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As sleek highway overpasses and shopping malls sprouted in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan following the 2010-11 civil war, investors often pointed to 2020 as the year that could unleash the country’s full economic potential.

A successful transfer of power when President Alassane Ouattara’s second term expired, they said, would help banish memories of the disputed 2010 election that led to the war and attract other investors still wary about instability.

But as Ivory Coast heads toward an election on Saturday that Ouattara is unexpectedly contesting and his main opponents are trying to sabotage, that looks an increasingly distant prospect.

Investors and analysts say they do not expect the vote to lead to an all-out war but warn that disputes about its legitimacy and opposition calls for civil disobedience could mean a long period of uncertainty.

“Just completing that electoral cycle won’t be enough. Post-election, the government will need to work to ease political tensions and reassure investors,” said Valentin Robiliard, an analyst with global consultancy Control Risks.

Veteran investors in Ivory Coast, Francophone West Africa’s largest economy and the world’s top cocoa producer, are used to weathering turmoil. Economic growth between 2012 and 2019 averaged more than 8% despite sporadic unrest, including a series of army mutinies and strikes by civil servants.

New investors have piled in, including French retailer Carrefour CARR.PA, China Road and Bridge Corporation and Moroccan engineering firm SGTM.

Foreign direct investment inflows under Ouattara have nearly tripled to over $1 billion. The government has ensured stable prices for cocoa farmers, leading to fewer supply disruptions.

But old anxieties are resurfacing. Ouattara’s announcement in August that he would seek re-election – reversing an earlier decision not to run – has led to violent protests by opponents who say he is violating the constitution.

Thirty people have died in clashes since then.

Investors say political unrest is compounding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and squeezing access to credit. The head of one cocoa exporter said his company usually receives a 15 billion CFA franc ($27 million) bank loan before the main crop harvest opens on October 1. This year, he got just 2 billion CFA francs.

“The instability and the political uncertainty means that no one wants to take a risk – not the banks, not the insurers, no one,” he said.

UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

Patrick Achi, secretary-general of the presidency, acknowledged concerns about electoral violence but said he was nevertheless bullish about the economy.

“I think the country is stable enough,” he told investors and journalists on Wednesday. “We’ve battled so hard the past 10 years to still stand.”

A former senior International Monetary Fund official, Ouattara is popular with investors, who credit him with implementing pro-business policies.

Despite the investment of the past decade, analysts say Ivory Coast has not realised its full economic potential.

The poverty rate has fallen but is still nearly 40% and the government acknowledges that red tape and corruption hamper business.

Sectors, such as gold mining, tourism and transport remain underdeveloped. While companies from a handful of countries like France and Morocco have invested heavily over the past decade, others, including US firms, have been more reticent, concerned about corruption and political instability.

The U.S. ambassador in Abidjan, Richard Bell, said he participated in a virtual roundtable earlier this year with U.S. companies interested in Ivory Coast.

“They weren’t thinking about doing a lot of investing before the election but they were seriously interested in considering investing … if things went well,” he said.

“This is a fraught time and the stakes are high.”

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African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Researcher, Dr Aloysius Mom Njong, has called for sustainable health reforms in Africa amid COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are 1 288 634 cumulative cases of coronavirus on the continent and 24 464 deaths.

Njong says there are some core norms that the health system should respect but unfortunately contemporary African health systems seem to lack behind their norms.

“These core health reform principles or norms will include financial sustainability and financial sustainability is the core principle, especially for African economies. A health system is financially sustainable when its expenditures are covered by revenues generated within the system. What we observe in African health systems is that health spending usually far exceeds the revenue that is generated thus forcing the health sector to largely depend on external financing.”

He says the dependent on external financing can never be sustainable and it always likely to increase the debt burden of a country.

“Normally in every economy you have some segment of the population that are vulnerable especially children, women and the physically challenged. These vulnerable groups do not have adequate access to health services, very health systems in Africa seem to address the plight of these vulnerable groups and therefore you always have gaps between the rich and the poor, widening in healthcare coverage and distribution of health care services in the country. The third co-principle is the effective and quality of health care delivery, we observe that healthcare systems in Africa do not seem to care much about quality of care or user satisfaction quality but we know that this is an important aspect that permits the healthcare system to move if it is cost-effective, where the health care resources are maximised. The fourth driver of health system reforms is the lack of good governance practices to ensure transparency and accountability in Africa’s health systems.”

In the Audio below, Dr Njong elaborates on the key considerations for policy reforms that support sustainable health care in Africa:

Njong says COVID-19 cases in Africa are lower because the continent reacted swiftly to the pandemic.

He says poverty remains one of the challenges to healthcare delivery in Africa.

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Ephraim Osinboyejo’s eyes fill with tears as he recalled the idealism that drove thousands like him to campaign against police brutality – and the night he saw young activists gunned down.

“There is a storm brewing inside of me and I don’t know where to put it, I don’t know what to do with it.”

What began as a largely peaceful movement against the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad has since turned into some of the worst street violence since the end of military rule in 1999.

Eyewitnesses and Amnesty International say security forces killed at least 12 people in two districts of Lagos on October 20 as they enforced a curfew, though the army and police have denied involvement.

Osinboyejo, a 39-year-old businessman, was at the main protest site – the Lekki district toll gate.

“This place was a war zone, but it was more army fighting civilians, unarmed civilians, peaceful civilians, civilians who were exercising their constitutional right.”

The army says its forces were not at Lekki.

But in a Lagos hospital, Nicholas Okpe lies wheezing and coughing after being shot, he says, by a soldier.

“That soldier man stood with a cap, I saw him standing there and he was shooting, I thought it was rubber bullet or firecracker until the bullet touched me, then I realised this was meant to kill someone.”

It’s not just the police who have been accused of violence.

In the days following October 20 crowds set fire to government offices and police stations, and looting was reported.

Protesters and government officials say those doing the looting and vandalism are for the most part, not those who mobilized against police brutality.

Protest organizers, some of whom are in hiding, are now urging followers to stay off the streets and focus on the online campaigning that has successfully grabbed global attention.

And despite the bloodshed, Osinboyejo has hope.

“I also saw people chanting we would die for our country, and though I do not want to watch anyone die and I don’t want to see anybody die, I find optimism in that, that maybe for the first time young people are willing to stand up against tyranny because that is what this is.”

The post How Nigeria’s peaceful protests were hijacked appeared first on SABC News – Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa’s news leader..

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Tanzania’s President John Magufuli hopes to win another five-year term when the East African nation holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Wednesday, amid criticism from rights groups that the government is stifling political dissent.

Magufuli’s main challengers include Tundu Lissu, who was shot 16 times in 2017, and former foreign minister Bernard Membe.

The attack on Lissu, who returned from three years in exile in July, has never been solved.

East Africa’s third-largest economy has recorded average growth of close to 7% over the last four years, according to official figures, as the government invested billions of dollars in infrastructure including a new railway, a hydro-power dam and planes for the national airline.

The government projects economic growth of 5.5% in 2020 after COVID-19 hit key sectors such as tourism.

The World Bank predicts expansion of only 2.5%.

Magufuli is promising voters that his infrastructure projects will fuel growth of at least 8%:

His party has already won 28 parliamentary seats where their candidates are unopposed, the electoral commission said.

Opposition leader Lissu has frequently criticised Magufuli’s economic management and human rights record and promises to”return freedom, justice, respect of human rights and improve people’s development rather than infrastructure development.”

The ruling party CCM, a version of which has held power since independence in 1961, won the presidency with 58% of votes in 2015 and currently holds about three-quarters of parliamentary seats.

Tanzania uses a first-past-the post system.

More than 29 million people are registered to vote out of 58 million citizens.

They will choose from 15 presidential candidates and elect representatives for 264 parliamentary seats.

The opposition and rights groups say authorities have cracked down on critical voices by closing down media outlets and banning public rallies during Magufuli’s first term.

Last week, a coalition of 65 international rights groups including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations, issued a letter critical of the government.

“Tanzania’s criminal justice system has … been misused to target those who criticise the government,” the letter read.”Non-governmental organisations working on human rights issues have been deregistered or are facing harassment.”

Opposition parties said police disrupted their campaigns and electoral authorities disqualified dozens of their parliamentary candidates.

The government has previously denied any crackdown and the National Electoral Commission has rejected accusations of unfair treatment.

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