Trade

Erdoğan’s African tour: a win-win partnership?

Billboard announcing Erdogan's visit in Abuja, Nigeria.

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On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began his African tour which will take him to Togo, Nigeria and Angola. The visit will marked by trade and security agreements, but it also takes place in a context of tensions involving other powers, in particular France.

This will be the 15th time Erdoğan has stepped on African soil as Turkey’s top leader. As President, he has done several short, but regular, journeys which began in 2004 when he was still Prime Minister, and which saw him visit, among others Ethiopia, Tunisia, South Africa, Libya, Somalia, Niger, Senegal and Ghana. By the time he completes his ongoing visit, he will have been to 30 African countries. These relational approaches are far from unilateral, since one notes, for example, that the last 5 presidential visits received by Turkey are African (Angola, Guinea, Sudan, Ethiopia, DRC).

Erdoğan also received two weeks ago, Moussa Faki, president of the AU Commission. The discussions focused on issues of infrastructural, economic and human development, mediation, culture, trade, and also humanitarian aspects.

In fact, the bilateral trade volume between the two parties has practically increased fourfold in 18 years, going, according to the Turkish Ministry of Commerce, from $ 5.3 bn in 2003 to more than $20 bn today. Turkish investments have also grown in Africa in recent years, going from $ 100m in 2003 to $ 6.5 bn in 2017 (infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc.). At the same time, the number of Turkish embassies in Africa has increased from 12 to 41.

The arrival yesterday of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan precedes the 3rd Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit which will be held from October 21 to 22 in Istanbul and which will bring together the 54 countries of the continent through official representatives or the private sector. It will be followed on December 17th by the 3rd Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit.

The multiplication of African embassies in Anatolia and flights between the two destinations will greatly facilitate things. In the meantime, there is talk of reaching a trade volume of half a billion dollars between Turkey and Angola (currently $ 116 m), along with progressing joint counterterrorism initiatives and executing agreements on hydrocarbons and energy with Nigeria, then economic and defense agreements with Togo.

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Tlou Energy signs PPA with Botswana Power Corporation – takes one more step towards Lesedi gas-to-power project

Tlou Energy has signed this morning a 10 MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) under which BPC will purchase up to 10 MW of power generated at the company’s Lesedi power project. The PPA is for an initial five-year term and will help Tlou Energy in reaching financial close for Phase 1 of the project, expected to cost $10m. A Pioneering Project for Botswana’s CBM Industry Tlou Energy has been working on developing Botswana’s coal-bed methane (CBM) reserves to generate electricity since its incorporation in 2009. Now listed on the AIM, ASX and BSE, the company is focusing on the development of three major project areas in Botswana: Lesedi, Mamba and Boomslang. Lesedi is a lot more advanced and is being developed as a scalable and hybrid solar and CBM gas-to-power project. It has in fact been producing gas for several years now from the Selemo project, though in small quantities. That gas has been used since 2017 to replace diesel within the generators on site. Lesedi remains an extremely attractive venture because of continued power deficit in Botswana, and continued reliance on coal-based electricity generation and imports. By burning coal and diesel, and importing significant amount of electricity from South Africa, Botswana spends on average $100m every year on securing energy for its industries and households. In contrast, Lesedi is one such project with the ability to offer a cheaper and cleaner solution from a fully local resource base. Two Phases Requiring $30m The Lesedi project is now being developed in two phases. Phase one involves the construction of the 100km transmission line from Lesedi to Serowe, which will act as the backbone for any monetisation of electricity produced from CBM at Lesedi. At a cost of $10m, it also involves the installation of transformers and generators, and the establishment of a grid connection. Initial electricity generation in phase one is proposed to be up to 2 MW. It will then be followed by phase two, at a cost of about $20m, targeting expansion from 2 MW to 10 MW and involving drilling of additional gas wells and the purchase of additional electricity generators. Any further expansion beyond 10 MW will then rely on project revenues and debt from the first two phases. Botswana’s First Carbon Neutral Baseload Power Project? In February 2021, Tlou Energy announced it was working towards the goal of being the first carbon neutral baseload power project in Botswana by further advancing land acquisition for carbon sequestration. The company’s plans to combine gas, solar and carbon sequestration at Lesedi make the project a truly unique one for Africa and could result in the supply of carbon neutral power to significant regional power consumers such as the Orapa diamond mine operated by Debswana and located north of Tlou’s gas fields. Full details on the Lesedi Hybrid CBM and Solar Power Project are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.

Nigeria’s MDXi to commission expansion of Lekki data center facilities in Q1 2022

West Africa’s leading broadband infrastructure company, MainOne, has announced the start of expansion works at its Lekki data center facilities. Dubbed Lekki II, the new Tier III data center is expected to be achieved in record time and targets commissioning in Q1 next year. It will further grow facilities at the center, initially inaugurated in 2015. Africa’s broadband infrastructure is currently witnessing significant investment and expansion as developers seek to tap into the continent’s growing demographics and needs for better connectivity. MainOne’s subsidiary MDXi had already launched earlier this year its Appolonia Data Center in Ghana