Author: Giza Mdoe

Arise, an African investment company has acquired 34.9 per cent of Rabobank shares in the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) listed NMB Bank Plc. Notably, NMB is one of the largest and most successful banks in Tanzania.

The buyout actually took place late last year when on 28 December 2020, having been approved by the  Capital Market and Securities Authority (CMSA) in Tanzania for the transfer of 174,500,000 NMB Bank Plc shares owned by Rabobank to Arise.

The share transfer process was completed on 31 December 2020.

According to Arise Chief Executive Officer, Mr Deepak Malik the conclusion of the share transfer is a significant milestone for the company which partners with sustainable, locally owned financial services providers in Sub -Saharan Africa.

“The organization’s core mandate is to partner with local sustainable financial institutions to strengthen and develop effective, inclusive financial systems in Africa to contribute to economic growth …

Looks like Kenya is in for a tough run in the coming financial year or maybe even for a longer span. Kenya needs to borrow to meet its budgetary needs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is willing to lend but wants structural and governance reforms for Kenyan state-owned enterprises. How did Kenya get into this tough spot? Officials blame it on Covid-19 and the global slowed-down economy that resulted from the pandemic. Granted, economies took a hit from the pandemic but despite that fact in mind, reason still begs to understand what of the IMF loans that were issued specifically to help countries muzzle down the negative effects of the pandemic?

Notably, at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Kenya received a whopping $739 million loan from the IMF. The money was specifically meant to help cushion the Kenyan economy from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. …

As of October last year, Tanzania, East Africa’s Largest producer of cement, was facing so much shortage that prices almost doubled.

A 50kg bag of cement that would, on normal market weather conditions go for about USD 6 the price shot up 30 per cent to a little over USD 8, show the National Bureau of Statistics data for October 2020.

It was a paradox, and the hardliner government wouldn’t have it, newly re-appointed into power, Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa was swift to act.  He ordered a nationwide inspection of all known cement factories, warehouses, distribution points and even retail shops.…

What should East Africa and Africa in general expect under a Biden led US administration? Well not to be called shitholes, that is for sure.

Africa can expect a more respectful business minded approach, and granted the move to this positive relation started pre-US 2020 elections.

Back in October 16 2020, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said “America’s goal in [Africa] is to support locally led problem-solving for enterprise-driven growth, inclusive societies, and transparent, accountable governance.”…

Every year, the L’Oréal Foundation along with UNESCO short lists 20 out of more than 300 African women researchers for the academic excellence of their work. The women enter the Sub-Saharan Africa Young Talent Awards For Women in Science.

Coming from 16 countries, these 15 PhD students and 5 post-doctorates embody, through their backgrounds and research subjects, all the diversity and potential of tomorrow’s African science.

This year, Tanzania is on the short list with the youngest Laureate yet, meet 30 year old PhD holder, Neema Mbuma, winner of the 2020 Sub-Saharan Africa Young Talent Awards For Women in Science.

Please gives us a brief background of yourself. Where you were born, early schooling, family, hobbies.

Hello, my name is Neema Mduma, a lecturer at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha, Tanzania. I hold a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences and …

David Copperfield Net Worth

It is no magic trick when you can pull a billion dollars out of a hat, well the magician David Copperfield has done just that. Charles Dicken’s 1850 masterpiece has indeed come to life, only, instead of a poor orphan, we have a billionaire magician.

An illusionist with a net worth of $1 billion, David Copperfield is indeed the richest magician on the planet. Pocketing a sweet $60 million every year for his magic tricks, David Copperfield joined the world’s list of billionaires.

So wealthy is Mr David Copperfield that when Las Vegas shut down earlier this year owing to the Coronavirus, he did not lay off any staff and out of his own pocket, he continued to personally pay every one of his employee’s salary.

David Copperfield Net Worth

David Copperfield’s real estate portfolio alone is worth an incredible $300 million. The magician owns …

Why is Elizabeth Holmes the most talked about ex-billionaire? Well, I guess the question answers itself. Five years ago,  Elizabeth Holmes made it to the cover of Forbes, she was only 31 years old and worth $4.5 billion.

When you are in your early thirties and make almost $400,000 dollars annually and ranked one of America’s 50 richest people.

you invariably get famous, very famous. Invariably, you become even more famous or shall we say infamous, when you lose all that money.

But who is Elizabeth Holmes? The self-made billionaire, correction, the former millionaire is the CEO of Theranos, a company that in that year, 2015, was valued at $9 billion.

Elizabeth Holmes owned over 50% of the blood-testing organization. Only one year later, the feds crashed the company on fraud charges and with it, down crashed the CEO.

In 2016, Forbes reevaluated Elizabeth Holmes to be at a …

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has ordered the country’s Ministry of Minerals to allocate land to iron and other metal smelters; and to lure investors quickly, the president said the land allocation may even be done at ‘no direct charge’ to the investor.

The President issued the order at a swearing in ceremony for the ministry’s new deputy minister, on Friday 11.12.20. President Magufuli was emphatic over the sector’s potential to contribute to national development. He specifically named a few areas that have already been identified to have ‘millions of tonnes of iron deposits.

“We have so much iron deposit, if the smelters ate willing to melt stolen rails they are willing to smelt iron ores,” he said.

“Give investors areas to mine iron and other metals and minerals,” he went on to say and even pointed out that “…even right here at the capital, we have iron deposits.”

With that, …

Ugandan politics are suffering from a very common ailment, a viral disease that plagues most all of Africa’s young democracies and if Uganda is any example, the syndrome is seemingly incurable. The pathogen is power; the disease is the unwillingness to let it go or the sinister coveting to attain it.

Either ways, with exception to but a handful of countries, it seems African democracies are shaken to the very roots of their existence every time a general election comes around.

As Uganda readies itself for its general election’s next year, the country is making rather very negative headlines. Tough words like ‘economic sanctions’ are already being tossed thither.

However, Uganda is suffering from another problem, a very rare kind of problem a problem that is not unique to Africa, on the contrary the problem probably does not exist anywhere else in the World, the problem of having excess power.…

President John Magufuli is already walking his campaign talk to grow the national economy through increased investment. First, he has made an early appointment of two key ministers, Dr. Philip Mpango as Minister of Finance and Professor Palamagamba Kabudi as Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

The appointments shed light on what is to come and are clearly meant to prepare the groundwork for his two priority development areas—economic growth and regional and international co-operation. 

If the appointment of the two ministers is not evidence enough of what is to come, then moving the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Office of the President should suffice. 

The president’s two top second term priorities all rely heavily on the performance of the TIC, the umbrella body in charge of promoting investment in country. If you plan to grow the economy by increasing investment and private sector …