1 out of 3 jobs are at risk in Africa due to the Covid-19 crisis! In the recorded webinar below, you can hear reflections on what needs to be done to bring the jobs back.

Listen to , among others, Chief Commentator Martin Wolf from the Financial Times, DFCU Bank CEO Mathias Katambe, the Norwegian minister of International Development Dag-Inge Ulstein and Norfund CEO Tellef Thorleifsson. 

Webinar

Program

• Update: The economic situation in Africa as a result of the Corona Pandemic by Martin Wolf, Financial Times                         

• Helping African companies survive Covid-19; the role of African Banks, by Mathias Katamba, DFCU Bank

• Panel conversation: How to bring back jobs in Africa?

Short video with examples from Kenya

Article: Less talk – more action

Speakers:

Oslo, May 13th, 2020

Norfund has been exposed to a serious case of fraud through an advanced data breach. We are now cooperating closely with the police and other relevant authorities to get a full overview of the situation and to pursue and protect our interests. We have already introduced measures to strengthen our routines and halted all payments.

Norfund has been exposed to a serious case of fraud through an advanced data breach. There are still many details that require further investigation, but as of today we can say that a series of events have enabled this fraud. We are now working to get a full overview of the sequence of events and take appropriate measures to strengthen our routines and systems in order to prevent this from happening again. The fact that this has happened shows that our existing systems and routines were not secure enough.

Advanced data breach

Through an advance data breach, the defrauders were able to access information concerning a loan of USD 10 million (approx. 100 million NOK) from Norfund to a microfinance institution in Cambodia. The defrauders manipulated and falsified information exchange between Norfund and the borrowing institution over time in a way that was realistic in structure, content and use of language. Documents and payment details were falsified.

As a result of this extensive manipulation of communication, the defrauders were successful in diverting funds to an account not belonging to the intended recipient. The name of the account holder was the same as the name of the microfinance institution in Cambodia. The funds have been diverted to Mexico. The fraud took place on the 16th of March. The fact that the defrauders were able to manipulate the communication between Norfund and the intended recipient was a major contributing factor in delaying detection. The fraud was discovered on the 30th of April, as the scammers initiated a new fraud attempt. This attempt was discovered and prevented. So far, Norfund has not uncovered any further fraud attempts beyond the two above mentioned incidents.

Norfund immediately established a crisis management team, informed our owner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and contacted the police. We are now dedicating considerable resources to get the full overview and are systematically reviewing internal routines and control measures. Norfund is collaborating closely with the police, our bank DNB and other relevant authorities. A report has been filed with the police.

Norfund’s Board of Directors has engaged PwC to undertake an external, independent evaluation of company routines and security systems.

An increasing problem for Norwegian companies

The Norwegian Centre for Information Security, the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime and DNB are among those who have highlighted this type of fraud cases as an increasing problem for Norwegian companies and that the number of unreported or undiscovered cases likely is high. Norfund hopes that by being open about this incident we can contribute to reducing the risk of others being victims of similar fraudulent activities.

DNBs head of fraud prevention, Terje A. Fjeldvær states that “Fraud cases of this kind are performed by very sophisticated criminals. With access to e-mail communication between two parties, they can familiarize themselves with how the parties correspond. The payments they initiate therefore deviate very little from ordinary payments performed by the victimized company and become very hard to detect and prevent.”

Transparency is important to Norfund

It is very important to us to be open and transparent on this issue, not least to reduce the risk that others become victims of similar fraudulent activities. We did not go public with this at an earlier stage due to police advice with regards to the ongoing investigation.

A press briefing is scheduled for today at 15:00 at Norfund’s head office in Oslo, Fridtjof Nansens Plass 4. CEO Tellef Thorleifsson, other staff members from Norfund and representatives from DNB will be present to make statements and take questions. Due to infection control measures, seating will be limited. Please submit a request for participation to inger.nygaard@norfund.no.

By Erik Solheim

So far, Africa has not been severely affected by the virus directly. Only one country in Sub-Saharan Africa has more than a hundred dead, South Africa. We do not know if this will last, it depends on the reason why Africa has been less severely hit. But Africa may suffer more than any other continent from the economic fall out of the virus. Tens of millions of jobs are at risk.

As a result of the corona, 2020 may be the first year since 1998 when poverty increases on earth, much of this growth will occur in Africa.

For more than twenty years, my friend the Norwegian entrepreneur Svein Wilhelmsen has given countless tourists unforgettable experiences on the savannas in Kenya. As Svein’s guest in Kenya, you can see the cheetahs and the lions hunting for their prey, hippos clumping together in the rivers. You can admire majestic elephants and follow the world’s greatest animal trek – millions of wildebeest on the way between Tanzania and Kenya. Masai Mara has perhaps the richest wildlife anywhere on the globe. The safari tourists provide much-needed income to Kenya.

Svein Wilhelmsen has a dual vision. He wants to take care of the beautiful landscape and the iconic animals and he will create development and jobs for the local people. These two are closely linked. Unless the poor Masai see the benefits of protecting elephants and rhinos, they will easily turn to poaching to earn some small income that way.

Now everything Svein and hundreds of partners have built up is in danger. The corona crisis has hit Kenya like a lightning strike. The country is closed down. Hardly a guest is coming. Revenue is at zero. Thousands of families who have built their future on tourism and nature conservation are without income. Basecamp Explorer and other tourist companies are struggling to survive. What should tour guides, hotel workers, drivers and people getting rental income from the land in the protected areas do now?

In all of Africa’s countries you will find countless small businesses struggling, just like Svein Wilhelmsen’s Basecamp.

It is these small businesses and the informal sector that keeps Africa going, ensuring income for most. They are entrepreneurs in the digital economy, they cultivate agricultural goods, they bring tourists, plant trees, or build roads. Some are employed on formal terms. Others have a looser connection to the labor market. In Burkina Faso, 77% of the population is considered unemployed. But that does not mean they do not work. Those who do not work in Africa, do not eat either.

Europe must help save Africa’s many small businesses through the corona crisis. That is the theme of a call I and twenty current and former ministers have written to Europe’s leaders.

One million young people enter the job market in Africa every month. Everyone wants a job. Of those who are part of the economy, few have jobs in regular businesses. Most are in the informal sector, trying to feed on random jobs, selling something, helping in family agriculture or in so many other imaginative ways.

The West’s assistance to Africa is small money, but still important. The size is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the US plans to borrow three trillion dollars in the second quarter. This corresponds to sixty times all aid from all western countries to the entire African continent this year.

When resources are scarce, it is important that they are used properly. Africa’s governments do not have reserves to meet the corona crisis. The United States can print dollars. China has large savings. Norway has the Oil Fund. African governments often start with a lot of debt. They have little or no savings, tiny budgets. The West must contribute debt relief and save African business through the acute crisis. Africa must be helped to provide a political response to the crisis.

Companies that go bankrupt during the corona crisis cannot give jobs to people afterwards. African jobs are not in the public but in the private sector. Hardly anything is more important now than saving profitable and productive companies through the crisis.

The European Development Finance Institutions are our most important instrument in this. In Norway we have Norfund, but there are fifteen sister funds in other European countries. Europe must invest more capital in these funds and Europe’s states must contribute with risk sharing.

This is also in our own long-term interest if we want to reduce immigration pressure on Europe. It is often said in the European debate that we must help people where they are, not take them to Norway. I agree with this thought. But then we have to do it, not just say it. European governments can respond by enabling Development Finance Institutions to save companies and jobs in Africa during this critical year.

Then, in 2021, Svein Wilhelmsen can again invite tourists to his magic campfires. Hundreds of thousands of other small businesses can provide jobs for Africa’s young and rapidly growing population.

Africa faces a massive recession due to the Covid-19 pandemic; around 20 million jobs may be lost. International experts are therefore calling on European governments to act. European development finance institutions are in the best position to act swiftly in support of the private sector in vulnerable countries.

04.05.2020

Covid-19 has hit Africa. Governments are shutting down normal life. The IMF, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and their donors are stepping up the fight against the virus by creating financing mechanisms to support cash stretched governments across the continent. This is much needed – and urgent.

Africa is facing a dramatic recession

Africa is already facing a dramatic recession, perhaps even worse than Europe. Estimates indicate that at least 20 million jobs may be lost. Much depends on how quickly and decisively we act. Job losses and the resulting destitution will multiply the death toll from the disease. In Europe, governments have responded at home both by addressing the catastrophic threat to health and life, and by simultaneously opening up nearly unlimited credit lines to tackle the existential threat to business from the economic standstill. Most African governments do not have the fiscal space to respond in this way and, across lower income countries, 90% of jobs are in the private sector. For the poor, often in low income and vulnerable jobs, the future looks grim. Women and girls are disproportionally affected.

Firms in the formal sector are vital for prosperity

Firms in the formal sector are vital for prosperity and Africa is already desperately short of them. Such firms are able to organise a workforce to reap economies of scale and specialisation, and raise finance for investment. The huge adverse shock that has hit Africa risks pushing many of them into bankruptcy. This would result in a large loss of organisational capital for their societies. Since private capital is flowing out of the continent, and governments lack both the finance and the organisational links to provide informed finance to firms, development finance institutions (DFIs) are the vital front line in the struggle to preserve them. The institutions in Europe best suited to help the private sector in Africa are the DFIs. There are 15 DFIs in Europe – government owned and supported institutions that foster private sector development. They have EUR 15 billion invested in Africa, reaching thousands of companies, and already fund many banks operating throughout the continent.

Africa needs a comprehensive policy response from OECD

Africa needs a policy response as far-reaching and comprehensive as that being taken across the OECD economies: this includes job-support and actions to save existing businesses from immediately closing. If not, Covid-19 itself will set development in Africa back a decade or more. While some support for African nations from international donors has been announced, this support concentrates primarily on the public sector, and what is still missing is a vigorous response to support the private sector and jobs, which face an unprecedented disaster. The private sector in Africa plays an outsize role in providing employment, relative to more developed economies. When even large and profitable firms in rich economies need support to stay afloat, the plight of firms in Africa, which suffer from a chronic shortage of credit and liquidity even in more stable times, is far worse. Unless something is done quickly, many profitable and productive firms will disappear, wiping out years of jobs growth and economic development driven by private enterprise.

The important role of DFIs

The DFIs have rightly taken urgent measures to protect staff and to put plans in place to support client’s immediate needs. But DFIs also must assess the situation in Africa and the required response in the medium to long term, until the virus has been eliminated. DFIs should be countercyclical at a time when private financial flows have come to a sudden stop, and should lead other investors back into African markets on the other side of the crisis. In order to do this, they will need support. Most DFIs have some room on their balance sheets to respond but often not enough to be fully countercyclical during times of high uncertainty. They need a combination of risk-sharing, capital and new flexibility to respond beyond their capacities in the current stressed situation. DFIs must make this case to their boards and owners and make proposals for a more robust response to the crisis.

Signatories

• José Antonio Alonso, Professor of Applied Economics, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain)
• Erik Berglöf, Professor, Director Institute of Global Affairs, LSE
• Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Oxford University (UK)
• Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance and Development Cooperation (Belgium)
• Guilherme D’Oliveira Martins, Former Member of Parliament, Minister of Presidency and Minister of Finance (Portugal)
• Stephany J. Griffith-Jones, Financial Markets Program Director, Columbia University
• Nanno Kleiterp, Honorary Chairman of EDFI (Netherlands)
• Norbert Kloppenburg, Former member of the management board of KfW (Germany)
• Bert Koenders, Former Foreign Minister (Netherlands)
• Benoit Leguet, CEO of I4CE, Institute for Climate Economics (France)
• Mogens Lykketoft, Former Minister, Speaker, UNGA President (Denmark)
• Kanini Mutooni, Managing Director, Toniic Institute
• Franco Passacantando, Senior fellow at the LUISS School of European Political Economy in Rome (Italy)
• Johann Schneider-Ammann, Former President (Swiss Confederation)
• Erik Solheim, Former Minister of the Environment and International Development (Norway)
• Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa
• Lars Thunell, former CEO of IFC (Sweden)
• Erkki Tuomioja, Member of Parliament, former Minister for Foreign Affairs (Finland)
• Bruno Wenn, Chairman of EDFI (Germany)
• Thomas Wieser, Chair, High-Level Wise Persons group on the European financial architecture for development (Austria)

Capital and expertise from Scatec Solar, KLP and Norfund enabled the
construction of Mozambique’s first large-scale solar power plant. The Mocuba plant provides over 79 GWh of electricity annually, enough energy to serve about 175,000 households.

Energy constraints are impeding South Africa’s economic growth. The new Bio2Watt biogas plant produces electricity from organic waste, and is helping to reduce both the nation’s electricity deficit and the amount of landfill waste.

According to the Cambodia Industrial Development Policy 2015–2025 issued by the Cambodian government, limited access to capital is one of the key obstacles to continued economic growth, poverty reduction and the development of the country’s industrial sector. Hattha Kaksekar Limited, a Norfund investee as of 2007, is contributing to increased access to finance for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in Cambodia.

Haltons Pharmacy is a Fanisi investee company and provides quality medicines in Kenya.

The Fanisi Venture Capital Fund invests private equity and venture capital in businesses that have substantial growth potential. Norfund was instrumental in establishing Fanisi, investing both in the management company and the fund. Haltons Pharmacy is a Fanisi investee company and provides quality medicines and medical advice in Kenya through a national network of outlets.

Read the case study

The government of Zambia has identified agriculture as a priority sector for achieving economic development and reducing poverty. Agrivision – a Norfund investee company – is helping to increase national food production by utilising modern farming methods and new technologies.

The Covid-19 crisis is disrupting businesses across Africa. Vertical Agro, a Norfund investee exporting fruits and vegetables to Europe, has a challenging time.

Vertical Agro – exporting fruits and vegetables

Vertical Agro Ltd is a family owned fully integrated vegetable and fruit processer with farming and processing operations in Kenya and Tanzania.

The company farms and processes about 6.500 tons of vegetables and fruits annually, including beans, carrots, broccolini, corn, herbs and avocados.  Close to 100% of the products are exported, primarily to Europe. Vertical Agro has gradually moved its product offerings towards value-add products and is the largest exporter of organic fruit and vegetables in Kenya. The company has also developed a unique technique for frozen vegetables. More than 1,000 people works for Vertical Agro on a permanent or temporary basis, in addition to 1,000 small scale farmers depending on Vertical Agro to train, certify, process and export their crops.

Since our first investment in 2014, Norfund has helped Vertical Agro funding expansion, developing cost efficient operations and improving financial performance. This effort has paid off during the previous two year’s challenges with floods and drought, and today the Covid-19 crisis.

Handling the covid-19 challenges

Although the European and African demand for vegetables and fruit has continued during the Covid-19 crisis, exporting the goods has become extremely complicated.  While fresh produce is hindered from being sent due to cancelled flights, frozen goods and avocados can still being exported by sea. However, the travel restrictions imposed in Kenya is a big challenge for the transportation of goods from farms to the processing facilities and to the harbour in Mombasa. And the availability of ships is limited, too.

Due to partial lockdown in Kenya, Kenyan employees are hindered from leaving their home and only those who have received a required travel passport can go to work. Drivers need a certificate for the freight to get through frequent road controls, making it even more complicated to running the business.

Building a robust and resilient company

The last years’ measures taken to strengthen Vertical Agro’s operation and financial performance is of high value today, making the company more resilient to this crisis. The convertible loan facility provided by Norfund in 2014 helped the company investing in new modern facilities, expanding its product range, improving yields and increasing its productivity. Other measures taken to make the company robust are professionalizing the organisation, streamlining the value-chain, optimizing farming and the development of out-grower schemes to increase capacity utilization. As a long-term investor, Norfund is also prepared to contribute with additional support if needed to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.

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