DeniAfrica

Frederick’s Kwoba’s DENI presentation at the The Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries on “Enhancing the Development Impact of REMITTANCES” stated that :

The thrust of this conference suggests that we are searching, indeed looking, to go to the next level. Africans in the Diaspora have resolved to go to the next level as level as well – engage in Large Scale Investment opportunities for purposes of poverty reduction. So why haven’t we done it? The honest answer is that if we could, we would have done so already.ADB/World Bank/UNDP: For us to move to the next level of large-scale investments, we need a formal structure as well as credible institutions like ADB/World Bank/UNDP to stand with us. We are not looking for money from ADB/World Bank/UNDP. All we need is ADB/World Bank/UNDP to stand by us as a confidence booster to encourage Africans to pool their resources for large-scale investments.
DENI: Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment: We have developed a program called DENI that was designed to bring Africans together to pool their resources for large-scale investments in their home country. This will be done country-by-country, meaning Beninese will have their own DENI Program for Benin, Ghanaians will have their own DENI Program for Ghana, Malians will have their own DENI Program for Mali, Nigerians will have their own DENI Program for Nigeria and so on down the line until we get to Zimbabweans with their own DENI Program for Zimbabwe.

The Punch Newspaper reports

The Bureau of Public Enterprises has shortlisted six companies for the negotiated sale of 51 per cent of government’s equity in the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited… Following two botched attempts to sell the country’s first national carrier, the BPE on May 4, 2006 dropped the option of competitive bidding and adopted a negotiated sale approach for the privatisation…“We have a list of preferred and reserve companies. There are some on the preferred list and also some on the reserve list. The companies will go and do due diligence on the telecommunications firm. We are looking forward to concluding this transaction before the end of June 2006.”

African Financial Markets reports:

The privatization of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) formerly National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), might have gone into limbo as it was learnt that a powerful cabal consisting of top government officials in the Ministry of Power and Steel and collaborators in the company were frustrating its sale to the private sector. NEPA, now PHCN, arguably received more funds from the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, since its inception in May 1999, than any single government enterprise, yet power supply has remained abysmal, in what has come be seen as, a conspiracy between government officials and generator dealers. However, officials of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said the allegation of cabals frustrating the sale of what remained of former NEPA as they claimed to be waiting for the Corporate Structural Advisers, to be appointed by the World Bank, before going ahead. For more than two years, the BPE had set several targets for the transfer of the nations electricity sector private operators to give the comatose sector a new lease of life, particularly with the steady reduction in power generation in the last one year.

Reuters reports on Cameroons debt cancellation:

“Cameroon has made sufficient progress and taken the necessary steps to reach its completion under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative,” the IMF and World Bank said in a joint statement.”To reach the completion point, Cameroon met a number of triggers involving macroeconomic stability, commitment to a poverty reduction strategy, investment in social services as well as progress in privatization and reform of the forestry and transport sectors,” they said, adding that the country also took steps to tackle corruption and improve transparency. In addition, Cameroon’s graduation from the HIPC initiative also makes it eligible for a further $1.13 billion debt write-off from the three lenders under the more recent and separate Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), agreed by the Group of Eight major industrialized countries in June 2005.”

via GhanaWeb:

Standard and Poors’ outlook adjudges the country’s sovereign credit outlook to be stable. This is based on an expectation of continued prudent economic policies that foster stability and growth.
The report indicates that the rating could improve if progress is made on structural reform particularly privatization and broadening of the narrow base of the economy.
According to standard and poor, a reduction in the current account deficit and evidence that the financial of deficits is not undermining debt sustainability would also augur well for the ratings.
According to a business week report, “Conversely, any indication that the greater fiscal flexibility afforded by debt forgiveness is being misdirected or that Ghana is embarking on policies that endanger relations with donors would undermine ratings prospects”.

The Punch Newspaper reports:

That the twice-botched privatisation of the First National Telecoms carrier would now proceed through negotiated sale rather than public bidding

the steps to be taken in the negotiated sale to include;

• Shortlist screened based on pre-qualification criteria: minimum of $0.5million shareholder capital, fixed and mobile telephony experience in two countries with two million aggregate subscriber base, and a 20 per cent equity investment by a technical partner/telecommunications operator;

• Preferred investor identified from a short list;

• Following negotiation of Share Purchase and Shareholder Agreements with preferred investor, preferred investor submits a binding financial proposal; among others.

• Federal Government opens and reviews binding financial proposal, and if acceptable, concludes transaction by signing the agreements with the preferred investor;

• If the offer is not acceptable, then all the short listed prospective investors receive the same transaction documents and allowed to make their counter offers; and

• Federal Government reviews all offers received, makes its decision.