeeze margins for com-

panies thus pushing more into closure.

But the main problem for the Zimba-bwe is that it has very limited options in fighting deflation, that is, injecting cash into the economy. For instance, the Government's hands are seriously tied with respect to accessing offshore credit.

It is therefore critical that, at least, in the long-term we try and boost our local productive sectors' output.

If tobacco output can make a slight impact on improving the liquidity situ-ation in the country, isn't it a given that if Zimbabwe boosts its exports of other products the current situation can be turned around?

It can. There simply needs to be ade-quate production taking place in the industries. This takes us back again to the issue of funding.

Those industries require capital.

If indeed, most of our economic indi-cators point to a strong economy, then we simply need to boost investor con-fidence. •

12 BH24 COMMENT

Slight inflation rise show need for capital

RBZ Governor Mangudya

South Africa's rand weakened slightly against the dollar on Tuesday, with scope to extend losses as the country's largest labour union enters the third week of a wage strike that has hit the operations of major auto makers.

At 0646 GMT the rand was trading

at 10.7050/dollar, down 0.28 per-cent from its previous close. In fixed income, the yield for the 2026 bench-mark added 1 basis point to 8.335 percent while the 2015 paper at the short end of the curve was flat at 6.67 percent. Leaders of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa are

expected to draw up plans on widening a strike that has dealt another blow to an economy still counting the cost of a five-month platinum sector stoppage at the start of the year.

"While strikes are very familiar to investors, they nonetheless have a

dampening effect on confidence," Rand Merchant Bank analyst Mamello Mat-ikinca said in a note.

"South Africa will struggle with narrow-ing its current account deficit as import growth remains strong."― Reuters •

U.S. motor company Ford (F.N) has suspended production at one of its South African plants and Japanese car-maker Toyota (7203.T) plans to follow suit as a manufacturing workers' strike hits suppliers of car components.

The two-week-old strike by 220,000 NUMSA union members, who are seeking 12-15 percent annual increases, follows on the heels of a five-month strike in the platinum sec-tor that stunted economic growth and export earnings.

The strike, which has hit the supply of beverage cans made by packaging firm Nampak (NPKJ.J), has damaged wider investor sentiment in Africa's most advanced economy, which is tee-tering on the brink of recession after a

first-quarter contraction caused in part by the platinum strike. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut South Africa's credit rating last month while Fitch put it on negative watch, both citing poor growth prospects mainly because of strikes.

Ford spokeswoman Alicia Chetty said: "Production at our Silverton assembly

plant has been temporarily suspended due to the strike." She said only the company's Pretoria plant was affected and its other plant in Port Elizabeth was operating normally.

Jeff Nemeth, Ford's South Africa head, told Talk Radio 702 suspension at the plant - which assembles the Ford Ranger pick-up truck - would mean the

loss of about 350 units a day. Nemeth said continued disruptions in the flow of products might affect corporate invest-ment decisions in Africa's most devel-oped but ailing economy.

Toyota said it would halt some produc-tion from Tuesday because of supply chain problems related to the stop-page. ― Reuters •

14 REGIONAL NEWS

South Africa's rand vulnerable to more wage strikes

Ford, Toyota halt some South African output due to strike

16 DIARY OF EVENTS

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

POWER GENERATION STATSGen Station

14 July 2014

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 421 MW

Kariba 750 MW

Harare 45 MW

Munyati 29 MW

Bulawayo 0 MW

Imports 0 MW

Total 1245 MW

16 July - Mobile Markets & Telecoms Forum Con-ference & Exhibition, Place: Holiday Inn (Harare), Time: 8:00am

23 -25 July - Mine Entra, Place: Zimbabwe Inter-national Exhibition Centre, Bulawayo

24 July - OK Zimbabwe Thirteenth Annual Gen-

eral Meeting Place: OKMart Functions Room, First Floor, OKMart, 30 Chiremba Road, Hillside, Time: 15:00 hours.

1 August - Sixteenth Annual General Meeting of the members of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited, Place: Econet Park, 2 Old Mutare Road, Msasa, Harare, Time; 10.00am

THE BH24 DIARY

18 ZSE

ZSEMOVERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC

RTG 30.00% 1.30 TURNALL -14.28% 3.00

ZIMRE 6.24% 0.85 COTTCO -10.00% 0.90

SEEDCO 1.48% 75.10 OK -5.55% 17.00

ZPI -5.00% 0.95

CAFCA -4.16% 23.00

BNC -0.22% 4.50

IndicesINDEx PREVIOUS TODAY MOVE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 186.56 186.12 -0.44 POINTS -0.24%

MINING 57.06 56.97 -0.09 POINTS -0.16%

Stocks Exchange

20 AFRICA STOCkS

Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July

Cote dIvoire 246.37 +2.18 +0.89% 07Mar

Egypt 7,949.60 -75.68 -0.94% 06Mar

Ghana 2,352.45 +6.43 +0.27% 27June

Kenya 4,885.09 +51.07 +1.06% 30June

Malawi 12,662.47 +0.00 +0.00% 07Mar

Mauritius 2,074.51 -3.51 -0.17% 07Mar

Morocco 9,544.10 +21.01 +0.22% 07Mar

Nigeria 42,482.49 +714.93 +1.71% 30June

Rwanda 131.27 +0.00 +0.00% 24Oct

Tanzania 2,018.97 +25.40 +1.27% 07Mar

Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar

Uganda 1,503.90 +0.81 +0.05% 10Sep

Zambia 4,242.74 +14.95 +0.35% 10April

Zimbabwe 186.56 -0.52 -0.28% 30June

African stock round up Commodity Prices

Name Price

Crude Oil 1,300.91 -0.21%

Spot Gold USD/oz 1,292.63 -0.26%

Spot Silver USD/oz 19.38 -0.46%

Spot Platinum USD/oz 1,421.25 -0.33%

Spot Palladium USD/oz 798.50 -0.64%

LME Copper USD/t 6,770 -0.18%

LME Aluminium USD/t 1,780 -1.17%

LME Nickel USD/t 18,230 -1.73%

LME Lead USD/t 2,095 -1.41%

Quote of the day — "The secreT of business is To know someThing ThaT nobody else knows." - arisToTleonansis

Globalshareholder.com

European stocks were little changed, after their biggest jump in more than a week, as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s semi-an-nual testimony. U.S. index futures were also little changed and Asian shares rose.

Software AG lost 14 percent after lower-ing its operating-margin forecast. Drae-gerwerk AG dropped 10 percent after cutting its projection for sales growth.

Gjensidige Forsikring ASA advanced 3.9 percent after saying profit climbed more than analysts had estimated.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped less than 0.1 percent to 339.66 at 8:08 a.m. in London. It advanced 0.9 percent yesterday after falling the most since March last week on concern over Por-tuguese banks. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures gained less than 0.1 per-cent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index

climbed 0.4 percent.

Yellen delivers her semi-annual testi-mony to the Senate today and to the House Committee tomorrow. She said last month that the Fed will keep inter-est rates low for a considerable time after ending its asset-purchase pro-gram, even as it saw improvements in the economy and the labor market. In the U.K., Bank of England Governor Mark Carney testifies to the House of

Commons Treasury Committee on the June Financial Stability Report.

A report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington may show U.S. retail sales rose 0.6 per-cent in June from a 0.3 percent increase in May, according to the median esti-mate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The New York Fed’s Empire manufacturing report probably fell this month, a separate release may show. ― Bloomberg •

22 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

European stocks are little changed as software retreats

By Memory Dube

The emergence of the BRICS (Bra-zil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) grouping coincided with the notion of an ‘Africa Rising’, a term coined following Africa's growing economic prosperity. The rise of BRICS also overlapped with their increased involvement in Africa.

Concomitant to the Africa rising discourse is a debate on Africa’s new friends, old friends and good friends.

BRICS in this instance would be the new friends while the likes of the US, EU and Japan (typified by the G-7 group of coun-tries) would be the old friends.

The question is: which group makes up Africa’s good friends? And is the BRICS part of this group?

BRICS political and economic influence in Africa continues to grow in leaps and bounds every year. In the economic sphere, growth has been spurred by China and India’s growing demand for natural resources.

This has been juxtaposed against the

economic slowdown in advanced indus-trial economies, which reduced demand for basic commodities in these countries.

Figures from Standard Bank South Africa put the trade between BRICS and Africa

at US$340 billion in 2012, represent-ing a ten-fold increase from 2002, and estimates project this figure to exceed US$500 billion by 2015.

While there is no consistent measure-

ment of BRICS FDI flows into Africa, all the BRICS countries, with the exception of Russia, rank in the top tier of countries investing in Africa and indications are that their investment in manufacturing and services is also on the increase.

23 ANALYSIS

Brics and Africa: A lot to be done yet

The Africa agenda is closely linked to the sustainability and viability of BRICS as a co-author of a new and more rep-resentative global order post the global economic crisis. T

his is also for geopolitical considerations, as Africa, with 54 countries, holds signifi-cant influence in multilateral forums that use purely democratic decision-mak-ing, especially in such groupings as the United Nations General Assembly.

Africa is the last frontier for resources and is also important for its market. Africa is also a relatively unsaturated market for investment where investors have the opportunity to pave the way without as much fierce competition as would be the case in regions such as Europe or Latin America for instance.

BRICS involvement in Africa has been haphazard and uncoordinated, driven by member countries’ self-interest, but it would be prudent to add a parallel coor-dinated agenda to their engagement.

Africa is therefore a natural, common agenda item for BRICS and developing a BRICS outreach would actually add value to their bilateral initiatives as it could lead to greater regional cohesion in Africa and

harmonisation of regional projects. This would identify BRICS as good friends of Africa.

Another motivating factor is the fact that Africa’s old friends have concentrated a significant part of their international engagement in the development arena, and indeed in peace and security initia-tives, in Africa.

The G7/8 group has annual consultations with African leaders on the margins of their Summits, from the 2001 Summit held in Genoa, Italy and various action plans have emerged from these consul-tations.

Progress cannot be measured by the event declarations and action plans but it reflects, at the very least, a political com-mitment. While the G7/8 has not lived up to all of its commitments to Africa, they have certainly made an effort to streamline their activities in Africa and their contribution to development cannot be disregarded.

If the BRICS are to become active par-ticipants in the creation of a new interna-tional paradigm and be a counterpoint to the G-7/8 group of countries, then they need to get involved where the tradi-

tional powers are also present and step it up a notch.

One tool that can be utilised by BRICS in this process is the BRICS Development Bank.

The BRICS-Africa agenda did receive some attention in 2013 when South Africa hosted the fifth BRICS Summit in Durban under the chosen theme of 'BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Devel-opment, Integration and Industrialisa-tion'.

At the Durban BRICS Summit in March 2013, the leaders committed themselves to the establishment of a BRICS Devel-opment Bank which is expected to play a big role in financing infrastructure in Africa.

They signed the BRICS Multilateral Infra-structure Co-Financing Agreement for Africa which will be a vehicle to facilitate co-financing on infrastructure develop-ment projects in Africa.

They also held a retreat with African leaders after the Summit, themed, 'Unlocking Africa’s Potential: BRICS and Africa Cooperation on Infrastructure' and which served as an opportunity for BRICS and African leaders to discuss

ways of strengthening and deepening their engagement for the economic growth and development of Africa.

The overall impression created, however, is that the Africa agenda was a South African initiative, undertaken without much consultation with the other BRICS members; hence BRICS outreach to Africa has not been very enthusiastic.

South Africa may have jumped the gun, introducing the initiative too early in the life of the BRICS group, but this does not take away from the merits of the idea and initiatives.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the BRICS-Africa agenda will not feature prominently on the list of Brazilian prior-ities for the 2014 BRICS Heads of State summit in July.

It is likely that the communique will feature some generic remark on the commitment of BRICS to Africa’s devel-opment but nothing bigger than that is anticipated. - SAIIA

Memory Dube is a senior researcher with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)’s Eco-nomic Diplomacy Programme. •

24 ANALYSIS

Zimbabwe's outlying areas get $45m in tobacco revenue

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Transcript of Zimbabwe's outlying areas get $45m in tobacco revenue