Business Day - 2 March 2018

Former president Jacob Zuma was seen by many in Africa as a great leveller. This was not because of any attempt to address inequality among his people but because he aligned SA to the broader African experience of governance. His behaviour, together with that of his ministers and friends, removed any sense that SA is exceptional in Africa, a perception that used to be held by many in the international community but also by South Africans themselves.

Zuma can take responsibility for finally putting that issue to rest.

As SA’s media uncovered the excesses and murky strategies of the Zuma administration, revealing new dirt almost daily, many Africans expressed concern about SA’s trajectory. This was not because their own governments were better, but because they weren’t. They have lived with the continued erosion of value in their institutions, lifestyles, governance and other key areas of life. African countries from west to east have shown at times in their history how easily the rot at the top eats its way down, undermining moral and ethical propriety at all levels of society.

Nigerians maintain that SA is a beginner in the corruption stakes – their leaders and military dictators have siphoned billions from the fiscus for decades. Their lesson has been that self-interested leadership breeds endemic corruption. The longer rotten government is in place, the more moral laxity pervades the social fabric of the nation. It is hard to turn this around.     

   THE inaugural flight by South African Airways (SAA) last week from Johannesburg to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, was a milestone in the relationship between the two powerhouses of Africa, WRITES DIANNA GAMES.

The launch of the route is not just about moving people between two strategic cities; it is symbolic of a greater connectedness between Africa’s two biggest economies that is long overdue.

The launch of the route between Johannesburg and Abuja came 19 years after SAA began flights to the commercial hub of Nigeria, Lagos, in 1998 — a route that became one of the fastest growing in SAA’s history and is still among the top three busiest for the airline in Africa.

In 2011, the SA-Nigeria Binational Commission increased the number of flights from seven to 10 each for both countries.

SAA flies seven times a week to Lagos and the three remaining slots are being used for the Abuja flights. The new route forms part of SAA’s turnaround strategy, and there are early signs of success.

The first return flight from Abuja to Johannesburg last week had a load factor of 67%.

Airline executives believe the route will be profitable in a reasonably short time.

There are many reasons why. First, many people who do not live in Lagos prefer to avoid the city if they can. The airport experience can be trying, with antiquated infrastructure and systems struggling to keep up with growing passenger volumes. Travelling from Abuja is easier and may attract more people to SA.

Second, the Abuja flights will provide a link for trading centres in northern Nigeria, allowing flights not just to SA, but to Southern Africa and to other regions such as Brazil, which has strong commercial ties with Nigeria.

The route will also make it easier for South African investors to connect to Nigeria’s administrative and political centre. What is more, it will facilitate interaction between the two governments.

The political dimension is significant. The choice of Abuja as SAA’s newest destination signals the fact that Nigeria is still an important partner for SA.

This will be cemented by the state visit to Nigeria by President Jacob Zuma in a few weeks.

An airline is an important diplomatic tool and the timing of the new SAA flight is good, coming at a time when there is a real willingness to build stronger ties between two countries that have had a complicated past relationship.

But this is being undermined by a few issues.

Read more

- Published in Business Day SA, 1 February, 2016

   A QUESTION Nigerians often raise in discussions about SA and its West African counterpart is why there are not more Nigerian companies investing here, writes DIANNA GAMES. 

Where are the Nigerian banks, the food franchises, the supermarkets and IT companies? they ask. The diplomats are particularly exercised by the trade and investment imbalance. This, they say, reflects badly on the bilateral relationship.

It is true that there are few Nigerian investments here more than 20 years after SA opened its doors to the rest of the continent. Dangote Cement has acquired a cement operation, and oil and gas company Oando has a few, largely inactive, shares listed on the JSE. But there is little else if you don’t count the many small businesses owned by Nigerians resident in this country.

Compare this with the fact that the majority of SA’s top listed companies have a presence in Nigeria. Read more ... 

- Published in Business Day SA, 12 October 2015.

Toothpicks are on the list of more than 40 items for which the Central Bank of Nigeria has forbidden the sourcing of foreign currency through the formal banking system for spending on imports, writes DIANNA GAMES

Published in Business Day SA, 3 August 2015

THERE has been a lot of talk about toothpicks in Nigeria of late. The humble implement for removing elusive morsels of dinner is a culprit in Nigeria’s foreign exchange crisis. It is included in a list of more than 40 items for which the Central Bank of Nigeria has forbidden the sourcing of foreign currency through the formal banking system for spending on imports.

Other items on the list include private jets, tinned fish, vegetable oil, roofing sheets, cosmetics, soap, plastic and rubber products, Indian incense, steel pipes, plywood board, glassware and kitchen utensils.

Although the manufacturing sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s economy has grown from 1.9% in the early 1990s to 6.8%, the country has little to show for years of import bans designed to boost local manufacturing.

Read more ...  

WE CANNOT afford to disappoint Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari told his party leaders at the weekend, writes DIANNA GAMES.

Published in Business Day SA, 7 July 2015

Mr Buhari was responding to concerns from a nation impatient for signs that their new president has the will and capability to tackle corruption, fight insecurity and instill discipline into the polity.

Just a few weeks into the job, Mr Buhari is battling to get on top of an array of problems plaguing the country, despite bold promises made before the April election that he would move swiftly to build a better Nigeria. He has spent his early days in office fighting fires in his party and in the country.

Last week, it emerged that Mr Buhari may not announce his new cabinet before September — three months into his tenure and nearly six since his election as president.

Read more ...

Muhammadu Buhari may have ben handed a poisoned chalice, having to balance tackling a litany of economic and security problems while satisfying Nigerians' expectations of change, writes DIANNA GAMES

Published in Business Day SA, 25 May 2015

NIGERIA is facing a crisis of expectations as it heads for one of the most auspicious moments in its relatively short 16-year democracy.

The inauguration later this week of Muhammadu Buhari is expected to bring significant change to this large, complex nation.

Not only will Nigeria have a different head of state, it will have a new cabinet and two-thirds of the 36 states will be changing governors after the opposition All Progressives Congress won at the polls this year, displacing the Peoples’ Democratic Party, which had governed Nigeria since 1999.

While this presents an opportunity for a new broom to sweep away much of the rot that has dogged Nigeria’s progress, it’s a formidable task. Read more ...

Dysfunction is fuelled both by powerful vested interests which benefit from the status quo and by millions of people who earn incomes from 'parallel' economic acvities, writes DIANNA GAMES

Published in Business Day SA, March 16 2015

ONE of the biggest complaints about Nigeria from foreign companies is how unnecessarily difficult it is to do business there. The government is not short of grand plans to diversify its economy and politically expedient quick wins but it is less exercised with dealing with the underlying factors that undermine economic development and diversification.

Many of its policies have focused on stimulating local manufacturing to reduce the country’s huge import bills. Over the years it has imposed import bans, slapped high tariffs on a range of goods and tried to pick winners to boost industrial development. But it has failed to simultaneously address the dysfunction that makes it so challenging to operate businesses in Nigeria.

These include a range of illegal business practices that have developed over the years to the extent they have now become part of the fabric of the economy, despite their corrosive and costly effect on development.

Read more ...

The nature of the current crisis is not new for Nigeria. It has been caught out before by crashing oil prices, writes DIANNA GAMES

Published in Finweek, 12 March 2015

Nigeria’s finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has tried to put a brave face on the multiple challenges that Africa’s biggest economy now faces in the wake of a plunge in the price of crude oil – the source of 80% of the nation’s revenues.

Late last year, when the damage became apparent, she told the nation not to panic. “Panic is not a strategy. We are managing the situation to keep the economy on a stable sustainable course and we will not listen to those who want us to throw up our hands in despair and give up.”
But the indomitable Okonjo-Iweala is shouldering the burden of trying to make ends meet with rapidly dwindling funds.

Read more ...