Day: August 24, 2023

The Seychelles Breweries company wants to improve its sustainability by going fully green in the coming years, the managing director revealed on Wednesday.

Yvonne Mwangi made the statement after meeting with the Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House.

She told reporters that the company has begun implementing its sustainability master plan.

“We have a masterplan that we want to achieve by the year 2030, which is going to cost us about £8.8 million, to make sure that we remain a sustainable brewery on the island,” said Mwangi.

She added that the brewery is already using five percent solar energy and the company is building an effluent treatment plant, with more innovations coming. These will ensure that the company will be one of the few in Africa to be net-zero carbon.

Mwangi said discussions also touched on the role of Seychelles Breweries in responsible drinking and the partnership that the company can have with the Ministry of Health on that subject.

“We are committed to making sure that we educate consumers on alcohol and what it does to the body,” said Mwangi.

She added that Seychelles Breweries wants to get people into the brewery to see how alcohol is produced so that consumers can understand that they can drink alcohol responsibly.

“We are very clear about how we produce our alcohol and the quality that goes into it, and we would rather the people drink better than drink more,” added Mwangi.

She said the company is okay with losing a bit of their sales as long as people are drinking better.

Mwangi is replacing the outgoing managing director of Seychelles Breweries, Conor Neiland, who has been with the company since 2020.

She was accompanied on her visit to the president by, the managing director for Emerging African Markets at Diageo, Andrew Ross, and the commercial director of Seychelles Breweries, Bertrand Belle.

Seychelles Breweries, which was established in July 1972, has a workforce of over 90 percent Seychellois. The flagship product of the company is the SeyBrew beer, which has been produced since 1972.

The company also produces and bottles a range of alcohol-based beverages and soft drinks, including Slow Turtle Cider, EKU Bavaria, Guinness, Smirnoff Black, Smirnoff Red, along with its SeyPearl and Coca-Cola product range of non-alcoholic drinks.

Its parent company Diageo, is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England, and operates from 132 sites around the world.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

The Tunisian incubator for projects with social and environmental impact, "Lab'ess", announced on August 21 the launch of the 2nd call for applications for the "Essentielles" programme.

Following the success of the 1st cohort, which closed on June 30, the 2nd session aims to select 10 female project leaders who will benefit from the advantages of the incubator located in Sfax at the 8-18 Business Centre.

Candidates can fill in the form available on www.labess.tn until September 24, 2023 at 23:59.

The incubation programme, which will start on 16 October 2023, will support women entrepreneurs in the development and consolidation of their impact projects through a tailored offer of training and support, as well as access to financing.

It includes a group training programme, assistance with mobility and childcare, a team dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs, and networking with complementary partners: experts.

It also offers a service package of up to 4,250 dinars to support prototyping or market launch, financing in the form of a loan of up to 15,000 dinars, and post-incubation follow-up to support incubatees until the end of the incubation period.

The Lab'ess programme helps to boost projects while keeping in mind what is most important: the positive impact on society.

The incubation programme is aimed at projects that offer innovative solutions and provide viable responses to social or environmental needs that are poorly or inadequately met, contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive city, in the form of a social enterprise offering a solution that has been launched on the market, or at least a prototype that is ready to be marketed.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunisia has not officially expressed the desire to join the BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and does not meet membership criteria.

There is need for it, though, to get involved in exchanges with this group, especially as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not yet decided on the loan request, the Tunisian Observatory of Economy. (French: OTE) said in a note released on the 15th summit of member countries.

In a note entitled « North Africa and the BRICS: If It is a 'Card to Play' to for Exiting the IMF, There Are Several Options the Region Should Bet On," the observatory suggests that Tunisia and its partners in North Africa could call for decoupling the grouping's financial mechanisms from IMF.

Currently, countries can access only 30% of their quota without the obligation to obtain an IMF programme beforehand.

It would also be important for North African countries, the OTE said, to lend increased interest to relations with the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), another regional financial mechanism that could facilitate the region's emancipation from the IMF. They could consequently seek enhanced financial capacities of this fund.

North African countries could play another card by means of forging ahead with talks on a protocol which provides for the establishment of the African Monetary Fund. So far, this promising alternative has been adopted only by Mauritania.

The 15th BRICS Summit officially started on August 22 in South Africa and is expected to explore the possibility of taking in new members which have demonstrated interest.

For this year, Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt (North Africa) are among the 23 candidates.

The BRICS group created its own financial mechanisms, including the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) which can be considered as an alternative of the IMF, and the New Development Bank - an alternative to the World Bank.

The volume of Tunisia's trade with the BRICS member countries increased in 2022. It grew 50% with Brazil and India and 84% with Russia. China has also become Tunisia's second largest supplier after France.

For the OTE, regional groupings like BRICS represent one of the alternatives to IMF financing.Tunisia is participating in the 15th BRICS Summit (August 22- 24) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Tunisian delegation is led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration, and Tunisians Abroad, Nabil Ammar.

Earlier, Minister of Economy and Planning Samir Saied said the volume of Tunisia's economy does not allow it to join the BRICS group.

"We need to be realistic given that the volume of trade with these countries is relatively modest, " the note reads.

Concretely, Tunisia needs to strengthen its relations with Europe, the EU and Africa.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Water stored in dams fell by 20.3% (-176,949 m3) to 694.276 million cubic metres (m3) on August 24, compared with an average of 871.224 million m3 over the last three years, according to the National Agricultural Observatory (ONAGRI).

The distribution of this stock among the main dams shows that the Sidi Salem dam holds the most water at the moment (198.857 million m3, 34% full), followed by the Sejnane (65.102 million m3, 49% full), Saad (34.459 million m3, 26% full) and Bouhertma (24.492 million m3, 22% full) dams, according to the water situation indicators published by the Observatory.

The remaining stored water are distributed among the Mellègue (14.825 million m3), Joumine (13.667 million m3), Bir Mcherga (10.655 million m3), Siliana (6.487 million m3), El Haouareb (1.115 million m3) and El Hma (0.002 million m3) dams.

Dams' fill rate had reached 36.6%, as of 10 August 2023. During the current season, the total inflow to the dams is in the order of 690.876 million m3, compared to an average for the period of 1,804.629 million m3, i.e. a decrease of -1.113.753 million m3.

The total use of water from dams on August 24 was 2.950 million m3, mainly from dams in the north (2.927 million m3) and the rest from dams in the centre (0.014 million m3) and Cap Bon (0.005 million m3).

Finally, the total water supply to Lake Ichkeul for the current season is 2.209 million m3, compared with a total of 0.569 million m3 for the same date last season.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunisia, which has always sought to build a fairer and more equitable world, naturally calls for strengthening and diversifying the partnership and cooperation between the African continent and the "BRICS", said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Nabil Ammar.

In a speech delivered on Thursday at the 15th summit of the BRICS countries in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ammar stressed the importance of coordinating programmes and mutual respect between all partners.

Nabil Ammar added that this group can play a key role in reforming the current global economic and financial system so that it truly serves all humanity everywhere, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He pointed out that "the current unprecedented challenges facing our world today require us to develop new ideas and innovative mechanisms for cooperation that are participatory, permanent and renewable". This can be done "after drawing all the lessons from the lack of vision in previous policies, actions and experiences, which have caused several grievances", he added.

In this context, he said, it is necessary to adopt differentiated policies and mechanisms to improve the level of exchanges and adjust deficits and imbalances, which could become permanent for a number of countries in the group.

He added that Tunisia calls for a further intensification of investments by the BRICS countries in Africa as the real engine of real development and sustainable security on the continent.

The human dimension should be given its due place in cooperation projects by prioritising training and capacity-building in accordance with the real needs of African countries, he added.

In his speech, the Foreign Minister noted that "empowering young people and women in the field of entrepreneurship will indeed consolidate solidarity between our peoples and open up new opportunities for young people. "

He also mentioned, in relation to climate change, that the BRICS countries have advanced technologies from which the African continent can benefit, particularly in the development of solar energy applications.

On another level, Nabil Amar underlined that the major and multiple challenges posed by the explosion of the phenomenon of human trafficking and irregular migration and the resulting suffering, which is exploited in an unacceptable and irresponsible manner in the political and media arena, require a collective and coordinated response. This should be based on responsibility, solidarity, dialogue and respect for the rights of all concerned, he stressed.

The Foreign Minister also reiterated Tunisia's commitment to responsible and participatory multilateral cooperation, based on dialogue and humanitarian needs, in order to achieve shared prosperity, stability and lasting peace for all.

He urged strengthening and institutionalising the dialogue between the African Union and the BRICS group as an additional mechanism for crisis prevention and resolution.

He stressed the importance of "urgently addressing the basic needs of a number of our countries".

Nabil Ammar also expressed the hope that "this summit will be a new opportunity to mobilise all our energies to serve all humanity without exclusion and to serve our world".

The Minister said that this Summit comes at a time when «our continent is embarking on a path of economic integration, as evidenced by the establishment of the African Free Trade Area, and when there is a growing real political awareness of the need to change international relations in order to create a better world for all.»

The Foreign Minister conveyed President Kais Saied's congratulations to the countries that have become new members of BRICS, namely Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina and Ethiopia.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse