Zambia bee farmers to double production

20,000 Zambian bee farmers expect to double their annual production upon the coming into being of a new policy. The Centre for International Forestry Research is collaborating with African governments to come up with policies to guide the production, packaging and marketing of honey products.Bee farmers earn slightly more than $3,000 for a tonne of honey and beeswax on the international market. The Zambian government believes raising bees would help pull more people out of poverty.Authorities say current forestry policy is supposed to make resources available for bee keeping and honey making. But they say the policy is outdated and the Department of Forestry is working with CIFOR to come up with new guidelines.CIFOR’s Regional Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa, Crispen Marunda said on Friday, the bee keeping industry is loosely organized. He said there are no legal or legislative structures to monitor or control the industry.He explained that monitoring mechanisms would help farmers and government negotiate fair prices and markets for honey-related products. He said an official policy would have a meaningful effect on forest communities that raise bees and related products.Marunda said: “By coming up with a bee keeping industry policy, the government will have a structure in terms of how government can support the different institutions who are producing, exporting or buying honey. The Bee Keeping Policy will also assist some communities into some kind of bee keeping communities. The communities can have an institution at a local level, they can market their honey as a group, they can lobby for better prices, and they can export their honey as a group rather than them working as individuals.”There is also another project supported by USAID that is trying to develop Zambia’s honey sector. It involves support for the Zambia Agribusiness Technical Assistance Centre (ZATAC), which in turn provides assistance to the Smallholder Export Organic Honey Project in Mwinilunga, 500 kilometers from the capital, Lusaka.Honey and beeswax are among the country’s major non-traditional products that are exported to Tanzania, South Africa, Germany, Libya, United Kingdom, Botswana, Japan, Canada and the U-S. Beeswax is used in the manufacturing of cosmetics, and honey is used a sweetener and an ingredient in herbal medicines. The bee farmers produce about 600 metric tons of marketed honey annually.

Douala is Africa’s 2nd expensive city

Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala has been rated Africa’s second most expensive city for expatriates, according to a recent survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting of Canada. The city came top during last year’s findings. The ranking was based on the cost of living in a given place.It covered 144 cities around the world and some of the indicators used were housing, transportation, food, clothing and entertainment. The survey is used to guide multinational companies and governments in compensating employees serving abroad.Last February, unrest over soaring living costs erupted in the city and then swept across the country. The government put the death toll at 40 but human rights watchdogs say it was more than 100. The riots forced the government to provide a 15 percent salary increase and a 20 percent rise in housing allowance for civil servants. It also suspended customs duties on imported basic commodities.But economists say the measures have had little impact in boosting purchasing power. Many people in the street say the situation is fast getting out of hand. Meanwhile, the town is plagued by rundown infrastructure, chaotic urbanization and a soaring population.More people are cramming into single-room shacks. Even families above the poverty line are eating less. The streets are swarming with children hawking everything from fruits and biscuits to clothing items and cigarettes.In the 2007 report, Africa placed five cities in the top 50, with Douala, Cameroon on top with a rank of 24. Four of the African cities climbed in the rankings while Lagos, Nigeria dropped from 31 to 37.

Kenya youths craze for illegal drink

Frustrated Kenyan youths are selling off personal belongings, foodstuff, clothes and kitchen utensils in order to raise some funds to buy illicit but cheap potent drink on the market. The trend is becoming rampant and everybody is worried and shocked.Reporters say some of the jobless youth go to the extreme of vandalizing their houses, sell the doors, windows and roofing materials to rake in more money for their illicit drinking spree. The central Kenyan youths harvest farm produce and even milk their parents’ cows at dawn to sell to quench their thirst. Some even steal family beddings and baby napkins.Kamau wa Njoki, 26, from Kirinyaga in central Kenya recently shocked many when he and his elder brother Mwangi teamed up and demolished a three roomed semi-permanent house their late mother left behind and sold the building material, which they shared and drowned up at a local makavu den. Makavu is a potent drink made of honey and millet so common in the region and is brewed in some homes despite being illegal. The two now share a room their mother put up for them while in secondary school.“It was a shock to us because the pair have refused to marry, cultivate their five acre farm and to lead a productive life, this is a lost generation,” said a village elder George Murimi.

Government’s effort

The government is putting in more efforts to curb the act but it is on the ascendancy. In Kandara village in the same region, James Ndung’u removed steel doors and windows a five-bedroom house and sold them before disappearing for days at the local shopping centre. He used most of the money to buy a factory distilled brew known as kairasi.His wife and two children had left him. He sold the only bed and mattress he has and now sleeps on the hard floor. “We suspect he has gone mad or something but he is not alone in this village many youths are into this habit,” said Peter Moche. “These latter day concoctions are so potent, highly addictive that men nowadays are in bars at day break when should be taking breakfast, ready to face the day,” he laments in reference to kairasi, Furaha and such other brands that entered low income market five years ago.James Kaguthi former director of the National Agency Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) said the result is that society is faced with a lost generations of young people aged between 18-33 years.“ Concerted efforts are urgently needed to stop licensing of new bars by the government and strict enforcement of laws banning illicit alcohol,” he stated. He called on religious leaders to join the fight against hard liquor.A Central Kenya legislator Clement Muchiri said he preached against the drunkenness in the region in public meeting after noticing that many youths are always drunk but little has changed He calls for new stricter laws to curb the potent drinks that in some cases have led to death and secondary impotency among men in the region.

WB: Ghana is best place for investors

Ghana is named the best country in West Africa for investment and other business ventures. The World Bank and the International Finance Consortium (IFC) released the results in their latest ‘Doing Business’ 2009 report. The cocoa endowed country placed 87th out of 181 countries marked worldwide.The ‘Doing Business’ report rank economies based on 10 indicators of business regulation such as the tracking and time to meet government requirements in setting up a business, cross border trading, tax payments, according to the Ghanaian Chronicle. The report does not reflect on macro economics policy, currency volatility, investor’s perceptions or crime rate.The report which ranked Ghana in the 87th position out of 181 countries world wide said Ghana is the easiest place to set up a business and the 10 top economies in Africa. It further disclosed that Ghana is the best place to register property and a country which protects investors.Singapore topped the chart for the third time in a row whiles New Zealand and The United States took second and third positions respectively. The report praised Mauritius which was ranked the highest in the continent whiles Sierra Leone, Liberia and Rwanda which are just emerging from war were described as the regions most active reformers of business regulations.Sabine Hertveldt, co-author of the report said “With more reforms of business regulations in Africa, than in any previous year, we are seeing many countries get inspiration from their neighbors about how to reform.”She added: “Increasingly, countries in the region are committing to reform agendas that make it easier to do business.”

Dutch bank assists Zambia

Netherlands’ Rabo Bank has secured a loan facility of 25 million US dollars for Zambia’s National Commercial Bank (Zanaco). The money was sourced from two international financing agencies – Holland’s FMO and another in France. It is to assist Zanaco to consolidate its financial base.At a signing ceremony in Lusaka on Friday, Netherlands Ambassador to Zambia, Harry Molenaar stated that the facility would enhance Zanaco’s ability to contribute to Zambia’s agriculture sector, which late President Levy Mwanawasa considered as a key sector.Molenaar also disclosed that the Netherlands government has committed a grant of two million Euros to facilitate development projects within Zanaco. Zanaco Managing Director Mark Wiessing said the loan facility would strengthen the bank’s performance.In March 2007, ZANACO announced that the Zambian government finally handed over management of the Bank to RABO Bank.