Month: December 2019

The service will provide road assistance to all motor private – comprehensive customers…

Octagon Africa has completed the purchase of 49 per cent shareholding in Alexander Forbes Financial Services Zambia…

The African Development Bank through managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) approved a $990,000 grant to support the preparation of a 9-MW solar-hydro hybrid project in Burundi.

The project consists of two plants, each consisting a solar and a hydro component, a local distribution network and interconnection to the national power grid. The innovative hybrid design is seen to regularize the output of power during the dry and wet season and mitigate power shortfalls caused by climate change.

Also Read: African Development Bank launches AFAWA Risk Sharing Facility

The SEFA grant is instrumental in assuring project bankability it will support technical feasibility, social impact and environmental assessment and financial advisory for the solar-hydro hybrid project.

The project will electrify about 20,000 households in surrounding communities through a local distribution network upon completion.
As a result of more electricity access the project will further generate socio-economic benefits especially for women …

The U.S. Department of State gathered a group of private sector representatives to explore investment and collaborative business opportunities in Ethiopia, during the Global Entrepreneurship Week.

A week was spent by the Partnership Opportunity Delegation (POD) engaging with government leaders, private sector entities and Ethiopian entrepreneurs to understand the challenges and opportunities facing Ethiopian innovators and share expertise on how the country can better provide an enabling environment for tech and startups. The delegation included more than 15 companies representing Japan, United States and Sweden.

Also Read: Awash Bank, USAID to help small Agribusinesses in Ethiopia

The Office of Global Partnerships led the POD in exploring opportunities in various sectors of the Ethiopian economy such as digital connectivity, Fintech, creative industry and startups. From these first-hand engagements, several delegates committed to supporting Ethiopia’s economy in tangible ways through workforce development, social entrepreneurship, startup investment, exploring opportunities for telecom privatization …

icolo.io is a Kenyan data centre operator with active operations in Nairobi and Mombasa. The company designs, builds and operates state of the art carrier-neutral data centers to serve a broad spectrum of clients – telecom carriers, ISPs and peering points, IT and cloud providers, content providers, enterprise and financial services customers.

To boost the operations of these data centres, icolo.io has entered into a partnership with Interxion Holding N.V,  a leading European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services acquiring a controlling interest in Icolo.

The Netherlands based entity has also entered into a strategic partnership with the Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund (PRIF), a South Africa based fund. As part of these transactions, PRIF will invest in Icolo and will collaborate and co-invest with Interxion on expansion initiatives across the African continent. The transaction is expected to close in 1Q 2020.

Upon the closing of …

Mikosz announced his resignation in May this year slightly under a year to the end of his term…

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has announced the commercialization of the Aliciana Barley Variety a year after it was launched.

The announcement was made during the Annual Field Day in Mau Narok following successful trials with farmers who have reported higher yields and greater resistance to waterlogging.

Raw material for KBL’s beers

The Field Day, an annual event that brings together stakeholders within the barley value chain, is a key event as stakeholders converge to learn, share experiences and showcase their products and innovations.

Barley is the main raw material for KBL’s beers.

Speaking during the event, David Kilesi, Chairman of the Barley Growers Association of Kenya, praised the variety.

“We have seen higher yields this season with the Aliciana variety compared to the previous varieties we had been planting. We would like to thank EABL for introducing this variety.”

EABL continues to invest heavily in research in an effort …

The financial sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not been one of the most sought after in the continent. The DRC has 18 banks, five of which are local, four pan-African and nine foreign. The DRC’s ratio of bank assets to GDP at 7% lags regional peers, while only 7% of the population holds a bank account.

Similar to steps taken in markets such as Zambia and Ghana, the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) has directed that all banks must raise their minimum capital to $50 million by the end of 2020. Banks have a number of options, to sell and exit, to merge, to raise capital or to step down the regulatory hierarchy to be a non-bank lender or microfinance institution.

It is such a move that is seeing foreign banks seeking new partnerships and ventures to help them remain in business.

Dutch entrepreneurial development bank …

Vivo Energy Kenya, the company that markets and distributes Shell-branded fuels and lubricants in Kenya has awarded a matatu driver and his conductor a brand new 32-seater matatu valued at Kshs 5.2 million as curtains close on the 10-week Weka Collabo promotional campaign.

The campaign which also saw 15 consumers being awarded with motorbikes valued at Kshs 4.5 million, sought to reward loyal customers and sensitize matatu drivers, conductors and ‘Boda Boda’ riders on Shell fuels and lubricants.

Vivo Energy operates and markets its products in countries across North, West, East and Southern Africa. The Group has a network of over 2,100 service stations in 23 countries operating under the Shell and Engen brands and exports lubricants to a number of other African countries. Its retail offering includes fuels, lubricants, card services, shops, restaurants and other non-fuel services. It provides fuels, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to business customers …

Slawek Muturi has seen all of it. He has been to each UN-recognized country at least twice, joining a group of just a handful individuals to achieve this fete, and now plans to be the only person to have visited all the 193 countries in a single year when he embarks on his global tour in 2021.

Born in Poland to a Kenyan father and Polish mother, Muturi has carried the country of his father close to his heart. So much has been the love that in several instances, he singlehandedly negotiated trade deals between Poland and Kenya and boosted tourist numbers significantly.

It all started on a chilly October morning of 2004. Though Muturi had grown and schooled in Kenyan schools including Kenyatta Mwatate, Alliance High School and prestigious St Mary School, he had not reached a level where he would interact with senior government officials.

On this October, …