Month: July 2019

Mining experts will be converging in Rwanda later this year to deliberate investment and growth opportunities in the continent’s mining sector, in the wake of increased focus on Africa by multinationals.

The Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) will be hosting the new East and Central Africa Mining Forum conference and exhibition that will be held in Kigali from October 28-29, an event the country intends to also use to open the country for investment.

“We are opening up our mining sector in a way that has not been done in the past” says Francis Gatare, CEO of the RMB, “providing as much geological information as possible and we have recently revised our regulatory framework from policy to mining code and regulation – to not only make it competitive for companies to operate in but to also provide a platform that will make it easy for companies to comply …

Stanbic Bank Kenya and Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have partnered with Chinese Trade Agent Zhejiang International Trading Supply Chain Co. Ltd (Guomao) to launch the Africa China Agent Proposition (ACAP) initiative.

The initiative which has been launched in different parts of Africa aims to assist African importers source and validate quality goods, safely and efficiently, from the most competitive suppliers in China.

The ACAP offering is expected to revolutionize African importers’ view of China’s supplier universe. It will also ease the cash flow of African importers by providing access to financing while empowering importers with sight and control of the entire importing and logistics process.

It was initially launched in Nigeria and Ghana in May 2019 with roll out to South Africa and Kenya following.

Currently African importers order from only a handful of trusted Chinese suppliers. This limits the negotiating power of African importers while stacking the …

French Television Canal+ has acquired of Nigerian start-up production studio ROK from Africa on-demand Nollywood entity Iroku TV. This is seen as a move by the French Pay TV to venture into African local production that ROK is known for.

Nigerian film and cinema industry is known globally for its intriguing local content and it only thought to be second in terms of the number of production to India’s Bollywood. With nearly $4 billion in revenue and almost 2,000 productions every year, the industry has become a significant revenue earner for Nigeria.

The acquisition positions the French giant centrally to the management of local African content that has been in quite a demand in Africa. Not only does the French television has a rich African audience within France, but it has spread to most of West Africa providing a rich catchment for African content.

Canal+ owned by Vivendi aims to …

Rwanda’s mobile industry has joined forces with the GSMA to drive mobile internet adoption and increase digital literacy in the country.

Local operators Airtel and MTN will commence a program of activity around digital inclusion as part of the GSMA’s We Care initiative in Rwanda. We Care is launched in collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation and the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), supporting government efforts to boost ICT penetration and digital services across the country.

“I am glad to see the mobile operators, Airtel and MTN, coming together to work towards a common goal that will be beneficial to society,” said H.E Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT & Innovation of Rwanda.

“Smartphones are important ICT tools that can be used to access key digital services: education and information, healthcare, financial services, amongst others. Increasing digital inclusion in Rwanda will, therefore, go a long way in empowering our …

Kenya has been a host of many disruptive technologies in recent years. In fact, disruptive technologies have created thousands of jobs and raking in millions of shillings in the country as well as around the world. A few years ago, there were no digital taxis, no AirBnBand definitely no MYDAWA.

MYDAWA is an e-health platform that enables consumers to conveniently purchase authentic medicines and wellness products through the app/web portal. The country has come a long way in medicine dispensing from the over the counter to a more progressive digital acquisition of quality medicine guided by strict and solid prescription.

The Kenyan incorporated company with Irish roots has been performing well in the market with an annual turnover of USD 7.4m.

The company uses registered Pharmaceutical Technologists (Pharmtechs) to deliver medicines which is also a huge step towards reducing Medication non-adherence which is a rising epidemic where people do not …

Pan-African financier that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa, Shelter Afrique, has urge governments to establish a housing microfinance fund to improve access to housing finance by those in the lower end of the market.

Speaking at the Affordable Housing Investment Summit in Nairobi recently, Shelter Afrique’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chimphondah said most policies had an exclusive urban focus, and non-consideration of the low-income groups and the rural areas.

According to Shelter Afrique, establishment of such a fund would make it easier to facilitate efficient and inclusive housing market systems and make affordable housing a reality across Africa.

Currently, 90 per cent of Africans cannot afford to buy a house or qualify for a mortgage.

READ ALSO:AfDB to inject more millions to support affordable housing in Africa

“Access to adequate housing for low-income earners is a critical development issue globally and …

Cellulant’s Agrikore platform – an online marketplace for smallholder farmers, agricultural input and produce traders is tapping into Africa’s emerging Agritech market valued at €5.3 billion (US$5.9 billion) according to a new report by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Dalberg Advisors.

This comes as 94 per cent of the continent’s emerging Agritech market remains untapped, according to the survey.

The State of Digitalisation of Agriculture in Africa 2019 report identifies online marketplace solutions such as Agrikore as significant use cases of how digital tools are being built to tackle major challenges of attracting and retaining a significant number of buyers and sellers, and in thus doing, help to solve the problem of inefficient and fragmented agricultural markets.

READ ALSO:Kenyan fintech Cellulant sells $47.5M stake to American investors

The Agriculture market in Africa is projected to grow to US$1trillion by 2030. It continues to be …

A first-of-its-kind study has found that worldwide illegal streaming of the English Premier League (EPL) delivers £1M in uncaptured sponsorship media value per match.

The study –– produced by sponsorship valuation firm GumGum Sports in partnership with digital piracy authority MUSO at the behest of an unnamed elite EPL club –– focused on eight matches spanning the 2018-19 season. On average, each match saw an audience of 7.1 million fans across as many as 149 countries.

The pirated audience was largest in China, where illegal streams served more than 1 million fans per match. After China, illegal streaming was most prolific in Vietnam, Kenya, India, and Nigeria.

The U.S. and the U.K. had the 10th and 11th largest piracy audiences streaming the match. The global study also broke down its £1M-per-match finding by an on-pitch sponsor, noting that, of the seven deal placements analyzed, the majority of value came from …

Kouros, a clean energy investment company, and Powerhive Inc, an energy solutions and technology provider for emerging markets, announced the closing of a US$9.3m Series B round of funding.

Powerhive’s existing investors including Caterpillar Ventures James Sandler, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital, and Total Energy Ventures together with Kouros and TO.org, joined Toyota Tsusho Corporation, the general trading company and member of Toyota Group who initiated this round.

The venture financing will support Powerhive’s growth by reaching 20,000 connections in Kenya where the company has operated rural microgrids since 2012. Powerhive became Kenya’s first privately licensed electricity utility leveraging its unique development and technology platform.

Powerhive leverages its proprietary technology platform to develop and operate portfolios of renewable microgrids that supply affordable, reliable and productive electricity to off-grid communities in emerging markets.

Read also:JUMEME`s PV mini-grid to light up Tanzania

Powerhive’s long-term and scalable energy access solution drives rural economic …

Local cement manufacturer Savannah Cement has confirmed plans to expand its market reach beyond Kenya to the neighboring regional countries.

The market reach expansion program at Savannah Cement will also involve a local market enhancement program to satisfy a growing demand for high-quality cement products as the government’s efforts to roll out affordable housing under the Big 4 agenda continues to gain steam

According to Savannah Cement Managing Director Ronald Ndegwa, as part of the market expansion plans, the firm, is currently undertaking a Kshs. 5 billion capacity grinding plant expansion program at its Kitengela manufacturing complex.

Speaking, at an event to mark Savannah Cement’s 7th anniversary, the expansion project, Ndegwa said, involves the construction of a 1,200,000 tons per year milling plant to double the firm’s current installed capacity.

The project which is currently underway, he said, is running on schedule with plans to commission the second grinding plant …