Month: May 2020

Locusts could be East Africa’s new threat, after the coronavirus pandemic, which is also taking a toll in East Africa. The Locust infestation is causing chaos to the human food supply and has been wreaking havoc for the past decades, in the African continent.

The situation in some parts of East Africa is alarming, according to 27 May Locust Watch information from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the desert locust upsurge remains critical in East Africa.

“The current situation remains extremely alarming in East Africa where Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia continue to face an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods. New swarms from current breeding will form from mid-June onwards, coinciding with the start of the harvest,” FAO argued.

According to a March 10, 2020, BBC News report, the locusts—which eat their body weight in food every day are breeding so fast numbers could grow four hundredfold by …

As soon as East African countries restricted movements and public gatherings in response to the rising cases of Covid-19, perhaps owing to the scarcity of information on the pandemic, misinformation flew around social media platforms, causing an overload of fear across the region.

Kenya and Uganda were the first to take precautionary measures as Tanzania adopted a more relaxed stance towards the pandemic, which is being seen as a threat to Africa and the world. During this past week to date, Kenyans on Twitter and East Africans at large have been tweeting information about Tanzania, making it the fourth most trending topic in the world.

Furthermore, the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam, also came out with a statement indicating that “many hospitals in the main city of Dar es Salaam have been overhelmed in recent weeks, contends the risk of contracting Covid-19 there is “extremely high.”

This in turn …

Ugandans could lose jobs if the pandemic persists for the next six months according to the business climate index published by the Economic Policy Research Centre.

According to the Economic Policy Research Centre study, 3.8 million workers would lose their jobs temporarily while 625,957 would lose their employment permanently if the pandemic persists for the next six months. 80 per cent of the workers in Kampala predicted to lose their jobs permanently while in other regions in the country the layoffs might not be permanent.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2018, a national estimate of employment stands at 9 million. In the event of the layoff, temporary employment will reduce by 42 per cent while permanent employment will reduce by 7 per cent.

“Over 75 per cent of employees projected to lose their jobs permanently are from the service sector. This is highly expected since most of …

The African aviation is at a standstill according to a report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to IATA’S report, on May, 12^th African flights were operating at just six per cent of the level of January 2020. The report also states that African airlines total loss of revenue is at around $6 billion so far which means a GDP loss of about $28 billion and three million job loss in the industry.

Many African airlines have gone into administrations including  South African Airways, South African Express, Air Mauritius and South Africa’s Comair with others also expected to follow suit. Air Mauritius noted that the objective of going into voluntary administration is to safeguard the interests of the company and re-engineer its activities so it can take off again once this crisis is over.

Some of the airlines in African had already been struggling before the COVID-19 …

Close to three million Kenyans are at risk of facing starvation as the impact of Covid-19 and locust invasion on food security escalates. According to the latest report from  World Bank, despite the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of corona virus on food security, millions are at risk. 

The Report says food security in Kenya is facing twin shocks from restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 crisis and the earlier locust attack, contributing to a spike in food prices. 

“While Kenya’s cereal producing counties were spared the first-round of the locust invasion, there is high probability that the second-round towards mid-year could impact major food growing areas. The government is implementing a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the corona virus on food security and food prices,” the report states. 

Kenya relies heavily on maize, wheat, rice and Irish potatoes for food.   It is estimated that …

Global leaders have called for African governments to collaborate with the private sector in order to save the economy post Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking during the United Bank for Africa’s Africa Day 2020, the leaders emphasised the need for meaningful collaboration between governments and the private sector, as a requirement for the quick recovery of the economy of the African continent post Covid-19.

UBA Group Chairman Tony Elumelu collaboration will be effective in flattening the curve.

Elumelu spoke on the need to mobilise quickly and explained the necessity to identify a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges.

“This is the time for us to deal with the situation, this is not the time for finger pointing, but for collaborative efforts by governments and organisations, to fight the pandemic globally. There is need to flatten the curve, we need global co-operation to stem global depression. Africa requires a large stimulus package, and …

Africa’s second-largest economy, South Africa—is planning to introduce projects worth of $29.5 billion in sectors such as water, energy, and transport—to fuel an economic recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to information from Reuters.

The infrastructure projects are expected to be approved by the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet, following discussions with the private sector and multilateral development banks, Paul Mashatile, ANC’s treasurer-general said during a video conference organized by a London based think-tank—Chatham House.

According to statistics from the South African government on COVID-19 trend, until May 27, 634,996 tests were conducted, 25,937 cases identified, 13,451 people recovered, 552 people succumbed to the virus and more than 1,600 cases emerged.

As South Africa swims in a second-recession, the economic-recovery projects would focus on areas such as railways, ports, energy, information technology, water and sanitation and housing.

“It is clear that given the scale of the damage to …

Two years ago, a 16-year-old student at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Ziyaan Virji, turned his project – Affordable and Accessible Sanitation for Women (AASW) -into an internationally-recognized organization. This project would go on to receive major international recognition including the Diana Award for going above and beyond his everyday life to create and sustain positive change. The Diana Award, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year, is considered one of the highest accolades for social action or humanitarian efforts that a young person can receive.

Ziyaan has since partnered with several organizations to improve the access to sanitary health.   Through Operation Period, the organizations has helped over 1,000 girls to acquire access to menstrual hygiene across six different countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan, India, Nigeria and the UAE.

Since 2014, May 28th has been recognized as Menstrual Hygiene Day, a day to bring awareness to menstrual inequity.

International

One of Kenya’s luxurious hotel in Nairobi, The Fairmont Norfolk has closed indefinitely and fired all its employees.

Management has attributed to firing to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the business.

The Country Manager Mehdi Morad in a Memo dated May 27, said that due to the uncertainty Covid-19 pandemic, the firm has been forced to terminate employee contracts and close their properties at the Norfolk and Fairmont Mara Safari Cub.

“It is therefore the decision of the management to terminate the Services of all its employees due to “frustration” by way of mutual separation and taking into account the loyalty and dedication the employees have put into the success of our company in the previous years,” the Memo reads.

The staff will receive their termination letters by June 5, 2020.

This is not a first in the industry since the coronavirus outbreak. Other hotels that have shut down …

Supply chain software company MACmobile has launched a new platform that can support “live”  streaming of formal market retail “sales out” data from till points  as well as map the relevant stock holding in store simultaneously in the Kenyan Market.

This follows a partnership with Cognizance Processing who built the platform and will be available for Kenya wholesalers and retailers.

The platform will reflect “sales in” data to retailers while mapping stock holding in the multiple warehouses being used in the distribution supply chain.

Daily retail sales feeds and basket data feeds (when made available), stock in store and stock at the distribution centre, can be recorded and made available in a live feed to a dashboard.

This enables the manufacturer to identify Key Performance Areas (KPAs) against which performance benchmarks are established and deviations reported against. The deviation reporting is live and communication is made to merchandisers and/or retail …