Author: Giza Mdoe

The Mastercard Foundation’ Komeza program is gaining momentum and Rwanda, the fastest growing economy in East Africa, is not about to be left behind.

Equity Bank of Rwanda as announced that it will be partnering with Rwanda’s Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP) under the Komeza program to stimulate recovery from the negative effects of Covid-19.

Komeza is the brainchild of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP) which has won support of Mastercard’s ongoing USD2.5 million MasterCard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program. The Mastercard program is designed to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) specifically in the Tourism and Hospitality sector.

Under the program, with Equity Bank Rwanda PLC as the financing partner, ESP will provide both financial support and technical assistance to 120 SMEs that operate within the Tourism and Hospitality sector.

Over the next year, the Komeza program will provide technical assistance and financing of up to USD50000 to each qualifying …

Tanzania is no novice to sisal production, if anything, it is one of the world’s oldest sisal producing countries. Dating back to the late 19th century when the region was then known as the German East Africa Company, sisal was produced by the colonialists, at which time it was the German administration and later the British.

Reports state that sisal production was the colony’s largest export so much that at the time of independence in 1961, Tanzania was the largest exporter of Sisal in the world.

Now, almost 6 decades down the road, Tanzania is working on regaining the status. For one, a quick visit around the sprawling sisal farms that run for miles and miles with their pointed spikes reaching for the skies, one can tell, little to no upkeep is been done to these plantations.

So the government, in June, warned that it will revoke all undeveloped …

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has won a USD 1.3 million (3bn/-) case against Vodacom Tanzania dating back almost two decades ago. Tanzania’s Court of Appeal delivered a ruling last week in which it rejected Vodacom’s appeal of TRA’s tax audit dating back to a three year period between 2001-2004.

Local media reported at the start of the week that, “…TRA, the respondent, conducted tax audit in respect of the appellant’s business affairs for the period covering the year 2001 to 2004.”

The findings of this audit were that Vodacom Tanzania was withholding tax and penalties related to services and royalty for use of software acquired from Siemens Telecommunications (PTY) Ltd.

“On November 10, 2006 the respondent served the appellant with preliminary audit findings…” in turn, on April 24, 2007, Vodacom Tanzania issued its own revised audit findings which TRA did not accept as correct.

The following year, on August …

While most other East African countries are expected to fall into a recession for the remainder of the year, Tanzania’s economy is actually expected to grow.

The unexpected projection was given recently by the African Development Bank (AfDB) which stated that Tanzania’s economy may expand by as much as 5.2 percent this year.

This report contradicts that of the World Bank which recently forecast that the country’s economy would suffer a slowdown and slump down to 2.5 percent from last year’s high of 6.4 percent.

“Despite the projected slowdown, real GDP growth in Tanzania will benefit from increased prices of gold, a major national export,” reads the report in part.

The phenomena makes sense since gold prices are still climbing thanks to investors opting to use the precious metal as a store of value against the now volatile dollar. The dollar has been taking a pounding from the effects of …

I can vividly remember sitting in a Nairobi classroom in Kenya and scribbling away my discussion to validate that assertion. I also clearly remember answering the same question in Ordinary Level Secondary school in Jinja, Uganda and when I returned to my country of birth, Tanzania, I again had to respond to the same question in Advanced Level High School.

My explanation was simple, Egypt is a dessert country and its main source of fresh water is the Nile. Without the Nile, they would be no Egypt…

It was the correct answer; the answer that my teacher liked and am sure so does Egypt. What of the countries of East Africa, the source of the Nile. Well, the teaching goes, they too need the Nile, but since they are tropic countries that receive considerable amount of annual rains, they don’t need the Nile as much as Egypt does.

That is …

Five years ahead of schedule Tanzania achieved middle income status. To be exact, the World Bank changed it’s classification from ‘a low-income to a lower-middle-income country.’

East Africa’s sleeping giant is finally awakening. Right in the middle of the global Coronavirus pandemic, Tanzania has provided a rare piece of good news — on 1 July 2020, the country achieved its middle-income vision five years ahead of schedule. – The Africa Report

The World Bank’s news was announced to the country by it’s President John Magufuli bringing even more recognition to the achievements of Tanzania’s fifth administration.

In his twitter handle, the president posted the new country status emphasizing the achievement was accomplished five years ahead of time.

“Today, July 1, 2020, the World Bank announced that Tanzania has become a middle-income country. I congratulate my Tanzanian colleagues for this achievement. This is a big feat that we have accomplished and …

The elephant population in Tanzania has increased from 43,330 in 2014 to over 60,000 this year. The government attributes the increase to crackdown on poaching syndicates.

A key figure in the poaching and black market trade of ivory, was arrested denting the industry greatly. Christened, the “Ivory Queen” Yang Fenglan, a prominent Chinese businesswoman was last year sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.

However, by time of her arrest, it is estimated she alone was responsible for the smuggling numerous tones of ivory to China. Yang was tried and found guilty of operating one of Africa’s biggest ivory-smuggling rings. By the of her arrest, she is said to have been responsible for smuggling ivory worth over USD2.5m. That value is estimated to have been derived from the slaughter of almost 400 elephants.

Following her arrest, activists suffered a great lose with the murder of Roger Gower in 2016. …

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), an investment multilateral finance institution has issued a CHF bond that matures in 2023 and which has already oversubscribed.

AFC invests in high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications.

To date, the Corporation has invested over USD6.6 billion in projects within 30 countries across Africa.

This latest bond issue has attracted great investment across Europe with AFC saying ‘it received strong investor interest from private banks and asset managers, and the bond has experienced an over subscription.’

“The response to our second Swiss Franc bond issue has been overwhelmingly positive with order-books three-times oversubscribed,” said Samaila Zubairu, President& CEO of AFC.

ALSO READ: Your money rots when you keep it in the bank

The CEO also pointed out that ‘the strong appetite for AFC bonds is further testimony of investor confidence in …

When there is conflict, it is the general society and businesses that suffer the most, in fact business should be at the forefront of advocacy for peace.

With almost every element of business going digital, the question of digital platforms been used for radical sentiments is not a political agenda but a socio-economic one.

There is need to take concerted action to promote and facilitate peace especially now, in an age where social media is been used to spread radical content online. Social media and other digital platforms are also very powerful tools to prevent conflict and extremism and promote greater understanding and tolerance.

“We have to take steps to ensure we instill seeds of peace and tolerance for one another, and social media is a great platform to reach youth to promote peace” Martha Nghambi the, Country Director for Global Peace Foundation Tanzania asserted.

Speaking to media over the …

When you are a small start up in Africa, you do not dream of getting listed on the London Stock Exchange, or shall we say, that is indeed all you dream of, and far fetched dream that is.

However, maybe not so far fetched, if you can achieve consistent annual growth and, keep your finances transparent.

While their business growth is a main factor to get them on the shortlist, however, to be listed in this report, the company must also show transparency in reporting its finances.

In its recent report, titled ‘Companies to Inspire Africa’ the London Stock Exchange Group listed a handful of companies and highlighted them as Africa’s top upcoming firms.

The report, which was produced in partnership with the African Development Bank Group among other stakeholders, describes these companies as the inspiration of Africa’s future and that they are leading the way to an Africa of …