By Millicent Njeri / Press Release
A new regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) opened in Praia on July 6.
It will help develop renewable energy and energy efficiency markets in West Africa, in policy and capacity development and quality assurance, in designing financing mechanisms, and implementing demonstration projects with potential for regional scaling-up.
ECREEE is a specialized agency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Governments of Austria, Cape Verde and Spain. A special partnership between Brazil and ECOWAS will help support the activities of ECREEE, and open up opportunities for South-South cooperation and technology and know-how transfer.
“The current energy systems in the ECOWAS region are failing to support the growth prospects of the over 262 million inhabitants, especially the needs of the poor. The creation of ECREEE is a central milestone in efforts to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies and services in the region,” said the Deputy to UNIDO Director-General, Yoshiteru Uramoto, who took part in the opening ceremony.
“Investing in renewable energy systems and introducing energy efficient technologies will contribute to the region’s economic and social development without harming the environment.”
Estimates suggest that a total of 23,000 MW of large and small hydroelectric potential is concentrated in five of the ECOWAS Member States, of which only 16 per cent has been exploited. There is good potential for all forms of bioenergy. Traditional biomass is already the main source of energy for the poor majority and accounts for 80 per cent of total energy consumed for domestic purposes. There are also considerable wind, tidal, ocean thermal and wave energy resources available. The region has vast solar energy potential.
UNIDO has a number of projects in Africa where renewable energy sources like small hydro, biomass gasification, wind energy, solar thermal and photovoltaic, are used to promote the development of small industries, particularly in rural areas, that contribute to growth and poverty reduction.
UNIDO has also developed an energy programme for 18 countries in West Africa (including all ECOWAS Member States), funded by the Global Environment Facility. ECREEE will become the main implementing agency of the USD 150 million programme that will focus on the energy access agenda and energy efficiency in key sectors of the economy.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves; the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero Baute; the President of the ECOWAS Commission, James Victor Gbeho; and Austrian and Spanish Ambassadors, Gerhard Doujak and Manuel José Villavieja Vega.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency Centre for West Africa opens with UNIDO support
Gambian agency woos Nigerian investors
“Gambia is a tourism economy; everything that is consumed in the sector is imported. We want to interest Nigerian investors to come into the sector so that our import budget can be reduced,” stated Yaya Kassama, chief executive officer of The Gambia Investment Promotion and Free Zones Agency (GIPFZA), after the conclusion of a one-week investment visit to Nigeria.
Most of what is consumed in Gambia’s tourism industry, including orange juice, egg, milk, towel, linen and tissue, are presently imported from Europe. But the agency, which functions include fostering local and foreign direct investment, and promoting the export of local and value added products from the Gambia, wants this to stop.
“We want to attract industries from Nigeria to fill these gaps, instead of us depending on total import. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria helped identify some companies, and we had successful meetings with 15 of these in the last five days.
The general feedback is very positive. I think three quarters of those 15 companies have given us their commitment of visiting the Gambia within the next four to six months,” added Musa Bah, manager, investment promotion and marketing, who accompanied Kassama on the trip.
Some incentives
Mr. Kassama explained further in an interview that the visit was to build on the cordial relationship between the country and Nigerian business men and women. He disclosed that there are 10 Nigerian banks including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, Skye Bank, and others operating in the Gambia.
Business relations between both countries, Kassama added, have further been boosted by Air Nigeria and Arik, which now operate regular flights to Gambia. “Lack of regular flights between Nigeria and Gambia used to be a major constraint in dealing with Nigerian investors. They tell us we love Gambia, but there are flight problems. However, that has been taken care of with the airlines, which fly direct or sometimes connect from Freetown,” Kassama stated.
The chief executive also disclosed that GIPFZA has a number of incentives for Nigerian investors. Some of these include the Special Investment Incentives, which has a five-year-duration and which enables investors outside the Free Zones to access attractive tax holidays.
There is the Export Processing Free Zones Incentives, which enables investors to operate within the Free Zones, with ideal infrastructure and special tax incentives, and a five-year exemption from customs duties on approved capital equipment, machinery, appliances, and other materials used by the project.
He explained that the Gambian government is reviewing its two existing acts on foreign investments into a single document to “make it more competitive. The government is also about to approve an incentive that will make companies eligible for exemption from corporate tax. Before, you pay corporate tax of 33 percent, but that that is soon to be changed to zero corporate tax for investment.
“We want to tell the Nigerian investor that the government and people of Gambia are ready to do business with Nigerian business community. We have over the years developed a new set of investment laws; the old investment law has been amended after 10 years, it is being made more investment friendly,” he reiterated.
No to nationalisation
Kassama also assured that unlike what happened in Ghana when some Nigerian shops were shut down and some investors frustrated out, nothing like that will happen in Gambia. “We have a constitutional guarantee that you cannot appropriate somebody’s business, whether it is local or foreign, without informing him.
“If government thinks your business or the service you are providing is better placed in the hands of the government, it doesn’t matter if you are a Nigerian or someone else, you will be compensated at the current market value of your company. We also guarantee you to send out your profits and dividends; there are no restrictions. You can also move your money in and out of the banking system. There are no exchange controls, our money is fully convertible,” Kassama stated.
However, any company that wants to bring more than three Nigerian management staff will have to pay a fee. “The law does not put a limit to the number of people you can bring in as an investor. There is no control on the number of expatriates you can bring in. The only one criteria that is linked to the number of people you can bring in as an ECOWAS citizen, is that there is a fee of 10,000 (about N29, 600) Dalasi you pay to bring in a staff per year.
“We want to encourage the employment of Gambians, we want you to train Gambians but the profit and everything else is yours. I think that’s a reasonable bargain,” he said.
Cheryl Cole being struck down by malaria in Tanzania gives timely warning to Brits heading to disease hotpots | Mail Online
Travellers to sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Tanzania, where Cheryl Cole spent her holiday, are at greatest risk. Half the UK's reported cases of malaria originate in this part of the world, which is home to the most lethal strain, plasmodium falciparum.
The singer collapsed on Saturday, and was initially thought to be suffering from exhaustion. But her condition deteriorated, and friends became concerned that she was 'sweating and shaking' at her £6million home in Hurtmore, Surrey.
She is expected to stay in hospital for a number of days, before spending several weeks recovering.
Dr Philip Monk, a Leicestershire-based consultant in health protection in, and member of the Malaria Awareness Panel, identifies Gambia as a particular hotspot for malaria.
He comes across more cases of travellers infected in the west African country than anywhere else.
'As it's a mainstream package holiday destination, people think it's like going to the Balearics,’ he says. ‘It's not. There are precautions you must take, especially in the rainy season when the risk of catching malaria is much higher.'
Malaria causes more than one million deaths worldwide each year. Scientists are making progress on a vaccine, but it is likely to be at least ten years before it will be widely available.
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Response to Facebook Page Thrills Jonathan
Lagos — President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed delight at the immense response his new Facebook fan page has received in its first days.
Jonathan made good his promise to set up a page on the social networking site Facebook, after his profile was uploaded last Monday. Within four days, the President has registered 50,000 fans, more than any Nigerian politician on the network.
Jonathan had during a working visit to Rivers State on May 15 this year promised to set up a profile page where he will directly interact with Nigerian youths and sought their opinion on the way forward for the country.
THISDAY's monitoring of the page indicates that while pages of other Nigerian politicians have an average of 80 to 200 comments posted per day, Jonathan's page has an average of 1500 comments per day.
A look at the comments show they are mostly messages of solidarity from Nigerians from all walks of life cutting across the geo-political zones.
Giving an insight into the huge following the President gets from the online community, one of the pioneers of Internet campaigns, Joe Trippi said it is always rare to find a connection between the youth of a country and the head of the political leadership of that country.
"In Goodluck Jonathan however, the Nigerian youth have found a rallying point. "They see an unassuming leader who emerged in almost divine circumstances and who is not the typical type of Nigerian politician and they are flocking to him like the Pied Piper of Hammelin and what I would just advise is for him to ride the crest of the wave," Trippi, the author of the best selling "The Revolution will not be Televised," he told THISDAY from his base in the United States of America.
Also speaking on the issue, a US-based Nigerian and VP Africa at Joe Trippi and Associates, Reno Omokri, said the phenomenal growth of the President's facebook fan page is an indication of his popularity and if he can act on the feedback from Nigerians who comment in their thousands on the page he should be able to sustain this popularity.
According to Omokri, "if for instance Jonathan wants to know what the public feels about any issue in particular, all he has to do is make that issue the subject of his facebook update and within minutes he would have gotten the honest opinions of hundreds of Nigerians from all shades of life."
Asked for his reaction on the issue, the Special Assistant to the President of Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas said the President is delighted with the new avenue of interaction with Nigerians, especially the youths.
"I must say that Mr. President is pleasantly surprised at the response from the people of Nigeria to his page particularly as he manages and monitors it personally.
"The feedback we glean from the almost 2,000 comments posted on the page by Nigerians daily has started helping and will continue helping Mr. President feel the pulse of the public as he takes decisions that affect Nigerians everyday."
allAfrica.com: West Africa: Looming Hunger Threat in West Africa
Recent reports suggest an imminent threat of hunger in several countries of the West African sub-region. Persistent drought in the region partly accounts for this. Because of the resulting poor harvests and soaring food prices, some West African countries are already experiencing the hunger crisis. According to its 2010 report, the British charity Oxfam, said that it had already launched emergency appeal for seven million pounds sterling to help about 800,000 people threatened by hunger in different countries of the sub-region.
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allAfrica.com: Gambia: U.S. Embassy Celebrates 234th Independence Anniversary
The United States Embassy in The Gambia Sunday celebrated its country's 234th Independence Anniversary at a ceremony held at the Coco Ocean Resort and Spa, in Bijilo, Kombo North.
Speaking at the celebration, Barry L. Wells, the US ambassador to The Gambia, thanked everyone for joining them to celebrate their 234th Independence Anniversary. He said that 234 years ago their founding fathers took some ideas of what their freedom should look like and created some amazing documents such as the Declaration of Independence and their constitution that have stood the test of time- and their wisdom.
He explained that they left room for that constitution to be amended to meet the emerging needs of its citizens and changing times.Ambassador Wells further explained that there are 27 amendments to the US Constitution because their founding fathers did not get it completely right from the beginning; but they made certain provisions that they could keep trying.
"We are not a perfect nation but we will continue to confront our shortcomings and move our nation forward as we support the dreams of young democracies around the world -young democracies that strive to get it right for their people and stand proudly with community of free and responsible nations," he remarked.
The Gambia, he said, is one such young democracy that continues to work to get it right, after gaining independence only 45 years ago. While applauding The Gambia's efforts to enfranchise women in government, in education, in leadership and in all sectors of society, Wells noted that many nations could learn from The Gambia's example of tolerance and acceptance of religious diversity.