The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced approval Wednesday of the world’s first <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-treatment-ebola-virus" target="_blank">successful</a> treatment for the Ebola virus, one of the deadliest pathogens on the planet.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



The drug, Inmazeb, is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies produced by U.S. pharmaceutical company Regeneron.



Inmazeb was approved for both adults and children after a trial among 382 adult and pediatric patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which recently declared its 11th Ebola outbreak in just over 40 years, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.msf.org/drc-ebola-outbreaks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Doctors Without Borders</a>.



While the approval does mark a significant breakthrough, Ebola is still extremely life-threatening – just over 33% of patients in the trial who were given Inmazeb died after 28 days, compared to 51% who were given a control, according to the FDA.



Inmazeb was funded by a joint partnership between Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority while The National Institutes of Health and Congo’s Health Ministry helped administer the study, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/521097-fda-approves-first-ebola-treatment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Hill</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



The last major Ebola outbreak in the DRC was in August, 2018. Some 3,470 people were infected and; 2,287 were killed. It was the country&#8217;s largest-ever Ebola outbreak, and is also the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded. The largest outbreak recorded was the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa, which saw 28,652 and 11,325 deaths spread across 10 countries, including 11 cases and one casualty in the United States, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/index.html#anchor_1515001464100" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Centers for Disease Control</a>. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood, bodily fluids, and tissues of infected people or contaminated surfaces making those who live in third world countries and healthcare workers extremely high-risk for infection. The FDA approved&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/first-fda-approved-vaccine-prevention-ebola-virus-disease-marking-critical-milestone-public-health" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ervebo</a>, a vaccine for Ebola, in 2019.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



President Donald Trump was given an experimental antibody cocktail produced by Regeneron after he was diagnosed with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2020/09/29/new-drug-might-speed-up-covid-19-recovery-pharma-company-reports/#153be08bc440">Covid-19</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-treatment-ebola-virus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FDA Approves First Treatment for Ebola Virus</a>&nbsp;(FDA)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2020/09/29/new-drug-might-speed-up-covid-19-recovery-pharma-company-reports/#153be08bc440">Trump Takes Experimental Regeneron Drug Cocktail Days After It Received Positive Reports</a> (Forbes)



By Daniel Cassady, Forbes Staff

Ebola virus positive blood sample

World’s First Ebola Treatment Approved By FDA

The power of fashion as a tool for social change is being realized in a tiny town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where suffering is being swapped with style and self-worth.



Deep in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lies the town of Bukavu, home to a community of women survivors of violence.



Since it first opened its doors, this transformational leadership community called the City of Joy, has graduated 1,380 women leaders. Here, women are healed from their past trauma through therapy and life skills programming and provided with essential ingredients to move forward in life, supported by love and community.



The program welcomes 90 survivors of gender violence aged between 18 and 30 at a time.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/City-of-Joy-Bukavu-DRC-CREDIT-MARC-SILVER-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41534"/></figure>



Recently, specialist Dutch fabric maker, Vlisco, was asked to create a fashion collection to honor the women of the City of Joy and the surgeon who works with them, 2018’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Denis Mukwege.



Five international designers worked with 15 City of Joy graduates to create a collection of empowering and personalized garments using new fabrics.



The fabrics consist of five traditionally printed super-wax patterns incorporating 100 different, vivid colors.



The collection was showcased at a gala event in front of a global audience in Kinshasa in November last year to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and all proceeds from the sale of the collection donated to the City of Joy.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/City-of-Joy-graduate-models-an-outfit-created-by-Tolu-Coker-using-the-City-of-Joy-collection-fabric_3-Photo-credit-–-Vlisco-1024x684.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41535"/></figure>



David Suddens, CEO of Vlisco, told FORBES WOMAN AFRICA that the five international designers, all African women, were keen to join the company’s efforts to help the women of the eastern Congo.



“They were immediately engaged even though they were not
initially aware of the City of Joy and the scale of the rape and brutality.
Once they had met the women, they formed a bond of love and respect.”



Suddens continues: “It was a real pleasure to work with the five designers; they not only created and made the garments in a very short period of time, they flew great distances to be with the women (one interrupted her family vacation in the United States to be in the DRC) and they made a huge impact on the women they designed for. The bond was palpable.”



The designers wrote to Suddens and Gabriela Sanchez, a Mexican Dutch designer and head of creative projects at Vlisco: “Thank you so much for changing not only our lives this year with this experience but also thank you for connecting us with these amazing women, with compelling stories and divine souls. You’re both a blessing to us.” The founder of City of Joy, Christine Schuler, told Suddens and Sanchez that many people visit the community, but “nobody has understood us like you have”.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The beauty of the Congolese landscape is depicted; its river, its forests, its nature. From the dark roots of the forest, slowly flowers start to grow, butterflies appear, birds are in the sky and the sun is glimpsed behind the clouds.</blockquote>



Asked about the impact of the designs and this collaboration
on the community, Suddens says: “The designs are related to the lives and
suffering and hope and courage of the women in the City of Joy. You needed to
see their faces light up when they first saw the designs. They were overjoyed.”



The main stories expressed in the fabric designs are
fundamentally about the journey from pain to power. 



“The designs, at the bottom, are somber, twisted, even
menacing. But, as the eye moves upwards, there is gradually more light and the
images symbolize hope and respect and love,” Suddens explains. 



“The beauty of the Congolese landscape is depicted; its
river, its forests, its nature. From the dark roots of the forest, slowly
flowers start to grow, butterflies appear, birds are in the sky and the sun is
glimpsed behind the clouds.



“In one design sits a lion, dignified and rather sad, symbolizing Dr Mukwege. In another, sisterhood is portrayed, with intertwined threads joining ‘hands’ as they grow lighter but stronger. And two designs depict the beauty of the vagina, full of flowers against the dark background of the universe.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Vlisco-designer-Gabriela-Sanchez-y-Sanchez-de-la-Barquera-stands-with-designers-Oritsegbubemi-Ogisi-Abiola-Adeniran-Olusola-Tolu-Coker-Aisha-Ayensu-Rebecca-Zoro-Photo-credit-–-Vlisco-1024x684.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41538"/></figure>



FORBES WOMAN AFRICA also spoke to international designer
Aisha Ayensu, the founder and creative director of fashion brand Christie Brown
known as a player in the rise of contemporary African fashion since its
inception 11 years ago. 



“This project gave me first-hand insight into how fashion
can be used as a tool for social change but most importantly, meeting these
remarkable women, sharing in their joy and appreciating where they’ve come from
and their journey from pain to power has completely altered the way I view my
work and my purpose,” says Ayensu.



She recalls her experience in Kinshasa as magical. “It was
important that the gala event highlighted their power and recovery more than
the atrocities the women faced, but all the same, raising awareness of what may
still be going on and how we can help stop violence against women.”



“I had an experience with one of the ladies in Bukavu, when
she did her first fitting&#8230; The sheer joy and excitement on her face when she
saw her outfit and exclaimed in local language ‘for me?’ In disbelief. When she
put it on and saw a picture of herself, she started to cry tears of joy and
also started saying ‘is this me, today look at me, I am also somebody’. That
reaction was priceless. When fashion and design is deliberate and well thought
out, it has the power to elevate a woman in ways you can’t imagine.”



Added Suddens: “Never could they have imagined wearing their
own designs made into garments by African designers. To understand, you need to
see their faces. You need to see them literally dancing with joy.”&nbsp; 



-Jill De Villiers

City of Joy graduates walk the catwalk in Kinshasa to launch the City of Joy Collection (1)

Clothes Encounters In The Congo: How Fashion Can Be Used As A Tool For Social Change

It was confidently billed at the time as the “deal of the century”. The Sino Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines) was the most significant Chinese investment project in Africa when it was agreed in 2007.



The infrastructure agreement gave Chinese partners mining rights to cobalt and copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These minerals are used in electric vehicle batteries and electronics, including smartphones and laptops. In exchange, China agreed to build much-needed infrastructure projects such as urban roads, highways and hospitals.



In addition to new infrastructure, the Sicomines deal was expected to provide a significant boost to the DRC’s economic growth. The view was that the agreed volumes of mineral production would contribute to higher levels of exports, tax revenue and inflow of US dollars.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/19/in-pictures-noella-coursaris-musunka-the-trailblazer-in-the-congo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Noëlla Coursaris Musunka The Trailblazer In The Congo (opens in a new tab)">Noëlla Coursaris Musunka The Trailblazer In The Congo</a>



More than a decade on, the Sicomines deal has not lived up to expectations. There have been infrastructure project delays as well as unexpected costs. There have also been problems associated with poor quality roads and infrastructure and inadequate environment and social impact studies.



On the economic front, mineral exports from the DRC&nbsp;<a href="http://www.intracen.org/country/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">have indeed risen steeply</a>. But sharp cyclical fluctuations show that the country is heavily reliant on both the Chinese market and the price of a few minerals. In addition, the Sicomines deal won exemption from taxes until infrastructure and mining loans were fully repaid. This means that the DRC will not receive any substantial income from the agreement in the foreseeable future.



The Sicomines agreement demonstrates one of the main problems with deals of this nature. It never included any guarantee of the actual value that the Congolese population would get in exchange for the country’s main source of wealth.



As we argue in a recent International Affairs article, the Sicomines deal provides lessons for other African countries. Future deals like this present an opportunity to change the model followed in Sicomines and by most Sino-African trade relations. This has, to date, essentially involved China supplying value-added manufactured goods and high-skilled workers. In exchange, African countries have agreed to export mainly primary-based resource products. And African workers are hired for unskilled, low-cost tasks.



It needn’t be this way.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wealth/2019/04/08/from-medicine-to-nanotechnology-how-gold-quietly-shapes-our-world/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">From Medicine To Nanotechnology: How Gold Quietly Shapes Our World</a>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Protecting the host country’s interests</h4>



The first decade of the deal shows that Chinese companies have focused their efforts on benefiting from access to valuable natural resources. But the interests of local communities have been neglected.



In addition, several of the problems affecting the building of infrastructure have arisen because quality control responsibility was assigned to the same two Chinese companies responsible for execution. These were China Railway Engineering Company and Sinohydro, a large state-owned hydropower and engineering company.



This highlights the potential trap of these deals. The level of contribution to development depends, to a great extent, on the ability of inexpert local institutions to manage complex multilateral projects.



There is a solution to this. Host countries should create committees of experts, if necessary with regional and international support. Alternatively, they could contract independent specialised consultants to guarantee that national interests are satisfied.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/economy/2019/01/16/ford-and-ibm-among-quartet-in-congo-cobalt-blockchain-project/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Ford and IBM among quartet in Congo cobalt blockchain project (opens in a new tab)">Ford and IBM among quartet in Congo cobalt blockchain project</a>



Instead of negotiating with a unique consortium of companies, these teams would participate in the development of a public procurement process to award the project to the most competitive bidder. Additionally, the committees would be in charge of monitoring implementation of the contract. This could include extraction works, quality of infrastructure, compliance with environmental and social standards.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Learning through small pioneer initiatives</h4>



China has shown that it is ready to take risks and engage in enormous African infrastructure development projects. And that it’s prepared to do this even when western donors are not willing to allocate funds.



To some extent, China’s favourable attitude towards deals such as the Sicomines agreement is based on the same logic as the infrastructure loans received from Japan in the 1980s. These were mutually beneficial: they fostered Japan’s development and they were very lucrative for Japanese firms.



But there are many potential complications with the multi-billion dollar resource-backed credits offered by China to African countries recovering from conflict.



With this in mind, African countries could take a more incremental approach. They could foster development through a process of gradual reforms, implemented through several pioneering small deals.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/economy/2017/09/06/china-really-helping-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Is China Really Helping Africa? (opens in a new tab)">Is China Really Helping Africa?</a>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Changes that are needed</h4>



Any new agreements should include precise objectives and financial resources to guarantee training and upskilling for workers.



In parallel, the terms of the agreement should create the conditions for the transfer of know-how in a way that helps local companies to move to higher value added activities.



African governments could take into account China’s experience. The Chinese government decided that in some strategic sectors (such as the automotive sector), foreign investors had to create a joint venture with a Chinese partner to enter the market. This strategy has contributed to the emergence of several competitive domestic firms and national champions.



Finally, as economic diversification prompts an increase in GDP per capita, additional taxes collected from extracting industries could be invested in other economic activities to promote development.



The model has the potential to enable projects that would otherwise be impossible in fragile and conflict-affected African economies. But the Sicomines deal shows that it’s necessary to address particular challenges if China’s new financing schemes are to accelerate development in Africa.



&#8211;Andoni Maiza Larrarte; Professor, Department of Applied Economics I, UPV/EHU, Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea



&#8211;Gloria Claudio-Quiroga; Associate Professor of Economics at Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid., Universidad Francisco de Vitoria



-The Conversation



<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114571/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

gettyimages-960743648-170667a

The DRC And China’s Sicomines: Why Future Deals Should Be Different

With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten “catastrophe” of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies.



This year’s survey was unusual for the high number of “most forgotten crises”, with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela.



But Congo’s “mega-crisis” barely made headlines, they said, even as the country gears up for landmark elections on Sunday which some fear could stoke further unrest.



“The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous,” said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.



“I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance.”



Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated.



READ MORE| <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2018/09/03/blood-diamonds-to-blockchain-diamonds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Blood Diamonds To Blockchain Diamonds? (opens in a new tab)">Blood Diamonds To Blockchain Diamonds?</a>



Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid.



ActionAid’s humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterized by sexual brutality.



“It’s been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly,”&nbsp;Boumnijel said.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">EBOLA</h5>



Christian Aid’s head of humanitarian programs Maurice Onyango said the violence had caused “large-scale trauma”, with children witnessing parents and siblings being murdered.



An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich country has also exacerbated the spread of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak, agencies said.



The Central African Republic, where armed groups control much of the country and 60 percent of the population needs assistance, came a close second in the poll.



Listed as the most neglected by OCHA, UNICEF, MercyCorps, Plan International, and Caritas, the country has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.



Armed groups are increasingly targeting schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, while attacks on aid workers have impacted a “chronically underfunded” humanitarian response, they said.



U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said thousands of children had been trapped in armed groups or subjected to sexual violence.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The crisis is growing increasingly desperate and resources are at breaking point,” added UNICEF emergencies director Manuel Fontaine.</blockquote>



U.N. appeals for both DRC and CAR are less than 50 percent funded.



“Central African Republic is in a death spiral,” said Caritas Secretary General Michel Roy. “While governments and the world’s media have turned their backs, we must not. It’s the only hope CAR has left.”



Plan International said the media neglected complex crises like CAR and DRC because they lacked the shock factor of a sudden disaster like Indonesia’s huge earthquake in September.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">“MASSIVE FLOOD”</h5>



Yemen, at risk of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, was highlighted by Muslim Hands and World Vision.



“With three quarters of the population needing assistance, I can’t see how Yemen isn’t at the top of everyone’s list,” said World Vision emergencies chief Mark Smith.



South Africa issues arrest warrant for Zimbabwe&#8217;s Grace Mugabe



International Medical Corps warned the disaster in Lake Chad basin, where climate change and a prolonged insurgency by Boko Haram and Islamic State have left 11 million needing help, was also set to worsen next year.



Action Against Hunger said millions caught up in the “almost invisible” crisis &#8211; affecting Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon &#8211; faced poverty, hunger, sexual violence and child kidnapping.



The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s biggest relief network, said hunger and disease following major flooding across Nigeria threatened to create a second protracted crisis in the country.



“I’m shocked by how little attention (this) has received. The figures are staggering,”&nbsp;said IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy, adding that nearly 2 million people were impacted, more than 200,000 uprooted and swathes of cropland destroyed.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“This massive disaster has gone largely unnoticed by many donors and journalists,” he added.</blockquote>



This year was the first time Venezuela featured in the poll.



About 3.3 million people have fled political turmoil and economic meltdown in the Latin American country &#8211; many driven by hunger or violence &#8211; and another 2 million could follow next year, according to U.N. estimates.



The United Nations has launched a $738 million appeal to help nearby countries cope with what one U.N. official called a “humanitarian earthquake”.



CARE said evidence on the ground suggested the real number fleeing was far higher than the U.N. figure.



“Given its scale, it’s incredible how neglected the situation in Venezuela is,” said CARE humanitarian expert Tom Newby. “The world needs to wake up to this crisis.”



Afghanistan was ranked the most neglected crisis by Islamic Relief Worldwide, and South Sudan by Save the Children. The UNHCR named Burundi while mixed migration was highlighted by the Danish Refugee Council. -Reuters



<ul><li>Emma Batha </li></ul>

RC1EAA1BC400

Ravaged by Ebola and War, Congo Named Most Neglected Crisis of 2018

Fifty five years on and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is still haunted by the violent death of Patrice Lumumba. The first elected leader of the country came to one of the saddest ends of any leader in Africa in a tortured nation that has found peace elusive. His death; the agony of being beaten and paraded before television cameras, before being dismembered to oblivion in the bush, mirrors the intense suffering of his country.
A pan-Africanist to the core, Lumumba’s dream was a united Africa. A move that smacked of the Soviets, according to jittery foreign affairs officials at the height of the Cold War, in Washington, Brussels and London.
“We have known the atrocious sufferings of those who were imprisoned for their political opinions or religious beliefs and of those exiled in their own country. Their fate was worse than death itself. Who will forget the rifle-fire from which so many of our brothers perished, or the gaols in to which were brutally thrown those who did not want to submit to a regime of justice, oppression and exploitation which were the means the colonialists employed to dominate us?” read part of Lumumba’s famous Independence Day speech that was to prove his death warrant by convincing people in power that he should be removed.
“Had he lived, much of the violence that we see on the continent could have been prevented; and could probably have ushered in greater economic success and stability as economic liberalists would argue. Lumumba was not alone in this thinking during this period. Others who were leading this African union were: Milton Obote from Uganda, Jomo Kenyatta from Kenya, Julius Nyerere from Tanzania and Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana,” says Wendy Isaacs-Martin, the Acting Head of the Archie Mafeje Research Institute at the University of South Africa.
His death is regarded by the Belgian author, Ludo De Witte, as the most important assassination of the 20th century. After his death, the DRC descended into division and war.
“I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad,” Lumumba foretold in his inauguration speech.
Many accuse the American and Belgian governments for his death, but it is likely a lot more complex that. One factor is uranium from the country’s mines that was used to manufacture the first atomic weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The US and certain European countries would not trust such strategic raw materials to someone who was leaning towards the Soviets.
Isaacs-Martin says Lumumba stands as the icon of the intellectual potential Africa possessed in post-independence years.
“Like many of his peers he represented an intellectual discourse that saw the need to create social cohesion within the continent and a national identity within their particular countries,” she says.
“He also represents something that is often forgotten in our current understanding of Africa during the Cold War. In the eventual legacy of failed and successful coups that has plagued Africa, Lumumba, in being deposed and then killed four months later, represented the epitome of Africa’s potential and how the continent was essentially robbed from establishing itself in a post-colonial and bi-polar period.”
Lumumba’s assassination was one of many: Amilcar Cabral (Guinea); Felix Moumie (Cameroon); Sylvanus Olympio (Togo).
“Their assassinations marked the beginning of demise in effective political leadership and eroded the potential foundations for African philosophical, sociological and political thought. Instead there has been a trend to support the coercive wing into political leadership that continues to prove ineffective but in the interests of existing (or potentially new) political elites and external stakeholders,” says Isaacs-Martin.
“The tensions between regional leaders that continue today represent an inability of Africans to see beyond their limited identities that have often been externally prescribed and exploited. Yet it was these very concerns that individuals such as Lumumba advocated against, focusing on advancing Africa beyond the limited thinking of resource extraction and authoritarian exploitative administrative systems.”
Lumumba’s body was never found; neither was another leader like him.

What could have been

Solwezi was once a tiny village in northern Zambia, 16 kilometers from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 581 kilometers from Lusaka, and a million miles from the rest of the world. A few hundred people lived off maize for more than 2,000 years. A walk to the nearest village was days away through thick bush. Now, thanks to copper, Solwezi has become one of Africa’s fastest growing towns in a few short years.
“What started as little more than a village, now has a population of half a million,” says Andrew Hickman, the Local Development Officer for the Kansanshi mine, the largest copper mine in Solwezi.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2787" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_6573-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The two mines near Solwezi, Kansanshi and the Equinox Minerals-owned Lumwana mine, now produce almost 40% of Zambia’s copper; between them they are giving a free market makeover to what was once a tiny village.
Solwezi and copper date back further than the New Testament. Archaeological digs around Solwezi found people traded copper crosses 2,000 years ago. Arabs used the crosses as currency.
Solwezi got back into the business of copper mining in 2005. After years of trial and error Kansanshi, originally a nationalized underground mine, was abandoned when a fissure flooded the shafts. Run by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, it has expanded since its reopening. It began producing 110,000 tons of copper in 2011 and in 2013 produced 270,724 tons. A new expansion project aims to increase copper capacity to around 400,000 tons by 2015.
Solwezi is not the only mining town to bloom in Zambia. According to the World Bank, Zambia has the largest known reserves of copper in Africa, 6% of the world resource. The country has been exporting copper since the 1920s, but it’s been a rollercoaster ride made more difficult with nationalization, cheap Russian copper and poor economic development.
“Copper production in the country peaked in the 1970s at 700,000 tons and gradually declined to 255,000 tons by 1998, as a result of depressed prices and under-investment in the then state-owned industry. However, as copper production soars on the back of the completion of major projects and also because of the development of the new Trident mine, operated by Canada-based mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM), Zambia is set to be at the peak of copper production once again,” says Jason Kazilimani Jr, a senior partner at KPMG in Zambia.
Demand for copper is high and expected to grow. The power stations of China alone buy 45% of the world’s copper, says Kazilimani.
It means people and businesses have flocked to Solwezi as if it were the days of the 1849 California Gold Rush. Trucks, buses and taxis veer around potholes in gridlocked traffic. Along the town’s only tar road rises smoke from hundreds of wood fires. The shouts from informal traders, selling anything from cooking pots to roasted nuts, ring the dusty streets. The city is growing; one shack is thrown up after another.
“There is this expectation that we can create full employment for all of them, but it’s impossible. We can only employ 13,000 and these jobs are for semi-skilled and skilled laborers. Our biggest problem is convincing the growing community that we can’t provide jobs for them,” says Hickman.
“On the one hand you have local resentment towards the mine and the idea that foreigners are making millions. On the other you have this huge impact on the community with the social evils like crime, alcohol abuse and gender based violence,” says Bruce Lewis, the head of Kansanshi Corporate Social Responsibility.
Of the 90% of the mining company’s expenditure, 5% is spent in Solwezi. But the town has not been left to fend for itself, claims Mathias Mutupa, the president of the North Western Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who is also an entrepreneur.  Kansanshi runs a number of programs with the local chamber of commerce, some include lessons in how to apply for tenders, says Mutupa. He believes the speed at which Solwezi is growing is vital and local business needs to take advantage of it.
“When we started we were giving tenders to locals to kill weeds in our pipeline at KWA 50,000 ($8,000) &#8211; small jobs. Now those companies are winning larger tenders to build houses.”
Solwezi should have cheap costs compared to importing them from the copper belt or internationally. In the last four years, the local tenders awarded have quadrupled. In 2011, we were able to give $22 million worth in tenders to local businesses. We are now seeing $105 million going back towards the local community,” says Hickman.
Production of copper may be strong, but the infrastructure isn’t. It’s the story of good and bad news. The good is that by the end of the year Kansanshi will have completed a smelter which will refine 300,000 tons of treated copper concentrate per year &#8211; a very lucrative and welcome development at a time when African leaders want more self-manufacturing capabilities. The bad news; the highway needed to transport the copper has not been built due to land rights disputes with local authorities. It means, for now, hundreds of trucks will clog the streets of Solwezi on their way to the smelter.
This lack of infrastructure does not hamper Solwezi alone, explains Kazilimani.
“The problem is so serious that, according to an Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic 2011 report on Zambia, investment of at least $16 billion over the next decade is required just to catch up with the rest of the developing world,” says Kazilimani.
Despite this, Zambia has won back its claim to be the copper powerhouse of Africa. There is even talk in Solwezi that another copper belt could be hidden under the soil of Zambia. There is no doubt that the mining companies will find it, eventually.

The Copper Rush

Governments all over the world lose billions in revenue from corporate tax evasion every year. In many instances, citizens in a country pay a proportionally higher rate of tax than multibillion dollar companies.
Despite this being a global pandemic, Africa suffers more than most.
While delivering his Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg, Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, said more money is lost from multinationals not paying tax, through what he calls fancy accounting, than gained from aid.
“Physics and numbers don’t lie, but people do,” he says.
The continent is blessed with resources: Oil in Nigeria; gas and mineral reserves in Botswana; Angola, Ghana, and South Africa; the Democratic Republic of Congo has diamonds and cobalt; Mozambique has natural gas. These resources alone could lift millions of Africans out of poverty.
Former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, wrote that the continent loses a huge amount of money from the use of shell corporations, offshore companies and tax havens by multinationals which often divert their profits.
But Dylan Buttrick, an associate at Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa begs to differ—slightly.
“It is important to understand the distinction between aggressive structures that facilitate tax evasion, and corporations that have tax efficient structures as a result of tax planning. In a world of increased globalization and multinationals, offshore structuring and tax planning is to be expected and remains legitimate,” says Buttrick.
The lack of infrastructure and resources makes it difficult for tax authorities to track payments. Revenue authorities would benefit from more sophisticated collection systems and processes that would help these authorities in enforcing compliance.
According to The Elders, an independent group of global leaders, transfer pricing—the practise of shifting profits to lower tax jurisdictions—cost Africa $38.4 billion every year, a number which Buttrick says is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify.
He says in recent years, African authorities have increased their focus on compliance with transfer pricing.
Buttrick further says the practise in the market is to ensure that transfer pricing policies comply with the South African tax laws, this despite significant chances in recent times, leading to a perceived uncertainty in some circles.
“Most multinationals do not indulge in invasion, i.e. fraudulent reduction of their tax, but may reduce their taxes in a particular jurisdiction through the use of legitimate tax planning tools, but beyond what certain politicians or even the public may deem appropriate,” says Buttrick.
Buttrick says from an exchange control perspective, South Africa’s banking and reporting system is fairly sophisticated and cross-border payments are easily monitored. The inflow and outflow of capital from the country will need to comply with exchange control regulations.
The G20 plans to fight international tax evasion by multinational companies. They will exchange tax information and support the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its plans to prevent multinational companies from avoiding tax by moving profits across borders. The new rules would force companies to pay tax in the countries where they make their money, instead of where the tax rate is the lowest.
Companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks are reported to have perfected the art of using loopholes within tax regulations. MercoPress reports that these firms argue that they are doing nothing illegal and have a duty to shareholders to minimize tax payments to maximize profits.
The OECD says that some of the existing tax rules, created in the 1920s, were designed to avoid double taxation of companies operating in more than one country. But this is haunting the industry nearly a century later as these same rules are being used to create double non-taxation.
The G20 leaders agreed to an unprecedented deal to share information on individual taxpayers. They plan to start exchanging information on tax matters among G20 members by the end of 2015.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, says the new tax rules state that only advanced nations will sign on the deal, but it’s important that developing countries participate in sharing tax regulations.
Reforming the outdated global tax framework needs to occur, with governments across the globe working together. Regardless, one question still bothers me: should multinationals be taxed on the basis of where they are doing business or on the strength or weakness of their lawyers?

“Numbers Don’t Lie But People Do”

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is immensely rich in resources but past conflict has held back the realization of this wealth, leaving its people amongst the poorest in Africa. The country is expected to be home to the world’s eleventh largest populationa by 2050. Raw mineral deposits are estimated to be worth in excess of $24 trillion but lay idle as fighting plagues the country.
It has seen at least four million people killed and another three million displaced.
Government forces continue to fight the rebel group M23 in the east, and recent peace talks have been suspended. Rene Abandi, leader of the M23 delegation, was quoted saying that negotiations are meaningless.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1826" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/dreamstime_l_26062670-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
This could jeopardize the economic foundations that have already been laid. Eustache Ouayoro, country director at the World Bank, says that over the past few years, the DRC has been able to make significant progress to restore security across most of the territory, political reconciliation and economic recovery with the support of international partners, including the World Bank. So the world waits with bated breath.
Experts look to the country’s vast untapped wealth to pave the way to economic freedom, but say the road to this is likely to be a long one. Ouayoro says that positive signs are there, albeit tentative. The DRC may be emerging from instability and taking its first steps towards a new development era.
The country’s citizens suffer from poor healthcare, limited education and poverty. According to the World Bank, the DRC ranks last among the 187 countries in the Human Development Index. Poverty is widespread, with 71% of the population living on $1.25 a day.
The DRC, however, has been making steady strides in economic growth. Inflation was under control and in single figures in 2012, compared to 500% in 2001, and the World Bank says that with economic growth of 7.2% in 2012, and 8.2% expected in 2013, the DRC is among the countries experiencing some of the fastest levels of growth in the world at a time when it is non-existent in Europe.
Debt relief has helped. DRC was granted an estimated $16 billion debt relief under the World Bank and IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The write down has helped improve the country’s fiscal position and has allowed it to invest its debt savings in to development opportunities.
The World Bank reports that only a mere 10% of the DRC’s huge tracts of arable land are farmed, and only 13,000 hectares are irrigated. The country has four million hectares, but is currently importing at least 30% of its food. The World Bank believes its land could feed a billion people.
Ouayoro says that for the country to realize its full potential, there needs to be: improvement to the business climate; progress on anti-corruption measures; economic governance and stronger government institutions. It will also have to address the large infrastructure gap and prioritize food production and agriculture.
“We must promote inclusive growth in the DRC by making its economy more irresistibly competitive and helping to spur the creation of new, well-paying jobs, especially for the country’s growing ranks of young people,” Ouayoro says.

Tag: Democratic Republic of Congo

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA