Africa briefs

SA's PMI falls further in JanuarySouth Africa's seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) slipped deeper into contraction territory in January as employment and inventories fell despite a recovery in new sales orders, a survey showed yesterday.Growth in Africa's most developed economy has been meek for the last decade and is set to remain so as nationwide power cuts by state firm Eskom hit business activity and consumer confidence.The central bank expects economic growth of 1.2% in 2020, higher than the International Monetary Fund's forecast last week of 0.8%. The country needs growth of at least 3% to tackle soaring unemployment and poverty and lure back investors.The index, which gauges manufacturing activity in Africa's most industrialised economy, fell to 45.2 points in January from 47.1 in December, remaining below the 50-point mark separating contraction from expansion for a sixth straight month.The survey showed demand remained slack, with only two of the five major subcomponents recovering, albeit from multi-year lows. Three measures declined, and overall only one subcomponent was in expansion. – Nampa/ReutersZim sets pay deal with workersUnions representing government workers in Zimbabwe said they had accepted an offer of higher pay as a provisional step in long-running negotiations.Cecilia Alexander, chairperson of the Apex Council, an umbrella of unions representing civil servants, said the government would pay a cost-of-living adjustment with effect from January 1.Civil servants late last year said they had no option but to stay at home because their wages, devastated by inflation, no longer stretched to the next pay day.According to the pro-government daily The Herald, the increase amounts to 140%.The lowest-paid government workers will earn 2 200 Zimbabwean dollars (US$137) per month. – Nampa/ReutersKenya to start free trade talks with USKenya will start talks with the United States this week on a potential free trade deal, the presidency said, ahead of the expiry of a deal which offers preferential terms to select African exports into the United States.The East African nation, which needs to boost exports in order to create jobs at home for millions of young people and to shore up its hard currency earnings, has growing economic ties with the United States.Like other African nations, Kenya has benefited from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows Sub-Saharan African countries to export thousands of products to the United States without tariffs or quotas until 2025.AGOA was enacted to help African countries develop their industries by giving them access to the US market for certain products like textiles. It was renewed for 10 years by former president Barack Obama in 2015.Kenya has been the leading exporter of garments under AGOA in Sub-Saharan Africa, earning hundreds of millions of US dollars a year from garments stitched together using imported fabrics. – Nampa/ReutersNigeria to 'work with US' on visa curbsNigeria said on Saturday it would cooperate with Washington on visa restrictions slapped by the United States on its citizens and those from five other countries.US president Donald Trump on Friday imposed immigration restrictions on citizens of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, as well as Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania."Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its international allies, especially on matters of global security," presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said."Accordingly, president Muhammadu Buhari has established a committee, to be chaired by the Honourable Minister of Interior, to study and address the updated US requirements," he said."The committee will work with the US government, INTERPOL and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented," he said. – Nampa/AFPTanzania may switch off SIM cardsTanzania's telecoms regulator has said it may switch off up to 15 million SIM cards of users who failed to register their mobile phone lines biometrically.East Africa's third-largest economy said it rolled out the biometric checks in a bid to tackle fraud in electronic transactions, identity theft and other forms of crime.The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said it began to gradually shut down unregistered SIM cards in nationwide biometric checks that started on Jan. 20. That was the deadline TCRA had set for all SIM card owners to have registered their lines biometrically.Tanzania has an estimated 45 million active mobile phone subscribers. Of those just over 30 million or 66.3% had registered biometrically by the deadline, according to official data.Under the new registration, users' fingerprints are captured alongside scans of their national identity cards. – Nampa/Reuters

Africa briefs

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