Africa mobile subscribers grow 33%… the clear laggard in Africa was Ethiopia which retained a monopoly both on fixed-line and mobile telephone services.
(Reuters) — African mobile operators added 70-million users in the past year, a growth rate of 33 percent, and expanded cell phone coverage by an area the size of France, industry organisation GSMA said on Tuesday.
Africa now has 282-million mobile phone users out of a population of around 960-million, but more than 300-million people living in rural areas still have no cell phone coverage, the GSM Association (GSMA) said.
Around 66 percent of the population are reached by a mobile phone signal, up from 62 percent in 2007.
Some African countries, such as Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, already have a coverage well above 90 percent, the GSMA said.
The industry is committed to spending more than $50 billion over five years in sub-Saharan Africa to boost the coverage to 90 percent of the population, the GSMA said, adding investment could even be higher if the regulatory environment was right.
Gabriel Solomon, a senior vice-president for public policy at the GSMA, told Reuters a study for the industry group concluded last year that an additional 25 percent could have been invested in Africa under ideal circumstances.
“If you look at our $50 billion, that could lead to an incremental $12,5-billion over the next five years invested,” he said at the sidelines of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Telecom Africa conference.
An ITU report prepared for the conference also argued that further privatisation, moves to increase competition and more independent regulators could give Africa’s telecoms industry, whose fast growth has attracted interest from buyers in Europe, the Middle East, India and China, a fresh boost.
Solomon said the clear laggard in Africa was Ethiopia which retained a monopoly both on fixed-line and mobile telephone services.
“I know that our members would be ready to invest in Ethiopia tomorrow if they got a licence,” he said.
In other countries, competition is heating up.
“If you look at Kenya for example, this time last year there were two operators, today there are four… Uganda now has six licences. So you have to ask yourself are these sustainable, will some of these guys drop out, will it lead to consolidation?” Solomon said.
Ethiopia is the only country which still maintains a monopoly for both mobile and fixed voice.
(By Skrevet av Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service) — There is a lot of good news in Africa, especially in the mobile space, but regulatory and technical challenges remain for both mobile phones and broadband, industry organization the GSM Association (GSMA) said Tuesday.
The number of mobile connections has risen to 282 million, an increase of 70 million, in the last 12 months. Improved coverage has added another 46 million potential customers, according to GSMA.
Currently an average of 66 percent of the continent is covered, but the industry has set the bar higher: in five years that figure should be 90 percent. There are still about 300 million users, in rural areas, not covered.
“Reaching that goal, and serving those communities will be a great challenge”, said Tom Phillips, the GSMA’s chief government and regulatory affairs officer.
Key to growth on the continent has been increased competition, going from a monopoly to a duopoly, and even more operators battling for market share. But more can be done, Phillips said.
For example, Ethiopia is the only country which still maintains a monopoly for both mobile and fixed voice.
But Phillips’ pet peeve is luxury tax — which is added after regular value-added tax (VAT) — for both mobile phones and usage in many countries.
Removing the tax will actually increase revenue, since phone sales increase, and usage goes up, the GSMA said, after conducting a survey on the subject.
The ones which have the best feel for the African market are the local carriers. High on Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) Chairman Mohammad Hassan Omran’s list is a more stable regulatory environment.
It is common in certain areas for a regulator to accept something one day, only to alter the rules the next, and when there is a change of government there is a change of rules. “Money will not come unless there is confidence,” he said.
Omran also said there is a need to relax rules for the use of foreign workers, which is not always allowed, and would ease the roll-out of networks.
Being able to make calls using is a mobile phone an important step, but getting data access at broadband speeds is as important. Only five African countries had broadband penetration of more than 1 percent at the end of last year, according to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union).
Currently the fundamentals to get broadband moving on a larger scale are broken, according to Sanjiv Ahuja, former CEO of Orange SA, who is starting a new company to roll out broadband in developing markets.
International bandwidth is a big challenge. “People are trying to tackle it, several submarine cables are being built, but it will not fix the problem. Inter-country connections are almost nonexistent. That means you still have to use satellite, which is both slow and expensive. As a continent there needs to a significant focus on connecting countries,” he said.
The problem is exaggerated by the fact that international gateways, which connect local operators to international bandwidth, are still a monopoly in many countries.
“The impact is two-fold, there is no strategic long-term planning, and secondly the prices are very high. Sometimes availability is not high, as well,” said Phillips.
Key to broadband growth will also be the use of frequencies in the lower bands, which become available when analog TV is turned off. The use of 800 MHz will cut the capital expenditure for building networks in half, which will greatly help the roll-out of mobile broadband in rural areas, since base stations can be widely spaced, Phillips said.
“In Africa they have to say that rural wireless communications are an absolute priority, not wait for the backwards and forwards negotiations that will happen with broadcasters,” he said.
(Panapress) — Food prices in Ethiopia have continued to soar with reports of an alarming hike of the cost of the cheapest grain, maize, in some markets of the drought-hit Somali Region reaching 700 birr (about US$70) per 100-kg bag, up from about 350 birr (US$35).
Meanwhile, poor performance of the short rains (belg) season in the first half of the year has forced farmers to switch to planting early maturing crops, according to reports by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
In a weekly update on the food situation in the east African country, the two agencies Tuesday said that the impact of the rains had been limited in Somali, Oromiya, Amhara, Tigray and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regions.
Approximately 80 percent of farmers were switching to plantation of early maturing crops after missing the chance to plant long cycle crops due to the delay and poor performance of the ‘belg’ rains, the UN agencies reported.
There was also concern among farmers that the soaring price of fertilizer, from 400 birr to 800 birr per 50-kg bag in SNNP regions, would further affect production.
Already, Ethiopia’s Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency (DPPA) has allocated one-month emergency food for 1.06 million beneficiaries in the region.
According to the report, the food situation in SNNP regions was becoming critical, as disease has affected the only root crop available for consumption (enset).
Cases of severe malnutrition have been reported in Siraro district of West Arsi zone of neighbouring Oromiya Region, where therapeutic feeding centres have provided treatment for 1,800 severely malnourished children.
Severe water and pasture shortages persist in Warder and Korahe zones of Somali Region, where a recent assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicated increased livestock mortality among goats, camels and cattle.
High concentration of livestock was also reported in areas that received some rain, contributing to over-grazing of the limited browse and pasture.
(Telegraph.co.uk) — German archaeologists have claimed to have found one of the fabled resting places of the Ark of the Covenant, the chest holding the Ten Commandments which gave the ancient Israelites their power.
The University of Hamburg say its researchers have found the remains of the 10th century BC palace of the Queen of Sheba in Axum, Ethiopia, and an altar which at one time reputedly held the precious treasure.
Archaeologist Helmut Ziegert, who is leading the dig said: “From the dating, its position and the details that we have found, I am sure that this is the palace.”
Ethiopian legends holds that the Ark was taken to the palace of the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon, the king of the Jews, after they fell in love.
After the Queen’s death her son, Menelek, rebuilt the palace and dedicated it to the cult of Sirius, but kept the Ark in its resting place there.
The team said evidence at the site included Sirius symbols, the debris of sacrifices and the alignment of sacred buildings to the rising-point of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
“The results we have suggest that a Cult of Sothis developed in Ethiopia with the arrival of Judaism and the Ark of the Covenant and continued until 600 AD,” the university said. Sothis is the ancient Greek name for Sirius.
The German research, which began in 1999, is aimed at documenting the origins of the Ethiopian state and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The hunt for the Ark, which featured in the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark, has become almost as legendary as the artefact itself.
The 1981 film has the artefact recovered by the Nazis from a resting place in the “Well of Souls” in Tanis, Egypt – not to be confused with the Well of Souls on Temple Mount, Jerusalem.
The Nazi treasure hunters are later killed when the Ark is opened.
The Old Testament recounts that Moses, on leading the Israelites from Egypt, received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai.
These Commandments, written on stone tablets, were later placed in a chest made from acacia wood, plated with gold and topped with two golden angels. This was the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark was then kept in the Temple of Solomon Jerusalem for centuries, according to the Old Testament.
After Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC, the Bible and it entered the realm of legend.
Ethiopian tradition claims that the Ark was moved to Axum from Jerusalem in 10th century BC.
A sect in Ethiopia maintains that the Ark is kept at the church of St Mary of Zion, but the site is defended by monks and only one guardian is allowed to see it, making the claim impossible to verify.
Story from Telegraph News:
High Commissioner António Guterres leaves for Yemen tomorrow (Wednesday) for a five-day visit that will include a first-hand look at UNHCR’s efforts there on behalf of refugees and internally displaced people and the opening of a regional conference on refugee protection and migration in the Gulf of Aden. The two-day Regional Conference on Refugee Protection and International Migration will be held in Sana’a on 19-20 May.
Prior to the conference, Mr. Guterres is scheduled to visit UNHCR’s offices in Sana’a and Aden, as well the Kharaz refugee camp. He will also meet with urban refugees in Basateen in Aden, and visit UNHCR’s reception centres along the southern coastline of Yemen.
At each stop, the High Commissioner will meet with Yemeni officials as well as with some of the Somalis and Ethiopians who have recently made the perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden in search of protection or a better life. So far this year, more than 15,300 people have made the dangerous crossing aboard smugglers’ boats, double the number for the same period a year ago. More than 360 people died making the voyage during the first four months of 2008.
The regional conference is being convened by UNHCR in cooperation with the Mixed Migration Task Force for Somalia, composed of international agencies working in Somalia and funded by the European Commission. The objectives of the conference include establishing a regional mechanism and longer-term plan of action on refugee protection and mixed migration in the Gulf of Aden region. The mixed flow of people across the Gulf of Yemen includes a significant number of refugees. Yemen has carried a major burden in dealing with irregular migratory movements in the region, yet has maintained an open-door policy to refugees. But it has been calling for more support from the international community. UNHCR and other international agencies have stepped up their efforts to assist Yemen and other countries in the region, and are jointly calling for global action to better address the challenges.
At the regional conference, participants will review the challenges in the main countries of departure, transit and arrival in the region and develop appropriate responses. The resulting action plan will in part be based on aTen-Point Plan developed by UNHCR in 2006 to assist governments in developing protection-sensitive migration strategies. The conference will bring together senior level government authorities from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia (including Somaliland and Puntland), Yemen and the Gulf Cooperation countries, as well as representatives from the African Union, the European Commission, various UN agencies, NGOs and members of the civil society.
India’s Neha International Ltd. has informed that its board of Directors at its meeting held on May 12, 2008, inter alias, has considered the acquisition of two floriculture units in Ethiopia.
These units have 56 hectares of land with 12 hectares growing under green houses. The acquisition will be made through its wholly owned subsidiary in Mauritius.
Neha International Ltd. engages in the production and export of cut flowers in India.
The board expects the deal to be completed by the end of June, 2008.
The stock of the company closed today at Rs 79, up 1% compared with previous close of Rs 78. The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 82 and low of Rs 75.
