Economic Insights on Francophone Africa

[Nyumba]

documentary about a rich Indo-Malagasy entrepeneur in Madagascar. A big slice of business there is now Indo-Malagasy owned, I'm happy to see many positive comments in this video as well but I know that among many there this is a cause of concern. Many Malagasy have a very negative view of their country and don't see opportunities, instead opportunities are plenty

[Olivilo]

The Chinese are enlarging the port of Abidjan, but the new infrastructure will be operated by a French-Danish consortium. The goal is to become the largest hub on the entire Atlantic seaboard of Africa.

Côte d’Ivoire: at the port of Abidjan, the Chinese are thinking big

Le Monde Afrique
April 2, 2019

Directed and financed by China, construction of the second container terminal will enable larger ships to dock and compete with Tangier and Durban.


Work on the second container terminal at the port of Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire, on March 27, 2019.

Mechanical diggers in action on a lunar landscape at the edge of the water, a crane of 100 meters unloading a pile of concrete reinforcing bars... Leader in West Africa, the port of Abidjan, which handles 90% of Côte d'Ivoire's foreign trade, has embarked on a vast modernization project of its facilities, in order to maintain its position but especially to compete with those of Tangier, Morocco, and Durban, South Africa.

The works, which began in 2012, are led by Chinese engineers and workers, whose country finances this program to the tune of 1,100 billion CFA francs (1.67 billion euros). "This project, which employs 300 people [mostly Chinese], will end in August and make this terminal the largest in West Africa," says Rui Zhui, quality manager for China Harbour Engineering Company.

"From 2020, the port of Abidjan will accommodate the largest ships frequenting the African coast," says Hien Sié, director general of the port, to the AFP. "We opted to build a terminal with 16 meters of draft [the submerged part of the ship] to anticipate the future. This second terminal can fulfill our needs for another century, "he continues, recalling that the first container terminal, operated since 2004 by the French group Bolloré, "could only accommodate ships with 11.5-meter draft" at the maximum.

Deepening of the Vridi Canal

The second terminal, when put into service, with its length of 1,200 meters and depth of 18 meters - a record on the West African coast - will accommodate ships carrying 10,000 containers, versus 3,500 previously.

In addition, the port, which is in a lagoon, completed in February the widening and deepening of the Vridi Canal, which connects it to the sea, at a cost of 150 billion CFA francs (230 million euros). This upgrade will allow the passage of ships without limitation of length, against 250 meters maximum before.

[...]

Traffic at the port of Abidjan increased by 7.2% in 2018, reaching more than 24 million tonnes. "We have a strong economy that attracts shipping companies," said Sié. You have Tangier to the north, which enjoys a particular geographical location [on the Strait of Gibraltar], and at the other end Durban [on the Indian Ocean]. We are located between the two and we have assets to be a hub in Africa. "

Approximately forty Chinese companies

The management of new port infrastructures will be carried out in a context of public-private partnership, in the form of a concession. China is building the infrastructure, but management should be in the hands of a consortium formed by two French groups, Bolloré Africa Logistics and Bouygues Travaux Publics, and APM Terminals, a subsidiary of the Danish group Maersk.

[...]

China is Côte d'Ivoire's third largest trading partner. Trade between the two countries increased by 800% between 2014 and 2016. In addition to the port, around 40 Chinese companies are involved in implementing the drinking water supply of Abidjan, the Olympic stadium under construction in Ebimpé, the video surveillance (CCTV) system of the city of Abidjan, or the extension of the fiber optic broadband network.

In 2018, the Chinese launched three major projects: the refitting and development of the electricity network, the construction of the Tiébissou-Bouaké motorway and the construction of the fourth bridge over the lagoon in Abidjan.

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/artic...4573_3212.html

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by Olivilo

The Chinese are enlarging the port of Abidjan, but the new infrastructure will be operated by a French-Danish consortium. The goal is to become the largest hub on the entire Atlantic seaboard of Africa.

Theres talk of Tema (Accra) having the biggest port so everyone is saying the same thing. Togo says they wont to expand Lome to have the biggest port too.

AFAIK- Tema will be the biggest.

[Olivilo]

How I understand it, people are mixing up container traffic (measured in TEU) and bulk cargo traffic (measured in metric tonnes). Lomé has the largest traffic of containers on the West coast of Africa from Morocco to South Africa, and perhaps Tema is aiming to become the largest container port ahead of Lomé, but Abidjan has the largest bulk cargo traffic (exports of petroleum, cocoa, cashew nuts, natural rubber, bananas, etc // imports of petroleum, clincker (to produce cement), rice, wheat flour, prepared foodstuff, fish, etc).

In 2018, traffic of bulk cargo at the port of Abidjan reached 24.2 million tonnes, an increase of 6% compared to 2018. According to this source, the port of Tema had bulk cargo traffic of only 13.8 million tonnes between January and October 2018, so Abidjan was ahead of Tema in bulk cargo traffic for the entire year. Abidjan alone has a bulk cargo traffic that is almost as large as Tema and Takoradi combined.

No data for container traffic at Abidjan in 2018 yet (in 2017 it was 663,601 TEUs, as opposed to 1,193,800 in Lomé and 956,000 in Tema), but I suppose the 2nd container terminal to be opened next year plus deepening of the port will allow it to grow tremendously (the new capacity will be brought to more than 3 million TEUs, and there is reserved space for huge new container terminals west of the Vridi Canal should traffic exceed 3 million TEUs).

[Nyumba]

There are 2300 millionaires in Ivory Coast (2015 datas), they're expected to swell to 4800 by 2025. Reportage by the Ivorian TV on the luxury market in the country.

An ex actress that since 3 years works as a high end real estate agent, then at 6:45 they're talking about Nihahsah, luxury clothing 10:20 high end African restaurant and at 14:00 a weird girl that speaks like a stuck up French girl that gets paid between 2000 and 5000 usd per year to solve all of your problems (a "personal concierge"). Like this one guy that needed to send a bouquet of flowers to Sierra Leone or one that needed to rent a local museum for a party.

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by Olivilo

How I understand it, people are mixing up container traffic (measured in TEU) and bulk cargo traffic (measured in metric tonnes). Lomé has the largest traffic of containers on the West coast of Africa from Morocco to South Africa, and perhaps Tema is aiming to become the largest container port ahead of Lomé, but Abidjan has the largest bulk cargo traffic (exports of petroleum, cocoa, cashew nuts, natural rubber, bananas, etc // imports of petroleum, clincker (to produce cement), rice, wheat flour, prepared foodstuff, fish, etc).

In 2018, traffic of bulk cargo at the port of Abidjan reached 24.2 million tonnes, an increase of 6% compared to 2018. According to this source, the port of Tema had bulk cargo traffic of only 13.8 million tonnes between January and October 2018, so Abidjan was ahead of Tema in bulk cargo traffic for the entire year. Abidjan alone has a bulk cargo traffic that is almost as large as Tema and Takoradi combined.

No data for container traffic at Abidjan in 2018 yet (in 2017 it was 663,601 TEUs, as opposed to 1,193,800 in Lomé and 956,000 in Tema), but I suppose the 2nd container terminal to be opened next year plus deepening of the port will allow it to grow tremendously (the new capacity will be brought to more than 3 million TEUs, and there is reserved space for huge new container terminals west of the Vridi Canal should traffic exceed 3 million TEUs).

If I remember- Abidjan will have a capacity of 3 million TEUs, Tema 3.5 million

[Olivilo]

Originally Posted by Umoja

Largest in Cote d'lvoire: Chinese-built Soubre hydropower station

This dam is just one among several other projects to increase the electricity production of Côte d'Ivoire. It's not even the largest project in fact. While the Soubré dam has a a capacity of 275 MW, the CIPREL (Compagnie ivoirienne de production d’électricité) is currently building a combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Jacqueville, west of Abidjan, with a capacity of 390 MW, at a cost of 248 billion CFA francs (426 million US dollars).

The CIPREL already exploits one of the largest power plants in Africa, located in the port of Abidjan. It's a combined cycle gas turbine power plant whose capacity was expanded in 2013 and 2015 and now reaches 556 MW.



The 390 MW of the Jacqueville power plan will add to the 556 MW power plant already exploited by the CIPREL in the port of Abidjan.

There are various other projects to massively expand the electricity production, for example the expansion of the Azito power plant near Yopougon, in the suburbs of Abidjan, which currently has a capacity of 430 MW, and whose capacity will be brought to 680 MW (the Ivorian government gave the green light last month to the international company Globeleq to add a further 250 MW unit to the Azito power plant).

At the end of 2017, Côte d'Ivoire had an installed electricity capacity of 2,200 MW, and the government plans to increase the capacity to 4,000 MW by the end of 2020, and 6,600 MW by 2030.

The government has also launched a plan to connect 100% of towns and villages to the electricity network by 2025. This plan is called Programme électrictité pour tous (PEPT, i.e. "Plan Electricity for All"): http://www.cie.ci/pept/

At the moment 500 villages are being connected to the electricity network every year to achieve the plan.

[Olivilo]

Burkina Faso, rarely talked about, and yet one of the most consistently growing African economies in the past 25 years. Burkina Faso has achieved an average GDP growth of +5.8% per year in the past 25 years, same as Ghana, and higher than Tanzania (+5.7% per year), Nigeria (+5.2% per year), or Kenya (+4.1% per year).

Finance: the regional ambitions of the Burkinabe credit institution Fidelis

Jeune Afrique
April 11, 2019

The leasing specialist Fidelis intends to take advantage of its successful establishment in Côte d'Ivoire by conquering new markets in West Africa.


To the right, Abdoulaye Sory, managing director of Fidelis Finance, at a ceremony during a visit of equipment financed by the credit institution

Bolstered by its national base with nearly 70% of market share, Burkina Faso credit and leasing specialist Fidelis Finance, led by banker Kouafilann Abdoulaye Sory, is expanding beyond its borders. Like Coris Bank (of businessman Idrissa Nassa), the company, founded in 1998 and controlled by the fund AfriCapital Partners, is relying prioritarily on the Ivorian leasing market estimated at more than 400 billion CFA francs (approximately 700 million US dollars).

[...]

https://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/759...inabe-fidelis/

According to Jeune Afrique, Fidelis shareholders have agreed to a capital increase from 1 billion CFA francs (2.6 million US dollars) to 6 billion CFA francs (10.3 million US dollars) in order to expand in other UEMOA economies beyond Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire.

[Olivilo]

Some posts (posted in the general economic thread) about the rebasing of Burkina Faso's national accounts whose first results were released discreetly last December but which I'm discovering only now.

Originally Posted by Olivilo

Burkina Faso was among the poorest African nations 25 years ago. Its youth was since independence migrating to the more prosperous Côte d'Ivoire, which explains why Côte d'Ivoire's population has swollen so much since independence.

Then in the past 25 years Burkina Faso has steadily risen from the poorest of the poors. It's not yet visible both because people take time to adjust their vision of a country, and also because the recent rebasing of the Burkinabe national accounts whose first results were released in December 2018 haven't been introduced in the IMF database yet.

Just compare Burkina Faso and Rwanda. Back in 1993, the PPP GDP per capita of Burkina Faso and Rwanda was this:
- Rwanda: $630
- Burkina Faso: $619

And this was the PPP GDP per capita in 2018 (including the recent rebasing of Burkina Faso's national accounts):
- Rwanda: $2,280
- Burkina Faso: $2,266

So Burkina Faso's performance in the past 25 years has been as good as the much vaunted Rwanda, but of course the Burkinabe authorities are not as good at communication and self-promotion as the Rwandan authorities.

Back in 1993, excluding Liberia, South Sudan, and Somalia, Burkina was the 7th poorest country in Africa. In 2018, including the rebasing, Burkina Faso ($2,266) had risen to 13th poorest country in Africa (and only 16th poorest if you include Liberia, South Sudan, and Somalia which are poorer but for which we have no 1993 data), at the same level as Rwanda ($2,280), and very close to Ethiopia ($2,332). Mali, unrebased, was at $2,384 in 2018, but Mali was always richer than what people usually assume (after the rebasing, Mali will be near $3,000 or higher).

Originally Posted by Olivilo

A further note about Burkina Faso's rebasing of national accounts.

Half of the increase in the Burkinabe GDP resulting from the rebasing was due to the manufacturing sector. With the rebasing, the value of the manufacturing sector doubled overnight!!

With the rebasing, the share of the agriculture and husbandry (cattle raising) sector in the Burkinabe economy fell overnight from 33.7% to 24.9%. The share of the manufacturing sector rose overnight from 7.4% to 12.8% of the Burkinabe economy. The share of the secondary sector (manufacturing + mining + construction + utilities) rose overnight from 21.2% to 26.6% of the Burkinabe economy. The share of the service sector rose from 45.1% to 48.5%.

Inside the service sector, the GDP value of hotels and restaurants was multiplied by 9 with the rebasing ()! The value of real estate activities was multiplied by nearly 3. The public administration sector actually decreased in absolute value (!). The education sector doubled overnight. The health sector, which was estimated at zero in the previous national accounts () is now estimated at making up 2.3% of the Burkinabe economy.

Before the rebasing, the informal sector was estimated at 48.8% of the Burkinabe economy. It is now estimated at 53.4% of the Burkinabe economy.

Now waiting for the first results of Côte d'Ivoire's rebasing which should be published soon!

[Olivilo]

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