Loomnie

From Bloomberg:

Energy companies operating in Senegal will drill three offshore wells next year as the West African nation vies to join a growing group of regional crude producers, according to the state-owned oil company,Petrosen.

Senegalese officials held talks with more than 10 oil companies this year in attempts to lure investors to its energy industry, said Joseph Medou, Petrosen’s geologist, in an interview in Dakar Aug. 25.

“If we make comparisons to what is happening in Ghana and Ivory Coast, to Sierra Leone, we think we have the same kind of plays,” he said.

Read here.

On the current political situation in Senegal, see this Project Syndicate column from Sanou Mbaye.

Fund managers should consider African markets such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania rather than chasing crowded emerging market trades elsewhere, economist Nouriel Roubini said.

“It (Africa) is risky because there is less liquidity and the governance is not ideal. But in comparison to 10 years ago when there was civil strife and unstable governments, many things have improved,” Roubini said.

Reuters.

The Economist talks to China Europe Business School’s Africa Programme Director, Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, about the reason the Chinese business school decided to establish a branch in Ghana:

CEIBS has been instrumental in developing the business talent that has helped China develop,…. The Europeans and Americans were the colonisers of Africa, but there was not much development, or improvement in standards of living. China has over the past 30 years transformed a very poor economy into a very vibrant one….We decided to bring our model to Africa to help Africa develop.

He also talks about his plans to design a  programme for traditional chiefs and their administrative staff.

Read about the school here. The audio file is here.

From a policy brief from the United Nations University: We have already witnessed over the past year brave and even imaginative efforts by many developing countries in order to cope. Developing countries with the largest and strongest economies, such as China, India and Brazil, have shown encouraging early signs of recovery after implementing timely countercyclical policies. In many African countries governments have been proactively attempting to protect their economies. In many (including Botswana, Mauritius and South Africa) governments have increased their expenditure. Ghana, facing a large budget deficit, is negotiating assistance from the IMF. Kenya and Tanzania are carefully monitoring their economies. The African Development Bank reacted quickly by identifying the most vulnerable countries and making emergency finances available. Many longterm investment projects in Africa, many in critical infrastructure, seem to remain in place.

The fact that many developing countries can now act in this way is quite in contrast to their actions during previous global recessions, such as those in the early 1980s, 1990s and in 1998. Then, developing countries, especially those in Africa, were much less well-managed. Deficits were high and reserves were low. Consequently, when global growth declined, these economies shrunk substantially. This time around, with a few exceptions, developing countries have, on average, had more leeway: deficits are lower and reserve holding is much better. In Asia, valuable lessons were learnt after the 1998 financial crisis, the actions Developing countries should not expect too much assistance from the rich world implemented in response to this have resulted in their economies becoming less vulnerable to financial shocks. Many countries here, such as China and South Korea, accumulated large foreign exchange reserves in order to insure themselves against such crises. While this reflects on an international financial system that is not trusted by developing countries, it does show that developing countries can and will act in their own best interests.

It also needs to be pointed out that improvements in macro-economic management in many developing countries have resulted in improvements in governance – including improvements in many African countries. These improvements, including more robust democracies; more frequent elections; initiatives to reduce corruption and end conflicts; and to empower women, are largely home-grown. It would be very difficult to argue that they were the outcome of Western aid or pressure. This means that better governance, which leads to better resilience in the case of financial and economic shocks, have most often been achieved without, or even in spite of, Western aid.

If this crisis can ever be said to have a positive outcome, it may be that of developing countries showing that they can and should manage by themselves and collaborate with regional institutions and the UN development system. They still are – and this is another lesson from the crisis – very dependent on global economic growth, but unlike in the past, the extent of the rest of the world’s, in particular the West’s, dependence on developing countries is also becoming abundantly clear. Demand in the West will be low and sluggish for years to come. Global growth depends now more than ever on growing demand in developing countries. The days of the USA as a ‘consumer of last resort’ (as described by Joseph Stiglitz) are over.

The full document [pdf] is here

Financial Times:

Africa governance prize finds no winners: Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese telecoms magnate, will not award his $5m African leadership prize this year, a decision seen as a rebuke to the former presidents of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana, among others.

The prize, now in its third year, is given to heads of state who rule wisely and hand over power to elected successors.

Mr Ibrahim launched the award, along with a related index on African governance, after concluding that poor governance was the biggest impediment to Africa’s development, and deciding to devote the fortune he made selling Celtel, his telecoms company, to the promotion of leadership.

He intended the prize, which he has no say over, would stir debate on governance. This year it has, on cue. Continue reading.

1. The financial crisis, a view from a Brazilian barrio

2. The British Social Science Research Council‘s African Argument’s blog has a Citizenship Debate series

3. Shitting on Hope: Obama and the Peace Controversy

4. A really interesting episode of This American Life, in which the producers try to understand the healthcare debate and the relationship between doctors and patients. You might also subscribe to the podcast

5. Diagnosis: What Doctors Are Missing (Jerome E. Groopman at the New York Review of Books)

6. Deutsche Welle asks whether Ghana can shake off the oil curse

7. A tribute to someone who did so much for the development of paediatrics in Nigeria

8. Cocoa links on NigeriansTalk

9. Working in the UK

The bottom billion blog says Africa is open for business. Didn’t know it was ever closed, but….

Paul Krugman: China is in a dollar trap.

The IMF is still busy cleaning up its image. Dominique Strauss-Kahn writes about a lending overhaul.

On Obama’s Special Olympics gaffe .

And, Nigeria records first all-female crew flight.

After 10 months in West Africa (Nigeria, Bénin, Togo), I am back in Germany. I did not have much time for blogging during the 10 months cos I was moving around a lot, cos I did not have very reliable internet connection, and cos my work did not allow me to spend so much time on the internet. Looking back at the blogging I did in the 10 months I sometimes ask myself how I even had the time to do it. So, I hope things will improve on the blogging end, and that my work in Deutschland will proceed well. Great thanks to Oz, Solomonsydelle, Waffarian, Nneoma, and every other person who checked on me, but whose names I cannot remember at the moment. I appreciate your care and concern.

And to the general blogging community, you will hear from me soon.