Africa

The International Finance Corporation’s equity investment in Global Partnership for Ethiopia, the company that owns Safaricom Ethiopia — the first private-sector led telecommunications operator in the country which launched last October. The agreement, which also gives Safaricom Ethiopia access to a $100 million loan, will fund the new telco’s construction and operations as it rolls out 4G and 5G mobile networks across the country. IFC will have a minority stake in the company.

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s president Bola Tinubu suspended the central bank governor Godwin Emefiele on June 9, citing an “ongoing investigation of his office” and plans to reform the economy. Emefiele’s second five-year term as governor was due to end next year but he has long been a target of criticism by entrepreneurs, analysts and politicians who blame him for policies like multiple exchange rates and a botched currency redesign that stymied growth in the economy. Emefiele, 61, was subsequently arrested by Nigeria’s secret police after the suspension though it was not clear what the charges were.

🇪🇬 All Sudanese nationals crossing the border into Egypt must obtain a visa before being allowed into the country, Cairo said on Saturday. The country’s foreign ministry said the new visa rules, which were imposed as a 24-hour ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia took effect in Khartoum, are part of a crackdown on “illegal activities” including fraud by Egyptian nationals. The move will see a longstanding exemption for children, women, and elderly men reversed. More than 200,000 Sudanese nationals have entered Egypt since the war broke out two months ago, mostly through land crossings.

🌍 Brazil’s President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva is planning to visit at least eight African countries later this month according to reports in the Brazilian media. His first visit could be as early as August and is likely to be to South Africa for the BRICS summit. Some of the African countries that President Lula is expected to tour, and is keen to build trade and business links with, include Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and São Tomé and Principe.

🇪🇹 The Ethiopian government last week criticized a decision by the USAID and the World Food Program (WFP) to halt part of their humanitarian assistance to the country. The agencies alleged that food meant for people affected by the war was being diverted to local markets. The WFP will temporarily stop food aid assistance and will work with relevant stakeholders to “reform the way assistance is delivered across Ethiopia,” the agency said in a statement. Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said the move would “punish millions.” Tulu did not comment on whether the government had taken any reform measures when Semafor Africa reached out for comment.

🌍 The 66th Grammy Awards next year will for the first time include a best African music performance category as one of three additions to the U.S. music industry’s most coveted prizes. The new category comes at a time when more African stars are selling out tours in some of the world’s biggest venues. Earlier this year at the NBA All-Star game, Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Tems, and Rema headlined a first-ever Afrobeats-themed halftime show and Burna Boy also performed (pictured) at last weekend’s Champions League final. The new category will be awarded from a wide diet of African sound from South African Amapiano to Tanzanian Bongo Flava and more.

Kenya’s tea pickers are fighting the machines replacing them

THE NEWS

KERICHO, Kenya — Kenyan tea pickers are destroying machines brought in to replace them during violent protests that highlight the challenge faced by low-skilled workers as more agribusiness companies rely on automation to cut costs.

At least 10 tea-plucking machines have been torched in multiple flashpoints in the past year, according to local media reports. Recent demonstrations have left one protester dead and several injured, including 23 police officers and farm workers. The Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) estimated the cost of damaged machinery at $1.2 million (170 million Kenyan shillings) after nine machines belonging to Ekaterra, makers of the top-selling tea brand Lipton, were destroyed in May.

In March, a local government taskforce recommended that tea companies in Kericho, the country’s largest tea-growing town, adopt a new 60:40 ratio of mechanized tea harvesting to hand-plucking. The taskforce also wants legislation passed to limit importation of tea harvesting machines. Nicholas Kirui, a member of the taskforce and former CEO of KTGA, told Semafor Africa 30,000 jobs had been lost to mechanization in Kericho county alone over the past decade.

“We did public participation in all the wards and with all the different groups, and the overwhelming sentiment we were hearing was that the machines should go,” Kirui said.

KNOW MORE

In 2021, Kenya exported tea worth $1.2 billion, making it the third-largest tea exporter globally, behind China and Sri Lanka. Multinationals including Browns Investments, George Williamson and Ekaterra — which was sold by Unilever to a private equity firm in July 2022 — plant on an estimated 200,000 acres in Kericho and have all adopted mechanized harvesting.

Some machines can reportedly replace 100 workers. Ekaterra’s corporate affairs director in Kenya, Sammy Kirui, told Semafor Africa that mechanization was “critical” to the company’s operations and the global competitiveness of Kenyan tea. As the government taskforce established, one machine can bring the cost of harvesting tea down to 3 cents (4 Kenyan shillings) per kilogram from 11 cents (15.32 shillings) per kilogram with hand-plucking.

Analysts partly attribute Kenya’s unemployment rate — the highest in East Africa — to automation in industries, including banking and insurance. Some 13.9% of working age Kenyans (over 16) were out of work or long term unemployed in the final quarter of 2022.

MARTIN’S VIEW

Automation is only going to continue at a breakneck speed, not just in rural Kenya but other sectors in nations across Africa — particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more common. Rage in tea-picking regions could just be an early sign of future tensions if governments and companies don’t find ways to help low-skilled workers.

The majority of pickers are young, many are women, and they often lack the opportunities and skills to thrive outside the tea sector. Retraining farm workers, as well as creating more jobs and diversifying economies in tea-growing communities, will be key to countering violence and growing anger. “My ministry is keen on opening up the labor market to boost employment opportunities for Kenyans,” Labor Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore said during a trip to Kericho, days after the latest wave of attacks in May. She added that efforts were under way to resolve the dispute between locals and tea companies.

The private sector can also play a role in retraining workers. Kirui told me Ekaterra is keen on partnering with local communities on projects including technical and vocational education and training centers (TVETs).

Mechanization makes business sense for tea producers and they are unlikely to ditch tea-harvesting machines that lower their costs. But the trend is likely to continue hurting rural communities where farm workers are central to economic activity. Workers and residents will continue to oppose these changes because they lack alternative employment options.

THE VIEW FROM CHINA

China is the world’s largest tea exporter. In a paper calling for more efficient mechanization of tea harvesting in China, published in March, Wu Luofa of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Science noted that manual tea picking accounts for more than half of the cost of tea production.

“Developing and popularizing tea-picking machines is beneficial to increase labor productivity, reduce labor cost, enhance the market competitiveness of tea products and promote the sustainable development of the tea industry,” he said.

ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT

Adopting technology and mechanization is key to unlocking the potential of agriculture across Africa and should therefore be embraced, despite the frustrations of some workers, according to Tabitha Njuguna, managing director of African commodities exchange AFEX in Kenya.

“We find that potential disruptions caused by the integration of technology and mechanization can seem initially threatening, however, it is important for all stakeholders (agricultural organizations, farmers, processors) involved to see these as increasingly imminent and unavoidable,” she told Semafor Africa.

NOTABLE

• A BBC documentary in February uncovered widespread sexual harassment and abuse on tea farms in Kericho, with 70 women having been abused by their managers at plantations operated by British companies Unilever and James Finlay.

Out of the 345 companies in Africa that each generate $1 billion or more in annual revenues, 230 were started in an African country and the founder is often an African, a report by McKinsey and Company shows. South Africa is by far the continent’s leader with 40% of all the billion-dollar revenue companies. Its large companies increased revenues at an average rate of 5.5% a year between 2015 and 2021, while large companies in other countries saw average declines by 1.7% in the same period. McKinsey estimates that there has been a 7% net decrease in the number of African companies earning $1 billion+ in revenues since 2015, while Latin America, China, and India have witnessed increases in double digits in the same period. Africa’s billion-dollar companies cut across sectors but 70% of the revenues come from six lines of business: oil and gas, mining, retail and consumer goods, financial services, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

South African diplomats are scrambling to engage their U.S. counterparts to contain growing tensions that could see it lose a U.S.-Africa trade forum it is set to host in November.

A high-powered, bipartisan U.S. congressional group has pushed strongly for the U.S. government to reconsider having South Africa as the host of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in November. AGOA allows sub-Saharan African markets to export around 7,000 products duty-free to the U.S.

A June 9 letter addressed to the U.S. Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor, and the US Trade representative Katherine Tai called for the forum to be moved from South Africa because hosting it there would implicitly endorse what the letter described as South Africa’s “damaging support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” The letter was signed by chairs and ranking members of the foreign affairs committees in both the U.S. Senate and House.

South Africa has claimed an “active non-aligned position” on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and has sent envoys to Washington D.C. to explain its position to the U.S. in recent weeks, according to South Africa’s foreign affairs spokesperson Clayson Monyela. “Our diplomats in Washington continue to engage on these matters,” said Monyela.

But the rising tensions with the U.S. mean Africa’s most industrialized economy risks losing out on valuable preferential trade agreements under AGOA, which help sub-Saharan African markets maximize their exports to the U.S.

South Africa’s relations with the US worsened after its ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, last month accused Pretoria of trading arms with Russia from a ship docked at a naval base near Cape Town. Semafor Africa has since revealed that a South African government probe found evidence suggesting arms were illegally loaded onto a Russian vessel by a private company. President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Phineas Mojapelo, a retired judge, to run an official inquiry into the allegations.

— Sam Mkokeli in Johannesburg

• South African television and media company Multichoice Group added 1.7 million active subscribers for a customer base of 23.5 million as of March, its latest report published today showed. The 8% growth over last year was driven by interest in the FIFA men’s World Cup. But 82% of the new subscribers were from countries outside South Africa as viewing in that country was hit by planned blackouts, known as load shedding, and high inflation. Despite this, Multichoice said its revenues were up 7% compared to 2021, at 59.1 billion rand ($3.17 billion), boosted in part by advertising revenue from the World Cup.
• Angola’s state-owned telecommunications company Angola Telecom said it is building a fiber network to connect it to eastern and southern African countries. The new line — to be laid in partnership with pan-African internet infrastructure company Liquid Dataport — will pass from Angola’s capital, Luanda, to DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa. It will pass through the ground in these countries, unlike some subsea cable projects rolled out by tech giants such as Google and Meta. Liquid Dataport already has data centers in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. Adding one in Angola extends what it calls a ‘One Africa Digital Network.’ The cost of the company’s latest project is undisclosed.

• Cryptocurrency exchange Binance disavowed an entity that Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission said consumers should not use because it was unregulated. Binance said it was not not affiliated with Binance Nigeria, the entity mentioned in the June 9 circular. “We are therefore seeking clarity from the Nigerian SEC and remain committed to working with them cooperatively on the next steps,” the company told tech publication Techpoint. After Nigeria’s central bank banned banks from enabling crypto transactions in 2021, a number of companies including Binance offered peer-to-peer trading systems as an alternative. Binance is in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators challenging the legality of the company’s operations.

— Alexander Onukwue

A group of Zimbabwean writers are introducing classic literature to young readers by translating books into local languages. The group, led by novelist and lawyer Petina Gappah and poet Tinashe Muchuri, recently translated George Orwell’s Animal Farm, into Shona – the country’s most widely-spoken language. The translation, Chimurenga Chemhuka (Animal Revolution) was undertaken over five years. “Too few great books are available in the country’s indigenous languages,” writes Tinashe Mushakavanhu in The Conversation. The aim of the translation is to help young readers relate their current socio-economic and political reality to the country’s larger struggles for independence. This struggle, commonly known in Zimbabwe as Chimurenga, is reflected in the novel’s core themes including greed and the unfettered pursuit of power. Chimurenga Chemhuka was published by The House of Books Zimbabwe as part of a series of translations aimed at reaching a wider audience.

• Donald Trump’s political fortunes haven’t changed, but his legal situation is getting dark, Benjy Sarlin explained.
• Mt. Everest has seen a record number of climbers this year — and plenty of drama. The latest incident involved a feud over payment after a daring rescue near the summit.
• Four children were rescued after surviving a plane crash and being stranded in the Amazon in Colombia for more than a month. New details explained how they managed to survive.

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— Yinka, Alexis, Marché Arends, Alexander Onukwue, and Muchira Gachenge