Recently in Africa Category
In preparation for an article on the growth of Ghana as an African Tax Haven I've been filtering news about the dark continent. Never a shortage of intrigue on this topic, today I noticed an article in the BBC about the passing of French Mercenary Bob Denard. Now here was a man who believed that If you don't like the laws or the law makers of a jurisdiction then you should just take action and over-throw them.
In 1968 Denard and several hundred fighters tried to invade Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, by bicycle.
His 1995 coup attempt in the Comoros involved arriving with 30 men in inflatable boats.
Source: BBC News
The President, Mr J A Kufuor announced at the weekend that the government is in the process of setting up an International Financial Services Centre in collaboration with the Barclays Bank to, among others, transact off-shore banking business; making Ghana the financial hub of the West African sub-region.
President Kufuor said all the economic indicators, namely, inflation, interest rates, stability of the currency and Gross Domestic Product are showing positive trends.
South Africa is one of the most sophisticated and promising emerging markets in the world. It is also one of the most advanced and productive economies in Africa.
The country's remarkable ability to put centuries of racial discrimination behind it in favor of reconciliation was widely considered a social "miracle" and inspired similar peace efforts.
So much media attention lately about "Conflict Diamonds" largely due to Leonardo DiCaprio portraying a smuggler in the new movie "Blood Diamond" which depicts the issues and horrors of violence related to the illicit diamond trade. Just in the Congo alone hundreds of people stake their claims hoping to strike it rich in the fourth-largest diamond-producing country in the world. Officials say that last year, diamond exports from the Congo grew to $2 billion, nearly one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product.
The United Nations (UN) defines conflict diamonds as ‘…diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council’.
Representatives of Seychelles and Cyprus has signed a Double Taxation Avoidance agreement, touted as another means of encouraging European investors to inject money into the local off-shore business sector.
Nigeria got a clean bill on money laundering issues last weekend as Finance Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based international agency expunged her name from the list of those countries with high rate of money laundering image.
Continue reading "FATF Delists Nigeria from Money Laundering List"
The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The yacht was unmarked, 6m long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, they had been partially petrified by the salt water, sun and sea breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. They appeared to have come from far away.
The guns have long been silent but 30 years since its takeover by Morocco, the future of the Western Sahara remains unresolved, writes Ian Black
The anniversary is hardly on many minds, but that is only to be expected. For the event it commemorates sparked what it is still, 30 years on, the world's most forgotten conflict.
Africa and offshore aren't exactly synonymous words. So where's the money many of the governments of Africa absconded from their citizens? Where's the diamond wealth held on deposit? at the Bank of Congo? Recently Africa has been in the media more than usual, partly due to the "Live 8" fund raising, and awareness raising efforts of Bob Geldof et al, and partly due to tragic famines that seem to beleaguer the dark continent.
The Republic of Mauritius is the most famous offshore haven of Africa. An excellent business portal is provided by the government and there are many other resources available by performing a Google.
By Raymond Baker and Jennifer Nordin -
WASHINGTON In recent weeks, high-profile advocates have appealed for more foreign aid for the developing world. The Commission for Africa established by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain recommends, in part, an additional $25 billion in aid per year by 2010. The United Nations Millennium Project's recent report, "Investing in Development," calls for more than doubling foreign aid from rich to poor countries over the next 10 years. These are certainly worthy goals, but what about the billions of dollars that stream illegally the other way, from poor countries to rich?
The following article was written by Sarah-Lise Haith and re-published with permission from the editor of DeeperBlue.net
4 35 S, 55 40 E, lies a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar. They comprise over 100 islands and are the only mid-ocean granite islands in the world. The islands are split into three main groups, the Inner Islands in the North, with the Amirantes and Aldabra & the Southern Islands lying to a South Easterly direction.
By Michael Wines -
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 13 - Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of a British political legend who became mired last year in a bizarre coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, abandoned his claims of innocence on Thursday and pleaded guilty in a Cape Town Court to helping finance mercenaries who were behind the failed putsch.
But as part of a plea agreement that spared him a potential prison sentence, Sir Mark, who is a hereditary baronet, maintained that his role was unwitting and that he believed he was investing $275,000 in a helicopter service for a mining venture until he began to doubt the project's true goals in January 2004.
