AfricanFinance

Africa’s second most populous country Ethiopia, has set an ambitious target to double the length of its roads network by 2020 from its extent in 2015.This is according to the government’s road authority . In 2015, at the end of GTP-I, the road network had reached 100,000km. Now the network stands at 121,171km, according to the roads ministry, including gravel roads. This represents a large expansion from 1990, when there were just 19,000km of roads. About 90% of them are asphalt. Ethiopia’s road-building now consumes about a quarter of the federal government’s annual infrastructure spending.According to Samson Wondimu, a Director at the Ministry, the road building programme had spent about US $11bn over the past 20 years, and that the annual budget for the roads sector had grown 20% to reach US $1.7bn. The present programme includes flagship projects such as the 200km Hawassa expressway in the central-southern area of the country, which got under way after a 4 year ...

South African state owned utilty  Eskom Holdings SOC  Ltd has signed a Power Purchase Agreement, PPA with  Building Energy  for the construction of the 147 MW wind farm in Roggeveld and a 4.7 MW mini hydroelectric plant in Free State which will see the overall investment in the construction of the two plants amounts to US $376 m. The agreement was officiated with the presence of South African Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and Matteo Brambilla, Building Energy Managing Director Africa and Middle East. “We are delighted to have signed the agreement for the construction of the Roggeveld plant, which represents our first wind farm in South Africa”, said Matteo Brambilla. The wind farm is set to generate around 613 GWh per year where else the small-hydroelectric plant will generate around 28 GWh of energy annually on completion. The energy generated will satisfy the energy needs of roughly 49.200 households every year while avoiding the emission of about 502.900 to...

South Africa is considering an initial price talk into the Eurobond market of about 6% and 6.37%. South Africa is hoping to ride a wave of improved investor sentiment by tapping the Eurobond market for the first time under new President Cyril Ramaphosa, as his administration tackles mismanagement and corruption in the continent’s most industrialised economy. The country is marketing dollar securities maturing in 2030 and 2048, with initial price talk of about 6% and 6.37%, respectively, according to a person familiar with the transaction, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak about it. South Africa had budgeted to sell $3 billion of international debt this fiscal year, according to Treasury documents. South African assets have outperformed emerging markets overall since late last year, as Ramaphosa, then deputy president and a former businessman and lawyer, manoeuvred to succeed Jacob Zuma as president. The rand has strengthened 16% against ...

Zimbabwe: Hwange Thermal Power Station to reach financial close INFRASTRUCTURE Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) chief economist Khutula Sibanda says Zimbabwe needs around $5 billion annually for trade and finance in the retooling of the industrial sector and infrastructure development. BY SILAS NKALA Sibanda made the remarks yesterday during a meeting of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair on the sidelines of the 59th edition, wherein he focused on manufacturing industry equipment needs as a way for the country to revamp productivity. Sibanda said according to African Development Bank (AfDB) trade and finance for Africa was around $110 billion. “According to the AfDB the study has discovered that the trade finance for Africa is around $110 billion after the establishment of around 34 African countries Zimbabwe included,” he said. “For Zimbabwe, the insane debt is more than $1 billion. That figure summaries all the things...