Author: Joseph Kangethe

Since he became the CEO in 2011 to his retirement in 2022, yearly turnover grew from US$1 billion to US$4.5 billion Ethiopian Airlines’ fleet increased from 33 to 131 planes, and passengers grew from 3 million to 12 million passengers a year Tewolde explained that his decision to resign came after advice from his doctors to concentrate on his health Last week, Mr Ato Tewolde Gebremariam, The Chief Executive of Ethiopian Airlines, retired for undisclosed health reasons. The Airlines will remember the honourable man for the revolution he brought from the day he got the main man job. Since he…

West Africa is the new emerging region for the Islamic finance industry AlHuda CIBE has been in existence for 16 years and is the only consultancy firm that has worked in more than twenty-five African countries for Islamic Development Bank There is solid evidence from major financial markets that Islamic finance has already been mainstreamed within the global financial system West Africa is turning out to be yet another destination for Socio-Economic Development through the Islamic Financial System. The 8th African Islamic Finance Summit (AIFS) kicked off in The Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center, The Gambia, on March…

Google users in Africa are increasing exponentially. According to Statcounter, Google takes up 96.55 per cent of all the people using search engines in the continent.

To protect their users against cybercrime, Google has announced that it is buying the prominent cybersecurity firm, Mandiant in a deal that values the business at US$5.4 billion.

The deal is expected to complete late this year, and it comes at a time when the Russian-Ukrainian war has aroused a lot of concerns about the rising cyber threats. Google will acquire Mandiant at US$23 a share to represent a 57 per cent premium to the firm’s share price.

SMELink International is an SME networking platform that Links SMEs with opportunities both locally and globally. They have a database of resources for technical expertise, financiers, online training, market surveys, knowledge sharing and partnerships.

The TheSMELink conference will connect SMEs to opportunities within the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and global markets and hold discussions that will advocate for digitized trade and networking mechanisms that will excite youth inclusion Women in business.

Frida Owinga, the founder of SME Founders Association, explained that there was value in targeting SMEs with sustainable solutions to help their businesses scale, saying, “SMEs in Africa and across the globe form the largest contributors of employment and provide a source of income to the largest proportion of the population. SMEs also account for most businesses worldwide and are important contributors to job creation and overall global economic development.”

The global fertilizer market has been shaken, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said that the plant is timely and will help Nigeria solve a perennial fertilizer problem.

The new fertilizer plant will produce 3 million metric tonnes annually, with Buhari expecting a boom as fertilizer is now readily available in more significant quantities and better quality. The head of state encouraged Nigerians to take up agriculture as a business, saying that he expects the rise of a new breed of agropreneurs who will add value to farming and make the nation self-sufficient in food production.”

Dangote said that fertilizer from the plant would be exported to many countries, including the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and India.

Japan, through this meeting, targets to affirm the cooperation between Japan and African countries. The conference has been in place since 1993, co-hosted by United Nations(UN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank and African Union Commission (AUC).

TICAD8 will happen in the Republic of Tunisia, the second country in Africa to host the meeting after Kenya in 2016. During the TICAD6 meeting that was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi, Kenya, Japan pledged to invest US$30 billion in Africa: US$10 billion in infrastructure growth, while an extra US$20 billion will be invested by Japan’s private sector.

In TICAD6, more than 6,000 people participated in the conference, including 22 presidents, two prime ministers, hosted by the Government of Kenya and co-organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the UN Office of the Special Advisor on Africa (UNOSAA).

Many, if not all, emerging markets have relaxed the regulations and restrictions related to FDI to encourage global investors to the continent.

The Business Insights on Emerging Markets 2021 also reported that the foreign direct investment in the emerging markets jumped from 15 per cent to 46 per cent over the last two decades.

The wave of technological advancements integrated with digitalization has captivated the globe and benefited the global economy in many unexpected ways. Developing countries in Africa need to embrace the fast pace technological revolution, which shall revamp the markets in the continent.

Emerging markets have been very active in creating the digital infrastructure for technological innovations accelerated by the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, Kenya has one of the world’s highest rates of road-related deaths, with 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people, which is likely only to increase as it is believed that by 2030, road traffic accidents will account for more deaths than AIDS in low- and middle-income countries.

Motorcycles have also been linked to crimes. Lax regulations have seen contract killers, drug peddlers, robbers, rapists, con artists, and petty thieves establish a home in the sector.

The Government of Kenya has suspended the violent police operation against all boda boda riders after the horrible Forest Road attack on the lady driver who was involved in an accident with a boda boda.

President Uhuru Kenyatta directed a security crackdown across the country to wipe out rogue motorcycle operators from the boda boda sector following the recent assault of a motorist along Wangari Maathai Road, Nairobi.

In Uganda alone, the annual loss caused by tick-related animal complications amounts to US$1.1 billion, with the East Coast Fever being the most prevalent and economically bruising tick-borne disease (TBD).

The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) has partnered with Elanco Animal Health, a global leader in animal health, to launch a new initiative to manage ticks and tick-borne diseases in Africa.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the initiative.

The application for this programme went live on March 8 and will be processed on a rolling basis until the deadline on May 1, 2022, at 11:59 GMT.

The rigorous and immersive Investor accelerator programme will launch in June 2022, running for 20 weeks until late October.

Participants in this programme will be taught actively, with multiple live sessions every week, occurring on evenings and weekends to engage them. Investor accelerator guarantees over 800 hours of content, distributed across strategic block-based learning and complemented by a team of panels with leading industry professionals like GPs and Executives in many Venture Capital firms actively investing in or based out of Africa markets.