Africa's latest coloniser

Bruce Whitfield, ‘World at Six’

This week's Africa Business Report looks at the anti-South African sentiment simmering in Kenya and Bill Gates massive contribution to agriculture on the continent.

Bruce Whitfield:
Victor Kgomoeswana in the ‘World at Six’ studio, he is from Money Biz with the Africa business report, it is what he does every Tuesday at this time and the situation in Kenyan deteriorating, we have got nearly a thousand people dead, the economic situation isn't looking great, the stock market which had recovered in the early part of this month once again under pressure as well. All of these things are not looking good for Kenya.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
I'm sure that people would start realising, Bruce, that it's not temporary, it is a crisis now because if you have a month and still you can't resolve the outcome of an election, I mean you might as well have not have had the election in the first place so I'm sure investors are just going to get tired of holding out and holding out and thinking things will get better. Koffi Anan is there, the former secretary general of the United Nations, people are talking, but I don't see any intent to really find a solution to the problem and to me, I am saying what is the issue, by the way?

Bruce Whitfield:
Absolutely and also what is interesting is growing anti-South African sentiment in Kenya. What is going on there?

Victor Kgomoeswana:
It is a study by the South African Institute of International Affairs that found that they call it a blatantly anti-South African sentiment but you have got to understand that there was an article, I just can't remember who wrote it, talking about South Africa becoming the new coloniser of the continent and if you just look at how many South African companies are moving up north into the rest of the continent you will realise that. So between 2005 and 2007 South African companies were involved in there and some top Kenyan business people and analysts are feeling it is an excessive investment they just might think that maybe they want a bit more local participation which is a hint for people who are planning to grow into the rest of the continent that find local partnerships, find a way of joint venturing or partnering with people on the ground to make sure your brand is not seen as part of this invasion or intrusion that some people might start to think is happening.

Bruce Whitfield:
But also there is lots of activity happening, I mean there is still a buyout of a Kenyan bank happening at the moment so economic activity isn't stagnant.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Not in Kenya, Bruce I keep telling you, go to Kenya and open an office there. The bank is based in Lome in Togo, it wants to be the biggest, the largest bank in Africa, and now they are moving into East Africa. They are buying 75 percent of Kenya's EABS bank they are not disclosing the amount obviously but that is something they have been doing. They have operations in Nigeria, I think they listed in Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, they listed on those three stock exchanges, so they are moving into East Africa and they are really intent on becoming the biggest.

Bruce Whitfield:
The East Africa trading community though it is trying to free up the movement of goods and people so there is a crisis ongoing but that eastern power bloc that you talk about so often, they are busy trying to legislate to ensure that they can get trade moving in that area as well and that is good news.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Five countries, over 100 million people, who wouldn't want a market like that, and remember most of these countries are English-speaking so they are saying they want to have a common market by 2010 and judging by what has been happening and the movement towards a common currency I am sure that could very well be on the cards.

Bruce Whitfield:
One of the big issues happening in Ethiopia of course is you have got lots of people very poor, there is a big threat to people in Ethiopia being displaced by a new power scheme.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Funny enough it is around the Omo River, rivers there have got very interesting names, there is one called Awash but I'm sure it is not English awash but there is one called Omo and you know there were floods in 2006 around that area, you had drought on the one side and floods on the other, but it is a hydroelectric scheme, it costs about $1.7-billion that financial request has been sent to the European Union but there are farmers there and we are talking survivalist farmers who are saying we were not consulted and if you block up the river or if you do anything like that we won't have access to the grazing fields and it is the livestock that we depend on for a living and from that viewpoint they are complaining. The president is reassuring everybody that he is going to boost efforts to reduce poverty but I'm sure if you rely on a head of about a hundred cattle, you are not very interested in reducing poverty through electricity, you want access to the grazing lands.

Bruce Whitfield:
Correct and Rwanda we know, probably Africa's best coffee comes from that region and Bill and Melinda Gates think so too.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
$46.9-million, somehow Bill Gates goes to Davos every year and he donates lots of money but that's the beauty of an entrepreneur who has made a success of his business and he can now be socially responsible but $46.9-million grant that is part of way $306-million grant for the whole of African agricultural development but here they are supporting coffee farmers with the help from an organisation, an NGO, to help develop small-scale farmers into much more sustainable enterprises.

Bruce Whitfield:
And the coffee is good. There is a hotel group I have never heard of but I think it has got a bunch of subsidiaries with which we are familiar and it is looking to invest in South Africa. That's good news.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Yes they operate in regions there, I think they are a Belgian company, the Residor hotel group; they are planning to get into Africa, three hotels in South Africa, they want to open in the next few years. They want to go into 20 cities over the next 36 months and they aim to have, they say 50 hotels by 2015. So there you go, people have been asking where is the return on the World Cup, there are companies that you have not even heard of that are coming here but they run hotels names like Regent and I'm sure you have heard of that, Radisson, and Park Inn, but they are Belgian if my research is reliable.

Bruce Whitfield:
There we go, thanks very much Victor Kgomoeswana.