Month: November 2019

There is a widened gap between the skills possessed by youth entering the workforce and the current and emerging needs in Kenya’s job market today. This is according to the ‘Job Entry-Level Skills: Seizing the Moment, Securing the Future’ report by Aga Khan University’s East Africa Institute.

The study, which was conducted in 24 counties and interviewed over 9,000 people – employers and employees, found that the service sector in Kenya is growing fast, far outpacing manufacturing and agriculture which have in the past been perceived to be offering most of the level entry opportunities to Kenyan youth.

The report, however, shows that while youth leaving tertiary institutions and universities may have technical skills, they lack the soft skills that are critical to the operations of the service sector, causing a mismatch between education and the job market.

“Given the distribution of jobs and the skills that employers and youth …

TRACE, the global urban music television, and entertainment network have finalized the acquisition of a 70-percent stake in Qwetu Radio for an undisclosed fee.

The deal that commenced with talks in September 2018, now gives Trace a foothold in the highly competitive urban radio entertainment segment in Kenya. Following the conclusion of the acquisition, Trace has now set up its East African hub in Westlands in Nairobi that will be led by Danny Mucira as the MD for the East Africa cluster.

Trace also launched the newly branded Trace Radio 95.3 FM, a music-only radio station. According to Olivier Laouchez, Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trace worldwide, the company inherits Qwetu Radio’s estimated 4% market share in the urban music and entertainment category in Kenya.

“Our vision is to increase this, to become the music radio market leader in Kenya by 2022. With Trace Radio 95.3, we are …

East African based WeFarm the digital network for global small-scale agriculture, have announced it has raised $13 million in a Series A financing round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm True Ventures.

This financing round will help Wefarm further scale its network of 1.9 million farmers, and its newly created Marketplace, to connect farmers in Africa, even those without internet access, to the information, products and services they need to be more successful. Investing alongside True Ventures are AgFunder and June Fund, among others. The company received significant follow-on investments from LocalGlobe, ADV and Norrsken Foundation.

Founded in 2015, Wefarm is on a mission to create a global eco-system for small-scale agriculture. With more than 1 billion people directly involved in small-scale farming, it is the biggest industry in the world. Wefarm is building the network of trust for those farmers.

Wefarm Marketplace allows farmers to easily access quality …

Kenya’s population has grown by 9.9 million people over the last ten years to reach 47.6 million this year, latest official government data has revealed.

According to the 2019 ‘Kenya Population and Housing Census’ results presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta this week at State House Nairobi, the total population enumerated during the census exercise conducted in August this year was 47,564,296 persons.

https://www.knbs.or.ke/?p=5621

The results indicate that the female population which stands at 24,014,716 accounts for 50.5 per cent of the total population while the male population is 23,548,056 persons.

The 2019 census report, presented to the Head of State by Director General of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Zachary Mwangi shows that Nairobi is the most populous county in the country.

Nairobi , which is also Kenya’s capital city, has a population of 4.4 million people followed by Kiambu (2.4 million), Nakuru (2.16 million), Kakamega (1.87 million) …

The US government in Kenya is working to counter the growing influence of China locally and regionally by developing grassroots-based initiatives that will spur US business investments and address slow growth rates in rural areas.

The initiative is in line with a bigger agenda by the US government to instill dominance in key global locations mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America where China has made significant inroads in socio-political and economic development.

The US ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter announced that his government through Prosper initiative that was announced by US President Donald Trump last year will work with 8 pilot counties dubbed ‘Prosper Counties’ to spur growth. These counties selected on the basis of high economic potential, effective governance practices, and a commitment in creating an enabling environment for business growth.

“We’re going to put forth projects that have meaning to Kenyans. Our shared goal is to pave …

Uganda food inflation declines in spite of a failed harvest from the 2019 first crop season.

Uganda has maintained a relatively low food inflation rate at 1.9 per cent from the 2018 bumper harvest.
Since June 2018, the country has experienced a great harvest of maize, beans, sorghum rice; cassava, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes that which has kept the prices of all staple foods low meaning households were able to meet their food needs.

Opolot Okaasai, a crop resource expert and former director at the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries said that 2018 was good since the first rains came on time across the country and floods came after the crops had been harvested.

This year however started on a difficult note for the country. Although the first quarter was affected by the two tropical cyclones that hit Mozambique and disrupted the country’s rain pattern despite it …

Ethiopia will soon start importing cheaper refined oil from South Sudan to cover the more expensive product from the Middle East.

Ethiopia’s State Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Koang Tutlam announced on Wednesday that the move will save Addis Ababa 15 per cent to 20 per cent on the $3.4 billion it spends importing an estimate of four million tonnes of refined products.

While speaking to the media attending South Sudan Oil and Gas Conference in Juba, Mr Tutlam said, “We import almost all of our oil and other refined products from the Middle East, but owing to the proximity of about 200km between the oilfields of Pagak and Adar and the Ethiopian border, we stand to save so much.”

Mr Tutlam further added that Ethiopia exports hydroelectric power to South Sudan and will soon export about 400MW to Kenya.

The oil and gas conference was organised by South Sudan’s …

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Uganda’s monthly foreign exchange between banks stabilise at $20m

Speaking during a panel discussion on the current state of the financial markets at the Barclays Bank organised dealers meeting last week, Mr Peter Mbowa, the Barclays Bank (Absa) Uganda head of treasury, said there has been a steady inflow of foreign currency into the market.

He also noted that “On average, the volume of dollars traded in the interbank market is about $20m a month.”
He further added that wholly Uganda has a dollar demand of $800m per month with exports needing at least $300m in comparison with $500m for the import bill.

However, Mr Mbowa said the Ugandan currency market lacks sophistication and it cannot absorb large volumes of foreign currency.

During the meeting, Brenda Lwanga, a currency trader at Citi Bank Uganda, said that Ugandan shilling has been strong against the dollar because of a strong currency …

Zimbabwe plans to introduce a new currency in a bid to ease shortages of the bond note in one weeks time.

Zimbabwe’s central bank Governor, John Mangudya, said he would introduce a new currency to address biting liquidity shortages in the economy and regain monetary policy control.

The new currency will circulate alongside the bond notes and coins that were introduced in 2016. It will consist of 2 dollar coins and 5 dollar notes the governor said.

In a press briefing, he said the new currency would be introduced in phases to avoid fueling inflation, adding that the new Zimbabwe dollar will trade at par with the bond notes and coins.

“This additional cash injection will be carried out through the non-inflationary exchange of Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) money for physical cash,” he said.

Zimbabwe is currently using electronic money known as RTGS, bond notes and coins after it banned …