AGRA, Standard Bank Partner to Provide US $100 million in Loans for Small-scale farmers

Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, has teamed up with AGRA to create an innovative fund for Africa’s smallholder farmers. The fund will operate in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, opening loan opportunities to smallholder farmers and small- and medium-sized agricultural businesses previously considered too risky for lending. AGRA and other partners are providing a US$10 million loan guarantee fund, and in turn, Standard Bank is making US$100 million available for lending over three years. A memorandum of understanding governing the partnership was signed today in Accra, Ghana by Chief Executive of the Standard Bank Group, Mr. Jacko Maree; President of AGRA Dr. Namanga Ngongi; and Minister of Agriculture of Mozambique, His Excellency Soares Nhaca, who is also a board member of the Millennium Challenge Account Mozambique, which is the first country partner of programme. Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), whose board was recently formed under the new government, is joining the partnership.Speaking at the signing ceremony, Annan said, “Our action today recognises that the global food crisis is exerting major problems in Africa. Inflation, food shortages, and trade imbalances all pose huge social, economic, and political risks. But while credit is frozen worldwide, Africa cannot wait for a thaw. Programmes such as this, which increase the productivity of smallholder farmers and help catalyse an African Green Revolution, will ultimately enable Africa to achieve food security and stability, and thus improve the entire global outlook.”Lack of access to finance is a major obstacle that prevents farmers from investing in basic inputs, such as good seeds, fertilisers and small-scale irrigation needed to raise farm productivity and generate profit. As a result, their yields remain one-quarter the global average, leading to pervasive hunger and poverty across Africa. Similarly, little or no commercial financing has been available to entrepreneurs seeking to build businesses that could boost Africa’s food production and enable farmers to earn a profit. “As a leading emerging markets bank, our goal is to perform a transformative role in the continent’s agricultural sector in partnership with other organisations. Transforming small scale farmers into medium-sized enterprises is essential to address the food security and to stimulate economic growth,” said Jacko Maree of Standard Bank. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the agricultural sector generates significant percentages of national incomes; it receives only 1 percent of total commercial lending. And the majority of this money has gone to large-scale agriculture, leaving smallholder farmers with only the change in their pockets to invest in their farms. “In Mozambique, 45 percent of the population is undernourished and few of our smallholder farmers can access high-yielding seeds and fertilisers,” Nhaca said. “The need is especially urgent now to ensure that farmers have access to inputs for planting season.”Partnership Aims to Benefit Smallholder FarmingMost African food producers are smallholder farmers who cultivate on tiny plots of land. Working with low-yielding seeds in depleted soil, their crop productivity has remained stagnant for 30 years. To sustainably increase yield and begin generating a surplus, they need access to good seeds, appropriate fertilisers, improved land and water management systems, and better market access. But to initiate these changes, they also need access to finance. African financial institutions have typically avoided lending to smallholder farmers and to the agriculture sector for a number of reasons, including high perceived risks by banks, farmers’ lack of usable collateral; the high costs associated with servicing remote clients; and interrelated production risks such as unreliable rainfall, lack of irrigation, pests and diseases, and price volatility. “This loan programme combines the power of partnerships with an innovative financing mechanism designed by AGRA and its partners to mitigate the risks facing commercial banks in lending to the agricultural sector in Africa, which is dominated by women farmers,” said Annan. “As the world’s leaders respond to the global financial crisis with bail-out measures, we should recognise the power of local financial innovations to create change on the ground.”The new loan programme builds on earlier work of The Rockefeller Foundation in Uganda that helped to leverage loans to small-scale farmers and that five years later had a loan default rate of less than 2 percent. AGRA’s innovative financing programmes have so far helped to leverage US$ 50 million in financing from commercial banks for small farmers and agricultural value chains in Kenya and Tanzania. The US$100 million AGRA-Standard Bank partnership announced today will create the largest single financing facility targeting smallholder agriculture by a bank in Africa—a milestone of confidence in the capacity and entrepreneurship of African farmers.“This is a memorable day for African agriculture,” said Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA.Participating countries will begin processing loan applications from farmers and farmers’ groups, seed companies, rural retailers of farm inputs, crop storage facilities, agro-processing businesses and other enterprises that together are needed to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers and build a robust food production system. The agreement includes provisions designed to maximise the opportunities for farmers and small-scale businesses to succeed, including technical and business development support, quality control of produce and support in applying for credit.

Source:http://www.agra-alliance.org/

Significant discovery at Tweneboa-1 exploration well offshore Ghana

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announces that the Tweneboa-1 exploration well, drilled in the Deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana, has discovered a significant highly-pressured light hydrocarbon accumulation.
The well encountered 21 metres of net pay and was drilled to a depth of 3,593 metres and is currently being deepened to further assess the discovery and the up-dip limit of a potential deeper fan system.
The well was optimally located to penetrate multiple targets, including the edge of an undrilled major Turonian fan system. Further drilling will now be required to test core areas within this potentially giant stratigraphic trap where thicker Turonian reservoir sections are mapped. The upside area of approximately 200 square kilometres includes two de-risked prospective parts, Owo and Ntomme.
The Tweneboa-1 well was drilled by the Eirik Raude deepwater rig in a water depth of 1,148 metres some 25 kilometres west of the Jubilee Field.
Tullow (49.95%) operates the Deepwater Tano licence and is partnered by Kosmos Energy (18%), Anadarko Petroleum (18%), Sabre Oil & Gas (4.05%) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10% carried interest).
Commenting today, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said:"Tweneboa is another outstanding discovery offshore Ghana which maintains our 100% success rate in the region. Substantial upside has been identified and a material appraisal programme will follow. This result has the potential to deliver yet another transformational growth step for Tullow."

source:http://www.tullowoil.com/

Sisters' African good news trip

Two Nigerian sisters are hoping to reverse the trend of bad news out of Africa by touring the continent documenting its good news stories.
Chioma and Oluchi Ogwuegbu's journey across Africa started at the end of last year in West Africa.
By the end of this year they hope to have changed people's perception of a place still called by some the "Dark continent" through their website CelebrateAfrica.net.
It is an ambitious goal - common perceptions of Africa paint it as a continent littered with corrupt governments and plagued by civil war and natural disaster.
The sisters freely admit that they did have some concerns about their mission at the beginning.
"From what I've heard Africa is so dangerous. People told me that I would be raped, killed," Chioma Ogwuegbu confessed.
But, as her continued presence attests, none of that has happened.
In fact, Chioma and Oluchi report that their experience has been just the opposite.
“ Many of these people don't know about the positive things, all they see is the negative ” Chioma Ogwuegbu
"So many times what the media projects about Africa is negative, there isn't that much positive news, positive stories about what is going on," Oluchi Ogwuegbu says.
"When [people] hear what we are doing, they embrace it. Total strangers who don't know us just want to help out."
Chioma and Oluchi are nothing if not ambitious. They plan to visit 22 countries in all.
Hidden jewels
Their journey so far has seen them visit Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Cameroun, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
And what they have discovered is a land of friendly people, beautiful landscapes, unusual dishes, and unexpected hospitality and kindness.
For example in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, they discover the beautiful Cascades de Karfiguela waterfalls and breath-taking rock formations in the Domes de Fabedougou which geologists say date back 1.8m years.
In Ghana, the sisters have visited Breman Bedum a sleepy village three hours from the capital Accra.
There they were given a tour around an essential oils farm which is providing a reliable income and a better way of life to local villagers as well as ensuring the area's threatened woodlands are reforested.
"Many of these people don't know about the positive things, all they see is the negative," says Chioma.
"But there are so many things here that we can be doing as Africans to better this continent."
Even turmoil ridden Guinea-Bissau gets a positive spin: "The good thing about Guinea-Bissau was that you could see that the people were happy, they were forging ahead, despite the hardship and suffering around them they were still moving along," says Oluchi.
Although the pair do admit it was one of the most challenging countries they have visited so far.
The audience for their webtour is not just foreign readers, but also young Africans, who the sisters believe need to be encouraged to see their countries as places of hope and potential, not just as a place of hardship and poverty.
"Many young Africans, they all want to leave Africa. I'm not saying that Africa is perfect," Chioma says.
"But our aim is to first tell Africans about what is here, what we have here."

Credit: BBC Africa Service

Was There Good News from Africa in 2008?

The beautiful Angolan capital city Luanda.

By Olivier Kamanda

Headlines from Africa in 2008 recounted brutal riots in Kenya, a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and election-driven chaos in Zimbabwe. But there was also good news. The International Monitory Fund has estimates economic growth for sub-Saharan Africa in 2008 at 6%, compared to global growth rates of 3 or 4% -- a good sign given global food and fuel price shocks in the last year. Relative peace in former conflict zones like Cote D'Ivoire, Mozambique, Rwanda is noteworthy. In fact, President Bush announced the reopening of the Peace Corps in Rwanda this February, 14 years after the genocide forced the offices to close. This year not only marked a number of peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections, but improvements in governance, public health and environmental protection.
As noted in the Washington Diplomat, Botswana and Mauritius have led the continent in successful reforms. Both are strong electoral democracies that have combated corruption and have the highest per capita income. Botswana has received the highest credit rating from Moody's and Standard & Poor (two of the leading international credit agencies). Mauritius is the second most improved economy according to the 2008 Heritage Foundation Index. Botswana and Mauritius have shown that multiparty electoral democracies are alive and well in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) made news this year, showing its determination to hold accountable those who commit crimes against humanity. The ICC arrested Jean-Pierre Bemba, a rebel leader from the Central African Republic (CAR) for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Bemba allegedly gave orders for murder, rape, sexual mutilation, torture and even cannibalism while leading the rebel army of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo. The ICC prosecutor also hinted his next target could be Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir, by asking ICC judges to indict al-Bashir for war crimes committed in Darfur.
On the public health front, there was welcome news in the fight against malaria, a disease which kills nearly 3 million people a year. The World Health Organization reported in 2008, that its new 3-pronged attack plan has demonstrated remarkable results. Trials in Rwanda and Ethiopia are the first to show a greater than 50% reduction in malaria deaths. The plan includes widespread distribution of long lasting insecticidal mosquito bed nets, indoor artemsinin-based insecticide sprays, and preventive pregnancy treatment.

Those fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa debated controversial new studies associating male circumcision with lower incidence of HIV/AIDS. Researchers presented results from three African trials at the AIDS 2008 Conference in Mexico City showing a 50-60% drop in HIV/AIDS infection in men, ages 12-30. As a result of the findings the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS now recommends the provision of safe circumcision services in targeted countries. But the technique has its critics. Many in the public health community question the reliability of these trials. The next few years will likely yield more studies before the debate is settled.
And there is hope that the international community can help constrain environmentally damaging practices in Africa. In June, the world's largest fund dedicated to combating deforestation was launched. The Congo Basin Fund, is co- chaired by Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathal and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Its creation is the latest step taken in the international legal campaign to end illegal logging. Charlotte Walker, a Yale PhD candidate in African Studies, cautiously declares,
"international treaties and alliances formed by Central African governments such as Cameroon, Gabon, and Congo-Brazzaville have led to increased safeguards of Congo Basin forests. The engagement of governments, private enterprise, and multilateral institutions in the process of monitoring forest zones and allocating resources towards countering corruption, bribery, and illegal logging contracting has yielded initial signs of progress."
This development comes on the heels of stronger compliance with international forestry law. Perhaps most promising is the idea that a successful anti-foresting framework could be used as a model for other anti-corruption initiatives in Africa.Looking to 2009, Obama's appointment of Dr. Susan Rice as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is also noteworthy. The former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs was a strong advocate for increased U.S. to support of the peacekeeping effort in Sudan. Her commitment to establishing diplomatic channels with sub-Saharan Africa suggests more good news to come.

Olivier Kamanda www.huffingtonpost.com

UN Council calls for calm in Guinea-Bissau

Condemning “in the strongest terms” the assassination of the president of Guinea-Bissau and his chief of staff, the United Nations Security Council today called on the people, political leaders, and the armed forces of the country to remain calm, exercise restraint and maintain stability.
Through a statement read out by Ibrahim Dabbashi of Libya, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council for the month of March, it also urged all parties in the country to resolve any disputes within the framework of democratic institutions and opposed “any attempt to change the government through unconstitutional means.”
The killings of President Joao Bernardo Vieira and Chief of Staff Tagme Na Waie, which took place 1 and 2 March, respectively were condemned yesterday by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In its statement today, the 15-member body called on all concerned to “assist in saving constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau and to continue to support peace building efforts in the country.”
Guinea-Bissau is one of a handful of States on the agenda of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, which aims to help poor countries avoid sliding back into war or chaos.
The West African country has struggled to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, and also to sustain economic growth and political stability amid a series of civil conflicts, coups d’état and uprisings in recent decades

"Akwaaba-Welcome"

I am really excited to come to you with the African Story blog. This is because in spite of all the bad news on most of the prime time news media about the continent the real African Story is mostly of good news. It is of a cheerful happy and generous people struggling like every other person in the developed world to survive. The method of survival might be different but the ultimate is the same.
But who will tell the world about the true African Story if indeed the citizens of this vast and rich continent full of a bank of human and natural resources will not do so. I want to tell the story as it is. This blog will not be a medium to attack anyone, it will not be a platform to blame anyone, it rather will be an avenue to showcase and tell the story as it is.
But in telling the story issues that must be addressed will be discussed. We will for instance talk about the problem some Africans have about associating themselves with the continent. Some are even ashamed to accept that they are Africans and so change their names from the rich and culturally meaningful ones to funny and meaningless ones. So with such people faced with such a challenge the beautiful name like Kwabena Boadu could change to Kobby Bowdin, Bola Adeola could become Betty Atkins whilst Tshabalala becomes Tathiana. They will force themselves to speak with a strange accent with the objective of hiding their African roots. Funny as this may sound it happens all around us.
This blog will try to motivate and encourage everyone African by blood or by birth to enjoy being African. The direct relationship between the African diaspora and the mainland continent will be discussed. Traditions will be explained. Annoucements about events will be made, basically this will be the platform to tell the African story. For unless we tell the story as it is we as a people will not be able to occupy our deserving seat when the peoples, nations and continents meet at the round table.
Amandla.