On December 17 the International Monetary Fund announced more money to Paul Biya’s government, while not answering Inner City Press question about Biya losing the African Cup of Nations on which the IMF relied. The December 17 announcement: “The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the third review of the arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement for Cameroon. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of SDR 55.2 million (about US$76.3 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR317.4 million (about US$438.9 million).

In completing the third review, the Executive Board also approved the authorities’ request for a waiver for the non-observance of the performance criterion on the ceiling on net BEAC financing and the modification of two performance criteria pertaining to the ceiling on net borrowing of the central government from the central bank, excluding IMF financing, and the continuous performance criterion on new non-concessional external debt contracted or guaranteed by the government.

Cameroon’s three-year arrangement for SDR 483 million (about US$667,8 million, or 175 percent of Cameroon’s quota), was approved on June 26, 2017. It aims at supporting the country’s efforts to restore external and fiscal sustainability and lay the foundations for sustainable, inclusive and private sector-led growth.

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, made the following statement:

“Cameroon’s performance under its ECF-supported program is broadly satisfactory. Most end-June 2018 targets have been met and structural reforms have advanced, with completion of key delayed financial sector reforms.

“The authorities remain committed to the concerted regional effort to rebuild CEMAC’s fiscal and external buffers. To that end, addressing revenue shortfalls and containing investment spending will be key to reaching the 2018 deficit target. Steadfast implementation of the 2019 budget, including measures to mobilize non-oil revenue by gradually removing exemptions and further spending rationalization will be essential to mitigate the risks from the challenging security situation, increasing commodity price volatility and other shocks to growth.

“Public external debt has increased rapidly in 2018, mainly owing to faster-than-envisaged disbursements of foreign project loans. Strictly limiting new non-concessional borrowing and addressing the stock of contracted but undisbursed loans are essential to maintain debt sustainability. Gradual adjustments in administered prices would help reduce subsidies and restore the financial viability of key public utility companies, while lowering risks from contingent liabilities.

“Financial sector reforms should continue to advance, including effective resolution of ailing banks and reduction of overdue loans. Other structural reforms should focus on tackling governance issues and improving the business environment to support private investment and enhance competitiveness.

Source: Inner Press

This economic slavery is important for the development of the French economy. Whenever this traffic is likely to fail, France is ready for anything to reconquer it. If a leader of the CFA zone no longer meets the requirements of France, Paris is blocking its foreign exchange reserves and more, France closes the banks in this country considered “rebel”. This was the case of Côte d’Ivoire with Laurent Gbagbo.

A German newspaper accuses France of looting 440 billion euros each year to Africans through the CFA Franc. “The French government collects from its former colonies each year 440 billion euros of taxes. France relies on the revenues coming from Africa, not to sink into economic insignificance, warns the former president Jacques Chirac.

In the 1950s and 60s, France decided the French colonies of Africa to become independent. Although the Paris government accepted formal declarations of independence, it called on African countries to sign a so-called “pact for the continuation of colonization.” They agreed to introduce the French colonial currency FCFA (“Franc for the French colonies in Africa”), to maintain the French schools and military system, and to establish French as an official language.

The CFA franc is the denomination of the common currency of 14 African countries members of the Franc zone. This currency, which constitutes a brake on the emergence of these countries, was created in 1945, when France ratified the Bretton Woods agreements and proceeded to implement its first declaration of parity to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . This was called “Franc of the French Colonies of Africa”.

Under this law, 14 African countries are still obliged to store about 85 per cent of their foreign exchange reserves at the Banque de France in Paris. They are under the direct control of the French Treasury. The countries concerned do not have access to this part of their reserves. As the 15 per cent of reserves are insufficient for their needs, they must borrow additional funds from the French Treasury at market prices. Since 1961, Paris controls all foreign exchange reserves in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

In addition, these countries must each year transfer their “colonial debt” for infrastructure built in France to Paris as Silicon Africa 3 reported in detail. France takes around 440 billion euros a year. The government in Paris also has a right of first refusal on all newly discovered natural resources in African countries. Finally, French companies must have priority in awarding contracts in former colonies. As a result, there is the most assets in the fields of supply, finance, transport, energy and agriculture in the hands of French companies.

The ruling elite in each African country must fulfill these compulsory claims without any other choice. African leaders who refuse are threatened with assassination or overthrow of their government. Over the past 50 years, there have been 67 coups d’état in 26 African countries. 16 of these 26 countries were former colonies of France.

An example is the first president of Togo West Africa, Sylvanus Olympio, overthrown by a coup. He had refused to sign the “Pact for the Continuation of Settlement”. But France insisted that Togo pay the compensation for the infrastructures that had been built by the French during the colonial period. The sum is equivalent to about 40 per cent of households in Togo in 1963, requiring the fairly independent country to reach its economic limits quickly.

In addition, the new president of Togo decided to remove and print his own national currency, the French colonial currency FCFA. Three days after this decision, the new government was overthrown by a group of former foreign legionaries and the President killed. The head of the Legionaries, Gnassingbe Eyadema, received 550 euros from the French embassy for the attack, according to the British Telegraph. Four years later Eyadema was promoted with the support of Paris, the new president of Togo. He established a tyrannical dictatorship in this West African country and remained in power until his death in 2005.

In the following years, the Paris government kept the link with the former legionaries to overthrow unpopular governments in its former colonies. This was the case of the first president of the Central African Republic, David Dacko, overthrown by former members of the Foreign Legion in 1966.

The same thing happened to the President of Burkina Faso, Maurice Yaméogo, and with the President of Benin, Mathieu Kérékou, the author of a coup d’état. This was also the case of the first President of the Republic of Mali Modiba Keita, who was also the victim of a coup by former legionnaires in 1968. The reason, a few years earlier, he had simply decided to part with the French colonial currency. “

Source: How Africa

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has denounced as “unacceptable” the UK government’s draft Brexit deal, warning that divorce from the European Union will make Scotland “poorer.”

During a news conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday, the Scottish leader outlined her government’s opposition to the Brexit deal negotiated by British Prime Minister Theresa May and said no Scottish government could possibly accept a deal which left the country poorer.

Referring to a new report from the Scottish government, Sturgeon warned that the draft deal to leave the 28-member bloc could result in “loss equivalent to £1,610 per person in Scotland compared to EU membership by 2030.”

Investment in Scotland could be 7.7 percent lower by that date compared to if the UK stayed in the EU, according to the report.

“The analysis shows why the deal agreed by the Prime Minister is unacceptable to the Scottish Government and damaging to the people of Scotland,” Sturgeon said.

“No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it,” she added.

The Scottish leader also said the “special deal” being put in place to prevent the return to a hard border in Ireland would leave Scotland at a “serious competitive disadvantage” to Northern Ireland, and that, “In short, it will make us poorer.”

Sturgeon added that the Scottish government would support a second Brexit referendum with the option of remaining in the EU when the time is “right for the people of Scotland.”

Scots supporting independence from Britain failed to emerge victorious from a referendum in 2014 in which some 55 percent of the voters voted for the region to remain in the UK. However, they launched a fresh call for secession after a Brexit referendum in June 2016 in which Britons voted 52 to 48 to leave the EU.

The pro-independence camp in Scotland defies London’s assertion that the region, which is one of the UK’s four nations, should abide by the results of the Brexit referendum. They insist that some 62 of the voters in Scotland voted for continued EU membership.

May ‘governing by threat’ on Brexit deal

Meanwhile, Sturgeon criticized the British premier and said May is “governing by threat,” as she has been seeking to impose the Brexit deal on Scotland.

“The Prime Minister has made it clear at every turn that she is not interested in compromise; in fact she seems to have given up any attempt at governing by consensus and is now governing by threat,” the Scottish leader said.

Sturgeon stressed that the draft agreement was “a bad deal,” which Westminster was “seeking to impose on the people of Scotland regardless of the damage it will cause.”

The First Minister said, “It will not end uncertainty. It will extend it. We are being asked to accept a blindfold Brexit with all the difficult decisions kicked down the road.”

The draft agreement was signed with the EU on Sunday and will need to be approved by UK lawmakers next month.

May faces a daunting task of gaining the approval of the parliament for her Brexit deal as many from both the opposition and her own Conservative Party have vowed to reject it on December 12, when the House convenes to vote on the agreement.

The Brexit deal, comprised of two separate agreements on departure and future relations, has sparked widespread concerns in Britain.

The pro-EU camp believes the deal will deprive the UK of normal privileges of membership while offering almost nothing in return. The anti-EU camp says it will make Britain a colony of the EU and London would have no right to challenge the EU’s decisions, including those affecting its province of Northern Ireland, for many years to come.

There is a high chance that Britain would be forced to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, without an agreement if the parliament rejects May’s Brexit deal.

Source: Presstv

Celebrated international journalist Richard Quest has shared a stunning review of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, describing it as ‘gorgeous, genteel and genteel’.

Quest, who hosts CNN’s signature business show, is in the country to screen the launch of the much anticipated direct flight between Kenya and the United States.

He will join passengers on the inaugural Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to New York on October 28.

Cutting the flight time between the two countries from 22 to 15 hours, this direct flight is being touted as a game-changer for Kenya’s tourism industry.

Kenya’s tourism minister Najib Balala adds that it will have a direct impact on the Kenyan economy through job creation and facilitation of cargo shipment of Kenya’s exports such as its flowers, tea, and coffee, directly to the US market.

The United States is Kenya’s leading tourism source market with a share of 11.8 per cent as of December 2017.

Quest in Nairobi

Visiting the country for th first time, Quest’s first activity was a run through Nairobi’s Karura Forest with Kenya’s top athlete, Eliud Kipchoge.

Kipchoge broke the world record in the Berlin Marathon in September this year clocking 2 hours, 01 minute and 39 seconds.

Quest was ‘more than impressed’ with the forest, describing it as a park that rivals New York’s Central Park, London’s Hyde Park, or Sydney’s botanic gardens.

‘‘We spent the afternoon in Karura Forest. If you wanted something to underscore this sense of pride you would be hard pushed to find a more pristine example,’‘ said Quest.
Karura forests, which sits on 1,000 hectares of land is one of the country’s few remaining indigenous forests.

Source: Africa News

Two closely-related tax schemes have helped banks and investors avoid tax or even siphon cash directly out of European treasuries totalling billions more than previously thought, an investigation by 19 media revealed Thursday.

So-called “cum-ex” and “cum-cum” deals — complex stock transactions around the days when companies pay out dividends — have cost taxpayers as much as 55 billion euros ($63 billion) in lost revenue or outright fraud since 2001.

The schemes were first uncovered in Germany in 2012.

But beyond Europe’s largest economy, Thursday’s investigation found evidence of the practices in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Norway and Switzerland.

Accounting for the bulk of the total at 46 billion euros, technically legal “cum-cum” tax avoidance exploits varying treatment of domestic and foreign shareholders.

Foreign investors holding shares in a company temporarily sell the stock to a bank based in the same country as the firm ahead of the day dividend gets paid out.

This allows them to escape higher taxes on the dividend charged to shareholders from abroad, before buying back their holdings quickly afterwards.

Such deals deprived Germany of 24.6 billion euros in tax revenue, France 17 billion and Italy 4.5 billion, according to the investigation led by investigative journalism website Correctiv with big-name outlets like German public broadcaster ARD and French newspaper Le Monde.

Criminal investigations

Meanwhile, clearly fraudulent “cum-ex” deals draw in more parties in a complex dance around the taxman.

Reportedly conceived by well-known German lawyer Hanno Berger, the cum-ex method relies on several investors buying and selling shares in a company amongst themselves around the day when the firm pays out its dividend.

The stock changes hands so quickly that the tax authorities are unable to identify who is the true owner.

Working together, the investors can claim multiple rebates for tax paid on the dividend and share out the profits amongst themselves — with the treasury footing the bill.

This practice cost Germany 7.2 billion euros, Denmark 1.7 billion and Belgium 201 million, the investigation found.

Since 2012 six criminal investigations have been opened in Germany, including against tax lawyer Berger and several stock market traders.

Norway’s tax authority told AFP that it had uncovered a fraud worth 580,000 crowns ($70,533 or 61,304 euros) in 2013 and blocked several later attempts after a warning from Denmark.

The country has since strengthened its surveillance, it added.

Meanwhile Danish prosecutors have been studying tax practices around dividends since 2015 and are examining “whether there is a basis for criminal proceedings against people or companies involved,” spokesman Simon Gosvig said.

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, tweeted in response to the investigation that European tax authorities should share more information and improve transparency.

“If the fraudsters’ imagination is limitless, my determination is as well!” he wrote.

(AFP)

French Telecoms company, Orange  and leading West African Connectivity and Data Centre services provider, MainOne have struck a partnership that will see the French telecoms giant co-invest in two new cable landing stations in Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire while the broadband infrastructure provider will provide additional capacity via its 7000km cable system from Europe to Africa with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal, reinforcing the position of both companies in the African telecommunications ecosystem.

Thanks to this new cable connection, several countries in West Africa will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. Orange will benefit from multiple Terabits per second of additional bandwidth for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa to meet the increasing demands for Internet access via 3G and 4G network. More specifically, this cable extension is an opportunity to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire & Senegal’s Sonatel. In addition, neighboring countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania will benefit from enhanced capacity.

For MainOne, the partnership underscores the company’s vision for a better connected region, its Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke says “MainOne continues to lead the digital transformation of our sub-region by investing in affordable connectivity to drive economic development. Our objective is to bridge the digital divide between and within West Africa and the rest of the world. We are committed to deepening broadband penetration across West Africa and believe our investments in technologically advanced subsea infrastructure will continue to liberalize the international bandwidth market, further support Orange and other wholesale customers, and ultimately result in improved digital services in the region”.

Speaking on the strategic deal, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Middle East and Africa, Alioune Ndiaye says “The development of new digital services in Africa has fostered huge social and economic developments over the past few years. As barriers to access continue to fall with improved networks and more affordable equipment, Orange, as part of its multi – service strategy, is seeking to position itself as an important partner in the continent’s digital transformation Through this new partnership, Orange is set to secure and improve direct access to high – speed broadband services in two of its most important countries, Senegal and the Côte d’Ivoire.”

The MainOne Submarine Cable System links West Africa with Europe, bringing ultra-fast broadband in the region. It runs from Seixal in Portugal through Accra in Ghana to Lagos in Nigeria, with capacity to land branches in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal, and Cote D’Ivoire. The cable system, which now has an upgradable capacity of over 10 TBPS, first went live in July 2010, becoming the first private subsea cable to bring open-access, broadband capacity to West Africa.

The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday the continent’s regional bloc will propose a new alliance with Africa, that will create up to 10 million jobs. Juncker, who was delivering his annual state of the union speech to the European Parliament said a framework will be set up to attract more investment into Africa.

‘‘Today, we are proposing a new Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs between Europe and Africa, that would help create up to 10 million jobs in Africa in the next 5 years alone,’‘ Juncker said.

While he will be stepping down from his role in a year’s time, Juncker indicated that in the future, the EU would seek to take advantage of Africa’s efforts to forge a free trade area within the continent by offering a continent-to-continent free trade agreement.

‘‘I believe we should develop the numerous EU-African trade agreements into a continent-to-continent free trade agreement, as an economic partnership between equals.”

Nigeria, Eritrea and Guinea Bissau are the only three African countries that are yet to make any commitment to the African Union’s Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), signed in March this year.

Among various proposals for EU action to bolster prosperity in the world’s poorest continent and Europe’s close neighbour, the Commission chief would call for a more equal partnership and investment rather than aid, as Europeans look for ways to stem an economic divide driving Africans to try to migrate northward.

‘‘Africa does not need charity, it needs true and fair partnership. And we, Europeans need this partnership just as much,’‘ Juncker said.

The EU has previously said they will be shifting from an aid-centered approach to a real partnership with Africa, as a means to manage migration and prevent radicalisation of Africa’s young people.

Africa News

China has for the first time reduced the amount of money pledged to support the promises of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, as elements of the event suggest a maturing of Sino-African relations.

Chinese trade with Africa has dropped significantly in recent years, down to $170 billion in 2017 from a peak of $220 billion peak in 2014. As scrutiny of China’s influence in Africa – the debts owed, political involvement via training programmes, military presence – intensifies and Beijing’s own attention is diverted by the emerging trade war with the US, the $10 billion reduction in funding announced at the 2018 FOCAC forum in Beijing this month should perhaps not be seen as a surprise.

At $60 billion, the headline figure for the mix of aid, loans and credit lines promised seems at first glance to match the amount pledged at the previous summit in Johannesburg in 2015. Up until then, the figure had grown dramatically since the triennial summits of the FOCAC programme began in 2006.

This year’s $60 billion pledge comes as more of a mixed bag for African nations, as it actually includes a $5 billion reduction in the overall amount of pledges, loans and export credits at $35 billion, down from $40 billion three years ago. However, the level of concessional assistance to Africa is now $5 billion, the highest rate ever, according to analysis by Johns Hopkins University.

Most noticeably, the figures for the various amounts of government funding add up to $50 billion, and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at $60 billion again by including $10 billion in extra investment that Chinese companies would be encouraged to make on the continent. No further details of this were available and Chinese companies here in Ivory Coast are not yet prepared to comment on what the announcement means for them.

Around the prearranged announcements of the forum itself were side events and bilateral meetings as the Chinese hosts sought to integrate their Belt and Road trade initiative more concretely with individual nations. Details are yet to emerge, but some African leaders entered the meetings with clear requests. For example, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta sought help for an extension for the country’s troubled railway project that has previously been financed by China.

At the continental level, President Xi outlined eight areas of initiative and cooperation including industrialisation and agriculture hailed by the FAO; healthcare, hailed by the WHO; aligning with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 development plan; security and green development, an area in which China is the global leader.

China’s ‘five-no’ pledge

While some African nationals took to social media to criticise their leaders for what they believed was the blind acceptance of Beijing’s will, the mood at the events in the Chinese capital was of genuine cooperation. According to sources at the event, the announcements most welcomed by African delegates were the “five-no” promises, the clarification of five things that China will not do in Africa.

In the Chinese president’s own words there will be “no interference in African countries’ pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries’ internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries; no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa”.

These declarations are a direct response to the growing criticism, predominantly by the West, of what is being called Chinese neo-colonialism across the continent – the notion of saddling countries with debt for useless projects as a way to secure resources. For example, over 90% of Djibouti’s external debt is held by China.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who co-chaired the event with China’s Xi, said at the forum, “In the values that it promotes, in the manner that it operates, and the impact it has on African countries, FOCAC refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa, as our detractors would have us believe”.

Ramaphosa went on to state that: “We are working [together] to build an Africa that is defined by good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law,” listing all the areas in which China is most criticised by the West.

The forum’s announcements were immediately accompanied by supportive editorials from China’s state media. The People’s Daily, the publication seen as the most direct link to the Communist Party, pushed out fact sheets on social media defending China’s involvement in Africa.

Back in China, the announcements of funding led to criticism online by Chinese citizens complaining about the amount of money being sent overseas when parts of their own country are extremely poor. Such comments were promptly removed by censors.

It will take some time for the details of the 2018 event to emerge, but the China International Import Expo later this month in Shanghai is now the next China-Africa date on the calendar after Xi announced reduced or free participation for African nations and pledged to create a specific China-Africa trade expo.

The FOCAC events started at the request of African leaders 18 years ago to make bilateral relations more transparent. The triennial summits alternate between China and an African nation playing host. The 2021 FOCAC gathering will take place in Senegal.

Source: France 24

Financial data has been stolen from potentially hundreds of thousands of British Airways customers who made online bookings in recent weeks, extending a run of embarrassing technological mishaps suffered by the UK flag carrier.

The thefts occurred during a data breach that affected bookings made on the airline’s website between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5, parent International Airlines Group said on Thursday.

Around 380,000 card payments were “compromised”, it said. In May 2017, the carrier suffered a massive computer system failure caused by a power supply issue near London’s Heathrow, which stranded 75,000 customers at Europe’s busiest airport over
a holiday weekend.

Its chief executive said at the time it would take steps to ensure such an incident never happened again, but in July it was forced to cancel and delay flights out of the same airport due to problems with a supplier’s IT systems.

IAG said the data breach had been resolved and the website was working normally, and that no travel or passport details were stolen.

It was communicating with affected customers but advised any others who believed they might have been affected to contact their banks or credit card providers.

The airline had launched an investigation and notified police and other relevant authorities.

(Source: Reuters)