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Africa-news (592)

TotalEnergies has lodged its production licence application for Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa, the national petroleum regulator said on Tuesday, before a deadline expired which might have seen the oil major forfeit its right to develop the huge discovery.

Barclays raised nearly R10.7 billion from the sale of its remaining stake in Absa, exiting an investment it made in 2005 and marking its second retreat from the region. 

Cashbuild is closing its two underperforming stores in Zambia, which has proven to be a tough trading environment for the building materials retailer, said CEO Werner de Jager.

State-owned Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) has awarded Norwegian company Scatec ASA SCATC.OL a contract to build a 50 megawatt (MW) solar plant, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund has approved a US$1.3 billion (R22.3 billion) loan to debt-ridden Zambia to help it restore fiscal stability while urging the country to battle corruption.

Single parenting comes with many stresses, and financial stress is often one of them. In South Africa, single-income families are most likely headed by a single mom and surveys show most of them receive no financial contribution from the fathers of their children.

The only way to manage single parenting from a financial perspective is to plan – and for every eventuality: your sudden death, temporary or permanent disability, serious illness, medical expenses, emergencies, and retirement. 

Ideally, all these risks should be covered in a financial plan, crafted specifically for you by a qualified financial planner. A financial plan is based on your unique needs and goals. 

It should go without saying that you need to be budgeting like a machine. If you aren’t, get cracking because a budget is a plan for your income and expenses, and without one you have minimal control over your money. 

A will

If you own assets, like a home or an investment, you should have a will, but minor children provide the most compelling reason to ensure you have a will – and one that’s up to date.

If you die without a will, any assets you have – apart from savings in a retirement fund - will be dealt with in terms of the Intestate Succession Act and anything that your minor children inherit will go to the Guardian’s Fund until your children turn 18. 

The Guardian’s fund is administered by the Master of the High Court and does not provide for easy access to money, which can make it difficult for those caring for your children to get the money they need.

If you don’t have a will in which you nominate a guardian for your minor children, your children’s other parent will become their guardian. However, if the other parent is no longer alive, the state will appoint a guardian and your children may then end up being raised by someone you wouldn’t have chosen.

As minor children cannot possess property, assets or money, you would do best to set up a testamentary trust, to protect and use these assets for their benefit.

You can set up a testamentary trust after your death through your will. You must nominate the trustees of the trust including at least one trustee who is independent.

The trustees have a duty to manage the trust in the interests of the beneficiaries (your children) until your children can look after themselves and the trust terminates. You can stipulate the timing in your will. 

Income protection

Your ability to earn an income is your biggest asset and therefore needs to be protected. If you were to suffer a temporary or permanent disability tomorrow, what would become of you and your children?

Disability cover can pay you out a lump-sum benefit, or a monthly income protection benefit when you are unable to do your job and/or can no longer perform normal day-to-day functions such as bathing, feeding or dressing yourself.  

Seven out of every 10 South Africans will experience at least one injury or illness in their lifetime that will prevent them from earning an income, according to claims statistics from a leading life insurer.

The insurer says this means you are nine times more likely to experience a temporary disability than have your car stolen or hijacked in South Africa. You wouldn’t dream of not insuring your car, yet your ability to earn an income is worth a great deal more.

Life cover

Every parent wants the peace of mind knowing that if they were to die suddenly, provision has been made for their children’s living expenses and, ideally, education to tertiary level. A life insurance policy can do that. 

Although you should strive not to be underinsured, some cover is better than none. So even if you can’t afford to buy enough cover to provide for tertiary education, you need to at least provide cover for your children’s maintenance.

Try to avoid taking out life cover late in life when the risk of dying is higher – take it out as soon as you can afford to, ideally when you are in your 20s.

Medical cover

Belonging to a medical scheme has enormous benefits in a country that has a healthcare system that is oversubscribed. If all you can afford is an option which gives you access to private hospitals, even that may be better than being a patient of the state.

If you’re able to afford it, consider getting a gap cover policy to cover the shortfall when doctors and specialists charge above medical scheme rates. 

Insurance against severe illness is also useful for covering non-medical costs associated with serious illnesses such as cancer or a stroke. For example, you may need to pay for an au pair or live-in nanny while you undergo a cancer treatment.  Or you may need to buy a wig, which could set you back thousands of rands.  

Emergency fund

An emergency fund is a safety net that you should not be without.

The aim of an emergency fund is to ensure you do not need to take out credit and incur expensive interest and debt repayment costs when a crisis arises.

Your emergency savings must be easy to liquidate – in other words, not tied up in a term deposit account or subject to volatility as an investment in shares can be. You don’t want to draw out an investment when the markets are down. It doesn’t matter how little you have to save, the important thing is to make a start on building up emergency savings and to be diligent in squirreling money away. 

Retirement

Investing for retirement is critical so that you don’t end up dependant on your children or the state. If your employer does not provide an employer-sponsored retirement fund, a retirement annuity (RA) is a tax-efficient way to save for retirement. 

If you can afford to save for your children’s education, do it! But don’t do it at the expense of your retirement. You never know what your children will choose to do, but you do know for sure that ending up in retirement with no savings will not be fun.-fin24

Vantage Market Research's recent analysis of the Global Instant Noodles Market finds that the rise in the need for convenience food is accelerating market enlargement.

Botswana has suspended all exports of cattle and related meat products while authorities investigate a suspected outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Italian sports car maker Lamborghini has already pre-sold the entire production run to early 2024, its boss said, with luxury goods seemingly unaffected by global economic uncertainty.

South Africa’s annual consumer inflation reached its highest level in 13 years, increasing to 7.8% in July from 7.4% in June, which is the third consecutive month as underlying price pressure increased.

This is according to a statement posted on Statistics South Africa’s website today.

South Africa is currently experiencing the fastest inflation under Lesetja Kganyago’s time as governor of the central bank, and it is still at a level last seen during the global financial crisis.

The consumer price index (CPI) jumped by 1.5% between June and July this year. Based on Statistics SA, this was only the fourth time since 2008 that the monthly increase was 1.5% or higher.

  • Food inflation increased by 9.7% year on year in July, up from 8.6% in June. Prices for bread and cereals were 13.7% higher than a year ago.
  • Large monthly price increases were observed in a variety of products between June and July, including maize meal (4.2%), cake flour (6.3%), macaroni (5.0%), and white bread (2.8%).
  • However, rice prices fell by more than 3%, while Oils and fats saw the biggest price hikes – up 36% in July from a year ago.
  • Fuel prices increased by more than 10% in July. This had a particularly negative impact on transportation prices, with taxi charges rising by 9% in a single month. Taxis were 16% more expensive than a year ago. Petrol is now 56% more expensive than a year ago.
  • Electricity bills climbed by 7.5% on average, which is lower than the 13.8% increase seen last year but higher than the 6.3% increase expected in 2020.
  • However, service inflation (+4.2%) and durable goods prices (+4.8%) were substantially lower than non-durable goods inflation (14.4%), which is mostly driven by food.
  • Core inflation, which excludes food, nonalcoholic beverages, fuel, and electricity, increased to 4.6%, exceeding the central bank’s target range of 3% to 6% for the first time in more than four years.-wires