Bee products buzzing with potential

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
WOW, it’s simply amazing the variety and diversity of business opportunities that exist right here in Tanzania; in fact, all of Africa. It truly boggles the mind. Now, according to this short newspaper clipping (see below), Tanzania’s bee products possess “unique organic qualities” that rivals the best in the world. Well, I hope some visionary entrepreneurs (local or foreign) take Mr. Pamba’s enthusiastic message about said opportunities, and begin to get the wheels of bee commerce in motion. Ya know, this is the kind of story that gives you a “goood buzz” without having to crank open a Kilimanjaro beer. :-) Once again, this is excellent Go Africa go! material. If you have any such stories, please email them to me at MaxTheITpro[at]GMail.com. I assume you know to put an @ in place of [at]. Right? That’s to prevent web spiders (robots) from collecting my email address in order to send me junk (er spam), which I don’t care to entertain.

Article: Call to exploit the potential of bee products
Source: Daily News (Tanzania), 22 Feb 2007, Home News, pg 2
By: Daily News Reporter
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources & Tourism, Mr. Saleh Pamba, has challenged the country’s business community to exploit the export potential of bee products available in Tanzania. Opening a meeting of honey and beeswax stakeholders in Arusha, yesterday, he said that Tanzania’s bee products could be the most competitive in the world market due to its unique organic qualities.

Mr. Pamba, however, told the stakeholders that investment is required to improve production technology and marketing. At the moment the production of honey and beeswax in Tanzania is 5,600 and 600 tonnes respectively. This genearates 8.6 million and 1.6 million US dollars. It is estimated that the productive potential of bee products in Tanzania is about 138,000 tonnes of honey and 9,200 tonnes of beeswax per annum.

Mr. Pamba said that many African countries, including Tanzania, have realised that, if made a priority in terms of the allocation of human and financial resources, the beekeeping sector could contribute immensely to poverty eradication and environmental conservation. The meeting was organised under the auspices of ApiTradeAfrica, a business association that will coordinate and stimulate production and marketing of quality honey and other bee products from African countries.

Great business news from South Africa

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
WITH FIFA’s World Cup competition due to arrive on South Africa’s shores in 2010, there’s no doubt that business is booming like never before. Optimism along with a deep rooted pride is in the air of Africa’s most advanced economy. I will definitely have to take a visit down to SA some day to see what all the buzz is about.
Also, it’d be nice to chat with some of their IT professionals since those guys can hold their own against the best in the world. I’m basing this on some IT projects I’ve seen that originated from over there. Hmmm, I wonder if their authorities will let me into the country after I wrote this article bitching about a particular telkom company: Telkom South Africa: Can a Company be this Hated? Hey, I tell it like it is. :-)

Any how, I urge you to peek these exciting stories coming out of SA that make excellent Go Africa go! material. Go SA go! :-)

SA breeds an exploding middle class
Optimism pervades the country as millions haul themselves out of poverty. In most societies in the world, it takes four to five generations for a person to rise from poverty to affluent middle-class status. In South Africa, a raft of surveys shows this is happening within a single generation. Experts say the American dream, which has lasted for more than 100 years, is starting to wane, while the South African dream is being born. {Read more}

SA’s stock exchange on a high
2006 was another record-beating year for South Africa’s JSE, with foreigners buying a record net R73.7-billion worth of local shares, the All Share index rocketing 38% – in the process reaching numerous new all-time highs – and the AltX exchange for smaller companies reaching critical mass just three years after its birth. Bloomberg reported this week that overseas investment in South African stocks hit a record high for the second year running in 2006, with foreigners investing a net R73.7-billion in the JSE – up by 47% from 2005 – buying R480.8-billion of shares and selling R407.1-billion. {Read more}

SA scores for ease of business
South Africa ranks among the top 30 countries in the world in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2007 report, released in Washington on Tuesday. Doing Business is an annual report that measures the ease of doing business in 175 economies around the world. This year’s report measured the effect of 213 reforms that reduced the time, cost, and hassle for businesses to comply with legal and administrative requirements.
“The report is a critical tool for developing countries to determine where more reforms are needed,” said World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz. {Read more}

The world is seeing RED

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
RED alert: Do your part to help prevent the spread of AIDS. I don’t say this enough, but I looove Oprah Winfrey. She has such a big, sincere heart and she always uses her super star profile to do a lot of good in this world. Heck, I wish she’d run for president. She’d kick Hilary Clinton’s ass in the polls any day of the week. In reality, she’d also get more accomplished while on the job. Clinton is a damn bureaucrat. Oh, I also have mad respect for U2′s Bono. He’s a class act.

What’s this RED stuff all about?
I thought you’d never ask. Just take a peek at this:

(RED)™ is a revolutionary program designed to eliminate AIDS in Africa.
“Lots of people here in the United States have been trying to deal with the
problems of Africa in a very serious way,” Bono says. “But not everybody has the
time to be an activist or put on their marching boots. So we said, ‘How are we
going to get the shopping malls involved? How are we going to get to where
people live and shop…?’”

By buying a (RED) brand T-shirt, a pair of jeans or even a cell phone, you
can help save lives. Part of your purchase will be donated to The Global Fund to
help those who need it most. Just the T-shirts that the audience is wearing
today will provide enough medication to prevent transmission of HIV from mother
to child for over 14,000 pregnant women. {source}

My thoughts:
Well, if you’re out at the mall and you see one of these RED products, then buy em all. Okay? Otherwise President Oprah is gonna hunt you down. :-) On a serious note, this is an excellent Go Africa go! story because it highlights that a little money at the cash register can go a long way in fighting AIDS at the prevention stage. Remember, the T-shirts Oprah’s audience was wearing provided enough ca$h to purchase medication for about 14,000 pregnant women in order to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. That’s amazing!

Fresh Water from the Indian Ocean

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
THEY say “the best things in life are free.” Perhaps. Now, when it comes to fresh water, that’s not the case in most places around the world – especially here in Africa. In all honesty, growing up in Canada has sort of spoiled me to the point where we, as Canadians, never had to worry about water. Why? Because Mother Nature was kind enough to bless us with more fresh water than any other country on the planet. The 5 great lakes (Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Huron, Superior) along with numerous other large bodies of water (Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake, Georgian Bay, James Bay, Lake Athabasca, etc.) scattered throughout the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast provides us with, virtually, unlimited supplies. And with a population of only 30 million people inhabiting the 2nd largest country in the world, this means that water scarcity should never ever enter the Canadian vocabulary. :-)

Try to picture this. Lake Superior (see above) is the world’s largest freshwater lake covering a staggering area of 31,720 miles (82,103 sq kilometers) with its deepest point at 1,335 feet. That’s massive.

Seeing is believing
When I touched down in Africa (Nairobi) for the first time near the end of 2005, a new reality began to sink in. On numerous occasions, whenever I woke up, the watchman had to pump water so that I can proceed to take a shower. And if the electric company couldn’t supply enough power on that particular day, we were in big doo doo because the pumps need electricty. This was a totally new experience for me, and I realized then and there just how lucky Canadians are — to the point that we take a lot of things (electricity, universal health care, free K-12 education) for granted. I don’t any more.

Water scarcity everywhere
Everyday in the news, I’m always reminded of how delicate the water situation is throughout Africa. In particular, this week is Maji Week (maji = water in Swahili) in these parts, and there’s just no way to escape the “down pour” of negative news regarding maji (er water). It’s agonizing to think that, at any moment, bad scenarios can result from the lack of this precious resource. I read some where the other day that Dar es Salaam (Haven of Peace) is not able to supply all the water that it’s citizens demand. This is so sad because I absolutely looove this city. Knowing this, I decided to cruise the Internet to see what’s new in the world of high technology that could end Dar’s water scarcity once and for all.

Sea of hope
Without a doubt, a city like Dar would be wise to look at the Indian Ocean for its water supply. After all, it’s right there, and so convenient to access. The only problem is the damn salt. Now what if there was a large scale method of extracting fresh water from the ocean – and cheaply? Well, I was watching the idiot box (um, TV) this morning and saw an excellent story (courtesy of SABC) about a South African company called GrahamTek that’s making waves (pun intended). It appears that they’ve invented (or improved) a new cheap method (process?) to take the salt out of the sea water that’s far more efficient and effective than desalination plants of yester year. The secret is reverse osmosis desalination and it’s a technology that you’ll be hearing a lot about – hopefully soon.

The salt on desalination
In a nutshell, desalination is a complex process of removing salt from sea water. I remember reading a long time ago about how Saudi Arabia was one of the world’s biggest users of desalination plants. But I also heard they were expensive (about $400 million) to build and required a lot of power to operate. Well, Saudi Arabia has cheap energy thanks to its oil jackpot, but I don’t think the old desalination plants they were using would work in Dar. Too damn costly. Enter GrahamTek Systems with some fresh, innovative thinking to the entire field of desalination.

GrahamTek to the rescue
After seeing that short SABC news article about GrahamTek Systems (runs Ocean Mineral Water), I was determined to find out more information about the company.

Ocean Mineral Water is run by local group Grahamtek Systems, which has been working in the field since 1994. They believe they are years ahead of other companies elsewhere in the world. Jean Vos of Ocean Mineral Water said: “The basic point is that we can give Cape Town water and that is a fact. “The company recently erected a plant in the Maldives that produces half a million litres a day and was erected in a single day at a cost of a mere R1.5 million.

In the past the prohibitive energy costs of desalination have prevented widespread use of the technology. However, the local scientists say they have improved technology and are now able to supply desalinated water at a cost of R4,80/1 000 litres, which is substantially cheaper than the water provided by most municipalities. “Seawater is the healthiest water on the planet as it has all the minerals that you need, reverse osmosis simply removes what is bad for you and retains the good part. This is the best water for any living being to consume and even for agriculture,” said Martin Lyons of Ocean Mineral Water. {source}

Wow, that is simply amazing news. In short, I think GrahamTek has no where else to go but up. Heck, where can I buy some shares? :-) But honestly, I think Dar es Salaam should seriously look into using this technology to solve its water problems. I’ll write more about this later.

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Related links:

The future of Job hunting in Africa?

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
THIS South African blog entry over at stii.za.net really impressed the heck out of me. Boy did it have some excellent info and high tech tips for those who want to revolutionize the way they job hunt. Could the hResume format be the next big thing? Only time will tell.

Any how, I urge you to take a peek. Let me know if you adopted any of the site’s advise.

Give us your Feedback

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
THERE’S an old saying that still rings loud and clear today:

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

I agree 100%. Well, I also believe that a user’s comment (feedback) on a web forum or a weblog like Go Africa go! is priceless. Why? It let’s people like me know what matters to you. Most importantly, if you strongly feel positive or negative about a particular article, then I implore you to leave a comment by pressing the comments or post a comment link at the bottom of said article.

However, you can post general comments on this page if they don’t relate to any articles.

Thank you in advance. :-)

Go Africa go!

PHP 5 book passes 1 Million FREE downloads

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
THIS is old news (forgot this post in my drafts folder) but I think it’s worth mentioning here in 2007. Hopefully, more web developers will start coding PHP5 specific web apps instead of playing it safe with the well-tested PHP4.x lineage. What annoys me, though, is that most web hosting companies are also playing it safe and fail to install PHP5 on their web servers. This keeps developers from taking advantange of its new features.

Get cracking
If you want to start cranking out some PHP5 code, but are unfamiliar with the new OOP features/syntax, etc., then I suggest you download the book (PHP 5 Power Programming) I don’t think you’re going to find a better learning resource since the authors of the book are gods in the PHP world. Here’s the link. It’s in PDF format. Oh, did I mention it’s FREE? :-)

New WiFi standard offers 100Mbps speeds

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
WOW, just when you thought the benefits of WiMAX was going to steamroll over WiFi’s affordable ubiquity, things appear to be taking a 90 degree turn in favour of the old guard while the new hearthrob (er WiMAX) irons out a few compatability wrinkles. :-) Check this out:

With every man and his dog rushing to proclaim that the advent of WiMax will mean the death of Wi-Fi, proponents of the most popular local area wireless technology believe there’s a healthy future ahead for it – and it doesn’t depend on the laptop…

…A standards body is set to ratify 802.11n by September next year, giving Wi-Fi a throughput of 100Mbps and helping to bolster its potential uses in bandwidth-heavy situations. {source}

My thoughts
So, you mean WiFi is still alive and kicking? :-) This is a good thing because all the WiMAX “pushers” are selling their drugs (er hardware) at such ridiculous prices. Like, what are those guys smoking (or drinking)? :-) I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Once a WiFi phone comes out with a mobile Skype application attached to it, then all hell’s gonna break loose because those greedy mobile operators are going to be in some deep doo doo. Of course, this is dependent on cities and municipalities around the world offering free (or almost free) WiFi services to their tax paying citizens. Fat chance of that happening though. Government leaders cave in soooo easily to big business. Heck, why the frig are we even bothering to vote?

Oil boom in East Africa

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
WITH all the craziness going on in the Middle East, the time is ripe for African oil to boil. The word on the investment street in East Africa is that there’s tons of black gold (oil) waiting to be plucked out of the ground by oil exploration companies who are serious about business. All I hope is for said companies to be sincere in their business dealings with the government. Just take your share of the pie (profits), teach the locals how to fish and lets move on to bigger and better projects. Okay? Now is that so hard? :-)

The future is bright
By the way, I also read somewhere that Tanzania reduced its reliance on foreign energy to the tune of $500 million per year thanks to its impressive Songo Songo gas-to-electricity project that went online not too long ago. Wow, that’s an astronomical number for an African nation. Seriously. Furthermore, it means that money is now able to be used for health, education and other development projects, which should spur more economic growth. In fact, I was so thrilled after reading that article that I’m going to post it up here tomorrow.

Go JK go!
One other thing. I have to give President Jakaya Kikwete major props for running a tight ship. It’s so true. A country’s conscience starts right from the top with the Big Kahuna (ie. top dog, big fish) and Kikwete is simply making all the right moves by taking Tanzania where no man (or woman) has taken her: Right to the top. Every picture I see him in, he always looks like he’s The One (ie. Neo in The Matrix) for Africa, and he always has that savvy presidential look that instills confidence, thereby garnering immediate respect. Way to go Mr. President! For now, please enjoy this excellent article below, which is yet another terrific Go Africa go! story that highlights the oil & gas boom that’s rocking East Africa like never before.

Article: Huge oil, gas deposits wait for investors
By: Adam Ihucha (Arusha)
Source: The Guardian (Tanzania), 8 Mar 2007, front page
President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday called on investors to make full utilization of huge but untapped oil and gas potentials in the East African region. Addressing the third East African Petroleum Conference here, President Kikwete advised them to invest in the petroleum services sector in order to seize the existing vast potentials.”The East Africa region is rich in oil and gas resources,” he said as he opened the meeting that deliberated on the region’s petroleum potentials and investment opportunities. “I call upon investors represented here to seriously look at these potentials then establish petroleum service companies. The region is very keen to see investment in both oil exploration and exploitation,” he added.

The three-day conference, dubbed EAPC‘ 07, Kikwete’s brainchild, has been organized under the main theme: “Together Unveiling the Untapped Oil and Gas Potential.”He said East Africa was not only a source of gas and oil resources, but also provided potential markets for petroleum and related products. Oil consumption in East Africa stands at over 32 million barrels per year, while demand for petroleum in the world market is above 82.5 million barrels per day, which is growing at a rate of 1.3 percent.

“Incresed demand and prices in the world market provide an opportunity for East Africa to benefit from its potentials,” President Kikwete said. He appealed to investors to be innovative by charting out cost-effective strategies in the utilization of oil resources. “It is hig time that companies that have signed agreements our governments, which are licensed to explore these resources, became serious and fullfilled their committments,” said Kikwete.

The president said partnership between investors and government should also benefit local communities surrounding the investments. “This is the biggest challenge…we have to ensure that exploitation of these resources benefits our people and investors, and contributes to our countries’ growth,” he added. For this part, EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu said the meeting, which attracted about 300 delegates, had been convened at a time when the energy sector globally faces unprecendented change and uncertainty.

“Increased demand for energy – especially in developing economies – the shifting of supplies of oil and natural gas to the remote and often geopolitically unstable areas and environmental impacts, are some of the factors behind the mess,” Mwapachu said. “These unprecedented challenges demand complex and urgent responses cutting across strategic, organizational, operational, and technological and investment decisions”, he said.The EAPC‘ 07 comes against a backdrop of the recent discovery of commercial oil and gas deposits in the region.

In collaboration with experts, the EA partner states – Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda – are currently drawing up policies and strategies to facilitate effective exploration of these resources. An official from the Petroleum Exploration & Production Department of Uganda’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development, Fred Kabanda, said Uganda had licensed six companies to undertake petroleum exploration. “We are currently considering another five applications. In fact, the regionis becoming famous in terms of petroleum development sector.

More companies are coming for petroleum exploration in the Rift Valley base in Kenya, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also offshore sites in Tanzania that are being explored”, he said. Reports say two companies – Hardman Resources Ltd and Tullow Oil, discovered a significant amount of oil depostis at the Waraga-1, Mputa-1 and Mputa-2 wells in the west of Uganda. Tanzania is producing natural gas from its Songo Songo field, while another field, the Mnazi Bay Gas, is being developed for a gas-to-electricity project.

In Kenya, Woodside Energy Ltd has acquired more than 11,000 line kilometres of additional 2D seismic data in offshore areas. China National Oil Company has also signed Production Sharing Contracts with the government of Kenya for six onshore blocks in the areas of Lamu, Anza and Mandera Sedimentary Basins. According to information available at the EAC secretariat, a number of oil comapnies have shown interest in both offshore and onshore blocks in Kenya.

Zantel ups the stakes with new mobile data service

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[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
EVERYWHERE you go in Dar, you see Zantel‘s snazzy new ads for its supposedly speedy mobile CDMA wireless service offering. Oh, I looove the kool green colours in their newspaper ads, too. It’s got me so pumped up to get on board the Z data train, and I haven’t even tried the damn service yet. :-) Now, being a nosey consumer who’s always on the lookout for better (er cheaper) ISP deals in these parts, I just had to call them up to get the scoop on their Z-Connect service. See the ad below! So, what’s the scoop? I thought you’d never ask.

The scoop:
Coverage? All of Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar & Pemba islands right now, and the entire country by the end of 2007
Price? Just top up in TSh 5000 ($4) or TSh 10,000 ($8) increments = TSh 56 per Megabyte = KSh 3.2 per Megabyte
Modem price? CDMA USB modem is TSh 150,000 ($118)
Download capacity? 90 Megabytes worth of data for every TSh 5000
Speed? 153 Kbps to 2 Mbps depending on the device used
Technology? CDMA 1X and EVDO, always on, high speed packet data network

Final thoughts:
By the way, I truly believe that CDMA/EVDO is vastly superior to the EDGE/GPRS service that Celtel and Safaricom (KSh 10 per Megabyte) are offering in terms of data broadcasting. All I can say is this: “Celtel, watch out for the big Z!” :-) As you can see, this is a great Go Africa go! story because the inclusion of yet another mobile wireless Internet competitor means lower prices, which translates into peeps actually getting down to some serious business. In other words, a heck of a lot more businessmen and businesswomen are going to be more efficient and effective as they go about their daily activities. The word on the street is that Zantel is well regarded as the mobile company with the lowest prices. You don’t believe me? Well take a peek here! Oh, I’m supposed to go to Zantel‘s office today or tomorrow to take Z-Connect for a spin. I’ll highlight my thoughts here.

One other observation. Internet access rates are a heck of a lot cheaper in Tanzania than its neighbour to the North (Kenya). What the heck is up with outrageous ISP fees in Kenya? I thought they were supposed to be more advanced and waaaay ahead of everyone in these parts. But I feel that’s what happens when a monopoly like Telkom Kenya gets too much protection from the government for a very long time. Now it’s making Internet services too costly over there. Let’s just say I know people who pay $120/month for a 128K shared wireless broadband solution from Africa Online. Holy crap! With TTCL, you could get their blazing-fast ADSL service (2 Mbps down, 512Kbps up) at home for a paltry sum of TSh 40 per Megabyte (or TSh 40,000 per Gigabyte of download). Heck, you can’t even get those speeds from Telkom Kenya. In general, I hate telecom companies, but TTCL is not bad at all.

Newspaper ad:

NEED MORE SPEED?
Z-CONNECT. TANZANIA’S FASTEST, MOST AFFORDABLE MOBILE INTERNET. Introducing Z-Connect; the fastest, most affordable, continuous high-speed mobile data network in Tanzania. Just install it in minutes, load prepaid airtime and start working, surfing or downloading in seconds. For instance, you’ll be able to download a 3 Mega Byte music track in 20 seconds, or open the average webmail or website in 7 seconds. And it’s mobile, you can do all of this anywhere, anytime. Now available in Dar es Salaam, and contrywide in late 2007.
For more information and the location of your nearest Z dealer, call 077 600 6000 or email sales@zantel.co.tz