The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa – COMESA, is celebrating 25 years since it was established in 1994 to succeed the Preferential Trade Area (PTA).
More than 300 delegates, led by Ministers and their representatives from the 21 Member States are in Lusaka, Zambia to attend the celebrations hosted alongside the annual COMESA Policy Organs meetings.
Key activities lined-up includes a gala where high-level panel discussions will take place, reflecting on the past and the future of COMESA. Immediate former Deputy Chair of the African Union Mr. Erastus Mwencha, who is also a former Secretary General of COMESA will be among panelists.
COMESA celebrates 25 years
Coca Cola launches sugar free coke
The Coca-Cola Company celebrates the official launch of Coca-Cola without Sugar, in Ethiopia, bringing the refreshing taste of classic Coca-Cola without sugar, to consumers. Since the product launch in the US, the Coca-Cola Company has conducted a global expansion to launch Coca-Cola Without Sugar, where the brand is currently being sold in 160 countries worldwide.
To commemorate this momentous occasion, the Coca-Cola Company held a memorable launch event at the Skylight hotel, in Addis Ababa, in the presence of Coca-Cola representatives, key stakeholders, influencers and invited guests. The Coca-Cola Company uses innovative technology to develop the new Coca-Cola without Sugar, while maintaining the taste of real Coca-Cola, without sugar. In addition, Sprite and Fanta without sugar were also launched in the Coca-Cola without Sugar campaign. Coca-Cola Without Sugar™ represents the company’s latest effort to bring beverages without sugar to Ethiopian consumers.
When asked about the launch of their new product, Coca-Cola’s Managing Director Daryl Wilson said, “What makes Coca-Cola Without Sugar unique is that it has the great taste of Coca-Cola, without sugar. We are proud to launch Coca-Cola without Sugar beverage, as an innovative product of our time, a without sugar product that Coca-Cola fans can enjoy.”
Oil and Gas in Africa
NJ Ayuk is the CEO of Centurion Law Group, a pan-African legal and advisory conglomerate with its headquarters in South Africa and offices in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon and Mauritius.
He is particularly active in the structuring, negotiation and implementation of petroleum, mining, LNG, and other natural resource projects for leading private operators in Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, Senegal and other sub-Saharan countries.
As part of his most recent work on African content development, he has advised the Ministry of Petroleum and Energies of Senegal, the Ministry of Petroleum of South Sudan and the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea on their national local content implementation strategies. He has also been part of the most strategic investments and projects shaping Africa’s energy sector in recent years, including the drafting of South Sudan’s first exploration and production sharing agreement and the launch of Equatorial Guinea’s offshore gas mega hub in 2019, the first such project on the African continent.
Since 2018, he is also the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber where he leads continent-wide efforts to build domestic capacity and advocate for a stronger and more united African energy industry.
He strongly advocate fighting against aid and welfare and focus on managing natural resources and move forward to further attract foreign investors. Capital talked to him about the future. Excerpts;
Capital: What do you think the future holds for Ethiopia’s oil and gas sector?
NJ Ayuk: We see some pockets of progress in Ethiopia, in the areas of gas exploration and production but also power generation and rural electrification. In 2019, the signing of a deal between Ethiopia and Djibouti to build an export gas pipeline sent very promising signals on the future of the country’s hydrocarbons sector. China’s Poly-GCL Petroleum Investments has made good progress in the development of the Calub and Hilala fields. The near future could see the development of a gas-value chain in Ethiopia which would be very beneficial to the entire economy if managed well and could help further attract foreign investors.
Capital: What key areas does Ethiopia needs to focus on to make the most out of its recently discovered oil resources?
NJ Ayuk: The discovery of hydrocarbons in a new petroleum province needs to be accompanied by proper revision of the national regulatory framework, and the putting up of capacity building initiatives to prepare local industries and the workforce to participate in the development of the sector. Because Ethiopia also discovered gas, the release of a gas master plan could also help in structuring the country’s gas value chain, especially when it comes to gas monetization, and in attracting necessary investments to further explore.
Capital: How will the energy industry across Africa embrace innovation?
NJ Ayuk: There’s huge potential for innovation and to bring more sophisticated software and tools such as AI and ML in oil and gas, as opposed. African tech innovations do not need to be limited to mobile money, retail trade, entertainment, healthcare, and telecommunications. Instead of importing technology at great cost from Europe and the United States, I’d love to see more African countries take bold steps towards developing new ways to drill wells and handle equipment, design new seismic data collection techniques and petroleum data management.
Capital: How can new technology benefit the oil and gas industry?
NJ Ayuk: It would address the underdeveloped nature of the industrial and manufacturing sector in Africa. Technology providers drive efficiency and environmentally friendly production methods. Investment in tech infrastructure is crucial. Technology is the only reason why the US shale is still competitive even when global commodity prices are low. There is a huge scope for technology adoption and gas. 
Capital: You boldly raise the issue of corruption as hindering business growth on the continent, so what should be done by stakeholders like civil society, advocates, governments and the African Union?
NJ Ayuk: The industry needs to prioritize higher transparency initiatives and good governance policies. Regulations play a big role in supporting the development of such processes. The civil society on its side needs to hold government and industry leaders accountable for the deals they sign, and for the operations they conduct in their country. Public oversight is necessary to entrench a sense of accountability and responsibility across all stakeholders.
Capital: You want African countries to look at each other and work together to create a stronger, more stable oil and gas industry. How can this be materialized? What are your suggestions?
NJ Ayuk: It’s up to us, as African community members, leaders, and business representatives to do as much as possible to encourage trans-border oil and gas operations. Africa has been presented with a unique opportunity, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement for example. African countries should embrace the notion that a strong regional economy will give the continent a competitive edge in the global economy and it will make a lot of pan-African work easier. Let’s win together.
Capital: You advocate fighting against new aid and the welfare culture that young Africans are moving towards. Would you tell us the magnitude and how can African discourage them from that kind of culture?
NJ Ayuk: Nobody wants hand-outs, but we all want to contribute meaningfully to our country. I do encourage foreign investment over aid, especially if such capital goes into African companies and young businesses. It worked for me, and I believe it can work for more African business owners. When I first started, I had the benefit of partnering with an American law firm that offered to invest in our people and helped me build my workforce alongside that of our clients. That period in my life really shaped my company and gave us a lot more to work. I enhanced my foreign education, instilled good business ethics and staffing skills, whilst using my African heritage to channel all what I gained towards building a prosperous future for our continent. Foreign partners are essential to Africa’s growth, they can teach us the transferrable skills that we need and bring capital to expand our infrastructure. But we must be willing to sign the right deals that ensure profits for investors and benefits for the local economy.
Capital: In Africa, we don’t have strong multinational oil companies like TOTAL, MOBIL etc. What should be done to attract giant companies and benefit Africans?
NJ Ayuk: African National Oil Companies (NOCs) can play a significant role in building a strong African content but need to do more. NOCs play a vital role in providing revenue for their countries—revenue that, ideally, is used strategically to provide much-needed infrastructure and to promote stability, sustainable employment opportunities, and economic diversification. On the continent, from country to country, NOCs can play a significant role in supporting a vibrant oil and gas economy. Their impact depends on their ability to mobilize resources, whether on its own or through strategic joint ventures with partners of its own choosing. Similarly, we are seeing the emergence of strong African Oil Companies (AOCs), many of them born in Nigeria and now seeking regional expansion across the continent. These independent and private companies have had tremendous success at home and are now taking on a new challenge of expansion. Watch out for them, they are building the future of the African content!
Capital: What are the challenges and prospects of oil and gas in Africa?
NJ Ayuk: We have already discussed issues of transparency, lack of good governance and the need to invest in technologies. Additional issues include burdensome tax policies, excessive red tape, unrealistic local content requirements, security issues, lack of diversity in the workplace, lack of contracts’ sanctity— and the list goes on. We need African solutions for African challenges. It’s up to Africans to address the challenges of Africa. The prospects are great. So many lucrative gas discoveries have been done in this year alone. We’ve stepped into a new era of real, tangible impact the oil and gas industry have on our societies, on the continent. We are not in shortage of people determined to improve Africa’s future, and we have what we need to fuel their efforts: enormous stores of oil and gas resources and plenty of young talent to harness them.
TIME TO TALK TECH AND ART
“…the online art market plays an important role in educating and introducing new generations of buyers to art collecting.” Hiscox 2019 Online Art Trade Report.
The recent launch of an electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) with Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed and Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma has opened an avenue for exponential opportunities to grow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to myriad markets. Ma said, “…the small business in Ethiopia and its young people will help to flourish the digital market in the country in the near future.” Naturally, my mind is on the artists and overall art industry in Ethiopia. According to Robert Read, Hiscox’s Head of Art and Private Clients, “The online art market plods on with steady growth. Although there was a significant spread of growth rates among the different online art sales platforms in 2018, the estimated aggregate online sales figure of $4.64 billion shows an increase of 9.8% from last year…”. Now add these statistics to the potential market of 55 African countries in the African Continental Free Trade network, on an integrated Ethiopian eWTP… the future looks good and green. This is not only a win for the artists but for the development of the art industry and all the subsequent sectors of society that benefit when art thrives. With the caveat that these numbers are not reflective of our reality, we can still check out stats to help us forecast and even make sense of how an Ethiopian eWTP would revolutionize our art industry.
Scores of social media and tech savvy Ethiopian artists already use digital platforms to sell and/or promote their art hence eWTP could be transformative, especially when designed FOR US and BY US. “Instagram, (IG) continues to be the art world’s favoured social media platform, with 65% of survey respondents choosing it as their preferred social media for art-related purposes, up from 63% in 2018,” reports Hiscox, the London Stock Exchange listed international insurance group. The Hiscox 2019 online art trade report goes on to say, “…55% of the online art buyers surveyed said they were likely to buy more art over the next 12 months, up from 52% in 2018, however, the outlook among younger art buyers (aged 35 and below) is more muted year-on-year, with 56% saying they were likely to buy more art online, compared to 63% in 2018.” They also compare Offline vs. online declaring, “More art buyers express a preference for buying art online as opposed to offline purchases. 29% of millennial art buyers said they preferred buying art online, compared to 14% a year ago.” Finally the forecast on E-commerce and Next Generation Buyers, “General retail e-commerce grew an estimated 18% in 2018, and online spending habits are also benefiting the online art trade, with 73% of art buyers saying they purchased other products in a similar price range prior to buying art online, up from 68% last year. Next generation Among millennials, 23% said they had never bought an artwork in a physical space (e.g. gallery, auction or art fair) prior to buying art online, up from 18% last year – signaling that the online art market plays an important role in educating and introducing new generations of buyers to art collecting.”
Again, these reports rarely reflect Ethiopian much less the Continental situation, but with a growing middle class in Africa with growing disposable income and taste for collecting art, eWTP is essential. Ethiopia is the second eWTP introduced in Africa, Rwanda was the first launching in October 2018, which means we can learn from best practices while honing our respective path, then we can share with the next country and so on. My hope and work, as usual, is the recognition of art beyond aesthetics in this discourse; emphasizing the economic and social impact, in convergence with Ethiopia’s self-proclaimed art loving eader’s vision, Dr. Abiy, for “Ethiopia to become one of the five African middle-income countries within ten years’ time.” This sentence may be lengthy but achieving transformation through the art industry need not be, with applied good will and paralleled capacity.
Finally, Ethiopia’s Innovation and Technology Minister, Getahun Mekuria expressed the following aspirations at the eWTP launch, pointing out, “better logistics and services (will) enable the nation to penetrate the global market with its export products… transforming the market, especially our cross-border trades, targeting SMEs and helping them easily access the global markets. It will also serve as a center of excellence in training young entrepreneurs.” These are reasonable and attainable goals. If Ethiopia stays focused, stepping up attention to incredible game changing tech start-ups, while keeping an open mind towards the role of art in this context, we will see economic and social change. Reflecting on the lyrics of Bob Marley’s song, Them Belly Full, “… a hungry man is an angry man…” well art is here to help us end the poverty of the pocket and the mind.
Dr. Desta Meghoo is a Jamaican born
Creative Consultant, Curator and cultural promoter based in Ethiopia since 2005. She also serves as Liaison to the AU for the Ghana based, Diaspora African Forum.
