This, according to outgoing Bifm CEO Victor Senye, will be done to comply with new legislation in Zambia that requires all asset management companies in the country to be at least 51 percent owned by Zambian citizens.

Speaking at the presentation of the results of parent company BIHL in Gaborone this week, Senye said they were in the process of identifying potential buyers of the stake and that priority would be given to current shareholders.

“The cutting down of our stake is one of the challenges that Bifm is facing at the moment,” he said. “We will try to compensate for the loss by fortifying that area of our business that has not been affected by the new legislation in Zambia.”

Apart from asset management, the BIHL group is into employee benefits and property development in Zambia.

Meanwhile, though he did not specify profit margins, Senye said Bifm had performed exceptionally well for the year ended December 31, 2009 after taking a sharp knock in 2008 as global financial markets collapsed.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to build on our achievements and focus on our key strategies of growth and profitability,” he said. “Our property activities have been extremely valuable and have enabled the company to take a leading role in the market.

“But while we are entrenched as a major property player in Botswana, our core business continues to be asset management.”

While Bifm reported profits at the same level as 2006, another member of the BIHL conglomerate, Botswana Life, reported a 45-percent increase in profits despite a difficult operating environment that was characterised by weakened disposable incomes for their clients.

Meanwhile, Botswana Life, whose CEO Regina Sikalesele-Vaka has just been rewarded with the plumb BIHL group CEO post, reported a 31-percent increase in net insurance premium income to P1.3 billion for the period, registering an operating profit of P218 million.

“We made excellent progress in the implementation of the Botswana Life 2009-2013 strategy,” she said. “This strategy has three key focus areas, namely, consolidation and retention of key clients, expansion and diversification.

I am proud to say that Botswana Life has succeeded in retaining all its major corporate clients as well as significantly increasing its individual sales business. Our results give us a justified cause for satisfaction.” As part of the group’s new strategy to maintain its dominance in the market, BIHL have announced a single substantive group CEO, Sikalesele-Vaka, who will oversee its five new subsidiaries that will embrace unit trusts and specific property and short-term insurance divisions in addition to Botswana Life and Bifm.

Until now, Senye and Sikalesele-Vaka were joint CEOs for BIHL. While Senye is being redeployed to head the property division, BIHL chairperson Batsho Dambe-Groth says the new heads of the other four divisions will be announced in the near future.

[MMEGI]

PRESIDENT Banda said yesterday that his trip to China was successful, especially that there was a number of projects and opportunities discussed with the Chinese Government and investors.

Mr Banda, who completed his state visit to China on Wednesday by touring ZTE and Huawei Technologies, held two separate meetings with the companies’ top executives.

He urged the two Chinese telecommunication companies to consider setting up manufacturing firms in Zambia in addition to their operation offices.

This is contained in a statement issued from Shenzhen, China, by special assistant to the President for press and public relations Dickson Jere.

“The two companies assured the President and his delegation that they will positively consider the invitation to set up manufacturing branches in Zambia,” Mr Jere said.

The President also invited various telecommunication companies to set up international call centres in Zambia as the country has adequate human resource to handle such projects.

Mr Banda said he would like to see Zambia become a centre of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and urged the telecommunication firms to consider partnering with Government in establishing an ICT training centre which will cater for the African region.

He said his trip to China was successful, especially that there was a number of projects and opportunities discussed.

While in China, the President held meetings with his counterpart Hu Jintao and other senior Government officials where they discussed bilateral issues which mainly focused on political and economic co-operation.

The two leaders pledged to continue strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

And President Hu announced additional scholarships to Zambia of up to 164 students to study in various fields in China.

The two Presidents also witnessed the signing of five key agreements in different fields which include mining and geology co-operation, financing of the construction of a new stadium and the development of an economic sub-zone in Lusaka.

President Banda and the Chinese Government also discussed Zambia’s possibility of accessing financing from the US$10 billion set aside by the Chinese Government for projects in Africa.

Zambia presented projects for possible funding which include water and sanitation in Lusaka, drilling of boreholes in rural areas, improvement of urban roads, mobile hospitals and procurement of boats for Luapula and Western provinces.

The President invited Chinese tourists to consider Zambia as one of the priority destinations for tourism when they travel out of China.

Mr Banda said Zambia has beautiful sites which Chinese tourists should consider to visit, especially that over 40 million Chinese tourists travel outside their country annually.

President Banda, First Lady Thandiwe and other senior Government officials were yesterday due to leave China via Hong Kong on their way back home.

The Zambian delegation to Shenzhen included Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane and his Foreign Affairs counterpart Kabinga Pande.

Other ministers who were in President Banda’s delegation returned to Lusaka after completing their assignments.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will visit Africa March 7-11, to discuss opportunities and challenges facing African economies in the wake of the global crisis. Mr. Strauss-Kahn will visit Kenya on March 7-8, South Africa on March 9-10, and Zambia on March 10-11.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn will discuss the recent successes as well as the challenges the continent needs to address, including the impact of global climate change, a problem that disproportionately affects Africa. He will participate in a panel debate “Africa’s Economic Transformation: The Road Ahead”, which will also include Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta; Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai; rock star and activist Bob Geldof; and Transparency International’s Akere Muna.

During his visit to the three countries, Mr. Strauss-Kahn will hold a series of meetings with the authorities, trade unions, representatives of civil society, and the private sector. He will also give a speech on the global financial crisis at the University of Witswaterand during his visit to South Africa.

“I am very glad to come back to Africa and continue our engagement with African leaders and citizens in a fruitful and open policy dialogue,” Mr. Strauss-Kahn said. “It is an opportunity for us to deepen the dialogue on issues concerning the continent’s main challenge—sustaining solid growth in the post-crisis world to put Africa on the path of prosperity.”

[IMF]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Zambia, Africa’s top copper producer, to increase mine taxes to fund roads and hospitals, even after the country scrapped a contoversial windfall tax on mining earnings.

Copper is the main export for this southern African country, accounting for over 63 percent of the country’s foreign earnings, and the IMF wants Zambia to raise more revenue to improve public finances and fight poverty.

The IMF has previously said that although Zambia weathered the global downturn last year, government revenue collections have fallen short of expectations.

“Enhanced tax collections, including from the mining sector will be critical for providing space for increase capital and social spending,” said George Tsibouris, head of an IMF staff mission that visited Zambia from February 17 to March 2.

Copper prices have recovered from four-year lows recorded early last year, boosted by demand from China, the world’s largest consumer. Three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange are trading around $7,416 a tonne.

With the backing of the World Bank, Zambia imposed a 25 percent mining windfall tax in April 2008, along with a 15 percent profit variable tax to raise revenue, which was to be invested in infrastructure, particularly in poor rural areas.

Lusaka also raised its mineral royalty to 3.0 percent from 0.6 percent and corporate tax to 30 percent from 25 percent.

But the government lifted the windfall tax in January after some foreign investors threatened to take legal action, accusing authorities of breaching agreements they signed with the mining companies that promised lower taxes.

The government says the windfall tax was scrapped to boost foreign investment in mining, and would not be re-introduced.

Last month, Zambia said it plans to further review the Mines and Minerals Act this year to reduce the cost of doing business and make the mining sector even more attractive to investors.

Copper output in Zambia rose 14 percent to 697,860 tonnes last year, and Zambia has previously said copper production could hit 1.0 million tonnes by 2011 as new mines come on stream and expansions and upgrades take place at existing facilities.

Zambia has forecast its economy could grow as much as 7 percent this year and 8 percent in 2011 due on recovering copper exports and booms in construction and manufacturing.

This forecasts put the country of 13 million among the world’s fastest growing economies, and underscores the extent to which countries on the poorest continent — particularly mineral exporters — succeeded in weathering the global economic storm.
[Reuters ]